Just call me Nostradumas.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Line o' the day: Tom Elia
Tom Elia, writing at the New Editor (hat tip: Larwyn):
Michelle Obama:"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."
How does someone with two Ivy League degrees not understand that the economy is not a zero-sum game?
To paraphrase economist Don Boudreaux: Trying to learn economics from the media or most politicians is like trying to learn physics by watching Road Runner cartoons...
I like to think of it this way.
Trying to explain economics to a socialist is like teaching quantum mechanics to a bobble-head. You'll get some nodding but not a smidgen of comprehension.
'Verizon Guy' Style Guide
Consumerist has published the 'Verizon Guy Style Guide' online, presumably after it was leaked by a disgruntled Verizon employee (how come we've never heard of a gruntled employee before? Don't they exist?). The Style Guide states -- in hilariously precise terms -- how the Verizon Guy may be deployed in marketing initiatives.
The line ["Can you hear me know?"] should always be used in its entirety. No partial line and no use of "Can you hear me now?" without "Good!" to follow...
In other words, never use:
Can you hear me now? ... Hello? ... Hello? Zero f***ing bars? What the f***? G******t!! I'm in my f***ing house for f***'s sake!
Hat tip: Vanderleun
Proposed Murtha reelection poster
Since John Murtha has been in Congress since around the time of the Spanish-American War, I figured he may need some fresh new ideas for his next reelection go-round.
This seems to fit.Back story here.
Obama "action" figure
Jailbreak Toys has announced that an Obama "action figure" toy will be available soon.
No word on what kind of "action" kids would use it for, aside from pontificating about "hope" and "change".I couldn't resist adding the bit about the flag pin. And I'd bet there are no assault rifle toys available as accessories, either.
Photo o' the day: this morning at the gym
Scene: health club, approximately 9:12AM
Observed: male individual. Age: approximately 45 years old. Height: 5'10". Weight: 230, roughly 40+ lbs. overweight. Clothing: skin-tight spandex "Spiderman" shirt; skin-tight spandex black trunks.
Laughter: suppressed, barely.

I was too slow to capture a profile shot, but the gut combined with a faux "Spidey belt" was truly something to behold.Apologies for the grainy shot -- in motion at the time (running my traditional blistering pace of 6 miles an hour).
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
CBS goes after John "unindicted co-conspirator" Murtha
Someone pinch me. CBS is pulling the rug out from under one of the sleaziest of all current politicians, John Murtha (D-PA). And that's no easy feat given his prodigious weight (rimshot, please). You may remember Murtha from some of his greatest hits like Abscam, the sting operation that videotaped government officials accepting bribes from undercover FBI employees posing as Arab businessmen.
[Murtha] was one of the Congressmen videotaped in an encounter with undercover FBI operatives. Although never indicted or prosecuted, he was named an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the scandal... A short clip from the videotape shows Murtha stating "I'm not interested, I'm sorry. At this point..." in direct response to an offer of $50,000 in cash......he did not report the attempted bribe following the meeting, a violation of House Ethics Rules. Murtha was also taped saying, "You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested...
CBS's new investigation reveals some of Murtha's more recent outrages including pork spending totaling "$600 million in earmarks to his Pennsylvania district in the past four years and $2 billion since 1992" (not inflation-adjusted, mind you - the real value is higher). Among the accusations:
Quid pro quo
“Every private entity that received an earmark from Rep. Murtha gave him a contribution. A campaign contribution,” Ryan Alexander for Taxpayers for Common Sense told CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.Murtha helped set up the non-profit Concurrent Technologies in his hometown of Johnstown, Pa. Among the things they do is help others get federal money. They should know, they get $200 million in federal grants each year.
Murtha alone doled out nearly $12 million in earmarks to Concurrent this year. Concurrent pays big bucks to PMA, a lobby firm started by a former Murtha committee staffer. Both and Concurrent employees give generously to Murtha's campaigns.
