Saturday, May 23, 2009

Which is it, Nancy: Ignorance or Incompetence?

Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the CIA misled her and other Congressional intelligence committee members on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs).

Pelosi also claimed that, when it came to everything that occurred in Iraq, as well as the use of EITs, the Bush administration misled her and the rest of Congress.

In fact, the very day George W. Bush left office in January, Pelosi excoriated the 43rd president, saying that he completely misled her and all Americans in explaining why the U.S. should go to war in Iraq.

In 2007, the now nearly bankrupt New York Times backed up Pelosi's assertions, claiming that Bush and his aides conducted "a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world..."

In 2004, Pelosi pilloried the Bush administration for misleading Congress about Iraq, stating that the "war has been a grotesque mistake that has diminished our reputation in the world and has not made America safer."

Of course, Pelosi contradicted herself when it made political sense to do so. In 1998, she stated, "As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."


If Pelosi truly is consistently misled this easily -- on the very topics upon which she has been repeatedly briefed -- then she is either ignorant or incompetent.

And in either case, she must resign as Speaker of the House.



Update: Emily Littela Pelosi.

Aerogel: See-through, strong as steel and lighter than air


Dornob has a look at a low-density construction material of the future. Called Aerogel, it can support thousands of times its own weight; suppress the transfer of heat, cold and sound; is neither opaque nor fully transparent and is 1,000 times less dense than glass.

How is it made? It is derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. The result: an extremely low-density solid-state material with remarkable properties, most notably an ability to act as a thermal insulator.

It is nicknamed "frozen smoke" because of its translucence. And it feels like a very light styrofoam.

In the past year, promising new methods for inexpensively producing aerogel have cropped up. So its use as a commonplace building material -- as opposed to space shuttle tiles -- may be close at hand.


Larwyn's 'Lines: A Real Stimulus

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation

The looming fight over health care rationing: AIP (Priestap)
Barney Frank's ACORN lies: Spectator (Vadum)
House chair: we have votes to kill Pelosi Climate bill: Hill

A radical proposal for real stimulus: Greenroom
Another Obama straw-man burnt to cinders: Prairie
Thank you: S, C & A

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers?: NBC
President Above-it-all: NRO (Lowry)
Some lessons from history: our financial crisis: Advocate

Could the US lose its AAA rating?: MoneyRunner
Looking for Conservatism in all the wrong places: Driscoll
Liz Cheney Destroys Anderson Cooper: JWF

World

Has anything changed?: ynet
The UN wants to raise your kids: Rusty Ware

Media

In defense of Mark Levin: Riehl
CBS News Chief Legal Analyst: Is Cheney Just A 'D**k'?: NewsBusters
The news from White House TV: Riehl

RNC chair: Media didn't vet Obama because of race : Hill
WaPo tells terrorism story from wrong point of view: Greenroom
Pravda, Izvestia and President Obama: BMW

Cornucopia

V: a new take: Moonbattery
Bill Clinton Caught Groping Actress Fran Drescher: Weasel Zippers
Inglourious Basterds: Crittenden

Friday, May 22, 2009

Dear Barack: does your Chrysler 300C get 35.5 MPG?


"[Obama's] Mandate of 35.5 mpg by 2016 is like fighting obesity by outlawing large clothing"

Car & Driver has a detailed analysis of the Obama plan to utterly destroy America's auto industry.

Obama's CAFE Fuel Economy Standards to Create Fleet of Tiny, Expensive Vehicles - The proposed mandate raises CAFE standards about five percent annually from today’s level of 23 mpg for trucks and 27.5 mpg for cars to 30 mpg for trucks and 39 mpg for passenger cars by 2016, for an average of 35.5 mpg overall. This is roughly four years earlier than the already aggressive 35-mpg goalpost established by Congress in 2007...

...Senator after senator cites as evidence for the attainability of these standards the vehicles sold in Europe. But car for car, European vehicles aren't meaningfully more efficient. Take the Ford Focus sedan, a car that's comparably sized here and in Europe (although not the same vehicle). In the U.S., the base Focus sedan costs $15,000, has 140 hp, and is rated at 28 mpg combined by the EPA. The base Focus sedan available in Germany costs $20,000 (plus 19-percent tax!), has only 79 hp, and would be rated by the EPA at approximately 30 mpg combined if they were to test it. (Our estimate is based on standard differentials between U.S. and E.U. test numbers.) Paying an extra $5000, Europeans sacrifice 44 percent of their horsepower and gain less than 10 percent in fuel economy.

