A Hard Place

The Rick Santorum Canard

2012-02-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

This is your boy-child "conservative" option?

I actually like sweater vests - but are we supposed to believe that all "conservatives" are now for Rick Santorum - and not Newt Gingrich? I thought Newt was the real conservative? I thought Newt "spoke to the people" and would "take the fight" to Obama. Well apparently not. Talk about being principled about your candidate. So now those committed, fiery, disciplined Newt "Tea Party folks" have flip-flopped to Santorum? Captain Earmark? What a joke. Rick wasn't even a compelling guest on Fox News the past few years. Sarah Palin must be wishing she got in this mess.

The Far Right (which I have a problem with as much as the Far Left) are committed to derailing this election cycle with this silly "who is the most conservative" argument. Instead of coalescing behind a successful businessman, a prominent conservative governor of a liberal state (Massachusetts) and a turnaround specialist for the Olympics, many "Republicans" think a guy who lost his last real election by 18 points can take on Obama? It's crazy. Why do Republicans keep killing themselves on ideology (the same thing we blame the leftists on) in order to undermine the country? These are the same folks who bailed on McCain (because of immigration) and now say they will bail on Romney - who, by the way, has been strong on the topic and even aggresively campaigned on it in hispanic Florida with the primaries on the line.

Look, Romney just didn't campaign in these states that don't actually commit delegates (something that Hillary also did without great results) - and the turnout was correspondingly low because most people think he had it won - and they weren't real primaries. It's that simple. But Santorum did campaign in those states. That's what a guy who polls 10% (i.e. loses) in Florida and Nevada does - he moves onto the lesser caucus states. Frankly, this was more of an indictment on Gingrich - and the fluttering commitment of ill-minded conservatives who can't see the forest from the trees.

Newt is Toast (Conservatively Speaking)

2012-02-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

And this was your conservative candidate?

Romney won Florida in a virtual landslide - after coming off the deck in South Carolina. However, according to pundits, from both the left and right, he did it because of negative ads. I saw one of these ads highlighted on Hannity (on Fox) and it was by no means a negative ad (but boy, didn't they talk about it - who are you for Sean?). The ad was basically saying Newt was not a Reagan disciple (which is true). What's negative about that? I have seen much more grist in the Meg Whitman/Jerry Brown campaign out here in California - that was brutal. And critcising Newt because he's not like Reagan? (I mean isn't it self evident anyway?)

It galls me that a week ago Mitt was apparently weak, and showed "no gumption", and people were worried if he had the where-with-all to go toe-to-toe with Obama. Well, he just showed he can by wiping the floor with Gingrich - and all of sudden he's running a "mean campaign?". And of course Newt is whining about the negativity and how he was outspent. Give me a fucking break.

Newt received millions in backing from a Las Vegas casino owner to run a "documentary" against Bain Capital, and frankly, free enterprise, in South Carolina. Liar scum. He, and Rick Perry, called venture capital companies "vulture capital" firms and railed against Mitt because he actually paid taxes on his capital gains? The man argued against capitalism . How can any conservative vote for that? Well, South Carolinians did.

But, to quote Paul Simon, that's a one trick pony. Meanwhile at Fox, CNN and MSNBC they are all criticising Mitt for being negative - and in my opinion he wasn't. Telling the truth is not negative. America wake up. And Paul Begala - shut up.

Update 2-4-12: Romney has won Nevada with a majority - and Newt's campaign is in disarray.

Fox News Cheerleads Newt to Improbable South Carolina Win

2012-01-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

This man is a disgrace to conservative values.

First of all, I am a conservative Republican - but the over-the-top cheerleading for Newt Gingrich this week on Fox News definitely was a disturbing, and I believe, a major contribution to Gingrich's win in the South Carolina primary. And what pains me the most is that Newt is somehow characterized as the more conservative response to national poll leader Mitt Romney. Hmm - let's see here - Newt attacked the free enterprise system and Bain Capital in an amazing display of liberal democratic hubris - and in the same week was pointed out that he is a career adulterer. But somehow, he is the MORE conservative candidate? I don't get that. Screaming at reporters does not make you conservative - it makes you a time bomb - and an unstable President.

Meanwhile, at Fox News they basically can't contain their elation that Newt has won - I don't know if this is because they really like him, or that he was their colleague the past couple of years or that they now have an actual election to cover. But the favoratism toward Newt is palaple and astonishing for a network that claims to be fair and balanced. It has been not. The smiles on the faces of Megyn Kelly and Andrea whathername are just pasted on their face that their colleague has won. And, Sarah Palin, I have lost all respect for you from here on out.

Juan Williams at Fox and John King at CNN gave softballs to Newt at the debates that he could hit out of the park and deliver red meat (although not meaningful) stuff to South Carolinians. Mitt Romney was fine in both debates but didn't have pat answers about releasing his tax returns. And by the way NO ONE ELSE WAS ASKED ABOUT THAT. But Mitt's rich and apparently he, and only he, has to answer these direct questions (why is that?) - and meanwhile Newt campaigns excessively against captialism. And so, who is actually more conservative?

And another thing, Rick Perry and Huntsman dropped out, thus releasing already dedicated votes - and Perry actually went against Romney in the debates asking him specifically for his tax returns. Did he have a deal with Newt already and acted to be his hatchet man? Probably. So who is more conservative? You gave the primary to a guy who attacked captialism and Romney's tax records without releasing his own (until the last minute). But it was a false attack (no major presidential candidate has ever released his tax returns in recent history until the general election).

And the silly election night analysis by Bill Hemmer and others (like Britt Hume saying Mitt can't shake hands) is just appalling and somewhat incompetant (and I'm a fan guys. but really!) I think Fox News and South Carolina have done a diservice to the country and the Republican Party in trashing Mitt Romney for 1) creating jobs and 2) paying his taxes. It's a real shame. Roger Ailles are you listening?\

UPDATE: Thanks Britt Hume for reminding us late that Newt has the most unfavorable ratings nationwide of any candidate - way to bring it back to earth - I almost thought Megyn was going to cry.

The Bane of Bain

2012-01-14T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was a job - get over it.

The recent overreaction, hysteria and general misunderstanding regarding Bain Capital, Mitt Romney's former company, and what they actually "do", appears to be a one-week tempest in a teapot. But the manner in which so-called Republicans and conservatives bashed the all-but-confirmed Republican nominee for 10 straight days is unconscionable. First of all, the guy has been running for President for about 12 years - you don't think this hasn't been grist for the mill before? Did Mike Wallace and the 60 minutes crew all of a sudden discover a smoking gun somewhere? Guess what - they didn't. But a few confused candidates who apparenlty don't understand how the free enterprise system works (and/or arithmetic) found that there was something else to throw at Mitt instead of Romneycare - that, and they're desperate.

Between Gingrich and Perry's utterly pathetic attacks against Romney (which make them both a bit to the left of Obama) and the overeaction of a few faux-right pundits who think this will be used as an iron cudgel during the general election, the discourse has been seriously dissappointing. Even FOX News seems to have difficulty describing what venture capital/private equity companies actually do. Bill O'Reilly exclaims it's "real complicated". It's not! Struggling companies look for private equity investors to invest in their businesses and essentially "bail them out". In committing funds they retain ownership rights in the company, and in turn make tough business decisions as how to save the business. This can entail layoffs, cancelling product lines, shutting down factories or finding another buyer, partner or investors. Over time the equity investor works to rebuild the company and sell it to a going concern to reap return on what is frankly a risky investment.

Please note how this is incredibly different from the government (or Obama) using your taxpayer dollars to do the same thing. The government doesn't innately look for a return on its investment (ROI), but private entities do - thus they usually take more expedient and direct action. Nevertheless, we still have purported conservative websites crying that this raft of bad news will hurt Romney and the Republican chances of overtaking Obama. If giving up on the free enterprise system is the way some "conservatives" think we should retake the White House, then the terrorists really have won. Fortunately, it looks like Gingrich's sucker punch is having the opposite effect as Romney's lead is now widening in South Carolina.

Whoa Nellie! It Was a Great Game!

2012-01-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

Roll Tide - the clear National Champion

I am fairly tired of all of the media saying that Monday night's BCS college national championship tilt between Alabama and LSU was a bad game - like they were reviewing a movie. It was a GREAT game! After a bowl season full of arena league scores and zero defense, and frankly zero drama, we had it all in the BCS game with Alabama throttling previous unbeaten and No.1 LSU 21-0. Not only did they totally manhandle LSU, the Tigers didn't even cross the 50-yard line until the game was almost over - and they also did this in New Orleans with 70% of the crowd cheering for LSU.

Of course there was nothing much to cheer about as LSU couldn't do anything right - and this was supposed to be the "greatest team ever?" Ha. That's what made the game exciting to me - seeing such an overhyped football power (who admittedly deserved to be No. 1 at the end of the regular season) get absolutely crushed on its virtual home turf - a good ol' college football smackdown. Whoa Nellie! After a year of exaggerated hyperbole (i.e. a Baylor QB gets the Heisman just because he beats a bad Texas team on the last week of the year) it was great to see real football settled the old way.

Meanwhile we have critics lambasting the game and wishing for other final game alternatives (now, all of a sudden, they wish they had Ok St in the BCS game - then why didn't you vote for it?). Sorry, pathetic losers. Enjoy the college game while you can - because in a couple of years the playoff advocates will get their wish and all of this will be over soon. You'll be bitchin' about something else then. Roll Tide.

Barry Not Talking - To Anybody

2011-12-29T23:54:00.000-08:00

Obama - Home Alone

Last month Chris Mathews surprisingly criticized the President saying that he doesn't really act like a President "should" - and implied that he specifically knows that over three years in office Obama has not cooperatively reached out to Congress to work on legislative deals and/or lead in anyway imaginable. Now more press is emerging telling the same tale - that Obama and the White House don't talk to anybody. Even his fellow Democrats are saying it as well. And just recently Obama took a short plane ride to New Hampshire an obvious political hotspot, but didn't include any state officials on his flight, a gesture usually made to create a relationship with local pols.

Over and over it is being strongly suggested that this is a man who does not lead by developing a governing consensus amongst allies, and enemies alike, - as most leaders do - and as most everybody does in ordinary life. He hasn't reached out to Congress to encourage conversations on issues and has basically eliminated communication at the White House. He appears distant and isolated. No, he is distant and isolated. This is not a man to lead the country or devise solutions to aid the union. This is a man afraid of his own shadow. How can one say he "can reach accross the aisle" to gain consensus when he doesn't even know who is on that aisle?

"There once came into Egypt a Pharoah who did not know."

When Shovel Ready Doesn't Mean Squat

2011-12-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

Seriously, what's one more pipeline?

Obama has refused to lead again. Now that a shovel-ready infrastructure project is ready to go, can actually provide badly needed construction jobs (which he constantly crows about) and could increase the nation's independence of foreign oil - well, he's punting. And I'm talking about the Keystone XL pipeline which would bring friendly oil from Canada down to US refineries in the Gulf Coast. Jobs for the pipeline construction, jobs for the pipeline transmission, and increased jobs at the refinery. He has repeatedly stalled on a decision, but just today the House voted to extend the payroll tax cut - as long as Obama approved the Keystone project.

I find the opposition to this project somewhat startling. Celebrities such as Julia Louis Dreyfus of Seinfeld fame (thanks for screwing that up for me Julia) have actually published ads exhorting Obama to oppose the pipeline. Recent articles in the press (this one from CNN) actually try to claim that the project could decrease jobs in the US! And, of course we have the requisite environmentalist groups that claim construction of a pipeline will create all sorts of environmental hazards (not as if construction a high speed rail project wouldn't?) And, just for the record, we already have plenty of pipelines in the ground (see map above).

It is such a joke of an argument. Obama says they need more time, but only because he doesn't want to offend any part of his small-mided base before election time. Of course, all of this fine high-level analysis of the infrastructure industry comes from the same man who rushed through a failed stimulus that squandered taxpayer money.

Update: Jan 15, 2012 - Canada to start talks with China to sell energy. See? It didn't take that long.

Andrew Luck Got Screwed

2011-12-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

Better Luck next year

Look, I don't want to get into individual statistics because they really don't matter. Andrew Luck was the Heisman runner-up last year and many expected him to go pro - especially after Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh left to coach the San Francisco 49'ers. Instead he returned for his junior season and promptly led Stanford back to an 11-1 regular season mark and a BCS bowl berth under a brand new coach. He led a team that lost many starters over his brief stay, called his own plays, mind you, and was commonly named as the number one draft pick by the NFL next year. It really wasn't a question if he was going to win the Heisman or not.

Then something happened - and I mean media-wise. All of sudden as the season came to close alot of talk about Robert Griffth, the QB from Baylor emerged. Baylor had three losses, they didn't really have a marquis win and heck they even lost to Texas A&M who promptly fired their head coach after losing to lowly Texas in their final game. But the very next week, when many teams were not playing, Baylor beat Texas in their final game (and after the emotional rivalry game with A&M) and every media center started beating the drum about Robert Griffith. And, yes, he had a good game, a good season and is a good talent - and from his appearance on the Heisman show, seems like a great guy. But the media blather about RG3 after beating "Texas's great defense" (Texas - a five loss team) seemed to push this guy over the top in very close voting. Over a guy who actually calls his own plays.

Why is it that ESPN must dictate everything that happens in this world? Is it not enough that they have demolished the Big 12 conference with their ill-advised media deal to set up the "Longhorn Network" with Texas? Is it not enough that their meddling has for the time being ended a 100+ year rivalry between Texas and A&M? Now they have to say that if some QB thrashed their beloved Longhorns, well, he must be the Heisman winner? What krap ESPN.

Even tonight we had to hear about how Baylor was a nothing program and this single player made them "relevant". Uh, where was Stanford before Harbaugh and Luck showed up? What a crock. Andrew - better luck next year.

Occupy Wall Street - Losers Without a Cause

2011-11-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

The young and the restless

Let's call it for what it is - a disgrace. Occupy Wall Street is nothing but a bunch of do-nothing ne'erdowells hunkering down on someone else's property to protest about er, uh, that guy's property. It's a joke, and as commented by many - this "movement" is more of an effort to replicate 60's-throwback-style revolution, without a real cause. Yes, I said it - a rebel without a cause.

Initially compared to the Tea Party (really?), this lawless movement has been coddled by the mainstream media for the past month (and unfortunately by conservative pols and pundits, as well) but finally, people are coming out of the woodwork to call a spade a spade. With no concrete message, and anarchy fueled violence spreading, these people need to go and municipal governments need to do what they are paid to do, which is protect the citizenry. From the clueless New York Mayor Bloomberg to the anarchist sympathizer Mayor of Oakland, our municipal leaders have fallen down in protecting their stakeholders. Not to mention those other elected officals in the Democratic Party, and t h e White House. And for that, we should really protest.

