It looks like a win but feels like a loss.

It looks like a win but feels like a loss.

President Obama could have made big history here. Instead he just got a win. It's a missed opportunity.

do you know anyone, Democrat or Republican, dancing in the street over this? You don't. Because most everyone knows it isn't a good bill, and knows that its failure to receive a single Republican vote, not one, suggests the old battle lines are hardening. Back to the Crips versus the Bloods. Not very inspiring.

Consider the moment. House Republicans had conceded that dramatic action was needed and had grown utterly supportive of the idea of federal jobs creation on a large scale. All that was needed was a sober, seriously focused piece of legislation that honestly tried to meet the need, one that everyone could tinker with a little and claim as their own. Instead, as Rep. Mike Pence is reported to have said to the president, "Know that we're praying for you. . . . But know that there has been no negotiation [with Republicans] on the bill—we had absolutely no say." 

What was needed? Not pork, not payoffs, not eccentric base-pleasing, group-greasing forays into birth control as stimulus, as the speaker of the House dizzily put it before being told to remove it.

"Business as usual." "That's Washington." 

But in 2008 the public rejected business as usual. That rejection is part of what got Obama elected.

Obama lowers himself to Rush

Because Obama directly took on Rush he has opened himself to the petty party politcs that he has claimed to be against. The example he has set has given a green light to liberal groups to attack anyone who is against the President. The President's statements have also given Democrats to feel entitled to anything they want because "they won". 

Because of Obama's actions he has reduced this to "Are you with me or Rush?"

Americans United for Change, a liberal group, will begin airing radio ads in three states Obama won — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada — with a tough question aimed at the GOP senators there: Will you side with Obama or Rush Limbaugh?

“Every Republican member of the House chose to take Rush Limbaugh’s advice,” says the narrator after playing the conservative talk radio giant’s declaration that he hopes Obama “fails.” 

“Every Republican voted with Limbaugh — and against creating 4 million new American jobs. We can understand why a extreme partisan like Rush Limbaugh wants President Obama’s Jobs program to fail — but the members of Congress elected to represent the citizens in their districts? That’s another matter. Now the Obama plan goes to the Senate, and the question is: Will our Senator"—here the ad is tailored by state to name George Voinovich in Ohio, Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, and John Ensign in Nevada—"side with Rush Limbaugh too?”

Good Morning Barack Obama Elementary

Good morning, Barack Obama Elementary School!" That is what children attending the former Ludlum Elementary in Hempstead, New York have been hearing ever since the local school district board voted unanimously to change the name to honor the United States' first black president.

Barack Obama took office barely 10 days ago, but already schools and streets are being renamed. In the Hempstead case they didn't even wait until Inauguration Day, re-christening the school back in November -- the first in the nation to do so.

For the students, it's music to their ears, gushed school principal Jean Bligen.

They "want to keep this interest, this high belief that we can really make a difference, that we can change our community, that we can change our nation, that we can make the world a better place," Bligen said.

Experts say this baptizing phenomenon is unique to an incoming American leader riding a wave of optimism at the beginning of his presidency.

"This is highly unusual," said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of popular culture.

"Usually this thing doesn't take place until the president is out of office and often until the president has actually died."

But the "hope for some kind of utopia" during the Democratic Obama administration after eight years of Republican president George W. Bush has proven too powerful for some to wait, Thompson and others said.

Many American communities have rules forbidding the naming of streets or monuments after the living, explains Stuart Mack, director of Rutgers University's Center for Government Services.

The rush to re-christen stems more from a communal wish to honor an historic victory as opposed to recognizing a leader's set of accomplishments, he said.

Does Mack expect more re-namings early in the administration? "Oh yes, there'll be more, that wouldn't surprise me."

And there are plenty more, already completed or in the works.

In Opa-Locka, a majority-black Miami, Florida suburb of 25,000 people, street signs already reflect a Barack Obama Avenue. The name will be inaugurated on Presidents Day, February 16.

"We are proud of the accomplishment of the 44th president and we want to leave a legacy for the next generation to embrace, and to make sure that we embrace diversity," local commissioner Dorothy Johnson, who proposed the measure, told AFP.

