Breakfast Scramble: Obama’s Mere Worlds

Dumbo, a one trick donkey, from William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:

Whenever Obama’s in political trouble, he gives a speech.

Whenever he’s in a lot of trouble, he gives a major speech.

When he’s on the verge of a political meltdown, he gives a historic speech.

Has Obama ever given a memorable speech? I think not. For a guy who gives a lot s speeches, he just is not very good at it.

Guitar Wars, Gibson strikes back, from Tennessian:

Eleven days ago, Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was getting ready for work when he got a phone call at home from his assistant, whose voice sounded panicky.

Half a dozen armed federal agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were searching the Gibson executive suite. Two of the company’s South Nashville guitar factories also had just been raided, along with one in Memphis.

[…]

In recent days, Gibson’s CEO has gone on a counterattack, telling various talk radio and TV news programs that the raids are an “outrageous abuse of federal power” that have unfairly singled out his company, perhaps for political reasons.

“There’s no doubt we’re being persecuted,” Juszkiewicz said. “But while I was sitting in my conference room, while agents blocked the door to my office, I decided two things. One, we were going to try and fight this in court. Secondly, we were going to give this issue visibility.”

Is Dumbo turning us into a nation of Howard Beal’s?

Da Mayor’s supporter guns down eight.  Has to be. Only the mayor’s campaign contributors are allowed to have guns in Bloomberg’s gun-free paradise from Reuters:

NEW YORK — A male teen allegedly gunned down eight people at a house party in New York City early on Sunday morning, evaded police capture and remains at large, according to New York City police officials.

Dasilva Oneil, 17, opened fire before roughly 3:40 a.m. in the Bronx, a Manhattan borough, hospitalizing eight, including an 11-year-old male and four teens.

I say send New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to jail for willfully aiding and abetting crime.  What say you?

This economy is lost, from Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard:

For President Obama, with job growth stuck near zero, the simplest question is a domestic one. How do you think jobs are created?

This has never been asked of Obama and never answered, so far as I know. And chances are he won’t answer it definitively when he unveils his new jobs program before a joint session of Congress this week

More from Lonely Conservative

Herman Cain: President Obama Doesn’t Understand Basic Economics

Cheers to Herman Cain for stating what’s obvious to anyone paying attention. Cain was on with Neil Cavuto to talk about the rotten jobs numbers that came out this morning and the president’s dreadful handling of the economy. Cain said that the president doesn’t have even a basic understanding of economics. He also addressed how the Democrats have taken the race card to a new low, which corresponds to the new low in the economy
The President is purported to have studied law at Harvard.Yet has no law license does not appear to know much about the law

And more Charles Krauthammer, video:

Hat tip and more, Nice Deb:

Charles Krauthammer says Obama has his “foot on the economy”, and  his speech next week, will not to be a serious attempt to turn things around, it’s a speech to frame the debate for his re-election. It will include ridiculous things he knows the republicans will reject, setting up the premise he will use to blame the bad economy on them. Then he’ll accuse Republicans of selfishly politicizing the issue.

The positive speech Obama could give on Thursday, would be to announce his and Joe Biden’s resignations.

The lame streamers said a lot  about Barack Obama in the Aught Eight campaign.   Was any of it true?   From Rosslyn Smith  American Thinker:

If anything, Obama’s situation is almost the opposite of Truman’s. Obama has long dwelt inside the cocoon of Ivy League-educated experts bereft of common sense, and if anything, he has been massively overexposed in the media. Since 2004, the press has been extolling Obama’s intelligence, wisdom, and first-rate temperament at every opportunity. Many voters took Obama at the media’s estimation of his skills in 2008. The record increasingly suggests that in fact, Obama possess none of these traits. The patented Obama partisan speech with its straw men, false choices, blame-shifting, and self-aggrandizement in the very heart of representative democracy is likely to only make more people realize what a terrible mistake they made in

More from Jill, Pundit & Pundette:

Perhaps there’s something wrong with the president’s wiring. Look at what makes him angry. Jim Geraghty:

Yup. That’s what gets the president outraged. Not the “Fast and Furious” scandal, not Bashir Assad continuing to mow down people in Syria, not the number of Americans on food stamps, not the Gibson guitar raid, not waste in the stimulus bill, not the loss of $500 million or so in that Solyndra… no, having to compromise on speech timing is what really grinds his gears.

That first-class temperament is a gift that keeps on giving, no?

My belief is that Dim Won, a/k/a Dumbo, b/k/a Barack Obama is dumb and lazy. For years he was told that merely showing up was good enough. Dim Won was never forced to hone his arguments for a critical audience.

And more from Donald Lambro, Washington Times:

Making Mr. Obama the investor-in-chief, deciding how and where the nation’s capital resources should be spent, hasn’t worked and isn’t going to work. Ask Japan, which has gone on a public-works spending binge though its economy has been in a slump for two decades.

Mr. Obama is driven by his ideology and not by common sense.

Taking it to the Congressional Black Caucus, video:

Hat tip and more video, Nice Deb.

More stupid media, Alex Alvarez, Mediaite

Hide your kids! You may have already heard that Chaz Bono, the transgendered former daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono who recently and very publicly underwent gender reassignment surgery, is going to be a contestant on ABC’s extremely popular Dancing with the Stars, where he’ll be competing with a female dance partner. And some people are pissed.

Sex change is impossible.

Well, I’m not sure but it appears we are back.
Looks like there was an RPC call to Blogrolling.com, a site which has apparently gone down, hidden in my sitecode. I’ve removed it, but have in that process fouled some of the other widgets I was running. I’m on my way home now and will sort it out when I get home tonight, or tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, business as usual.

The Obama recovery plan, spend money, and imagine jobs, from Karin McQuillan, American Thinker:

Obama tells us his stimulus plan was a brilliant success. Yes, it plunged us into economy-destroying debt and deficit.  The alternative would have been worse, we are told.  All three of my friends and family in financial straits are loyal Democrats, and they believe him.  “Obama created 2.5 million jobs,” my underemployed friend tells me. “Without his policies, it would have been much worse.”

