Breakfast Scramble (Thursday)

Facade of democracy falls, from INN:

Egyptian uprising idol Mohammed ElBaradei has ordered Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave the country by Friday – or he will be a “dead man walking” and not just a lame-duck president.

Funny didn’t somebody with the same name, Mohammed ElBaradei, win a Noble Peace Prize.  Must have been a mistake.   Democratic elections are achieved not by bullets but rather by ballots, a point to which ElBaradei is either ignorant, or indifferent.

Chicago thug backs Cairo thug,  one thug supports another, Barack Obama backs ElBaradei, from  Hill:

Although [White House press secretary Robert] Gibbs continued to be vague about what that should look like, he said Obama was clear in telling Mubarak that “the time for change had come.”

Meteorologist – 1:  Algore – 0, from Cubachi.    Algore is put up against a meterologist.  Algore loses.

Coherence from Cohen, some sobering questions from Richard Cohen no Egypt, from the Washington Post:

Egypt’s problems are immense. It has a population it cannot support, a standard of living that is stagnant and a self-image as leader of the (Sunni) Arab world that does not, really, correspond to reality. It also lacks the civic and political institutions that are necessary for democracy. The next Egyptian government – or the one after – might well be composed of Islamists. In that case, the peace with Israel will be abrogated and the mob currently in the streets will roar its approval.

Be careful for what you wish.

Amusing Mandate, a winning idea from South Dakota, from the Argus Leader:

Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm “sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense.”

The bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, would give people six months to acquire a firearm after turning 21. The provision does not apply to people who are barred from owning a firearm.

Granted the bill is not going anywhere, nor it prove its purported points.   States have the constitutional ability in invoke individual mandates.   The federal government does not.

The bill would be absolutely constitutional.  Think of it as why the several states can arm their militias.  While such a law would never become enacted in New York State,  I find the thought of the state actually passing such a progressive law quite amusing.   Senator Chuckles Schumer and Da Mayor Blomberg would absolutely soil their nappies.

Obama v Obama Care, White House staffer Stephanie Cutter thinks the individual mandate of Obama Care is constitutional, from the White House:

Today’s ruling – issued by Judge Vinson in the Northern District of Florida – is a plain case of judicial overreaching.  The judge’s decision contradicts decades of Supreme Court precedent that support the considered judgment of the democratically elected branches of government that the Act’s “individual responsibility” provision is necessary to prevent billions of dollars of cost-shifting every year by individuals without insurance who cannot pay for the health care they obtain.  And the judge declared that the entire law is null and void even though the only provision he found unconstitutional was the “individual responsibility” provision.  This decision is at odds with decades of established Supreme Court law, which has consistently found that courts have a constitutional obligation to preserve as a much of a statute as can be preserved. As a result, the judge’s decision puts all of the new benefits, cost savings and patient protections that were included in the law at risk.

Cutter is not arguing the law.  Rather Cutter is seemly deeming that the ends of Obama Care are noble, so therefore the means are constitutional.   Problem is that during his campaign, Cutter’s boss, Barack Obama argued otherwise, via Ed Morrissey, Hot Air:

She’s[Mrs Clinton] have the government force every individual to buy insurance, and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance.  It’s that they can’t afford it …

Well, if things were that easy, I could mandate everybody buy a house, and that, you know, and that would solve, you know, the problem of homelessness.  It doesn’t.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that Obama is not all that smart.  However, he did claim to have been a professor of constitutional law.

STFU Jimmy, it is bad enough watching the Obami bungle the crisis in the Middle.  A failed president in his dotage seems to have forgotten that he has been out of office over thirty years, from Erika Niedowski, Hill:

Former President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will likely be forced to step down because “the people have decided,” according to a news report.

“This is the most profound situation in the Middle East since I left office,” Carter said Sunday at a Baptist church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., where he teaches a Sunday school class, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

There  are some eighty million people in Egypt and absolutely zero evidence that the majority want President Hosni Mubarak to resign.   If Carter is going to shill for Mohamed ElBaradei, he is obligated to disclose his financial interests.

Aside to President Obama, the Logan Act is still the law of the land.  Arrest the doting Carter and finally put an end to Carter’s meddling in foreign affairs.

