JWF Makes a Fool Out of Chuckles

Jammie Wearing  Fool is reporting this encounter with Chuckles, a/k/a Senator Charles Schumer (D  – Madoff):

I said, quite loudly, “When are you going to return 100% of the money you took from Bernie Madoff?”

The blood drained from his face as he fell silent, possibly for the first time in his life. A moment of pure hilarity that I wish I had on camera to share. Finding myself among kindred spirits, a fellow to my right then chimed in with “Hey, how about telling Chris Dodd to give back the money he got from AIG!”

Well done Sir!

Last Friday was Nowr?z, in Iran. President Obama in recognition of the day sent along a televised message to the Iranians .  It is something of a tradition amongst American presidents to do precisely that.

The tone however was markedly different from that of previous presidents. The response was quite predictable;

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama’s latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was responding to a video message Obama released Friday in which he reached out to Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new year, and expressed hopes for an improvement in nearly 30 years of strained relations.

Khamenei holds the last word on major policy decisions, and how Iran ultimately responds to any concrete U.S. effort to engage the country will depend largely on his say.

In his most direct assessment of Obama and prospects for better ties, Khamenei said there will be no change between the two countries unless the American president puts an end to U.S. hostility toward Iran and brings “real changes” in foreign policy.

“They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice. We haven’t seen any change,” Khamenei said in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad.

In his video message, Obama said the United States wants to engage Iran, but he also warned that a right place for Iran in the international community “cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization.”

If the rightful place for Iran and the international community can’t be a reached through terror or arms, then why are they using and planning both?

That use of arms and terror by Iran is not the fault of the United States or any other nation on the face of the planet. The blame for Iran’s position in the world falls squarely in the lap of Iran’s leadership, Khamenei included.

The President seems to be under the misbegotten notion that the lack of negotiations between ourselves and Iran is our fault.  At least, the fault of the previous administration.  If the response he got doesn’t alter that misperception, I’d don’t know for the life of me what will.

Mr. Obama seems fully intent on badly misplaying this affair, kissing the backside that he ought to be kicking.  This is a tactic we’ve seen out of democrats for generations now, and it’s to the point where it has become quite predictable.  Indeed if the reader will remember it was one of the major reasons I posted in the list of reasons not to elect Mr. Obama as president.  This blog predicted in no uncertain terms that are situation with Iran would deteriorate the moment Obama’s backside was in the chair behind the Oval Office desk.  And so it has.

So dominant is the stench of failure of the Obama administration on nearly every front, that one must begin to consider the idea that failure was the aim they had all along.  Indeed, if one were to go about trying to screw up the economy, our relationship with friends and enemies around the world alike, and are standing in the world, I can’t imagine anything more effective than what this administration has done so far.  Think about this; he’s not even a full three months in office yet and he’s accomplished all this.  Can you imagine what the next four years is going to be like?

Addendum: (Bit)

James Joyner has comments on this matter as well.

I kiud of agree with Bill Maher, when he says he worried about, “”the chance for people to take horrible action.”   Except that Maher is worried about some hypothhetical.   When in the real world, nutcases are being deliberately enraged.  New York Magazine:

The Connecticut Working Families Party this weekend has organized a bus store that will make stops at Wilton, Connecticut, AIG office as well as the security-patrolled homes of AIG execs who are fearing for their lives.

“We’re going to be peaceful and lawful in everything we do,” said Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families. “I know there’s a lot of anger and a lot of rage about what’s happened. We’re not looking to foment that unnecessarily, but what we want to do is give folks in Bridgeport and Hartford and other parts of Connecticut who are struggling and losing their homes and their jobs and their health insurance an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy

New York Times:

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The bus pulled up at a quiet intersection on Saturday, just another chilly afternoon here in one of the wealthiest counties in America, where the median household income is $78,353 and where, a short walk up the street, an A.I.G executive lives.

A pastor whose sister-in-law is facing foreclosure, a recently laid off worker at a steel mill and a few of their colleagues walked up the residential street. A national and international press corps numbering about 50 hovered around them.

The members of the  mob  may well  be an all beef patty short of a  Happy Meal, and they being egged on by the Obama administration in a deparate attempt to hide their gross incompetence.   Barack Obama signed the legislation, Porkulus, which had language inserted by his administration  designed to protect the AIG bonuses.   Now having protected the bonuses, BO is now egging the mob on.   So will be held accountable when the m0b is driven into a mad frenzy?   Will BO attempt pawn the blame off on to Dubya or Rush?    Will the reprobate, Eric Holder, investage the mob violence as a hate crime?