“What are the jobs?” I asked him. Neither one of us had a clue.

We sat down together at the internet and did a Google search, ‘stimulus job creation.’

We found out where the number 2.5 million jobs’ created or saved’ comes from.  It comes from a formula.  The formula comes from a theory.  The formula says that for every dollar the government spends, 1.5 dollars’ worth of economic activity is generated, and presto, jobs come out.  The economic geniuses working for Obama want us to believe that by definition, since they spent almost a trillion dollars in ‘stimulus’, they automatically created 2.4 million jobs.  This is called the multiplier effect.

I suggest that better name for the Obami’s  multiplier effect would be bovine scatology, or simply  BS.

The ‘Pubs have a plan, highlights, from Investors Business Daily:

– Delaying air pollution rules for utilities, preventing electricity price increases of as much as 24%.

– Stopping new EPA emission rules for boilers, cement and coal, possibly saving hundreds of thousands of jobs.

– Legislatively keeping the National Labor Relations Board from regulating the relocation of employers — a response to Boeing’s wish to build its 787 Dreamliner in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.

If you don’t donate to Obama re-election campaign, he does not care about your job

Is Bono the new euphemism for stupid? From a confused People Magazine:

Cher has spoken before of her admiration for her son Chaz and his courage. Now, she’s leaping to his defense after critics have questioned his inclusion on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars.

Chaz Bono is female. She was born a female and she will die a female.    You would think her mother ought to know that.

Dumbo’s school of economics, from Michael Bargo Jr.American Thinker:

President Obama’s historic expansion of government at a time of great recession is attributed to his socialist agenda of “income redistribution.” While Barack Obama did use these words in his campaign exchange with Joe the Plumber, in reality Obama’s behavior is better explained as an expression of the political DNA he acquired from Chicago’s Political Machine.

[…]

Step One in the growth of the Chicago Machine was patronage job creation. Step Two was finding a way to pay for it. Because Mayor Daley I was instrumental in getting Presidents Kennedy and Johnson nominated and elected,[xvii] he was able to bring Federal program dollars to Chicago to supplement the city budget. When asked about sending program money to Chicago, President John F. Kennedy once quipped, “That’s Mayor Daley’s city. Give him what he wants.”[xviii] Mayor Daley I started the Model Cities Program.[xix] The raison d’etre of this program was revealed by a 1972 investigation reported by the Chicago Tribune newspaper. It reported that half of the Model Cities Program money sent to City Hall was confiscated by Daley I and used to his own ends

Human existence requires the consumption of commodities.   The measure an any economic system is how well, or how efficiently, it produces commodities.    Under Rick Perry, Texas was so good at producing commodities that people immigrated to the state.   Capitalism, the market economy, is viable economic system.   It produces the necessary commodities to sustain human like.

In stark contrast, the Daley system is not an economic system, but rather a parasitic political system which sucks  the life blood out of its host economies.   The only commodity which the Daley system produces in excess is political votes, which are used to keep corrupt politicians in power, to enable them to such the economic life blood out of the Daley systems hosts.

The Daley system worked on the local level, because Chicago could suckle on the teats of the Chicago, Illinois and American tax payers.   Daley economics does not work, and can not work, on the national level. as Daley’s system requires an external revenue source.    Daley could con politicians in have state and nation tax payers foot his bill.

Alas poor Dumbo, Obama can not send the bill for his redistribution schemes to the United Nations.   In only hope that the Chinese, or some other suckers, continue to buy our debt   At some point, we will no longer me able to sell our debt and Obama’s Daley style Ponzi scheme will collaps under its own weight.

Dumbo tries to hijack Nine Eleven, from the New York Slimes:

The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is framed for overseas allies and their citizens and was sent to American embassies and consulates around the globe. The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States. That single-page document was issued to all federal agencies, officials said

A quite leak to the Slimes! Sure, the next thing the Obami will want us to believe is that Dumbo will present a job plan that will actually create jobs.

More from Lonely Conservative:

Just remember, it’s not about us. That’s the message from the White House in their guides to remembering 9/11 obtained by The New York Times.

As if we haven’t been observing it properly over the past decade and now we suddenly need guidance.

And more, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air:

That approach of making 9/11 about more than just America caught the attention of the Drudge Report, and will likely be a hot-button debate issue over the next two weeks.  Some will argue that the attacks and the anniversary are all about the US.  After all, al-Qaeda had specifically targeted the US in a series of attacks over almost a decade leading up to 9/11, and the most damaging attack was on one of our most prominent symbols of economic freedom and global integration — the World Trade Center.  Of course, they also attacked the Pentagon, the center of American military might and security.  Critics of the Obama administration may object to a perception that the focus on this day will shift in some measure from American victims of the attacks.

However, it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t really a change from the Bush administration’s position.

I don’t recall the Bush Forty-Three administration having the audacity of a dope in trying to tell American to commerate an event most lived through and still remember. I mean, Franklin Roosevelt, never tried to tell us how to commerate Pearl Harbot.

And yet still more, William Teach, Pirate’s Cove:

Weeks of debate, eh? If only he’d take the same time to deal with the economy. But, really, you know it will be President George W. Bush who will steal the show during the ceremonies. Obama’s the guy who expressed empathy with the Islamist animals who pulled off 9.11.

Nobody expects the Obami to actually worry about the economy.   Dealing with Dumbo’s thin skin and fragile ego is a monumental undertaking.

Meet the new Peggy Joseph, to wit one Alberta Parish, video:

Hat tip and more, Robert Stacy McCain, Other McCain:

Lots of f-bombs and other NSFW language here, but the really necessary content warning involves the coffee-spewing moment at which she starts talking about her “ancient ancestors.”

Watching this lady explain her worldview, I found myself wondering if she’s been hanging out with Peggy Joseph.