Chris Matthews stone head, the  perils of broadcasting while stoned, video:

Transcript:

MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you about the prospects we’re looking at as an American. We’re looking at the map of the world right now and where Egypt sits in the world. It’s so strategically located. It has, of course, the Nile River. It has, of course, the Panama Canal.

Hat tip: Fausta.

An armed society is a polite society, armed citizens protect their lives and their property:

CAIRO (AP) – When Egypt’s police melted from the streets of Cairo this weekend, the people stepped in.

Civilians armed with knives, axes, golf clubs, firebombs, metal bars and makeshift spears watched over many neighborhoods in the sprawling capital of 18 million this weekend, defending their families and homes against widespread looting and lawlessness.

The thugs had exploited the chaos created by the largest anti-government protests in decades and the military failed to fill the vacuum left by police.

On Saturday, the army sent out an appeal for citizens to help

I am sure that Mayors Daley and Blomberg just don’t not capable of  understanding the rights and needs of law abiding  citizens.

Credibility?

WASHINGTON, Jan 30, 2011 (AFP) – The United States is “losing credibility by the day” in calling for democracy in Egypt while continuing to support President Hosni Mubarak, leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday

The coming battle, from Melissa Maynard, Stateline:

Public sector unions have escaped a comparable decline in their ranks, with 36.2 percent of state and local employees still in unions. But an increasingly loud chorus of governors and state legislators may change that. Like Solis, their argument is tied to the need for more and better jobs, but they blame public sector unions for jeopardizing that.

They argue that state collective bargaining laws have enabled public sector unions to artificially inflate the cost of government and suck jobs from the private sector by forcing businesses to pay higher taxes. To get the economy back on track, they say, these laws have to be modified or dismantled. This kind of thinking is sparking heated debate both in heavily unionized states, such as New York and Ohio, and in states where unions have fewer members and less clout, such as Nebraska and South Dakota.

Regime Change in Egypt? From Caroline Glick:

On Thursday afternoon, Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohammed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency returned to Egypt from Vienna to participate in anti-regime demonstrations.

[…]

Elbaradei’s support for the Iranian ayatollahs is matched by his support for the Muslim Brotherhood. This group, which forms the largest and best organized opposition movement to the Mubarak regime is the progenitor of Hamas and al Qaida. It seeks Egypt’s transformation into an Islamic regime that will stand at the forefront of the global jihad. In recent years, the Muslim Brotherhood has been increasingly drawn into the Iranian nexus along with Hamas.  Muslim Brotherhood attorneys represented Hizbullah terrorists arrested in Egypt in 2009 for plotting to conduct spectacular attacks aimed at destroying the regime.

Ok, maybe more like brunch, a very late brunch.

WTF Congressman, Jim Moran (Dumb VA –  8) opens mouth and inserts foot, from Fox News:

Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran is blaming his party’s losses last November in large part on voters who “don’t want to be governed by an African-American.”

Reax, Clayton Cramer:

But Americans gave the Democrats large majorities in both House and Senate in 2008, at the same time they elected a black man to be President of the United States?  Pretty clearly, Americans don’t have a problem with being “governed by an African-American.”  They do have a problem with one particular African-American, and that is Obama.  This was not a racist repudiation of being “governed by an African-American.”  It was a repudiation of Obama’s leadership and that of the Democratic Party

How the Associated Press describes Hosni Mubarak’s problem in Egypt:

“[P]overty, unemployment and rising food prices.”

Problems shared by the constituents of Barack Hussien Obana, plus soaring energy prices.    In short Americans do not so much object to being governed by a black man, but rather object to being ruled by incompents boob has has overseen over rising unemployment, food, energy and health care costs, while seeming to care little about anything except who his partner will for his Sunday golf match.

On Egypt,  Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt for twenty-nine years, and thus has forfeited any claim to be a democratic ruler.   However democratic rulers are not installed by bullets but rather by ballots.    Deposing Mubarak is not synonymous with installing a democracy,  and opposing Mubarak does not necessarily amount to supporting democracy.    Remember while the Shah of Iran was not a democratic ruler, then neither was new regime.

Dumbo wants your guns, Obama White House is use Chnstina Taylor-Green murders as ab excuse to grab your guns, from Newsweak:

But in the next two weeks, the White House will unveil a new gun-control effort in which it will urge Congress to strengthen current laws, which now allow some mentally unstable people, such as alleged Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, to obtain certain assault weapons, in some cases without even a background check.