So why is Europe's fleet so much more efficient overall? The cars people buy there are much smaller. The Focus is one of the tinier mass-market cars sold in the U.S. today, but it's considered a reasonably sized family vehicle in Europe. The average European consumer buys a car a few sizes smaller than a Focus. (This is mainly due to space constraints in cities and smaller roads. If Europeans drove the long distances we do, they likely would drive Hummers, too.) And about half of Europeans buy diesels, which consume around 30-percent less fuel...

...All of this means that the anticipated $1300 price increase per vehicle quoted by the Obama administration is absurd. Only if consumers trade down a few vehicle sizes and pay $1300 can the targets be met...

...The Obama administration claims the new measures will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over seven years. But that claim assumes new-car buying habits continue unabated and that people will want to buy expensive, tiny cars. If people instead elect to purchase bigger, cheaper used vehicles, there will be no reduction in consumption; those used vehicles are the same "guzzlers" we're driving today. The fuel economy gains we might have seen with reasonable mileage targets for new vehicles won't be realized if fewer new vehicles are sold. Worse, the auto industry will continue to shrink because of the decrease in new-vehicle sales.

Jeez, what a surprise. Democrats try to engineer society and end up with a clusterf***.

I'm truly shocked, given that Medicare, the "War on Poverty", Social Security, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Medicaid, the FHA, the Obama "Stimulus" Package and all of the other Democrat Party boondoggles have been utter, complete failures. While vacuuming trillions of dollars out of taxpayers' pockets.

And do you know what's truly hysterical? The Hypocrite-in-Chief -- I mean, President Obama -- has a history of driving the kind of gas-guzzlers his policies decry.

The Chrysler 300C, for instance. And 300's of this vintage can expect to get 18 to 21 MPG.

So King Obama wants us to drive golf carts while he drives luxurious behemoths.

That figures.



Linked by: Dan Riehl. Thanks!

How much would you bid for a cave home?


Uniform Velocity points us to this spectacular dwelling:

And SCS has the original eBay details:

A 15,000 square-foot home built into a cave? I thought only Bruce Wayne could afford that sort of thing.


Norma Jean


Carabaas has an exceptional album of Marilyn Monroe photos taken in 1948.

An unexpected contest for supremacy


Fausta points us to this Theo Spark post:

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman are out for a stroll in town one day. As they walked, they come across a sign: "Beauty contest for the most beautiful woman in the world."

"I am entering!" said Snow White. After half an hour she comes out and they ask her, "Well, how'd ya do?"

"First Place!" said Snow White.

They continue walking and they see a sign: "Contest for the strongest man in the world."

"I'm entering," says Superman. After half an hour, he returns and they ask him, "How did you make out?"

"First Place," answers Superman. "Did you ever doubt?"

They continue walking when they see a sign: "Contest! Who is the greatest liar in the world?" Pinocchio enters.

After half an hour he returns with tears in his eyes.

"What happened?" they asked.

"Who the hell is this Nancy Pelosi?" asked Pinocchio.

Funny... and true.


Larwyn's 'Lines:The Federalism Amendments

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation

Proposed Federalism Amendments: Barnett
Cheney's speech, with video: Ace
Fed Changes Rules to Benefit Government Carmakers: NewsBusters

Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Insurers: Verum Serum
Homegrown Islamic Jihad in the Bronx: PJM (Chesler)
Why don't we Steele away?: BizzyBlog

Feds bust four 'man-made disaster' planners: GWP
The Gitmo Myth and the Torture Canard: Herman
Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney crush the Hypocrites: Ace

Jerkinator springs into action: will cut CA pay... in 7 months: LGF
Could Obama turn Indiana red again?: Charlie Foxtrot
What Obama means when he says 'fairness': PJM (Farrow)