St. Louis, Missouri has also named a street after the president, and in Hollywood, Florida residents Thomas and Theresa Smith embarked on a crusade to have a thoroughfare renamed Barack Obama Boulevard.

"We want to leave something behind that our children can see as a marker, that an African-American can be president ... to show the kids that with education you can achieve anything," said Thomas Smith, 55, after his wife canvassed Hollywood seeking the 10,000 signatures required for a street name change.

They hope to obtain the signatures by summer.

In Hempstead, where the elementary school's new sign will be unveiled Wednesday, the name change was a result of dedicated children who "embraced the political forum," Bligen said.

"They began working on this particular project after the mock debate that we had organized" between Obama and rival John McCain, she said. "It was phenomenal."

But while young students spurring community change is impressive, Syracuse's Thompson eyes a worrying trend.

"The idea of naming a school after a political leader still in office should always make us nervous," he said.

"It implies the ... endorsement of that political leader" in an institution that is "presumably a place where children are educated and learn to think for themselves."

Yet Thompson concedes that Obama's election was a "singular" event in American history that yielded a "deliciously optimistic period" in the country.

Rare are the figures who live to see their names adorn public institutions.

President George H.W. Bush has an airport named after him in Texas, and Washington's National Airport was renamed for president Ronald Reagan on his 87th birthday.

Only two poets, Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, were entitled to schools in their names while still alive, and the US presidents whose names most commonly adorn street signs are Kennedy, Roosevelt and Washington, who died long before most of the honors were bestowed.

Last year a measure in liberal-leaning San Francisco was put forward to rename a waste treatment facility as the George W. Bush Sewage Plant, but the measure was rejected.

"Did you hear about the shooting at MLK and Obama last night?"

Partisan Obama getting off on the wrong foot

Bi-partisanism is not just an ideal... it needs to be the result as well. You can't say you are being bi-paritsan (or non-partisan as Nancy Pelosi says) when the result is dramatic division. You can't strut around saying "we won" and that is is my way or the highway and ever expect to get anything constuctive done. Obama has not offered one olive branch to Republicans, he does not seem to want to work in a united front on this, quite the opposite really.  As of yesterday only 42% of Americans think this is a good idea and the bill in the House didn't even get 100% Democratic support.  "This isn't about playing the game, this is about doing something good for the American people," Republican Jon Kyl said at a briefing with several of his Senate colleagues, accusing the Democrats of ignoring their objections. "It doesn't seem they were interested in the same kind of bipartisan outreach that the president was," Kyl said. "We are too often met with this response: 'we won.'" Senator Roger Wicker echoed his colleagues in calling for more time for debate, highlighting a full-page ad by more than 300 free-market economists in the Washington Post against the stimulus package. "Ladies and gentlemen, a trillion dollars is a terrible thing to waste," he said. "Let's be careful we're not making the situation worse in an attempt to make it better." "We've reached out to Republicans all along the way and they know it," she told reporters, citing the inclusion of Republican tax-cutting proposals and the party's participation in an open House debate. "They just didn't have the ideas that had the support of the majority of the people in the Congress," Pelosi said. "We need to act and we need to act now," she said, highlighting the latest news of job losses, adding she looked forward to marrying the House bill with the version eventually passed by the Senate. But Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said the US public was only just realizing the enormity of the stimulus bill. "I don't think the American people like this. I think after the ground shifts with public opinion, hopefully we'll be able to make some changes," he said.

If this stimulus plan was a food...

The Obama Stimulus Plan... mmm mm mmm porky!

Look at all that stimulus!! 

Is that Amtrack in there ? Oh look its "smart engery" mmm yum! Hey, I love home weatherization ! Tasty! Wait, do I taste food stamp benefits? Yes!

The Bacon Explosion

This Is Normal, Right?

http://newsblaze.com/story/20090127224509nnnn.nb/topstory.html

Pledge of Allegiance Becomes Pledge to Obama

A parent in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas, Henderson area reported today that his son, who is in 1st grade, came home yesterday saying that he didn't want to go back to school anymore.

When asked why, the boy said that during the Pledge of Allegiance the teacher put up a large image of Obama next to the flag.

