'Stache Attack!

"I think it's terribly important that we elect a real commander-in-chief next November." Suck on this, Paulbots and Obamazoids:







Addendum - via Hot Air - Robert Reich imagines an Obama/Clinton ticket in order to...wait for it..."deflect attention from the bad economy and put it on foreign policy, where she and Obama have shined."



You can't make this stuff up.



And they believe it, too. The left really does misunderstand principles of foreign policy so abysmally, and calculate "success" there so cynically, that they honestly imagine that the sequence of drone take-outs and the bin-Laden termination mark Messiah as a foreign policy hero.  It's pathetic, really.

In Case You Were Going To Sleep Over The Holidays

Iran is threatening a clear-cut act of war:



"Iran is threatening to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz – a key world oil route in the Persian Gulf – if the West imposes more sanctions over its controversial nuclear energy program."



Even Obama would pull the trigger and take out their nuclear installations if they did this.



Wouldn't he?

Catalogue Of A Super-Genius Presidency

Bill Whittle (h/t Nice Deb) runs down the Obama miracle:

Romney's Lies

And as any blue state conservative subjected to left-wing idiocy can tell you, mockery (of the uninspired sort) is the oh-so-very-easy default of those without counter-arguments. Distorting mockery is the cocktail party (or campaign trail) equivalent of the bumper sticker.  Which is why it is so disheartening to see the likely Republican standard-bearer deploying it with abandon - against one our own (who happens to be my preferred candidate).



Simberg at PJ Media:



"As I noted at National Review Online the following Monday, these are not current Gingrich policy positions, or campaign talking points, but rather a couple ideas from a book he wrote over a quarter of a century ago that David Brooks had cited in a column at the New York Times the day before the debate. But either Romney himself or his campaign staff apparently decided that it would be politically advantageous to mock Newt’s vision, making his ideas sound too 'far out' for America.



"In the days after, it became clear that it wasn’t just an off-hand comment, but a calculated ongoing strategy to marginalize Gingrich by reinforcing the narrative that Gingrich is mercurial, with half-baked ideas. Romney started to use the word “zany” to describe the former speaker’s positions. This past Sunday, on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, he doubled down when asked to be more specific on what was “zany” about Gingrich’s ideas:

This was being battled on Capitol Hill and the speaker sat down with Nancy Pelosi and spoke in favor of legislation dealing with climate change. He has been unreliable in those settings and zany, I wouldn’t think you’d call mirrors in space to light highways at night particularly practical or a lunar colony a practical idea. Not at a stage like this."

Defense Of Newt On 'Palestinians'

The problem isn't Newt, it's historical illiteracy on the other side.



Hanin at Big Peace:



"Gingrich also knows historical evidence confirms Israel existed as nation as early as1300 BCE, some two thousand years before Islam. Yet there has never been ANY evidence of a Pales­tin­ian nation. Simply put, if there is no historical evidence to separate Palestinians from Arabs then Palestinians ARE Arabs. The fact is there has never been an authentic Pales­tin­ian lan­guage, a dis­tinct Pales­tin­ian cul­ture, Palestinian currency (except while under British Mandate) or even land once ruled by Palestinians. These facts would give any historian pause, and it did with Gingrich, who used it as an opportunity to set the record straight. Gingrich had to address the Palestinian narrative head-on. For that he should be applauded not ridiculed."



1300 BCE I think overstates it a bit; I think it's more like 800 to 900.  To that you can add that since that time there has been a continuous Jewish (Hebrew) presence. The case stands.

The Fascinating Extent To Which Jews Lent Their Support To The Thoroughly Anti-Semitic OWS

Neumann at Commentary:

"Certainly, the Occupiers were more hostile toward Jews than toward any other ethnic or religious group. And certainly they were more hostile toward Israel than toward any other foreign state and more preoccupied with Israel than with any other foreign policy issue. There were no claims of Islamophobia or Christianophobia. Why were only Israel and the Jews singled out?



"No doubt, the core priorities of Occupy Wall Street were a hodgepodge including grievances against the financial system and a laundry list of demands relating to tuition and college loans and the like. But Jews and Israel were never far from those core concerns, as a worrying proportion of protesters and sympathizers made repeatedly clear. As ever, conspiracy theories attempting to link small and influential cabals with finance, corporations, arms, and imperialism came to implicate Jews and Israel. It was predictable from the start, and it was visible throughout.



"Which makes the prominent Jewish involvement in these protests all the more curious and alarming."

Dems Rub Hands In Glee

See how smart they are?  They screw the country by pulling a fast one on a distracted public, finagling an utterly moronic 2 month tax 'holiday' that explodes their 'guardians-of-social security' posturing (not that they admit it) for transparently partisan gain at the explicit expense of the national interest, and pull on a 'tax-cutter' costume for 2012.



Psychopaths.



The Hammer:



"This is a $121 billion annual drain on the Treasury that makes a mockery of the Democrats’ reverence for the Social Security trust fund and its inviolability. Obama’s OMB director took Social Security completely off the table in debt-reduction talks under the pretense that Social Security is self-financing. This is pure fiction, because the Treasury supplies whatever shortfalls Social Security faces. But now, with the payroll tax holiday, the administration openly demonstrates bad faith — conceding with its actions that the payroll tax is, after all, interchangeable with other revenue and never actually sequestered to ensure future payments to retirees."

Super Genius Hero Messiah

H/t Jacobson:

Mitt Scared Of Newt

What a surprise (Jacobson).

Merry Christmas

Obama style:

How To Most Effectively Destroy The US Economy? A: Re-elect Obama

You CAN. NOT. Make this crap up.



Just un-frickin-believable.



