Obvious: Kyl Says All Democrats Want are Huge Tax Increases

It goes without saying. The lifeblood of the left is more and more of your money so they can pay for more and more government programs you don't want.

Republicans have tried to work with Democrats to solve the debt crisis, but "behind the scenes" Democrats insisted on huge tax increases, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz) said Saturday.

"Unfortunately, after weeks of negotiations, it became clear that Democrats in Washington did not view this crisis as an opportunity to rein in spending," Kyl said in the GOP's weekly address. "Instead, they saw it as an opportunity to impose huge tax increases on American families and small businesses."

They're addicts and quite obviously won't be going into spending rehab any time soon.

Scientist Warns Facebook and Twitter Are Creating Self-Obsessed People With Child-Like Need for Attention

Look at me!

On a day when the boob in the White House decided spamming Twitter was a good idea we see this rather timely story.

Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives, a top scientist believes.

Could you find a more clinical description of Obama than that?

Obama Sinks to 40% in Gallup Poll

He's lucky to be where he is. If he didn't have the lamestream media propping him up he'd likely be around 15% by now.

President Obama's approval rating has hit an all-time low of 40% in the Gallup daily tracking poll.

His disapproval rating is up to 50%, the poll says.

I recall when Bush went below 40% the reaction was a sustained media orgasm. Let's see if they get all tingly over these numbers.

Pathetically, The Man Without a Plan is reduced to sending Twitter spam today. Real cutting-edge social media savvy there, champ.

Update: More of the details now up at Gallup.

Obama's approval rating averaged 46% in June and was near that level for most of July; however, it has stumbled in the past few days, coinciding with intensification of the debt ceiling/budget battle in Washington.

I guess having no plan and acting like a baby is having an effect.

Deranged Chavez Plans to Stay in Office Until 2031

Considering he'll probably soon be dead, this ought to be quite a feat.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and said he intends to stay in power for two more decades as he celebrated his 57th birthday looking ahead to months of cancer treatment.

Chavez rallied a crowd of cheering supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace on Thursday, waving a large Venezuelan flag and briefly wrapping himself in it. He said he expects to lose his hair soon as a result of chemotherapy and that a long process of treatment lies ahead.

"This is going to be various months all of this year, but I'm going to continue in charge of my government functions," Chavez said.

He mixed serious statements about his upcoming treatment with the ecstatic rallying cries of a leader already in pre-campaign mode ahead of elections to be held in late 2012.

"Next year, we will win the presidential elections once again! Strength, unity!" Chavez said. Setting a goal he has never before reached, he said: "We're going for 10 million votes next year!"

The crowd chanted: "Oh, no! Chavez won't go!"

Chavez sang and danced briefly with one his daughters on the balcony while a band below played folk music. He saluted to the crowd and blew kisses, standing next to three grandchildren.

His supporters sang while sparkling candles burned atop a giant birthday cake.

"I invite you all to celebrate my 77th," Chavez said. "I had said I'd leave in 2021. Well, I'm not going away in 2021 or anything. Maybe in 2031."

Antiwar Group Raised Money for Ft. Hood Terror Plotter

Imagine if this guy was one of those radical "Christian terrorists" the far left has been freaking out over.

An antiwar group calling itself Courage to Resist started a legal defense fund for Pfc. Naser Abdo, the Muslim soldier arrested Wednesday who reportedly admitted planning to launch a terror attack on Fort Hood’s army base, KleinOnline has learned.

The organization last year also featured Abdo in its newsletter, branding him a “Muslim peacemaker.”

Less than a year after the Fort Hood shooting massacre by Muslim U.S. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan, Abdo was caught this week with a bomb in a backpack and weapons stashed in a motel room meant for another attack at the same army base.

Yesterday, RawStory.com reported Abdo has ties to a number of antiwar organizations, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist.

Both groups supported Abdo’s petition for conscientious objector status, which he was eventually granted after he wrote in an application that he was conflicted about “whether going to war was the right thing to do Islamically.”

KleinOnline has learned that Courage to Resist initiated a legal defense fund for Abdo’s conscientious objector petition. The fund is still available online.

In its December 2010 newsletter, Courage to Resist promoted Abdo as a “Muslim Peacemaker.”

The group wrote an item on Abdo entitled, “The missing story of a Muslim peacemaker.”

Stated the newsletter: “The problem is that almost the only time Muslims are featured in the media is when a Muslim engages in an act of violence. A one-sided focus on violence committed by some Muslims fuels the racist narrative that “Islam is a religion of violence”— which underwrites the so-called “Global War on Terror.”

Oops.

'It Was Like Walking Into Hell'

George W. Bush explains what was going through his mind as he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.

He said: 'My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children.'

Bush was sitting with a group of children who were reading aloud when he said he saw reporters at the back of the room getting the news on their cellphones, which he described as like 'watching a silent movie'.

Then his chief of staff Andy Card walked behind him and whispered in his ear: 'A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack.'

He said he realized a lot of people beyond that classroom would be watching for his reaction.

'So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm,' he said.

A sense of calm. Unlike his successor, who uses every "crisis" he can find to instill panic in the public.

He goes on to describe his most iconic moment in the aftermath.

In the hour-long interview, which will be broadcast on August 28 as part of a week of programmes on the cable network that mark the tenth anniversary of the attacks, Bush also said that visiting the site was like walking into hell.

He said: 'From the air it looked like a giant scar. But when I actually got to the site, it was like walking into hell.

Liberalism Explained

The science is settled.

THE human brain creates its own version of reality, and the world we see around us is mostly make-believe, according to a top British scientist.

Professor Bruce Hood will explore the limits of the human mind in a series of prestigious lectures for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest independent research body in the world, it was announced yesterday.

The psychologist plans to induce false memories in audience members and use pickpockets to demonstrate how easily people are distracted, in a bid to prove how we have less control over our own decisions and perceptions than we like to imagine.

"A lot of the world is make-believe. We're only aware of a fraction of what's going on," Hood told The (London) Times. "We have this impression of an expansive panorama in front of our eyes, but all we are ever seeing is an area the size of our thumbs at an arm's distance. The rest is filled in, as the brain creates a stable environment."

This is what makes people believe they can save the planet.

Czechs Want to Ban Communist Party

If they're successful, perhaps we can move to ban the Democrat Party. Why? They have so much in common.

The party, which is vehemently opposed to NATO, brands opponents "terrorists" and maintains friendly ties with the ruling Communists in Cuba, China and North Korea.

Hmmm. Labeling opponents as terrorists? Sounds so familiar.

Unexpected: GDP at 1.3%

How bad is this moribund Obama economy? The so-called experts predicted a dreary 1.6% GDP growth for the second quarter. It's even worse than that.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.3% annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said, after a downwardly revised 0.4% gain in the January-March quarter. Economists had forecast GDP growing at a 1.6% rate in the second quarter from a previously estimated 1.9% rate in the first quarter. This was the weakest six months period since the recovery began in the second quarter of 2009. Growth in the second quarter was held down by weak consumer spending, which only expanded at a 0.1% rate. State and local government spending was also weak in the quarter.

So we went from an estimated 1.9% to 1.6% to now 1.3%. Expect that to be quietly downwardly revised in a couple of months, just like last quarter.

Well, at least something went up. Obama will probably consider this an accomplishment.