CBS also calls attention to:
The case of the missing million dollars
More mysterious is Murtha's million-dollar earmark to the "The Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure."“We don’t even know if it even exists,” says anti-earmark Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
Mary Katherine Ham went searching for the CICI and came up dry.
The National Drug Intelligence Center
His most notorious project is the government agency that the government doesn't want: the National Drug Intelligence Center. Every year the White House tries to close it because they already have a drug intelligence center. But Murtha keeps the duplicate open using -- you guessed it -- earmarks... a half billion dollars so far.
The strange tale of Charles D. Riechers
In September, 2007, the Washington Post broke the story that Murtha's pet company CTC appeared to be handing out "no-show" jobs for certain connected friends. If you're thinking that sounds like CTC is "mobbed up" -- kinda like Bada Bing -- your head's where mine is.
While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews...Riechers's job highlights the Pentagon's ties with Commonwealth Research and its corporate parent, which has in recent years received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts from the military, and more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers...
Two weeks later, the New York Times reported that Riecher was dead.
The second-highest ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office was found dead of an apparent suicide at his Virginia home Sunday, Air Force and police officials said today... The official, Charles D. Riechers, 47, came under scrutiny by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month after the Air Force arranged for him to be paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited review from the White House of his appointment as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition.
CREW's Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report
In September of 2006 the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) listed Murtha in its Five Members to Watch list described in the Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report. The report noted that Murtha had steered defense appropriations to clients of KSA Consulting and PMA Group, which employed his brother Robert and Paul Magliocchetti, a former staffer, respectively.
The "War caused recession" Meme
Gateway Pundit has called attention to a concerted public relations campaign linking the cost of the Iraq war to the economy ("It's the Economy-- Caused By an Illegal War For Oil -- Stupid!").
I've got a news flash: if we could stop sleazebags like Murtha from blowing through billions of dollars in pork, perhaps the economy would be better. But don't look for the rocket scientists at MorOn.org to point that out. That would require telling the truth.
Truth Corner
John Murtha's House website has a navigation bar on the lefthand side of the page.
One of the choices is Truth Corner. When I clicked it, an audio clip of laughter played.More: Washington Times: Murtha's defense of earmarks questioned and Murtha's appetite for Pork; Wall Street Journal: Murtha, Inc.; Gateway Pundit; Glenn Reynolds; Mudville Gazette; Mary Katherine Ham (a fruitless search for the truth); Americans for Prosperity; My Man Mitt has CTC salaries; The Corner notes a missing letter from the CBS Report (*sigh*, yes it's "D").
Update: jpm100 notes that Murtha endorsed Hillary on March 18th. Shortly thereafter, CBS' investigation broke. Hmmm.
One of Obama's campaign blogs calls for destruction of Israel
Tony Wicher's hilariously named "Blog for Peace" articulates a vision of a world without Israel.
The idea of a resolution of the Israel/Palestine civil war through transformation of Israel into a single multicultural state of all its citizens is gaining momentum and going mainstream.Zionism that does not contradict fundamental democratic principles is possible. Zionism without a Jewish State.
[Israel's] requirement for a Jewish supermajority which is the core of Israeli government policy creates a situation that is WORSE than apartheid for the non-citizens living in the West Bank and Gaza. [Ed: no word on opening up the borders between Gaza and Egypt and the West Bank and Jordan. Apparently those fences are just fine, thank you.]
What was once known to the world as the cradle of freedom and democracy, the United States, the hope of the world, is now known as the world's greatest hypocrite as it attempts to carry out a program of world hegemony, and does so in the name of "freedom and democracy".
Put simply, the residents of Gaza and the West Bank have never even acknowledged the right of Israel to simply exist. While rockets pound Israel and suicide attacks intentionally target children, the corrupt Palestinian leaders steal billions in aid from their people and provide them with a curriculum of genocidal hatred rather than mathematics, reading or science.