Obama Says America is Lazy

2011-11-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

Is that my ball?

For the umpteenth time the President of the United States has insulted his own country. Just last week, while in Hawaii, he accused the US for being "lazy" in "attracting business to the nation". This comes from the same man who said in the past month that we are "soft", has gone out of his way to apologize for American investment abroad, has overly deferred to muslim nations, and who said during is campaign that "some Americans desperately cling to their religion and guns". This outrage comes from a man who does not lead and only seeks to divide our country by blaming everyone but himself for recent economic failings. Mr. Obama, all you have to do is to lower corporate taxes and that will attract business. All you have to do is create a domestic energy policy that encourages oil exploration within our own borders. All you have to do is to repeal your socialistic health care policy. Lazy? What golf course did you e-mail that retort from?

JoPa Gets Piled On

2011-11-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

Unnecessary roughness

I'm sorry - but I don't quite get this. The same administrators and school trustees who weren't exactly clued into what was going on nine years ago now are throwing the book at legendary Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and firing him. Yes, he should have retired long ago, but the school apparently wanted him and more importantly, so did the student body. But because school administrators did not act on information he gave them nine years ago about a FORMER employee Joe is being shown the door. Don't get it.

I understand that the grand jury investigation transcript of the charges against the actual perpetrator and two senior administrators (of which JoePa is not named) looks bad, but I don't understand the over-the-top vitriol shown towards Joe - and especially from conservatives. Some of the same people who bristled at the recent media treatment of Herman Cain are leaping on this bandwagon and casting the first stones at JoePa (mostly because they hate and misunderstand football, I presume). And, do you also realize that there is more coverage tonight of "students marching in the street" then there ever was for violence at the Occupy Wall Street stuff?

Over at ESPN, sports pundits are howling outrage at how college football has undermined our society (even though ESPN has caused much of the recent conference shuffling with their own meddling - see Longhorn Network). Also, several former ESPN on-air personalties have been shown the door for sexual harrassment themselves during this same time period - did those pundits go straight to the police with what they knew? I don't think so. I understand the Penn State charges are serious - but the moral hypocrissy of the press is also.

Obama Loses Face - and Iraq War

2011-10-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

Obama lost a war that the US won twice.

With all the audacity of "hope" President Obama announced today that the US will be removing ALL troops from Iraq at the end of the year. Even though that will sound like a nice campaign promise to his leftist and demented base, this is a diplomatic failure of gargantuan circumstances. President Bush had agreed to troop drawdown in his last year of his presidency - all Obama had to do was manage the situation. And that would have entailed having some troop presence and airbases to maintain some control over the region, Iran, Syria and others - that's why we went in there.

Instead Obama bungled it all away - all this year the administration was trying to negotiate some additional presence 'after' we left - but it got confused with mixed messages he was sending while trying to balance his political base at home. Now the growing Iran influence will probably take over Iraq and our years of sacrifice will be for naught - because of this incompetant, ill-equipped and ignorant President. The "i's" have it.

Amanda Knox is Innocent

2011-10-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

She's innocent and always has been.

Thank god this woman was acqutted. She was railroaded, period. And the press still talks about her like she is guilty. It is terrible. It is a classic case of the press not doing their job. Even now I am watching some clueless woman on CNN who can't even get her facts straight about the case. This has happened across all media, even Fox. No one seems to know the facts or cares. It is pitiful that people are jumping on reporting this case and don't have any clue what it is about.

She was railroaded. Period. No DNA, no motive, no nothing. The Italian prosecutor was corrupt. He even spent 16 months in jail. Everyone knows it. The Italian people even eventually came around. Get over it .

Obama's Job Speech - or - Failed Stimulus 2

2011-09-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Shot Down In Flames

Obama's "long-awaited" job speech - you know the one he went on vacation before giving it - was really nothing more than what many label as a "Stimulus 2". Please see here what we thought of Stimulus One. It's just a hodge-podge of temporary fixes and mild incentives that will not create one single job. A $4,000 tax credit to hire somebody won't actually hire somebody - not with Obamacare looming and the rest of the economy throttled by uncertainty. He also asked for more money for a sundry of infrastructure projects - you know the ones that weren't even "shovel ready" the first time around. More of the same old policies - except this time he said it louder - and asked 27 times to pass his "jobs bill" that doesn't really currently exist. All in front of an uprecedented full assemblage of Congress. And he didn't say how he would pay for it, but "wait until next week".

In his ever contradictory 20-minute speech, he claimed he was giving tax breaks to companies to hire people and in the next sentence proclaimed he was going to pay for it by raising taxes on those same companies! He is as incoherant a man as any. And a fool to think any of this will create jobs. He could have just said I will start exploring for oil in the US and he would create an enitre industry - but that's not in his vocabulary. Gimmicks are. And he's now busy "taking it to the the people". As clearly stated here, President Obama does not have a clue. In fact, even the the left is now shaking their heads in disbelief. It's another case of not Being There.

The Republican Debates - MSNBC Style

2011-09-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

MSNBC - a collection of liars.

Watching the Republican Debates tonight from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley - a lovely place I have been to and would recommend everyone to visit - was a surreal moment. Not because of the debates - but because it was on MSNBC.

Watching the aftermath of the debates on MSNBC is like watching the bizarro world. These people live in their own far-out liberal heads and don't understand simple economics. Starting with Chris Mathews, is who so consumed with what Tip O'Neil did 30 years ago, and that little man Rachael Maddow, its like watching a circus of limited minded midgets trying to scale a wall.

Bizzaro Superman

They, of course, pounced on Rick Perry's definition of Social Security as a "Ponzi Scheme", an unfortunate choice of words I would agree for Perry, but which he did not back down on - and immediately suggested that that was a great divide between he and Mitt Romney. The reality is that they both said the same thing - that Social Security needs a fix to make sure it exists for everyone in the future. They consistantly said that Perry was for ABOLISHING social security - which he is not - and somehow made Romney look good - but he said the basic same thing. This what what they all waxed on about for hours last night.

Whatever, they spent the whole night trashing the frontrunner without listinening to what is going on. Also they borught on Alex Winter from the Huntington Post who "fact checked" statements from the debate and loudly proclaimed that Perry "lied" when he argued with Obama's claim that the "border" was safe (in his speech in El Paso earlier this year) -when there is clear evidence of gun running under Obama's own "Fast and Furious" program. This brain surgeon, with a gleeful grin on her face, compared "crime at the border" with "crime in other border cities such as San Diego, Houston and others", implying crime was down there and suggesting that there was not a border issue at all. Not a more disingenuous comment has ever made on this network.

MSNBC - yellow journalism. You are a loser organization and an association of liars.

Hitler Learns A&M is Leaving for the SEC

2011-09-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

You see, Texas A&M is vaulting from the "big 12" conference for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) mostly because ESPN signed a major deal with arch rival University of Texas for a media network. Colorado and Nebraska already bolted the Big 12 last year and this was the last straw for the Aggies and their wishes to be the only Texas team in the country's greatest football conference. Alot of media make the Aggies to be bad guys for breaking up conferences and perhaps some tradition - but as the video shows, the evil lurks elsewhere.

Perry Has Tails (and Pols) Wagging

2011-08-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Perry has them so worried they're making stuff up.

Since Texas Governor Rick Perry has entered the presidential race the mainstream media and leftist outlets have been busy smearing him - and basically hinging on every word. They even had the temerity to suggest Texas's good economy was just a myth. Commenting on Texas' economy outperforming other states, Nobel Prize winning economist (and leftwing loon) Paul Krueger stated that "well, if you want low taxes and low regulation - that's what you would get". Hmm, I think that's the idea Paul. Spread the word. Of course, some just attribute it to luck. Anyway you look at it Perry has been pushing their buttons.

Did you realize its just been a week since he's been in the race? Seems longer doesn't it? And not only has the media gone Perry-crazy, but members of Obama's own cabinet are issuing lies. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's recently visited the Sunday morning talk shows erroneously proclaiming Texas' education system was "in decline" under Perry and how "he was personally worried for the kids of Texas". Robert Scott, Texas's Education Chief and the Dallas Morning News quickly rebutted these libelous smears. And this is leadership, Barry?

"He went to Yale; I went to A&M"

2011-08-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

The next President of the United States

Texas Governor Rick Perry has made a significant splash in the political world by declaring his presidential candidacy this Saturday, almost overshadowing the results of the meaningless Iowa Straw vote and pushing competing candidates Romney and Bachman aside. Newly campaigning in Iowa with relative ease and candor a reporter from Politico asked him what the differnce between he and President Bush was. His retort? "He went to Yale, I went to Texas A&M". Whoop!

By the way, Governor Perry will be the next President of the United States - and we have one of his first major endorsements here. Shout it out loud.

Obama's Magical Misery Tour

2011-08-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

Obama's Lost Economic Plan Found

Meanwhile Obama is taking a ridiculous bustrip around the midwest, arguing with Iowans, and saying the same old tired things he said for the last year. I guess this is why his approval polls now have dropped to 39%.

It's the Debt, Stupid

2011-08-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

For the record, the downgrade of US debt was somewhat expected. S&P warned about it in April after Obama gave a dispirited speech about "getting serious about debt". Some think the timing is odd however since there is at least a plan in place to cut some spending (although modest) along with the congressional panels that will continue to address it next month (not next year). And also since this is the same rating agency that all but blew the sub-prime mess. Still one has to wonder what is S&P actually saying - and why are they criticizing the political process? Some think it is to cricize the Tea Party - although that makes little sense since they are the only ones wanting to cut spending. Others criticize the general nature of Washington and lobbyists to realize the entitlement balloon has to end. In fact, it makes those politicians and scallywags who continue to call for tax increases look like economic buffons. Adding insult to injury was Obama's inconsequential and non-presidential speech on Monday. (FYI - read this excellent column detailing an inside view of the debt ceiling negotiations.)

Obama's Debt Debacle

2011-08-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Obama's normal posture

As a fairly self-described political junkie, even I am tired of the debt ceiling arguments and endless pontificating. And Obama's pointless "campaign speech" this morning was just the capper. Can't the man just govern gracefully? At least something got done. A nice analysis of the latest in hypocrisy and mistruths are described in this article. Obviously the mainstreams and CNN/MSNBC clouded and obscured the truth of these negotiations on a daily basis (like insinuating we would "default" when we never were going to)(and dipping into deep, disturbing hysteria) - but even on Fox and other places we got into a bit of hyberbole and cheerleading (yes, I said it). Day by day truths would be illuminated and falicies cleared up - in the end I like to think we all learned something (such as the lunacy of "base-line budgeting").

Even some of us with conservative leanings could be heard to yell at the last remaining obstinate Tea Partiers to please agree to something so we didn't have to turn all of this mess over to Obama - despite the overtly inane arguments of the Democrats. One neat sidebar to this debate was seeing The One almost near useless at the end and looking silly giving speeches in primetime that basically no one paid attention to. While not a whole heck of alot happened at this moment legislation-wise, what did happen was Obama was made peculiarly unneccesary. Not good for a guy trying to get re-elected.

Amen, brother.

In the end though, the Republicans, and those racist, terrorist, hostage-taking Tea Partiers actually have taken a bold step in changing the course of spending in this country - and without shutting the government down. So that's Boehner 1, Newt 0, for those of you scoring at home (with LP Obama not making an official appearance).

Oh yeah I forgot, he is making an appearance - at this fundraiser with, uh, er millionaires, billionaires and corporate jet owners. Hypocrite.

UPDATE August 5: S&P downgrades US debt to a AA rating down from a AAA rating. Let the blame games begin!.

Kicking the Can

2011-07-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

In Friday's installment of "As the Debt Ceiling Turns" President Obama held his third press conference in two weeks and regaled the press attending, and a national TV audience, with several whoppin' one-liners. The most bombastic being that "80% of the country support a balanced approach to the debt crisis" meaning including tax hikes to solve the issue. He then followed that up with the hilarious factoid that apparently a majority of grass root Republicans also want a tax increase. Got to hand it to him - this man has gall. Or is just the dumbest stooge to come down the pike. Or both. Instead of commentating endlessly without shedding any light on the issue, why doesn't he just lead?

Did I really say 80%?

Of course, the public does not want a tax increase to solve the debt limit issue (that Obama has largely created on his own) - only 34% support that premise in a recent Gallup poll. And I know of no Republican who has ever advocated for higher taxes - it's against our religion. Obama's strange line of logic to get Republican support to increase the debt ceiling (in order to gain passage in the GOP majority House) somehow relies on obtaining tax increases. And Republican's are using the debt ceiling issue to obtain badly needed budget cuts because of Obama' incredible blooming deficit (see chart below) - thus they have asked for cuts at least equal to the potential debt ceiling increase. Obama increduously wants Republicans to raise taxes (which will theoretically only give Obama more money to waste) when he didn't even ask a Democratic controlled Congress to do it two years ago. And, of course that will only hurt the jobless non-recovery we are now "enjoying".

The main stream media coverage on this issue has been abominible - basically taking Obama's poll-tested catch phrases and reporting them as fact. For example, the LA Times keeps running front page articles about "divisions amongst the Republicans" - nothing about Obama's inaction. The reality is the Democrats have not even passed a budget for over two years. Obama's budget for 2011 was voted down 97-0 by the Senate in April. Obama has never cared about the debt ceiling and to this day has offered no plan (but the media keeps reporting like he has). He keeps asking for a "big" package so he can get enought debt coverage to dodge this issue beyond next year's election but insists he would veto a smaller measure (because it won't). If that doesn't show how he puts his interests above the country's, I don't know what else will.

And by the way, Obama and other Democrats voted against the debt ceiling in 2006. Where was the media outrage there? Sen. Marco Rubio - R, FL articulated the issues succinctly and as well as anyone on Face the Nation this Sunday. He makes Obama look like a pre-schooler.

UPDATE 7-18-11: With the Republicans moving a bill through the House to address the debt ceiling issue, the Obama White House announced that it will veto such bill. See - he doesn't want to address it AT ALL.

Commander of Nothing

2011-06-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last week on 60 minutes President Obama stated that their were some inherent structural issues with the economy that affected job growth - for example there were now, miraculously, ATM machines that are now taking jobs away from bank tellers. Not to mention that ATM machines have been around for about 20 years now, this utterance definitely belied the fact that the commander-in-chief is certainly no commander of the economy - or any business sense at all. The reality is such advances in technology does create jobs and improves productivity for the economy as a whole. What is more befuddling and even daming is the next week Obama was in a robotics plant claiming their work was "producing jobs" this time around - so what is it - does automation help or hinder? Even the President of the United States doesn't know. Only his teleprompter does.