Inflation, as measured by the core personal consumption expenditure index, rose 2.1% in the second quarter, the fastest pace since the fourth quarter of 2009.

It's all so unexpected.

The U.S. economy expanded at a slower pace than expected in the spring as consumers cut back on spending, while revisions showed the slowdown since the beginning of the year was much more drastic than previously thought.

Latest Lame Democrat Talking Point: Debt Debate Will Ruin Christmas or Something

They've got today's marching orders and are running hard with it.

On MSNBC this morning, top Obama adviser David Plouffe made a similar claim, pointing out that the Boehner plan would ensure that “this whole debt ceiling spectacle” will be “repeated again a few months from now over the holidays.”

“The debt ceiling debate would ruin Christmas,” Plouffe said. He was apparently ad-libbing the line, but now it’s found its way into the White House’s official talking points.

Oh noes! John Boehner's the new Grinch!

The Boehner plan would require "all of us to go through this again before the end of the year, in the most important economic season in the country," Carney said. "At a time when people don't want to worry about whether or not their interest rates are going to go up, their mortgage payments and their car payments and their student loan bills, and their credit card payments, especially as they're buying gifts for the holidays."

Of course nobody will be buying anything since we'll be in the midst of a 500-day recession.

It's funny, though. Democrats didn't have any compunction about ruining Christmas when it came to voting for ObamaCare. So it's OK to interrupt the holidays to pass a trillion-dollar boondoggle, but finding time around the holidays to save the country from financial ruin is forbidden.

Glad at least to see the Democrats being consistent.

Chris Christie Hospitalized With Breathing Troubles

Well, this isn't a good sign.

Gov. Chris Christie has been hospitalized at Somerset Medical Center, according to his office.

He was having difficulty breathing and was taken "out of an abundance of caution," said spokesman Michael Drewniak.

Drewniak said he has asthma and is "doing fine" and having more testing.

No doubt the compassionate left will be sending their good wishes.

AWOL Muslim Arrested: Suspect In Planned Terror Attack at Ft. Hood

Fox News broke a story earlier about a possible planned terrorist attack on Ft. Hood and in the early reporting they stated that three people were under arrest but were withholding the names. Well, the first name has come out and to nobody's surprise he is a Muslim, but he is also a soldier with a long track record in the public eye.



In addition to the CNN report above he also gave interviews to Al-Jazeera and anybody else wishing to listen to this pathetic loser's sob story.

Back in 2010, after serving for over an year, and upon his unit at Ft. Campbell receiving deployment orders to Afghanistan, he got in touch with his inner Muslim and decided to apply for Conscientious Objector status based upon Islam being such a peaceful religion and all. These sort of claims always crack me up, and in this guy's case even more so. You see, the guy is in the Infantry, which are the bomb dodgers, bullet catchers, baby makers and widow makers of the Army. This can be gleaned from the HLN video attached by the blue rope around his right soldier. Only Infantry soldiers are allowed to wear it.

I should know, I wore one for 22 years. I would have thought in a post-9/11 world with the US Military engaged in two active wars in Muslim countries that somewhere during his 15 weeks of training at Ft. Benning that he just might have got a clue that he could be called upon to fight in one of these wars.

Well, anyway, while his CO status case was going through the process he decided to go AWOL and apparently fled to the Ft. Hood area, where he found a sympathetic band of losers who operate a coffee shop just outside the main gate and assist AWOL soldiers in hiding out and provide legal assistance to them. Meanwhile, back at Ft. Campbell, investigators who were going through his computer found some kiddie porn, which of course is perfectly acceptable in the Muslim faith, seeing as their great leader was a pedophile himself.

We will have to see how this story plays out over the next hours and days, and keep in mind there are still two more soldiers who have been arrested in this alleged plot.

UPDATE: Reuters now reports that the FBI say he was arrested with bomb making material.

A missing U.S. Army soldier is expected to face federal charges on Thursday after he was arrested with "bomb-making material" in his hotel room near Fort Hood, Texas, a local FBI agent said.

Obama's America: A Rising Hunger Among Children

Well, hopefully those apple slices in Happy Meals will help these children suffering from malnutrition during this glorious Age of Obama.

Of course you know what this will call for: Another government program to combat hunger.

Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin young children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families.

Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems.

Before the economy soured in 2007, 12 percent of youngsters age 3 and under whose families were randomly surveyed in the hospital’s emergency department were significantly underweight. In 2010, that percentage jumped to 18 percent, and the tide does not appear to be abating, said Dr. Megan Sandel, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health at BMC.

“Food is costing more, and dollars don’t stretch as far,’’ Sandel said. “It’s hard to maintain a diet that is healthy.’’

Of course we shouldn't take the parents to task here. That would be judgmental.

Oh No! Arctic Scientist Under Investigation

Remember all that nonsense about polar bears disappearing, even though their numbers kept growing? Yeah, about that.

A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending results of an investigation into "integrity issues." But he has not yet been informed by the inspector general's office of specific charges or questions related to the scientific integrity of his work, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

H/T.

Another scam bites the dust.

In the peer-reviewed article, the researchers said they were reporting, to the best of their knowledge, the first observations of polar bears floating dead offshore and presumed drowned while apparently swimming long distances in open water. Polar bears are considered strong swimmers, they wrote, but long-distance swims may exact a greater metabolic toll than standing or walking on ice in better weather.

They said their observations suggested the bears drowned in rough seas and high winds and "suggest that drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues."

The article and presentations drew national attention and helped make the polar bear something of a poster child for the global warming movement. Al Gore's mention of the polar bear in his documentary on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," came up during investigators' questioning of Gleason in January.

These people should be brought up on charges.

Kandahar Mayor Killed By Suicide Turban

So if a TSA agent pats down a turban, is that Islamophobia?

He liked to cast himself as one of the few honest men in Kandahar, a plucky troublemaker not afraid to stick a finger in the eye of authority or vested interests.

And in the end, those traits might have contributed to the brutal death of Ghulam Haider Hamidi, the outspoken mayor of Kandahar city.

He had survived previous attempts to kill him, but a suicide bomber with explosives concealed in his turban assassinated Hamidi on Wednesday.

Hamidi, 65, was the third high-ranking official in the volatile southern Afghan province to be murdered this year. The president's half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, and the provincial police chief, Gen. Khan Mohammad Mujahid, were killed earlier.

Tim Blair reminds us of the obvious, lest we be accused of bigotry by our peace-loving friends. Someone's head might explode.

Until we know otherwise, it’s probably safest to assume that this fellow is a Norwegian Christian.

Acclaimed Polar Bear Researcher Has "Integrity Issues"

Who'd have thunk it? The guy who wrote up the report of dead polar polar bears in the water that was cited extensively by Al Gore and used by enviro wackos everywhere to pressure the planet to panic over global warming seems to have some integrity issues.

A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending results of an investigation into "integrity issues."

There was another scientist that accompanied Monnett on the study which was conducted in 2004 named Gleason. While he doesn't dispute the 4 dead polar bears he does dispute the cause.

According to a transcript, investigator Eric May asked Gleason his thoughts on Gore referencing the dead polar bears. Gleason said none of the polar bear papers he has written or co-authored has said "anything really" about global warming.

"It's something along the lines of the changing environment in the Arctic," he said.

Gleason said others put their own spin on research or observations.