Anyone pretending this administration cares about jobs, energy independence, or the economy is a liar or a fool:



"At an unusual gala ceremony on the release of a major new Environmental Protection Agency rule yesterday, chief Lisa Jackson called it 'historic' and 'a great victory.' And she's right: The rule may be the most expensive the agency has ever issued, and it represents the triumph of the Obama Administration's green agenda over economic growth and job creation. Congratulations."



They're running coal-fired electricity plants out of business by executive diktat, ignoring statutory responsibilities along the way.



But hey, it's OK, because they know they're right. The law books are as 'alive' as the Constitution, ain't they?

Kim Jong Il Escapes Justice, Dies Of Natural Causes

Chaos warning.

Iceland Beclowns Itself; Stabs Israel In The Back

Abrams at the Weekly Standard explains how Iceland on December 15th recognized a PLO state in the West Bank:



"In this context it is worth noting precisely what Iceland recognized, and it was Palestine within the '1967 borders.' That means that according to Iceland, Palestinian sovereignty includes 100 percent of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. Palestine, as Icelanders see it, includes the Western Wall of the Second Temple, Judaism's holiest site. The judenrein policy enforced by Jordan during the years it ruled Jerusalem, would thus be reinstated. And Israel in any recognizable form would anyway disappear, for the Allthingi resolution calls for all Palestinian refugees--of whom according to the U.N. there are five million--to 'return' to Israel. Finally, lest there be any of this nonsense about moral distinctions between U.N. member states and terrorist organizations, the resolution treats Israel and Hamas as equals by demanding that the 'conflicting parties cease warfare and acts of violence forthwith.' "

In Defense Of Newt

McCarthy at NRO (yes - that NRO!) (h/t Jacobson):



"And as for Gingrich’s Republican 'colleagues,' whom the Editors applaud for ejecting him from the speakership, no one can deny that they had their reasons. But is there not another side of that story worth telling? In the seven years they controlled Congress after Gingrich left, didn’t these esteemed colleagues have something of a 'weakness for half-baked (and not especially conservative) ideas'? Under a Republican president, they added over $3 trillion to the federal deficit, shunned conservative policy in favor of Beltway influence-peddling, and so damaged the GOP brand that we ended up, first, with an electoral rout that lost the majority Gingrich had worked years to forge, and then, with Obama. How much should I really care that Newt’s fabulous colleagues think his reemergence would be a disaster for Republicans? Lest these characters forget, it is the Tea Party and President Obama’s radicalism that have put them back in the saddle — 2010 was not a merit promotion; they were the only alternative in town."

Messiah Plays URJ Crowd Like A Fiddle

http://www.allfreelogo.com

Feeling the heat resulting from his unremitting hostility toward Israel, Obama lies with abandon to a friendly crowd of Reform Jews, scheming to lure them back into the fold.



There is a sucker born every minute. It's a fact.



Rennert at American Thinker:



"Second, there was one important name missing from Obama's speech when he lavished praise on worthy U.S. and Israeli companions in his efforts to make a better world: the name of Benjamin Netanyahu. Not once did Obama refer to Israel's democratically elected leader. While he threw a bouquet to Ehud Barak, Israel's more dovish defense minister, the president's lips were sealed about Israel's head of government.



"Obama may depict himself as an unassailable friend of Israel, but don't assume this includes Bibi. And with Bibi relegated to the wings by the president of the United States, one can't help but wonder how solid the U.S.-Israel relationship really is."

And They Criticise NEWT For Grandiosity? He's Got NOTHING On THIS Guy

Obama ranks himself with the greats (Brietbart.tv):

Genius Messiah Is Full Steam Ahead On High-Speed Rail

http://www.ratbehavior.org/

Do Dem voters ever learn? What in God's name compels them to continue to vote for the idiots who perpetuate overwhelming insanity like this?



Morrissey:



"Er, no. The worst thing they could do is to waste taxpayer money on a boondoggle that, at least at this point, actually has no realistic final price. The new estimate includes a risk of a 20% increase from the new $99 billion estimate based on 'route options,' and that’s before any work has even been started. Once ground breaks, the project will undoubtedly face unexpected setbacks and need for new cash infusions, a pattern seen on every public works project in memory."

Not Just The Economy

Obama has been a feckless idiot in foreign affairs too.

Krauthammer:



"Obama imagined that his silver tongue and exquisite sensitivity to Islam would persuade the mullahs to give up their weapons program. Amazingly, they resisted his charms, choosing instead to become a nuclear power. The negotiations did nothing but confer legitimacy on the regime at its point of maximum vulnerability (and savagery), as well as give it time for further uranium enrichment and bomb development.



"For his exertions, Obama earned (a) continued lethal Iranian assistance to guerrillas killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, (b) a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador by blowing up a Washington restaurant, (c) the announcement just this week by a member of parliament of Iranian naval exercises to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and (d) undoubted Chinese and Russian access to a captured U.S. drone for the copying and countering of its high-tech secrets.



"How did Obama answer that one?



"On Monday, he politely asked for the drone back."



The praise heaped on Messiah for finally getting around to relenting to Panetta's pressure to OK killing bin Laden is ridiculous.

Tom Friedman: Moron

I generally can't be fully bothered with Friedman's semi-sentient tripe, but Hinderaker bravely waded in (I hope he wore his hazmat suit) - so here's JH's take:



"Friedman’s thinking on this entire subject is hopelessly confused, as shown by his casual smear of Newt Gingrich:

That thought came to mind last week when Newt Gingrich took the Republican competition to grovel for Jewish votes — by outloving Israel — to a new low by suggesting that the Palestinians are an “invented” people and not a real nation entitled to a state.

