Know Your Labs

A little Friday afternoon humor:

Obama's War On Wall Street Draws Return Fire

Imagine that, big money Wall Street types aren't enamored with Obama now that he's spent three years calling them evil:

Reporting from New York— The race is on to tap one of the most vital sources of campaign cash — Wall Street — and the early results are not looking good for President Obama.

The president's campaign struggled this week to sell out a fundraising dinner Friday at Manhattan's gilded Four Seasons restaurant despite its being hosted by America's No. 1 capitalist, Warren Buffett, according to people close to the campaign who were not authorized to speak publicly. The dinner for 100 was also a relative bargain at $10,000 a plate; recent fundraisers in Hollywood and New York have gone for $35,800 a pop.

The episode highlights a worrying trend for the Obama campaign. Wall Street, a key contributor to Obama in 2008, seems to be switching allegiances.

Meanwhile the lefty loons are continuing their #OccupyWallStreet nonsense, including spreading rumors that the band Radiohead would play a concert there this afternoon. Radiohead's management said the whole thing was fraudulent. Seems like the whiny little kids trying to occupy Wall Street are starving for attention.

Yep, It's That Gay Old Time of the Year Again

Those of you with families planning to attend Disneyland this weekend should probably take note:

More than 30,000 are expected to attend the Gay Days at Disneyland that runs from Friday to Sunday.

Gay Days Anaheim features event throughout the Disneyland Resort, including a book-signing on Saturday by Emmy Award-winning actress Jane Lynch. Lynch, star of the hit TV show “Glee,” is scheduled to sign copies of her book “Happy Accidents” at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. Gay Days is not an official Disney event.

Gay Days organizer Eddie Shapiro said Gays Days, in its 14th year, has gained tacit understanding from Disney.

“While this is not a Disneyland Resort-sponsored event, we work with Gay Days organizers to ensure exemplary guest service, as we do with all large groups,” said Disney spokeswoman Betsy Sanchez.

Shapiro said more than 1,000 rooms have been booked in the three Disney-owned hotels; there are discounted tickets to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

“It’s not dissimilar from any other large group that comes in,” Shapiro said. “Except we hope to be more fabulous.”

Since this event is not marketed by Disney directly, and you won't find it on the Disney website when you order your tickets, a lot of families get a big surprise every year when they show up on Gay Days weekend.  They get to explain a lot of things to their kids they hadn't planned to explain just yet.

Back in the early days of this blog it happened to me and I wrote about it here.

If you find yourself in there and you don't want to throw away your expensive tickets, there are some fun family games you can play like "Guess the Gender" or "Which One is the Guy?".  Those will keep you going all night.

Back when I worked there sights that will be regularly on display this weekend would have gotten people summarily tossed from the park.  Things have changed since 1975, that's for sure.

Political Photo of the Day

This is not an endorsement - I just thought this was kind of funny (seen on Facebook):

A Family Doesn't Give Up and Finds Their Missing Dad Down an L.A. County Ravine

This is a great local story:

A 67-year-old man who survived for five or six days on leaves and creek water after his car plunged 200 feet off a California mountain road was found by his children, who tracked him down like television detectives.

Chardonnay, Sean and Lisa Lavau appeared on NBC's "Today" show Friday, describing how they found their father's car and his makeshift camp in a ravine Thursday off Lake Hughes Road in the Angeles National Forest.

Another vehicle was found nearby, but its driver did not survive the crash and authorities don't know if they are dealing with one crash or two, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Mark Savage. The accident investigation was turned over to California Highway Patrol.

After the family reported David Lavau missing, they worked with a detective to narrow the search area using cell phone towers, text messages and debit card purchases, Chardonnay Lavau told NBC and other reporters.

Lisa Lavau told KCAL-TV her family had not heard from her father for several days.

After narrowing the search area, "We stopped at every ravine, and looked over every hill and then my brother got out of the car and we kept screaming and the next thing we heard Dad saying `help, help,' and there he was," Lisa Lavau said.

Chardonnay Lavau told NBC one of the first things her father asked for after he was found was a chocolate malt.

Officials at the scene were told he might have been stranded for up to six days, Savage said.

I see a TV movie in this story's future.

Corporal Klinger Was Way Ahead of His Time

You just knew this was going to be the next step:

With homosexuals now able to serve openly in the military, the gay rights movement’s next battleground is to persuade the Obama administration to end the armed forces’ ban on “transgenders,” a group that includes transsexuals and cross-dressers.

So, will we have Marines completing the Crucible wearing skirts or culottes?

This would have been really bad news for Corporal Klinger.

And in related news:

The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation.

Slippery slope.

Big Surprise for Democrats - Corporations Pass Regulatory Costs On to Their Customers

When the Dodd-Frank banking regulation bill was passed the Democrats just assumed the banks would eat the new costs the bill imposed.  Guess what?

Bank of America customers with basic checking accounts will be hit with a $5 monthly fee in order to use a debit card for purchases, the bank announced Thursday.

Banks and card companies have been aggressively establishing and raising fees in recent weeks as banks plan for new rules taking effect Saturday that limit the amount they can charge retailers for each debit card purchase.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are testing $3 fees for debit cards in select areas, and Citibank recently announced it is raising its fees for checking accounts. Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Thomas McCrohan said last week that Visa and MasterCard, the top two debit card companies, may increase drastically increase fees on small purchases to offset the losses.

SunTrust, a regional bank based in Atlanta, began charging a $5 debit card fee on its basic checking accounts this summer. Regions Financial, which is based in Birmingham, Ala., notified customers this summer that it will charge a $4 monthly fee starting next month.

I bank at a credit union and my guess is they won't join the chorus of big banks adding new fees. My guess is that after people start getting hit with these new fees, they'll start shopping around and some banks that are already in trouble will really take a hit.

Christie and Palin, In or Out...NOW!

S.E. Cupp says it's time for the game playing to end.  Get in or get out and quit dragging things out:

It's happened. The build-up and anxiety over whether folks like Chris Christie and Sarah Palin are going to throw their hats in the ring for the GOP presidential primary has reached critical mass.

And now, the will-they-or-won't-they game has flipped from fun and energizing to damaging to the party. Christie and Palin now do conservatives more harm than good.

With the question marks still lingering in the ether, and pundits on both sides of the aisle still performing their daily trapeze act -- swinging back and forth between "yes, he's running" and "no, she isn't" -- the focus on Christie and Palin has taken valuable resources and attention away from the rest of the field.

Because of those question marks, conservatives haven't been able to invest fully in the candidates who are running. They haven't been able to imagine one of them as president. They've held back support, money and endorsements, because they still don't know that the field is settled.

Read the rest of it here.

When it comes to Christie the only thing I've ever heard him say is "I'm not running", so I'm not sure the speculation surrounding him is his fault. The real problem seems to be the people, many of them part of the establishment GOP, who insist on pushing for a Christie candidacy and keeping the speculation alive. They're practically begging him to get in, and he keeps saying "no". Somehow he's got to make it official.

Palin as offered several possible dates (including today) that she promised to give a final decision, but as each date approached she'd push it off again. I think she's just playing everybody and has no real plans to get in. It's getting awfully late to line up campaign cash and top quality staffers.

So, my advice to Republicans is to pick somebody from the existing field and back them until they win or drop out. And if they don't make the cut, plan on supporting whoever does, because it will take a unified GOP plus a lot of disenchanted independents and Dems to flush the Obama curse from the White House.

