If you pay your mortgage, you're an idiot.

I've just wrapped up tax appointments for the day.

Probably, nothing could have tugged at my heart than having a woman crying in my office about her retirement account being worth about 40% of what it was six months ago. She's 71 and scared to death. Of course, The Obamaunists don't care about her. Why? Because she had the audacity of saving for her retirement in the first place.

It's really starting to bother me that Obama's all about helping the ding dongs that over bought their homes and the douche bags that lent them the money but there's nothing for this woman.

I felt like telling this woman "Go borrow everything you can on your house then just not pay it back."

I'm thinking that she can live off the equity in her house and the government will come up with some sexy program to bail her out.

No?

At The American Thinker........

But when Democrats take steps that are all but invisible that could have hugely damaging consequences, they should be called on the carpet. This is especially true when provisions are slipped into bills that become law. Laws are very hard to overturn or to change and by the time they can be altered, vast damage has often occurred.

The Democrats (which ones, one might ask) slipped into the House bill dealing with mortgages a sneaky, near invisible provision, that would allow failing borrowers the right to outright own a house for a fraction of the purchase price if the lender makes even minor errors in federal disclosure rules :

[T]he American Bankers Association on Friday raised alarms about a little-noticed part of the bill, saying it would let a borrower end up owning a house for a fraction of the purchase price if the lender breaches certain federal disclosure rules.

The industry said the House version of the bill would force judges to invalidate a lender's claim in bankruptcy for committing minor and accidental errors, such as understating a finance charge by as little as $36.

Wonderful. Small, innocent errors can lead to a homeowner-who may have decided not to meet his debt obligations-to own a home, free and clear of any debts.

Talk about winning a lottery.

So my client is really a dumb ass for saving away for her retirement and paying her house off. My advice, go yank all of your equity and roll the dice. You can live rent free for the rest of your life.

Of course if you would never consider such a stunt because you're responsible, that would make you a republican.

More.....

Obamarrhea

Dick Morris:

"Does he [Obama] know how to do anything other than spend money? His stimulus package, of course, took no special ability. He left the details of the projects up to the House Democrats, who are more than willing to fill in the blanks. But his two other major initiatives -- his banking and mortgage relief plans -- are both flawed and highly unlikely to solve their respective problems. Indeed, they are so wide of the mark that one has to ask if Obama is not only a radical but also an incompetent.

It appears that Obama is at sea when it comes to financial policy, economic recovery planning and credit rescue efforts. We are not only stuck with a radical and a socialist, but possibly an incompetent one at that! "

More...

Biden gaffe #441,992

It occurs to me that there's only one journalist on the White House beat that isn't hanging around looking to score with The One.

It's Jake Tapper. Probably the only serious journalist on the trail....

Oh, That Joe! (No. 48 in a Series) -- Gimme a Break

March 13, 2009 5:40 PM

At an event at Union Station today where Vice President Joe Biden was heralding the $1.3 billion in investments in rebuilding train stations and passenger rails, a microphone picked up one of the former senator's myriad Senate colleagues addressing him, formally, as "Mr. Vice President."

That met with Vice President Biden's standard reply.

"Gimme a f*&$#ing break," he said, apparently unaware that the microphone was on.

Go to his site here......

Deep Thoughts

It seems to me that the feminist movement is all about women being equal to men. If that's the case, shouldn't we call it the masculist movement?

.

Buyer's remorse X

Chris Buckley
David Brooks
Kathleen Parker
Stuart Taylor
David Gergen
Clive Crook
Andrew Grove
Megan McArdle
Michael Gerson


Today William Galston, The New Republic.........

After a week in office, another newly minted president mused in his private diary, "Everybody has warned me not to take on too many projects so early in the administration, but it's almost impossible for me to delay something that I see needs to be done." That president was Jimmy Carter, who--true to his word--sent a flood of proposals down Pennsylvania Avenue, so many that Congress soon bogged down in near-gridlock. By the end of his first year, American were beginning to wonder whether Carter could get things done and--worse--whether he was up to the job.

Will Obama turn out to be as successful in pushing his agenda as Reagan, or as unsuccessful as Carter? The key question is not early economic performance. The GDP, which the Reagan administration predicted would rise by 4.2 percent in 1982, instead shrank by 1.8 percent, and unemployment peaked around the day of the midterms, at 10.8 percent. Still, the Republicans held their ground in the Senate and suffered smaller than expected losses in the House, and the Reagan administration evaded a knockout blow.

snip

It is time for President Obama to focus his considerable leadership and communication skills on the financial crisis--to speak candidly with the people about the magnitude of the problem, to embrace a solution commensurate with the problem, and to do whatever it takes to persuade Congress and the people to accept it. If he does not, he could end up where another highly intelligent, self-disciplined, and upright president did three decades ago.

more....

Krauthammer on stem cell reserach

He hit this one out.....