"Stop to consider that for a moment. Gingrich and other Republicans are “grovel[ing] for Jewish votes” by supporting Israel? How much does Friedman know about the demographics of America west of the Hudson? As of 2010, there were 6,190 Jews in Iowa out of a population of more than three million–0.2% of Iowa’s population. How many of those do you suppose are Republican caucus-goers? A few hundred? Then there is New Hampshire, where Jews represent 0.8% of the population; Republican Jews, a smaller proportion still. Or South Carolina, where a little over 11,000 Jews are sprinkled among a population of more than 4.5 million. And finally–I can’t resist this one–ask John Thune what he thinks about Israel. Thune represents South Dakota, home to a grand total of 395 Jews, which rounds to 0.0% of the state’s population."



The "invented people" line sure sticks in some commenters' craws.



Off the top of my head, here are a few legitimate "peoples" (as in "nations," as in "cohesive human communities larger than small groups of clans, uniquely identifiable by shared language, culture, history, governance, and ties to a contiguous land over an extended period of time"*) without their own states right now, more deserving (by a few light-years) than the Palestinians:



Kurds.

Tibetans.

Scots.

Welsh.

French Canadians.

Oh yeah, and the Jews.



Not that I think any of them (other than the Tibetans and the Jews) ought to get states, mind you. That isn't the point. The point is the historicity of each of their claims is vastly superior to that of the Palestinians.  Yet it is the historicity of the Palestinian claim, supposedly, that justifies the vilification of Israel and demonization of her people, the domination of the UN agenda year in and year out by the Palestinians, the unending Palestinian terror campaign, and the self-righteous clamoring of left-wingers and anti-Semites around the world for the creation of a new (inevitably hostile, tyrannical, and terror-supporting) Palestinian state on the border of country to whose destruction it is committed.

But people keep gobbling up Friedman's idiotic books.  I guess he's another genius, like Obama.





* I popped that off on the spur of the moment.  Wasn't hard at all.   What's so complicated?



Addendum: CAMERA chimes in (quoting disallowed).



And More - Radosh at PJ Media:



"As an unnamed Democratic aide on the Hill told Rubin, there is 'genuine, bipartisan support for Israel that reflects America’s heartland.' It is the new liberal/left intellectuals in the liberal think tanks that are now leading the charge against Israel. Clearly, Thomas Friedman has become the most important outfront member of this group. It is they, however, who are out of touch with the American people. One must ask them, do they really want Republicans to be the only political party in our country standing firm with Israel?"



And yet more - Tobin at Contentions on Netanyahu's refusal to rebut Friedman on The Times-Dem's op-ed page:



"Netanyahu’s office is only just now noticing something the paper’s readers deduced long ago. The editors of the Times abandoned any semblance of balance on their opinion page many years ago. In terms of American domestic politics and foreign policy that means a preponderance of liberal views with only token and half-hearted opposition by the Times’s house 'conservatives.' However, when it comes to Israel, it means a page in which Israel’s friends are unwelcome while its critics and enemies enjoy a year-round open season on the Jewish state. In the not-so-distant past, writers like A.M. Rosenthal and William Safire​ would balance the views of the editorial column and the paper’s left-wing columnists, but now there is no one on staff ready to do so."

Old Games

Hartwell at PJ Media notes the Dems new/old efforts to sabotage electoral integrity and fair play. Not hard to see why:



"Democrats, it seems, are adamantly opposed to asking voters to confirm their identities. Indeed, the DNC’s email claims that requiring voters to identify themselves violates 'fundamental rights.' "



I guess voting multiple times or under an alias or if you aren't even a citizen is a "fundamental right."



"Fundamental right."  That's the term Dems use about an opinion of theirs that they want to place above debate, because their argument is too weak to sustain itself.

Something Else To Worry About

Though I doubt the Obama administration has the brains to do so.



Silver at PJ Media:



"Our political leaders tell us the way out of our current financial crisis is through American innovation. But what if we are unable to participate in the next great American discovery simply because this time we don’t control the necessary raw materials? The millions of jobs flowing from these inventions would blossom where the materials are available. Today that place is China.



"Even more threatening in the short term, China can at any moment easily challenge our military might by simply refusing to ship rare earths to America. U.S. high tech manufacturing would grind to a halt within months. This includes production of bulletproof vests (yttrium), night vision goggles (gadolinium), and the guidance systems on rockets, drones, and tanks (erbium, neodymium).



"Would China actually use the threat of discontinuing U.S. rare earth shipments as a political weapon? It already has.



"China did so to Japan 13 months ago. In October 2010, Japan arrested a fishing boat captain who wandered near islands in the East China Sea that both nations claim sovereignty over. In response, China instructed its customs offices to stop shipping rare earths to Japan. Within hours Japan released the captain. Japan knew it was out of business without rare earths."



Holy frickin cow! I must admit this wasn't on my radar.  And Silver warns the econuts:



"The U.S. environmental movement supports restrictions on mining. They need to realize this is a Catch-22 that threatens the very future of our country — as they themselves envision it! They cannot both demand a green technology future and simultaneously stand in the way of mining the raw materials essential to manufacture these products. Simply not blocking approvals will not be enough; they must actively demand a fresh approach to critical mineral mining."

Glick Backs Newt

Hat tip to Professor Jacobson.



Glick:

"Both Rubin and Abrams, as well as Romney, justified their attacks on Gingrich and their defense of the failed consensus by noting that no Israeli leaders are saying what Gingrich said. Rubin went so far as to allege that Gingrich's words of truth about the Palestinians hurt Israel.

 

"This is of course absurd. What many Americans fail to recognize is that Israeli leaders are not as free to tell the truth about the nature of the conflict as American leaders are. Rather than look to Israel for leadership on this issue, American leaders would do well to view Israel as the equivalent of West Germany during the Cold War. With half of Berlin occupied by the Red Army and West Berlin serving as the tripwire for a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, West German leaders were not as free to tell the truth about the Soviet Union as American leaders were.