But I'm sure that has nothing at all to do with Israel's reluctance to open its borders. That said, no word from Wicher on whether Egypt and and Jordan should open up their own borders with the Palestinians.
These racists and anti-American haters really tend to gravitate to the Obama campaign. I wonder what that connection could be.
Update: for those new to the site, I recommend What Really Happened, a slide-show that describes a concise history of the Middle East.
Hat tip: Charles Johnson.
Columbus Dispatch smacks down CAIR's grievance o' the week
The exceptional CHAT blog describes CAIR's war on Michael Ramirez, the editorial cartoonist of Investors Business Daily.
In their latest salvo, CAIR organized a letter-writing campaign to the Columbus Dispatch complaining about the accompanying cartoon.Send polite comments about this Nazi-style cartoon depicting Iranians as roaches fleeing a sewer to: gsheller@dispatch.com, michael.ramirez@investors.com
CHAT goes on to call out this hypocrisy in stark terms:
This might strike the average reader as a bit hypocritical, as CAIR has not said a single word about the avalanche of racist hate cartoons published throughout the Islamic world; then again, CAIR has never had much of a problem with it's hypocrisy.But let's leave that aside for a moment and focus on the fact that CAIR substantially misrepresented the cartoon. Ramirez clearly did not have all Iranians themselves in mind, as the cockroaches are streaming from a grate emblazoned with the word "extremism".
To their credit, the editors of the Columbus Dispatch rejected CAIR's critique and instead shredded their missives with a pithy rejoinder.
CAIR also likens the cartoon to Nazi propaganda. This is a remarkable display of intellectual gymnastics. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of the Jewish state and questions the Holocaust, while his regime tries to develop nuclear weapons. If CAIR is truly concerned about the promotion of Nazi ideas and the use of Nazi methods, it should direct its attention to Tehran... In this case, CAIR has misrepresented this cartoon and missed the mark by fabricating a false grievance.
Well done.
Update: Extreme Mortman notes Ramirez' well-deserved Pulitzer. Now, which one of you SOBs put truth serum in the Pulitzer Committee's coffee?
New Republic says that Obama's preacher is a former Muslim
Anyone wondering how Obama's fiery preacher -- Jeremiah Wright -- could support terrorists like Hamas and virulent racists like Louis Farrakhan?Wonder no more, Sparky. According to the New Republic, Jeremiah Wright is a former Muslim who somehow strayed from the "flock." While I suspect that most American Muslims would reject the agenda of Hamas and Farrakhan, Wright's bizarre attachment to anti-U.S. causes could very well be traceable to his one-time faith.
Irrespective of that lineage, Obama's campaign and the mainstream media appear to have done their best to obfuscate Wright's background. Gateway Pundit has more.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Dreams of my (Communist) father
Holy crap! PrestoPundit has the scoop of the week... and maybe of the entire year.
There's a big mystery at the heart of Barack Obama's Dreams For My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. What was Barack Obama doing seeking out Marxist professors in college? Why did Obama choose a Communist Party USA member as his socio- political counselor in high school? Why was he spending his time studying neocolonialism and the writings of Frantz Fanon, the pro-violence author of "the Communist Manifesto of neocolonialsm", in college? Why did he take time out from his studies at Columbia to attend socialist conferences at Cooper Union?
And there is more mystery in the book. Why does Obama consider working in a consulting house for international business like being "a spy behind enemy lines?" Why does he repeatedly find it so hard to explain his political views to others? Why was he driven to become a left-aligned political organizer?
PrestoPundit acquired a copy of a seminal paper authored by Barack Obama (the elder) for East Africa Journal. In it, Obama criticizes a pro-Western policy for being insufficiently socialist. The 1965 paper -- entitled Problems Facing Our Socialism -- advocated an almost unbelievable agenda for Kenya.
1) Communal ownership of land including forced confiscation of privately held land.2) Nationalization of "European" and "Asian" businesses with control handed over to the "indigenous" population.