I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception. But I also do not believe that a human embryo is the moral equivalent of a hangnail and deserves no more respect than an appendix. Moreover, given the protean power of embryonic manipulation, the temptation it presents to science, and the well-recorded human propensity for evil even in the pursuit of good, lines must be drawn. I suggested the bright line prohibiting the deliberate creation of human embryos solely for the instrumental purpose of research -- a clear violation of the categorical imperative not to make a human life (even if only a potential human life) a means rather than an end.

On this, Obama has nothing to say. He leaves it entirely to the scientists. This is more than moral abdication. It is acquiescence to the mystique of "science" and its inherent moral benevolence. How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.

That part of the ceremony, watched from the safe distance of my office, made me uneasy. The other part -- the ostentatious issuance of a memorandum on "restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making" -- would have made me walk out.

Restoring? The implication, of course, is that while Obama is guided solely by science, Bush was driven by dogma, ideology and politics.

What an outrage. George Bush's nationally televised stem cell speech was the most morally serious address on medical ethics ever given by an American president. It was so scrupulous in presenting the best case for both his view and the contrary view that until the last few minutes, the listener had no idea where Bush would come out.

Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as his didactic discourses always are, with a forest of straw men. Such as his admonition that we must resist the "false choice between sound science and moral values." Yet, exactly 2 minutes and 12 seconds later he went on to declare that he would never open the door to the "use of cloning for human reproduction."

Does he not think that a cloned human would be of extraordinary scientific interest? And yet he banned it.

Read the whole piece.....

Can we have some collateral?

Another contribution from reader Mark....

Not today, but someday, this may eventually be the lead in to the final chapter written on the financial crisis. China has quietly been buying our assets and has literally funded our bloated government for over a decade. And will continue to do so for all 4 years of the Obama term. The mere fact that China expresses any lost confidence in the dollar is huge.

The media is burying this story in my opinion. Why would they? Because they love the Obama Spending Express. They think it's a free ride that will be paid for just by the top 2% of wealthy Americans (ignorance run wild). They know the voters can't stop the Express. The know the republicans can't stop it. No one can stop it--except the Chinese. And the propects are too horrible to contemplate. But this is one threat Obama better understand. If the Treasury keeps dumping dollars into the system we will start seeing 10-15% inflation. When The Chinese see their $1T nestegg evaporate in chunks by the billions they will slam the breaks on lending to us, accelerating the cycle. This would be the financial equivalent of lobbing an H-bomb at our system. And if that takes place, the greenback will go from being the world's most respected currency to the least respected toilet paper.

IMO, this WILL BE the story. It is the one thing Obama can't spin with his adoring media, it is a cold fact that will rear it's head if he blows it. And he's blowing it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_china_us_economy

I couldn't agree more

Two wrongs make a right?

An email from reader Mark....

"...And thanks to the huge deficits bequeathed by the Bush administration, Miller says we have no choice but to run even higher deficits for a few years to get the economy out of the ditch."

The fact that Parker wiffed on this slow hanging curve ball should disqualify her opinion from all future public consumption. Basically the economist is saying "We made mistake XYZ. So the only way to solve the problem created by XYZ is to continue making the same mistake XYZ, except to a much greater degree." She swallowed the whole thing and regurgitated it on her column.

Kathleen needs to understand that to the lazy economist of the day, Kayneseanism is the new religion. The answer to every economic problem is to increase government spending. If Bush had run a surplus then the remedy would be increased government spending. If the economy was in great shape: more government spending.

It's Parker's job to smoke these people out. She should be asking "Is there any solution to any problem that you people believe isn't solved by ratching up government?" The answer is No and she should call them out on this instead of rubber stamping unproven Economic theory as fact. But the fact that she, and all major columninsts now, are so gullible means that the march toward socialism is full steam ahead.

http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2009/03/08/opinion/srv0000004853428.txt

Tax Dollars Not At Work

A malfunctioning traffic light that was a constant source of complaints has finally been fixed, but not by the government. A mystery repairman got the light working on Friday, three days before the state Division of Highways workers showed up to repair it.

Mayor Emmett Pugh said Tuesday that officials don't know who did it, but they're grateful.

The light quit working sometime before Christmas. Though it was the city's responsibility, city crews didn't have the expertise to repair the light and it took extra time ordering special parts.

Councilman Mike Atterson said he hopes the mystery repairman comes forward so he can thank him or her and extend a job offer.

He said other lights around town also need work.

Ramirez

Amateur Hour at 1600

Another snub of a foreign head of state over at Obama's play house...

...the White House made several moves interpreted as snubs by the Brazilian media.

Silva aides said the trip was pushed forward from Tuesday because of the St. Patrick's Day holiday -- making Latin America once again look like an afterthought. Then, the White House announcement misspelled his name as "Luis Ignacio" and put "Lula" -- a nickname that decades ago became a legal part of the Brazilian leader's name -- in quotes.

The White House quickly corrected the mistake.

More....

Friday Funny

Democratic corruption du jour

This is starting to get down right ridiculous..........