Warren Buffett Throws Obama's Jobs Bill Under the Bus

What??  I thought this would finally make Buffett pay the same tax rate as his secretary?

@PounderFile: On CNBC, Warren Buffett says he disagrees with the Buffett Rule and refuses to endorse the American Jobs Act.

Somebody get Buffett's secretary on the phone...

UPDATE:  Here's the transcript -

CNBC: "Are you happy that the way it is being described. Is the program that the White House has presented a million dollars and over your program? "

Warren Buffett: "Well, the precise program which will -- I don't know what their program will be. My program would be on the very high incomes that are taxed very low. Not just high incomes. Somebody making $50 million a year playing baseball, his taxes won't change. Make $50 million a year appearing on television, his income won't change. But, if they make a lot of money and pay a very low tax rate, like me, it would be changed by a minimum tax that would only bring them up to what other people pay."

CNBC: "Does that mean you disagree with the president's new jobs proposal which would be paid for by raising taxes on households with incomes of over $250,000."

Buffett: "That's another program that I won't be discussing. My program is to have a tax on ultra-rich people who are very tax rates. Not just all rich people. It would probably apply to 50,000 people in a population of 300 million."

American-Born Al Qaeda Terrorist Gets His 72 Virgins

The guy who inspired the Fort Hood shooter has been taken out:

In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

Adam Gadahn, you're next buddy.

War on Terror Photo of the Day

An infant sleeps on the uniform of his father who died in the war just a month before he was born:

We can't ever forget the sacrifice made by so many.

Obama Wants His Jobs Bill Back

He can withdraw it, but he won't get it back passed and ready for signature:

CHICAGO (WLS) – On Tuesday, President Barack Obama tried to keep the pressure on Congress to consider his nearly $450 billion jobs bill, saying it had been two weeks since he sent the bill to Capitol Hill “and now I want it back.”

“I want it back, passed, so I can sign this bill and start putting people back to work,” Obama said Tuesday.

So why have Democrats delayed action in the U.S. Senate on President Obama’s stimulus bill?

WLS Radio’s Bill Cameron reports his own party has delayed action in the Senate and talked with Senator Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, about the reason why.

“The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies, “ Durbin tells WLS Radio, “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100% Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.”

But so far, Durbin concedes Democrats don’t have the votes in the senate to pass it, “Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it.”

There has been no clear sign that his campaign for his bill is winning over Republicans in Congress whose support he needs.

And that's just the Senate. The GOP in the House will kill it outright regardless of how the Dems vote.

This Time of the Year I Really Hate Pink

Two years ago today I buried my dad after he lost his battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis. It's a terrible disease that slowly destroys the lungs and robs them of their ability to process oxygen. His doctor described it as slow-motion drowning. I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

A couple of weeks after the funeral I wrote this:

What Color Should the Cars Be for Pulmonary Fibrosis?

Last night I was watching the NASCAR race from the Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC. It's October which has been declared "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" and a number of the cars were carrying pink paint schemes as part of the fundraising effort, such as the #19 car of Elliot Sadler (photo from Jayski.com):

As I watched the pink cars go round and round I was reminded that if you're going to get a potentially deadly disease, it's good to get one that's has such popular support (even if the cars look silly).

I was also reminded that just as many people die every year from Pulmonary Fibrosis, the disease which took my dad's life on September 22, as die from Breast Cancer. There weren't any cars running last night with special colors for PF. And let's face it, boobs are a lot more popular than lungs, but that doesn't change the facts about the disease.

And one other important fact - there are no survivors of Pulmonary Fibrosis. You either have it and will die from it, or you're already dead. There are no survivors to wear ribbons or tell their stories.

Today the yogurt I had for lunch had a pink top on it. Soon a pink ribbon will be raised at the White House. Everywhere I look I see things colored pink to raise money for what has certainly become the most politically correct disease since AIDS. Even this abomination:

Please understand, if you suffered from breast cancer or have a loved one who did, I'm not mad at you or think you shouldn't get whatever help you can. It's just that when one disease gets most of the attention, other diseases that need attention and funding get forgotten...except by those who have been its victims.

You have to hand it to the folks at Susan G. Komen for making breast cancer so highly marketable.  I just wish there was a little more balance in how we look at such things.

Saggy Pants Are a Money Maker For One Georgia Town

Droopy drawers will get you a ticket:

Saggy pants -- the kind that show off more underwear that many care to see -- were causing such an eyesore in a small town in southwestern Georgia that they were banned. Violators faced a $25 fine for a first saggy pants offense, more for a second.

Now, nearly a year after the ban was put into effect, Albany, Ga., reports that it is turning into a tidy little money maker: The city is on track to collect more than $5,500 under it by year's end.

The ban applies to anyone, male or female, wearing extremely low-hanging clothing, which is defined as more than "three inches below the top of the hips," showing off skin or unmentionables in public.

Supporters of the law say low-riding pants are disrespectful and offensive, especially when small children can find themselves staring directly at barely covered buttocks.

Since the prohibition became law Nov. 23, there have been at least 187 citations issued by law enforcement officers in Albany, the ninth-biggest city in Georgia with a population of 77,000. The citations have raked in about $4,000 and are expected to pull in about $1,500 more before the end of the year, according to the Albany Herald.

And that story gives me a perfect segue into this:

Political Quote of the Day

From idiot leftist actress Janeane Garofalo, on why Republicans would support Herman Cain:

"Herman Cain is probably well liked by some of the Republicans because it hides the racist elements of the Republican party. Conservative movement and tea party movement, one in the same.

"People like Karl Rove liked to keep the racism very covert. And so Herman Cain provides this great opportunity say you can say 'Look, this is not a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-female, anti-gay movement. Look we have a black man.'"

This is exactly why a Herman Cain candidacy would not stop the racism talk about the Republican Party. Any opposition to Obama will still be considered racism, even if the Republican candidate is black. He'll be depicted by the mainstream press and Democrats as a token, no matter how genuine the support is for his candidacy.

If FLOTUS Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy

If you seen photos of Michelle Obama lately she does not look like a very happy person.  Her husband's popularity is tanking, the promise of 2008 has turned into the nightmare of 2011, and being First Lady isn't as much fun as she thought it would be.  Apparently, things are coming to a boil:

The “insider” contends that there was an episode involving the First Lady and a member of her staff that shook up everyone. It was a big enough deal it reached folks in Congress, who forwarded it on to some donors, who then had calls into Plouffe’s office wondering WTF was going on. The First Lady is being prepped as one of the few assets for the re-election campaign but those inside know she is as big a potential liability as anything associated with the administration. They are using her in controlled environments only. That’s the word from on high. What went down between her and the staff member wasn’t just a tantrum, or some shouting. It was put to me as being “an eruption.” Talking full on screaming here. Not the first time this kind of thing has happened. I’ve shared a bit of that w/you before but this was on another scale apparently. Put the WH on security alert for a brief time. It was that bad. No mention of the president’s involvement or reaction. He was apparently AWOL during the whole thing. First Lady is complaining a lot these days. LOUDLY. To everyone. Apparently a very unhappy woman.

My alarm bells went off when I heard Michelle had left four hours earlier than Barack for their Martha's Vineyard vacation, flying on separate aircraft. That just doesn't sound like a happy family.