Yes folks, four dead polar bears is all it takes for environmental zealots to shut down all the energy production in this country. Well that and some little guppies and lizards.

Bloomberg's Ramadan Greeting: 'Shalom Alaikum'

This twerp ought to know that when you're pandering to a select audience, at least greet them properly.

Mayor Bloomberg practiced his version of verbal jujitsu Wednesday, mangling a greeting to Muslim leaders at a Ramadan gathering with "shalom alaikum."

Hizzoner was shooting for "salaam alaikum" - the traditional Arabic "peace to you" greeting.

"He just got a little confused," one witness said.

What a dope.

The mayor frequently butchers names and words, and he often ends each press announcement with a cringeworthy pronunciation in Spanish.

His famous malapropisms include saying he "recluses" himself from decisions concerning city business that might create a conflict of interest with his company - instead of recuse.

And he routinely botches the names of celebrities and local politicians.

He once took heat for calling singer Shania Twain "SHA-na-ga Twain" and referred to country crooner Tim McGraw as "Tom McGraw."

The latest gaffe came in front of several hundred Muslim and community leaders at a Ramadan conference at Police Headquarters in Manhattan.

Where Was the Compromise on ObamaCare?

You almost have to admire the Democrats for their shameless ability to lie directly to the people with impunity. In the current debt crisis they've created they sit there doing nothing but call people names and demand Republicans keep moving in their direction. The strategy is simple: Divide the Republicans and then claim victory for themselves and Obama. It's all about 2012.

Well, if the Republicans ever grow a backbone and throw it back in their faces, they can start with Obama's failed trillion-dollar stimulus as well as ObamaCare. Both were shoved down the throats of the American people with zero GOP support. There was no compromise, no negotiating, nothing. Obama declared "I won" and that was that.

So if we want to save trillions in future spending, let's start big: Repeal ObamaCare.

One of the main reasons for enacting Obamacare was to bring down health care costs - so said the President, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But since its passage, the sweeping overhaul of one-sixth of our economy has done just the opposite. If you think the debt debate on Capitol Hill has revealed that this nation is on the road to fiscal ruin, just wait until health care reform really kicks in.

The Congressional Budget Office will tell you that we will save $143 billion between 2010 and 2019, but its assumptions were flawed from the start. Doing a close analysis of the budget office scoring, Kathryn Nix of the Heritage Foundation concludes that Obamacare "indisputably represents a massive new burden on current taxpayers and future generations."

Those costs are evident already. "Health care costs are expected to increase by 8.5% in 2012 - slightly up from this year's increase of 8%, according to the annual 'Behind the Numbers' report on medical costs recently released by [PricewaterhouseCoopers'] Health Research Institute," says the online publication Small Business Trends.

We're already facing a financial calamity thanks to runaway spending. And if you think things are bleak now, wait until we're crushed under the weight of ObamaCare.

According to a Washington Post Op-Ed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, "If half of the 180 million workers who enjoy employer-provided care wind up in the exchanges, the annual cost of Obamacare would increase by $400 billion by 2021. If the other half eventually follows suit, and all American employees wind up in the exchanges - which we believe is a goal of Obamacare - then the annual cost of the exchanges would increase by more than $800 billion."

That means that far too much of the private-sector health care balance sheet would be transferred over to taxpayers to foot the tab. Over 10 years, the costs would be in the trillions.

Wasn't the whole point of Obamacare to bring costs down - and not break the back of the federal budget?

That's why it must be repealed. The debt fight in Washington will be small potatoes today when you think about what it will be after health care reform goes into full effect. But by then, Obama will conveniently be out of office, and we'll be stuck with the bill.

By then this country will lie in ruins.

Which seems like the plan all along. Obama's has no plans to offer anyone during the debt crisis. His plan, passed without any Republican, is already leading us toward the abyss. Whoever wins the GOP nod for 2012 better make that abundantly clear.

The Adult in the Room

Enjoy this clip from Wednesday night's Greta on FNC. Here's Paul Ryan, armed with nothing but facts. Note the absence of name-calling, the childish buffoonery and outlandish idiocy.

Is it any wonder the demonic left trashes Ryan whenever they can? They cannot compete intellectually, they cannot refute him on the facts. Therefore, he must be destroyed. That's how they roll.

Watching him debate the Manchild from 1600 would be sheer joy.

Who Needs Alan Grayson When We Have Al Franken?

Shameless demagoguery, about as subtle as a sledgehammer.



Hat tip: Breitbart. Cross-posted.

Environmental Wacko From 'Peaceful Uprising' Gets Prison Time, Supporter Threatens Violence

If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time.

A sentencing hearing turned into a rally supporting an environmental activist who has become an antihero after disrupting a government auction of oil and gas leases near two national parks in Utah.

Protesters gathered around the courthouse and dozens were arrested Tuesday as Tim DeChristopher launched into a lengthy address urging others fight climate change by taking similar steps of civil disobedience.

But U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said there was no excuse for the 29-year-old former wilderness guide's blatant disrespect for the rule of law.

Benson sentenced DeChristopher to two years in prison on Tuesday, making him the first person to be prosecuted for failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of Utah public lands. He ran up bids on 13 parcels totaling more than 22,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands national parks in 2008.

"My intent both at the time of the auction and now was to expose, embarrass and hold accountable the oil and gas industry, to the point that it cut into their $100 billion profits," DeChristopher told Benson.

How about protesting the government that does nothing to earn money yet profits more than any industry could ever imagine?

In one fell swoop he goes from "antihero" to martyr. Yes, really.

DeChristopher certainly is a martyr for those who want to focus attention on human-caused global warming, and he probably takes some comfort in that. He said he has no regrets. But this extreme sentence, more than a rallying point, is an indictment of the judicial system that zeroed in on one young man who was acting according to his conscience but looks the other way when others illegally make the opposite point.

Two years is extreme? Really?

It gets even more amusing.

Since his arrest, DeChristopher has become a hero to others worried about environmental damage from drilling and convinced that greenhouse gases released from burning fossil fuels are warming the Earth, causing extreme weather, drought, wildfires and ultimately starvation, homelessness and disease for millions around the globe.

He's convinced of things that just aren't happening.

Maybe a couple of years in the clink will make him comes to his sense. Yet judging by the company he keeps, that's an extreme long shot.

The case has become a symbol of solidarity for environmentalists, including celebrities like Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah. Peter Yarrow of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, led a sing-a-long and rally outside the courthouse in the hours leading up to the hearing.

The event was organized by DeChristopher's nonprofit group, Peaceful Uprising.

Carlos Martins, a college student at the protest rally, said after the sentencing that "they gave him that sentence to deter us, but they're proving that by making civil disobedience impossible, they're making violent actions inevitable."

OK, so if they don't get their way, just threaten violence. Thanks for the heads-up, Carlos. Now the authorities know your name.

Does Carlos see the irony that he's with a group called Peaceful Uprising while he's threatening violence?

Meanwhile, leave it to convicted child molester to rally to his side.

"Throughout American history, acts of civil disobedience have led to change. Think about the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves to freedom, or about the courageous actions of people like Rosa Parks, who refused to stay in the back of the bus simply because of their skin color. Without this kind of defiance of unjust laws, our country would likely still be denying people of colour basic freedoms."

Rosa Parks? Huh?