Maryland tax officials are revoking a New York congressman's claim to thousands of dollars in tax breaks for a home he owns in an upscale Washington suburb.

Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel represents the Bronx, and rents an apartment there. But he and his wife have listed a house in Potomac, Md., as their primary residence on Maryland property tax forms for at least 10 years.

The claim has netted the Engels nearly $7,000 in credits over the past four years.

Engel aides say he lives in the Bronx and believes the Maryland "homestead" credit should be removed if he isn't eligible for it.

According to the rules in Maryland, Engel and his wife don't qualify for primary residency since they both have New York drivers' licenses and voter registration cards.

Is there a liberal in the media willing to call this crap out once and for all?

More...

Deep Thoughts

If a fifteen year old girl sends a nude text to her boyfriend should she be prosecuted for disseminating child pornography and register as a sex offender for the rest of her life?


.

Life in "Progress" City

So you are a public school teacher inside one of those "progressive" schools.

How's that working for you?

Woodson Academy teacher William Pow had just finished writing on the blackboard one January afternoon, he said, when he turned to face his algebra class and saw the textbook "Mathematics in Life" hurtling toward his head.

He ducked, he said, but it caught him in the neck and shoulder. His colleagues at Woodson have not been as lucky. English teacher Randy Brown said he was hit just above the left ear by a book thrown by a student last month. He was treated for a concussion and said he has since suffered from headaches and nausea.

"They think it's a game to hit people in the head," said Brown, who, like Pow, has not returned to school.

They say the 260-student ninth-grade academy, housed at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Northeast Washington while a new Woodson High is under construction, is overcrowded and dangerous. Brown and Pow count five other teachers or administrators who they said have been attacked this academic year, including one who was pelted by textbooks and another pinned to a desktop and choked. Other teachers, Brown and Pow said, are routinely subjected to verbal threats of violence.

What's so "progressive about assaulted school teachers?

But the good news is that The Obamunists have made sure that the people who care about their kids get to send them back to those zoos.

More....

Tea Party Reminder

This Sunday will be a Cincinnati Tea Party down on Fountain Square from 3:00 - 5:00.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to go. But if you go, please take some pictures and email them to me (gtvcpa@yahoo.com) and I'll post them on the blog.

Thanks. Have a great time.

Mark your calendars

I'm a little more than half way through tax season.

I haven't had a beer since Lent started and I'm getting thirsty. So it's time to send out the bat signal to everyone who wants a free drink on April 15th.

Meet Gordon and Midas (if he gets his parole approved), at Willies in Kenwood on April 15th (about 6:00). If you are a hard working taxpayer (aka republican), I'll buy you a free beer before Obama takes them from me.

If you are not a taxpayer, you are not welcome. I'm already paying for your beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, cable TV, rent, food, etc.

In fact, you should show up and buy the rest of us taxpayers a cold beer for a change.

Buyer's remorse IX

Chris Buckley
David Brooks
Kathleen Parker
Stuart Taylor
David Gergen
Clive Crook
Andrew Grove
Megan McArdle

Today it's Michael Gerson, Washington Post.....

Following Obama during the New Hampshire primary, I saw a candidate who -- though I disagreed with him on many issues -- defended idealism and rhetoric against the supremely cynical Clinton machine, who brought a religious sensibility to matters of social justice, who took care to understand and accommodate the arguments of others, who provided a temperamental contrast to culture war politics.

After just weeks of governing, that image seems like a brittle, yellowed photograph, buried at the back of a drawer.

Obama's proposed budget shows all the vision, restraint and grace of a grasping committee chairman, using the cover of a still-unresolved banking crisis to push through a broad liberal wish list before anyone notices its costs and complications. The pledge of "responsibility" has become the massive expansion of debt, the constant allocation of blame to others and the childish cultivation of controversy with conservative media figures to favorably polarize the electorate. The pledge of "honesty" and "sacrifice" has become the deceptive guarantee of apparently limitless public benefits at the expense of a very few. The pledge of "bipartisan" cooperation has become an attempt to shove Republicans until their backs reach some wall of outrage and humiliation.

None of this is new or exceptional -- which is the point. It is exactly the way things have always been done.

More....

Ending the Electoral College

In what may be one of the dumbest ideas to enter the planet (probably why it's liberals proposing it), a bunch of ding dongs want to end the Electoral College.

The Oregon House voted today to end the electoral college system in favor of the popular vote in electing a U.S. president.

House Bill 2588, which passed 39-19, now moves to the Senate.

Four states have endorsed legislation to ban the current system, which awards all the electoral college votes in a state to one candidate. The states pushing for direct election are Hawaii (4 votes), Illinois (21), Maryland (10) and New Jersey (15). Oregon has 7 votes.

Supporters say they need this because right now, presidential candidates spend too much time in toss-up, vote-rich states.

While it is true that candidates will spend much of their time in toss up states, one need only look at Minnesota senatorial race, multiply that abortion of an electoral process by about 300 times and we would still be waiting for a president from the Bush Gore 2000 election.