Nobody wants to see trouble in the White House family quarters, but Obama clearly wasn't ready for this job, and neither was his wife.  Read the whole column.  It doesn't paint a very pretty picture of this White House.

Joe Biden Tries to Talk His Way Off the 2012 Ticket

From CBS News Mark Knoller:

VP Biden says its not relevant to blame the Bush Admin for current economic problems. "What's relevant is - we're in charge," says Biden.

Joe may have just talked himself off the 2012 ticket. It's heresy for a Democrat to suggest something bad isn't Bush's fault.

Just Whistle While You Steal

In the Disney Movie Snow White the star sang the tune "Whistle While You Work" to motivate the dwarves and various forest creatures as they cleaned up the cottage.  At Solyndra they had robots that whistled Disney tunes to motivate the workers while they cleaned out the taxpayers:

The glass-and-metal building that Solyndra LLC began erecting alongside Interstate 880 in Fremont, California, in September 2009 was something the Silicon Valley area hadn't seen in years: a new factory.

It wasn't just any factory. When it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 square feet, the equivalent of five football fields. It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms. . . .

The building, designed to make far more solar panels than Solyndra got orders for, is now shuttered, and U.S. taxpayers may be stuck with it.

And just yesterday Obama made another $1 billion in loan guarantees to two other solar companies. Maybe they can get robots that sing show tunes.

Why Romney Hasn't Caught On

I think First Read sums it up pretty well:

*** Why hasn’t Romney caught fire? Both the New York Times andWashington Post today focus on Romney and why he has been unable to excite Republican primary voters so far, despite his improvements on the stump and on the debate stage. Yet here’s one reason both articles don’t really mention: his past positions on issues. While there’s been so much focus on Rick Perry’s record (his support for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, the HPV vaccine mandate) just look at Romney’s: Only six years ago, he supported abortion rights; in 1994, he sent a letter saying he’d be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Ted Kennedy; according to a 2006 article, he supported a path to citizenship for law-abiding illegal immigrants; he has said that his Massachusetts health-care law should be a model for other states; and he said back in June that humans have contributed to the world getting warmer -- and that it’s important to reduce emissions to combat that. All of those positions are anathema to conservatives. A question: Does this Republican electorate want to “settle,” gravitate behind the most electable? When they’ve “settled” in the past, many conservative leaders have regretted it (see McCain or Dole or Bush 41).

When I see Romney I'm reminded of the audioanimatronic figures at Disneyland. Too slick, too packaged, and too unreliable on conservative issues.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Liking trains, I couldn't resist posting this item about one of Obama's latest gaffes:

Grumpy Bear

Da Bears won the Super Bowl for the '85 season and Obama wants to invite them to the White House for a belated celebration. One former member is opting out:

Former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton says he will not be joining his fellow teammates when they visit the White House next month.

Hampton, a member of the Bears 1985 Super Bowl championship team, made the comments on Chicago's Mully and Hanley radio show Monday.

"It's my personal choice," the four-time Pro Bowler said. "I don't choose to go."

Hampton said he was bothered that the invitation did not include players' wives and children and added, "Secondly, I’m not a fan of the guy in the White House, and third, it was 25 years ago. Let it go.”

Obama, an ardent fan of his hometown team, extended an invite to the 1985 Super Bowl Champions last week. The team is scheduled to visit the White House on Oct. 7.

Super Bowl champions are traditionally honored with a visit to the White House. But plans for the 1985 Bears to come to Washington were scrapped when the space shuttle Challenger exploded just days after their victory in January 1986.

"It basically just rolled off our backs, and now, 25 years later to say, ‘Let’s put the band back together.’ No, I’m not in,” Hampton said.

The Fridge is big enough for several guys, so maybe they won't notice Hampton's not there. That is, if they can get William Perry off his couch.

Obama Risks Another $1 Billion in Your Tax Dollars on Solar Energy Companies

How soon until these guys go bust? He apparently didn't learn anything from Solyndra.

The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration's green energy program.


Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.


The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.

Oh, and one of the honchos at Tonopah Solar Energy just happens to be Nancy Pelosi's brother-in-law. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the loan.

Oh, and this:

Steve Mitchell and Argonaut Private Equity might have a chance to recoup some of their losses in the Solyndra debacle now that the Department of Energy has given a $737 million dollar loan guarantee to a company backed by Argonaut that also lists Mitchell among its board of directors. Mitchell served on the Solyndra LLC Board of Directors.

Yeah, this is gonna turn out really well.

Baseball Set for Two Historic Collapses - UPDATE Red Sox and Braves Complete Collapse

UPDATE:  I posted this story on September 23 and thought I would updated it.  I just watched Tampa Bay beat the Yankees and Boston Red Sox lose to the Orioles, completing the Red Sox collapse.  Earlier in the evening St. Louis Cardinals won while Atlanta Braves were trounced, thus completing Atlanta's collapse.
==========================

I haven't followed baseball much this year.  It looks like my hometown Angels will probably miss the playoffs, and two other teams may have historic crashes:

For the Boston Red Sox, the failures of the last week have amounted to some grim theater: Josh Beckett, their best pitcher, getting beaten up by the Baltimore Orioles, who were ostensibly eliminated from meaningful competition months ago.

It has not been any prettier for the Atlanta Braves. Their rock, third baseman Chipper Jones, lost a high-bouncing ball in the lights this week before Omar Infante, his former teammate who is now on the lowly Florida Marlins, hit a two-run game-winning home run off Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta’s sterling rookie reliever.

Over the decades, teams falling apart during a pennant race have always made for darkly compelling viewing. Yes, watching champions spraying each other with Champagne is nice. But seeing teams — good ones, even great ones, losing night after improbable night when the games matter most — can be ghoulishly riveting.

If the Red Sox and the Braves continue their descents, this September could produce two historic collapses. No team, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, has ever squandered what Boston and Atlanta are close to giving up: leads of eight or more games in the race for a spot in baseball’s postseason in the final month of the season.

“What was a dream scenario is now really a train wreck,” said Steak Shapiro, a host on 790 the Zone, an all-sports radio station in Atlanta.

I feel your pain.

The Science is Settled...As Long As You Don't Look At These Thermometers

Is there anything about the global warming fantasy that's actually based on real scientific fact?

Climate scientists had long believed infrared thermometers measured thermal radiation from the atmosphere and assumed it was ‘proof’ of the greenhouse gas effect (GHE). Their assumption was that infrared thermometers (IRT’s) were measuring ‘back radiated’ heat from greenhouse gases (including water vapor and carbon dioxide). But damning new evidence proves IRT’s do no such thing.

Now a world-leading manufacturer of these high-tech instruments, Mikron Instrument Company Inc., has confirmed that IRT’s are deliberately set to AVOID registering any feedback from greenhouse gases. Thus climate scientists were measuring everything but the energy emitted by carbon dioxide and water vapor.

One of the researchers involved, Alan Siddons, has analyzed the GHE for over six years. He has long condemned the practice of using IRT’s as a means of substantiating the increasingly discredited hypothesis.

Hot air. It's all hot air.