Thinking that the boy might be exaggerating, the man asked his son if he was sure, and suggested that by "large" he might mean an 8x10 photo of the president. The boy apparently said "No, it is a large picture of Obama and when we are done, the teacher turns off the image."

The same thing was not done for President Bush last year.

After investigating this morning, the other parent reported that what the boy said was true.

At least three of the five classrooms have an overhead projector and as the children stand to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the teacher turns on the classroom overhead and a full body image of Obama, with six U.S. flags behind him, comes up about 4 feet away from the flag that hangs on the wall. The screen is apparently around five feet by six feet.

In the image, President Obama appears to be staring straight out with no facial expression, just a serious look. All of the kids in each class faced the President, instead of the flag that hangs in the corner.

Local parents are up in arms over this situation. Teachers clearly do not realize the gravity of what they are doing.

This is a TRUE story. I was hearing about this happening in our schools, straight from employees of CCSD, before there were any articles or stories about it.

But this is normal, right?

Obama != USA

Two weeks in...

In his first 2 weeks in office Obama has done interviews for Arab TV stations, written an open letter to Iran, call for Republicans to stop listening to Rush and has claimed that because he "won" he can railroad through his agenda. 

He is being extremely diplomatic with the Arabs and exteremly cold with his political opposition. I don't see how this helps the country. 

Also he said he wouldn't pass a stimulous package full of pork. Which has now been approved in Congress and I hope he would veto. 

** Update: The first piece of legislation President Barack Obama's signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act which nullifies an anti-labor 2007 Supreme Court decision by giving workers more time to file pay discrimination lawsuits.

** Update: Obama did ditch the contraception stimulus. Credit to him.  

Can one of the Obama supporters back him up? I'm at a loss here. 

I Gots To Call Dis One Jumo!

Some interesting news for all of those parents who give their kids crappy names.

The first thing it made me think of was black names, but this also applies to the Jaydens and Ashtons out there.

Boys With Unpopular Names More Likely to Break Law

Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.

David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population. The researchers constructed a popularity-name index (PNI) for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period. The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm.

Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites.

The findings, announced today, are detailed in the journal Social Science Quarterly.

While the names are likely not the cause of crime, the researchers argue that "they are connected to factors that increase the tendency to commit crime, such as a disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent."

"Also, adolescents with unpopular names may be more prone to crime because they are treated differently by their peers, making it more difficult for them to form relationships," according to a statement released by the journal's publisher. "Juveniles with unpopular names may also act out because they consciously or unconsciously dislike their names."

The findings could help officials " identify individuals at high risk of committing or recommitting crime, leading to more effective and targeted intervention programs," the authors conclude.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090128/sc_livescience/boyswithunpopularnamesmorelikelytobreaklaw

Cali update

ABC News has learned that tax refunds are now on hold in California for the first time in state history, according to the state controller's office.

During the 30-day delay, the controller's office estimates that a combined 2.74 million California individuals and businesses will have their tax refund delayed.

The controller's office estimates that the delay in tax refunds will free up $1.99 billion over the next month to pay for education, debt service, and other payments that legally have first claim to state funds.

California has had no money in its general fund for the past 17 months, and has been paying its bills by borrowing from Wall Street and special internal funds.

If the state's legislators and governor do not reach a budget agreement that brings immediate funds into the state's coffers, the state's borrowed funds will be entirely exhausted at the end of February, according to the controller's office.

I didn't know businesses were involved in this delay... gee you think that helps or hurts the economny? How many cash-strapped tax-paying businesses are going to miss payroll this month? How many people do you think this is going to effect? How many tax payers aren't going to be able to pay their mortgage this month? How many more forclousers? 

For the doubters...

A lot of people have accused Obama of being a pussy and thinking he will let terrorists walk all over America. Well, he ordered his first airstrike on suspected Taliban in Pakistan. Link. And an excerpt:

Obama has warned that he is prepared to bomb inside Pakistan if he gets relevant intelligence about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. He had also said he would act against militants along the border if the Pakistan government failed to.

The US missiles were fired by unmanned Predator drones, which hang in the sky gathering intelligence through surveillance and, when commanded and directed by remote control, to launch attacks.

The strikes will help Obama portray himself as a leader who, though ready to shift the balance of American power towards diplomacy, is not afraid of military action.