Tuesday night after the speech, Obama adviser David Plouffe said to NBC News that the president would not let the moment after the Arizona shootings pass without pushing for some change in the law, to prevent another similar incident. “It’s a very important issue, and one I know there’s going to be debate about on the Hill.”

If Barack Obama is serious about gun control he needs to first disarm the Secret Service by executive order.   If Obama is unwilling to forgo guns for his personal security, there is no reason at all for you and your family to have defend yourselves with kitchen knives and baseball bats.

More SOTU reax, from Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal:

Tuesday, Mr. Obama proclaimed the country was “poised for progress.” In some anemic ways it is. But 142 million Americans were employed the day before Mr.  Obama took office and 139 million are today. The total debt was $10.6 trillion before his inaugural and $14.2 trillion today. The time for blaming his predecessor passed long ago. Mr. Obama is the president and Americans increasingly expect him to act as such.

Later.

SOTU reax, Washington Post:

PRESIDENT OBAMA entered office promising to be a different kind of politician – one who would speak honestly with the American people about the hard choices they face and would help make those hard calls. Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address would have been the moment to make good on that promise. He disappointed.

Jennifer Rubin

SOTU Reax, Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post:

If you were expecting a moderate Obama or a bold Obama, you were disappointed, most likely, by Tuesday’s State of the Union Address. In a nutshell: Obama proposed a ton of new domestic spending, promised to freeze discretionary spending (attained by savaging defense), abstained from offering specifics on entitlement reform and largely ignored major foreign policy changes. Moreover, the delivery was so listless that this State of the Union address likely garnered less applause than any address in recent memory.

Barry doubles down on failure.  The entire premise of the stimulus package was to spend our way out of the recession.   Oh by the way, it failed.

Where is the energy? Dumbo is backasswards on energy, from the SOTU:

We need to get behind this [green] innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

Dumbo apparent strategy is to punish success but to reward failure.  Successful energy production, like petroleum would be taxed.    Whereas failed energy schemes like wind and solar would be subsidized.

More, Vladimir, Red State:

Those billions of dollars we “give the oil companies”? Prior Congresses, going back nearly 100 years, purposely tweaked the tax code to encourage drilling.  Their “investment” resulted in the stable, secure and affordable energy supply that enabled our nation’s industrial might. By taking those benefits away, drilling becomes less attractive to the investor.  Fewer wells will be drilled, and more jobs will be lost. Energy prices will rise, making the U.S. less competitive in international markets and more dependent on foreign energy producers

SOTU reax, Dirty Harry Reid, from ABC News:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told ABC News that earmarks will return to Capitol Hill despite President Obama’s vow in last night’s State of the Union to veto any spending bill that includes them.

[…]

“I think it’s taking power away from the legislative branch of government and giving it to the executive branch of government,” Reid said of the president’s plan. “The executive branch of government is powerful enough and I think that I know more about what Nevada needs than some bureaucrat down on K Street.”

Reid crying over spilled milk, from Mo Lane:

Reid not happy about Obama’s earmark ban pledge.

I don’t know why he’s bothering to yell at the President over this, though: the question of whether Harry Reid has the ability to get earmarks passed into legislation was abruptly settled last November.  The House has banned them, and in case anybody was wondering whether the Republican base considers that ban to encompass the conference process where the differences between the Senate and House versions of a bill are resolved, let me clear that up: the Republican base does so consider

Later.

Browner Out, Cap and Tax Czarine Carol Browner flees the arena, from Michelle:

The Obama Culture of Corruption won’t be the same without her. But the question is: While lying, eco-radical czar Carol Browner may be stepping down (Politico has the scoop), does it really mean she’s stepping out of the inner circle?

[…]

My archives are stuffed with Browner’s power-grabbing, transparency-undermining, science-distorting antics that stretch across two Democratic administrations. She and her energy lobbyist husband Thomas Downey are immovable Beltway fixtures — and it looks like she has no plans to leave D.C.

Browner was more than willing to impose a carbon tax on the American public, but apparently less than willing to answer question as to the either the basis of her alleged science or the source of  her supposed authority.

Year of the Mom, from Kay S. Hymowitz, City:

Before the election, some had predicted that 2010 would be another Year of the Woman; it would be closer to the truth to call it the Year of the Mom.