General Education Cartoon of the Day

For all those who, like me, hated math (seen on Facebook):

"Patriotic Millionaires" Want You to Donate to Pay for Their Campaign for Higher Taxes

Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection spotted something when doing a little research on the former Google exec/idiot who asked Obama to raise his taxes during a town hall meeting:

It turns out the guy was a plant by a group called the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, which includes a number of wealthy people who are so brave they are willing to sign a letter of support for the group’s agenda only using their initials.

But another thing caught my eye in their banner.  These patriotic millionaires want you to donate to their group (circling added - see the link for the photo):

The Donate button leads to a donation page where these patriotic millionaires are happy to take your credit card billing information or allow you to pay via PayPal to support their efforts.

So how patriotic are these millionaires?

Not so patriotic that they will voluntarily pay extra taxes to the government, and not so patriotic that they will pay for their own campaign to raise other people’s taxes.

These people want to raise your taxes and want you to pay for the campaign to do it. They're definitely textbook liberals.

Obama in Trouble in Ohio and Pennsylvania

He needs those two states if he's to have any chance of re-election:

New polls in Ohio and Pennsylvania indicate that President Barack Obama has his work cut out for him to keep the two key battleground states in the Democratic column in next year's presidential election.

According to a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday morning, 53 percent of Ohio voters disapprove of the job the president's doing in office, with 42 percent saying they approve of how Obama's handling his duties. The 42 percent approval rating matches the president's all-time low in Quinnipiac polling for Ohio. The survey also indicates that by a 51 to 43 percent margin, Buckeye State voters say the president doesn't deserve to be re-elected in 2012.

In hypothetical general election matchups against the top two Republican presidential candidates, the poll indicates things are pretty much all tied up, with Obama holding a 44 to 41 percent margin over Texas Gov. Rick Perry and holding a 44 to 42 percent margin over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Both margins are within the poll's sampling error.

In a sign of just how important the state is to the White House, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden made four visits combined to the state this month, to lobby for the president's jobs package.

The key is how the voters will view the eventual GOP challenger compared to Obama, but with no sign that the economy is likely to improve much...or at all... in the next year, those states are very much in play.

As is Florida. And North Carolina. And many other states that Obama won in 2008.

Obama's "Jobs" Bill Finally Gets a Sponsor

The running joke yesterday was Obama's "Jobs" Bill didn't have even a single Democrat willing to put his name on it.  Apparently the Dems were hoping the Republican leadership would sponsor the bill...and take the blame when it was voted down.

Well, Obama finally found a sucker to put his name on it (from Daily Caller):

Okay, NOW pass the jobs bill right now -- TheDC's Nicholas Ballasy reports the latest on Obama's phony-baloney jobs bill: "The Daily Caller has learned that Connecticut Democratic Rep. John Larson has introduced President Barack Obama's jobs plan in the House of Representatives 'at the request of the president' and that the bill has no co-sponsors. Subsequent to The Daily Caller's earlier reporting on Republican Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma's comments about the bill not being filed in the House, a senior Democratic aide told TheDC the legislation was first introduced in the Senate on Sept. 13 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and in the House on Sept. 21 'at the request of the President.' Both versions, H.R. 12 and S. 1549 contain the same language and have no co-sponsors. 'Members have not been asked to co-sponsor the bill. Instead, members have asked that the GOP leadership bring it up so we can address the need for job creation in this country,' a senior Democratic aide told TheDC." Because it would be way too honest to say, "Our disastrous policies have killed American jobs, and now we're playing amateurish games to try to escape responsibility." So alrighty then: Now there's a bill. And Harry Reid is in absolutely no hurry to do anything about it. Wait... doesn't he love Obama? If he loved Obama, he'd get that done RIGHT NOW.

I imagine the next thing will be CBO scoring, followed by acrimonious hearings and eventual defeat. Maybe we should just go ahead and skip to the defeat part and get it over with.

Obamacare Arrives in the Supreme Court

Once again the Obama Administration has been beaten to the punch:

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) stole a march on the Obama Administration this morning by filing a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit’s Obamacare decision.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had announced on Monday that it was not going to ask all 11 judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to review en banc the August 12 decision of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit that found the individual mandate unconstitutional. This opened up a path to an appeal by DOJ to the Supremes.

However, with this petition, the NFIB jumped ahead of Eric Holder’s slow-moving DOJ (which until Monday had done everything it could to slow-walk this case filed by 26 states and the NFIB). The NFIB is obviously not appealing the three-judge panel’s opinion about the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate. But the NFIB is appealing the portion of the panel’s decision that held that the unconstitutional individual mandate could be severed from the Obamacare legislation.

The NFIB is asking the Court to overrule this holding, since “Congress itself deemed [the mandate] ‘essential’ to the Act’s new insurance regulations.” Given that the 11th and 6th Circuits have issued “directly conflicting final judgments about the facial constitutionality of [Obamacare’s] mandate,” the case is one that the Court should obviously take up given its interest in eliminating conflicting opinions in the courts of appeal.

If the court affirms the 11th Circuit ruling on the individual mandate, and overturns the ruling regarding severability, Obamacare will be officially dead.

What Makes Al Qaeda REALLY Mad? Truthers

Not just infidel Americans, but truthers like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who think America knocked its own buildings down:

The terror group al Qaeda has found itself curiously in agreement with the "Great Satan" -- which it calls the U.S. -- in issuing a stern message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: stop spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories.

In the latest issue of the al Qaeda English-language magazine "Inspire", an author appears to take offense to the "ridiculous" theory repeatedly spread by Ahmadinejad that the 9/11 terror attacks were actually carried out by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext to invade the Middle East.

"The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the U.S. government," an article reads. "So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?"

As Jim Geraghty says: "Why don't you guys just fight it out?"

Florida May Move Its Primary to January 31

This really isn't necessary:

Florida is now expected to hold its presidential primary on the last day in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped.

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon told CNN on Tuesday that a state commission exploring potential primary dates is likely to choose January 31 to hold the nominating contest.

If that happens, it would almost certainly force the traditional early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to leapfrog Florida and move their primaries and caucuses into early- to mid-January.

"We are expecting to meet on Friday from 11 to 12, and I expect that they will pick January 31 as Florida's primary date," said Cannon, who helped select members of the nine-member commission.

We don't need candidates trying to do last minute campaigning on Christmas Eve, but that's what's likely to happen as other primaries are moved up ridiculously early.

Berkeley Republicans Poke the Diversity Bear

And in the process hilarity ensues:

Hundreds of students packed UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza on Tuesday to express their views on the use of race and gender in university admissions decisions and to weigh in on the tone of debate.

The dialogue in the bastion of the free-speech movement was triggered by a bake sale -- sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans -- that promised goods priced according to the buyer's race, ethnicity and gender.

The event, which was met with anger by many students, was timed to counteract a phone bank in support of a bill on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk that would allow the UC and Cal State University systems to consider such factors, as long as no preference is given.

Opponents of the legislation formed a protective wall of sorts around the Republican student club's bake sale table in the plaza. Under the event's pricing structure, whites were supposed to pay $2 for the same pastry that would cost Native Americans just 25 cents. (The group, however, accepted whatever people chose to pay.)

"It's kind of ugly," said 21-year-old gender and women's studies major Tatianna Peck, who held a sign protesting the exclusion of "queer people" from the Republicans' pricing structure.

"It's extremely reductive and forcing people into a defensive position instead of an honest place of listening," she said of the bake sale stunt. "It's just kind of a shame."