 

"Today, with Jerusalem under constant political and terror threat, with all of Israel increasingly encircled by Islamist regimes, and with the Obama administration abandoning traditional US support for Israel, it is becoming less and less reasonable to expect Israel to take the rhetorical lead in telling important and difficult truths about the nature of its neighbors."

Truth. LEADERSHIP.

Professor Jacobson comments upon Newt's reiteration of his statement of fact about 'Palestine' and the 'Palestinians.'



"The importance of Gingrich’s comment was that it skewered a false historical narrative which dominates the international debate and is used for the demonization of Israel and its chief supporter, the United States.





"Newt was absolutely correct to say enough already with the falsehood. If it upset the Palestinians, well too bad. It’s about time a prominent political figure in the United States didn’t just voice support for Israel but did so in a historically accurate manner which addressed the false Palestinian narrative of perpetual victimization."









Go ahead, Ostensibly-Israel-Supporting-Obamazoids. Watch.  Listen.  I dare you. You wish Obama - or any Dem - would - could  - talk like this.



Keep dreaming.

Who Says It Better Than Steyn?

Yet another must-read from the Master Of Mayhen, the King Of Catastrophe, Mark Steyn:



"The political class looted the future to bribe the present, confident that tomorrow could be endlessly postponed. Hey, why not? 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day,' says Macbeth. 'To borrow, and to borrow, and to borrow,' said the political class, like Macbeth with a heavy cold (to reprise a rare joke from Mrs. Thatcher). And they failed to anticipate that the petty pace would accelerate and overwhelm them. On Thursday, John Corzine, former U.S. senator, former governor of New Jersey, former Goldman Sachs golden boy and the man who embodies the malign nexus between Big Government and a financial services sector tap-dancing on derivatives of derivatives, came to Congress to try to explain how the now-bankrupt entity he ran, MF Global, had managed to misplace $1.2 billion. The man once tipped to be Obama's Treasury secretary and whom Vice President Joe Biden described as the fellow who's always 'the smartest guy in the room,' explained his affairs thus: 'I simply do not know where the money is.' Does that apply only to his private business or to his years in the Senate, too?"

Crookedest, Stupidest Administration Evah?

LightSquared ruins GPS signals (Morrissey):



"Why is this important? Philip Falcone is a big donor to the Democratic Party, and he has billions of dollars at stake in LightSquared’s approval. Also, Obama himself was an investor in LightSquared at one point, as were or are a number of his associates. The resounding failure in this test makes it look like the White House pressured witnesses to back off of exposing LightSquared’s product as exactly the kind of dangerous problem that critics had maintained all along — with the intent to mislead Congress into moving forward with LightSquared’s government contracts."

egotvonline.com

Making The Right Enemies

Go Newt, go!!



Spokespersons for Abbas mouth off hysterically over Gingrich's interview with the Jewish Channel:



"Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, described his comments in an interview as "despicable." Hanan Ashrawi, another top official, said Gingrich's 'very racist comments' showed he was 'incapable of holding public office.' "



See, in the West Bank and Gaza the little Hitlers get to determine who is capable or "incapable" of "holding public office."



Hey Hanan, you might want to peak over the wall at Israel one of these days. You might figure out how democracy works.

Corruption

"Holder, Blago, Richardson," oh, my!



Malkin:



"The feds had been digging into a nationwide web of favor-trading between financial firms and politicians overseeing local government bond markets. CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama, which, according to Bloomberg News, threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. CDR raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and Native American voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the news service reported."

I Think I'll Crow Some More About Newt's Glorious 'Palestinian' Comment

When a major Presidential candidate says out loud what you know is true, have said yourself for years is true, is vitally important, and has been to this moment completely suppressed at all levels of mainstream debate (thereby corrupting and poisoning dialogue), it's bloody worth savoring.



Daniel Pipes at The Corner:



"Everyone from the PLO to a Mitt Romney spokesman jumped on Gingrich for this assertion, but he happens to be absolutely correct: No Arabic-speaking Muslims identified themselves as 'Palestinian' until 1920, when, in rapid order this appellation and identity was adopted by the Muslim Arabs living in the British mandate of Palestine."



Perhaps this is the sort of thing the Newt-critics call 'undisciplined,' what Noonan calls the "wild side."



I call it leadership.  I'm sure the possibility 'disturbs' some people.

Newt On The "Palestinians"

Via Legal Insurrection:







And to extend a point, here is Steven Hayward parrying the typical arguments against Newt by drawing parallels between Newt and Churchill (they're just parallels; don't come back at me with straw-man arguments about Hayward saying Newt is the same as Churchill 'n' all):



"As to Ramesh’s challenge, did Churchill ever take $1.6 million to side with the enemy, well, if I adopt the rather latitudinarian understanding of 'enemy' Ramesh deploys here, I believe the answer is actually yes. First, as chancellor of the exchequer in the 1920s, Churchill consistently sought to cut defense spending, and also expressed support for appeasement, saying on many occasions that Germany had been mistreated at Versailles. In other words, when Churchill was attacking appeasement and calling for more defense spending in the 1930s, he was assailing policies that he himself had helped set in motion. Yes, circumstances had changed; in this regard, everyone should read Churchill’s essay 'Consistency in Politics' and the complete rebuttal to Ramesh’s premise."

Dem Playing To Type

Cheating in Wisconsin (Jacobson):



"The video is here. Unfortunately there is no embed code available.



"But rest assured, 'punchy' Democratic spokesman Graem Zielisnki assures us that it’s not true, and that the guy in the interview suffers from mental illness and is not credible.



