Rep. Blackburn Questions Al Gore on Charitable Giving

Obama Supporters are Idiots!

Modest Expectations From An Obama Supporter

It's almost been 100 days.

I wonder if she's still not worrying about gas in her car or her mortgage?

Life in "Progress" City

Washington DC, who hasn't had republican leadership since Antony and Cleopatra were an item, is apparently a little under the standard when it comes to EMT service......

Scores of the District's paramedics failed to meet the minimum national standard on written exams testing or mishandled basic life-saving procedures during videotaped assessments, according to interviews, videos and documents obtained by The Washington Times.

One of the nation's premier emergency medical professionals, who reviewed the materials at The Times' request, said the deficiencies identified during a sweeping assessment of the city's paramedics posed a safety crisis for the nation's capital.

"Based on what I saw on those videos, there is no question in my mind," said Paul Werfel, director of New York's Stony Brook University's paramedic program and a clinical assistant professor of health sciences. "To be perfectly honest, I think there's a real threat here. The safety of the people of the District of Columbia is at risk. It's a clear and present danger to them."

He said many of the paramedics displayed a lack of familiarity with the equipment they were using and had difficulty performing basic paramedic tasks, such as intubating a patient. He said that one paramedic put a bag valve mask that assists patients with breathing difficulties on the mannequin upside down, others mismanaged the patients' airways, and others administered medications to cardiac arrest victims when the situation called for electric shocks. Many of the paramedics used obsolete techniques to determine the condition of the patient.

The city has about 250 paramedics, and about 175 have been put through the assessment program at a training center in Maryland. The Times obtained test scores for at least 95 of the paramedics. Only three scored in a range to get a passing grade under the national standards for entry-level paramedics.

THREE? Uno, Dos, Tres? A whopping three were able to get a passing grade?

What's so "progressive" about incompetent EMT's?

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Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko.....

So if you waterboard someone, you can't be prosecuted. But if you are an attorney who wrote a legal brief as to whether you waterboarding is torture, you could be going to jail?

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Four more years of Bush

From the WSJ......

Three cheers for President Obama's decision, announced quietly on Monday, to repudiate a campaign promise and not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The last thing the Western Hemisphere needs are more trade barriers that would snarl supply chains and damage commerce.

Perhaps we should call this Austan Goolsbee's revenge. Recall that last year the Obama economic adviser had told a Canadian diplomat to ignore Mr. Obama's Nafta campaign rhetoric; the candidate was merely pandering to Big Labor. When that disclosure became news, Mr. Goolsbee was banished to the campaign's isolation ward for imperfect spinners. Now we know Mr. Goolsbee -- not the candidate -- was the one telling the truth.

Look, I am a free trade guy. So Four more years of Bush on NAFTA is a good thing for the country. But what I don't get is why Big Labor, continues their loyal support of candidates and parties who consistently sell them out on this issue.

They sure as hell won't sell out the NEA on school choice or NOW on abortion rights or the Environazis' on off shore drilling, so why this one?

Friday Funny

From reader Cathy

Moving up the cool ladder

Probably my best attribute is my self awareness. Given that I am an accountant who also does political blogging, I realize that I am near the bottom on the coolness scale.

Nothing illustrates that more than my understanding of fashion. For me, a fashion trend is when a new truck load of clothes shows up at the nearest Sam's Club.

None the less, by my calculations, I am cooler then the following groups of losers. In order, they are....

Senators
Dungeons and Dragon participants
NFL Draft Groupies


Let me just say that if you go to a local sports bar tomorrow equipped with a binder of your notes, a copy of a Drug Store List and a lock of Mel Kiper's hair, you are a loser. You get even more loser points if you meet other losers at the bar.

I have never understood the fascination with the NFL draft. I mean the draft has been a place where teams spend lots of money to scout and draft "can't miss" talents like Kenneth Sims, Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, Dan Wilkinson, Steve Emtman, Tony (The Incredible Shrinking Lineman) Mandarich, KiJana Carter, Ricky Williams, or Heath Shuler.