Some protesters gave out cupcakes in hopes of creating "an environment where people can come have dialogue with respect and sensitivity," said Damaris Olaechea, 24. The anthropology and rhetoric major said she, along with her roommate, baked hundreds of "cupcakes of conscience" to hand out in that spirit.

Several hundred students -- many of them African American or Latino -- dressed in black and staged a silent protest, lying down for an hour in the midday sun.

Siesta time!

It's just so easy to rile up Berkeley kids. Like taking candy from whiny babies.

Chicago Melts Down Financially While Seeking Ways to Make it Worse

We'll just call it Greece on Lake Michigan:

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to present his first budget next month, Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is tossing out dozens of ways to raise more money and cut the size of city government.

Many of them are politically poisonous: a city income tax, tolls on Lake Shore Drive, higher ambulance fees. Others could conceivably gain traction: making garbage pickup more efficient, cutting layers of management and making all city employees work 40 hours a week.

Each of the 63 ideas, Ferguson says, is pointed toward highlighting the desperate plight of city finances in the coming years and the need for action to head off a financial meltdown.

More efficient is good. Cutting layers of management is good. Making city employees earn their salaries is good.

More taxes and tolls are bad. They'll only make things worse and they won't raise the amount of money promised. They never do.

Oh, and you might want to reconsider letting Wal-Mart build in Chicago. They'll bring in a ton of sales tax revenue, not to mention the jobs they'll provide.

Crime Blotter Headline of the Day

Round up the usual suspects:

7 Grizzlies Rounded Up in Yellowstone Attack Probe

They'll be the usual line-up followed by a Good Ranger/Bad Ranger interrogation.

NC Dem Gov: Let's Suspend Elections for a Couple of Years and Focus on Jobs

Yes, a little tyranny can go a long way to improving our economy:

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years.

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.”

Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members of Congress to focus on the economy. “You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things,” Perdue said.

Uh, Gov. Perdue, perhaps if Obama and his flying monkey minions in Washington would quit suspending the constitution and start abiding by it our economy would improve on its own.

Political Joke of the Day

Seen on Facebook:

Our daughter just walked into the living room and said, "Dad, cancel my allowance immediately; rent my room out; throw all my clothes out of the window; take my TV, stereo, iPhone, iPod, and my laptop.


Please take all of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then sell my new car. Take my front door key away from me, and throw me out of the house. Then disown me, and never talk to me again. And don’t forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to my brother........."


Well, she didn't put it quite like that. What she actually said was "Dad I have decided to work for the Obama’s re-election campaign."

There's a lot of truth in that (just in case my kids are reading this).

Michael Jackson Trial Opens With Death Photo

The trial of the doctor who is charged in the death of Michael Jackson opened today, and the first thing the jury saw was the photo of Michael Jackson dead on a hospital gurney.  Whether the doctor did anything criminal or not, you know that's going to have an effect on the jury, not to mention his fans.

Weekly KHND Interview Podcast

Here's the podcast from this morning's KHND Radio interview.

World Peace Cartoon of the Day

From Michael Ramirez in Investors Business Daily:

I'll repeat what I've said before:

If the Palestinians laid down their weapons today, in the Middle East tomorrow there would be no more war.

If the Israelis laid down their weapons today, in the Middle East tomorrow there would be no more Israel.

The only thing preventing peace in the Middle East is the Palestinians and their enablers around the world.

CNN and MSNBC Discover the Secret to Higher Ratings: Republicans

From the Daily Caller:

If you don’t watch CNN or MSNBC, you’re hardly alone. But Bill Carter at the New York Times is very interested in their jockeying for a distant second place in the ratings:

The ratings results for the month of September show that CNN, long relegated to third place in the prime-time cable news competition, is edging its way back up, while MSNBC is moving in the other direction.

For the month, CNN averaged 257,000 viewers in prime time in the category that counts most to the networks — viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 — because that is where the advertising money goes for news programming. MSNBC was just barely ahead with 269,000 viewers. (Neither approached the leader, Fox News, with 526,000).

Both CNN and MSNBC had one especially strong night because of the Republican presidential debates.

That’s right, they’ve discovered the secret to ratings success: Republicans. Otherwise they’re each stuck with a viewer base roughly the size of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Meanwhile, Fox News just continues to kick their rear ends and laugh all the way to the bank.

White House Pressures Ford to Pull Ad Critical of Auto Bailout

It was a great ad too and got a lot of media attention, so if the White House thinks this will make it go away, they're seriously delusional:

As part of a campaign featuring "real people" explaining their decision to buy the Blue Oval, a guy named "Chris" says he "wasn't going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government," according the text of the ad, launched in early September.

"I was going to buy from a manufacturer that's standing on their own: win, lose, or draw. That's what America is about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta' pick yourself up and go back to work."

That's what some of America is about, evidently. Because Ford pulled the ad after individuals inside the White House questioned whether the copy was publicly denigrating the controversial bailout policy CEO Alan Mulally repeatedly supported in the dark days of late 2008, in early '09 and again when the ad flap arose. And more.

With President Barack Obama tuning his re-election campaign amid dismal economic conditions and simmering antipathy toward his stimulus spending and associated bailouts, the Ford ad carried the makings of a political liability when Team Obama can least afford yet another one. Can't have that.

The ad, pulled in response to White House questions (and, presumably, carping from rival GM), threatened to rekindle the negative (if accurate) association just when the president wants credit for their positive results (GM and Chrysler are moving forward, making money and selling vehicles) and to distance himself from any public downside of his decision.

I'm guessing that if we're able to dig deeper will find threats of union violence and strikes against Ford at the prompting of the White House. That's the Chicago way and the union thug way.  And as it turns out the bailout agreement does not allow strikes against GM or Chrysler, only Ford.

How Would You Like to Be at the Top of the Washington Monument in an Earthquake?

Some folks were and the security video shows some scary scenes:

Liberals Finally Find a Regulatory Burden They Don't Like

They have no problems with imposing ridiculous environmental regulation on business, but try and impose a safety regulations on abortion clinics and they go nuts. From an editorial in the Washington Post:

IT’S ALREADY HARD to get an abortion in Virginia, and it’s about to get much harder.

The reason is a new set of regulations — absurdly onerous and utterly unnecessary — pushed by conservative ideologues in Richmond and adopted by the state Board of Health, which is dominated by appointees of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R). The regulations, which go into effect Jan. 1, are likely to result in the closure of many or most of Virginia’s 23 abortion clinics, which accounted for all but a few hundred of the 26,000 procedures performed in the state last year.

Republicans such as Mr. McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II love to pummel what they see as the regulatory zeal of liberals. But in this instance they have outdone liberals in supporting the imposition of punitive and meddling rules under the pretext of protecting women’s health but without providing an iota of evidence that women were endangered to begin with. First-trimester abortions, which account for the overwhelming majority of procedures performed in the state, are extremely safe, requiring hospitalization for complications in only the rarest of instances.

The rules will require existing clinics to meet construction and design standards mainly intended for new hospitals — not existing outpatient facilities such as abortion clinics. The rules mandate the minimum width of hallways; ceiling height; the size of operating rooms; numbers of parking spots; and other requirements that will be physically impossible, or prohibitively expensive, for many clinics to satisfy. Mr. McDonnell can make changes to the board’s recommendations but is not expected to alter them significantly.

