Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent. I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a vote. The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said– and the faculty gave him a standing ovation. After the faculty meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by the faculty’s fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more information before voting. “Tom, you don’t understand,” he said. “Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts.” [Thomas Sowell gives us part two of his must read, Dismantling America…ed]
This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year. On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state. In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by Republican Chris Christie over Democrat Jon Corzine on Election Day. A mass distribution of provisional ballots, at the request of a political party, would represent a significant change from established law. Currently, when a county clerk rejects an absentee-ballot request, the clerk tries to contact the voter — through mail, by phone, and in some cases, by attempting to contact the voter in person. And a person who has spoken to some of New Jersey’s county clerks says they’re granting wide latitude on signature styles; for them to reject a ballot request because of the signature, it has to be dramatically different from the one on file. [Damn, the Democrats aren’t even trying to hide the fact they plan on trying to steal the election in New Jersey!…ed]
Nervous W.H. intervened in N.J. race; top Obama adviser now in charge
One of President Barack Obama’s key political advisers has become the central strategist in New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s bruising campaign for re-election, a race the White House desperately wants to win to avert the consequences for its own agenda of a Republican winning in a traditionally Democratic state. The White House was so concerned about Corzine’s chances during the summer that Corzine’s aides feared the first-term governor was being pressured to step aside for a stronger candidate. Those fears turned out to be groundless, but were part of the reason Corzine hired Joel Benenson, who has helped impose discipline on a struggling campaign and crystallize Corzine’s aggressive attacks on the character of his Republican opponent, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie. [Between phony absentee ballots and an Obama hack on board Corzine should pretty much have this lost election sown up!…ed]
Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands
An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports. The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts. The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced. [I find it hard to believe that the figures coming out of the Obama administration concerning the Democrat Party slush fund for the 2010 elections (better known as the “stimulus program”) are inaccurate when it comes to their ridiculous claims of the number of GOVERNMENT jobs created or saved. NOT!…ed]
White House Blasts AP for Story Alleging Gov’t Overstated Stimulus Jobs ‘by Thousands’
The Obama administration on Thursday slammed a report from The Associated Press alleging the government had overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under President Obama’s $787 billion recovery program. The White House seized on an initial report from a government oversight board weeks ago that claimed federal contracts awarded to businesses under the recovery plan already had helped pay for more than 30,000 jobs. The administration said the number was evidence that the stimulus program had exceeded early expectations toward reaching the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. But the 30,000 figure is overstated by thousands — at the very least by nearly 5,000, or one in six, based on AP’s limited review of some of the contracts — because some federal agencies and recipients of the money provided incorrect job counts. [Gee, I wonder if these federal agencies that “mistakenly” provided inaccurate job numbers were actually instructed on how many GOVERNMENT jobs were “saved or created” by someone within the Obama White House? Nawww, that would never happen would it?…ed]
The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance were little changed last week, the government said Thursday, with a total figure that missed analysts’ expectations. There were 530,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Oct. 24, down 1,000 from an unrevised 531,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 525,000 new claims. The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 526,250, down 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 532,250. “I think this will be viewed as a positive report, though not strongly positive,” said Robert Dye, senior economist at PNC. [Over half a million people a week are losing their jobs and this Robert Dye guy calls this a positive report? What the hell is the matter with these people? Remember pre Obama when unemployment was at 5.5% and the lamestream media was HAMMERING George W. Bush?…ed]
Clunkers: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car
A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com. Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy’s expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation’s gross domestic product growth. The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates. [Obama and the Democrats claim a government run healthcare program will reduce the cost of care for all Americans. LOL!…ed]
Sponsors... article continues below...