Imagine a tight race where every single ballot across the country would be challenged as they are in Minnesota. It would be a national nightmare.

In addition, candidates would no longer spend time in swing states but urban centers, thus limiting the influence of rural voters.

No, the Electoral College works just fine. Quit fixing what's not broken.

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Take his word on it

According to BO.....

"If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it," Obama told a gathering of state officials.

You mean like you'd end earmarks then signed a budget bill with 9000 in it?

Detroit City Councilwoman Barbara Rose-Collins Sings

Here's a Detroit City council meeting.

Do you think there's a republican in the house?

Bears repeating

Remember how Jack Abramoff nearly single handedly brought down the republican party with his graft.

Yet somehow no news media wants to point out that one Bernard Madoff, who only stole 50 billion, made lots of donations to...... class.....class....

DEMOCRATS

From Open Secrets.org

Name	Party	Total
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte	D	$102,000
Securities Industry Assn		$31,000
Wyden, Ron	D	$13,000
Schumer, Charles E	D	$12,000
Markey, Edward J	D	$10,000
Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn		$10,000
Lautenberg, Frank R	D	$8,600
Merkley, Jeff	D	$2,300
Clinton, Hillary	D	$2,000
Rangel, Charles B	D	$2,000
Towns, Edolphus	D	$2,000
Dodd, Christopher J	D	$1,500
Ackerman, Gary	D	$1,200
Dingell, John D	D	$1,000
Obey, David R	D	$1,000
Matheson, Jim	D	$250
National Abortion Rights Action League		$250

Where's the "R's"?

Help Wanted - A liberal who pays their taxes

Yet another nomination withdrawal from the Obama Amateur Variety Show.....

Democratic sources say that H. Rodgin Cohen, a partner in the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and the leading candidate for Deputy Treasury Secretary, has withdrawn from consideration.

It's the third withdrawal of a top Treasury Department staff pick in less than a week.
I reported last week that Cohen was likely to be officially nominated for the Deputy Treasury Secretary position.

Cohen has been a counsel to just about every major player on Wall Street, which perhaps complicated his nomination.

Now, the nomination is off.

Democratic sources said that an issue arose in the final stages of the vetting process.

As one source put it, "it's back to the drawing board."

Cohen had risen to the top after the withdrawal last week of expected deputy treasury secretary pick Annette Nazareth.

Nazareth was forced to withdraw from consideration for the deputy treasury slot because senators made it clear she would face tough questioning over her time at the Securities and Exchange Commission -- tenure that overlapped with the agency's failure to catch Bernie Madoff.

And the candidate for Undersecretary for International Affairs, Caroline Atkinson, was told she had to withdraw after a "tax problem" was revealed early in the vetting process, according to officials.

More...

Democratic corruption du jour

Maxine Waters.....

When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says.

The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.

Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.

Her involvement isn't new. Ms. Waters has detailed her financial ties in a series of federal disclosure forms and has been vocal in public in support of the bank. Those ties, however, have received little public attention. Nor is it well known how the influential lawmaker has over the years acted to support the bank and its executives.

Such potential conflicts of interest are more serious as the banking system's crisis has led the government to take an increasingly active role in overseeing financial institutions, including OneUnited. The financial-services committee on which Ms. Waters sits oversees banking issues, and the lawmaker is a potential future chairman.

More....

Buyer's remorse VIII

Chris Buckley
David Brooks
Kathleen Parker
Stuart Taylor
David Gergen
Clive Crook
Andrew Grove

Today it's Megan McArdle of The Atlantic....

Having defended Obama's candidacy largely on his economic team, I'm having serious buyer's remorse. [Timothy] Geithner, who is rapidly starting to look like the weakest link, is rattling around by himself in Treasury. Meanwhile, the administration is clearly prioritized a stimulus package that will not work without fixing the banks over, um, fixing the banking system. Unlike most fiscal conservatives, I'm not mad at him for trying to increase the size of the government; that's, after all, what he got elected promising to do. But he also promised to be non-partisan and accountable, and the size and composition stimulus package looks like just one more attempt to ram through his ideological agenda without much scrutiny, with the heaviest focus on programs that will be especially hard to cut.

More.....

But at least it's "progressive"

Michigan, the epitome of all things Blue.

Just how good is that Mecca of democratic governance? Take it from someone who's living there.....

Less than two months into a new administration in Washington, much of the tone and substance coming from the Obama White House and its allies in a Democratic-controlled Congress sound eerily familiar to weary Michigan ears. At least they should.

There's money for education, health care and alternative technology. There's the prospect of higher tax loads for some individuals and higher energy prices for all. There's a push to increase the influence of the labor lobby by making organizing easier. There are rhetorical shots at business, some undeserved. There's even a Harvard Law-educated CEO who gives a great speech.

Been there, done that.

Come to Michigan, America, to see where some of this could lead if a) it's not accompanied by plain recognition that business is the most effective creator of jobs and b) the boss slow-walks remedies to serious problems, as Obama is doing on the banking crisis.