In nearly all past cases, the state differentiated between existing structures and newly built ones when imposing fresh building standards. In this instance — and without demonstrating any need related to patient care and safety, urgent or otherwise — that practice has been thrown out.

How's it feel, libs, to have regulatory power used against one of your sacred institutions?  I'm not a big fan of excessive regulation, but as long as liberals have no problem with it, why should we?

Brits Get The Vapors Over a Fake Gun in a Music Video

Geez:

Britney Spears has drawn ire from British officials after brandishing a fake gun in a music video shoot near London. Local politicians want an apology from the pop star for “promoting gun violence,” reports MTV.

What a bunch of wimps the Brits have become.  Good thing these people weren't around in 1940 or they'd all be speaking German.

Coke Would Rather Sell in China or Brazil

Because America has become a difficult place to do business (from the US Chamber of Commerce):

Today, the Financial Times featured a great article demonstrating the challenges American worldwide companies face as they try and compete in a global economy. In it, Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola’s chief executive, states that the United States, as a result of political gridlock and an antiquated tax structure, places like China and Brazil have become an easier and more attractive place to do business.

As Mr. Kent notes, “I believe the US owes itself to create a 21st century tax policy for individuals as well as businesses…If you talk about an American company doing business in the world today with its Chinese, Russian, European or Japanese counterparts, of course we’re disadvantaged. A Chinese or Swiss company can do whatever it wants with those funds [earned overseas]. When we want to bring them back, we are faced with a very large tax burden.”

Doesn't anybody at the White House realize we're killing our own businesses?

Democrats Can't "PASS THE BILL!!" Because No Democrat Will Put His Name on It

For those who never watched Schoolhouse Rock, the president cannot submit legislation on his own to the House.  A member must put their name on it and introduce it as his or her bill.  So far, no Democrats are willing to do that with Obama's jobs bill (from Daily Caller):

Where's the bill? -- Just a couple of days after Hoffa's historic speech, Obama commanded Congress to pass his phony-baloney "jobs bill." And, as he told them repeatedly, they needed to do it "right now." Except at that point there was no actual bill, in terms of a physical object made of paper and ink, as is customary. Details, details. So, how is Congress doing with that whole thing? TheDC's Nicholas Ballasy reports: "Republican Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma told The Daily Caller on Friday that no House Democrat wants to put his or her name behind President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan, a necessary step before the legislation can be introduced for consideration. He also claimed the bill would not lower the current 9.1 percent unemployment rate. 'The focus right now from him [Obama] is "pass my whole bill, pass my whole bill," [and] some of the struggle with that is no Democrat in the House has even taken his bill and filed it yet. So we can't even pass the bill because no one wants to put their name on it and say, "this is my bill" and file it in the House,' said Lankford in a September 23 interview at the U.S. Capitol." Gee, it's almost like Obama requested a joint session of Congress so he could make a big show of being purposely deceitful, playing games with American jobs in a desperate attempt to gain leverage over his political opponents. Four more years!

If this is ever introduced they won't be able to call it the "American Jobs Act" because that name was taken by a Republican congressman when Obama's bill never showed up.

Oh, and Harry Reid wants to go on vacation first so the Senate won't be looking at it either.  With friends like that Obama doesn't need GOP enemies.

Most Corporate Leaders Are Economic Heroes, Not Evil Bad Guys

A wealthy Washington businessman pleads with Obama to knock off the class warfare:

Economic Success has somehow become the new boogie man; some in the Democratic party are now casting about for enemies and business leaders and anyone who has achieved success in terms of rank or fiscal success is being cast as a bad guy in a black hat. This is counter to the American Dream and is really turning off so many people that love American and basically carry our country on their back by paying taxes and by employing people and creating GDP.

This is a bad move all designed by some pollster who said this is the way to get votes during the re-election. It should be stopped. We should be healing and creating teams NOT dividing and pitting people against one another.

I know the President isn’t speaking to me specifically when he talks but many times I hear stuff and I cringe personally. As a friend told me the other day who lives in China, “Every time your President talks of late, it costs us billions in market cap and in confidence in your country and your economy.” Why do we devalue success in the US when the rest of the world is trying to emulate what we have created as an economic system?

So for fun: I take the Acela train to Philly and NYC all of the time. Alone - no traveling companions to prep me. I have never seen our President on the train, have you? I own 50 hours on NetJets for the rare occasion I do travel by private plane. Does Air Force One charter out? Stop making private planes an issue. This is a tiny issue for us to deal with for our country.

I do have a nice home with a house keeper. I have only one home. I bet there is more staff at the White House though? And Camp David. What kind of real estate tax is the White House paying? Nice jewelry here. Click away. Stop it. Upgrade the discourse.

With my investments and board seats and companies that I own, I am at a leadership position in concerns that employ more than 200,000 people. We do our best to be good corporate citizens. I know in the companies that I own personally or am the largest shareholder that we support now more than 500 charities. We care. Pick some business leaders that you work with and make them heroes. Don’t demonize them. Showcase them as great Americans that care and hire and employ people. Employment is the biggest issue you will face when re-election comes. If people aren’t working, they will blame you and your administration. And since you have never worked before in a real job for a real company, you need help from people who have been there. Don’t push them away!

So, with access to private jets and great wealth in multiple corporations, this guy is obviously an evil Republican who just wants to squash the little guy. Uh, no:

I voted for our President. I have maxed out on personal donations to his re-election campaign. I forgot his campaign wants to raise $1 billion. THAT is a lot of money–money–money–money! Money still talks. It blows my mind when I am asked for money as a donation at the same time I am getting blasted as being a bad guy!

Someone needs to talk our President down off of this rhetoric about good vs. evil; about two classes and math.

What amazes me is that a smart guy like Ted Leonsis can continue to support Obama even though its clear Obama doesn't know what he's talking about and is completely incompetent in the job. This guy wouldn't tolerate that level of incompetence from any of his employees, and yet he's willing to return him to the White House for another four years.

Love is blind.

Obamacare Heads to the Supreme Court

We knew it was going there all along:

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

The move puts the Supreme Court in the difficult position of having to decide whether to take the highly politically charged case in the middle of the presidential election.

The Justice Department is expected to ask the court to overturn an August decision by a panel of three judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law’s requirement to buy insurance is unconstitutional. The suit was brought by 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and several individuals.

Since the ruling, the Justice Department had until Monday to ask the entire 11th Circuit to review the case. Administration lawyers didn’t file the paperwork by the 5 p.m. deadline, so the ruling would stand unless the Justice Department asks the Supreme Court to step in.

Drudge Report had an interesting photo accompanying the story, a shot of Obama and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor used to work for Obama and helped write the legal strategy that was to be used for the inevitable court challenges. There's no question that Sotomayor should recuse herself from this case, but she probably won't. Liberals don't have those kinds of scruples.

Before his unfortunately Weiner-tweeting escapade, former Rep. Anthony Weiner was insisting that Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself because his wife has been an activist opposing Obamacare.  Not the same at all as Sotomayor's situation, and Thomas isn't going anywhere.

I don't think there's much doubt at all that the individual mandate will be struck down (unless Justice Kennedy is having a particularly liberal day), so the real question will be if the mandate can be severed from the rest of the bill.  There was no severability clause included in the bill, so if the Supremes rule on the law as written, the whole thing should be trashed.

And that decision could come right in the middle of the campaign.