3) Tax rates up to 100%: "...there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay..."
4) A rejection of socialism for communism.
5) Price controls to ensure the middle class can afford to tour Kenya.
6) Government-owned and -operated "model farms" similar to those of the Soviet Union.
And how does Barack Obama the younger deal with his father's communist leanings in his book? He obfuscates and disguises them -- as well he should.
Read the whole thing.
Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn
Scientists near discovery of 'God particle'
Mark Henderson, of the London Times:
The 40-year hunt for the holy grail of physics – the elusive “God particle” that is supposed to give matter its mass – is almost over, according to the leading scientist who first came up with the theory... Peter Higgs, whose work gave his name to the elusive Higgs boson particle, said that he was more than 90 per cent certain it would be found within the next few years.The Higgs boson was the professor’s elegant 1964 solution to one of the great problems with the standard model of physics – how matter has mass and thus exists in a form that allows it to make stars, planets and people. He proposed that the universe is pervaded by an invisible field of bosons that consist of mass but little else.
As particles move through this field, bosons effectively stick to some of them, making them more massive, while leaving others to pass unhindered. Photons, light particles that have no mass, are not affected by the Higgs field at all...
The folks at FermiLab have more on Higgs-Boson in what they assert is plain English.
Lines o' the Day
• Democrat Ed Rendell: "Keith Olbermann should be on the Obama payroll... If he’s not, he should be on the Obama payroll."• Time Magazine's Bobby Ghosh: "...every Iraqi who offers me a view on American politics seems to be praying for a McCain victory."
• Clinton spokesperson Mo Elleithee: “If the hospital claims it [Hillary's fable regarding an uninsured pregnant woman who died because she did not have $100 for treatment] did not happen that way, we respect that.”
• Pennsylvania organizer for the Obama Campaign, Darnell L. Williams: "So you all thought that Nazism were finished after World War II? No, only Hitler was finished, the party which was never outlawed out side Germany, moved on to infiltrate Western governments. They don't use that name any more. They just use other political parties to spread their agenda... President Bush is part of that movement. Below is the candidate for the next four years... [McCain is the] Third Reich candidate."
• Hugh Hewitt: "...the MSM is allowing [Obama] to march to Denver without engaging in an extended conversation about what to do with the increasing militancy of Iran (and its proxy Hezbollah). This is one of the greatest failures of American journalism. Imagine the 1940 campaign being conducted without FDR or Wilkie commenting on the war in Europe... Senator Obama: what would you do about the Qods Force?"
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Ten Worst Brands of All Time
10 • Don Ringo's Discount Dianetics -- "Scientology on a budget!"
9 • Cuyohoga River Jerky
8 • Toilet Taco Fast-Acting Laxatives7 • Dr. Poon's Meatless Health Steaks
6 • Active Baby Spandex Workout Diapers
5 • Cap'n Anchovy Breakfast Cereal
4 • Popiel Pocket Juicer3 • Billy O'Goyim's Pork-filled Bagels
2 • I can't believe it's not camel!
And the number one worst brand of all time? 1 • Hillary Clinton: the "experienced candidate".
The Left's Litany of Lies
You know what's startling? The fact that liberals (er, I mean, progressives) have blithely ignored a tidal wave of lies promoted by their ostensible leaders. And I don't mean routine buffoonery like Hillary's tale of Bosnian snipers disguised as child greeters or her mother's encounter with Sir Edmund Hillary in The Time Tunnel.Instead, I refer to the Democrats' tectonic lies. Lies so foundational, so interwoven into Democrat lore that they can no more be removed from the party than its symbol -- the ass -- can be replaced with a platypus.
Some of the most outrageous lies marketed by the left include the following:
LIE #1: There is no terrorist threat. There is... No... Terrorist... Threat.... I repeat: There is no terrorist threat. None.