Of course, the locals claim all casualties are civilian. That may or may not be true, but that's always what they claim anyways. You'd like to think US intelligence was more spot on, but we will never know.

"Republicans should put politics aside..." -Obama

Obama's priorities so far have been ALL ABOUT POLITICS!

Guantanamo, Abortions, Pollution... The messiah's priorities are all jacked up.

Obama is now considering to allow states to impose more restrictive auto emission standards than the national standards. Does he have any clue what this will do to the auto industry!?

It's bad enough that auto manufacturers need to customize (and increase the price of) vehicles for California. Imagine if they had to do that for many different states! It will drive the cost of the cars up, and the sales down.

This also gives Japanese and Korean auto manufacturers an advantage. Who do you think will have an easier time meeting stricter emissions standards, Japan or the US? Korea or the US?

Manufacturing restrictions DO NOT stimulate manufacturing.


And what is this recent focus on Rush Limbaugh? The mainstream media has been talking and writing about how he wants America to fail. They've built Obama up to the point where Obama IS America. Wanting Obama to fail at his liberal objectives means that you want America to fail. That's bullshit! Better hurry up with that Fairness Doctrine! Any American who disagrees with Comrade Obama will be shut down, discredited and arrested!

"The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched an online petition for readers to express their outrage at conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh for saying last week that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail." [1] WTF? What is happening to our country!? Where the fuck is everybody? Put the Kool-Aid down!

Last week, Rush Limbaugh actually said that he "hopes" President Obama fails to meet America’s challenges.

Jobs, health care, our place in the world — the stakes for our nation are high and every American needs President Obama to succeed.

Stand strong against Rush Limbaugh’s Attacks — sign our petition, telling Rush what you think of his attacks on President Obama. We’ll send Limbaugh your comments. [2]

Jobs....Health care....World Peace.... all in Obama's hands.

Obama is the only one who can help you now. Accept him as your savior or be damned to hell.

Obama != USA
Obama != Jesus

PUT...THE...KOOL...AID...DOWN!

Blago impeachment hearing

Not sure how much of this you guys have been following , but it is borderline insanity. 

The Obama-staff connection to this still won't go away either, but Obama himself remains clean. 

Among 43 subpoenas released by the Blagojevich administration Friday, one from Dec. 8 seeks notes, calendars, correspondence and any other data that relate to Axelrod, Jarrett and 32 other people and organizations.

Obama's staff released a report in December that said his staff had no inappropriate contact with the governor's office about the Senate seat, nor was anyone aware of any dealmaking. Axelrod, a Chicago political strategist now in the White House, was not mentioned in the report.

Prosecutors have said Obama is not implicated in the case, and none of his advisers has been accused of wrongdoing. Aides to the president did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

If you haven't seen one of Blago's interviews, you should, they are funny. "Alternate reality" would be putting it mildly. 

Surrogate Mothers

Surrogates: Redefining Motherhood

Not sure why Sunday Morning, the weekends most boring news show, keeps being so edgy <woooooo>

Surrogate motherhood (aka testtube babies) are nothing new, but the interviewer asked some surrogates if they felt this was like prostitution. One women answered like this "You are providing a service to people in need, its not like you are selling your body."... umm, that sounds like whoring to me.  These women get paid $20k-$40k to carry someone else's sperm and eggs to term. 

Surprisingly to me, this is still illegal in several states... can you guess which ones?  Its even illegal in Europe. 

Are we supposed to believe that it is illegal for a woman to be paid to have someones wang in her body, but it is legal to have their baby in her body? 

Makes sense to me both ways, but you can't have one without the other. Someone tell me I'm wrong? 

Where is the Obama love?

Where is all the Obama love?

All I have heard from everyone besides Jay is how a) we should wait to criticize Obama until he's had a chance to govern and b) comedians are supposed to wait until Obama is funny before they can make fun of him.  

Am I supposed to believe that everyone is cool with the latest stimulus package? Mmmm Pork Soda. 

We all fine with the new Treasury Sec not paying  $34,000 in taxes?

Everyone cool with Obama only freezing the pay of staffers making $100k+ and not the entire staff?