"Remember, the election officials in Wisconsin already have announced they will not be checking for duplicates, so the burden will fall to anti-recall forces, who already are organizing."

Slammin'

With The Hammer:



"It seems that he and his policies have nothing to do with the current state of things. Sure, presidents are ordinarily held accountable for economic growth, unemployment, national indebtedness (see Obama, above). But not this time. Responsibility, you see, lies with the rich.



"Or, as the philosophers of Zuccotti Park call them, the 1 percent. For Obama, these rich are the ones holding back the 99 percent. The 'breathtaking greed of a few' is crushing the middle class. If only the rich paid their 'fair share,' the middle class would have a chance. Otherwise, government won’t have enough funds to 'invest' in education and innovation, the golden path to the sunny uplands of economic growth and opportunity.



"Where to begin? A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It’s mis-investing. As for federally directed spending on innovation — like Solyndra? Ethanol? The preposterously subsidized, flammable Chevy Volt?"

Dems Vs. Israel

Someday some people may wake up (Taranto):



" 'Two of the Democratic Party's core institutions are challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel and Palestine that has dominated American foreign policy for more than a decade,' Politico reports:

The Center for American Progress, the party's key hub of ideas and strategy, and Media Matters [sic], a central messaging organization, have emerged as vocal critics of their party's staunchly pro-Israel congressional leadership and have been at odds, at times, with Barack Obama's White House, which has acted as a reluctant ally to Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government.

"Whatever one may think about the Middle East, the emergence of CAP and MediaMutters as 'core institutions' of the Democratic Party is unsettling. It suggests that the donks are increasingly organizing themselves around tactics of bullying and slander. That's good news for the GOP inasmuch as it indicates the Dems' underlying weaknesses. But it's bad news for the country that one of the two major parties has so lost its moral bearings."



Wanna support Israel? Vote Republican. Simple and indisputable.

Genius Messiah Radiates Intellectual Omnipotence

With the following statement (Powers at MM):



“ 'However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline,' he said, 'they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.' "



Yes, he did!

NEWT, NEWT, NEWT

Promises Bolton as Secretary of State (Allah).



Done.



Deal.



Stache!!



Forget Allah's Eeoring:

The Dem Life

Wisconsin: the Democratic party in full flower.



Ain't life grand when you award yourself the right to lie, cheat, bully, and violate election laws at will, then strut around in supercilious and contemptuous indignation when your opponents do anything to resist?



Schneider at The Corner, regarding the Walker recall jihad:



"...The liberal group One Wisconsin Now is actually encouraging people to sign more than one recall petition, even though only one of any individual’s signatures can legally count. The state Government Accountability Board will give the presumption of validity to all signatures, and there is no penalty for signing multiple times.

"Thus, if someone signs a petition 30 times, 29 will be invalid — but only if Scott Walker’s campaign can manually enter all 540,000 signatures into a database and weed out the duplicates in the 10 days in which they have to challenge. Fabricated names and addresses will all be considered legal unless Walker’s volunteers can pick through hundreds of thousands of signatures and weed them out in the allotted time period. (In Ohio recently, 351,000 — or over 25% — of union-submitted signatures were found to be invalid.)"

Smart Power Administration Renews Efforts To Coddle Villains

Trying to go easy - even now, after the UN report - on Iran (Nice Deb).



Sending our Ambassador - even now, with Arab League sanctions levied - back to Syria.



Appeasement...it's what Dems do best.

The Soros Funded CAP-Obama Machine

As noted by Jacobson, as linked by Reynolds:



"A senior Obama campaign official now runs CAP and Think Progress. A senior CAP strategist now helps run the 2012 campaign from inside the White House. The full embrace of CAP and Think Progress by the White House is just another sign that 2012 will be the nastiest campaign ever, with the truth the first victim."

Ah, Yes: Remember Barney Frank?

Jeff Jacoby reminisces about Barney Frank (hat tip to Andy at Ace):



"Frank has long been 'one of the most notorious bullies' on Capitol Hill, remarked Dana Milbank in The Washington Post. The Massachusetts Democrat will be remembered not just for his left-wing politics or as the first openly gay member of Congress, but also for his 'gratuitous nastiness,' as Milbank put it – the public tongue-lashings, the spiteful mockery, the caustic abuse of aides, the almost routine willingness to tell people how stupid they are. This isn't just impatience; Frank plainly takes a certain pleasure in publicly humiliating his victims. It isn't hard to find stories of Frank berating someone to the point of tears. But I have never heard of him apologizing for it afterward."



I agree with Andy that the Dems will likely replace Frank with another of their own in these deep blue environs. But I also agree that the House of Representatives' creep-factor will most definitely come down a notch.

Obama's Ambassador To Belgium Makes Excuses For Anti-Semites

A big Obama contributor (that's how he got the job, natch).



All of a piece (h/t Hot Air):



"While underlining that 'no Jewish student – and no Muslim student or student of any heritage or religion – should ever feel intimidated on a University campus for their heritage or religion leading to academic leaders quitting in protest,' Gutman said that this phenomenon 'is in my opinion different in many respects than the classic bigotry…It is more complex and requiring much more thought and analysis. This second form of what is labeled ‘growing anti-Semitism’ produces strange phenomena and results.' "



Muslim anti-Semitism isn't anti-Semitism anti-Semitism.  Get it?

Whittle...

...Explodes that favorite Progressivist plaything, the Play-Doh Constitution:







The way left-wingers think is like one of those morphing programs - the kind that can turn Angelina Jolie's face into a rhinoceros. Infinite extrapolation!! Where do you want to go? We can get you there! I've got the next candidate for a Whittle video: the equal protection clause.

Roots

OWS didn't spring out of thin air. We know about  the anti-Semites at Adbusters, Lisa Fithian, and...Elizabeth Warren for that matter!