Go ahead and hit Stacy’s tip jar, but don’t refer to Parish as a lady.  I don’t know where Parish attended college, but she sure didn’t receive much of an education.   Parish thinks water should be free, and it is, down in her local river, swamp or mud puddle.    Not that such water is potable, but filtering, treating and transporting water to Parish’s tap requires human endeavors,  and the fruits of human endeavors are never free.

So question for Parish, if pizza were free, how much pizza would be available?  Answer, none.   Pizza a commodity, a product of human endeavor.    If would be pizza makers were forbidden to have a chance to profits from the fruits of their labors, they will not produce the product.

Queens, NY– Yes, I’m in the city. Some flooding, mostly in Jersey, and a number of trees down, again in Jersey, mostly.  I came in at 1am, so you can imagine that traffic was better than usual. I’m not looking forward to trying to drive out of here, but… at least I got in without incident.

Here in tosn, the air is one of a huge party last night, that nobody will admit to. In the end, yes, there’s a number of issues still to be worked out, and there’s a few people who were injured or died as a result of the storm….but it seems to me as a whole, the storm and it’s problems were somewhat less than advertised.

• Was all this noise from gov’t about Irene, Prudent?
  Yes, perhaps, but one gets the feeling that they’ve been so overly dramatic for their own political purposes.  Let’s face it, there’s not a damn thing government at any level can do about the weather.  So all the noise being made by government about what they’re doing is all so much salesmanship… and notice that the loudest “look at the good your government is doing” noise is coming from places run by Democrats. And what is Obama’s message? Listen to the government officials. Gee. I dunno about you, but I think Ron Paul, as David noted, has a point. I too, am no fan of Paul… but it seemed to me over the weekend on several occasions that what we saw from government was a reinforcement of governmental authority and dependency. Of course, long time readers will understand quite well I do not consider that a good thing.
• Republicans caused the earthquake and the hurricane? We actually have lefty morons making both claims.  I look at this as part and parcel of the Democrats in the affected areas making so much noise over the good they’re doing.
• About that Obama trip to Africa…  Apparently there’s a lawsuit about the costs involved.  Good.
• Gibson Guitars CEO speaks out. Very illuminating explanation of the DOJ morons behind the raid. Now, am I the only one to note that Gibson donates mostly to GOP candidates? Yeah, I’m sure there’s no connection there at all, huh?
• Without Proof: The Unpersuasive Case Against Voter Identification.
• David Axelrod’s Liberal Instanity: According to this moron,  to create jobs we need to do more of what has never worked.
• Speaking of Insanity: With Obama on his permanent golfing vacation, the White House has asked Biden to speak on the economy. Predictably, he plays the lefty line, as Axlerod did above. Want a reason to keep Obama in office till the end of his term? Here you go.
• TAXES and Hypocrisy Obama fave Warren Buffett’s company isn’t paying it’s taxes in full, in spite of his public asking to be taxed more. Buffet now hires attorneys to get his tax bills lowered – Hypocrite? You betcha. Hey, Buffet…. do you really figure we’re that stupid? If you really think you should be paying more,why not do so… without the force of law… just send them the three billion you put in at BOA….and why fight your taxes in the courts?
• The Race Card: You know the emperor… liberalism… and Global Warming’s myths in particular… have no clothes when they start playing the race card. They have no facts,a nd have nothing left with which to push their agenda. They’re done… and this is a solid sign that they know it.
• The American People Know They’ve Been Had: Obama’s approval ratings continue to set new, record setting lows.By way of Glenn:
  

  SALENA ZITO: Battleground States Of Resentment: “Whether it is called General Lee Highway, as in Virginia, or Molly Pitcher Highway, as in Pennsylvania, the lives and economic strain along U.S. Route 11 tell of a country’s disappointment with Washington – specifically, with President Obama. . . . Not so long ago, populist-Democrat rhetoric was popular here and farther up the road, in West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Americans along such roads all across the country are struggling economically. They are consumed with uncertainty. And they have tuned-out the president.”

  Plus this: “Obama took to pointing fingers when his poll numbers started to slip last fall. So far, he has blamed the stagnant economy on ATMs, ditches, Slurpees, corporate-jet owners, the Tea Party, Republicans, Japan’s earthquake, the Arab Spring, the Arab Summer, George Bush, and ‘fat-cat’ Wall Street something-or-others. The kitchen sink may be next. His numbers are tumbling in the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire – states he must win in 2012.”

  Is there anyone left who really thinks Obama will be re-elected? They need watching.

Much ado, from Toby Harnden,Telegraph(UK):

The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past.

Across the screen, the “Breaking News: Irene Batters Long Island” caption was replaced by stern advice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): “Stay inside, stay safe.”

The images summed up Hurricane Irene – the media and the United States federal government trying to live up to their own doom-laden warnings and predictions while a sizeable number of ordinary Americans just carried on as normal and even made gentle fun of all the fuss.

Just not that much wind.

More, from a breathless LSM, from AFP:

Headline:

Obama takes charge at hurricane command center

Actual text:

“The President was briefed on the current track of the storm, the weather impacts being felt so far and efforts to pre-position response and recovery assets,” said a statement released by the White House.

“The President asked to be kept apprised of developments throughout the night and said that he wants the group to re-convene tomorrow morning.”

Evidently the moron, sorry Ace, who wrote the headline does not know the difference between being briefed and being in command.

Reax, William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:

He took charge? What exactly did he do in the few hours after he rushed back from vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, barely having time to scrape the grass off his golf cleats?

He did nothing, but he sure looked good doing it.

I would have preferred to quoted Kathleen, but alas the Professor will just have to do.