Obama vs. Cheney: not a duel, but opening arguments: TAB
SEIU prez: Democracy is ugly: Marathon
Lefty blogger eyes Gitmo flip-floppery: Tiger

World

Obama to 'apologize' for America's role in WWII: GWP
Turkish advertising ready for membership in EU: AmerDig
Sham colleges open door to terror suspects: Times of London

‘Definitive Guide’ to Environmental Lawsuit on Eve of Chevron Shareholders Meeting: BMW

Climate

Shock: GE's Immelt endorses Cap-and-Trade scam: BMI
Waxman admits he doesn't understand his own bill: BlogProf

Media

Joe Klein: If only Krauthammer could walk, he’d be a better pundit: Hot Air
The most insanely biased "news" story in history: Power Line
NYT forced to admit error: AT (Rennert)

The value of newspapers: MoneyRunner

Thursday, May 21, 2009

BBC: Baby animals in the womb


The BBC used a combination of ultrasounds and computer-aided engineering software to create striking images of baby animals in the womb.

These photos are a couple of years old, but amazing nonetheless.


Freaks don't know 'bout my popsicle


First things first, I poppa, freaks all the honeys

Dummies - playboy bunnies, those wantin’ money

Those the ones I like ‘cause they don’t get nathan

'Cept popsicles and the occasional muffin

However, I stay 'sicled down to the socks

Rings and watch filled with rocks


File under "You don't see that every day"


Yep, that's a Rolls Royce in the middle of a supermarket.

Jalopnik has the back-story and a video report.

Introducing the Exciting, New 2010 Dodge Dictator





When Boomers and Gen-Y collide


Joy of Tech juxtaposes the generations.

Battleship Island: Japan's Rotting Metropolis


Viceland has an incredible photographic tour of Japan's Hashima Island, an hour's sail from Nagasaki's port.

...A former coal mining facility owned by Mitsubishi Motors, it was once the most densely populated place on earth, packing over 13,000 people into each square kilometre of its residential high-risers. It operated from 1887 until 1974, after which the coal industry fell into decline and the mines were shut for good...

...With their jobs gone and no other reason to stay in this mini urban nightmare, almost overnight the entire population fled back to the mainland, leaving most of their stuff behind to rot.

Today it is illegal to go anywhere near the place as it’s beyond restoration and totally unsafe...

In all seriousness, it reminds me of Grove Parc in Chicago, the first in a series of stunning success stories brought to you by Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama.


Larwyn's 'Lines: Funds stop lending to unionized companies

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation

Ten for the road: who will lead the GOP to recovery?: Malek
Obama in Wonderland: Times (Timmerman)
Like Tony Soprano running Catholic Charities: Examiner

Obama: don't you dare do for yourself!: NSWG (Karki)
Sen. Robert C. Byrd will outlast Pelosi's speakership: Surber
Fund manager: no lending to unionized companies: Bloomberg

State of Indiana files objection in Chrysler: Volokh
Bachmann vs. Barney's Frank on ACORN (Video): wowOwow
Adios, New York: JWF

Chrysler Dealers: We Wuz Robbed: BMW
Say goodnight to the V-8, Gracie: First In

Media

All the news that's fit to suppress: Malkin
Climate Depot banned in Louisiana!: Depot
Nailing the Times over the ACORN Rent-a-Mob: Fox

Obama Lied, Jobs Died: PJM (Blumer)
Letters to Maurice: MoneyRunner

World

Middle East Peace: End run around Obama: INN
Somali Justice: Islamist-style: BBC
Iran's missile test shows it has no desire to unclench its fist: Telegraph

Detailed analysis of Obama-Netanyahu meeting: Rubin

Culture

Bishop Finn: Obama Brought Fr Jenkins’ Appeals to ‘Dialogue’ to ‘a Screeching Halt’: Cardinal Newman
Nationalize Martin Luther King Jr. Day: LegalIns
Folding Electric Car: Vicious Babushka

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Maxine "Minus Zero" Waters


Yes, she really answered the question this way.

Looks like Maxine has a new nickname.

And aside from being amazingly corrupt, this era's Democrat leaders are among the dumbest officials in American history.

Call them all "minus zero" on a scale of one to five.