But here's more: old commies in Europe (article by Gurfinkiel)!



"The author was nonagenarian Stephane Frederic Hessel: a Nazi camp survivor, a former ambassador, and a regular French talk show guest. The booklet was an instant bestseller: one million copies in the first ten weeks, 1.5 million in the first year.



"It still remains, as of today, the number one book on French bestseller lists.



"The reasons for such a stunning success were quite obvious. Those people who read a bit, but not much, were thrilled to buy what passed for a serious essay by an important person for less than the price of a magazine. They were even happier to find out that Hessel’s philosophy was a perfect fit for their own intellectual and ethical size.



"The Great Old Man urged contemporary youth to get “outraged” about poverty and injustice and to fight for a better world, just as he had done seventy years earlier as a member of the anti-Nazi Resistance. Who on Earth would contend with that, especially when the enemy was not the Third Reich, but benign modern democracies?



"Moreover, the villain Hessel repeatedly mentioned and attacked was Israel — the country most people in France love to hate already."



The common thread on the left always seems to be Jew-hatred, doesn't it?

Krugman Befouls Himself

Behold the mind of a left-wing, progressivist icon (h/t Allah):



"The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it."



Paul Krugman, ladies and gentlemen.  Eagerly cited, to this day, by Times-Dem-o-bots everywhere.

Lesson In Media Bias

Just for the record, folks, just for the record.



Morrissey documents the media cover-up of Obama's Lincoln gaffe:



"Note well that PBS specifically calls this a 'transcript,' not the prepared text. A 'transcript' is the verbatim rendering of what actually was said … or it should be, anyway.



"Yeah, the media is covering, all right. They’re covering for Obama. I guess we have to give one cheer to the New York Times for not corrupting a verbatim transcript — and the fact that we have to give them credit for that at all says something about the media in the Age of Obama, and that something isn’t pleasant or flattering."



All.



The.



Time.



Believe it.

How's That Arab Spring Workin' Out For Ya'?

'Gyptians tear into Israeli embassy.



Lovely.



Addendum - Don't be thrown off by Israeli thanks for "Gyptian intervention.  The cops did not lift a finger through the whole ordeal. A rescue at the end was needed and it went down like this:



"After telephoned appeals by Netanyahu to Cairo's interim military rulers and the Obama administration, Egyptian security forces extracted the guards before dawn. Another Netanyahu aide said the Israelis' heads were covered to throw off the crowds."

Government-Empowered EcoFreak Eruption

Lunatics in the Idaho US Attorney's office fine a guy for shooting a grizzly bear in the guy's back yard (Malkin).



And, by the goodness of their all-powerful hearts, the maniacs barely held off from prosecuting the fellow.



The eco-tyrants march on.

The 'Stache Says No

http://mypartyshirt.com/

We finally get a definitive no from Bolton (h/t Hot Air).  Too bad.

Now where do I go?  Perry I suppose.

Gingrich

Again, I actually like Newt best.



When the Massachusetts primary rolls around, Newt'll probably be gone, or effectively gone, and I'll have to choose between the main contenders, and it may very well be Perry vs. Romney and I'll have to choose Perry ('cause RomneyCare is disqualifying).



But for now...Newt. Unelectable as he may be.  Newt.  It's early.  Go with the best guy.  For now. [Sans 'Stache as we are.]

http://jamespatrick1.files.wordpress.com/

Labor Day Celebration

Michelle Malkin's genius - journalism as it's meant to be, in this case recording for posterity what the left would rather you forgot:



Top 10 labor (thug) moments of 2011.



When November 2012 rolls around, remember who the Dem 'foot soldiers' (the untold numbers that swamp the Repubs' 'street game' and supposedly signify Dems' superior appeal with 'regular folk') really are.

Labor Day Sweetness And Light

His Oneness cheers on James Hoffa as he declares war on Tea Party 'Sons-Of-Bitches.'



Civility!



For the record:

http://www.infobarrel.com/

Yup.  That's me.  Just so you know.

Dust Biting Time

Ohhhh, yeaaahhhh.



"Atiyah Abd al-Rahman has been killed in Pakistan."

More Out Of Control Obama 'Governance'

Eco-nuttism and union suck up-ism, all rolled into one.



You couldn't ask for a better encapsulation of everything that's wrong with Obama and the modern American Democratic Party.



Malkin:



"Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company’s manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. 'The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier,' he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle."



And the lunacy behind the lunacy?



Big Hollywood:



"On the other hand, does this sudden interest from the Feds have more to do with the fact that Gibson is non-union and relocated to Tennessee, a right to work state?"



Why doubt it?



Addendum - holy cow (Nolte):



"One of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of elections (though, to be fair, he did donate a whopping $750 to Republican Congressmen in the 90s.) According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain 'East Indian Rosewood.' In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson’s guitars."

Just Let Me Put This Out There...

...Because it will be the linchpin of innumerable attacks in the coming months that I'll have to deal with.



Should Rick Perry win the Repub nod, then I will, of course, support him (and I may do so sooner than that, depending on whether anyone else gets in).  Given the waters in which I swim, article one of the faux puzzlement I will face over my stand will be Perry's lack of full-throated endorsement of evolution.



No stronger advocate, upholder, and defender of the Theory of Evolution will thee find than me.  Others know this; hence the point of attack.



I could wax complex; however, better to simply cite Alana Goodman at Contentions, pointing out the ubiquitousness of pro-creationism statements by Repub Presidential candidates through recent history:



"Reagan was wrong on the science. And his comments prompted a fair amount of criticism at the time. But his opinion on the issue had no bearing on the qualities that made him a great president: his judgment, leadership, wisdom and character. Plus, when will the president’s personal opinion on evolution have any impact on policy? Is there a pending fight over mandatory federal creationism programs in the public schools that I’m unaware of? There are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize Perry, but discounting him based on his remarks on evolution would be short-sighted."