More reax, from Jazz Shaw, Hot Air:

We were beyond ready. Or perhaps it might be better described as having been ready to a ridiculous degree. While in no way seeking to diminish the importance of being prepared for natural disasters, we just witnessed a week long, fully televised, over analyzed, painfully punctual dog and pony show which will be, I’m afraid, the new normal in 21st century America

I am sorely tempted to endorse Ron Paul’s idea to abolish FEMA, From RCP:

Rep. Paul trashed FEMA as “deeply flawed” and continues the path of dependency on the government. “It’s a system of bureaucratic central economic planning, which is a fallacy that is deeply flawed. FEMA has been around since 1978. It has one of the worst reputations for a bureaucracy ever,” Mr. Paul said. “I want to transition out of this dependency on the federal government.”

Ron Paul says the states should decide if they need federal help instead of the government forcing itself on states that are threatened by natural disasters.

“We are out of money. This country is bankrupt,” Paul stressed after explaining FEMA was in “big trouble financially” as well as the federal government itself.

Clearly with respect to Irene, FEMA’s role was to act as a dog and pony show. Given the weather technology available to state and local governments, I see no need to federal government to either manage or second quess state and local disaster preparation.

I still consider Paul less than sane, but heck even the insane are not always wrong.

Dumbo the failure, Peter Wehner, Commentary:

Obama has been a complete and utter failure

[…]

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

Lazy is as lazy does, Fred Barnes,Weekly Standard. via Lonely Conservative

It’s counterintuitive, but Obama has been hurt by the media’s leniency. Both his presidency and reelection prospects have suffered. He’s grown lazy and complacent. The media have encouraged him to believe his speeches are irresistible political catnip, though they aren’t. His overreliance on words hasn’t helped

Both Barnes and LC miss the point. A lazy and incompetent lame stream media did not turn Dumbo, a/k/a Barack Obama, lazy. Rather Dumbo has always been lazy, a law review editor that didn’t write. a lawyer who did not practice, an autobiographier with writer’s block and a state legislature too lazy to take an actual position.

Libtard congresscritter mixes his religion into his politics, from Jennifer Bendery, Puffington Post:

WASHINGTON — As East Coasters brace for what some say will be a historic pummel by Hurricane Irene, at least one lawmaker is fuming over a requirement by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that any potential emergency disaster aid be offset by spending cuts.

“It is sinful to require us to cut somewhere … in order to provide emergency disaster assistance for American citizens,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) told The Huffington Post on Friday.

If I were but a religious man, I’d say that congresscritter Richmond is a sinner for coveting the wealth of grandchildren    I brave can vote to cut spending on voters who could well throw in out of office.  It takes a craven coward, like Richmond, to propose stealing from those not eligible to vote.

Algore, the Hippocrite, from Sister Toldjah:

Don Surber has a devastating take-down of two recent hypocritical Goracle assertions – one on his ridiculous, false claim that global warming alarmists do not manipulate climate data for financial gain, and the other on his silly, two-faced call for people to “ditch meat-heavy diets” — to ‘save the world’, of course.

So what now makes Algore an expert on diet?  He shows no sign of ever having missed a meal.

Dumbo’s job plan — SSDD, from Reuters:

VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts — President Barack Obama is finalizing a jobs package that could include a program to refurbish school buildings nationwide and tax breaks to encourage firms to hire workers.

The package, to be unveiled in early September, is Obama’s chance to convince skeptical voters he can bring down the 9.1 percent unemployment rate and steer the United States away from another recession – ahead of next year’s election

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.   Stimulus I did not work.   Is doubling down on failure all of which Dumbo is capable?

Environmental wackos lay a green egg. Promised massive protest against Keystone XL pipline come up short, from Unlikely Hospitalist. Lonely Conservative:

Perhaps the earthquake chased them away today, but the promised thousands of protesters of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has thus far only amounted to an embarrassing 220. At this rate this we will be lucky to see a thousand people arrested. Undoubtedly, the DC police are breathing a long sigh of relief.

The minimalist narrative is hard to explain at this point with celebrities like Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal lending their names and reputation to such a noble cause.

Who would you rather pay the Canucks or the towelheads?

The blog has challenged the lame stream talking point that Barack Obama,a/k/a President Fifty Seven States, a/k/a Dumbo is some king of intellectual genius. Well welcome Noemie Emery to the club, from Washington Examiner

And if Obama is brilliant, and Bush is an imbecile, how come the genius kept most of the things the dolt set in motion: the protocols for fighting the war against terror, the surge strategy, the timetables, and even, in Robert Gates and David Petraeus, some of his main appointees? Why couldn’t the genius improve on the idiot’s handiwork?

Maybe he isn’t that bright.

Dumbo has no documented record of accomplishment, no school transcripts,  no articles written as law review editor, no legal articles written as lawyer and college lecturer.    However is does have a string of gaffes almost as long as the Strutting Delaware Blue Hen, b/k/a Joe Biden.

Dumbo is not able to lead, because he not allowed to think for himself, from Michael Bargo Jr, American Thinker:

Since the late 1800s black churches in Chicago have been the center of black politics [i].  Early in the 1930s the “Black Machine” of Chicago was established as a subgroup of the white political machine [ii].  Because of the prominence of Mayor Daley I in the national political scene, Chicago’s ability to create political leaders has meant that the Windy City became a gateway to national politics for black leaders [iii].  This is why Jesse Jackson moved to Chicago.  Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, raised in Indonesia, educated in the Northeast, went to Chicago to begin his political career.

[…]

In this political culture, the black political leader does not encourage his people to move forward, but rather convinces them that they cannot move forward.  Whatever choices they make, their future is determined not by personal choice, but by the restrictive confines of white society.  This is why actor-comedian Bill Cosby is viciously attacked when he suggests that African-Americans take responsibility for their own choices.  His comments are perceived as an existential threat to the politics of black liberation and the entire political belief system that keeps the black political elites in power.

Dumbo is not the most powerful man in the world and the leader of  the free world, but just another house nigger doing his master’s bidding.

Dumbo, then and now, video:

Hat tip and more: Ed Morrissey, Hot Air:

And what exactly has Obama done as President? Despite claiming that he has known that deficit reduction has been needed since the first day he took office, Obama has offered no deficit reduction proposals in his term as President. In fact, he has submitted budget proposals that have massively expanded deficit spending.