Hat tip: SondraK.

20 of the most awesome sand sculptures ever


Here are my two favorites from Locked Up Mind.


I'm almost scared to imagine how much work went into these beauties.


Sacramento Bee publishes vicious screed bashing taxpayers, gets caught, then scrubs with milquetoast replacement


Early this morning, the failing Sacramento Bee published a "vicious screed" that pilloried taxpayers for refusing to feed California's insatiable state government.

After a firestorm of criticism over the tone of the op-ed, it was replaced with a mild-mannered critique aimed primarily at state legislators.

While all complete copies of the original piece appear to have been removed (and the Google Cache was intentionally disabled at the paper), I have reconstructed it using posts at Free Republic and Lexis-Nexis (via Sign On San Diego), the latter rightly terming it a "vicious screed".

But judge for yourself.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire / May 20, 2009 Wednesday 6:32 PM GMT

BYLINE: By The Associated Press

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL ....

Sacramento Bee: "You did it! Uh, so what now?"

Good morning, California voters. Do you feel better, now that you've gotten that out of your system?

You wanted to show the state's politicians just how mad you are at them. And you did. Boy, did you ever.

Proposition 1A with its taxes and its spending limit? Too much of one and not enough of the other, you said (or was it the other way around), and voted it down. Never mind that the taxes go into effect anyway. You showed 'em.

Proposition 1B? That was a tougher call.

Proposition 1C? No way. You like the lottery just like it is. And all they were going to do with that extra $5 billion was spend it.

Propositions 1D and 1E? Forget it. You had already voted to put money into preschool and mental health programs. You're not taking it out now.

And 1F? Heck, yeah! Let's not pay our legislators if they can't pass a budget on time. So what if it likely won't have any effect, or that this year they actually passed a budget months earlier than they needed to? That's not the point.

The point is that you're sick and tired of all this political mumbo-jumbo. So you showed those politicians who's in charge. You. You're now officially in charge of a state that will be something like $25 billion in the hole for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

So, now that you've put those irksome politicians in their place, maybe it's time to think about this: Since you're in charge, exactly what do you intend to do about that pesky $25 billion hole in the budget?

Lay off some state workers? Which ones? And how many? Remember, the entire state payroll is about $25 billion. You could lay off every last one of them every Highway Patrol officer, every prison guard, every state firefighter, every health inspector, every professor in the UC and CSU systems, every DMV employee and every nameless, faceless paper-shuffling bureaucrat and the state would only be barely in the black. But if you want to do that, go ahead. You're in charge, remember.

Wait, how about taking money back from the counties? Great idea. Not that it will be easy. Most of them are already in the red and getting ready to lay off cops, prosecutors, probation officers and clinic staff.

Let's see. What about laying off more teachers? Shortening the school year? Releasing prisoners? Selling some of the state's real estate holdings? Borrow billions to tide the state over until the economy improves

What's that? Few of these ideas sound like what you want to do? Well, that's OK. You really don't have to do these things yourself. You just have to figure out what you want done and tell the Legislature to do it.

They'll surely hop right on it, now that you're in charge. Just keep in mind that your suggestions have to keep the state solvent and able to meet all its legal obligations. And you know how complicated things get when the lawyers get involved.
You say it'll take you awhile to figure this stuff out, that you'll need a little time to get up to speed on the details? No problem. You've got until June 30 to get it all straight.

That sounds a lot like work, you say? Sorry, no whining allowed. You asked for this job. Now you've got it, so get on it. Oh, and remember. The entire nation is watching to see how you do now that you're in charge.

No pressure or anything. Just thought you'd want to know.

The comments from readers rightly expressed disgust and dismay at a newspaper that eviscerated taxpayers who dared to turn down an out-of-control government bureaucracy run amok. Here's the replacement op-ed.

Editorial: Time for reform - not for blame

NOW VOTERS HAVE JUDGED LEADERS; HOW WILL LEADERS TAKE THE REBUKE?

Good morning, members of the California Legislature. Good morning, Governor.

Feeling bruised and abused this morning? Well, you can't say you didn't see it coming. The polls have been saying for weeks that voters were going to do just what they did on Tuesday: Conclusively reject your slate on the ballot, Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E.