And now after his disasterous press hearing this week it is clear the man has no concept of even arithmetic. He launched into a full-scale class war to argue why he can't even lead. By blaming Congress and Republicans and, mysteriously private jet owners, he launched into one of the most incoherent economic arguments of all time. "If we keep on giving tax breaks to billiionaires, and millionaires and private jet owners we can't keep food clean and give out scholorships" he claimed. Not a sillier arguement has ever been made by a President on TV. He is just clueless.

Much of this concern goes directly to his syle of leadership - which is non-existent. In fact in this recent piece Michael Barone compared Obama to Chauncy Gardiner, the hapless gardner that accidently fell into fame and wealth played by Peter Sellers - the name of the movie? "Being There". Which is barely what we can say about our President.

"The Big Man Joins the Band"...in the Sky

2011-06-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Best Album Cover - Ever.

Clarence Clemons, saxaphone player extraordinaire, well-known good guy and "Minister of Soul" died today after suffering a stroke barely a week earlier. His sound with the sax was all things joyous, boistrous, soulful, almost lyrical - and one that basically knew no other. He recorded many solo records on his own and just recently played on Lady Gaga's recent release. But, oh yeah, he also played in that guy Bruce Springsteen's band. In fact Clarence may have been the heart and soul of the E-Street Band that has played epic concerts (and recorded even more epic works) with Bruce for over four decades. If you ever can, please watch Bruce's last good concert tour which was really his late return and reunion with the E Street Band in 1999-2000. The New York concert from that tour can be seen often on cable (most notably Paladia) and it will demonstrate to you frankly how every member of that band contributes to the sound, but outside piano player Roy Bittan, Clarence's saxaphone is probably the most iconic sound of all.

And it is lost. Years earlier organ player Danny Federici also died and created a vacancy in the band. It may now be said that the E-Street Band is probably really no more - and that is sad indeed. If you never saw a show in their heyday then you seriously missed a musical iconic event. And a key component to each concert was Bruce's almost gospel-like introduction of bandmembers which almost always ended with a story of how he met Clarence (highlighted in "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" by the immortal lyric "when the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band"). Clarence was every bit of the show as Bruce.

Here is another worthy testimonial from a serious fan. His greatest solo was probably on the final song of Bruce's Born to Run - Tonight - in - Jun-gle-land.

Barbara Walters Should Retire...Now.

2011-06-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Baba Wawa is frankly working on borrowed time. For the past year in her infrequent appearances on her show The View she has often derailed the "fine free-flowing conversation" with comments and remarks that sort of resemble those of your crazy great grandmother at the dinner table. Recently she just said that if Sarah Palin can ramble around with presidential aspirations then Anthony Weiner should be able to stay in office - even though he has admitted to exchanging immoral texts to young women who are not his wife. (And this from a woman who wrote a book describing her sexual conquests of Congressman.)

On the following day, she then announced that Weiner shouldn't really be blamed for his behavior because it all has to do with the prevelance of Viagra (what?) - and this comment drew a loud groan from the usually unthinking View audience. Then, two days later after taking a day off (and apparently witnessing the rest of the View girls give it to Weiner) she came back and insisted that if Bill Clinton could survive his impropriety than so could Weiner. She did this by claiming the preposterous notion that now "Clinton is beloved and they have a very good marriage." Yeah - and pigs fly. Hang 'em up Barbara.

Meanwhile, in other hyperbolic nonsensical uttering, uber liberal Janeane Garafalo actually thinks Weiner isn't responsible for his actions and blames it all on the Republicans.

Weiner Gate

2011-06-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

It's about time....

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy - oh, not so much for the embarassment of acting like Brett Favre while being a US Congressman, but the fact that he has his own Wikepedia page just for this scandal! I mean this guy has been just a general liberal and flamboyant pain for the last several years - a man who bleats loudly for anyone to hear about how evil the Republicans are on a host of issues from health care to tax cuts. Did you also know that Rep. Weiner also once sponsored a bill on sexual deviance on the internet? Talk about hypocrisy - and not to mention the two-face-ness of the press on this one and Weiner, and his liberal blog force blaming everyone except himself. And, of course, it just gets worse and worse.

Sarah Baracuda

2011-06-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

Not really quite sure why the media has such a hard time understanding Sarah - she just wanted to go on a bus tour like many Americans do on Memorial Day weekend. She had a nice ride with Rolling Thunder on Sunday and despite what a few left wing commie blogs said everyone welcomed her with open arms. And if you're going to be in New York later on why not check out a local pizza place with the Trumpster - not a bad gig I say.

I'm pretty sure she's not running - but that won't stop the press from hyperventilating and almost blaming every catastrophe in the world on her. The gal has spunk. And lookie here - here's a Democrat who thinks she could beat Obama!

Joplin, Missouri

2011-05-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

After...and before: Joplin, MO

All one can say is 'wow' - I mean look at this devastation of a nice hamlet town in Missouri - Joplin. This article shows more pictures.

American "Idols" Into Lame Finish

2011-05-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

Pia was the best.

I have written my opinion on so many blog sites that I feel I have posted this many times. I was not impressed with the two finalists Scotty and Lauryn (loved Pia and Haley) but congrats to Scotty anyway. I don't know how these two (he and Lauryn) got to the finals (besides the obvious cheering from the "non-partisan" judges) given the superior talent amongst the final 11, but so be it. Last year's winner Lee Dwyze sucked also. People have written about the power of southern states voting but that doesn't explain why Dwyze, from Chicago, won last year with no discernable talent, over the very talented Crystal Bowersox. What does explain some of it is the fact that this was the first year one could vote on-line via Facebook, and up to 50 times with a mere tap of your mouse, but only by signing over access to all of your information - and your "friends" information - to AT&T. That kind of disclosure prevents me from voting on-line - but it won't stop 12 year olds. That's why Ryan Seacrest can crow from week to week about the record breaking vote totals - well you have on-line voting from tweeners now. They are going to have to change that. Lauryn Alaina's duet with Carrie Underwood showed us why. Many on blogs say she will be the next Carrie. When Lauryn croaked out the first verse of "He Cheats" we could see this was certainly not the case - thank god Carrie came on to finish the song properly.

So was Haley.

The final show is generally good for solid entertainment value and it did start out great with 4th place James Durbin singing with Judas Priest, but it really fizzled at the end with an overwrought slow Beyonce song (where she pleaded "make love to me" over 30 times on a purported family show featuring young country singers that many "fans" claim is "what we need") along with a bad Broadway Spiderman song featuring U2's Bono and The Edge and some other offkey guy - really dreadful. What we really wanted is Pia - who many thought should have won - to sing a feature song. But I guess finishing 8th place doesn't give her a platform on the finale (no - we had to watch JLo shiver for the wife-beating Mark Anthony) and even Haley couldn't bring it up a notch singing a non-plussed duet with Tony Bennet - a nice gig any other time - but rumors were she wanted to sing a new song she rehearsed with her father.

Tweener voters couldn't attend.

AI - you need to fix this krap. They think they had a successful year - and the overall talent was entertaining (loved Casey as well) - but they did not create an atmosphere to let the best win at all.

Campaigning with Osama, er, Obama

2011-05-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

The truth hurts.

Shoot to Thrill

2011-05-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Sedona, AZ and didn't spend too much time on politics. But, when I returned, I thought some of the threads being spun were terrific. Specifically, the one that juxtaposes the killing of Bin Laden with the legitimacy of enhanced interogation techniques such as waterboarding. Fox News" Chris Wallace had a White House security team member as his guest on Sunday and he posed the most interesting question of the past 10 years - "why is it legal to shoot an unarmed Bin Laden in the face twice, but we somehow cannot waterboard similar terrorists to unearth intelligence in the war on terror?"

Of course, the confused official could not come up with an answer, because there is none. In recent days some media types have rhetorically asked why Republicans can't give credit to Obama on this issue and it's precisely because of these antics - they won't ever own up to the fact that frankly being tough on our enemies actually yields results. Even at this moment, Attorney General Holder would still like to imprison Bush officials who provided legal analysis regarding enhanced interrogation techniques - but in the same breadth want to give Obama full credit for taking Bin Laden down. You can't have it both ways Barry. And there's the rub.

Gitmo Hypocrisy Marches On

2011-05-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

This podium ain't big enough for the two of us.

Here are two great threads that describe in detail the hypocrisy (as described in my May 2nd post below) surrounding the zealous over-celebration of Obama the great in "finally getting Bin Laden" in light of the fact that every George W. Bush anti-terror mechanism he left in place helped the US get him. And these were the things that the left, and Obama, campaigned and managed against during his term.
First Rush Limbaugh's excellent take. And then Dana Loesch even adds more to the fire with leaked internal Democratic party talking points that stress to the liberal faithful to not give any credit to Bush. These are must reads if you care about the leftist media spin. Boy, I really liked that call to unity Obama was talking about. Way to go, lefties. And, additionally, political analyst Michael Barone lays to bare the real irony here - that the very policies Obama and the left decried help bring Bin Laden down - and now they want overriding political credit for it.

By the way, Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. You too, Barry.

Can't Gitmo Satisfaction

2011-05-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Situation Room: What? "Red Eye" isn't on?

Congratulations goes out to President Obama, the country's national security team and our military in executing a strategic ground strike with brave Navy Seals to exterminate Osama Bin Laden. It is another step in our continuing "war on terror" - but it is not the "most significant achievement" in this war (as the President claimed) and it does not bring an end to our conflict with radical Islam. Personally, I was never obsessed with "getting" this guy as some in the media were (just as others in the media thought "we should finish the job in Iraq" after the first Gulf War - but, surprisingly, did not support the later war, where we did). It is now proven that Bin Laden was isolated with only communication through trusted couriers and with no internet or TV at his compound (which by the way was not a "mansion").

The OBL"mansion"

But credit should go to all who were involved with this and I look at it obviously as a victory for the country. But it is interesting in Obama's overly self-congratulatory speech last night (his use of the words "I", "my", "me" and "mine" were on full display as usual) is that this event occured primarily by following the Bush anti-terror policies that he has kept in effect in his two-and-a-half year term. It is quite clear that intelligence was gathered by the existence of detainees at Gitmo (something he ordered to have eliminated on his first day in office), by rendition (interrogation and detainage of prisoners abroad), and aggressive interrogation techniques (i.e. waterboarding) - all of these things he campaigned against and even tried to indict Bush staff over during his current term (and these were the most significant accomplishments on the war on terror - the things that have kept us safe). Now he's out there showboating claiming it all occured "at his direction". And wasn't the term "war on terror" outlawed in his first year? - not anymore; he rolled it out for the first time last night and even said Bin Laden wasn't a Muslim (then why did we bury him like one?")

"Party on, Garth"

Another reaction I had was to the seemingly spontaneous celebrations, mostly by young white college students studying for the final exams, in front of the White House and in Times Square - and the incessant, and to me, jingoistic chants of "U-S-A". If people think the very existence of a jail-called-Gitmo outrages terrorists (which I don't believe) then what do you think a bunch of coed's yelling "U-S-A" while broadly "just partying on, Wayne" can do? I never have really liked that chant whether its at an Olympic hockey game or in the streets. I mean, keep it in your pants, man. Look like you've been there.

An Inconvenient Truth

2011-04-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

I have writers for this, Seth.

Yes, there was a White House Correspondant's Dinner and all of the "reporters" yucked it up. Obama took shots at Trump, who was there, as did MC Seth Myers from Saturday Night Live. A review of the events was covered at Nicki Finke's Deadline.com. But if you are a conservative, you apparently cannot post there. Most of the comments to her blog are straight liberal BS. But if you post a conservative thought you are excommunicated. This is a little know truth outside of the blogosphere - you generally have a tough time posting on liberal blogs. Conservative blogs will take your krap all day long, but liberal ones won't. There you have it America. Liberals censor you. Repubs won't.

And by the way - why did Barry finally release his real birth certificate this week? To bury it in Donald Trump's face at this event. Hmm, kept it a secret this long (2.5 yrs) just for that Barry? Thin skinned?

The Royal Wedding: Let the Brit's Talk!

2011-04-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

Lucky you weren't listening to Fox!

I am currently watching the ramp-up to the wedding royale out here late West Coast time. Coverage started before midnight so its not that big of a deal. I was quite thoroughly enjoying Fox News simulcast with Sky News (the prime British news network) listening to the locals describe the scene in fantastic scenic minutae and with details of the locations and persons arriving early for the wedding. Then at 1 AM west coast time Fox News American anchors including the left-leaning Shepard Smith started their broadcast and basically ruined the whole royal vibe. Shep mocked wedding goer's hats - basically sounded like a yankee southern hick - and the blonde gals (who I basically like) kept bringing up how Princess Di got screwed around by big ears (what does that have to do with anything?). Hey, its a nice event. Describe the wedding and shut up. I would have been very happy to have kept on the Sky News channel and not listen to Yanks screwing it up and sounding annoyingly like Katie Couric. Oh, thank god we now have Brit analyst Imogean Lloyd Webber on the scene to save the day! Shut up, Shep! And by the way it's "Posh and Becks"! No matter - I turned to KCET and got a lovely Brit feed there. Where are my bangers and mash?

Obama's Debt Circus

2011-04-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

Obama's much ballyhooed speech last week, setting his tone for deficit reduction,was nothing more than the same old hot wind coming from the Democrats for over 50 years now - but more importantly, even Obama added a more vacuous twist by insulting Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan after he specifically invited him to a front row seat for the address. It just wasn't mentioned - it was a full out attack against Ryan and any other Republican who actually thinks we might have to address our financial house. Now I didn't expect Obama to really agree with Ryan's plan (and I might not agree with everything there as well) but to demagogue somebody who has actually put forth a plan to address our financial issues while Obama has absolutely punted on the issue is, uh er, comical. Because, he wasn't really addressing the nation's issues, he was just addressing his 2010 re-election campaign. And that's not leadership - and not what this country needs. So what did he do this weekend? He was off to Chicago to plan his re-election and talk about da' Bulls. Now, that's a three-ring circus.

UPDATE (4/18/11): After Obama's debt speech about doing nothing Standard & Poors downgrades US debt - hmm, how's that for a timely response? Nice going, Barry.

Capt. Stimulus Sleeps at Obama Address

2011-04-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Say It Ain't So, Joe.

And do you remember that this was the guy who was supposed to be in charge of the $787 billion stimulus program? And he can't even stay awake as Obama - three years later - tries to explain to people how he's going to pay for it?