Here, we have the nation's highest unemployment rate, a dubious distinction that shows no sign of abating.

We have an economic icon whose leaders need federal assistance because their industry is on the verge of collapse. Boosters of Detroit would contend this increasingly likely outcome has been building for just the past few months, but the truth is that it's been coming for years, a legacy of management mistakes, labor over-reach and political inertia.

We have the poorest major city in America. Detroit's schools are an embarrassing failure and under state supervision. Detroit's finances are a mess, and its City Council has become a caricature of itself -- when clips of its latest shenanigans aren't drawing hits on YouTube, that is.

We have a civic culture, born of an affluent past, that tends to glorify the good ol' days when it isn't wallowing in victimhood or engaging in the kind of childish us vs. them spats that impede progress and cloud recognition that common problems demand common solutions.

What a loon. Everyone knows that business is evil.

What's so "progressive" about slums?

More...

Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

How is it that no matter where you are, within 15 minutes of tuning into a classic rock station they play a Steve Miller song?

.

Democratic corruption du jour

Federal agents this morning are searching the Judiciary Square office of Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer.

The search is part of "an ongoing investigation," said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said. She declined to comment further.

The outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, was appointed last week Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration. His last day at the city government office was February 4, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Leslie Kershaw, said.

"We know the FBI is over there but that's all we know," said a staffer in the D.C. CTO's office, Mario Field, who was working from a separate location. Another source familiar with the raid said the FBI had sent all staffers other than senior executives home for the day.

A White House spokesman had no immediate comment.

D.C. mayor's spokeswoman Kershaw said, "Our office has been alerted of FBI's being at CTO office, but we cannot comment until it's over and we get more details."

More..

Four more years of Bush

From the Tribune....

If Obama were Bush, what would their reaction be to the president's failure -- even now -- to submit a plan to salvage the nation's banks?

What would they think of their president if he and his acolytes took out after the other party's leading entertainer -- Oprah Winfrey -- declaring her not only de facto head of the Democratic Party but the foremost embodiment of that party's ideological excesses?

Would they be lamenting a flawed vetting process related to the embarrassing tax problems and quirky (dis)qualifications -- and withdrawals from consideration -- of nominees to top administration posts?

How would they react to polls giving the president a 60 percent job-approval rating, yet finding 44 percent groaning that the nation is "off on the wrong track"?

Speaking of polls, would they be responding sarcastically to a president named Bush -- as Obama has -- talking up price-earnings ratios and ruminating that the stock market "is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down every day. . . . If you spend your time worrying abut that, you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong."?

Would they ridicule the president for urging Americans to go out and buy stocks, just as they ridiculed his predecessor following 9/11 (and properly so), for urging Americans to conduct their lives as though nothing had happened -- and to go out and shop?

more...

Foreclosures

Exactly how pervasive is the foreclosure problem?

35 US counties account for 50% of the foreclosues.

More here.....

Life in "Progress" City

As a college student and young professional, I was a flaming liberal.

But as I got older, I quit assuming that I knew everything (a fatal liberal flaw) and I started asking questions like why is it that all the things liberals run are dumps?

For instance, liberals run nearly every city in the US. Why are they plagued with homelessness, unemployment, and school systems where kids can't read?

Even worse, they run school systems like the Chicago Public Schools where learning to read is the least of your concerns.....

Avila was fatally shot in the Albany Park neighborhood. He is the 26th Chicago Public Schools student killed this year, tying the number of students killed all of last year.

What's so damn "progressive" about gunned down students?

More....

Cincinnati Tea Party

A Cincinnati Tea Party will this Sunday From 3:00 - 5:00 at Fountain Square.

In a certain irony, since none of my clients aspire to be Obama cabinet appointees, I'll be preparing tax returns in my office during that time.

I encourage anyone who's interested to please go down with a box of Lipton for me.

RINO's fit for a zoo

Human Events with their list of the top ten RINO senators.

Number 4 is Ohio's contribution to the liberal plague with George Rinovich.

1. Olympia Snowe, Maine: (ACU Rating: 12)

2. Susan Collins, Maine: 20

3. Arlen Specter, PA: 42 (Only 10 points higher than Mary Landrieu’s 32)

4. George Voinovich, OH: 52

5. Lisa Murkowski, AL: 58

6. Mel Martinez, FL: 60

7. John McCain, AZ: 63

8. Richard Lugar, Ind: 63

9. Robert Bennett, UT: 64

10. Thad Cochran, Miss: 68

More.....

How to know when you're in trouble

When France and Germany think you're too socialist.....

France, Germany, and Italy are warning other Western governments not to follow in US Democrats' economic footsteps. They are urging other countries NOT to run up huge debts in an effort to “stimulate” the Western economy.

More....

Buyer's remorse VII

Chris Buckley
David Brooks
Kathleen Parker
Stuart Taylor
David Gergen
Clive Crook

Today it's Andrew Grove......