On April 2, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security issued the following statement: "Nuclear terrorism remains a threat." But perhaps the DHS is populated with partisan liars? Oh, wait, a report from the Congressional Research Service, a bipartisan team of scientists and researchers, opens with the following statement:
It would be difficult for terrorists to mount a nuclear attack on a U.S. city, but such an attack is plausible and would have catastrophic consequences, in one scenario killing over a half-million people and causing damage of over $1 trillion...
In combating nuclear terrorism, the standard for success for the United States is daunting — zero nuclear detonations, which may require stopping every terrorist or rogue state attempt to acquire and deliver a nuclear weapon — while a single nuclear detonation in the United States would constitute a terrorist success... ...studies have shown many potential weaknesses in U.S. ability to thwart nuclear terrorism.
Furthermore, there have been numerous documented attempts at nuclear terrorism in the past. And more appear to be on the way, with the Atlantic's William Langewiesche stating "the spread of atomic weapons can't be stopped."
The assertion that "there is no terrorist threat" is as baldfaced a lie as has ever been marketed to the American people even disregarding the stunning national security ramifications.
LIE #2: Iraq is a distraction from the War on Terror. This fabrication, unceasingly marketed across the entire swath of spectrum controlled by the mainstream and leftist new media, is as patently false as the assertion that Michael Moore is a celebrity endorser for Subway.
The website Hussein and Terror (authored by Deroy Murdock) is an excellent starting point for understanding Iraq's role as the central clearinghouse of terror. Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Ansar al-Islam and Salman Pak are central to that level of understanding; those who can't define these terms believe this lie and those who know the terms comprehend why this is such an egregious lie.Other facets to consider include A.Q. Kahn's offer of nuclear weapon design to Iraq and Kenneth Timmerman's analysis of recently released Pentagon documents:
“Despite their incompatible long-term goals, many terrorist movements and Saddam found a common enemy in the United States,” the report’s authors at the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) state... ...a Jan. 18, 1993 order from Saddam Hussein, transmitted to the head of Iraqi intelligence, “to hunt the Americans that are in Arab lands, especially in Somalia, by using Arab elements or Asian (Muslims) or friends.” ...In response, the head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service informed Hussein that Iraq already had ties with a large number of international terrorist groups, including “the Islamist Arab elements that were fighting in Afghanistan and [currently] have no place to base and are physically present in Somalia, Sudan, and Egypt.” In other words, al-Qaida.
Put simply, Hussein's Iraq was linked to a myriad of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Putting Hussein down was a blessing not only for the Iraqi people but also for the citizens of the West who would have suffered as victims of terror attacks sponsored by Saddam.
LIE #3: The Ripple Effect: not so much a single lie as an entire genus of lies in which falsehoods spread from left-wing anthills to the mainstream media.
A perfect example is represented by a recent (March, 2008) incident involving CNN's Glenn Beck. In an interview with pastor John Hagee, Beck noted that certain crackpots had emailed him with rumors that Barack Obama was the "Anti-Christ."Within hours, the odious (and failing) Media Matters website posted an "alert" that claimed Beck had seriously considered that Obama is the Anti-Christ. As you might expect, this alert was effectively read right off a teleprompter by an unhinged crackpot (and MSNBC "journalist") named Keith Olbermann. At which point, the New York Times picked up the story.
The whispering campaigns allege that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim planning to impose Islamic law on the country. Incredibly, he is even accused — in earnest! — of being the Antichrist... Glenn Beck of CNN asked the Rev. John Hagee, a conservative evangelical, what the odds are that Mr. Obama is the Antichrist.
In other words, the Ripple Effect -- a series of increasingly shrill falsehoods -- spread from an inconsequential progagandist website to the New York Times (but I repeat myself).
On CNN, Beck predicted the outcry before it even occurred and also described a series of similar events that can all be categorized as outright lies.
LIE #4: the assertions of Obama's church - I need not rehash the all of the lies of Pastor Wright and his friend Louis Farrakhan.