Well, when you mention it - it seemed like alot of people there were sleeping through that dreadful, non-productive speech.

American Idol Sucks

2011-04-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Wow- what a terrible show. Why is this non-talented guy in the show? And as usual the judges said nothing about how BAD he is. Are they on drugs? My god - even after last week's debacle they still say "oh Paul you are so special?" And I have seen no "stage presence" by anybody so far. The only guy who "moved" was the rocker guy at the end. But he really is just so and so. He's no Adam Lambert. So much for that "entertaiment value". The show has died. And the judges suck big time. And it has obviously shown that Pia was head and shoulders above everyone (see post below). Who will be the Amercian Idol?-nobody special - and no one that will sell records. So stick it tweeners. And stick it haters. Shark. Jump.

UPDATE: The jazz duet between Casey and Haley on the elimination show was just amazing.

The Incapable President

2011-04-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

I reallydon't know what I'm saying.

Obama's speech today talking about his new plan to reduce the deficit - only a couple of months after he prouduced the largest budget in American history was one of the biggest swings with a "wiff" in political history. He has clearly staked himself as the lamest President in history. All we got was class warfare politics now 18 months away from the election.

It is somewhat laughable to read in some circles that Obama "won" the budget battle this past weekend - or even showed leadership in doing so. Realistically, Obama had his hat handed to him. But interestingly enough that hasn't prevented him from taking credit for something he didn't even want to happen. Obama came into this budget fight wanting to "freeze" spending. Well he got his budget reduced by $40 billion and it would have been more but he conceded to conditions or "riders" attached to the bill to accept a lower number and look like he beat back the Republican hordes. But now he has agreed to allow a vote on repeal of Obamacare in the Senate and several studies into it eficacy. It doesn't really matter that the Senate won't repeal it this go round - the publicity and talking points during the arguments leading up the vote are going to continue to point out how bad his "landmark legislative acheivement" really is - and that will take alot of air out of his re-election campaign.

Some new tea-partiers will hoot and hollar and say we didn't get the $100 billion budget cuts that were once talked about but we never were going to get those. This is a step in the right direction, averts the "government shutdown" issue that Republicans would lose on no matter whose fault it is and keeps the fight going. It also lays the path for Congressman's Ryan REAL budget plan.

American "Idiot"

2011-04-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

Take that, Nigel Lythgoe.

Personally, I feel American Idol proverbially "jumped the shark" last Thursday when front runner Pia Toscano got voted off the show, theoretically in ninth place. Since her departure there has been much written how possibly too much of the voting is controlled by young girls voting for their heart throbs and not model-attractive 26-year olds with a great voice. And, inexplicably you have a vocal minority of folks who said she "didn't move" enough (in her gargantuan four full weeks on the show) or "connect" with an audience. This being said of a women who in Week One received a standing ovation from the audience and judges after she slayed The Pretender's "I'll Stand by You". In fact, what is somewhat more bothersome then her outster are the plethora of comments saying how "arrogant" she seemed and blah blah blah. As one other commenter said - "now we know how Obama got elected" -(and/or as I say, how he continues to enjoy favoribility ratings of over 40% by doing nothing and getting us in even more wars).

At least we now have the news that Pia was signed to a record deal the very next morning by Interscope records - something that cannot be said by the majority of the remaining talentless contestents. Regardless, I find the whole situation unsettling. She was clearly the best and whether she ultimately won or not isn't the issue. She unexplicably placed ninth, thus - the show is dead to me.

Aggies in NCAA Women's Title Game

2011-04-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Take that, Mitch Albom.

As noted in several posts below, many sport prognosticators seem to just overlook "the other teams" involved in the NCAA Tournament. On this morning's "Sports Reporter's" the ESPN crew was asked who could best beat returning champion UConn; was it Notre Dame who they are playing tonight in the semi-final or Stanford, who beat them earlier in the year? To a man the "sports reporters" said Stanford. As an aside, the moderator did mention that Texas A&M was the "other team" in the Final Four. So what happened in the "other" seminfinal game tonight?
Scoreboard.
Texas A&M 63, Stanford 62. See the remarkable story here.
UPDATE: Notre Dame 72, UConn 63. Hmmprhh.
EVEN BIGGER UPDATE: Texas A&M 76, Notre Dame 70 - Aggies National Champs

Dodger Gangsta Punks

2011-04-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

All are welcome?

The Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants rivlary is fairly historic in these parts. As a transplanted Texan living in LA, I have no great love for the Dodgers, or for even going to Chavez Ravine to pay $10 for a Dodger dog. However, one year I did enjoy going to the park just to loudly boo Barry Bonds. But what happened in the the parking lot on Opening Day on March 31st is basic thuggary. A Giant fan, with two of his friends wearing Giant garb,was assaulted in the parking lot after the game by two Latino gang members. He's in critical condition. The two thugs are at large.

Coma esta, Gigantes!

What was even worse was this evening's news item I just saw run on the local TV station - they interviewed several latino Dodger fans standing in the beer line at tonight's Giant game and almost to a "man" they said if the Giants fans come into their house they were going to put them down. The nice demure female reporter kept asking "really, you are saying they can't come into the stadium or they face physical harm?" - and the guys sort of said "si". ("The river runs red with Burgundy's blood!").

Welcome to LA. It's not Chinatown anymore.

Ram Jam - VCU in the Final Four

2011-03-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Take that, Jay Bilas.

I was not surprised last night when the ESPN panel of experts all predicted No. 1 seeded Kansas to knock of No. 11 Cinderella Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). VCU - which in some quarters was criticized for even making the tournament - had knocked off several teams to get to this point but the highest seeded team was a not so great No. 3 Purdue. This was Kansas - a Jayhawk team that many were picking to win the whole thing. Surely the VCU parade, while impressive, could not possibly continue against their inside strength, pedigree and notorious well travelled fans in San Antonio.

But I was suprised when not one of the ESPN analysts (Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, Dickie V) couldn't even say that VCU might have a chance if they got hot and/or Kansas had foul trouble, or something like that. This was the same bunch who are on record for saying that VCU shouldn't have even got in the tournament. To be fair, much of their criticism was directed at the NCAA selection committee and UAB, a team that got in and flamed out in their first game. Jay Bilas actually said VCU could play and that their point guard Rodriguez was good (and VCU didn't even think they were going - they didn't even watch the selection show that Sunday). But nevertheless, for this game the ESPN guys just said it was an open and shut case. You think after a bit of this VCU rush they would give them a prop or two.

Meanwhile over at CBS, after Greg Anthony, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley all picked Kansas to win, Anthony admitted, after some prodding from Greg Gumbell, that VCU could win if everything went their way - which Barkley supported. But I tell you what - they must have all had Kansas in their brackets because when they cut to them after VCU's monstrous upset of Kansas, that panel looked like a library club. They even cut away from VCU trophy celebration to show some superfluous, and nonsensical for the time, Butler footage.

Great job Rams and great job head coach Shaka Smart. And as Whitney Houston used to sing - Shaka-can!

The Obama Doctrine

2011-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Do As I Say, No - As I Do, No - Aaagh. Time to hit the links.

During the last Presidential election, Sarah Palin got blistered by ABC's Charlie Gibson for not knowing the Bush Doctrine. Well I wonder what Charlie would think about Obama not even knowing what his own Doctrine is!? Below I labeled Obama the Vacuous President - but now I want to call him the Ambivalent President. I don't share all of the recent assorted conservative dogma that clamors for Obama to immediately explain his position on Libya while abroad (mainly because I'm relatively happy he's done something) - and, yes its vague and you can tell he was coaxed into it and he's trying to put his toes in the water before he totally alienates his base. But if he doesn't come clean by this weekend (and fully addresses the nation) after he gets back from his romp in Rio - then it is a sad case indeed.

George W. Bush took over a year and a half to lobby for the war on Iraq, going before the UN, talking to the American people and getting Congressional approval - and was still roundly criticized for it - and by Obama himself! Granted the Libya situation was something for the US and the international community to immediately take advantage of and move quickly - but he even did not do that. He dithered and "Hope" withered. Eventually Hillary made him do it a month later. She definitely has more balls then him.

Barry - you got till the weekend to explain what the mission in Libya really is. And maybe, for the very first time, you can "be clear".

The Vacuous President - Part II

2011-03-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Obama Announces His NCAA Bracket

Like we said in our previous post below - he's probably spent more time on his NCAA basketball bracket than on the federal budget.

UPDATE: Today, March 18, 31 days after Obama said Khadafi "must go" he announced the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya....probably 30 days too late (and only after the UK, France, the Libyan rebels and the Arab League - and Hillary - begged his involvement). Then he met with Congress and said we were really only going to be in for a couple of days and then promptly got on a plane and jetted off for Rio. That's pretty much how my week went as well.

This snail's pace in leadership is not impressing anybody, least of all these guys.

The Vacuous President

2011-03-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

He's on the case, uh, I mean, course.

So, this is leadership?

The Middle East is undergoing a grand transformation. We may have let Gadaffi off the hook in Libya because we have sat on our hands. Oil is going through the roof. Wisconsin in making history with long awaited rollbacks to public unions - aliong with Indiana and Ohio. The US budget (that didn't even pass last year) is still not approved - and it didn't even address what we need it to. The deficit is still growing at unprecedented levels. And what is the President talking about.

Bullying.

And not the rampant and potentially violent "bullying" that you see by the deranged union protesters outside and inside the capital in Madison - but by high school kids on the internet (and that's before he shuts it down anyway). Yes, he had a event in DC this last Thursday where he actually had represented by over 20 branches of government. Bullying. And this from a guy who told Republicans during the health care debate "elections have consequences" and during the mid-term elections he exorted followers to "get in the face" of people you disagree with, and "if they bring a knife we will bring a gun"- amongst a host of rather "bullying" type language from this non-commander in chief.

And besides this oddly timed event, Obama just seems not to want to really get involved in anything. It seems his M.O. is to just stay above the fray and not be caught on the wrong side of any issue. This is why everyone thinks he's a socialist - because, in reality, he just wants the rest of the government to solve the issues so he doesn't have to. Actually the President really isn't socialist - he's just European. That may even be worse.

What is also puzzling is his total lack of knowledge about energy policy (which goes to his bad cabinet choices in this area). The reality is he would love gasoline to go to $5/gallon so somehow we can all automatically somehow drive solar-wind-powered electric hybrid cars or something. Or just work from home. His response to energy related questions at his snorefest press conference on Friday belied an overwhelming lack of knowledge, urgency and frankly thought. And what's more so he's lying about oil production under his helm. He doesn't even have his facts straight. He's counting oil rigs (that are not producing) not actually barrels pumped.

Maybe he's just the whiniest President we've ever had.

Next: What really is happening in Badger Country.

Sign, Sign...Everywhere a Sign

2011-02-06T00:21:00.000-08:00

State of the Union 2011

2011-01-25T18:37:00.000-08:00

I'm just half way through this morose monotone speech. Obama had a moment to really leap forward here - and he has landed with a thud. Seriously - did this guy look presidential? He has a tin ear to what happened in November. What a hollow shell he is.

High speed rail? Sheesh!!!

Here's a good analysis.

Tucson Blame Game

2011-01-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

The liberal media blame game that immediately commenced after Saturday's shootings of up to 20 people in a Tucson Safeway parking lot that centered around Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords has taken such a strataspheric tangent to reality that it has fueled a counter argument that has generated even more heat. The tragic gunning down of six lives at a politcal meeting in a shopping center by a 22-year old leftist communist nut-job has now spurred calls for a reduction in the "heat of rhetoric" that has apparently just "recently permeated our politics". Democrats and the mainstream media have blamed the Tea Party, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and others in creating an atmosphere which somehow spawned these attacks.

This, of course, is just pure rubbish. But it also goes to the intellectual honesty of the left - find the quickest knee-jerk explanation and that is the cause. It is laughable - but also sad. While many criticized Sarah Palin for having certain Democratic legislators in her "sites" for the mid-terms (over a year ago) they neglect that the very left wing "Daily Kos" website did the same thing.

What is even worse is the mainstream media jumping to conclusions - or let's just call it like it is - MAKING conclusions based on non-fact and their ideological view. This Newsbusters article sums it up very nicely. But shame on the media and their absolutely disgusting display of bias. In the end the shooter was a head case, pure and simple.

A Man for All Seasons

2011-01-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Isn't amazing how the press has already turned on Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh? Read this trash. The guy has only been tough as nails in both his college and pro career ("Captain Comeback" when he was with the Colts as QB) to now a successful college football coach at less than a football factory like Stanford (that comes with excessive admission hurdles as well). What he has done at in Palo Alto is phenomenal. Now he has both the pros and his alma mater Michigan calling.

So what does he do? He talks to them, of course. All in individual meetings. He keeps this Monday's victorious post-Orange Bowl press conference on point about the game and dodges other questions (as does his QB Andrew Luck) . So what's a guy-in-play to do? And here we have internet reporters searching for a story making stuff up.

It appears that Harbaugh doesn't want to go "back" to Michigan (too much headache and problems there). He entertained the Dolphins because the owner is a major Michigan benefactor (and he was on the sideline at the Orange Bowl) - and he had an extensive five-hour talk with San Francisco - well because its the 49'ers, and its right up the street from Palo Alto.

What is clear to me is that Jim is now a California guy - once it gets in your blood its hard to get out. He can now stay at Stanford (now that his 2010 draft rated number 1 QB is coming back for his junior year) and make a run for a national championship - or have a great year, nonetheless (and get a handsome raise). Or go to the 49'ers - but now that Luck is staying at QB, and he's tired of all of the blah blah pro pitches, I bet he stays.

But anyway you look at it I don't think he's leaving Cali.

Read the Constitution? Bah! Humbug. Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:35:00.000-08:00

As the uber liberal MSNBC cable news program channel gets ready for the new year they are discussing the ramifications of the new Republican majority in the House and how they are going to start off reiterating the benefits of the U. S. Constitution - a document that was critical to the governance and development of this nation. In this video, Washington Post writer Ezra Klein claims this founding document hard to understand "because it was written over 100 years ago". Of course that would be 1910 - not 1787 - but what's a century or two?

This is what passes as political discourse on MSNBC - note the contempt in the anchor's voice as she describes that the House may actually read the Consititution (an act that may take less time then Charley Rangel's elongated pleas for leniency in his censure hearings) aloud at the start of its first session. Read the Constitution!?? Hrmmph!

Meanwhile, enjoy this post from our friends at the much more interactive Red Eye. Happy New Year!!!

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

2010-12-12T20:14:00.000-08:00

Changewecanbelievein....