In less than two months, the hopeful enthusiasm that welcomed the Obama administration has given way to growing worry and frustration. I find myself wringing my hands, not over the goals President Obama has set but over the ineffectual ways the administration has pursued them. I have no qualifications to judge how well the Obama team manages the political dynamics, but as a business executive with 40 years' experience, much of it managing change, and a part-time academic dedicated to studying why so few corporations succeed in navigating change, I feel compelled to comment not on the what of the Obama team's efforts but on the how.

More.....

Ohio Parole Board has blood on its hands

The more you hear about the attempts to keep the murderer of a 13 year old girl behind bars the more your blood will boil.

Had Ohio Parole Board members heeded a request from the office of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters 12 years ago, Anthony Kirkland would still be behind bars and Esme Kenney might be alive.

In a Jan. 30, 1997, letter to the Parole Board, assistant prosecutor Jennifer E. Day asked that Kirkland be imprisoned “until he has served every day of his maximum sentence” following his guilty plea in a killing.

• Read the letter to the Parole Board (PDF)

Kirkland was 18 when he was sentenced to 7-25 years following his 1987 conviction for the strangulation killing of Leola Douglas, whose body Kirkland then set on fire – allegations very similar to those made in Kenney’s killing.

The letter reveals that Kirkland not only set the woman on fire using lighter fluid, he also spread gasoline around the house and set the house on fire before he fled. A relative was trapped in the fire but was rescued by firefighters. Kirkland had been living there with relatives.

Kirkland served 16 years in prison for that conviction. He was not released on parole in 1997, but was released in 2003.

Had he served his entire sentence, Kirkland would be released in 2012 – three years from now.

Now keep in mind, this offense wasn't just an enraged boyfriend who shot his girlfriend in a fit of rage. This was a guy who SET A WOMAN ON FIRE WHILE SHE WAS STILL ALIVE!!!!!! before killing her.

This was the act of a sadistic pile of crap.

He should never seen the light of day.

Yet, there he is killing a young girl and it looks like he may have set even more women on fire after he got out of the hole.

Welcome to "Progress City".

More....

Democratic corruption du jour

More Chris Dodd indiscretions...

In Sunday’s Hartford Courant, columnist Kevin Rennie (a former Republican state legislator) unravels the tale of how the senator got a pardon in 2001 for Edward R. Downe, a former partner in a real estate deal who had been convicted of securities fraud. But the story runs much deeper than Dodd trying to get his friend’s conviction voided.

It seems that Downe owned a Washington condo with Dodd in the 1980s, when the former was involved in securities fraud. Dodd apparently lived in the place, which took a big financial burden off of the senator, who has never been a rich man. Another partner of Downe’s, William “Bucky” Kessinger, had another deal with Dodd involving lucrative waterfront property on Inishnee, an island on scenic Bertaghboy Bay in County Galway. Dodd has declared the property’s worth on his Senate disclosure forms as being $250,000, but it appears the property may be worth several times that amount. The implication is that this was yet another sweetheart deal in which the senator was sold the property at far below the market price.

What would have happened if Pelosi had not declared that this would be the "most ethical congress in history?"

more...

Voting against kids

Over at Red State....

The U.S. Senate had the opportunity tonight to give 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia the chance for a better education. Instead, voting mostly along party lines, 58 senators sided with liberal special interests to defeat an amendment saving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who attended a private high school and sent his kids to private school, inserted a provision in the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that puts the program in jeopardy. An amendment offered by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) would have stripped the language, but the Senate defeated it tonight, 58-39.

The 58 senators included four Republicans: Mike Crapo (R-ID), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Their action tonight doesn’t end the program, but makes it much more difficult for 1,700 mostly poor black students to achieve the educational dreams that these scholarships offer.

A number of years ago, I had a conversation with a liberal friend of mine who told me that he was against vouchers. It struck me as especially ridiculous since he was spending money for tuition already.

GG - Why are you against vouchers? That would help you out with your tuition.

Liberal Friend - Because I don't won't kids who's parents don't care about their education populating the schools where my kids are.

GG - Wait a minute, you're always blasting me about doing stuff for the poor, what's this attitude?

Liberal Friend - Look, I will see that my kids have the educational advantage that other kids don't have and I'll pay the price for it. And besides, I already pay for public schools our kids don't use.

So once again, for liberals, it's do what I say not what I do.

I don't know what the teachers union has on the democratic party. The democrats are always willing to sell out the AFL CIO and the Teamsters when it comes to issues like the environment, NAFTA and CAFTA. But when it comes to teaching poor kids in horrible school districts, poor kids will always lose over the NEA.

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Modest Expectations From An Obama Supporter

I must be out of my mind. I'm still paying my mortgage.

Amateur Hour

It's not just conservatives who think this administration is amateurish.

Ask the Brits.....

Britain's top civil servant has revealed how hard dealing with the US has become since the handover to Barack Obama's administration, with the G20 summit a particular problem.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell said Downing Street was finding it “unbelievably difficult” to prepare with Washington for the crucial G20 summit in London on 2 April.