Just how patriotic is that? After all, if Obama can use the increase in the national debt to question Bush’s patriotism, doesn’t it follow that increasing deficit spending by 152% per month makes Obama 152% more “unpatriotic” than Bush?

Math is hard.

This Parker is a Star, video:

Hat tip: Nice Deb.

Latham, NY– I’m outside Albany, getting a load for Watertown, NY.

Your intrepid author and his faithful steed

This week has been a series of hops that saw me running to within about 10 miles of the DC monument district. A little over an hour after I left the area, I was parked at the PA-MD border along I-83 touching up my logs and grabbing a bite, when I noticed my trailer was shaking. My first reaction was that the wind was up, but then I noticed that the trees weren’t moving. So it was that I had witnessed my very first earthquake after some 53 years of avoiding such. My initial reaction to that news was that Obama had actually told the truth about something… such would certainly be an earthshaking event. But no, things in DC had not changed quite so drastically as all that.

It turns out, that there’s a new geological feature, called the “W fault line.” Work on that one.

I had planned to post a lot of this yesterday, but for a few hours after the shaker, cell phone service and internet service too, as I gather it, were spotty at best. I couldn’t get a connection and neither coould anyone else, for that matter. Verizon seemes to have faired better than AT&T, Spint and a few others, though I suppose that was a matter of luck more than anything else.

Now, the quake yesterday was the third this week, here in the states. First was in New Mexico. Second in Colorado. Then, Virginia.  Paul Krugman will likely argue in tomorrows column that the earthquakes as a whole, were not big enough.  Did you see where he’s saying natural disasters are an economic aid? Of course his reasoning is that they force more spending of tax money. I’ll bet he wonders why so few take him seriously, anymore. There’s a guy needs to put down the crack pipe, and step away.

• Gotta Love Klavan:
  

  Question: What’s the difference between a Federal Jobs Creation Program and Kim Kardashian’s wedding?Answer: Kim Kardashian’s wedding creates jobs.

  And you know, Andrew makes a point I was trying to make in another conversation last night:

  It was at this point someone at the party said scornfully, “That wedding cost ten million dollars! That’s obscene in these hard times with so many people suffering!”
  Is it obscene? Really? Unless Kim Kardashian is famous for robbing banks, I don’t see why. Assuming she made her money honestly, then every dollar she has was given to her freely by a public who thought she was worth it. She, in turn, freely decided it would be worth it to her to spend that freely given money on her wedding. And because there was no force in operation other than free human desire — the public’s desire to see Kim Kardashian do whatever it is she does for a living and Kim Kardashian’s desire to get married in high style — every single dime spent on that wedding helped create a job — if by a job, we mean a task someone does because someone else wants or needs it done.

  Consider it. No money was taken at gunpoint during the making of this wedding. No power was exerted over others. No jumped-up prince of a middle man decided what should or shouldn’t be eaten or drunk or spent or by whom. No useless government department was formed, taking capital out of the economy. No time was wasted by officious bureaucrats who don’t have any reason to do their job efficiently or well. Not at all. Kim, God bless her, wanted — I don’t know what — flowers, let’s say, by the thousands, and so Flora the Florist set to work providing them in return for her daily bread.

  Exactly so. And that is exactly the part the left will never understand. Well, that’s not quite true…. there are some of them who do, such as Obama, but those also recognize that without the emotional tug of “oh, the poor people”, there is no reason for anyone to place them in positions of power. This is class warfare, plain and simple.  This is exactly the kind of thing I was speaking to yesterday,  talking about Mead’s article. What is the “green jobs” thing but an emotional tug at the heartstrings of the left? That it’s not based on fact, as Mead points out, is beside the point; The emotional tug is strong enough among the base of the left to get Obama elected as POTUS.  Thing is, as with “green jobs”, and ofr that mater everything else to do with liberals,  reality eventually catches up.

  You can rebel all you like at the amount of money being spent on this wedding, and invoke the cause of the poor in your argument. But the bottom line, here is that Kardashian’s wedding, and other supposed excesses of the rich are the things jobs are made of. When we make enemies of the so-called rich, is it really so shocking that we end up with the Obamanomics … which is to say, the failing economy… of today?  It happened under Carter, it’s happening now. It also started happening under Clinton, and but for the huge momentum the economy had built up by way of Reagan/Bush,would have been more widely recognized. (Hint: When W came into office, the economy had been on the skids for nearly a year, in spite of the Clinton WH trying to hide it with cooked books..)

• W’s Third Term: Both David and myself quoted Walter Russel Mead recently. I’m going to do so again today.
  

  Neither President Obama’s critics nor his defenders really want to look at this situation straight on. His critics would have to acknowledge that far from capitulating to our enemies and giving away the store, President Obama has in some respects improved America’s regional position. But his defenders must also squirm; in general, President Obama succeeds where he adopts or modifies the policies of the Bush administration.

  Gee, almost like someone’s been reading my Pajamas Media articles, huh? I said, on January the 22nd the year of… indeed within days of… Obama’s immaculation:

  For all the vitriol that has been coming from the left, and specifically out of President Obama’s mouth during the campaign, there’s a difference in tone coming out of the Obama camp over the last several weeks. There has been an abandonment of the hot rhetoric of the leftist in favor of a liberal forced to face the reality of the world around him (i.e., adopting existing White House policy). The change in tone is recognition that the rhetoric that the American public was offered during the election was simply not based on reality.

  As President Obama and his people are briefed on what has been happening in the world these last eight years, the insider’s view has given them a completely new perspective on what to do about the situation, resulting in completely different actions as compared to the ones they were telling everyone they would take once they were given the power.