2010-12-09T01:06:00.001-08:00

Pretty soon he's going to look like GWB. On Monday he said that "most economists" believe keeping the "tax cuts" (meaning keeping the tax rates of the past 10 years the same) was a disaster to the economy. Two days later he's now saying "most economists say this will help the economy"! And he's attacking his own base.

Talk about flip-flops.

Calling Dr. Love

2010-12-07T01:16:00.000-08:00

It seems everyone is starting to turn on Barry. Here is Kiss bassist and rock icon Gene Simmons wishing he had his Obama vote back.

Shout it, shout it out loud....

Drip, drip, drip....

2010-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

As for the great WikiLeaks scandal, I'm not surprised by some of the name calling and other "sausage-making" eye rollers that go into our international diplomacy. Any one who thinks this is all some high brow affair has another thing coming. But the entire affair with Assange is pathetic from a national superpower perspective. And, leakwise, what is remarkable is how the entire Arab world wants us to take out Iran - and here is Obama playing pussyfoot with them. If that does not show you how powerless he is both domestically and internationally, nothing else will. And this was the guy who was going to improve our standing in the world?

And let's look at this tasty Wikileaks morsel on how the US tried to influence global warming accords. I'm not surprised - but why don't we use these tactics to stymie Iran?

HillBuzz.org

2010-12-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

The wonderfully conservative website HillBuzz.org has now, it appears, barred me from its website since it no longer accepts any post I attempt to make there. They can talk about freedom and conservative principles all they want but don't exhibit it. And why would a site that expouses free discourse prohibit it?

The Real Buzz

2010-11-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

There is a website named HillBuzz (HillBuzz.org) that was purportedly set up to promote Hillary Clinton's presidential run in 2008. The website owners say they are two openly gay men who live in Chicago and frequent "Boystown"- not that there's anything wrong with that. When it became clear that Hillary was going to lose the primary to Obama they became virulent anti-Obama people and labeled themselves as "Puma's" ("Party Unity My Ass") and had many people convinced that there would be groundswell of Hillary supporters who would vote for McCain instead of Obama. I blogged about it here.

But that didn't happen - or happen enough. And their website went silent for a while. Then it came back with conservative musings and developed a following of "conservative" housewives and, it seems, right-leaning folks who don't get out much (many who participated in the recent totally- politically-motivated vote for Bristol Palin on Dancing With The Stars had never even seen the program, now just completing its 11th successful season).

Then the website did something interesting - it all of a sudden embraced Sarah Palin as something as an heir to Hillary's message and program and started becoming one of her biggest cheerleaders. This seemed odd to me - these two women are hemisphere's apart in ideology and pedigree - but the gay guys from Boystown now embraced both as their own. And so did the housewives that followed them. A handful of Sarah followers are now devoted posters to this site and I imagine even pay to keep it running.

Meanwhile the main organizer of the site has just managed a get-out-the-vote during Dancing With the Stars to keep Bristol Palin on the show -even though she can't dance, nor exudes any type of personality (to even want to root for her even if she can't dance). Kelly Osbourne filled that roll admirably two seasons ago as someone who started unsure but blossomed during the show and more importantly let her infectious enthusiasm fill the ballroom. This was not the case with Bristol. While giving it all she had, she simply does not possess one one-hundreth of the personality of her mother. The only reason people voted en masse for her was because suspect websites convinced unthinking followers to waste time voting multiple times with multiple e-mail addressses because of vague political ideals such as voter fraud. (And that's okay - I really have no problem with the method - but what's the motive?). Because, now, Sarah Palin is even more connected with a sibling, and notion, of "hey you're not qualifed but a bunch of kooks vote like hell for you". That's not a good thing to base a presidential election on. But the site seemed hellbent on purveying it.

And that's what I think HillBuzz was trying to do. Wreck Sarah with her own constituents by tricking them into zealous ventures that will ultimately just damage her brand. I don't trust that site. In 2008 they told browsers that they were convinced that "they" had the votes to beat Obama - but they didn't. I have long viewed this as an example of internet voter suppression. I smell a rat.

Even now when you go to the site and post an opposing view they will not post your post. Do the frequent posters at Hill Buzz understand this? That the entire site is censored? You probably think everyone that goes there agrees 100% with you - they are censoring the entire site!! As a conservative and Republican it pains me to see fairly good souls reduced to blind lemmings, who in their zeal for Bristol, crafted some of the most hateful speech directed at Jennifer Grey and others - and for what? This is what conservatives should aspire to? Hateful spiteful people? I've been to many far left websites but I fear the "conservative" HillBuzz may top many of them in deranged and misplaced anger. I'm afraid the boys at Boystown are playing you big time. Go look that up if you don't understand it buzzers. And if that's not it - then its just a bad website with misguided goals that is not helping the conservative cause.

Whatever the reason, its shameful and ultimately dishonest.

Don't Back Baby in a Corner (or, Bristol, the Pistol, Should Shoot Herself in the Foot)

2010-11-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

Let's make a few things clear for the record. I am a big fan of the ABC hit show Dancing with the Stars. And as noted to the right I am a rock 'n roll Republican. And I'm an admirer of Sarah Palin.

But I hate her daughter. And I always thought it was a bad, bad idea that she was put on this show. Why? Because of exactly the situation we are in. Dancing with the Stars is a great show - it combines reality show concepts, competition, celebrities (not necessarily stars) from all walks of life, has a good bit of good humored schmaltz and has almost singlehandedly (along with American Idol a bit) brought back the one-hour variety show back to U.S. TV. We even attended last season's finale and had a wonderful time (hmm, something that I even forgot to blog about so far).

But by bringing Bristol on the show - and even during the national mid-term elections no less - ABC has left themselves open to some second guessing and blow back that I hope the show can survive from. Because what is obvious to me is that certain parts of the right-wing (of where I definitely reside) have decided that voting for Bristol will show America "something" - what that will show I have no idea - and, for the record, I am steadfast against it.

Please America - stop voting for this woman? She CANNOT dance! I could possible see her get by some of the early folks on "Sarah power" and all of that but now it is ridiculous. I even lost a bet A MONTH AGO that she would be gone, but a coworker told me he was sure she would be there through the mid-term elections. Being politically astute (and a fan of the show) I naturaly scoffed at this notion, but I now owe him $20.

This abuse, yes abuse, of a very entertaining and fun show by certain folks and bloggers on the right who think this if funny - is not very funny to me. And also for the record, there have been other abuses in these reality shows. I for one don't know how this Lee guy won American Idol last year - but apparently all of Chicago voted for him. And besides this get out the vote business, there is nothing else really funny going on here as noted here by a former contestant. Please don't give me this nonsense that somehow the Tea Party jammed the lines for Brandy. Blame the judges - they're the ones that have given her inexplicably high scores given her performances.

And that's why she should have never gone on the show. The Republicans, Sarah and everyone else trying to improve the nation's governance going forward doesn't need this noise. If Bristol wins it will just foist more hysterical anti -Tea Party hate and will paint the right in a bad light. We don't need this, guys - this is not a way to prove a political point. And, of course, I'm very sorry Brandy had to go but let's face it - she couldn't even beat the kid from Disney - so she's got some other issues going on there. But please America, and Hill Buzz and Free Republic and the rest of you - cut it out. Vote for Jennifer. Don't back Baby in a corner!

Seoul Brother

2010-11-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

Seriously...anybody listening to the President tonight as he gives a press conference in Seoul, Korea cannot give this guy glowing remarks. He can't even answer a question. Why is the President holding a press conference over there (when he has only give a few over here) when he has no answers and is clearly flummoxed by the questions.

And after he has flooded the market with cheap dollars!!!?????

Paint It Red

2010-11-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, a call to sanity indeed. And an interesting roll call on election coverage can be seen here.

Arrogance Shrugged

2010-10-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

What is becoming abundantly clear is that Obama's perceived approach to governing, namely Hope and Change, was never very real - because he never believed in it. What he believed was "its my way, or the highway" - which is fine if it works, but when it doesn't don't blame the other guys for not playing. Barry you set the rules - and it backfired. And even the British press understand this.

When Obama first came into office a group of Republicans came to him with a list of issues that could be used for the upcoming stimulous package. He refused them all claiming that elections had reprecussions and thus he would not even invite their participation (anyone else remember this in the health care debate?). The bottomline is that Obama created his own enemies, decided to do it on his own - and now, with disastorous results has to own it all too. Arrogance.

With every campaign stop the President, and his idiot cronies, try to blame the Republicans for his problems. But with a majority in both houses Obama could pass anything he wanted - and he did. He passed a health care program (jammed down our throat) that will eventually help no one (in fact my own corporate plan has gone up and one plan option has been eliminated).

Eventually as his policies waned even his own Democratic legislature would not vote for silly one-stop band-aid programs (his putrid small business package) that won't do anything. The man is to blame for his own inner view and unfortunate narcissim. This Tuesday will show the world how arrogant the rest of the country feels he is as well.

Lame Central

2010-10-30T20:01:00.001-07:00

Well Comedy Central had their rally at the National Mall today - the so-called "Rally to Restore Sanity in America" and there were a few interesting issues that surrounded this event which was clearly put on to poke fun at Glenn Beck's rally - and get out the vote for the Democrats this Tuesday (oh, this rally was really non-political? yeah sure).

One point of order was the highly controlled press component. Some press members were apparently denied press credentials, even though that was impossible to do! Imagine - a rally to apparently calm the vitriol of political debate - and Comedy Central is denying access - especially since Tea Partiers and Beck allowed incredible access. I swear I couldn't even find it on TV today - it's as if it didn't even happen.

Another issue were the hate signs - you know the ones that apparently only pop up at "all-white conservative type rallies" - like the Hitler signs? These are depictions of Republicans as Hitler (Rush, Palin et al) and here is another one of Michigan Representative Eric Cantor from Michigan who is Jewish. Anti-semetic anyone? Huh? Serenity now!

And then there was Cat Stevens, who is now known as Yuslaf whatever, and he sang Peace Train in a rocking 'back and forth' with Ozzie Ozborne (who sang Crazy Train). But just one thing - he supports the fatwa and wants Salmon Rushdie, who wrote a book called the Satanic Verses, which criticises Islam, dead. Anyone remember that? And promoting a radical muslim during this rally "restores the sanity?"

And then there is the turn-out. It appears it didn't come anywhere close to Beck's turnout of 300k but you wouldn't know that by the liberal press who won't really comment on it, or try to express an opinion - and surprisingly, with the press blackout, there are no overhead shots of the Mall to show you anyway. And look at this Associated Press story of the event and the caption to the very same picture above - they label the Hitler posters as just "anti-Republican signs". What? And AP doesn't even blink an eye at this?

Thank god these twits restored the "santity". Can't wait for Tuesday.

Over His Head

2010-10-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sheesh. Even Time Magazine is turning. Mark Halperin has this to say in his latest column in a magazine that is a shell of its former informative self. Halperin writes "With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters."

This column is coming on the heels of some extremely desperate campaigning by the White House where they are now arguing that the Chamber of Commerce (you know, that nice civic organization that promotes local businesses) is accepting donations from foreign countries to somehow influence the election (like this is even needed). Even his outgoing PR populist campaign director David Axelrod proclaimed on Face the Nation that this a major crisis for the country to discuss three weeks prior to the election. To which, well known liberal commentator and host Bob Shieffer said "is this the best you can do?". In fact, I thought when Obama got elected "the World" was going to love us - so wouldn't this be a good thing?

Instead of campaigning on why their Stimulus Package (passed in less then 30 days after inauguration with no one reading it) has done much for the economy (it hasn't), or why the public should be embracing the national overhaul of health care (they're not), or explaining on how their stewardship of the economy has helped create jobs (it hasn't), they are instead just making stuff up! Is that the change we can believe in?

Just sad, very sad. I can't wait for November 2. Read the article.

Not Even Close

2010-10-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah - I don't think the One America rally quite measured up here this weekend.

I'm not a Glenn Beck phobe by any measure, but I am impressed with his convictions - as are many who attended the August 28 "Restore Honor" rally at the National Mall. Estimates have the crowd at over 300,000 and there were no hate signs, or speech, and everyone behaved. There was no race riot with the nearby Al Sharpton rally that maybe had 5,000 people. The reason the Beck rally was so impressive was that it was a-political and was based mostly on folks wanting a return to certain values they hold closely. There - I said it as impassively as I could.

This weekend we had a "competing" rally - the One America rally which really was just an assemblage of various union groups, ethnic specific organizations and socialists. There signs asked for jobs, blistered Sarah Palin and Glen Beck, and begged for socialism. Not a real positive bunch - nor a patriotic one if you ask me.

Trying to explain the frustration from some of us who can't understand why people march for "jobs" while putting down the very people, and principles, that would provide them is this fine poster on the Reason Foundation page.

Nuff said.

Global Family Idiot

2010-09-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

On tonight's anticipated Real Time with Bill Maher, he actually had two conservatives on the panel and one was Andrew Breitbart recently of Shirley Sherrod fame - so this night's show was going to be something more than the over-the-top overtly radical lib-fest it usually is (I mean seriously where does he get his audience from - the View after smoking crack?)

Besides Bill calling Sarah Palin a whack job on more than three occaisions, the panel discussed the new Republican Pledge, the woeful Health Care bill and the new Bob Woodward book. For most of these topics liberal whack job and creator of The Family Guy Seth McFarlane could offer little to defend health care or even attempt to explain the plan. While it has been much reported that Andrew B. got Bill Maher to admit that he approved of european socialism, the show's biggest gaffe occcured when they started chatting about global warming.

That bit was introduced by bringing out noted astronomer Carl Sagan's widow Ann Druyan where they discussed the topic "why no one takes science seriously". Ann then began to babble on unintelligably about the "truth" of science - frankly a real train wreck. This then of course morphed into a discussion of global warming. Scientist Seth argued that 95% of scientists agreed on the "actual science that proves" that global warming (whatever that is) is manmade - wow thanks for that definitive non-endorsement of the global warming phenomenon Seth.

While the conservative panelists refuted that their was this widespread agreement that global warming was manmade, Scientist Seth then pulled out a doozy. "We are seeing this in our own solar system right now. Studies show that the planet Venus was now incurring 900 degree temperatures and this is what could happen to Earth".

Gee Seth - is that because of all the MEN on Venus, driving their CARS and going to their FACTORIES? I don't think Venus is undergoing manmade global warming and I don't think a cap and trade policy will help them.

Typical underknowledged dilluded liberal speak.