He said No 10 was even having trouble getting in touch with key personnel at the American treasury department. “There is nobody there,” he told a civil service conference in Gateshead. “You cannot believe how difficult it is.”

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Deep Thoughts

Isn't there a certain irony that President Obama signed his stimulus package on the same desk where President Clinton got his package stimulated?

Rep. Charlie Rangel swears at Jason Mattera over scandal questions

Chicago Ald Munoz attacks voter in his office, omg

Season ends for the Bearcats

The Bearcats just lost to DePaul, the only team in the Big East to not win a conference game all season.

That's a mercy rule for the Cat's whose last five games have been absolutely brutal.

As an aside, I wonder what year was the last year that the NCAA had neither a UC, UK or IU team team in the bracket.

All I know is I don't want to hear coaches whinin' and bitchin' about not getting in the tournament this year. In a 65 team bracket, only about 40 have played the kind of basketball the past two weeks to justify a bid.

As for the 'Cats, hopefully Cronin can recruit some heart during the off season because some stole this team's heart when they went up to Syracuse and they've never got it back.

Now, when's opening day?

Krauthammer On Why He Declined Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Ceremony Invitation

Deep thoughts

So Obama lifts the ban on federal funding of stem cell research "with strict ethical standards".

What the hell are "strict ethical standards" when it come to this research?

If you believe that a human embryo is just a chunk of protoplasm, why do you need any standards at all?

Chas Freeman

I haven't paid much attention to Obama's Freeman appointment since I would expect that he would appoint some Israel hating bigots to the NIC.

So Freeman's appointment fit right along my, and apparently the liberal news media, expectations.

But the more I read about this guy the more I understand that he's worse than that.

Over at Commentary....

Jake Tapper appears to be one of the few (only?) mainstream reporters keeping current on the Chas Freeman story. You would think it would be hard to ignore the growing tidal wave of protest and controversy. The latest is a letter signed by the Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee taking issue with the appointment. And one wonders how the civil libertarians on the left who are apologizing for Freeman and smearing his critics will respond to this from Huffington Post:

One new development, revealed here for the first time, which is likely to further damage Freeman’s already battered standing is that the former ambassador advocated creating a national identity system in the US as a part of the war on terror. During a 9/11 Commission interview, Freeman remarked that of three major changes the US government should make to effectively combat terror, one was that “the United States should implement a national identity system, so we better know who is who.”

This all raises several questions. First, how long can the rest of the mainstream media hold out without reporting on an embarrassing debacle for the Obama administration? This is the John Edwards story on steroids — a virtual conspiracy of silence with little if any journalistic justification. And here the issue is really important — the appointment of a key intelligence official who is alleged to harbor serious conflicts of interest and extreme views. I have made inquiry at two prominent, national newspapers about the lack of coverage and have received one “I’ll pass it on” from the ombudsman and only an automated response acknowledging receipt from the other. I wonder how mortified they’ll be if the story comes and goes, causing greater public controversy and embarrassment for the administration with nary a report from them.

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Democratic corruption du jour

Today it's...... Adolfo Carrion......

President Obama's new urban czar renovated his Bronx home with help from the architect on a major development that needed his approval, a Daily News investigation has found.

Adolfo Carrión, who last week left his job as Bronx borough president to be director of the White House Office on Urban Policy, hired the architect to design a renovation of his Victorian two-family on City Island.

Weeks after the architect's work on Carrión's house was complete, Carrión approved the architect's project.

Carrión would not say how much he paid the architect, if anything. He also refused to provide copies of checks for the work.

"I hired an architect on an arm's-length commercial basis to draw up plans for a renovation, as required by city law," he said. "That was completely unrelated to my professional activities and entirely proper."

The White House declined to comment.

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The people "progressives" protect

Meet Anthony Kirkland (he's the one in the yellow jump suit).

Kirkland killed a thirteen year old girl last weekend.

Who would have thought this Obama voter was capable of such things?

Well, if you would have looked at his list of accomplishments it wouldn't have taken Einstein.

The man accused of killing 13-year-old Esme Kenney while she was jogging in her Winton Hills neighborhood Saturday has killed before.

In addition, Anthony Kirkland, 40, was expelled last month from a sex offender program where he was serving a parole term on a separate sex crime, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

He failed to register his address as a sex offender after leaving that program, and a warrant for his arrest had been issued because of it.

Kirkland was ordered held on $5,350,000 bond this morning on charges he killed Esme, a student at the Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts who went for a run Saturday and never came home.

Hamilton County Municipal Judge Fanon Rucker set the bond for Kirkland during a brief arraignment. Kirkland pleaded not guilty.

Prisons records show Kirkland was sentenced in 1987 to spend seven to 25 years in prison on charges of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated arson.

Kirkland, who was 18 at the time, was charged with murder and arson for assaulting Leola Douglas, dousing her with lighter fluid and setting fire to her.

Douglas apparently was alive when Kirkland set the fire and her severely burned body was found at the top of some stairs leading into Kirkland’s house in Walnut Hills.