Today, on the morning after voters kicked around your best effort at fixing the state budget as if it were a deflated soccer ball, you face a decision.

You can blame the voters for reacting with uninformed and misplaced anger.

Or you can look in the mirror and admit you had it coming. And you know you did.

Over the last couple of decades you and your predecessors in both parties created an environment of cynicism that poisoned Californians' faith in democracy. You have insulated yourselves from the electorate. You have rigged elections by drawing noncompetitive districts. You have discouraged turnout with negative campaigning. You have catered to special interests across the political spectrum.

As the state's fiscal situation grew more and more dire, you responded with years of gimmicks and stalling followed, finally, by secret negotiations to produce what turned out to be (at least in our estimation) an acceptable compromise.

But by then, the problem was too big to be solved so easily. And it was too late to make your case to the voters, who were tuned out and disengaged, which is exactly how most of you wanted them.

There is no simple recovery from this disastrous state of affairs. First, there is that huge budget deficit - $20 billion? $23 billion? $25 billion? - to deal with, and quickly, before the state runs up on the rocks of insolvency.

But after that, a much harder task awaits: Restoring citizens' faith - not just in government, but in the possibility that they can trust their elected representatives to act responsibly and honorably to solve common problems.

There is only one way to do that: Work to reform California politics. Not just simple reforms, such as requiring only a majority vote to pass a budget, but larger ones, too: more transparency in the Legislature and the Governor's Office; less ballot-box budgeting; more accountable schools, cities, counties and special districts; modernized and more efficient government, including pay and benefits for the reality of life in the 21st century. In other words, make Californians feel they are getting their money's worth from the governments they pay for.

If that sounds difficult, well, it will be. You're starting from a deep hole, one that you've dug yourselves.

The first step is to stop digging. Don't blame voters, no matter how much you may want to. Accept their verdict with good grace. Acknowledge that even if they don't have a mastery of all the details of the state budget, their judgment about your performance is not subject to your approval.

And at bottom, that was what this election was about: Not the fine points of governing, but the judgment of the public on your performance. You have been judged and have been found wanting.

For the sake of California's future, here's hoping you respond with a commitment to regain the voters' trust and restore their faith in representative democracy. If you can't do that, this state has a problem too big to be measured in mere billions.

If ever an editorial board could execute a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree midair turn, that was it.

The original op-ed was up from early morning (12:30AM PST?) to around 10:00AM, at which time the response convinced editors to (*ahem*) edit the content. The stated rationale?

Note to our readers: Many of the comments below refer to an article that was posted in error. That article was a draft prepared for internal discussion among members of The Bee's editorial board. Such discussions are a routine part of our work, and frequently lead to editorials that are considerably different from writers' first drafts.

That's what happened in this case. After discussion, we decided that our initial editorial about the special election should take a different tack. The result was the editorial that now appears on this page. This editorial is the only editorial about the special election that appeared in Wednesday's editions of The Bee.

David Holwerk, Editorial Page Editor, The Sacramento Bee

Once again proving that the only way to separate the mainstream media from big government Democrats is with a crowbar.


Postscript and possibly unrelated coincidence: The Sacramento Bee has a job opening for an Editorial Page Editor. Tell 'em you saw it at Doug Ross @ Journal when you apply.


Update: Michelle Malkin points us to Radio Patriot and Dave Logan who were on the story from the get-go.

Hat tip: Mark Steyn. Linked by: Ace, Common Sense, Ed Driscoll, Hot Air, La Shawn Barber, Michelle Malkin, McClatchy Watch, Memeorandum, NewsBusters, Patterico, Sister Toldjah, Six Meat Buffet and SondraK. Thanks!

Baddest epitaph of all time


Spotted on Flickr.



Bling!


Of course with select-fire, it could sound like:

BLING BLING BLING --- BLING BLING BLING --- BLING BLING BLING!!!

The caption reads: "a gold-plated, Chinese-made 3.8mm assault rifle goes on display at an anti-terrorism display in Beijing."

'Cause there's nothing in the rulebook that says you can't be stylin' when you're cappin' terrorists.

Shamelessly ripped from SondraK.