Nah, It Doesn't Quite Add Up Barry

2010-08-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

For some reason President Obama used his second Oval Office TV address to discuss the end of "combat operations in Iraq" (congratulations everbody) and to also discuss a few other odds and ends. Just for the record Oval Office pronouncements are supposed to be for fairly serious things - going to war, announcing new significant legislation - and also resigning (...drats, not this time). But for this event Mr. Obama, in front of hideous new green drapes installed while he was buying shrimp in Martha's Vinyard, decided to devolve this announcement into talking about economics and the "conflict at home" - in frankly what any sane person would describe as a wild stretch.

Of course one of the items pundits were looking for in this speech was whether he would praise his predecessor George Bush, for committing to a surge of troop strength in 2007 - of which he was vehemently opposed to as a Senator back then. Meaning that he is now trying to take credit for something he opposed. To his slight credit he did actually mention Bush - but he never really gave him credit (unfortunately even at a moment of purported triumph this is a man who cannot admit when he was wrong). Stay classy San Diego.

But he seriously lost me when he decided to make a major point in saying that "the seven year war cost $1 trillion" and how that "stretched our resources" such that it led to "record deficits". Then his speech wove into a blend of green jobs, putting people to work blah blah blah. And this is where he is just being intellectually dishonest - as he often is (whether he really means it or not). I frankly think he is just so above it he is oblivious.

Look, Barry. What you don't understand was one could construe the war, in itself, to be a stimulus. One could argue (as they did for World War II) that we put many people to work, supported many businesses - to the tune of $1 trillion - and in the end felled a dictator, took steps to try to develop a better country and maybe an outpost for some type of democracy in the Middle East, and established an active ally for US interests (and by the way - no one stole any oil as far as I can tell). And as you can see from the graph it didn't primarily add to the deficit (other government spending did -most of it Mr. Obama's).

Meanwhile Barry, what have you done? You spent that same $1 trillion on your ill-conceived stimulus in January 2009 that promised us great economic growth (and remember, we had to pass it "right now" - it had to be done immediately or the economy was going to crumble....), unemployment rates to not exceed 8% and now we are at 9.5% - and counting. You spent that $1 trillion on the Democrats wish list of every pet project and giving checks (not tax breaks) - actual checks to people who don't even pay taxes. What a plan! Give him a Nobel.

Do the math. Oh yeah, here's the calculator.

Risky Business

2010-08-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Regarding the Ground Zero Mosque issue once again - one thing I could never figure out was why New York Mayor Bloomberg was so forthright in his support for the mosque, and its location. Why would this former Republican be so out in the forefront of this issue when he must know he is alienating many New Yorkers and 9/11 families. Like the President he could have tried to stay out of the fray.

Well there is only one answer, I guess. It's bidness.

You see the Mayor runs the Bloomberg information business empire - information sharing of stock quotes, business news et al that has reaped him his current fortune. His company provides desk top sets to get on-line stock quotes and information like the big brokerage houses. Even as far back as 15 years ago I would go to the library to look things up on a Bloomberg station. Obviously promoting his business network to other regions of the world is, er...well, is his business.

Now it turns out he is trying to expand in Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates as described here. This would be an amazing sales coup to be able to expand in the Middle East and thus be the leading purveyor of business and market information for the entire region. And one could guess that providing support for an Islamic cause just might further that type of platform. A quid pro quo. I mean, this is just normal business. I can understand this. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Apparently this business venture has been in discussion for some time.

Look, this is certainly a bit of conjecture - maybe the Mayor feels very strongly about the constitutionality of the mosque issue (...sure he does - he certainly hasn't cared about the Greek Orthodox Church that has tried to rebuild in the past nine years in a spot right across from Ground Zero all this time) - but it doesn't really make much political sense. A plurality of the nation (70%) is opposed to the Mosque. There had to be something else. One thing I know - Guilianni would certainly not be doing this. So why would Bloomberg?

Bidness. Nothing personal - just bidness.

No Mas; No Mosque

2010-08-15T22:39:00.001-07:00

President Obama's latest pronouncement on the controversial placement of a mosque and Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero again brought questions about his inherent ability to lead but also his understanding of international policy and diplomacy. Not only that - but on Friday he apparently held up the inherent principles of religious freedom at a White House dinner commemorating Ramadan - and then the next day walked back those comments saying he wasn't really opining on the merit of the placement of the facility. Yup - that's leadership alright. Waffler-in-chief.

The location of the mosque is really only significant in understanding the world that the people who killed us desire. It’s not that the people building the mosque or the place is a problem. It’s that the Taliban and our enemy would see it as a trophy. They would see it as the place Allah gave to them during a great victory. They would see it as a place that they wanted to worship (the worst of the worst terrorists would want to worship there as much or more than Al Aqsa).

The Islamic world is increasingly anti-American, if its media are a reflection of sentiment. Despite the alleged healing abilities of Obama, the Muslim world sees him as either (a) a failure and/or (b) weak. For them -- radical or moderate -- the erection of a mosque near Ground Zero isn't about tolerance; it's about submission - and its a very visible provocation.

And, hey, that's what the West is saying, too. Look at recent policies in France and the Netherlands -- they're moving away from concessions to non-assimilating Muslims in their countries. Their media paints Obama as either (a) a disappointment/failure and/or (b) weak. You can bet France would never let a mosque be built near the site of a major Muslim attack, and Sarkozy wouldn't utter the statement Obama has.

It’s good to hear Obama opine about the importance of ‘freedom of religion’. While I appreciate the leader of the free world's opinion on the first amendment, I wish Obama would use his new found appreciation for freedom of religion to encourage other nations to adopt the same policy.

In other words, instead of apologizing to the Muslim community, he should have said, this is what real freedom is. When people aren’t allowed to worship as they please, they are not free. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia where they do not allow freedom of religion (or even freedom to escape religion), their people are neither good Muslims (they are forced to be Muslims), nor are they free.

This actually could be a "teachable moment". All Obama did Friday was come out and say that he agrees with the 1st Amendment. Suddenly the MSM calls this "courageous" and "great leadership". The Sunday shows trumpeted his leadership. But here would have been a perfect opportunity to add that he thought the Muslim backers of this mosque "acted stupidly" in picking that site.

Obama would then unfortunately have a problem in teaching the countries he has groveled in front of on our behalf. Yes Obama, freedom of religion is important - leadership is even more paramount. Ask the Muslim nations if they agree.

And, then, of course, the next day he flipped flopped anyway.

A Real Commander-in-Chief

2010-08-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush suprised homecoming troops at Dallas-Fort Worth airport last week. It was a total surprise for the incoming troops and a common selfless act by a true patriot. From the time President Bush first made his surprise visit to Iraq on the first Thanksgiving of the Gulf War he has shown an overriding endearment for our men and women on the battlefield.

Here are some more pictures of this happy and classy homecoming. Thank you Mr. President.

She Did - Of Course

2010-08-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

Sarah put it as plain as day as anyone could. (See below)

Well Said. By The Way - Who Did Say This?

2010-08-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is a recent speech/comment from a leading political comentator reacting to President Obama's most recent campaign speech again blaming everything on his predecessor. To me, this piece quite succinctly frames one of the most frustrating aspects of this administion. The author reminds us that Obama just didn't show up from a neighboring planet 20 months ago:

"Barack Obama was part of the problem while in Congress. Senator Obama pushed the fiscally irresponsible measures that Democrats, who held the majority, advanced while holding the government’s purse strings. And now, as President, he’s not just one of the pack anymore as a mere contributor to the problem – he now leads the problem. We are sick and tired of President Obama pointing his finger and screeching through his blame game about what he “inherited.” Up until 18 months ago he was fully engaged in that Congressional herd mentality of the Left as he just went with the flow, adding to the debt and deficit, instead of bucking his party’s leadership to stop the recklessness. (Did you ever hear him as an independent voice standing up and speaking out against his Democrat party’s overspending and over reach? Come to think of it, did you ever hear of his congressional record at all? For the life of me I can’t think of any time he used his bully pulpit as a sitting U.S. Senator to lead free market, equality-respecting pro-private sector efforts, nor to change up actions he now conveniently condemns. He could have refudiated them all.)…

Regardless of what the Democrats want you to believe, this is a tax increase on every American who pays taxes. Families will suffer because the Democrats’ tax hike will reinstate the marriage penalty, cut the child tax credit in half, abolish various personal exemptions, and impose limits on itemized deductions like home mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Investors and savers would suffer through increases in the top rates in long-term capital gains and qualified dividends. And the Alternative Minimum Tax would end up hitting 15 million taxpayers – up from 4 million in 2009.

We’ll all be feeling the pinch, but the ones who will be hit hardest by this massive tax hike will be America’s small business owners – the businesses that create up to 70% of all jobs in this country. According to a recent report by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, small business owners will pay over half the taxes raised when the Democrats increase the top two tax brackets. In an already anemic jobless recovery, the last thing government should do is to impose even higher tax burdens on job creators. Instead of hurting “the rich,” such measures would end up hurting the unemployed."

Well said. So who did say this?

To the Moon, Alice!

2010-07-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

Forty-one years ago this week we were celebrating being on the moon. Neil Armstrong was taking "one step for man, a giant leap for mankind."

Now NASA is dissembling the space shuttle program and shelving other programs planning to put ourselves back on the moon in place of promoting Muslim outreach programs to make them "feel better about themselves". Hmmm. What kind of nonsense is that? And what is exactly happening here?

Meanwhile the current politic is embroiled in race-baiting from both sides of the political spectrum - but mostly starting from the White House itself. In order to combat sliding numbers and anticipating an apocleptic result in the November mid-term elections the Obama White House has disintegrated into demogogary of any known opposition. This includes Republicans, white people, anyone making over $50K a year - or more appropriately, anyone who has a job and actually pays taxes.

This is a direct result of his failed policies most notably 1) the bloated $800 billion stimulus bill which did not produce jobs as advertised (how could it? it was a hodgepodge of wishlist projects strung together with tax subsidies to non-tax payers), 2) a health care bill that already is showing it will increase costs and lower coverage, and 3) just this week the President signed a 2.300 page largesse of a financial reform bill that makes the recent and unloved Sarbanes Oxley financial compliance law look like a lunch menu. All of these programs are ill-conceived responses to our current economic situation which will only make our future outlook worse. They have, and will, grow the deficit - and, maybe more importantly, they are all job killers.

While not content with making a bad economic situation much worse, the President seems very much intent on worsening race relations in this country. Advertised as the first "post racial President" (whatever that means) Obama can't seem to not put race out there front in center. This partially started with his discussion of the Professor and the Cambridge Police story which ended up with the famous Beer Summit in which he ended his last press conference (a year ago by the way) by saying the police force "acted stupidly". This administration has continued to basically play the race card every day of the year. Any critique of the White House is always shouted down as racist by the media or other left wing outlets.

Furthermore, as the Administration readies it self for defeat in the upcoming elections and to deflect such non-performance on the economy, the White House has engaged in a campaign to impugn the upstart Tea Partyists as racists - and then, almost predictably, chaos is ensuing. Attorney General Eric Holder does not prosecute Black Panthers obviously intimidating people at a Philadelphia polling place, the NAACP starts calling people racists - and then everyone (FOX News included) overreacts to a video of a low level bureaucrat speech in March - and the White House "acts stupidly" and dismisses her (and later invites her back). And just this week we are discovering that a group of liberal so-called journalists actively planned to label conservative commentators racist just to take the heat off the administration!

Time for everbody to calm down. Let's stick to facts - and the racism stuff needs to go. To quote Michael Douglas (as fictional left-wing President Andy Shepard in The American President) "we have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them".

Let's find a few and do that. I think we can in November. Not the thin-skinned bunch we have now.

And then its to the moon, Alice.

1970 Chevelle Tops Auction in California

2010-06-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

From a recent news article - I had a 72 Chevelle Malibu in college. Unfortunately it never actually saw much of college - that is both a long and short story. But, for now, let's leave it at that this is still my dream car. When I see something close to it roll down the road I relish the time I actually drove such a vehicle.....

"Mighty muscle cars ruled the day at Barrett-Jackson’s “prime time” Saturday auction in Orange County, with a very rare and highly desirable 1970 Chevelle LS6 convertible reaching the high point at $253,000, including buyer’s fee.

This Chevy has it all, said Craig Jackson, auction CEO, as he cajoled the bidders: a top-notch restoration of a fully documented LS6 painted Fathom Blue and packing a 454-cubic-inch V8 and four-speed stickshift.

The 1970 Chevelle LS6 convertible, a rare holy grail for muscle car fanatics, is powered by a 450-horsepower V8. “This is a blue-chip car; it doesn’t get any better than this,” Jackson said.
The Chevelle was described in the Barrett-Jackson catalog as “arguably the pinnacle of the muscle car heap and one of the most sought-after combinations ever to pound the pavement.”
On the block, the bidding stopped at $230,000 when the auctioneer cried “Sold!” Jackson said that for that price, he would have bought the car himself, “if I didn’t have a rule not to bid against my own customers.”

Technically, the Chevelle finished second to the charity auction of another highly desirable 1970 Chevelle, a custom-built SS coupe whose sale benefited the Armed Forces Foundation. That car reached $250,000 on the block, but since Barrett-Jackson waives all fees for charity sales, the final price came in $3,000 behind the LS6."

Obama Picks Bush's Boy

2010-06-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Obama gets pissed about a stupid Rolling Stone article and fires his handpicked general in Afghanistan. so what does he do?

According to major press outlets the best commander-in-chief decision Obama ever made was to select George Bush's General of operation in Iraq? Read my lips carefully...Obama picked Bush's guy.

The same guy that MoveOn.org constantly advertised on their website until yesterday as General "Betrayus"? The same guy that Hillary and Chris Dodd and all other dithering Democrats demonized before the surge in Iraq in '07? The one that dufus VP Biden said would fail? And last but not least the one that Obama himself said was woefully misguided?

But according to the MSM now ...it apparently was a great, great move. Unbelievably pathetic.

The Truth

2010-06-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

The reality? Big government tax and spend policies cripple the economy.
Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus package failed. Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi tripled the national deficit last year by nearly a trillion dollars – something unheard of in our nation’s history.After an unheard of record deficit last year of $1.4 Trillion the economy is on track to experience a $1.3 Trillion deficit this year. The democratic-media complex wants you to believe that this was Bush’s fault. It’s a lie.

The truth? Tax cuts grow the economy. During the Bush years, despite the 2000 Recession, the attacks on 9-11, the Clinton scandals, Hurricane Katrina, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration was able to reduce the budget deficit from 412 billion dollars in 2004 to 162 billion dollars in 2007, a sixty percent drop. In 2004 the federal budget deficit was 412 billion dollars. In 2005 it dropped to 318 billion dollars. In 2006 the deficit dipped to 248 billion dollars. And, in 2007 it fell below 200 billion to 162 billion dollars. During the Bush years the average unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, the economy saw the strongest productivity growth in four decades and there was robust GDP growth.