Police said Kirkland confessed to the 1987 crime shortly after his arrest. His lawyer at the time said Kirkland and Douglas argued after she threatened to expose an affair Kirkland was having with a married woman.

He served 16 years and was released on parole Sept. 3, 2003.

The following October he was released from probation, having committed no new crimes.

Three months later he was accused of breaking into a woman’s home and raping her. He was acquitted of that charge.

Most recently, he was on parole for soliciting a 13-year-old girl for sex in 2007, and ordered to live at Volunteers of America. He was ordered to leave that facility on Feb. 27, after he was caught fighting with an inmate, a prison spokeswoman said.

Exactly how is this piece of shit still allowed in society when he shouldn't even be alive right now.

People say there's a hypocrisy of being "pro-life" yet "pro death penalty". I don't see an inconsistency with that at all.

See, if we had executed this dirt bag when we had a chance we would have protected Esme's life. And until this derelict is executed, he will be a threat to each and every inmate and prison guard at whatever facility he enters. Call it self defense.

If you don't believe me ask the family of Robert Vallandingham. If we had executed the inmates of Lucasville when we should have, they never would have been around to kill Vallandingham during the riots.

Plus there would be a lot more space to put this piece of shit in there instead of forcing him on the public where he can kill at will.

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Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

In order for a market to "bob up and down", doesn't there have to be an up?

CPAC - 13yr old Jonathan Krohn

How is it that a 13 yr. old gets it but John McCain can't.

If it walks like a duck.....

From the "If you have to defend it, it's probably true department"....

President Obama is quite touchy about being referred to as a "socialist."

After appearing dismissive of a New York Times reporter's question about whether he was a socialist, he took the unusual step of placing a post-interview call to the Old Gray Lady to clarify his remarks, the Washington Times reports.

"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," said the new Oval Office inhabitant who remarked during the campaign that "when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Hey, if it quacks like a duck, flies like a duck and walks like a duck it's probably a socialist. Right?

When the NY Times is asking the question, what does that tell you?

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Buyer's remorse VI

Chris Buckley
David Brooks
Kathleen Parker
Stuart Taylor
David Gergen

Today it's Clive Crook....

On this page last week I argued that Barack Obama’s first budget showed him to be more of a left-leaning liberal than I and many others – sceptics and admirers alike – had previously supposed. People I respect have accused me of going off the deep end about this, or of neglecting Mr Obama’s tactical finesse, or both.

snip

This message comes through loud and clear in the budget taken as a whole. Mr Obama is not a centrist – unless the second point is correct and I am underestimating Mr Obama’s tactical intelligence. His political skills are undeniable. Yet I find the view that you make a phoney offer and aim to be bargained down difficult to credit.

The question is, who is Mr Obama supposed to be bargaining with? If the answer were a Republican-controlled Congress, this theory might be worth entertaining. Scare conservatives with a pitch for social transformation – a new New Deal – then settle for a judicious nudge to the left. But the bargains Mr Obama needs to strike are not with Republicans, who for the moment are clueless, leaderless and powerless. The people he needs to do business with are members of his own party – and unless I am much mistaken, those people are liberals.

If Mr Obama were a centrist he would be positioning himself to the right of the congressional Democrats, with a plan to be walked back in their direction. In fact, his budget has delighted the left of his party. Far from pulling him to the centre, most Democrats will resist that move if he tries. Or am I missing something?

Yes, you are missing the fact that you are an idiot!

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Life in "Progress" City

Two more murder victims in Avondale over the weekend.....

Cincinnati Police are investigating the deaths of two men who were found shot Sunday behind a residence in the 500 block of Hickory Street.

Officers were called about 2 p.m. for a report of gunshot victims. They arrived to find 26-year-old Mario Elliott and 20-year-old Damiko Andrews.

A woman who lives in the building in front of the grass-covered common area where the bodies were found said she heard gunshots between 2-3 a.m. Sunday morning.

"I heard gunshots, but that's normal for Avondale," said Sherry Sims, 46. "We hear it so much, it doesn't faze me, I hate to say it."

Sims was standing on her porch with her two young children as police took down yellow tape and cleared the scene.

"I don't even look out the window," Sims added.

Just out of curiosity. When is the last time this area voted for a republican? You'd think that if you lived in a neighborhood where you couldn't even look out your windows, you might consider that the democratic leadership you've had for the past, oh, say, 40 years, probably isn't doing the job.

That should really be the campaign slogan for the democratic party, "Creating shit holes and managing them for the past 40 years. Just ask Detroit"

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In other words, just keep doing what you've been doing

From the NY Times......

Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, sent a message to the nation’s school officials last week: Heads up! We’ll be sending you billions of dollars by month’s end. Spend the money quickly but wisely. And keep receipts; we’ll be asking.

Pretty much what they've been doing for decades now. We use to call that Standard Operating Procedure.

Isn't that how education costs seem to exceed 2 -3 times the rate of inflation?

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