UPDATE:  Just another thought, the Supreme Court could refuse to take the case, and if that happened, the lower court ruling would stand and Obamacare would be declared unconstitutional.  I'm sure they'll take it since there are several cases working through the courts and they'll want to consolidate all of them, but it would be something if they just let the 11th Circuit decision stand.

UPDATE 2:  Some Obama partisans are shocked he didn't insist on a full hearing before the 11th Circuit which would have delayed the case possibly into 2013.  Steven Stromberg thinks he knows why they didn't:

If the goal is preservation of the policy at all costs, Justice's decision has at least one attraction. Pretend Justice had asked the 11th Circuit to reconsider and the appeals court took its time, pushing Supreme Court review into 2013. If Obama then lost his reelection bid, it could have fallen to new a new Justice Department to defend the statute -- one led by an attorney general appointed by a GOP president committed to unraveling the health-care law in every way he or she knows how. That hypothetical Republican administration could have decided to do what the Obama Justice Department did with the Defense of Marriage Act -- offer no defense of the law at all.


So, Obama partisans, you must consider at least two, possibly mixed results -- a politically risky legal battle on the individual mandate in the middle of a presidential campaign, and added insurance that Obama administration lawyers will see the case through its final appeal. Your satisfaction depends on how much you care about the health-care law, how you think the Supreme Court will rule -- and how likely you think Obama's reelection is.

We had a similar situation here in California regarding Proposition 8. Even thought it was passed by the voters quite handily, neither Gov. Schwarzenegger nor Gov. Brown elected to defend it in court leaving the voters without someone to defend their decision.

Political Quote of the Day

From an Obama voter interviewed on KABC7, when asked about the traffic disruptions that will be caused by Obama's visit to Los Angeles this afternoon:

"I'm honored that he's even touching the surface of Los Angeles, West Hollywood. I love Obama".

Stay away from the Kool-Aid, lady.

Mad Maxine Waters is Mad at Obama

Tough love:

Rep. Maxine Waters says she's not sure who President Barack Obama was talking to when he told black Americans to quit complaining and follow him into the battle for jobs and opportunity.

The California Democrat, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says she found the president's language "a bit curious." She says Obama didn't address Hispanics in such a blunt manner and would never use that language in a speech to a gathering of gays or Jews.

Interviewed Monday on CBS' "Early Show," Waters said black Americans fully support Obama and are working to promote his agenda. She says African-Americans want voters to be enthusiastic about Obama in 2012.

In Saturday's fiery speech to the caucus, Obama told blacks to "put on your marching shoes" and "stop grumbling.'"

Obama reverted to his community organizer past when he said "put on your marching shoes". That's the only thing community organizers really know how to do - tell people to march for or against something. And, with rare exception, marches accomplish absolutely nothing.

Just like Obama.

Gospel Singer Jessy Dixon Dies at 73

I'm very sorry to hear this:

He was full of energy as a performer and a successful singer and songwriter. Jessy Dixon, who introduced his spirited style of gospel music to wider audiences by serving as pop singer Paul Simon's opening act, died Monday. He was 73.

Miriam Dixon said her brother died Monday morning at his Chicago home. She said he had been sick but declined to provide additional details.

During a more than 50-year career, Dixon wrote songs for several popular singers, including jazz and rhythm and blues singer Randy Crawford. He later wrote songs performed by Cher, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant.

But it was for his gospel singing - religious music that combined the rhythmic beat of blues, jazz and soul - that Dixon first gained attention. It was during an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 with his Jessy Dixon Singers that Dixon first came to Simon's attention. For the next eight years, Dixon toured with the pop icon, collaborating on Simon's "Live Rhymin' Simon" and "Still Crazy" albums.

Dixon also played keyboard with Earth Wind and Fire and guitarist Phillip Upchurch.

For the past 20 years or so Dixon has been best known as an artist regularly featured on the Gaither Homecoming videos and concerts, but the first time I saw him was in the late-70's as a guest artist at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim. He was brought in as a guest on a couple of the big musicals we did back then.

Very talented guy - he'll be missed.

One of my favorite songs of his was "Wait 'Til You See My Brand New Home".  Well, he's seeing it now and I hope it's everything he sang about.

A Campaign of Distractions

Issues are a problem for Democrats, and that's why it's important for voters to be distracted:

If the 2012 election is run on the issues, the GOP will win in a landslide. The Left’s strategy for avoiding this outcome is to create as many distractions as possible. We saw it first with the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party poses a serious threat to liberalism. It is the most authentic grass-roots political movement of the last half-century, and its emphasis on limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual freedom resonates with most Americans. The last thing the Left wants to do is debate limited government and fiscal responsibility, so instead it resorted to demonization, with the absurd claim that the Tea Party is racist. False though it was, the smear campaign probably influenced some unsophisticated voters.

Now the Republican presidential race is taking shape, and again voters are hearing themes that appeal to most Americans; not only that, they are seeing candidates who, in most cases, know how to make sense without a teleprompter. That will never do. So, once again, the Left is resorting to distraction–anything to make the news cycle focus on something other than the message of the Republican candidates.

Read the rest of it here.  And remember it every time the press asks a Republican candidate about creationism, Gardisil, prayer in school, global warming, or anything else that doesn't really matter right now.  GOP candidates must stick to what's important, and that's jobs and the economy.

There's Now a Petition to Repeal Obamacare...on the White House Website

The Community Organizer-in-Chief offers many tools via the White House website for his activist minions to use to stir up the local populace.  One of those is the ability to create a petition, so somebody took the opportunity to create a petition to repeal Obamacare right there on the White House website.  Check it out at Gateway Pundit.

The Gaffes That Shall Not Be Mentioned

The president is a gaffe machine, and yet you don't see Saturday Night Live doing any skits about him.  He's said some incredibly dumb things that would have gotten any Republican roasted, but gets a pass on all of it (from Daily Caller):

Obama reaches out to Jewish voters, delivers slap -- President Dum-Dum keeps getting it wrong. TheDC's Jamie Weinstein reports: "Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus annual awards dinner in Washington Saturday night, President Obama made a verbal boo-boo. While defending his call for the rich to pay more in taxes, the president said he didn't mind people calling him a class warrior for merely asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew. Whoops! The president meant to say 'janitor' instead of 'Jew,' and he immediately corrected himself. After all, he doesn't need any more problems keeping Jewish voters enthusiastic about his re-election bid." Well, maybe he's trying to win back Al Sharpton. Obama's been making a lot of gaffes lately, hasn't he? Last week he talked about the building of the"intercontinental railroad," and he thought he was supposed to wave to all his fans during a group picture of world leaders at the UN. Before that, he said Lincoln founded the Republican Party, there are 57 states, the Navy has "corpse-men," etc., etc. These screw-ups are all isolated incidents and don't indicate stupidity and incompetence, though, because Obama's not a Republican.

Even if SNL did a skit nobody in their viewing audience would get the jokes because these gaffes never get reported by the mainstream press. They don't want to hurt the Anointed One.

Political Headline of the Day

From Drudge:

Cain calls Obama's rhetoric 'bull****'...

I have to correct Herman Cain - Obama's rhetoric is actually Unicorn****.