The highlights: the U.S. government invented HIV as a means of genocide against people of color; that racist Louis ("The Jews helped Hitler get the Third Reich on the road") Farrakhan "epitomizes greatness"; and reprinting (in a church newsletter, no less) the lies of a murderous posse of terrorist thugs known as Hamas.The church, now under greater scrutiny due to Obama's 20-year relationship with it, has done its best to airbrush its website, removing damaging newsletters and statements. Furthermore, references to Wright on Obama's website have been purged.
Both are moves reminiscent of the "bad old days of the Soviet Union."
Why do progressives buy into this tripe? Well, for one, they're Democrats.
And I'm just getting started. More leftist lies are on the way.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
New York Times' website highlights good news in Iraq
Just kidding.
The Times would sooner devote its entire front page to a biography of Larry "Bud" Melman than illustrate what is really happening in Iraq.Update: Vanderleun notes the accelerating decline of the New York Times. The money graph depicts the time-frame of '93 to '07.
...you need to ask yourself what happened to the New York Times at the beginning of this inexorable drift downward? One fear factor stands out... Arthur Ochs [Pinch] Sulzberger, Jr....became the publisher of The New York Times in 1992 and chairman of The New York Times Company in 1997...
Make sure you catch Vanderleun's line o' the day.
Hat tip: Master Gunnery Sergeant Kirk
The midnight ride of Paulette Revere
Tom Elia, writing at the New Editor:
Senator Clinton says she feels like Paul Revere. Make that Paulette Revere.
"Senator Obama has been very timid and very unenthusiastic with doing anything with the economy," Clinton, D-N.Y., said at a tarmac press conference in Burbank, California on Thursday, "I feel like Paulette Revere -- the recession is coming, the recession is coming!"Is Paul Revere really the proper reference?
Chicken Little or The Girl Who Cried Wolf might be more appropriate.
Or just plain, old "loser."
Larwyn's Link Explosion: gain a wife, lose a speeding ticket
• Jay notes that the ACLU has assembled a "Dream Team" (plus Janet Reno) to defend the Gitmo terrorists including KSM, the mastermind behind the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans. The fact that Reno's on the team could only mean one thing: the diabolical Bush administration has stashed David Koresh and Elián González in a secret dungeon underneath Gitmo.• AJ Strata asks why European Al Qaeda-types are traveling to Pakistan via Iran. Maybe they're just getting cheap duty-free liquor?
• Copious Dissent examines the New York Times polling methodology and comes away stunned -- but not surprised -- at the inherent dishonesty. You may remember the headline: Weak Economy Sours Public’s View of Future, New Poll Finds. The Times studiously misrepresented the most important question of the poll. It asked How would you rate the financial situation in your household these days? Is it very good, fairly good, fairly bad or very bad?. A mere 72% of respondents answered "Very Good" or "Fairly Good."
• Redstate documents the ties between Barack Obama and Intifada:
Obama's association with the ISM through his church and lobbying in Chicago goes even deeper than just his past links to Al Awda and Ali Abunimah. His pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity Union Church of Christ in Chicago, are both equally involved with the ISM.
Hmmm. Obama's church supports Hamas terrorists, Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and now this. But I'm certain that Barack never knew that any of these haters and murderers were associated with his church.
• Fausta finds that polygyny is now an acceptable excuse for speeding:
Mohammed Anwar said a ban would make it difficult to commute between his two wives and fulfil his matrimonial duties... His lawyer told a Scottish court the Muslim restaurant owner has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow - he is allowed up to four under his religion - and sleeps with them on alternate nights... Airdrie Sheriff Court had heard that Anwar was caught driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone in Glasgow, fast enough to qualify for instant disqualification... Anwar admitted the offence, but Sheriff John C. Morris accepted his plea not to be banned and allowed him to keep his licence.
Extra wives to avoid speeding tickets, you say? Hmmm.... interesting...
Friday, April 04, 2008
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