Not only were more jobs lost after the 9-11 attacks in 2001 than in the 2008 market crash, but more jobs were created by President Bush’s pro-business policies and tax cuts than by the Obama-Pelosi “spend your way to hell” Keynesian failure.The Foundry reported, via HotAir:
For objective observers the failure of President Obama’s $862 billion stimulus has become increasingly difficult to deny. But not for the White House. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden told Charlie Rose on PBS that the stimulus was “an absolute success.” Betraying a common perception about unemployment, Biden told Rose: “[W]e lost 8 million brand new jobs … since … 8 million brand new jobs since we hit the skids. On top of the 6% that were already unemployed. It took us several years to get there, it is going to take several years to get back to that number.” That is not quite true. In fact, the American economy has shed 55.4 million jobs since the recession began in the First Quarter of 2008. But at the same time the economy has only added 46.5 million jobs. Putting the two together produces the net approximate 8 million jobs lost that Biden referenced.

Our nation’s unemployment rate is hovering near 10% not because of record job losses, as Biden suggests, but because of record job non-creation. Private sector employers have gone on strike. Contrary to what the President’s economic wizards and New York Times columnists believe, massive government deficit spending does not stimulate job creation. President Obama does not have a secret vault of money he can just throw at the American people. The resources the government spends come from the economy. When the government increases spending, it crowds out the resources that business owners could have invested in their enterprises. Private investment falls sharply when government spending rises. According to Sherk, annual private fixed nonresidential investment has fallen by $327 billion since the recession started— a 19 percent drop. Less private investment means less hiring.

And then there is the rest of the Obama agenda that has created, and is creating, significant economic uncertainty: Obamacare, EPA carbon regulations, financial regulations and impending tax hikes. Renouncing these policies, and canceling the rest of the stimulus, would do more to spur private sector job creation than anything this White House has done so far.
Finally, today after months and months of the democratic-media complex misrepresenting the Bush economy, GOP Leader John Boehner defended the success of the Bush tax cuts.

The Hill reported:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, saying they did not lead to the deficit that currently confronts the country. “It’s not the marginal tax rates … that’s not what led to the budget deficit,” he told reporters, adding, “The revenue problem we have today is a result of what happened in the economic collapse some 18 months ago.” …Boehner on Thursday blamed budget shortfalls on increased spending, which he says is “scaring the hell out of the American people.” He also said that slashing marginal tax rates has actually buoyed revenue levels. “We’ve seen over the last 30 years that lower marginal tax rates have led to a growing economy, more employment and more people paying taxes,” he said.

It’s about time.

Republicans and conservatives need to learn the truth, understand the truth and communicate the truth. The democratic alternative is much too dangerous.

Raising Arizona

2010-05-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

Nah, we don't have an immigration problem, do we?

Not when thousands go to the street when another different state passes a state law that emulates what already is a federal law to enforce current immigration standards. Hmmm - maybe this is what Arizona is talking about - a bunch of illegals roaming around acting like they belong when they don't - hmm, maybe they have a point.

Can't wait til California does this too.

Something to Truly Cheer About

2010-04-11T23:30:00.001-07:00

This Master's was one for the books. With all the pre-tournament hype thrust on the multiple adulterer Tiger Woods, it is fitting that a the winner was a man fighting through his family battles with breast cancer - not only with his wife, but his mother as well. Phil hadn't even played that well in the past few months but for the first time in 11 months his wife and kids came with him to the Master's tournament and it helped boost his game. His wife Amy didn't even come to the course the entire four days until the last possible minute to be there for the final 18th hole.

And Phil's play? What many of his fans have always wanted from him. A gutsy scrambling show that stood sports on its ear. A truer champion cannot be found.

Death of a Nation 2

2010-03-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Still wondering how pro-life Representative Bart Stupak (and his nine other compatriate voters) could cave on his battle against federal funding for abortion in the new health care bill by buying the Executive Order BS that Obama sold him (and has not yet executed). Pure drivel. Sunday was a good night for Chicago politics. It’s nice to know some things never change; that back-room arm-twisting, extortion, blackmail, bribes, and pay-offs can still work wonders when applied to unthinking pie-in-the-sky I-don't-care-what-it-will-cost Democrats. Even ‘principled’ Democrats like pro-life Rep Bart Stupak folded like a Walmart lawn chair - or was it because of this? And isn't anybody the slight bit interested why 32 Democrats still voted AGAINST this?

Yes, our liberty took a serious kick in the teeth this weekend. The health care bill will put one-sixth of the U.S. economy in the hands of the federal government (it IS a takeover - just read the articles below). But even worse than assisting further in the bankrupting of our economy, our freedoms are now seriously diminished. And taxes will soar.

I seriously do not understand how we fight major wars to protect our freedom and then we elect socialists to rob it from us. We Americans became considerably less free on Sunday. And I don't buy this stuff the Obama ran as a centrist and went way left - he was a leftist from word one. When ABC anchor Charlie Gibson asked him during one of the debates why he would raise taxes when it would bring in less money - he didn't care - it was the principle to him - the socialist principle.

One of the best articles concerning the recent aftermath of Sunday's debacle can be found here in very simple and easy to understand terms. Some of you liberals might understand. And a twist by Jonah Goldberg about the inane end game of Obama is here.

Death of a Nation

2010-03-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Why am I Republican?

Because Democrats can't tell the truth. They either don't understand what they are saying or they are just liars. Either reason is not comforting. Watching our country devolve into a socialist gulag this weekend while flipping back and forth between March Madness (the basketball variety) and C-SPAN, I noticed this with regularity. Saturday afternoon I was able to see the inner workings of the Rules Committee as it setup the health care vote on Sunday. Many Republicans, most notably Paul Ryan (R - MI) and Pete Session (R-TX), gave very credible and fact filled presentations to make the argument that the health care plan is not paid for - that the CBO score does not include all of the elements needed to evalute the economic impact of the bill, that it will not reduce the deficit, that it will drive primary care physicians out of business and other small items. What was the Democratic response? Hyperbole, stories, metaphors, colorful soliloquies - and lies.

Not one Democrat can explain the economics of the deal - when cornered on the many missing items of the CBO score they go off on another story - they don't answer questions. And apparently they don't have brains. Because at a time when the economy is struggling, the deficit is high - and more baby boomers are joining the ranks of Medicare (another entitlement fund that is going broke) - they decide to raid Medicare of $500 billion to "partly" fund this monstrosity of federal miscreance. Meanwhile Paul Ryan (see video below) can rattle figures off the tip of his tongue. Representative Xavier Becerra D- CA who tried to refute him just basically said nothing. No substantive argument whatsoever.

And apparently no brains whatsoever. Please read here and here for two good quick analyses of what really happened Sunday night. And why you don't see these common sense discussions on normal TV - I have no idea. All you see is puffery.

Totalitarianism has begun.

Kiss Goes to High School - 1976

2010-02-28T23:33:00.000-08:00

An excellent tale of the redemptive powers of rock and roll from my high school heroes (and great examples of capitalism in action). Stay through the opening commercial and enjoy - and, of course, shout it out loud.

And while I did not hail from Cadilac, I was a Class of "76'er from a bit farther south. And I did have Destroyer on my turntable.

Same Time Next Year

2010-02-22T00:04:00.001-08:00

The Democrats like to say they "book-ended" the start of the health care debate a year ago and followed it up with Thursday's (Feb 25th) Health Care Forum moderated by Barry O. In a word the Republican's smoked them with facts, constantly questioning the President on his own plan (of which he could not provide answers) and all the Democrats did was recite stories of poor people and their hand me down dentures. Please see this excellent synopsis of Barry's failed strategy.

For the first time this year Republicans were able to expose the flaws in the Barry's plan and show the nation what it truly is - an incomprehensible sham on the nation. They borrow, or raid, from Medicare - a program that is already bankrupt and also pay for this is new taxes - without providing anyone any new coverage until ten years from now. An absolute shame.

Sarah on the Rise

2010-02-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

Even as she is constantly criticized by nattering nabobs she is gaining strength - something apparently unthinkable a year ago.

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Again - I like her as an eventual VP.

As for our friend Barry and his everchanging agenda, please read here about his upcoming photo op with the GOP on healthcare.

It's Official...

2010-01-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

...Taylor Swift can't sing at all. Last night on the Grammy's she had a great potential moment to sing a handful of tunes on a huge stage with hero Stevie Nick's and ...well she was just horrible. Off key the entire time - couldn't even sing her own song - and you had to feel for Stevie who never had that problem. And what the heck was the Gold Dust Woman doing up with the off-key pixie. You could see Stevie regretting this guest spot at the end.

On several public forums this past year Taylor has not been able to keep a tune - Saturday Night Live, Dancing with the Stars - nice kid, great story - terrible public singer.

By the way - Mary J. Blige is not much better. At least Taylor is a nice person.

Sorry State of the Union Address

2010-01-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

An unheralded mess of teleprompted sound bites and mediocre ideas/programs. An embarassment by any means. And a bunch of lies.

Just pathetic.

Mickey Mantle in Pads

2010-01-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or is everyone pulling out there Brett Favre screwed it up script and just handing it to him (after his Minnesota Vikings dissappointing loss to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship)? Yes he did throw an interception in the waning minutes while trying to find extra yards to get his field goal kicker on the field for the winning kick in the final seconds. Critics said he could run for the extra yards - but he had a gimpy leg after an almost fatal tackle just a quarter ago that left him severely hobbled - such that most did not even think he would come back from the hit and continue.

Yes. of course it Brett Favre's fault - he threw a pick -its all on him. I have never seen an athlete where people want to foist so much praise on and then in the next second tear him down. This season was a miracle of sports to behold. I have commented to many people, that where there are really few "sports heroes" - that this guy, history and all, is really Mickey Mantle. He is a guy you can root for, appears humble, says it like it is - and is pretty darn good.

But what was the real story of the game - it wasn't Favre's interception (or interceptions as the commentators wanted you to know about all game long - he had one after being crushed to the ground). The Vikings and more importantly running back Peterson fumbled five times (and actually more but that covered up some). THAT IS WHY THEY LOST.

In fact Brett Favre pulled himself off the ground and out of an injured ankle to lead the Vikings back to tie the game even though his teammates were laying the ball on the ground at will. they would have been NOWHERE without him. It was one of the guttiest performances of all time. And if they had won - and if there had not been 12 people in the huddle with 30 seconds left in regulation - the reporters would have been letting you know all about it.

But you won't hear that from the media - they just want to roast the arrogant and defiant Favre. How dare he actually try to take a team to the Super Bowl at the age of 41.

Media run amok.

Yes he can!

2010-01-19T21:23:00.001-08:00

Thank you Massachussetts. Democracy lives.

In a stunning reversal of fortune a state congressman of MA drives his 200,000 mile Ford truck through bluster and White House nonsense to claim the 41st Republican seat in the Senate.

Thank God.

Speaking of God - that's Teddy Kennedy's car being pulled out of the Chappaquidiq with Mary Jo Kopeckne's body in it.

Karma, people.

Surf''s Up

2009-12-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

After four days since a terrorist tried to detonate a bomb on a Detroit bound airliner from Amsterdam, President Obama took a break from his Hawaii Christmas vacation to deliver a terse and perfunctory message that provided no insight to the event, no passion or resolve and mostly indifference to the incident. "If the suspect was successful over 300 people would have died..." he read from a prepared statement. Well, "duh".

The President called the terrorist a "suspect" and treated the issue as a crime instead of a terrorist act. His press comments were fairly pathetic and not worth the time he took to get off the golf course. I'm not sure if alot of America is all in a tizzy about this in the middle of the holiday glare - but if you were looking for solace and comfort from the President you didn't get it. He is much more animated accusing honest and hardworking Massachusetts policemen than talking down red-handed terrorists.

This look at a few more fun facts:

He banned the use of the word "war on terror"

He wants to close the terrorist jail in Guantanimo, Cuba - a state-of-the-art and out-of-country haven for those who want to kill Americans

He wants to move those terrorists - who want to kill Americans - to a place 90 miles from Chicago - to an old prison that will need major significant upgrades to come anywhere close to what Guantonimo provides. And nevertheless they will now be in-country.

He wants to put the most significant terrorists on trial in New York city - instead of going to military tribunal - which all other war combatants have gone to. In essence he still is handling terrorism as a crime, assigning US citizen rights to terrorists and creating a mockery of this nation.
His attorney general has further insinuated, under questioning from a Senate panel, that he would give those same rights to Osama bin laden if caught as well.

This same attorney general has spent more time trying to imprison CIA operatives who have tried to save American lives than go after these terrorists.
And his hand picked head of Homeland Security - Janet Neopolitano - the ex-Arizona governor who promoted amnesty for illegals in this country - said over the weekend that the security system on planes and in airports "worked".

And with this track record how are we going to "learn from this event". The administration has already scared federal investigators from trying to learn information from terrorist "suspects" by a number of means - how can anyone be confident "that the government is taking the proper precautions to keep the flying public safe"? Everything Obama has done has been to keep us less safe.

Unfortunately we have more to fear from our overly incompetant administration than maybe the terrorists themselves. It's okay Barry - just go back to your golf game. Have yourself a merry little christmas.

It's Still a Charlie Brown Christmas

2009-12-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

It was becoming a frustrating mid-December evening - work that won't stop even at Xmas time, folks coming in the next day from out of state, a pending catastrophic health care bill - and a bunch of women unexpectedly congregating in my living room for some reason upon invitation by my significant other (see "Jerry McGuire"). Safely ensconsed in my den, I flipped between Fox and CNN until I found what I really needed in this hectic holiday halstrom. I hadn't seen this annual program the week before because it was pre-empted by that jolly old Barack Obama and his merry speech about war.

I was able to catch the back end of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" - and as many times I have seen it - I seem to always forget the calming and redeeming nature of its allure. It is the gold standard of decency, entertainment, teamwork and the truth. It is also amazing to me how it conveys so many feelings and sentiments with a minimum of scenes, dialogue and characters. The plot is simple, grows and crescendos to Linus's speech in the hushed auditorium - which really says it all. Linus tells Charlie what Christmas is really all about.

And I still get a kick that everyone thought Christmas was so commercial back then - in 1965! - and "aluminum trees" were apparently all the rage. I also think its interesting that the show was produced and developed by several of the jewish persuasion (check the credits), but of course that's Hollywood. But, nevertheless, even they believed in Charlie Brown.

And the Hard Place talked about this years ago - of course. God bless you Charlie Brown.

And Merry Christmas to the rest of us.