We Don't Have the Money

When we have Congressthings casually throwing around money we simply do not have, it's painfully indicative that we just will never get our debt under control. No offense intended to the people behind this, but we just don't have the money any more.

Isn't it Democrats who are babbling about shared sacrifice?

The ranking member of the House Administration Committee is calling on Congress to fulfill its commitment to fund the establishment of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) sent a letter Tuesday to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Interior and the Environment and ranking member Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), expressing concern over the funding level for the Smithsonian Institution in the fiscal year 2012 Appropriations bill.

“When Congress enacted the authorizing legislation establishing the National Museum of African American History and Culture within the Smithsonian in 2003, we explicitly authorized a 50-50 public-private funding ratio,” Brady wrote.

According to a statement Brady released the same day, the FY12 appropriations bill provides less than half of the $125 million in federal contributions requested by the Smithsonian.

“With the ground-breaking on the African American Museum currently scheduled for the summer of 2012, underfunding it now, at this critical juncture, could generate substantial delays and ultimately cost tax-payers significantly more,” he added.

Canceling it entirely would save us even more. Has he even considered that?

It's time to cut spending. Period.

Grand Slam Home Run

My bud Dr. Rusty nailed this with the absolute sweetest spot of his bat. Line drive to deep centerfield and about 10 rows back worth of sweet spot.

On Islamophobia and Right Wing Extremism

Since I am constantly accused of being an 'Islamaphobe' let me, once again and for the record, explain my position on Islam, Islamophobia, and right-wing extremism. I'll start at the latter and work my way to the former.

1) Right-wing extremism is real. A lot of people on the right don't want to admit this. I'm not sure why, but I think it goes something like, "I'm on the right, and if this guy is also on the right then, by association, it makes me look bad." So, they simply redefine "right" in such a way as to exclude whatever nutjob or extremist they don't want to be affiliated with.

It happens on the Left as well ... and with any other grouping, ideology, or movement. It's probably normal for people not to want to be associated with extremists so we find ways to make it seem that we have nothing in common with them.

But, by definition, an extremist has similarities with, say, moderates ... only they are more extreme. Like I said, that's kind of the definition of extremists.

Right wing extremists do exist. I think you'd have to be in a state of denial to claim otherwise.

And, as I've often noted, being a nutjob and being motivated by ideology are not mutual exclusive things. Hence, someone like Abdulhakim Muhammad -- the Little Rock shooter -- might very well be a nutcase, but it doesn't mean he wasn't also motivated by his belief that America is at war with Muslims.

Likewise, it seems rather obvious that Anders Behring Breivik is certifiably crazy. But it also seems obvious that he was motivated by his worldview that Muslims are at war with Europe.

Reading his meandering and incoherent manifesto it is clear that Breivik was on the right, and that he was an extremist.

His extremism doesn't discredit the right any more than an ecoterrorist's extremism discredits those concerned with the environment.

Extremists of all stripes exist, even on the right.

The real problem is that the word is often misused. That is, people with political motives use the word to try and discredit those they disagree with even if the word doesn't truly fit.

[....]

Read the rest at The Jawa Report You won't be disappointed.

Venezuela Foreign Minister Now Mouthing Democrat Talking Points

You suppose this clown is sitting in on conference calls with Chuckie Schumer and Dingy Harry?

Venezuela's foreign minister is criticizing U.S. conservatives for what he calls "extremist" stances against President Hugo Chavez's government.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro condemned what he called actions by the "far right" in Washington.

He says conservatives have swept up Congress and the U.S. government in an "absurd, extremist policy against Latin America and against our homeland."

Such vitriol sounds oh so familiar.

Maduro was whining about money, of course.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week backed an amendment to slash the $48.5 million that the U.S. provides for the Organization of American States. Florida Republican Connie Mack said the measure was aimed at an organization that he feels backs Chavez.

Lockerbie Bomber Miraculously Still Alive: 'Sending Him Home Was a Disastrous Policy'

So how's that decision to release the Lockerbie bomber on "compassionate" grounds nearly two years ago working out? Let's put it this way: He's a couple years past his supposed expiration date and still ticking.

The Lockerbie bomber has been paraded on Libyan TV almost two years after his release from a UK prison because he was dying of cancer.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, 59, has been feted as a hero in his home country since he was released from jail in 2009 ‘on compassionate grounds’.

The Libyan national was convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board the New York-bound Boeing 747, and 11 people in Lockerbie.

The Scottish government released Megrahi after judging that he had only three months to live. His longevity has been a source of embarrassment to the Holyrood administration ever since.

At a televised rally of members of Megrahi’s tribe last night, a Libyan TV presenter claimed that ‘half of the world conspired against’ the bomber. In the broadcast, which will cause further anguish to victims’ families, the convicted terrorist was seen in a wheelchair.

American Susan Cohen, whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora was killed in the atrocity, last night said: ‘This is no surprise, it was inevitable. It was obvious at the time that the man wasn’t anywhere near death.

‘But still, hearing about this, I feel anger and outrage. Sending him home was a disastrous policy.’

Megrahi was handed a minimum term of 27 years in jail for the attack, but served less than seven and a half years.

In 2009, Gordon Brown insisted the British Government had ‘no role’ in his release, which he claimed was a Holyrood decision. But the then-prime minister came under pressure almost immediately from shocking claims that the release was linked explicitly to trade deals benefiting Britain.

Colonel Gaddafi’s son Saif said Megrahi’s case was discussed at every meeting between the previous prime minister Tony Blair and the Libyan leader.

Hope that shady oil deal worked out.

Neither Has an Ego as Big as Obama

So refreshing to see a politician with a sense of humor. Certain people in Washington could use one.

A politician and a comedian are going head-to-head to decide whose noggin is the biggest.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) tweeted a clip from NBC's "Tonight Show" on Tuesday, titled, "Is his head bigger than mine?"

In it, host Jay Leno compared his head size to that of the governor's. Leno's head appears to be bigger.

And, to answer the question posed by the segment's title, Leno states: "No."

Christie doubted that the results were definitive, though, tweeting, "Idk [I don't know] @jayleno, it’s a close call!"

Bachmann Now Liable for Gay Teen Suicides or Something

It really doesn't get much dumber than this.

A string of teenage suicides in Michele Bachmann's congressional district is plaguing the presidential contender.

In her Minnesota school district, there have been a total of nine teens who killed themselves in the past two years - several of whom were gay or thought to be gay, according to a new report in Mother Jones.

The article, "The Teen Suicide Epidemic in Michele Bachmann's District" cites critics - including residents and state public health officials - who blame Bachmann and her anti-gay allies for creating a "climate of intolerance."

The 38,000 Anoka-Hennepin County School District is now under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Mother Jones reports. Officials are examining whether anti-gay bullying is connected to the hike in suicide rates.

Bachmann's office declined to comment for the article and did not respond to requests from the Daily News.

Why would they even both responding to such guttersnipe yellow journalism? It's probably a safe bet these kids had no idea who Bachmann even was, let alone had any knowledge of her stance on gays.

Not only that, if these teens who may or may not have been gay were being bullied in school, how on earth is that connected to Bachmann? Where were school officials? Parents? Is anyone looking out for the kids, or is it now the responsibility of your Congressional representative?

It's as if saying the out-of-control homicide rate in Chicago can be blamed on the president.

