Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The new Mad Magazine is here!


The new Mad Magazine has hit the shelves.

Start the countdown until Slate, Keith Olbermoon and Bob Herbert charge that the cover represents a "coded" allusion to race.

Never mind that Chimpy (that's Emperor Chimpatine to you) McBushitlerburton was only portrayed as Alfred E. Neumann about the same number of times as there are atoms in the universe.

Linked by: Hot Air, Instapundit and Barcepundit. Thanks!

Monday, August 04, 2008

My new bumper sticker



Update: Investors Business Daily:

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., now says he can live with "limited" drilling. But listen closely at what he said in his energy speech in Lansing, Mich., on Monday:

He called the inclusion of "a limited amount of new offshore drilling" in new bipartisan legislation a "drawback," adding that "I still don't believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution." But he said "I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan."

"Consider" should not be reported as "support," as the media have done. Moreover, Obama also wants a windfall profit tax — certain to exacerbate high fuel prices by lessening domestic production, as it did under Jimmy Carter.

And I have yet to hear someone define what a "windfall" profit is.

Barack Obama's top seven fuel-saving tips


It's not just proper tire inflation: Senator Obama has a number of wonderful fuel-saving tips.


These are certain to reduce gas prices and deliver true energy independence to America.

Remind me never to become a rock star


Judging by Eddie Van Halen, there are healthier professions.


That's just freaking scary.

Picture: Future Rock Hall.

EFF's new tools lets users test for ISP interference


You may have heard about Comcast's denial-of-service attack against BitTorrent users. After initially denying that they'd done anything wrong, they finally came clean only to have their hand slapped by the FCC.

One positive coming out of the case: it no longer takes an investigation by our crack mainstream media to determine whether your ISP is picking and choosing which applications get to make it to your desktop.

In light of today's FCC ruling against Comcast, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a software tool dubbed, "Switzerland," for internet users to check ISP interference of their connections.

Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney says: "The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs interfering with your Internet connection. It's up to concerned Internet users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort. Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit."

A Helicopter Tour of Mr. Obama's Neighborhood


Welcome to Barack Obama's neighborhood. No, not the neighborhood that includes his mansion, but the area where Obama did his "community organizing" and where he served as a state senator.

As a state senator, Obama created a massive pool of tax credits for developers (that would benefit his friends and supporters like Tony Rezko).

And while campaigning for president, Obama promises to fund an "Affordable Housing Trust Fund" that could funnel real-estate developers an estimated $500 million a year.

This is Grove Parc, one of dozens of failed developments paid for by taxpayers under Obama's watch. Many of the units are uninhabitable and much of the site has been condemned.

Grove Parc and many other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters.

While the developers collected millions from taxpayers, tenants lost their homes or were driven out by collapsed roofs, infestation, lack of heat, and other forms of blight and neglect.

Grove Parc is but one of dozens of properties, which represent thousands of housing units, utterly ruined by Obama's friends and supporters.

For eight years Obama represented this neighborhood; Grove Parc by itself holds 504 subsidized apartments.

99 of the units are uninhabitable due to unfixed problems by the developers and managers. Roofs have collapsed, sewage backs up into sinks, and mice scamper throughout.

Grove Parc now faces demolition.

The poor people living here have gotten the shaft from Obama and his developer buddies.

And now Obama wants to extend this "success" to the entire United States by creating an "Affordable Housing Trust Fund" with a half billion dollars of taxpayer money that would likely be funneled to his friends and backers.


Major hat tip: Boston Globe. Linked by: Wizbang Blog, The Real Barack Obama and Old Controller. Thanks!

Sunday, August 03, 2008

The Vote Reaper


Awesome.

Watch it now.

Hat tip: The indispensable American Digest.

Check out the new puppy!


So yesterday we took a road-trip to see our new puppy. On the interstate, we spotted a bunch of mattresses bouncing around.

Getting closer, we discover a sedan with three mattresses tied -- in haphazard fashion -- driving about 60 MPH.

The mattresses were bopping up and down and looked ready to fly away. I didn't stick around to watch the fun and accelerated past the rocket scientist.

Awww... look at the puppy!

It's a six-week old female standard (bred from champions, so we're told). This would be our second standard; our first is turning ten years old.

Barack plans a few minor changes to Mount Rushmore


I suppose this was to be expected given his pretentious logo, faux presidential seal, Soviet-style posters and what not.


Hey, look on the bright side.

He decided not to include Che!

Troubling donations to Barack Obama, starting with Valerie Jarrett


According to Newsweek Magazine, one of Barack Obama's most trusted advisers is Valerie Jarrett. She is, says the Chicago Tribune, one of Barack and Michelle Obama's closest friends.

Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Company, which managed the controversial Grove Parc Plaza housing complex and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006.


A recent Boston Globe report called many of Grove Parc's units "uninhabitable."

About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

When the Globe interviewed Jarrett, conditions at Grove Parc were so grim that she refused to answer any questions about taxpayer-subsidized housing.

Presumably Ms. Jarrett knows her own name, although from the federal contribution database that's not entirely clear. Consider these two donations to Obama's primary campaign in 2007.

"Jannett","Valeri","Jannett, Valeri","Habitat/CEO","2100","OBAMA, BARACK","P","01/26/2007","CHICAGO","IL","60615-0000"
"Jarrett","Valerie","Jarrett, Valerie Ms","Habitat Co/Executive VP","2300","OBAMA, BARACK","P","09/30/2007","CHICAGO","IL","60615-0000"

If Ms. Jannett (Habitat's CEO) is the same as Ms. Jarrett (Habitat's Executive VP), these donations would appear to be over the legal limit of $2300 per individual.