And despite this Repub factoid, it's the Dems who (despite their ridiculous propaganda to the contrary) compare poorly in terms of defense of science in the formation of public policy (Kyoto, EPA regs, the FDA, consumer product regs, anti-drug programs, Bill Ayers-type 'new ed,' opposition to brain research, obstruction of new sources of energy, and on and on and on and on), not to mention defense of reason in the formation of  public policy more generally (everything Obama).



I'm not interested in all the strutting and preening and fawning over 'science.'  I don't need to prove how 'scientific' I am (I don't care if you know or not, i.e. whether you're right or wrong about me). I'm interested in reasonable, effective public policy. My interlocutors might do better in their political choices if they oriented themselves similarly.

The Hypocrisy Of O

http://www.sustainable-gardening-tips.com/

Lowry, crushing Messiah like an eggshell:



"President Obama doesn’t bring much credibility to his new position as the nation’s lecturer in Compromise 101. One of his signature phrases upon taking office was his killer rejoinder to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor in an early White House meeting: 'Elections have consequences and, Eric, I won.' Cantor had occasioned this rebuke by passing around copies of the Republican economic plan. Clearly, compromise wasn’t the order of the day.



"A clutch of Obama’s supporters still believes he compromised his way through his first two years because he didn’t nationalize the banks, institute a single-payer health-care system or pass a stimulus package north of $1 trillion. None of this represented bending to the will of Republicans, but to the dictates of economic and political reality. The president got the leftmost plausible program he could through Congress. On his own terms, it was a transformational agenda, not a middle ground worked out between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner."



Ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner!

Straightforward Lie By Obama, For The Sake Of Documentation

It should not be any surprise, but here it is. Obviously, the man has an antipathetic relationship to the truth.



Sad Hill News:



"The current company, called 'New GM,' said it did not assume responsibility under the reorganization to fix the Impala problem, but only to make repairs 'subject to conditions and limitations' in express written warranties. In essence, the automaker said, Trusky sued the wrong entity."

Bad Situation In Southern Israel

Summarized by McCarthy at The Corner:



"So to recap as we head into September, with the Muslim Brotherhood poised to take over Egypt and the Palestinians — encouraged by Israel’s enemies at the U.N. — poised to declare statehood unilaterally, we have al-Qaeda now active in Israel; a successful terrorist attack inside Israeli territory through Egypt; Israel and Egypt in a faceoff over the killing of Egyptian soldiers by Israel after those soldiers allowed (and perhaps even facilitated) an attack on Israel; and the Palestinians — with whom Israel is expected to make peace — celebrating the murder of a Jewish family and the killing of other Israelis.



"John Hinderaker has been following events closely, and his posts are here and here. Barry Rubin’s analysis is here. As Barry says, "This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict . . . it is the bitter fruit of the U.S.-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt (emphasis mine, EK), opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war.' ”

More Ways The Obama Administration Is Destroying Society!

They just keep coming!



Today we have a brilliant deconstruction of yet another subspecies of smothering over-regulation, by Peter Berkowitz in the WSJ.



But don't worry.  It's only freedom of speech and protections for the accused at risk this time. Nothing serious!



Here's Berkowitz on the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights' new overbearing threats directed at colleges, directing them to stack the decks against those accused of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape on campus:



"Where are the professors of literature who will patiently point out that, particularly where erotic desire is involved, intentions can be obscure, passions conflicting, the heart murky and the soul divided?



"Where are the professors of natural science who will declare that OCR-dictated hearings are antithetical to the spirit of the scientific method, which depends on respect for the facts and testing claims through rational procedures?



"Where are the professors of history, political science and law who will insist clearly and in public that due process is a fundamental component of American political institutions and culture, a cornerstone of our legal system, and indispensable in a free society to the fair administration of justice?



"Where are the professors of moral philosophy and practical ethics who will stand up and declare that the presumption of innocence rightly gives expression to both the belief in the dignity of the individual and the awareness of human fallibility?



"And where are the deans, provosts and university presidents who will explain in no uncertain terms to their campus communities and to the wider public that weakening due process and freedom of speech protections erodes the framework within which free inquiry flourishes?



"So far such professors and high university officials are nowhere to be found."

Why The Dems Must Go

Ed Markey (Dem representing Massachusett's seventh district, northwest of Boston), channels mainstream Dem thinking to claim that...wait for it... increased regulation creates jobs.



That's right!  You say Dems' reckless spending and expansion of government regulation is killing growth and jobs, and is responsible for the recession and pitiful, dying "recovery?" Well nah, nah  nah!  All that transparently economy-killing crap they have been unrelentingly foisting upon us (for transparently economy-unrelated reasons like "fairness" etc) actually...actually...umm...creates jobs!  So there!



Powers, at Malkin's place:



"More regulations = a healthier economy and more jobs! And if you’re assuming those jobs are probably just more regulators, well, I’ve got news for you — you’re right."

Disconnect

Obama's bum advice (Stiles at The Corner):



"So Politico reporter MJ Lee decided to do just that, and see how easy it was for average citizens to 'contact USDA' and get their questions answers and fears alleviated. The entire account is worth a read, but Lee’s success (or lack thereof) at finding information about the specific regulations mentioned by the farmer in the clip can be summed up by this response from the USDA’s office in Washington, received after an entire day’s worth of phone calls and red tape that most (but maybe not the president) would expect from a gargantuan government bureaucracy."