  Some five months later, I said, in part:

  Bush’s vindication is apparent and remarkable — see President Obama’s quiet reestablishment of the military tribunals he loudly rejected as a candidate — but perhaps the most notable phenomenon of Bush’s rise from the ashes is the political damage Democrats have suffered by sticking to the pre-election platform. The base is claiming betrayal, the dinosaur media — if they bother to recognize the change at all — is giving a confused and muffled response, and the politicians who cannot let go of their Bush-bashing ways are caught in hypocrisy and losing their constituencies.

  Now, recall, please, I’ve been saying since the early 90’s that Bush… either one… is no conservative but at best a centrist. So, in short, this should not be read as a cheering section for Bush. But consider how far to the right Obama had to lunge to arrive there. Consider also, Mead’s point; The only thing that Obama has done that has worked is where he’s mimicked Bush who is no conservative yet is far less liberal than Obama. Where Obama has tilted left, he’s failed, every time.

  Now, the leftist base, predictably is screaming that the problem is Obama hasn’t been liberal enough, and forceful enough in his socialism. (They dare not call it that, but that’s the truth of the matter.) But you know what? THey see as well as you or I do that the attempt at liberalism has failed once again. The only things Obama’s been able to do successfully, s where he’s been less socialistic.  And they see this very well. Evidence? The despondency on the left these days is unquestionably because they see the policies they’ve had wet dreams about for years, are utter failures, policy and political disasters. Which in turn is why the left is getting far nastier of late… as I”ve mentioned a few weeks back. Meanwhile, Obama’s popularity reaches as of today a new low.

• We have Met the Enemy: Did you see the Tea Party  is now the enemy? Yep. Well, look, I’m sure King George felt the same way, huh?
• Illegals: The Democrat version of Get Out The Vote… Can anyone show me where any of the GOP front runners have made any effort to address Obama’s quietly giving amnesty to illegals?
  
• ECONOMISTS: Do it with spending cuts.
  

  The majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics believe that the federal deficit should be reduced only or primarily through spending cuts.

  So much for the call from some quarters for a ‘balanced’ approach. That kind of ‘balance’ is exactly what got us in trouble in the first place. To wit; Under Obama, our debt is growing at a rate of…. and get this… $2.95MUSD/min.

• Hit the Switch, John: Remember I suggested John Huntsman would switch Parties? Seems someone else thinks so as well. Who?  Howard Dean: “Huntsman is a great candidate for president but he is in the wrong party” – http://thedc.com/mPiLRI
• PARTING SHOT: When I start seeing the press… and GOP establishment types… complaining that the Democrats are lean ing too far left, I’ll… perhaps… start taking seriously the charge that the Tea Party is too far to the right.

Dumbo’s record, if the media had spent half much time and energy examining Dumbo’s b/k/a Barack Obama, record,they could not have missed the fact that the man is flat out lazy, from Tony Katz, Pajamas Media:

I have been talking for months now that Obama’s problem with being President is that the job involves work. President Obama has never done work before – he is not a capitalist. The capitalist accepts that a job has work attached to it, and that work gets measured – either you succeeded in your work, or you failed. Obama has never had his work measured, and therefore becomes extremely agitated when people question his work, disagree with his answers or, in the case of groups like the Tea Party, actively work to undo his work – like Obamacare.

Is Dumbo dumb and lazy,or just lazy?

Dumbo could come up with a new, specific plan to revive his moribund economy, but that might entail cutting short his Martha’s Vineyard vacation, from E.J. Dione, RCP:

WASHINGTON — President Obama has only one option as he ponders a world economy teetering on the edge: He needs to go big, go long and go global.

Obama should not be constrained by what the tea party might allow subservient Republican leaders in Congress to do. He should state plainly, eloquently and in detail what he thinks needs to be happen. Neither history nor the voters will be kind to him if he lets caution and political calculation get in the way.

Not bloody likely, from Philip Klein, Washington Examiner:

Last Monday, President Obama made news by promising to give a speech in September detailing, “a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs and to control our deficit.”

But has that “very specific plan” already been downgraded to an outline?

That is, at least, the impression I got watching Obama advisors Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod on yesterday’s Sunday morning shows.

“The president is going to outline a short-term plan to accelerate the economy,” Axelrod said on ABC’s This Week, “in the face of the hits we’ve taken, because of the Arab Spring and oil prices, because of the Japanese earthquake, because of Europe that have slowed down economic growth.

If all Dumbo can produce is tired old outline, why is he even bothering to give a speech?  Give the Postal Service some business, write the plan on the back of postcard and drop it in the mail

While Dumbo dithers, the black population continues to suffer, from Star Parker,  Townhall:

Election of our nation’s first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does — their actions — is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It seems ridiculous to point out that this was supposedly the point of the civil rights movement. Purge racism from America.

[…]

Maybe blacks will realize that they should blame Barack Obama. Not because he is black, but because he is a liberal. And because he has grown government to the point where the oxygen necessary for freedom and prosperity is being squeezed out of our nation.

Dumbo is both dumb and lazy.   He feel confident that black will overwhelmingly vote for him.  So has little need to court their vote or fix their problems.   Black politicians like Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson iive high on the hog.  The status quo works for them.

This Jon will not Hunt, from Alexander Burns,Politico:

Jon Huntsman’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” is winning applause from one of the two major political parties. It’s not the one Huntsman’s hoping to represent as its nominee for president.

The Democratic National Committee just blasted out a greatest-hits reel from Huntsman’s Sunday show appearance, wherein the former Utah governor criticized Rick Perry for being anti-science, Michele Bachmann for being unserious about the economy and Mitt Romney for being a flip-flopper.

For just what Jon Huntsman is running frankly eludes me.   He certainly not pursuing any path to ever secures a republican nomination for anything.   Is Huntsman trying to get a cabinet position?  If so, only in a democrat administration

More,  fromJack Kelly on the Gorebots, which include Huntsman, via RCP:

Mr. Gore’s alarmist predictions have proved false. Polar ice caps are larger. So is the polar bear population (and the scientist upon whom Mr. Gore relied for his claim that the polar bear is endangered is facing accusations of scientific misconduct). The rise in sea levels — which has been going on since the end of the last ice age — is slowing down.

