Obama wins popularity contests, not much else
President Obama is following the advice of that great philosopher Woody Allen, who once said that “eighty percent of success is showing up.” In health care legislation, foreign relations and, now, the Olympics, Obama believes his very presence is enough to bend the world to his whim. But even Allen allowed for 20% of something else. I’m guessing good ideas and effort. The decision by the International Olympic Committee must have particularly stung. On behalf of his hometown of Chicago, which had invested $50 million in its bid, Obama traveled halfway around the world to swoon IOC officials in Copenhagen. [“I would rather the United States be respected than liked.” Hallelujah brutha!…ed]
Ex-Alabama Judge Accused of Having Sex With Inmates
Herman Thomas had an enviable political record as a black Democrat elected and re-elected in a county overwhelmingly white and increasingly Republican. The respected circuit judge once was the Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama. Then his career collapsed under allegations that he brought inmates to his office and spanked them with a paddle. Later, an indictment accused him of sexually abusing male inmates in exchange for leniency. The trial on charges of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations is set to start Monday. [Surely there must be some kind of racial angle here because we all know black Democrats never commit crimes…ed]
Those who read the New York Times’s coverage of the unsuccessful results of Barack and Michelle Obama’s attempt to seal the 2016 Summer Olympics bid for Chicago on Friday afternoon (‘For Obama, an Unsuccessful Campaign”) might want to read it again. If it doesn’t seem the same, it’s because it isn’t. Blogger Weasel Zippers (HT Hot Air Headlines via Instapundit) caught the Times committing a major scrub of the story. But it’s really worse than that. An excerpt of the item’s first five paragraphs posted at FreeRepublic at 4:44 Eastern Time on October 2 shows that the article was apparently originally published under the same title with Peter Baker’s byline Friday sometime Friday afternoon. There are even more substantive differences noticed by Weasel Zippers I will get to shortly, but the first five paragraphs alone were obviously worked over, while Jeff Zeleny’s name was added to the byline. [More proof the lamestream media will do whatever it can to cover Øbama’s ass every time he falls flat on his face. Naturally it took an intrepid blogger, doing the work the media no longer has the skill, desire or ability to do properly anymore, to uncover this NYT’s scam…ed]
In bid blame game, point fingers here
Chicago politicians, politically connected contractors, trucking bosses, Mayor Richard Daley’s nephews and other wide-eyed idealists need somebody to blame for their humiliating loss of the 2016 Olympics. So blame me. I’ll wear the jacket and make my friend the mayor happy. Why? I’ve been a supreme idiot for opposing the mayor’s Olympics and all that noncynical fun. Sure, the taxpayers were worried about digging into their pockets for Olympian cost overruns, just so the politicians could hand out Olympic gold to their friends. But upon reflection, I fear that I’ve stupidly cost myself oodles of cash. [For humor to be really funny it must contain strong elements of the truth…ed]
Ten US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Ten American troops were killed at the weekend in two surprise attacks that caused alarm in Nato’s US-led coalition. In one, hundreds of insurgents attacked a pair of isolated outposts in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and several Afghan policemen in the deadliest battle in 15 months. Scores more Afghan policemen were reportedly captured by the Taleban. In the other an Afghan policeman opened fire on the American soldiers with whom he was working in central Wardak province, killing two and injuring three. [We lost 10 men in that Afghanistan hellhole this weekend while Øbama fretted over how to spin his IOC bitch slap…ed]
Contrary to what my title indicates, I probably judge Barack Obama more harshly than most reading this page. I don’t think he is just a misguided ideologue or merely a creature of expediency. I believe, practically speaking, he is an evil man. That is to say, while he is largely ignorant like so many others, he has developed an affinity for evil. He mistakes it for good. Yet, to be blunt, Obama doesn’t alarm me as much as the average American. To explain why, I’ll present something Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said 2000 years ago when lamenting Julius Caesar’s rise to dictator: [How was that for a sobering look in the mirror America?…ed]
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From CNN: ‘Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh… communism still can win’
Reporter Carol Costello had a report on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday asking whether the time was ripe for a third party in the United States. That’s certainly an interesting topic, and one well worth featuring in a news report, but what was really interesting was that the third party Costello chose to feature was communism. That seems to tell us more about CNN than about American politics. No, I don’t think that CNN stands for Communist News Network like some people do, but that cable news channel does sometimes seem to have a left-leaning slant (not into Stalin territory like MSNBC, but well over into the Gorbachev range at least). And if you don’t think they lean left, would you do me a favor? Please explain why they picked a communist out as an example of how the country is “ripe” for a third party? Do any of you really believe that communism is about to become a viable grass-roots alternative in Cleveland or anywhere else in America? I don’t. [CNN wistfully dreams of a strong communist party here in the U.S. ‘Nuff said…ed]