New Poll: Americans Don’t Believe Obama and Congress Share Their Priorities on Health Care
Data from the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll present a problem for President Obama and congressional Democrats as they try to sell their health-care plan: Americans do not believe Obama and Congress are paying sufficient attention to the cost issue, which is a top public concern. As this chart shows, while Americans are essentially split on what Obama and Congress should be most focused on addressing, they are not split on what the proposed health-care plan actually is addressing. Some 38 percent of Americans say the plan should be most focused on health-care costs, and only 13 percent say the president’s plan is most focused on this issue. (SNIP) These numbers indicate that Democrats still have a long way to go in selling Obamacare to a skeptical public. [Obama and the Democrat leaders pushing the government takeover of our healthcare system know damn well their scheme won’t reduce costs nor will it cover everyone in America and that was never their intention anyway. If it was their first priority would be tort reform but we haven’t seen anything in any bills these clowns have cobbled together, without the participation of Republicans, addressing this issue…ed]
House health-bill event closed to public
House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol. The audience at the crowded press conference included Hill staffers, union workers, health care providers and students, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who thanked them for attending. (SNIP) The West side of the Capitol – the area where President Barack Obama was inaugurated — is traditionally open to the public. But the entrances were blocked off Thursday morning by metal fences, with Capitol police officers standing next to staff members holding clipboards with lists of approved attendees. [OUTRAGEOUS! WE have to pay for this 1,990 page f’n mess and are kept away from the official announcement? Who in the hell do these arrogant Democrats think they are? Clearly they were afraid of the botox queen getting shouted down ala townhall meeting style…ed]
Hypocrisy reigns in NFL’s Limbaugh rebuff
OK, so I get why National Football League (NFL) honchos derailed Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become part owner of the St. Louis Rams. And then again, I don’t. Limbaugh, on his web site, indicated he didn’t succeed because of remarks he made about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, the media and the NFL several years ago. Others have said that Limbaugh’s bid was denied because of other “racist” remarks. Columnist George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct “Emerge” magazine, wrote a recent piece taking to task Fox network commentator Juan Williams and National Black Republican Association chairwoman Frances Rice for defending Limbaugh against charges of racism. According to Curry, Williams and Rice are upset about two statements allegedly attributed to Limbaugh that no one has proved he ever uttered. [The liberals will stop at nothing to smear a conservative even fabricating racist quotes that were never spoken as is the case here with Limbaugh. Hopefully Rush will find a way to get back at those who pulled this crap and make them pay dearly for screwing with him…ed]
Photographs of President Barack Obama run on a constant loop in the foyer of a factory here, roughly 100 miles northwest of London. Shots from the photo-op show the president standing in front of trucks with “Navistar” emblazoned on the front and side, a publicity coup for the major American commercial truck and bus manufacturer. But why are these photos being shown in Coventry, Britain’s down-at-heel equivalent of Detroit? The answer lies in the flat-fronted truck looming behind the president: It wasn’t made in Illinois, site of Navistar’s headquarters, or Indiana, where the photos were taken; the vehicle was made at a factory in Coventry by Modec, a small British producer of battery-powered trucks. [Your hard earned money has been taken away from you by your government so as to keep people in other countries well employed. Now that is some serious spreadin’ the wealth around and you may as well get used to it for the next three years because that’s the way Obama rolls…ed]
Why Democrats Should Start to Sweat
If you’re an elected Democrat anywhere to the right of Barney Frank, and trying to defend a competitive seat next November, you’ve got to be starting to sweat. You wake up in the morning and just like every other morning as far as the eye can see the only thing in the news is the president’s health-care reform. It’s starting to look like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are leading the Donner Party, the snowbound emigrants who bogged down in the Sierra Nevada winter in the 1840s and resorted to cannibalism to survive. [With the way Obama, Reid and Pelosi are spending money we don’t have and ramming through legislation the American people have told them they don’t want it looks like it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the Democrats in 2010…ed]
Obama’s bad economic bet may ruin Democrats