Arrogance Personified

2009-12-08T08:47:00.001-08:00

President Obama - while pitching another new ill-advised program to "create jobs" (why not just "save" them) - continued on in his speech while claiming credit for things that have not happened and then contiued to blame the previous administration for all wrongs done to man.

Much of his speech centered on doing almost anything different than what has been done before. He will create boards and agencies to protect us. He will get us "green jobs" because "I want this nation to be the leader in that". Leader in what? A myth. He wants jobs and investment in retrofitting houses - who can afford it Barry?

What he really was selling was that he wanted to use excess TARP money to "create jobs" (or more accurately be used to "stimulate" lending to small business). Hmmm - why don't you just cut their taxes - and wasn't looser investment guidelines the reason we are in all of this mess (i.e. Fannie Mae).

Then he had the audacity to say that the deficit had been growing dramatically in real terms over the past 8 years (it was almost balanced in 2007!). He just made this up! Someone on his political team must have said to him "go ahead and say it - everyone will buy it - and we have the media in our hip pocket they don't know how to report news anymore anyway".

While the President did claim he wanted to use some methods that the right have clamored for the past year - cutting taxes for small business - he was unclear on how to do it and essentially wants to use paid back TARP funds (that were to go straight to deficit reduction) to "pay" for it - all in a rambling incoherent speech which did not explain specifics, blamed the past administration and set unrealistic expectations.

There's your "hope and change" - another photo-op for the Pres, a teleprompter, three-to-four "let me be clear" (s) - and with little to show for it.

You Mess with the Bull...

2009-12-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

....you get the horns.

There's nothing worse than unbridled hubris - and this is what it looks like.

One of the reasons I started blogging was to comment on how media treats certain stories. This one is another doozy - not so much on how the media is treating it - but how they have deferred to the subject.

Ever since Tiger Woods burst onto the pro golfing stage he has been untouchable. When Fuzzy Zoeller uttered his absurd "fried chicken" remark right after his first Master's win, the press -and most of America - has been in Tiger's corner. And good for him - and maybe for golf.

I will have to admit I have never been a fan - I have never wanted Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors broken, never wanted famed golf courses (Augusta) completely overhauled because of his length, never liked the simple rejoinder about golf tournaments that were no good if Tiger wasn't there. I also didn't like his incessant arrogant attitude on the golf course where he threw clubs, threw fits and constantly stared and screamed at people in golf galleries (I've been there) when someone dares to click a camera. I mean come on - find a golfer where everything has been about him like this guy. But like anyone else I have been amazed at the skill and discipline form which he came from virtually nowhere (because of the steady hand of his father) and have come to dominate the game.

Then why couldn't he use such discipline to keep his house in order? Let's face it - he's a whore. And the sporting world and media have covered him - and his myth - for years. And to actually have to hear over the past few days certain on-air personalities (including pregnant morning LA "newswomen")(yes - that's you KTLA) actually DEFEND him on TV - well it absolutely disgusts me.

And it should disgust the rest of you.

And as of even as late as this evening (Thursday night - five days later) "pundits/experts" have still been debating on TV of whether this will hurt his endorsements - first of all why would anyone care. He can still play golf and support himself just fine - if fans actually let him on the course. And most pundits were still saying (after three women came forward and payoffs were obviously made) "oh this will blow over just fine". (Fools).

Really? This isn't just one slip somewhere. There are multiple women - at the same time (and there will be more for sure) - and all the while he has the faithfull wife on the 18th green and kids to welcome him after another great win. Joy Behar says "well at least he's not right-wing hyhpocrite politician who strays". Oh yeah?

He's actually worse. No one will ever look at him the same.

SingleWhiteFemale

2009-11-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

Lunatic left-fringe reporter Andrea Mitchell crashed one of Sarah Palin's book signing's the other day. Guess living with Alan Greenspan wasn't exciting enough.

Looks like she also wanted Sarah to sign her copy of leftist rag Newsweek as well.

Thank god so many well wishers were there to keep Andrea at bay.

It also appears that Andrea wants to keep dressing like Sarah as well. Heard Alan likes that.....

Losers

2009-11-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

Incumbant New Jersey Governor John Corzine spent $120 million, had big labor in his pocket, and had Mr. Celebrity President Obama campaign big time for him - and there was even a third-party candidate thrown in to pull votes off his chief rival - but he still lost to Republican Chris Christie.

Some coatails Barry.

Life's a Beach

2009-10-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

For the record this is where we sometimes walk/run/stumble in the evenings after work. It's the beach near the Hollywood Riviera near Redondo. And trudging through that sand is one heck of a workout.

Meet the Mess

2009-10-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

On a weekend that was "welcomed" by a Friday announcement that the deficit is at a new level of $1.4 trillion, triple what it was just a year ago, the big news at the Obama administration sponsored NBC's Meet the Press sunday talk show was a 40-minute piece on "women in the workplace". Seriously, with the healthcare debate in full throttle, an army general asking for more troops in Afghanistan for over three months now, the burgeoning deficit - and this show devotes almost it entire duration to this ground breaking topic. Astounding.

The show started and ended with the underwhelming comments from Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett who was introduced to the show with a slew of softballs from man-boy host David Gregory that was just an embarassing display of journalism. Gregory did not care about any of her answers because he was never going to refute or respond to anything she said - he just wanted to get to that fabulous "women in work" segment with Maria Shriver. (who surprisingly was not on her cell phone).

GREGORY: How is the President going to increase jobs?

JARRETT: Oh well the President has a plan, he passed the stimulous and it is only half spent and we just have to wait until it works...he wakes up everyday trying to find new ways to create jobs.......

Of course this is all paraphrased from the real show but it was plain embarrassing. Why does the world and the main stream media continue to impughn Sarah Palin, who actually held a real goverment job, and this woman can come on, say nothing and be thanked for her "contribution to the show". This woman who helped Obama get elected (good job Valerie) but has not one original principaled thought in her head - or at least did not show it. (And was perhaps going to profit mightily from the Olympics coming to Chicago since she owned real estate that would have benefited from the Games).

But you know that is not really the point here. The point is Valerie Jarrett? - empty suit; same old cliched circular explanations of nothing. And Meet the Press? - the Sunday version of the View.

Embarrassing, America. Just embarrassing.

In the Neighborhood

2009-10-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

It seemed everytime I looked up Vladimir Guerrero was striking out.

That was how long Game 2 of the ALCS (American League Championship Series) went tonight in the rain and howling cold of the new Yankee Stadium between said Yankees and the Los Angeles, nee Anaheim, Angels. Frankly, as much as I love playoff baseball (I comment to many that it is the most dramatic of ALL sports) I was getting quite bored with the playoffs so far. The previous series bored me to tear (Phillies/Rockies) - and I am fairly a purist - but I couldn't take it.

But during the 5th inning of this Angels/Yankees game it started getting good - and while making tacos and brownies and margaritas, the night was becoming grand. Then in the 9th inning, I think, something strange happened.

On what looked like a routine double play, 4-to-6-to-3, the play at second base was ruled safe. At first I was outraged (because I am rooting for the Angels) but replays clearly showed that the Angel shortstop, Eric Aybar, didn't touch second base as he threw towards first. In fact, he didn't even step toward the bag! He had both feet behind it like he was the friggin' catcher.

Well, God bless 'em, Angels skipper Mike Scossia came out and argued vehmently and then so did the FOX announcers Joe Buck and former major leaguer Tim McCarver. They reacted in a way I thought was somewhat unimagineable. While it was clear that the Angel shortstop Aybar did not touch the bag they claimed that everyone knows about the "being in the neighborhood" play - which means - that in most double plays the shortstop or whoever may graze the base as they fire to first base but the play may not always be synichronous with the ball in the mitt and the foot on the base. Meaning when he catches it from the second basemen the shortstop may be past the bag. That's "in the neighborhood".

And I understand that - but I never liked it. As long as I have watched professional baseball, I have always hated this slight of hand at second base. I can't tell you how many plays I thought have been wrong. But usually the instant replay shows that no matter how smooth, or bang-bang the play is - the umps usually get it right.

But on this play, the Angels player Aybar just stood behind the bag, took the flip from 2nd and then threw to first - without ever trying to TOUCH the BASE!!! But according to Buck and McCarver this is just normal stuff and "thank god the game wasn't determined on that play".

This comes after the news announced yesterday that the offical NBA rules have been amended to say that a player in transition can take TWO STEPS towards the basket. Of course that has been recognized for years now in the NBA but to acknowledge it in the rule book is another thing. Now LeBron can take five steps in order to be called for travelling I guess.

And a rule change I guess Buck and McCarver would applaud. I couldn't believe how they harped on this for every inning afterward as the game went into extra innings. Baseball men. Hardly.

Rules are rules. Play by them.

The Ego Has Landed

2009-10-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

Irresponsible.

That is the only way to label President Obama's ill-conceived trip to Copenhagen and to give a campaign-style emotive speech to try to win his adopted home town Chicago the 2016 Olympics. This "presentation" occurs on the day that unemployment hit a 30-year high, while he has yet to "decide" on a strategy in Afghanistan, and also while he is apparently trying to rest nukes away from the Iranians - you know, the ones he thought he could placate by "talking" with them. And then a few hours later Chicago becomes the first City voted out of a four city contest.

Stupid.

That is what anyone had to feel when they heard Michelle Obama's speech to the IOC (International Olympics Committee) talking about how her Dad had multiple sclerosis and "she sat on his lap while watching Nadia, Carl Lewis and Olga". Well that is some long lap to last over those 12 years of Olympics (and she was 20 when Carl Lewis was wearing his pumps). And who sits in anybody's lap to watch the Olympics? The commercials are too long. (Of course, we also had to hear from Michelle how it was such a "sacrifice" to jet to Copenhagen with Oprah to give her little speech.)

Embarrased.

That is what this nation must feel as they watched their President trash the US again and say the only reason the Olympics should be awarded to Chicago is because 1) he had his presidential victory party there and 2)"he could take his daughters to see the games " at the end of his second term. What rubbish. One IOC member said "Obama's speech was high on emotion but lacked any detail". Well at least that is consistent - just like health care, just like the stimulus, and just like cap and trade. The man doesn't understand details.

I actually read two California papers this week that trumpeted how Obama's improved standing in the world and "overwhelming acceptance in the international community over Bush" would be just what was needed to get Chicago's bid. These articles just categorically assumed as fact that, since eveyone appeared to "like" Barry better, than people would fall over with their legs in the air and do whatever he wanted.

Well, the IOC isn't a host of deluded and ignorant elitist citizenery (and manufactured voters organized by ACORN) who respond to such emotional demogogory. And, in fact, in some circles it looks like this last minute trip, where it was just assumed that this mythical rock god imagery was just going to save the day, just simply backfired - and maybe even insulted the IOC.

And what is more important is you don't minimalize the office of the Presidency by going over and shilling for some contest. And you certainly don't do it unless you know it's in the bag. Talk about political miscalculation - you make a big show and go over there and trash your country and talk about sitting on laps and you get bubkus - and then you got to turn around and get tough with Iran?

Sheer idiocy my friends. I guess French President Sarkosy was right when he said this week that "Obama is extremely naive and has an endless ego". Well hopefully that ego has landed.

David Loserman

2009-10-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, he's got in it now.

So glib, so on top of it. So pompous. Just last week he had his hero Obama on and drooled over him. Previous to that he made a lame joke about Sarah Palin's kids impugning their sexual imbiguity (i just typed that because I liked the word). Needless to say he was lambasted for that tasteless joke about a minor. And he wouldn't let that go - he insisted it was okay to attack someone in the media world view like they were fair game and it was really okay what he said because he was just joking.

And now he's porking everyone around him. And he was extorted - and he let everyone know on his show and still got laughs.

You know when I got out of college in the 80's Dave was the all the rage and I just loved him. He was a counter Johnny Carson, actually gave Jay Leno his big break (he would have him on the show all the time) and the band was fab also.

But now he is just a overly cranky and irritable liberal leftist. And now a whore. Who seems impelled to tell everyone on his show every bad thing he has done.

And still hasn't really apologised to Sarah properly.

Dave, just get the heck off the TV.

I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!

2009-09-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

My 20th fantasy football season started this year in Biloxi, Mississippi at the end of August with a band of buddies from all walks of life. My team is known as the Juggernauts - a term I chose, from amongst other things, sports lingo and basic comic book lore. As I prepared to meet old high school, college, work and other aquaintenances (and basic gambling derelicts) for our annual draft (which had somehow grown from my simple back yard event, including pissing in the shrubs, - to now being held at any far flung casino resort that a simple majority of team owners could stomach) I looked for appropriate "draft-wear' - something that could hold up to the annual five-hour smoke-filled haze that for some reason we so drearily love. Last year my "I Wish I Was WaterBoarding" T-shirt scored both populist and political points from the mostly southern group so I was looking for something similar. However I was bored with various other political t-shirts of the day. As I looked for something on the Juggernaut comic character from the Marvel Spiderman and X-Men comics, I was surprised to find that someone had "goofed" on the Juggernaut from an old TV cartoon series - and that it had become such a You Tube sensation that it had spawned a whole level of t-shirts carrying the moniker shown above.

Of course everyone at the draft thought I had them made - but I didn't - just ordered off the site. Apparently the You-Tube video (made in 2005) became so popular that they even mentioned it one of the X-Men movies (shown below).

And yes, I think that bitch was Juno. Juno and the Juggernaut. How poetic.

He's a Scary Man

2009-09-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

Obama was very angry last night my friends.

As he defended his forever meandering health care (insurance) reform plan - in his 29th speech on the topic - President Obama warned those that disagreed with him that "we will take down your name and call you on it". Earlier he had asked for new ideas to the plan - you know the one he wanted passed in August before the Congressional recess. He said that nice. Then later he screamed at people if they dared disagree with him.

Here's a surprisingly critical piece by AP written right after the speech that shows holes in his argument. And here is a well written response from a true American. As usual the President has promised too much and can't pay for it - for the 29th time. And everyone knows it.

No wonder he's angry.

Cities on Flame.....

2009-08-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks for everyone who called and asked if the Hard Place was ok out here in la-la land. Yes we are - and we generally are all the time when fire season comes, although we had one close by for the second time in four years. Not to go into any geographical specifics but there just shouldn't be any fire west of the 405 freeway. Thankfully it was vanquished rather quickly - and like last time I was out of town anyway.

This was the PV fire. The Rockette said she could see the glow over the hill from the house. Obviously these guys had a better/closer/more inconvenient view.

And then here it is after it was put out. Drove by it yesterday. A little scorched but pristine as ususal. And thank you God for the rainbow.

Here's to our firefighters who do a difficult job very well every day.