Early retirements mean it is worse than 9.8% unemployment
The stimulus backfired. It undermined confidence in the economy. And people are reacting. Not only are companies cutting back on employees, but workers are throwing in the towel. Rather than look for another job, they are retiring or filing for a disability. The Associated Press reported: “Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn’t expect the increase to be so large.” [But but but mean Joe Biden said the Øbama administration’s stupid “stimulus plan” is working like a champ??…ed]
The Obama administration isn’t adequately vetting important presidential appointees. When it was exposed that former “green jobs czar” Van Jones believed in crazy conspiracies about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it was questionable whether anyone had even bothered to Google individuals before they received presidential appointments. In that case, the White House strategy was to refuse to answer questions and hope interest faded away. That approach worked for most of the media, which carried water for President Obama’s scandal-plagued pick. Stonewalling scandal is not what Americans were expecting from an administration that promised to usher in an “unprecedented level of openness in government.” Instead, a pattern of presidential obfuscation is developing. [Of all of the people Øbama could have chosen to staff his administration with why is it so many of these creeps have such bizarre wacky backgrounds? Probably because he does too…ed]
The Bizarre Silence of Child Advocates on ACORN’s Child Sex Trafficking Advice
You know what’s weird? It’s weird that child advocacy groups (secular and religious) haven’t raised more hell regarding ACORN who, on tape, in multiple locations, and on our dime, were perfectly peachy with the potential sex trafficking of little 13-year-old El Salvadoran girls. That’s what’s weird. Did anyone else notice that when Giles and O’Keefe’s characters said they wanted to bring underage sex slaves from El Salvador into the United States that none of those acornites so much as blinked? None of them—as in zero, zilch, zippo—said, “Get the hell outta here! I’m calling the cops!” I know some acorners said the workers protested the pimp and prostitute’s requests but . . . uh . . . the unedited tapes slam dance that fairy tale. [That’s because most of these groups exist to simply push the left wing agenda not to advocate for their so called cause. Just ask Sarah Palin about the National Organization for Women and how they scrambled to her defense when she was getting savaged by the liberals. Oh wait, that’s right, they didn’t did they?…ed]
Thirty ‘high-risk’ terrorists to be released early
UP to 30 “high-risk” terrorists — including some of the most dangerous men in Britain — are due to be released from jail in the next year. More are being freed in the wake of a ruling by Britain’s most senior judges that long sentences for terrorist crimes could “inflame” rather than deter extremism. An analysis of appeal court cases shows that of the 26 terrorism cases it has heard, 25 have led to men with terrorism convictions having their sentences reduced. Others are being released because they serve only part of their term. In response, Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said the Tories were considering longer sentences for terrorists. [Mighty fine time to be living in England these days thanks to these judges who are more concerned with the terrorists than the taxpaying lawabiding citizens of that once fine country…ed]
Nancy Pelosi likes to brag that she’s “drained the swamp” when it comes to corruption in the House, but ethics problems could come back to haunt Democrats in 2010. Democrats are currently the subject of 12 of the 16 complaints pending before the House ethics committee. Two of the lawmakers being investigated—Reps. Jack Murtha and Charlie Rangel—have close ties to Pelosi, who has come under criticism for not asking them to resign their committee posts. Murtha, chairman of a key defense-appropriations subcommittee, is under investigation for his ties to a lobbying firm whose clients received millions of dollars in Defense earmarks. Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is facing scrutiny for not fully disclosing assets. The ethics committee is also looking into ties between Rangel and a developer who leased rent-controlled apartments to the congressman, and whether Rangel improperly used his House office to raise funds for a public policy institute in his name. [Pelosi is as filthy as a politician can get and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about ethics as long as she is able to hold onto power…ed]
Socialism and Christian-Bashing Crash at Box Office
Tough times for leftie Hollywood. Nothing’s gone right this week. None of this is their fault, of course. In order to understand that it might not be a good idea to rally around a child rapist, bash religion in a religious country or trash capitalism in a capitalist country you have to live in the real world… [Market forces offer fat slob Michael Moore the single digit salute for his latest idiotic film which was made with non union workers by the way…ed]
Quote of the day.
It’s Sunday. Time for some football, a few cold ones then round out the day with a nice BBQ!
-just-a-regular-guy
BBQ? I’m going to be slamming down some baked chicken!