As for the alleged "climate of intolerance" they're wailing about, how about showing some tolerance for people like Bachmann who exercise their freedom of religion and thought? What happened to respecting others?

This Might Be Scandalous If Anyone Watched CNN

Remember that massive media orgasm recently about the phone hacking involving some of Rupert Murdoch's news organizations? The feeding frenzy seems have have tempered somewhat since the climate of hate fostered by Murdoch foes resulted in his being physically attacked by some leftwing wacko while testifying before Parliament.

But while the hubbub here in the United States may have died down as we watch Barack Obama melt down over his debt mess, over in the UK it appears the scandal may be spreading to another news organization, which just happens to be the one formerly run by CNN's Piers Morgan.

Piers Morgan is facing questions on both sides of the Atlantic as a former employee claimed that phone hacking had taken place while he was editor of the Daily Mirror.

The CNN presenter has repeatedly denied allegations made in both the British and US media that he presided over a culture of illegal activity during his nine-year stint at the paper.

James Hipwell, a former Daily Mirror journalist, claimed on Saturday that phone hacking was "endemic" under Mr Morgan's editorship and that he would be prepared to testify to the judicial inquiry into the scandal.

"Piers was extremely hands-on as an editor. He was on the [newsroom] floor every day, walking up and down behind journalists, looking over their shoulders. I can't say 100 per cent that he knew about it. But it was inconceivable he didn't," he told the Independent.

Now from what we gleaned from Murdoch's testimony last week it appeared he was unaware of what was going on. From the above it sure looks like Morgan was hip-deep in the hacking.

So why isn't this big news? Well, for one, nobody watches Morgan, or CNN for that matter, so he's pretty much a non-entity here in the States. Yet it's curious how he's still on the air while when the News of the World was implicated in the hacking scandal that paper was shuttered before you could blink. Where are the howls of indignation from the Fox haters in the American media?

A spokeswoman for CNN said that Mr Morgan had been asked about the accusations and had strongly denied them.

Mr Hipwell's claims come in the wake of a New York Times article which quoted five former journalists at the People, the Mirror's Sunday sister paper, who claimed that phone hacking had take place between the late 1990s and early 2000.

The Sunday Mirror was also accused of "routinely" hacking the phones of celebrities in an effort to keep up with the News of the World.

A former employee of the paper told the BBC that the illegal technique was used on almost daily basis to hack the phones of Rio Ferdinand, Liz Hurley and others.

"One afternoon in the newsroom I saw Liz Hurley's phone being hacked and a reporter listen to her mobile phone messages and take a note of what was said.

There's some non-taxpaying outfit funded by George Soros that claims to monitor the media, but they haven't said a peep about this.

Al Qaeda 'Militant' Prematurely Detonates

The sad part is this terrorist also blew up his own kids.

AN al-Qaeda militant has been killed together with his two children when a car bomb he was making at his home exploded near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, police said.

"An al-Qaeda terrorist, Mohammed Nussayef Jasim al-Hamdani, was killed while trying to fit a bomb inside a vehicle at his home," a police official in Kirkuk said today.

The authorities know what a terrorist is. Sadly, unless it's now a so-called Christian, the media refuses to call a spade a spade.

"His two children, aged 10 and 11, also were killed, part of his house was destroyed, and 20 of his neighbours were wounded," he added, saying the incident occurred before midnight yesterday west of Kirkuk city.

Hamdani had been in detention on suspicion of terrorism, but was recently released due to "insufficient evidence against him," the official said.

I believe the evidence is now sufficient.

Irony: Woman Who Didn't Pay Bloggers Elected to Committee to Protect Journalists

Seems like some people have extremely short memories.

When The Huffington Post announced earlier this week that it was being acquired by AOL for $315 million in cash and stock, one group felt slighted: a set of unpaid bloggers for the site, identifying by the Twitter hashtag #huffpuff, which claims that The Huffington Post has “built a blog-empire on the backs of thousands of citizen journalists.”

Some analyses in the mainstream media have echoed these sentiments. “To grasp The Huffington Post’s business model,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’s Tim Rutten, “picture a galley rowed by slaves and commanded by pirates.”

That was back in February.

Fast forward to today.

Arianna Huffington's controversial standing among journalism's old guard didn't hamper her appointment to the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists last week.

Despite some industry snickering that an aggregator of journalists' work was now in the position of protecting them, CPJ sources mostly told us that the pros of adding Huffington to the board outweighed the cons.

Pathetic: DCCC Fundraising Off Obama Speech

If you had any doubt the Democrats have been politicizing the debt crisis, realize it took little more than an hour after John Boehner's rebuttal to Obama for DCCC Chairman Steve Israel to send out a fundraising solicitation.

Just pathetic.

President Obama is right: We cannot allow Republicans’ political game-playing to jeopardize the full faith and credit of America’s economy.

So Republicans are playing political games? Um, so why haven't I received any fundraising please from them?

Today, Speaker Boehner was caught groveling to Rush Limbaugh in private, asking for permission to try his latest political scheme before even telling his own Republican caucus about it.

Um, if Boehner was groveling in private, how do they know this?

The fact is, right-wing special interests, radio hosts, and Tea Party extremists have taken over the Republican Party. And these radical Republicans are just days away from plunging our economy off a cliff in order to slash Social Security and Medicare while protecting tax breaks for billionaires and big oil.

Amazingly, they left corporate jets out of this screed. Still the same old playbook, however. Radicals, extremists, billionaires, blah blah blah.

It just never ends.

Now, with our entire economy at stake, it’s critical that we stand strong and united against Republicans’ all-out assault on the middle class.

Seems to me the GOP is trying to spare what's left of the middle class from any further Obama disasters.

Here's the link. They apparently need a rapid response fund since they get such little favorable press and Obama is powerless to get his message out.

'Lord, I Want to Thank You For My Smokin' Hot Wife Tonight'

It'll be a long time before anyone tops this.

Nelms began the prayer straightforward enough, thanking God for all his blessings. But then his list of gratitude grew increasingly creative.

First he thanked the Man Upstairs for "all the Dodges and Toyotas and the Fords." He then gave thanks for "GM performance technology," "Sunoco racing fuel" and "Goodyear tires that bring performance and power to the track."

(Nelms was not wearing a Goodyear baseball cap but we can only assume he landed a post-prayer endorsement from the tire company).

Then Nelms got personal: "Lord, I want to thank you for my smokin' hot wife tonight, Lisa, and my two children, Eli and Emma, or as we like to call the 'The Little E's."

Of course, Nelms couldn't close the prayer without a zinger and he came through with this gem: "In Jesus' name, boogity boogity boogity, Amen."

Blockbuster: Christie Had Dinner With Roger Ailes

This was already information known to the public, but apparently some gadflies decided they need attention.

Just pathetic.

In apparent reaction to a lawsuit filed by Gawker and the American Civil Liberties Union, the office of the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, on Monday released a record of a meeting last year between Mr. Christie and Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel.

John Cook, a reporter for Gawker, had filed the suit to inquire into Mr. Ailes’s relationship with Mr. Christie as part of a series of stories about the political engagement of Mr. Ailes and his cable news channel. He asserted in an interview that Mr. Ailes, a former Republican strategist, continued to act in that capacity informally and behind the scenes.