I Guess We Know Who His Oneness Expects To Be Running Against

Cabinet secretaries are now letting loose against Perry (Korbe at Hot Air):



"The early attacks on Gov. Rick Perry come as no surprise: He’s a formidable candidate and, as such, is bound to take a beating from the administration and the MSM. At least Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had the sense to criticize Perry for something outside the unassailable fortress of his jobs record. It would have been better for Arne, though, if he had thought through his remarks a bit more."



Well, if Messiah can gallivant along on campaign bus tours on the public dime, why not turn loose public officials for a little early campaigning in lieu of the duties we pay them for? Is the money any more wasted then any of the rest by which we're bankrupting the country?





There are still people in this country who support Barack Obama for President in 2012.



I know, I know.  Go take two aspirin.

Murder

Freakazoid villains murder Jews again (Fox).



Please note the convergence between the Egyptian "spring" and its anti-Semitic (oops, I mean  anti-Israel) fallout (i.e. anti-Israel protest leaders, anti-Israel political leaders, anti-Israel military government leaders, Egyptians cozying up to Hamas, Egyptians opening the Egyptian-Gaza border, etc) on the one hand, and this atrocious crime in southern Israel on the other.



Coincidence?  I think not.

Government By Edict

I wonder if O will even permit an election next year, when it comes down to it.



"Obama Administration to Review All Deportation Cases, Apply DREAM Act-Style Criteria:"  [Fox]



"House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid praised the decision.



" 'This new DHS directive will help prioritize our limited enforcement resources to focus on serious felons, gang members and individuals who are a national security threat rather than college students and veterans who have risked their lives for our country,' Reid said in a statement.  'I am especially pleased about the impact these new policies will have on those who would benefit from the DREAM Act. ... We lose a lot by sending them back to countries they do not know.' "

Finally

Obama gets around to calling for Assad's ouster.

Obama's Bus

Magical Misery Tour (courtesy Nice Deb):

Amusing President Makes Political Play For Independents

Fearless Leader rediscovers that Presidential elections are won in the middle. Whadayaknow! Huddling with his minions, he decides he'll need to fool those pesky independents again (oh, bother!):



" 'There have been times when our side, when Democrats aren’t always as flexible as we need to be,' Obama said. 'Sometimes I do get frustrated when I hear folks say, 'You can't make any changes to any government programs.' Well, that can't be right.' "



ROTFLMAO



You can't make this stuff up!  But The One sure can make up his stuff, 24/7!

Race Card Already, Morons?

MSNBC go nuts portraying a simple metaphor by Rick Perry as racist 'code' (courtesy Breitbart.tv and Hot Air).



The way they they roll. What a fun 2012 it will be.

Obama Blatantly Politics On My Dime

The lying, thieving, SOB:



"The swing through three states is official presidential business, paid for by taxpayers. White House officials said the tour was focused on jobs and the economy and wasn't a campaign trip. But, at times, it was hard to tell the difference. Campaign-style music warmed up the crowd Monday, and giant American flags hung behind Mr. Obama at his two town-hall meetings."



Dirty bastard.

Dems Out Of Ideas

The Times-Dem, in its inimitable way, highlights the brainless 'leadership' emanating from this WH:



"But others, including Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, say public anger over the debt ceiling debate has weakened Republicans and created an opening for bigger ideas like tax incentives for businesses that hire more workers (talk about totally not getting it - EK), according to Congressional Democrats who share that view. Democrats are also pushing the White House to help homeowners facing foreclosure."



and...



"The issue is being framed by the 2012 election. Administration officials, frustrated by the intransigence of House Republicans, have increasingly concluded that the best thing Mr. Obama can do for the economy may be winning a second term, with a mandate to advance his ideas on deficit reduction, entitlement changes (!!! holy-freaking-crap, are they kidding? - EK), housing policy and other issues."



These economic illiterates believe their own bullshit spin. If we don't jettison them next November, we're in for a world of hurt.

More Cover-Ups

Really?  Obama censored the guest list from the WH Iftar dinner to hide terrorist-sympathizing/enabling guests (Daily Caller via Jihad Watch via Atlas Shrugs):



"The White House’s published guest list for this year’s Ramadan Iftar dinner was much shorter than previous years’ roster. It excluded the names of several controversial advocates who have attended the event in the past, including some who The Daily Caller can confirm did attend on Wednesday night."



Most transparent administration evah!!

Perry

I just watched his announcement speech (Allah).



Pretty good.



My heart's still with the 'Stache.



But failing that, Perry'll do.



He'll do just fine.

Destroying Jobs, The Obama Way

Here's a puzzle.  Fill in the blank:



NLRB is to Boeing as Obama is to _______



a) Pelosi

b) Bill Ayers

c) Ahmadinejad

d) jobs



The answer is d.



WSJ:



"In a now-famous meeting last year with then White House budget direct Peter Orszag, CEOs from the Business Roundtable complained about the costs of regulation. Give me examples, Mr. Orszag said, and the BRT followed up with a 54-page list. A measure of the Administration's responsiveness is that the NLRB launched its assault on Boeing after the BRT provided those examples, and President Obama has refused to say a word of reproach to the agency. This is how you get economic growth of 0.8%."

Contra Stephens, NPod thinks Obama Isn't Stupid

He thinks he's a left-wing radical (WSJ):



"But I emphatically agree with Messrs. Limbaugh and Sowell about this president's attitude toward America as it exists and as the Founding Fathers intended it. That is why my own answer to the question, 'What Happened to Obama?' is that nothing happened to him. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president, and it is this rather than inexperience or incompetence or weakness or stupidity that accounts for the richly deserved failure both at home and abroad of the policies stemming from that reprehensible cast of mind."



I think he's both!!

NLRB OOC

The National Labor Relations Board is stonewalling an investigation of its water-carrying for unions (Nice Deb).



With the Obama adminstration, the disgraces never end!