Are we all fine with Gitmo being closed? 

That was Obama's first week guys. Anyone have an opinion? 

Obama and comedy

Is Obama so cool we can't make fun of him?

I read this article in USAToday yesterday at the airport. 

This reinforces what I was saying a few weeks ago. Call it bias, call untouchable, call it what you will, but the media has been really hands off the Obama jokes. 

This article is from the comediens themselves and they are saying exactly what I was saying. They aren't doing Obama sketches.

The picture is from an SNL sketch which I saw a couple weeks ago. It wasn't even funny it was a sketch on how cool Obama is... that's it. 

The Messiah Needs To Git Mo Priorities Straight

One of the things that bothers me most about liberals is that they put more importance on the rights of criminals than they do on the rights of law abiding citizens.

States like NY and CA have these ridiculous laws that require a homeowner to retreat from a home invader instead of stopping them with force. Homeowners are often faced with legal and civil charges for defending their families. Why do these liberal douchebag lawmakers waste all of this effort protecting home invaders!? Fuck home invaders. Why don't they worry about homeowners and propose stricter punishments for the criminals.

So with Obama's first executive order [1], he wants to make sure that we cease prosecuting and mistreating terrorists. Guantanamo isn't filled with innocent cab drivers and convenience store owners. They're TERRORISTS. Yes liberals. They're TERRORISTS.

Obama's first order of business is to make sure that we release as many terrorists as possible. Good job!

Obama and his 160 million cult members live in this make believe world where everybody can get along. If we retreat (something liberals love to do!) from the war on terror, we're going to be setting ourselves up for another nine-eleven, or worse. The good people of Gitmo would be excited to see that.

I hope that I never have to say, "I told you so."

The White House, Obama and the Interweb

Technical Dark Ages

One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.

Props to Obama for getting the Executive branch into the 21st Century. There is no reason to be this far behind in basic IT resources, especially not when we pay so much in taxes.

BARRACK'S LOOKIN' OUT FO B-TOWN, BITCHES!

More of those realistic expectations...

This time it's coming from a state senator.

W...T......F

Obama's Speech

As soon as the applause had died down, an African American standing man near me on the Mall said to his friend: "I thought the speech was shit." Another woman said, correctly, that "we had heard it all before at other events".

Having given so many dynamic speeches he had set his own bar very high. What he tried to do at his inauguration was tell Americans that they had to sacrifice to make gains, while making them believe this was well within their capabilities. The emphasis on sacrifice was too weak however. 

For the record, I pinged Jimmy shortly after the speech and made this very point. I'm not being biased here, I honestly thought the speech was shit. To paraphase Jimmy "there was no hook". 

I thought the speech was all over the place the there was no clear message. 

Finally, the author of this article brings up a point that worries me. "the emphasis on sacrifice was too weak". All we have heard for 3 months (from both parities) is "bailout", "stimulus", "tax break"... the sense I get from the majority of Americans (most of whom are Obama supporters) is that the reason we are in this economic mess is because someone else focked up. Wallstreet, China, Bush, Unions, Banks, Credit Cards, Student Loans, Health Care, Energy etc etc list goes on. 

Yeah, times are tough for many Americans, but I had a long conversation with my grandfather last week and the point he reiterated was that we are nowhere near a depression, we have so much, we expect so much and really do so little. 

If we really are going to fix all the problems Obama mentioned in his speech people really need to sacrifice. I don't think people are yet willing to give up anything. Quite the opposite if you ask me, they want "Mo money, Mo money, Mo money!"

Really?!

On January 20, 2009, Dr. Lowery delivered the benediction at the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. He opened with lines from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," also known as "The Negro National Anthem," by James Weldon Johnson. His invocation included the following passage: "Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen. Say Amen"

Oh Lord, when will I embrace what is right?!

Where are you atheists now? Did the country just get asked to pray to our Lord for the white race to embrace what is right?

The Cult of Personality

The long search for Kennedy's successor

Can someone who voted for Obama please tell me they are sick of the constant comparisons to JFK, MLK, FDR and Lincoln?

Obama hasn't accomplished anything in his career. I sincerely hope that he can walk in the same shoes as these men, but honestly he hasn't done jack. 