The suit came about after Mr. Christie’s office resisted Mr. Cook’s request for public records of any meetings, phone calls or correspondence between the governor and Mr. Ailes. The governor’s office cited “executive privilege,” which Mr. Cook found to be unusual given that Mr. Ailes is the head of a news channel.

The suit was filed Monday morning. Within hours, Mr. Christie’s office sent Mr. Cook a letter that reaffirmed the “executive privilege” defense, but shared the schedule record of one dinner Mr. Christie and Mr. Ailes had on Sept. 11, 2010.

That dinner had previously been reported by New York magazine, which also reported that Mr. Ailes had, at a later date, encouraged Mr. Christie to run for president.

So what was the meaning of this pointless exercise other than a pathetic obsession with Fox News?

Obama: My Role in the Debt Issue is Like Lincoln Freeing the Slaves or Something

Goodness, can you get any more crazy that this?

Via Breitbart.

He Really Aspires to Be King

Have you ever seen a president with so little regard to the Constitution?

America's immigration system is broken, but pressure from a larger political movement is needed to fix it, President Barack Obama said Monday.

"The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that's not how our system works. That's not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written," Obama said at the National Council of La Raza's annual conference.

What a terrible inconvenience. So what else would he like to just implement while ignoring the rest of the government?

"Let's be honest, I need a dance partner here, and the floor is empty," he added, referring to the need for bipartisan congressional support to pass an immigration reform measure.

Members of the audience responded by chanting, "Yes you can, yes you can."

"I need you to keep building a movement for change outside of Washington, one they can't stop, one that's greater than this community," Obama told them.

Who is this they he speaks of?

Say, this isn't more class warfare, is it?

He can't even get a deal on the debt done and he's already looking for sneaky ways to add illegals to the voting rolls.

Deranged Obama Calls for More Tax Hikes

He just doesn't get it, does he? Do sane Democrats really want to follow this maniac over the cliff?

President Barack Obama is reiterating his call for a deficit-cutting plan that cuts spending and that also increases tax revenue by making the wealthy and corporations pay more to help stabilize the long-term debt.

The president made his comments to the National Council of La Raza on Monday as congressional leaders struggled against time to come up with a plan to meet an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

We have a pathological liar in the White House.

Funny, but Obama neglected to mention the gun violence at a La Raza event in Seattle the other day. How convenient.

Meanwhile, a former Obama supporter unloads.

There has been much said about who is allegedly the "adult in the room," but President Obama has yet to speak to Americans as adults, insisting instead on his preferred technique -- stirring up class warfare.

Scaring senior citizens about the possibility of not receiving their Social Security and Medicare checks, lambasting the corporate jet industry, and calling for higher taxes on managers of private partnerships is not a constructive approach to handling a multi-trillion dollar problem that will have a multi-generational impact.

It's increasingly difficult to avoid that conclusion that while Washington burns, President Obama is fiddling away by insisting that the only solution to the nation's problems -- whether unemployment, the debt ceiling or deficit reductions -- lies in redistribution of wealth.

Perhaps the difference between President Obama and many Americans is that the president sees prosperity as a sign of "unfairness" that needs to be corrected by government via higher taxes and increased regulation. Perhaps a plan that led the way forward by expanding oppportunities rather than redistrbuting incomes and emphasizing growth and prosperity for all would be met with less political resistance.

Figures: Media Using Actions of Norway's 'Extremist Wingnut' to Push for Gun Control in USA

Obviously this maniac in Norway has a few screws loose. Still, aren't pejoratives like "extremist wingnut" best left for the editorial pages?

The extremist wingnut accused in Norway's twin terror attacks that left 93 dead warned during a closed hearing Monday that there were "two more cells" ready to strike.

Anders Behring Breivik said he had pulled off Friday's stunning double attack in an effort to save Europe.

But he also claimed that there are "two more cells in our organization" prepared to stop what he believes is the Muslim colonization of Europe.

If Breivik was an avowed Marxist, would he still be labeled an "extremist wingnut"?

We suspect not.

Meanwhile, diminutive jock-sniffer turned political observer Mike Lupica immediately goes into anti-gun mode. How predictable.

And people wonder sometimes why Mayor Bloomberg has conducted his own crusade against illegal guns, against all guns in the wrong hands. A recent Al Qaeda video was only stating the obvious when it talked about how easy it is to get a gun in America.

Now, across the world in Norway, we find that it is too easy everywhere. A layup.

Lupica's obviously too slow on the draw to realize Al Qaeda views Bloomberg as a useful idiot.

“America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms,’’ he says in the video. “You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”

It’s worth noting that Gadahn misstates the facts. Even at a gun show, fully automatic weapons are not available for sale without a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. For most sales at gun shows, however, there is no background check, as there would be for purchases from gun stores.

It's a pity tools like Lupica and Bloomberg have no time available to criticize the Justice Department Operation Gunrunner. Or Fast and Furious. Or selling guns to MS-13.

We've got a massive cover-up ongoing at the highest levels of our government, but instead people like Lupica and Bloomberg would prefer to disarm the law-abiding public. And they use a senseless tragedy to push their extremist agenda.

Poll: Most See Media as Biased and Unethical

Gee, a biased media? Can you believe it? Well, the angle they're apparently seeking here is to bash Rupert Murdoch, but they're not quite getting the desired results.

Likely voters hold a dismal view of the news media, generally regarding reporters as biased, unethical and too close to the politicians they purport to cover, according to a new poll for The Hill.

A full 68 percent of voters consider the news media biased, the poll found. Most, 46 percent, believe the media generally favor Democrats, while 22 percent said they believe Republicans are favored, with 28 percent saying the media is reasonably balanced.

Where on God's green earth do these 22% get their information that makes them believe the media is biased toward Republicans?

The share of voters who believe the media are too friendly with politicians is almost twice as large as those who find their coverage of politicians appropriate. Forty-four percent of voters assert the former; only 24 percent believe the latter.

The picture is not much brighter on the general question of ethics. Fifty-seven percent of voters think of the news media as either somewhat or very unethical, while only 39 percent see them as somewhat or very ethical.

Bachmann: 'We’d Be Better Off If President’s Cabinet Had at Least Run a Lemonade Stand'

Ouch. It's true, none of Obama's czars probably ever ran a lemonade stand. They're the types who'd close them down for lacking the proper permits. Well, this is what you get when you hire a failed community organizer for a big boy's job.

Via Breitbart.

Classy: Afghan 'Insurgents' Hang Eight-Year-Old Boy

Whatever you do, AP, don't call them terrorists.

Insurgents in southern Afghanistan hanged an 8-year-old boy six days after they abducted him, the Afghan government said Sunday.

The boy's captors had demanded that his father, a police officer, supply them with a police vehicle and he refused, said a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office. The militants hanged the boy Friday in Helmand province's Gereshk district.

"President Karzai both strongly condemns this act and rejects it as a brutal and cowardly crime that is not acceptable in any religion or culture," the statement said. It referred to the killers as "terrorists," but did not say if they belonged to the Taliban or another of the insurgent movements fighting foreign forces and their Afghan allies.

The word terrorists now gets quotes around it. How quaint.

Dick Durbin's Fuzzy Math

The Democrats can't even get their math right when they're having a temper tantrum.

The second most powerful Democrat in the Senate warned Republicans Sunday that they are toying with a fragile economy and would take the blame for any fallout from a debt default.