The anemic third-quarter U.S. GDP report is another indication that President Barack Obama’s economic gamble may yet fail to pay off. And that could be terrible news for Democrats heading into the 2010 midterm elections. While the new report showed the economy shifting into recovery mode, it looks like a pretty anemic expansion. As the economics team at IHS Global Insight see things, temporary factors such as cash for clunkers (accounting for nearly half of the past quarter’s growth) and the homebuyers tax credit artificially inflated growth during the past three months. The firm puts underlying growth in the economy at closer to 2 percent than the 3.5 percent. See, back at the start of 2009, the new White House team wagered that it could construct a stimulus plan that would both boost the economy, helping Democrats in the 2010 midterms, and serve as a significant down-payment on its long-term policy agenda in areas like clean energy and education. That would help Obama in 2012. [Zero growth with massive job cuts in the private sector and the only expansion in our economy due to huge government spending of BORROWED money does not a recovery make. Anybody with more than three firing neurons in their brains KNEW what was going to happen when the big liberals weaseled their way to the top spots in our government and now the Dems are TOAST come 2010…ed]
FBI kills leader of radical Muslims; 12 charged
The leader of a local mosque who authorities also are calling the head of an Islamic fundamentalist group was killed in a shootout with federal agents this afternoon during a series of raids that resulted in charges against a dozen men. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, leader of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, is accused in a federal complaint of heading a Sunni Muslim group with a mission of establishing a separate Islamic nation within the United States. Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was gunned down after firing on officers as the FBI raided a Dearborn warehouse, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. An FBI canine also was fatally shot. Raids also were conducted in Detroit. [My condolences to the family of the FBI dog…ed]
Obama Honors Returning War Dead
President Barack Obama made an overnight dash to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign. On a clear fall night, Mr. Obama flew by Marine One helicopter directly to Delaware to greet the flag-draped caskets of 18 Americans killed in action this week. Upon arrival, the president got into a motorcade to a base chapel, where he was to meet privately with families of the fallen Americans. The unannounced trip began around midnight and was expected to have the president back at the White House before dawn on Thursday. [RIP to our brave soldiers who gave their lives for our country. The American military hating ditherer in chief merely stopped by for a photo op…ed]
Fox’s Shepard Smith: Sorry for ‘lack of balance’
Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a “lack of balance” following a political report where the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic incumbent wasn’t. Fox correspondent Shannon Bream had wrapped up a live interview with GOP candidate Chris Christie on Smith’s afternoon news show Tuesday when the anchor asked, “When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?” Bream replied that despite “multiple requests,” Corzine hadn’t made himself available for an interview. [Hey, Shep, I hear basement rated CNN could use another flamin’ liberal over there. Hint hint nudge…ed]
Fox News Channel, Obama administration talking
Fox News Channel and the Obama administration are talking. The network confirmed a Politico report that Fox news executive Michael Clemente met at the White House on Wednesday with Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama’s press secretary. There were no details given about the meeting. Fox has been battling with the administration, which contends the network operates more like a wing of the Republican Party than a news organization. The meeting came a day after Fox anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a “lack of balance” following a political report where the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic incumbent wasn’t. [We’ll be watching you guys over at Fox News closely to make sure you don’t buckle under this kind of thuggish pressure…ed]
CNN’s Lou Dobbs Claims Shot Fired at Home, Wife
Recently a lot of hubbub had been made about the possibility that the peaceful tea party protests and some conservative voices would stir up emotions that could lead to violence. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was even one of those sounding that alarm. But what has gone unsaid by those same voices has been the possibility of violence against those who might take a position antithetical to that of the left. Case in point: CNN’s Lou Dobbs. Dobbs, who has been the target of a smear campaign by the left-wing noise machine, told his radio audience on Oct. 26 that his home had been shot at three weeks earlier. [It must have been a bunch of illegal aliens shooting up Dobb’s house and wife because the pansy ass lefties are too scared of guns to risk putting one in their hands lest they blow their own freakin’ head off…ed]
Costco to accept food stamps nationwide
Costco Wholesale Corp. said Wednesday that it will start accepting food stamps at its warehouse clubs nationwide after testing them at stores in New York. It’s a big about-face for a retailer that has catered to bargain-hunting but affluent shoppers, and it’s a sign of the grim reality facing retailers and their customers. The number of Americans relying on government food subsidies to eat recently hit a record 36 million. Costco, which is based in Issaquah, Wash., began accepting food stamps at two stores in Brooklyn and Queens in May under political pressure from officials who worked with the company on opening a club in a redevelopment area in Manhattan. [I’d like to know who is going to pay for the membership fee so some people can now use their food stamp ATM card at these stores?…ed]
Quote of the day.
In many ways, he’s sent from God because the world’s a mess. I can’t think of any better qualified because of his background, his education, particularly in regard to Islam.
-Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner aka “Sting” lead singer of the rock band The Police opining on how lucky the world is to have Barack Hussein Obama around to save us all.