It is seven agaisnt one. Al Gore doesn’t stand a chance, video:

Hat tip: Demand Debate.

Well if you count relevent degrees, it more like seven to zero.   Dropping out of seminary school hardly qualifies anybody, much less Al Gore, as an expert in climate.

“I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics,” Governor Palin said. “This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world.

“These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will. By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them. I hope President Obama’s comments do not reflect how he truly feels about the special needs community

Sarah “Mama Bear” Palin via Ben Smith and Ace

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House.
One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from
Minnesota .

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The
Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring,
then works some figures with a pencil. “Well,” he says, “I figure the
job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100
profit for me.”

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then
says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew
and $100 profit for me.”

The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the
White House official and whispers, “$2,700.”

The official, incredulous, says, “You didn’t even measure like the other
guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?”

The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and
we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.”

“Done!” replies the government official.

Alas poor BO.  The only person who takes Barack Obama seriously is Obama himself.  Abe Greenwald, Commentqry Magazine:

As each of Obama’s nice-guy efforts fails internationally while succeeding domestically, a cumulative impression is setting in around the globe. In Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and beyond, leaders are getting confirmation that not only is the new American president willing to indulge bad actors, but that the American public is thrilled about it. This is a strange and dangerous way to “restore America’s image.”

Thiss does not bode well for BO fragile mental health, J.G. Thayer, Commentary Magazine:

A good sense of humor is essential in high-stress positions, and there can’t be a more stressful job than President of the United States.

Presidents who can laugh – especially at themselves – tend to be more successful at the job, and come out of the Oval Office a bit healthier. Those that don’t tend to get eaten alive – and we all end up paying the price for that

In the end, the only peson who not be laughing will be BO.   His teleprompter is simply not programed for humor.

As most of you will know, I recently obtained a Palm Treo650, which I quickly tied onto the florack.us mail servers.  Last night while adding a spam handler to the little bugger’s feed, I apparently fouled up somewhere.

To handle all the mail around here, both for the blog and the family and personal situations, I have  several individual email accounts, across four different domains. These are all being handled with a (yes, one) Thunderbird client. T-bird automatically manages each account, for spam, who needs to see what, what needs to get sent to the Palm eventually and which I need to know about right now.  It also manages killing of old mail from itself and from the servers.

While writing new client scripts last night, to handle some new situations that came up recently,   I must have gotten one of the scripts crossed up in the direction it was supposed to fire stuff off in, because about 3 this morning, it fired off something… I’ve yet to determine just what… that put the whole mess into a feedback loop, generating thousands of notification messages which were then sent to my Treo’s account, with copies of the header being sent to my text message channel so as to blow the alarm, letting me know they were there.  By the time I figured out what was lighting up all the alarms, the server had melted.

I’ve got it all shut down, now, and partially restarted as you read this,  and I’m doing some deconstruction now to see what’s happened.

Bottom line: Mail around here’s going to be a little weird for this morning.

It’s all working again now at the server level, but there’s nothing on the client end to direct it where it needs to go, for the most part, though that is improving. In short my responses to your emails will be a little delayed.

It’s coming back online slowly as I pick apart each script and re-enable the unoffending ones. Should take a few hours.

Bitsblog authors, and extended family members, your mail is unaffected.

Barack Obama campaigned on a promise of Hope and Change.  There doesn’t appear to be much hope for Hope, but BO is sure bring on the Change, albeit all bad.   BO and his fellow ‘rats in Congress have started a trade war with Mexico   If it can be but played on his teleprompter, Obama would discover what William Barret Travis learned at the Alamo, the Mexicans shoot back and their aim is pretty good.

Forbes:

Mexico announced, effective March 19, tariff increases ranging between 10% and 45% on 90 products whose imports from the U.S. amount to $2.4 billion. This was done because President Obama earlier in the month signed a spending bill that removed funding for a pilot program that allowed designated Mexican trucks to bring cargo directly to destinations in the U.S. Mexico’s retaliation was neither rash nor hurried in that this issue has been in dispute since 1995.

The U.S. government agreed in the North American Free Trade Agreement to allow Mexican trucks to bring cargo to destinations in the four border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) in 1995, and this action was “delayed” at the urging of the U.S. Teamsters Union.

Investor’s Business Daily:

The impact of the truck decision is amazingly high. Mexico is our third-largest trade partner, with $370 billion in two-way annual trade. In exchange for taking Mexican trucks off our roads, American companies will now have to pay $2.4 billion in Mexican tariffs.