On Sunday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he had six words of warning for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “If you break it, you own it.”

Um, isn't that seven words, Dick?

Here's the transcript from Face the Nation.

DURBIN: WELL, WE ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO DEFAULT, BUT THIS NOTION THAT WE'RE GOING TO REPLAY THIS MOVIE IN FOUR OR FIVE MONTHS, THAT WE'RE GOING TO FACE THIS WHOLE THING ALL OVER AGAIN, THE AMERICAN ECONOMY IS TOO FRAGILE AT THIS POINT IN RECOVERY FOR US TO ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN. WE'VE BEEN WARNED, NOT BY POLITICAL ADVISERS. I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS, THEY WANT TO MAKE THIS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE. IGNORE THE POLITICAL ADVISERS FOR A MOMENT. LISTEN TO THE ECONOMISTS WHO ARE TELLING US, ALL OF US TOGETHER, DO NOT LURCH FROM ONE FIVE MONTH PERIOD TO ANOTHER WHEN IT COMES TO THE CREDIT RATING OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. NOT AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY. IT'S GOING TO HURT US. IT'S GOING TO STALL OUR RECOVERY. AND I MIGHT SAY TO SPEAKER BOEHNER, HE SHOULD REMEMBER SIX WORDS: IF YOU BREAK IT, YOU OWN IT.

So the economy is fragile, Dick?

Good luck having Obama run on that in 2012.

Kinda reminds me of Joe Biden's inability to count.

Obama 2012: He Has Nothing to Offer But Fear Itself

Think Obama's gone negative yet? Get ready for the 2012 campaign. Doesn't quite give me leg tingles.

“The core difference between 2008 and 2012 is going to be the politics of hope, which we saw in 2008, versus the politics of fear in 2012. They won’t call it that, but so much of this campaign in terms of driving turnout among all these groups, is going to be about making the Republican alternative totally unacceptable.”

'The President’s Worried About His Next Election'

What else would he be worried about? Well, other than his next tee time, his birthday party and upcoming vacation on Martha's Vineyard. It's not as if he's the adult in the room or anything.

With his self-imposed deadline for releasing a deficit plan before overseas markets open just a few hours away, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said both sides were “not there yet" and pushed for a two-stage debt-limit vote.

“I would prefer to have a bipartisan approach to solve this problem,” Boehner said on Fox News Sunday. “If that's not possible, I and my Republican colleagues are prepared to do this alone. Today.”

Boehner pushed for a proposed two-stage debt-limit vote.

It is not “physically possible” to get everything done before the Treasury Department’s August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling, Boehner said. “There is going to be a two stage process.”

“I don't want to get anywhere close to [default],” he said. “This is about what's doable at the eleventh hour.”

Boehner’s office said late Saturday that a two-vote approach was now necessary in order to raise the debt ceiling immediately while tackling deficit-reduction later.

Boehner also criticized President Obama for recommending a debt ceiling deal be timed to last beyond the next election season.

“The president’s worried about his next election, but my God, shouldn't we be worried about the country?” Boehner said. “I'm not worried about the next election. I told the president months ago: Forget about the next election!”

Good luck with that, Mr. Speaker.

Meanwhile, Dingy Harry says it's time for the GOP to cooperate. Sure, why not?

"Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default on the full faith and credit of the United States," Reid said. "We have run out of time for politics. Now is the time for cooperation."

Imagine his demands if he and the Democrats ever offered up their own plan.

Bruce Bartlett: Obama's a Conservative or Something

You really have to wonder what this guy's been sniffing.

Here are a few examples of Obama's effective conservatism:

His stimulus bill was half the size that his advisers thought necessary;

He continued Bush’s war and national security policies without change and even retained Bush’s defense secretary;

He put forward a health plan almost identical to those that had been supported by Republicans such as Mitt Romney in the recent past, pointedly rejecting the single-payer option favored by liberals;

He caved to conservative demands that the Bush tax cuts be extended without getting any quid pro quo whatsoever;

And in the past few weeks he has supported deficit reductions that go far beyond those offered by Republicans.

Really? Obama hasn't offered a single thing to the public other than an endless series of temper tantrums.

It gets loonier. Cue the deranged Paul Krugman.

First, Obama gets no credit for his moderation, and never will. No matter how far right he moves, Republicans will move further right; and nothing he can do will keep them from denouncing him as a radical socialist.

According to these folks to most far-left president in our history is now a radical right-winger or something.

Good grief.

Some comedy gold in the comments.

A postscript: I don't see Obama as a moderate conservative. He's to the right of Reagan, so where does that leave him? Or is it that Obama and Clinton and the Dems have let the whole spectrum be pushed so far to the right that Reagan is now a centrist?

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Men in stolen car ask police for directions
Two men pulled over and asked Palm Springs police for directions — in a stolen vehicle, police said Thursday.

Two people pulled over at Ava Court and Isabella Way about 1:30 a.m. Monday, Officer Rhonda Long said. The driver of the gold Honda Accord asked an officer for directions.

When the officer ran the license plate, dispatchers said the car was stolen from Riverside.

Both men were arrested and booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning. Both were still being held there Friday, each in lieu of $25,000 bail.

The driver of the car — who police identified was Brentyn Lee Mitchell, 20, of Cherry Valley — could face charges of possession of a stolen vehicle.

The passenger of the vehicle — identified was Jaron Hopkins, 21, of Banning — could face a charge of providing false information to police, Long said. He was also held on a parole hold.

Losers.

Via The Desert Sun

The Rich Get Richer

Amazing how much money you can make when you don't pay any taxes.

General Electric reported a 21.6 percent rise in profit, topping estimates, boosted by strong demand outside the United States for its heavy equipment including jet engines and electric turbines.

The largest U.S. conglomerate, whose shares were up 2.3 percent in premarket trading, said Friday second-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders came to $3.69 billion, or 35 cents per share, compared with $3.03 billion, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

Factoring out one-time items, profit was 34 cents per share.

On that basis, analysts had looked for profit of 32 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Just imagine the reaction if a company that didn't suck up to Obama 24/7 actually made a profit.

How To Fire A Teacher In 20 Easy Steps

Well actually this list doesn't fire them either, it is just the steps a local school district must take but it leaves off at the appeal to the state board of education. Bear in the mind that throughout the entire process the taxpayers are still on the hook to pay not only the teachers' salary but the salary of the replacement teacher along with all the fees associated with the teachers' defense. Regardless of the outcome of the case some of these teachers will still be allowed to keep their pensions.

This has become a hot issue for the city of Atlanta in the wake of the largest teacher cheating scandal uncovered...so far. There is no teacher union in Georgia in the strictest definition of the word but there is a powerful association and in light of statements made by some of their representatives it is pretty clear that they are going pursue every step on the list, not out of any sense of duty to the teacher or to protect someone who may be wrongly accused. Their purpose here is to place as big a financial burden on the city and it's taxpayers as possible as some sort of perverse revenge for outing them.

This is only going to get messier and is meant to be a shot across the bow to any others who decide to investigate teachers in their areas. It is only further deteriorating the opinion of teachers and the education system within the community and the anger is only going to get worse the more this drags on.

Let's Move! Obesity Rates Skyrocket

How's that whole Let's Move campaign working out these days? Not too well, apparently.

America's obesity epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, new findings show, as research reveals obesity rates have risen to 30 per cent or more in at least 12 states.