Ok, Ok, I know he is inspirational, hope and change and whatnot. If that pumps your nads I'm not going to convince you otherwise. But are we so dense that we can't see the hype for what it is?

The imagery, the hero-worship, the god-like savior, the media fawning, come on people!

The Cult of Obama (not a Living Colour song)

The funny part about this Wiki entry is that I had no idea Obama was even mentioned... haha he was.

England: What Not To Do

This is exactly why we can't let Obama's administration take our guns.

I like at the end how he says that the Americans have a saying: "It's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6."

Good job Obama

Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel

Gotta hand it to Obama on this one. 

Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.

Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has told colleagues “that many of these appointments he would have made himself,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a close McCain friend.

Fred I. Greenstein, emeritus professor of politics at Princeton, said: “I don’t think there is a precedent for this. Sometimes there is bad blood, sometimes there is so-so blood, but rarely is there good blood.”

Similarly, the Bush Administration has been especially open and transparent with the incoming Obama team. I saw a report on Sunday Morning yesterday about how unprecedented levels of coordination has been going on between the Bush and Obama teams in regards to Homeland security and Domesday scenarios. Obviously both camps care enough about this country to do everything they can to make sure the new team is prepared in the event of a terror attack soon after inauguration. So again, hats off to Obama for being smart enough to know that there is a lot he can learn from the outgoing Administration and humble enough to ask a for rival for advice. 

Can I got back to criticizing him now?

New Fashion Statement in Mug Shots

Get these guys their stimulus checks right away!

Calif. tax refunds to be delayed

Ok, ok, I'm really not trying to dump on California, but are you kidding me? 

Calif. tax refunds to be delayed starting Feb. 1

Chiang says his office must continue education and debt payments but will defer money for tax refunds, student aid, social services and mental health programs.

Really?!

So the people who paid above and beyond the exorbitant left-coast taxes aren't even getting their refunds back?!

I sincerely hope that delayed payments come with interest because that is bull sh!t. 

The Romulans should be worried

Cloaking Device Developed at Duke

"The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves—nearly limitless—and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves," senior researcher David R. Smith said in a statement.

Schools & Couch Potatoes Don't Need More of My Tax Dollars Right Now

BOEHNER ON STIMULUS: 'OMFG'

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

It's on. The $825 billion stimulus package unveiled by Democrats this morning has Republicans literally speechless.

"Oh. My. God," said a stuttering Minority Leader John Boehner moments ago at a news conference. He was reacting after having just read the provisions outlined by Democrats today.

$1 billion for community development block grants. $650 million for digital TV coupons. Billions for universities.

Boehner says that much of it isn't going to do anything to help the economy in the short term. He says the approach by Democrats is to "clean out every dime from the taxpayer," and that the nation can't "borrow and spend it's way to prosperity."

House Republicans held their own forum today in an effort to talk about their ideas for an alternative, which are largely centered around tax cuts and credits.

The Democratic bill will see committee action on Wednesday, or, as Appropriations chairman Dave Obey put it today, "The day after the crown prince is sworn in."

At her weekly presser, Nancy Pelosi, however, asserted that the package will save or create four million jobs.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/01/15/1745799.aspx

How about we let people lose their TV connection in hopes that they will go out and get a DAMN JOB to pass their time.

Maybe then they can afford cable and upgrade their shit ass analog TV.

Secondly, universities are not suffering right now. I've had so many new students lately who have come back to school because they were laid off. Why the fuck do schools need money when they're getting all this new tuition?

South Carolina's Slippery Slope

From Slashdot:

"a bill has been introduced in the South Carolina State Senate that seeks to outlaw the use of profanity. According to the bill it would become a felony (punishable by a fine up to $5000 or up to 5 years in prison) to 'publish orally or in writing, exhibit, or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.'"

At first I thought this came from some podunk little town, but no, it's in the state legislature. Do I even have to explain why this is so ridiculous? I never would have thought I would, but apparently I do need to explain to some people in SC. I'm not sure what kind of process this must pass before becoming law, but section six states "This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor." I sure hope the governor isn't the only line of defense the state has against crap like this.