Mr. Huntsman, it is impossible to both be serious and to take Algore rantings as serious.  Mr. Huntsman, end your misery and re-register as a democrat.

More Huntsman, from Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary

Jon Huntsman entered the Republican presidential race claiming to be the champion of the party’s moderate-conservative wing. But, despite the applause of some elite figures like George Will and flattering press coverage from liberal media such as the New York Times and, more recently, Vogue, the main focus of Huntsman’s campaign has been his animus for virtually everyone else in his party.

The former Utah governor and Obama administration ambassador to China has been reluctant to criticize the Democratic incumbent too harshly, but it has been readily apparent the people he really doesn’t like are his GOP rivals

But Huntsman does have a party, the party to which he is loyal and from whom is parrots her talking points, to wit the democrat party.

Middle Village, NY–

I’m in  New York City dropping a load of drinks. I came in early this morning,  from outside Scranton, PA, and will leave noonish for who knows where.

My truck is  fixed now, so I returned the one I picked up last week.

Here’s a pic of it.

It’s the same type pretty much as my own, with a few things lacking in the options department.  It’s got a mid-size Cat engine and a super-shifter ten speed tranny.

Not my favorite combo, but I must admit that once you get it rolling, it pulls very well indeed. Also, I think my own truck looks a bit nicer.

Apparently, the issue with my truck involved a leaking intercooler. Those who know about Turbochargers will know that this explains the black smoke I’d been getting under full power, and why it’s a bit weaker than it should be. I won’t deny I’m quite happy to get my own truck back.

• The Black Racists and their Leftist Politics: I see Andrew Breitbart is asking a question few will want to answer, since the answer both unavoidable, and quite implicative:
  

  Why are there no black conservatives on the Martha’s Vineyard ‘Race Panel’?

  Here’s the article on the subject.  The purpose of the meeting, is obviously exactly the same as that of Obama as bus tour; only Kool-aid drinkers need apply, because just as sure as an economic failure when liberals are in charge, nobody else is going to be heard,  no other opinions are going to be suffered and  no actual change will occur as a result of it. And given Mr. Obama and his overt hatred of white people, and yes I said that first, the White House looks on all of this with tacit approval.  It’s down to the point now where there is no way around the conclusion that what we’re dealing with here is black racism.  They have become what they’ve been protesting.  And the left, who frankly couldn’t give a damn about people of color are using this for their own political agenda.  If the left really cared about black people, do you suppose that they would be automatically excluding black conservatives, which is the fastest growing group of black people?  You know they wouldn’t.

• When John Huntsman Attacks: Oh, goody. John Hunstman wants to be another centrist maverick. You know how that’s going to play.   Let’s be honest, here. The reason he’s not going to be the republican nominee is precisely because he’s running afoul of the majority of the country.  As demonstrated by the last election, (And the loss of McCain, therein..)  the country is no longer in the mood for GOP centrists.  They want somebody in the office will actually stands for GOP principles.  Huntsman simply does not qualify.  Let’s remember, for example, Huntsman buys into this AGW fraud.  Anyone… And I mean anyone dumb enough to sign onto that fraud needs watching, not the power that comes with elective office. And yes, dear reader, that includes NJ Gov Chris Christie. Huntsman’s done. Good riddance,  Idiot.
• When Unions Lose, America Wins:You may recall I mentioned last week briefly the subject of Verizon, versus the unions… The Unions lost. 
  
• The Band Played On:It is said that while the Titanic was sinking the band, figuring they were going to die anyway, decided to continue playing.  The last song they played was “Nearer My God to Thee”. President Obama, meanwhile, while his country continues to wallow and falter under his policies, continues to play golf.  Now just recently, the white house issued a ban on cameras at these events.  Obviously the president does not want the image of him playing golf while everyone suffers publicized.  It hurts his image.  Thank god for Fox News:
• All according to plan? I repeatedly made the charge that the failure of America has always been the plan of the Obama administration.  And Obama, himself, in particular.  Perhaps that’s why he’s not all that worried about it, and as demonstrated above, continues to play golf and other celebratory things.  (As an example, did you know that there have been more concerts in the White House since Obama infested it, than there has been at Madison square garden for the same period?  )  Another point that came up in my reading just a day from Billy Beck….
  

  If, during a war, an enemy were able to knock twenty percent of America’s coal-fired electrical generation offline, it would be regarded as a major strategic strike.

  Yet, this is precisely what the Obama and administration set out to do and has done. This is nothing more less than part and parcel of the left, and its war on reliable energy.  It’s also a major reason for our economic doldrums at the moment.  That, too, is according to plan. Does anyone aside from the left think that a 20% reduction in generating capacity is not going to cause a serious issues? Let’s remember, we’re already dealing with rolling blackouts across the country this summer. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why Costco decided to remove the car chargers from its parking lots.  Apparently, they figure the cost is going to be too high and /or somebody figured out that there is a coal fired plant at the other end of electrical cord.  Turns out nobody was buying the things anyway.

  It’s down to the point now of some in the left recognizing publicly, that they have been had, big time. Consider the comments of Walter Russell Mead:
  

  The belief that green jobs would drive a new era of American prosperity was — like the large majority of green policy chat — intellectually incoherent. The goods that drive renewable energy industries, like so much else in this world, are far cheaper to construct in Asia.

  Of course, there’s a reason for that, it’s called the EPA. Mead goes on:

  It’s understandable and even forgivable that a political candidate would talk about green jobs on the hustings, especially when the Democratic Party is divided between job hungry blue collar workers and fastidious greens who break out in hives in the presence of coal. What worries me isn’t that the President’s team advised him to make a few speeches on this subject; if a candidate can’t throw chum to the base now and then what’s the point of having elections? What worries me is that they didn’t understand that making something this bogus a central plank of his actual governing plan on an issue as vital as jobs would have serious costs down the road.
  Many liberals want green jobs to exist so badly that they don’t fully grasp how otherworldly and ineffectual this advocacy makes the President look to unemployed meat packers and truck drivers.