Later.

Harrisburg, PA–

As this is written, I’m at the TA in Harrisburg. I was supposed to be over by Albany by this time, but an equipment failure…. (flat tire) lost me four hours of drive time.  When things go mostly right, it’s easy to bitch about the small stuff. When there’s a bigtime fail… well, those minutes lost to taking a wrong turn don’t seem quite so much a problem.

The life of a professional truck driver is one that takes some getting used to. Certainly, being away from Donna and the kids is an issue, but being out of the normal environment is an issue as well. I’m managing, and am getting used to it, but I can’t imagine the separation aspect will ever NOT be an issue. Donna, I suppose, has nothing to worry about, in terms of my finding someone else. (grin)

I’d like to be sharing more pictures with you from the road, and some of the sights I’ve seen. I have a fair camera with me, but have yet to work out getting the pics from it into my laptop and thereby to you. Just logistics, and I guess I’ll have it working soon.

Looking around:

Of course, Glenn, but that’s always been the case. The one thing the defenders of Piven cannot withstand is a logical argument. Of course the same is true for about anyone defending liberalism/socialism.

As I said the other day, Bruce... the only thing “civil discourse’ does is work for the establishment. Note that the left, who had become famous for discourse that was anything BUT civil, is now screaming for it after they got handed their backsides in a basket last November.

I’m off to Albany in he early morning. ‘ta for now.

He Hu laughs last, China’s President Hu Jintao laugh all the way back to China, from Doug Powers 2 Michelle Malkin:

The Washington Post has given their Worst Week in Washington distinction to China’s President Hu Jintao for enduring questions about human rights, Harry Reid calling him a dictator and members of Congress declining invitations to the state dinner due to China’s human rights record. Also, in the same week as Hu’s visit, a Michigan man was sent to prison for attempting to spy for China. But there’s still a chance that Hu is chuckling all the way back to Beijing.

Blackie O, who knew Joan Rivers was still alive and still attempting stand-up comedy?  From, Scared Monkeys:

Hat tip: Cripe Suzzette

In an interview with Howard Stern, comedian Joan Rivers revealed that she wanted to do a joke about first lady Michelle Obama; however, she backed off because she did nit want to be perceived as being a racist. She was going to refer to Michelle Obama as “Blackie – O” in comparison to Jackie O and the former first lady’s sense of style and fashion.

[…]

have been labeled a member of the Tea Party.

One side note to Joan Rivers, sorry, but when it comes to style and fashion … Michelle Obama does not even begin to hold a candle to to former first lady and dearly deaparted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

ISFAIK, Jackie Kennedy never attempted to pass a circus tent off as a dress.

Hat tip photo:   Criped Zuzzette.

Rudy No, Rudy Giuliani feigns interest in yet another presidential run, from Robert Costa, National Review:

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani tells National Review Online that he is seriously considering a 2012 presidential run. “I’m like a running back that has the ball and I’m looking for openings,” he says. “A crowded may be good, from my point of view.”

But has America’s Mayor, now 66, learned any lessons from his stalled 2008 campaign? “I sure have,” he chuckles. “You have to win New Hampshire.” That, of course, is a different tune than four years ago, when he placed all of his bets on Florida.

Giuliani has left too much Empire State dead meat on the the table for me to believe he has any interest in higher office.   Giuliani makes it habit to refuse to challenge Empire State democrats.   Rudy not running for anything.

Blowing in the Wind, Charles M. Blow whines for yet more gun control, from New York Times:

According to 2005 data from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, a comparison of member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for which data were available showed that the U.S. is in a league of its own, and not in a good way. We have nearly 9 guns for every 10 people, and about 9 out of every 10 of our homicides are committed with one of those guns. No other country even comes close.

What three hundred million guns, and circa ten thousand murders.  Color me unimpressed.    Guns are  safe.  Disarmed populations are not. 

Dope from Hope, ok Mike Huckabee is a nice guy.   Hucks problem is that he too stupid to know he is a liberal, from Brian  Stewart, National Review:

This afternoon at The King’s College in New York City, former governor Huckabee addressed a full hall in a wide-ranging discussion of public policy.  ;…] Huckabee flatly denied being a “pro-life liberal,” an accusation often made in certain quarters on the right. Not a trace of defensiveness could be detected on this point. To the contrary, the governor gave an all-out defense of his tax hikes while governor of Arkansas on the grounds that they were the only responsible course of action to repair state roads. He snorted with derision at “libertarians” who fail to recognize that “we don’t have a health care crisis in this country, but a health crisis.”