And I'm guessing they are.

Those aren't the only troubling donations. A little bit of analysis yields the following donations that appear to be over the legal limit; most occurred during the primary season.

22014 EDWAN, MONIR -0000 P
9200 DIES, MARTIN 78701-0000 P
8550 O'DONNELL, MERRY T MS 33408-0000 P
6900 CLEMENTS, BOB 06902-0000 P
6900 ELLIOTT, ROBERT R 82410-0000 P
6900 FRIEDMAN, TIMOTHY 60614-0000 G
6900 MELTON, WILLIAM N. MR. 22181-0000 P
6900 ROHR, REBECCA 10004-0000 P
6900 SIEVERS, JAMES 59716-0000 P
6900 TURNER, CAL III 37205-0000 P
6900 WINTROUB, CAREY J 94121-0000 P
6827 ROWE, JOHN 92067-0000 P
6242 WELTNER, ANNE 30305-0000 P
6000 RHODES, SILAS H 10536-0000 P
5900 LAWRENCE, VINCENT 33712-0000 P
4700 VINOLY, RAFAEL 10013-0000 P
4600 ARNO, ANDY 10023-0000 P *
4600 ARNO, JANIS 10023-0000 P *

*Andy and Janis Arno are married to each other and thus can't both donate the couple's maximum of $4600.

The odd case of Gaza resident Monir Edwan has been discussed previously.

Some questions come to mind:

What would happen if someone serious (like the mainstream media) investigated Obama's donations?


Especially since Obama's website appears to happily accept illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Iranian Missiles in Venezuela


Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win:

[the company] is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

Perhaps the Unions can do for Wal-Mart what they've done for GM, Ford and Chrysler.

And aren't there, like, 4,000 different government agencies that now protect workers' rights, working conditions, safety, ...? Just wondering.

Fausta: Iranian missiles are in Venezuela. Not to worry, Democrats tell us that there's no need for missile defense.

Don Surber: How 'bout nitrogen in those bus tires?:

The Empty Suit on drilling on Thursday, as blogged by the New York Times:

"It won't lower prices today. It won't lower prices during the next Administration. While this won't save you at the pump, it sure has done a lot to help Senator McCain raise campaign dollars."

The Empty Suit on Friday, from the NYT:

"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."

Translation: The people want drilling. Welcome to the underside of the bus, Mr. Drilling Ban. Hey, as long as you are down there, how about checking the tire inflation?

Dan Riehl: Firm leadership with the courage to make the tough decisions, stick to them, all wrapped-up in a new kind of politics.

New York Tines*: Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet.

PMSNBC: Barack Obama's Choice For Veep Is Barack Obama.

*I call them the New York Tines cuz' you can stick a fork in 'em.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

When not to hyphenate names











Hat tip: Papa B

Judgment to... errr... uhm... well... waffle?


01-10-07: "I am not persuaded... that... 20,000 additional troops in Iraq... uh... is gonna solve the sectarian violence there, in fact, I think it'll do the reverse."

07-18-07: "My assessment is that the surge has not worked."

11-11-07: "I would end this war and I would have our troops out within 16 months."

03-19-08: "I will immediately begin to remove our troops."

07-03-08: Reporter: "...does that mean you will not change the 16-month [withdrawal] timetable?"

Obama: "Eh... uh... I... uh..."

07-08-08: "I did not anticipate... the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda... So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct."

07-20-08: [ABC's Terry Moran]: "...the surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis' rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country. Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again.' If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you -- would you support the surge?"

Obama: "No, because -- keep in mind that -" Moran: "You wouldn't?" Obama: "Well, no, keep -- these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult . Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with."

Moran: "And so, when pressed, Barack Obama says he still would have opposed the surge."

I wonder what the troops think of Obama's leadership skills?


Obama received thousands in illegal contributions (from Hamas?)


Atlas has crunched the numbers and discovered a swath of illegal campaign donations to Barack Obama. Consider the strange case of Monir Edwan of Rafah, GA (that's Gaza, by the way, not Georgia).

According to CampaignMoney, Monir has donated a total of $24,313 directly to Obama's campaign.

Yes, it's two... two... two federal election violations in one! Of course, it's completely illegal for a candidate for federal office to accept contributions from foreign nationals; and, as an added bonus, it's illegal for candidates to accept more than $2,300 from an individual in a single election cycle. As Debbie Schussel points out, since Gaza is controlled by the murderous group of terrorists known as Hamas, it's possible several other laws were violated by the Obama campaign.

A cursory search yields another Rafah resident -- Hosam Edwan -- who also illegally donated over $5,000.00 to Obama (oddly split up into ten separate donations over five days time).


In May, I reported that Obama's website appears to happily accept illegal campaign contributions. At the time I wrote:

No other presidential candidate allows such an easy channel for illegal campaign contributions. For example, John McCain and Hillary Clinton do not accept donations from abroad without a complete, written documentation packet sent via postal mail.

And, as one could have easily predicted, Obama's foreign chickens have come home to roost.

And if you're waiting for our beloved mainstream media to report this blockbuster story, I'm afraid all you'll hear are the chirps of crickets and the soft rustle of tumbleweed rolling by.

Linked by: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. Thanks!