It will cost 40,000 U.S. jobs at a time when the economy can ill afford it. It will also raise costs as trucks exchange goods to new trucks near the border. It also lifts the potential for crime and supply-chain risk. That’s something, considering that the average number of trucks affected by the U.S. pilot program to permit the Mexican trucks beyond a small border zone was . . . three.

Two point four billions in tariffs in exchange for killing a one hundred truck pilot program.  That is change we can live without. 

BO is fond of soaring campaign rhetoric.   Sadly for us, BO can not make the connection between grand sounding campaign promises and the grim reality real world policy decisions.   Real world policy cuts both ways.  Obama campaigned as if he could simply dictate to the Mexican government his new terms for NAFTA, and they would simply bow down to his demands.  Ain’t happening.   Isn’t about to happen.  This ain’t Chicago   Welcome to the real world BO.

The British press is doing the job the American press simply will not do,  exposing the incompetency of the Obama adminstration.  Toby Harnden(?), Telegraph(UK) has his videos of his top ten BO and Delaware  Blue Hen gaffes.

Senator John Kerry and Barbara Boxer are both rich and stupid:

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer told CNSNews.com that the nation must adopt the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions, even if it results in massive increases in gasoline and electricity prices.

Anthropogenic  global warming is a fraud and a hoax.    We, the hard working taxpayers of the United States, unlike the idle rich of the United States Senate, need a carbon tax like a fish needs a bicycle.   Kerry has millions.  He married into it.   He can afford the carbon tax.  I don’t have milllion, and can not afford the tax.   Can you?

Heh: Obama’s Bracket Goes Bust

Coach K was right. He should stick to his day job. Then again, he’s screwing that up as well.

Jammie Wearing Fool.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere…;The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the “More Pizza” edition. I feel like Pizza for some reason, tonight. Sping, perhaps.

• What is rich?  Megan says:
  

  …that the definition of “very rich” seems increasingly to be set at “just above the level a top-notch journalist in a two-earner couple could be expected to pull down”….

  No. the more universal method of determining “Rich” is someone who makes dollar one more than the speaker does. That said, however, let’s face this one: all this smoke and fury on wealth envy is actually driven by those interested in making government bigger, and more powerful.

•  The Peasants are revolting: Among other places, in Kansas and Connecticut. 
• I keep hearing about how Obama turned down a Meet the Depressed stint because he thought David Gregory wasn’t enough of a challange. Yeah, right. Oh, more than granted, Gregory is no great shakes, and would likely softball the man to death…. but let’s be real about this…Obama couldn’t stay with Jay Leno… 
• Da Big 4-0: Happy Birthday to Jonah Goldberg.
• I’ll take the pesticide, please:  So, someone found the world’s deadliest spider in the whole foods section? Kinda makes one think about using pesticides, again, doesn’t it? Do you really wanna die for those natural bannanas?
• We’re growing: I’m noting a change in the people coming into BitsBlog, daily. Whereas the majority of our traffic has been from Google Searches over the years, indicating one time viewers, with a somewhat smaller number of regulars, I’ve noted we’re getting more and more people visiting the site directly, with no linkage to Google, or any other search engine. Today it’s running around 60% of total traffic, with 40% coming from other blogs and Google, etc. I take this to mean that our regular following is growing, and it pleases me no end.
• Rumor mill:  If Geithner gets the hook, JPM Chase may be losing a CEO.
• The ‘In The Tank’ network, Tanked:  When you see MSNBC beating up on CNN, you know something’s up. Apparently, CNN has lost their moonbat viewers.
• The Thugs have taken over: Union thuggery continues apace
• It’s a Gas: Propane powered V8’s?  Not a bad idea, but wait until government gets ahold of it.  They’ll have the price up so high it’ll be cheaper to burn oil, even at $4/gal.
• Yeah, they knew: Lots of finger-pointing and denials going on over the AIG thing, but what we do know is Treasury knew about the bonuses months ago. Of course they’re still not mentioning similar bonus programs at Fannie and Freddie. Oughta be a clue that there’s something else that’s central in this, we’re not being told about.

What’s more retarded? Making a Special Olympics crack or saying Geithner is doing a heck of a job?

Drew M. Ace of Spades

Andrew Malcolm, Los Angelos Times, quoting the President’s official schedule, has the ironic news bit of the day from the :

“Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend a reception with the National Newspaper Publisher Association in the State Dining Room, where they will be presented the Newsmaker of the Year award. This event is closed press.”

Lucky for BO he is not a republican.  BO  is as naive as Jimmy Carte, but Carter was not stupid.