  That’s very true, but there’s a reason behind that as well; it’s because the Red-Green left, really doesn’t care about such people, all posturing to the contrary aside. All they care about is making the world safe for their Prius. Essentially what we have is with these now is what it always has been…. Unenlightened self interest. They don’t care about America’s success. In fact most of them would much rather we DIDN’T succeed. That’s the dirty little secret and explains why once liberals gain power, American doesn’t succeed. Mead continues:

  Green jobs are the Democratic equivalent of Tree of Life Medicare; they scratch every itch of every important segment of the base and if they actually existed they would be an excellent policy choice. But since they are no more available to solve our jobs problem than the Tree of Life stands ready to make health care affordable, a green jobs policy boils down to a promise to feed the masses on tasty unicorn ribs from the Great Invisible Unicorn Herd that only the greens can see.

  So it always has been. So it always will be, and in far more than just energy policy. Can we point to the similarities in the way the left views health care, as an example?

  I grant that this argument makes the idea that Obama is simply incompetent, more believable. I don’t think it’s so. As I’ve said many times, now… Obama knows very well what he’s doing. He knows very well, even if they do not, that leftist policies as espoused by the people who worked so hard to elect him to office, are destructive to America. So they have been, and here we are. And the obvious is taking it’s toll… As Mead suggests, Obama no longer has any credibility among the vast majority of people. Witness, his outright abysmal approval ratings. But all of this matters little. He has succeeded in what he set out to do. Obama has his victory, and we have the disaster he intentionally left behind him.

  Now, having just written this, I see David has already made mention of this article. And that’s fine. It means he and I are on the same page. I write my articles mostly offline on my phone and often don’t see what David has cooking until he’s got it posted. I thought about withdrawing my comments but I thought better of that. Consider mine an expansion of David’s thought.

  The truth of the matter is that we are suffering not a string of bad luck, as David so rightly pointed out the other day, but we’re suffering under Democrat policies. We are at that point in history, where in the back of heads all over the left, they’re starting to figure out that their policies of the cause of our current dilemma. But, like any true believer anywhere, they’re not ready to admit that, even to themselves. Such is the explanation for the increase in violence, and such is also the collective and collectivist deer in the headlights look on their faces when the question of what we do now, comes up.

• A Question of Quality: Saying that the state of education in this country is lacking, is something of an obvious statement.  It has been for generations, no.  That’s one reason that America has started to fall behind.  The reason for that of course is, say it with me, the government takeover of education.  As with everything else the government has taken over, save defense , the inefficiencies and simply poor workmanship has overcome all effort.  As a result on educational system is the laughing stock of the entire world.  Has been for several generations now.  And yet, we see the left pushing sex education in government schools. are that issue has come up recently here, in the New York city school system.  The arguments in those systems and in those areas are falling into a fairly predictable patterns.   Glenn runs a post over the weekend by Naomi Schaefer Riley, and adds a question which, as with the question posed above,  is both unavoidable, and quite implicative: Will They Be Better At Sex Ed Than At Math Ed?  And the obvious answer, is a resounding “No”. The implications I will commend to you.
• Photo of the day:
  

In the fabled antebellum south, of Gone with the Wind, plantation slaves existed to create wealth for their white masters.

In the Twenty First Century democrat plantation, blacks exist to blindly give their votes to their largely white political masters, To keep their plantation blacks in line, the modern plantation masters use well compensated blacks, to keep the plantation hands loyal and obedient to their masters. I will call these willing tools of the plantation masters, house niggers.

House nigger Maxine Waters, from Jeff Poor, Daily Caller:

[T]he tea party can go straight to hell.” (RELATED: House ethics committee hires outside counsel for Waters case)

That proclamation was met with cheers from the audience, including attendees sporting purple SEIU T-shirts.

Somebody Explain The Economic Facts of Life To This Woman

More reax, Michelle:

Calling the civility police. Oh, never mind. It’s an uncivil corruptocrat with a “D” after her name. Go ahead, progs, and look the other way

Look lady, it may be your assigned talking point, but I don’t have to bend over and take it.   Don’t blame me for your problems.  I did not support the so-called stimulus, or Obama Care.  Look in the mirror, if you dare.

House Nigger Elijah E. Cummings, from Stacy McCain, Other McCain:

According to Congressman Cummings, then, it is Republicans who are somehow preventing Obama from exercising his job-creation magic.

If we are to take his word for it, “almost every African-American person” shares this bizarre belief. And what will happen if the promised magic fails? Who will get the blame for the lack of job-creation? Will they blame Republicans? Blame the Tea Party? Blame “corporate America”?

Or will they just blame whitey?

Presidents have little power to create jobs.   On the other paw, they lots of powers to destroy jobs.   For hie part, Barack Hussein Obama is doing his best to destroy American jobs.

Contact Congresscritters Maxine Waters and Elijah E. Cummings
and tell these millionaire house niggers to stop blaming the many real problems of their plantation niggers on honest hard working folks.

House Nigger, race baitor and outright liar, the Reverend Al Sharpton, video:

Hat tip: Scott Johnson, Power Line.

George Pataki to run for president?  At last a candidate who is even less serious than Jon Huntsman, from Lonely Conservative:

Former New York Governor George Pataki is strongly considering a run. According to NY1 he could make an announcement as early as this week. Pataki has been keeping busylately with his non-profit group Revere America which was formed to repeal Obamacare and reduce the national debt which he calls a “crime against future generations.”

Pataki will not run. Pataki is a joke. New York re-elected two asses to the Senate last year, and Pataki did have the guts to challenge either. George’s train left the station eleven years ago.

Does Tom Friedman believe in the Tooth Fairy as well? Video:

Hat tip: Allah Pundit, Hot Air.