A polite liberal is still a liberal.

C’mon. Chris Matthews has to know how hypocritical he comes off. There must be something wrong….

Chris Matthews on Thursday actually showed a graphic image of the Capitol building with a red target on it and crosshairs in the foreground.

This is clearly one of many warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored. We suspend first graders for drawing pictures of guns at school, so episodes like these deserve the same kind of caution.

So says “Black and Right”.

Look, can’t the same thing be said for any liberal? Of COURSE he knows. He just doesn’t care.

OK, I promised you some pics, and here they are, but first some background. Due to equipment problems, and some timing issues, I was unable to get out of town before the snowstorm hit in Carlisle, PA, the other night.,  drove for a few hours and was almost out of legal time, (Truckers are restricted on the time they can drive per day) when I started asking around on the CB where I might find a place to stop. Someone suggested an old PETRO, on I-80 about three miles off my intended route. It’s now run as an independant stop and it’s a HUGE place. I hope they make it. They’re certainly getting lots of business.

Certainly was snowing that night.

Here’s a few pics. Click each for a full view.

I did manage to run to Buffalo, through white-outs and every other blinking thing the weather threw at me THen again, I guess that’s expected since I have lived in this neck of the woods all my life.

I leave for York PA down by the PA/MD border on Sunday afternoon.

I have been finding keeping up with what’s been going on in the political world to be a bit more of a hassle from the road than I thought.  At this point it’s just going to be a matter of making use of what connectivity I have, and what time I have.  I’m slowly getting into this.  I can’t say I like the time away from home, but I certainly don’t mind the driving.

As an example of that, I must say that despite the huge pain in the ass that driving through that kind of snowfall creates, it was one of the prettiest drives I’ve ever taken.  The snow on the trees and hills was beautiful, and All I can say about those sights  is I wish I managed to catch more of them.

I’m supposed to be moving into a new truck very shortly and hopefully the new one will have a radio that actually works.  I’m also supposed to be getting a new CB radio sometime this week so that will be interesting as well.  When I get the new truck, I will post some pictures, and perhaps a short movie so that you get some idea of where I live during the week and what I do.

In the midst of all of that, I will be interspersing political commentary as I always have done here.  Perhaps once I get the new truck going,  and get more organized, I will reinstitute the Nightly Ramble.  Given that every time I write out the edit different location, Ramble does seem an appropriate title, don’t you think?

Politics linked to murder, the leftwing theory that politics can lead to murder is supported, albeit in a different venue, not Arizona but rather Pennsylvania, from Michelle:

But the grand jury itself pointed out that loosened oversight of abortion clinics enacted under pro-choice former GOP governor Tom Ridge enabled Gosnell’s criminal enterprise – and led to the heartless execution of hundreds of babies. Mass murder got a pass in the name of expanding “access” and appeasing abortion lobbyists. As the report made clear: “With the change of administration from [pro-life Democrat] Governor Casey to Governor Ridge,” government health officials “concluded that inspections would be ‘putting a barrier up to women’ seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.”

The evidence of a political linkage to murder dose not exist in the murder of Christina Taylor-Green in Tuscon.   It is very strong in Philadelphia.    Why the sudden silence?

Big is for Bakken:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Billionaire oilman Harold Hamm told North Dakota bankers on Thursday that government estimates of recoverable oil in the Bakken and Three Forks formations are too conservative.

Hamm, 64, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc., said the formations in North Dakota and Montana hold about 20 billion barrels of recoverable crude, or about five times the amount previously estimated by federal geologists. The formations also hold the natural gas equivalent of 4 billion barrels of oil, he said.

See how long it takes for some Obamatard to plug this one?

Hu is in the House,from Jay Tea, Wizbang:

I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, but apparently he made an observation the other day that struck a lot of people as quite profound. At this week’s state dinner, the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (Barack Obama) was joined by the winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize (Jimmy Carter to honor not the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize (Liu Xiaobo), but his jailer (Chinese Premier Hu Jintao).

Hu has Dumbo by the short ears, but why the silence from Mr. Moral Superiority himself, Carter?