California vs. Georgia

I believe someone started the debate about budget crisis'. Well, here you go, you decide which solution you are in favor of:

Georgia Gov. 2009 Budget Plan

California Fiscal Woes

I'll sum up Cali for you:

Recession triggered the crisis but did not cause it. California relies heavily on income taxes, especially those paid by the top 1% of earners. These veer up and down with the markets. But instead of saving money in boom years, the state locks in higher spending on public services and embarks on projects that need long-term investment.

Mr Schwarzenegger’s solution, which he will describe in detail later this week, combines swingeing spending cuts (even to normally inviolable schools) and equally swingeing tax increases. 

So debate if you will, but Cahl-ee-for-nyah is fubared. Good luck Arny! 

Hugo Chavez buckles

Hugo 'Caesar' Chavez buckles

(or why Socialism doesn't work) 

This is a tad more boring than the posts of late, no 'sexting' sorry, but this makes me happy. 

A quick background...

I've been following the raise and falls of Hugo for a few years. At times I'm horrified, at times I'm shocked and sometimes I laugh. 

If you haven't followed Hugo let me begin by saying that he was democratically elected and then systematically suppressed political opposition, then took over the media, then cracked down on free speech, then made it illegal to criticize the government, then locked up political rivals and outspoken critics, many of whom are 'missing', then he nationalized the banks and major industries. Since most industry was now nationalized he funneled "profits" to his neo-socialized dream.

He was able to do all of this because Venezuela was flush with oil money. He mortgaged the future of his country on high oil prices. It gave him the ability to court and bribe foreign neighbors and cozy up to Russia and Iran. He also was able to give away so many petro-dollars in socialized programs and he was buying political support throughout the country. Because he had tons of money and zero opposition he was a dictator with almost unlimited power. But that power relied on continued profits from high oil prices.

In particular, when he took over the oil companies he booted out all foreign firms and nationalized them with his men. Their main purpose was to strip profits from the oil companies and redistribute them to the "people". However, by doing this these companies weren't able to reinvest in future growth. "Profits" were still artificially high, but these companies were becoming so poorly managed and even a horrible run company that is sitting on top of rivers of oil is going to make money when oil is $145 a barrel. 

Ahhh but look what happens when oil prices tank!  

Everyone should read this article. I hope it clearly shows why socialism doesn't work and why I was so against all of these bailouts.

The new twinkie defense?

For anyone unacquainted with the Daniel Petric case, his father took away his Xbox 360 and this was the result (from this Times Online article):

"On the night of the shooting, Petric used his father's key to open a lockbox and remove a 9 mm handgun and the game.

Mark Petric testified that his son came into the room and asked: "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you." He testified that he expected a pleasant surprise. Then his head went numb from the gunshot.

The teenager then put the gun in his father's hand in an attempt to make the shootings look like murder-suicide. When he fled the scene, he only took one item with him: the "Halo 3" game."

The defense tried for the "twinkies evil video games made him do it" insanity plea. The Judge didn't buy it and Daniel was found guilty. However, what troubles me are some remarks by the judge, pulled from the transcript (from Game Politics):
1: "Because you can shoot these aliens, and they're there again the next day. You have to shoot them again. And I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
2. "But I believe there is hope here. I believe that it will start here and, uh, at some point when all is known about Daniel and what occurred here we will be able to achieve a greater sense of justice."

Quote #1 disturbs me, as you can guess, because nobody in their right mind can equate a video game to real life. I challenge that judge to pick up a plastic controller, turn on his TV, push those buttons and play hours of the most violent games he can find. Then turn around and pick up a cold, hard piece of steel that we know as a handgun and point it at a real, living, breathing person. Do that, and you will realize there can't possibly be any link between the two, real or fantastical. In addition, it sounds like the judge is buying into the insanity plea, even though he ruled against it?

However, quote #2 is actually the scariest of the two. Judge Burge essentially admitted that he did not completely know and understand what transpired that night. Yet, he just sent a kid to jail for the rest of his life. So reasonable doubts are being left on the wayside for expediency, or what? I'd really like for the judge to explain that comment, because I really hope I am just reading into his words too much. But if I am right, then I think this brings this judge's integrity into question.

Sexting ... we were 15 years too late on this one. Doh!