Dem Treasurer Cripples Her Own Party

Some call it embezzlement, but I prefer to think of her as doing the Lord's work:

A suspected embezzlement scheme that has ensnared hundreds of campaign accounts of Democrats has sent candidates scrambling for new cash as they prepare for an election season that could reshape California's political landscape.

Just when they need to start hiring staff and commissioning polls, many candidates have no idea how much might have been taken from them or how much they have left, and they cannot find out: As many as 400 political accounts have been frozen by the banks holding the funds since the Sept. 2 arrest of treasurer Kinde Durkee.

She controlled funds for numerous politicians, predominantly Democrats, and it could be years before litigation sorts out who is owed what.

"It couldn't happen at a worse time," said Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach), who is expected to face Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) in a tough June primary in a newly drawn district. "I hope for my sake, and for all of my colleagues, that we're able to recoup the funds."

More than a dozen state and federal candidates in next year's election have had funds frozen. Scores of others who have not announced their plans or will not be on the 2012 ballot also employed Durkee, which complicates their efforts to promote themselves now by, for example, spending money to raise funds for future races.

Party officials may not be able to provide their usual help. The Los Angeles County Democratic Party lost $220,000 to Durkee and has $85,000 more stuck in related legal limbo. Durkee also handled the finances of numerous smaller Democratic clubs that provide campaign foot soldiers and are now scrambling to meet payroll.

How long until somebody on the left accuses her of being a secret Tea Party member?

Some of these candidates are now asking the election authorities to allow people who have already maxed out their contributions to be able to give again since this money has turned up missing.  They'll probably get it too, since in California just about everything is run by Democrats.

But, if you were a contributor who had given a bunch to Dems and then found out one of their own stole it, would you want to contributed again?  We know the candidates will steal your money once they're in office, but this is a whole new level of theft.

How to Increase Stock Prices and Improve the Economy

Throw out the Democrats.  From Don Surber:

When Republicans took over the House for the first time in 40 years on January 3, 1995, the Dow stood at 3,838.48.

When they relinquished control of Congress on January 3, 2007, the Dow stood at 12,474.52.

The Dow tripled.

Unemployment was 5.6% in January 1995.

Unemployment was 4.6% in January 2007.

Unemployment fell by a full point.

The National Debt on January 3, 1995, was $4,798,116,945,333.39.

The National Debt on January 3, 2007, was $8,677,214,255,313.07.

The debt rose $4 trillion in 12 years.

In the 4 years, 8 months since then, the Dow has fallen, unemployment doubled and the national debt rose by $6 trillion.

What the devil does Barack Obama mean by the Republican “approach to government that will fundamentally cripple America in meeting the challenges of the 21st century. And that’s not the kind of society that I want to leave to Malia and Sasha.”

How can things be any worse than things have gotten under the Reid-Obama-Pelosi regime?

Wake up, America. Rainbows and unicorns got you nothing.

Anti-Palin Books Do About As Well As Anti-Iraq War Movies

El stinko:

Despite massive publicity, two new books chronicling the Sarah Palin soap opera -- The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin by veteran political writer Joe McGinnis and Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs by Bristol Palin baby daddy Levi Johnston -- have gotten a lukewarm response from the buying public since their release on Tuesday. Hard sales numbers will not be available for a week but the rankings on Amazon and Barnes & Noble provide a good indication of consumer interest. The Rogue is ranked in the fifties on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Deer in the Headlights is hovering in the seven hundreds on Amazon and in the two hundreds on Barnes & Noble. Both books had weak pre-sale numbers as well with The Rogue in the high hundreds and Deer in the Headlights in the high thousands.

None of this means there's massive support for Sarah Palin out there, though when Palin's own book came out it was at the top of book sales lists and had people lining up to get it...especially if she was there to sign them. It could be that the Palin-mania days are over and the lack of interest in the new books means there's a lot of "meh" out there about her.

It appears that although she has very vocal opposition, they're not willing to part with their dollars to read books by her detractors.

Enjoy Your Traffic Jam, L.A., Brought To You By Barack Obama's Re-Election Campaign

Air Force One will be flying into Los Angeles at 4:40 pm this afternoon, right at the peak of evening rush hour, to bring Obama to a couple more fundraisers for his re-election campaign.  With plans to go to the Hollywood area, traffic in that part of the city will be a nightmare.

Enjoy it, L.A.!  Most of you voted for him...and will probably do it again next year.

The Affirmative Action Bake Sale

I love it when campus Republicans get creative like this:

Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have cooked up a storm of controversy with their plans for a bake sale.

But it's not your everyday collegiate fundraiser they've got in mind. They've developed a sliding scale where the price of the cookie or brownie depends on your gender and the color of your skin.

During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2.00, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1.00, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.

"The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset," Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis, who planned the event, told CNN-affiliate KGO. "But it's really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions."

Lewis says it's a way to make a statement about pending legislation that would let the California universities consider race or national origin during the admission process.

Of course, the tolerant and peaceful lefties reacted as they always do:

But the young Republicans have been on the receiving end of a fierce backlash. Reaction has been so negative they've been forced to cancel their customary lunchtime tabling duties, according to KGO.

Lewis told CNN's Don Lemon that they expected a certain amount of opposition but not the level of outrage they experienced.

"We didn't expect the volume, the amount of response that we got," Lewis said. "In the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our Facebook page. And the tone of some of the responses -- we expected people to be upset. We didn't expect personal threats to be made. They were implicit and explicit threats made to the organizers of the event, from burning down the table to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats."

Heh. They clearly hit the target. The left always screams like a stuck pig when you hit them where it hurts.

Obama Asks Racist Organization to Treat Him Like God

The Congressional Black Caucus is a racist organization.  Its membership is restricted by race, and certainly no Congressional White Caucus would ever be allowed and anyone suggesting one would be chased out of Congress.  But if you can't have a White one, you can't have a Black one.  The CBC needs to end.

However, it still exists and yesterday Obama spoke to a CBC event and basically asked them to treat his policies as though they'd been handed down on stone tablets (from Beltway Confidential):

President Obama made an appeal to the religious faith of black voters at a Congressional Black Caucus rally, likening Biblical prophets who had faith in God -- and so refused to worship an idol -- to the black voters who "keep the faith" by supporting him and his policies - and, he hopes, his reelection campaign. Obama opened the speech by mentioning the Biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three captive Jews who were thrown into a fiery furnace because they would not worship a golden idol. Obama quoted a pastor who referred to the three men as "good crazy" for having that faith. He added that the pastor had attributed the same "good crazy" to him when he decided to run for president. Obama continued that analogy, equating the Jews' "faith in the things not seen" to the more mundane "belief that if you persevere a better day lies ahead." Obama added, "you and me, we're all a little bit crazy, but hopefully a good kind of crazy...We’re a good kind of crazy because no matter how hard things get, we keep the faith; we keep fighting; we keep moving forward." Obama then explained how he had "kept the faith" through various acts as president -- by responding to the economic crisis with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulations bill, through certain tax credits he had passed and through Obamacare. He finished with a plug for the American Jobs Act. "It’s never easy," Obama concluded, "and I never promised easy. Easy has never been promised to us. But we’ve had faith. We had that good kind of crazy that says you can't stop marching." Obama then promised to "press on" for "jobs" and "equality" and "struggling families," before finally telling the CBC to "march with me and press on." The only "kind of crazy" on display in this speech is the one that says faith in Obama's policies is kind of like faith in God.

He's a false prophet.