A 2010 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows not a single state has reported a rate of obesity below 20 per cent.

The findings are in stark contrast to a 2000 study, which showed no state had an obesity rate above 25 per cent.

Maybe we should blame Bush.

Not a single state met the Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2010 goal to reduce obesity rates to below 20 per cent in the past ten years.

Oh well, let's just lower the standards then.

As a result, Healthy People 2020 includes a target obesity rate of 30 per cent.

How about simply abandoning such idiotic programs since they're clearly not working? Time to trim the fat from the budget now, so to speak.

Slow on the Draw: Al Qaeda Magazine Now Goofing on Anthony Weiner

Geez, most of America has forgotten about this tool Weiner already. I guess it takes these guys so much time to get their special "magazine" together that jokes quickly grow stale. Probably a lot of workplace accidents or something like that.

Even terrorists are making Weiner jokes.

In Al Qaeda's latest edition of its chilling e-magazine, "Inspire," the terror network's Arabian Peninsula syndicate settles a score with former Queens Rep. Anthony Weiner, gloating about the sexter's salacious downfall.

A faux full-page ad in the summer issue bears a photo of a feisty Weiner speaking before the House of Representatives under the banner, "An angry Weiner head."

It goes on to quote Weiner in one of his early, deceitful explanations about how a picture of his crotch was sent to a Seattle college student.

"This was a prank to make fun of my name!" a readout next to the photo blares.

Except it wasn't a prank.

Weiner was ultimately forced to 'fess up to texting sexy pics to several women, including one nude shot apparently taken in the House gym.

Amid the mushrooming scandal, Weiner reigned his House seat and set off for counseling in hopes of saving his one-year marriage to his pregnant wife, the stunning Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Clinton.

The fake ad in the Al Qaeda mag was "brought to you by a Cold Diss."

It could actually be one of his former constituents putting this e-zine together.

The magazine's suspected publisher, former Queens resident Samir Khan, 25, apparently didn't forget what Weiner said about his boss.

Home Depot Co-Founder: 'I'm Not Sure Obama Would Understand Anything That I'd Say'

In a discussion about the current moribund job climate, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus discusses the situation today contrasted with when he first started up the retail giant in 1978. Remarkably, the darkest days of Jimmy Carter were brighter than today's despair under the failed Obama presidency.

IBD: What's the single biggest impediment to job growth today?

Marcus: The U.S. government. Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.

If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70% of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.

IBD: President Obama has promised to streamline and eliminate regulations. What's your take?

Marcus: His speeches are wonderful. His output is absolutely, incredibly bad. As he speaks about cutting out regulations, they are now producing thousands of pages of new ones. With just ObamaCare by itself, you have a 2,000 page bill that's probably going end up being 150,000 pages of regulations.

Brutal. Yet sadly, all too true.

Marcus isn't finished hammering the hapless Obama.

IBD: If you could sit down with Obama and talk to him about job creation, what would you say?

Marcus: I'm not sure Obama would understand anything that I'd say, because he's never really worked a day outside the political or legal area. He doesn't know how to make a payroll, he doesn't understand the problems businesses face. I would try to explain that the plight of the businessman is very reactive to Washington. As Washington piles on regulations and mandates, the impact is tremendous. I don't think he's a bad guy. I just think he has no knowledge of this.

He's wrong about one thing. Obama is a bad guy. This says it all.

IBD: Why don't more businesses speak out?

Marcus: They are frightened to death — frightened that they will have the IRS or SEC on them. In my 50 years in business, I have never seen executives of major companies who were more intimidated by an administration.

It's only going to get worse.

Surprise! Obama All-time Leading Recipient of News Corp. Donations

Obviously, he's in the back pocket of the evil Rupert Murdoch.

Political donations by News Corp., its employees and their families were evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with President Obama the all-time leading recipient, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation.

The transparency watchdog noted Tuesday that Democrats received 51 percent of contributions while Republicans received 49 percent, despite the firm's highly publicized links to the GOP, such as a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association in August.

News Corp. is the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox News, among others. The firm is currently under scrutiny in both the U.S. and U.K. over allegations its subsidiary News of the World hacked into voice mail accounts and bribed public officials.

"Obama being listed as the company’s top recipient might surprise some people because of its highly publicized involvement with his political rivals, like Sarah Palin who was the vice presidential candidate in 2008 and reportedly still under contract with Murdoch-owned Fox News as a paid commentator," wrote Sunlight's Ryan Sibley.

More here.

Hypocrisy, you say? Feh. Obama likes to talk one game and play another. Heck, it hardly caused a ripple last year when he railed against BP and then was revealed to be their largest recipient.

Inconvenient truths.

So clearly News Corp., its subsidiaries and employees are fair and balanced when it comes to political donations. I wonder whether we could say the same about other large news organizations?

Update: More details on past recipients.

While Obama is by far the all-time leading recipient, he's followed in order by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Gray Davis and Howard Berman. See if you can detect a common thread between them (hint: they're all Democrats).

Chuckie Schumer's also in the top ten. Considering Schumer was also the biggest recipient of Bernie Madoff money when he ran the DSCC, this daily double should qualify him for some kind of award.

The top recipient from News America Holdings was also a Democrat, Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey.

For 2009-2010 from News America Holdings, the top recipients with $10,000 each were Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Berman and Schumer.

Meanwhile, the fabulously wealthy Kerry, who served in Vietnam, is the top political stakeholder in News Corp, with an estimated $600,002 to $1,250,000.

Granted, that's his wife's money.

Update: In a stunning development, a George Soros flying monkey from Media Matters put a unique spin on these revelations.

If it seems like Obama got a lot of money from News Corp. employees, that’s because he got a lot of money from a lot of people in 2008.

Soros is really getting his money's worth, huh?

I Wonder If He Used a Teleprompter?

It appears someone in Orange County, NY decided to have a little fun and pretended to be Barack Obama leaving a recorded message for residents calling in to see if they have to serve jury duty. Now authorities have sprung into action to find the offending culprit.

A prank message featuring President Barack Obama's voice on a call-in line for prospective jurors is under investigation in upstate New York.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports the sometimes offensive recording was compiled in pieces from Obama reading his memoir, "Memories from My Father." It replaced the usual recording telling callers if they should report for jury duty in Orange County.

Actually, it's "Dreams from My Father," but since is an AP report we can't always expect accuracy.

The sheriff's department is reviewing phone records, trying to determine who switched the message. It was apparently active from late on Friday, July 8, and through that weekend before officials found out and removed it.

Authorities say the prankster could face a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment.

Naturally, it's racist.

In the recording, the caller, purporting to be the president, rambles about drinking and drug use, and uses a racial epithet at one point.

James Rollins Sr., president of the Middletown chapter of the NAACP, said Thursday that he regards the message as racist and has alerted the regional and state offices of the NAACP. His chapter will watch closely to see how the county handles the incident, Rollins said.

Here's an excerpt via the previous link.

"... I discovered that it didn't make any difference if you smoked reefer in back of a white classmate's sparkling new van or in the bathroom with some brother you just met down at the gym or on the beach with some Hawaiian kids who have dropped out of school and now spend most of their time looking for any excuse to brawl."

"Help me understand what makes white people so afraid."

"Maybe we can afford to drop the bad-ass (N-word) pose."