Teens bare all on phones

More 'sexting' nude pictures

"And when a guy gets a picture like that, he's not just going to keep it between him and the girl. He's going to take that and show every guy that he knows that knows that girl. And every time somebody looks at her, it's going to be a loss of respect for her."

Ha, no kidding!

"If I were to go through the cell phones in this building right now of 1,500 students, I would venture to say that half to two-thirds have indecent photos, either of themselves or somebody else in school," said Jim Brown, school resource officer at Glen Este High School.

The world we'll raise our kids in, oh man I feel old.

"Back in 1995 we didn't have cell phones, we had to use the land line. The only internet we had was the local BBS and 9600 baud modem. You know how hard it was to get pr0n in those days? "

Quit Shooting Down Those Aircraft!

There's a lot of bullshit in this Brady Bunch transition memo, but page 11 in particular caught my eye.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/politics/obama-transition-memo.pdf

Since the federal assault weapon law expired in 2004, police in major cities report a resurgence of assault weapon use in crime, with hundreds of people killed on our streets with these weapons of war since late 2004.

I love the source of this "fact": Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Assault Weapons: "Mass Produced Mayhem" (2008)

Those daily shootings you hear about on the news are almost always done with what the Brady Bunch considers safe guns: 22, 9mm, etc. Wouldn't it make more sense to go after those guns than the "weapons of war" that are hardly ever used in crimes? Keep in mind that even if they say "automatic weapon" on the news, they're just talking about a semi-automatic handgun.



Here's the best part:

such as .50 caliber sniper rifles that have the range and power to bring down aircraft

Que? .50 BMG has been used in every American war since WWI, and I have never heard of someone shooting down a plane with one. It would be nearly impossible to hit a moving plane with one, and even if you could hit the plane, it would just put a little hole in it.

Crimes are committed with small caliber handguns that are stolen and sold on the street for less than $100. THOSE are the guns we need to go after. Not $8,000 .50 caliber rifles. I have never ever heard of a .50 cal being used in a crime.

I chose the picture above to illustrate how stupid assault weapon bans are. That rifle is often chambered for M16 or AK47 calibers, it can fire with just as much velocity and just as rapidly as those military style rifles, and it can hold 30 rounds just like those "weapons of war". However since the assault bans are primarily based on looks, it's not in any danger of being banned.

Hey Fatty - Part II

Husband deemed too fat to adopt

Damien Hall, who stands six feet, one inch tall, weighs 24 and a half stone. He therefore has a body mass index (BMI)

of more than 42 and is thus considered morbidly obese.

He is approx 6'1" 320lbs.

The letter the couple received from Leeds City Council said they were unable to process their adoption application "due to the concerns that the medical advisers have expressed regarding Mr Hall's weight.

"The Adoption Panel are unlikely to approve applicants with a BMI over 40 because of the long term health risks."

This is retarded. So weight equates to child rearing skills? 

Phew... an Ice Age, that was close.

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

The central piece of evidence that is cited in support of the AGW theory is the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph which was presented by Al Gore in his 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth.” The ‘hockey stick’ graph shows an acute upward spike in global temperatures which began during the 1970s and continued through the winter of 2006/07. However, this warming trend was interrupted when the winter of 2007/8 delivered the deepest snow cover to the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 and the coldest temperatures since 2001. It now appears that the current Northern Hemisphere winter of 2008/09 will probably equal or surpass the winter of 2007/08 for both snow depth and cold temperatures.

The main flaw in the AGW theory is that its proponents focus on evidence from only the past one thousand years at most, while ignoring the evidence from the past million years -- evidence which is essential for a true understanding of climatology. The data from paleoclimatology provides us with an alternative and more credible explanation for the recent global temperature spike, based on the natural cycle of Ice Age maximums and interglacials.

 The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse. In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.

In 5 years I'm going to be looking for Nelson to pop up and "Haaaww Hawww" every one of the stoopid Global Climate Warming pseudo-science reactionary whackos. Shockingly this year is going to be even colder than last year, goddamn natural phenomenon!!

Oh man, gas is up to $1.67 today! ... when adjusted for inflation its actually cheaper than it was 8 years ago. 

Anyone seen ManBearPig yet??