But what's worse are the guys who track this charade like the second coming. Here's a few rules you can follow for tomorrow's draft.

1) I can randomly pull a guy's name out of a hat and he'll have a better chance of being all pro than the guy you think is a "can't miss".

2) Whoever the Bengals, Browns or Lions pick will be a total loser. How do I know? Well, Because they'll be a Bengal, Brown or Lion.

3) As soon as the first team trades their pick, your mock draft is totally blown for the whole day.

So take some advise from a CPA. If you are set to go to a sports bar tomorrow, don't do it.

Instead, be cooler than those guys and call your local dungeon master.

The mess that is Government Motors

It's good to be the king -- until you start tripping over your own robe.

So King Barack the Mild is finding as he tries to dictate the terms of what amounts to an out-of-court bankruptcy for Chrysler and GM. He wants Chrysler's secured lenders to give up their right to nearly full recovery in a bankruptcy in return for 15 cents on the dollar. They'd be crazy to do so, of course, except that these banks also happen to be beholden to the administration for TARP money.

Wasn't TARP supposed to be about restoring a healthy banking system? Isn't that a tad inconsistent with banks just voluntarily relinquishing valuable claims on borrowers? Don't ask.

Kingly prerogative also conflicts with kingly prerogative in the case of GM's unsecured creditors, who are the sticking point in agreeing to a turnaround plan by the drop-dead date of June 1. His retainer, Steven Rattner, has delivered word that the king's pleasure is that these unsecured creditors give up 100% of their claims in return for GM stock.

It may also be the king's pleasure, he advised, to convert at some point the government's own $13 billion in bailout loans into GM stock.

There's just one problem: Why on earth would GM's creditors -- who include not just bondholders but the UAW's health-care trust -- want any part of this deal?

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Boy it seems like it would have been a better idea to have GM go through the normal bankruptcy proceeding billions of taxpayer dollars ago.

The US government..... making bad policy from horrible ideas since 1787.

Have a meeting - problem solved

The king of senatorial hearings, John Kerry (D-France), has decided that the newspaper business has been hurting enough so he wants to solve their problems.....by having some meetings.

Troubled by the possible shuttering of his hometown paper, Sen. John Kerry reached out to the Boston Globe on Tuesday, then called for Senate hearings to address the woes of the nation's print media.

"To the Boston Globe family," the Massachusetts Democrat wrote to employees of the 132-year-old publication, which faces closure unless it can come up with $20 million in union concessions to parent company the New York Times by May 1. The Globe is losing $1 million a week.

"America's newspapers are struggling to survive, and while there will be serious consequences in terms of the lives and financial security of the employees involved, including hundreds at the Globe, there will also be serious consequences for our democracy where diversity of opinion and strong debate are paramount," Mr. Kerry said.

Yeah, I'm still waiting on that diversity of opinion thingy.

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Bingo

After he sat listening to a 52-minute tirade about America the Fascist Imperialist tyranny, a droll Barack Obama told the media that the rant by Nicaragua’s Daniel C. Ortega “wasn’t about me.” No, it wasn’t. It was about America which evidently didn’t concern the narcissistic U. S. president since it involved John F. Kennedy, not he. And it did not occur to him to defend America since he himself wasn’t named: thus the narcissism. Also the lack of patriotism.

Criticism about Obama back here has centered on his spinelessness and unwillingness to defend his country from attack. Yes, that’s part of it. But a bigger part is the absolute obsession of this young man with himself-in contrast to concern about the country. This could be expected from one who has caused the press…guilty over charges of racism… to evade its own responsibility for checking facts on presidential candidates-notably the one that his late paternal grandmother made declaring she was present when he was born in what is now Kenya…also checking the recording supposedly of the grandmother making the admission which has been publicly available and about which two men have submitted affidavits attesting to its authenticity, which have not been answered by Team Obama.

Increasingly, Obama is becoming unmasked as a moral cipher as well as genealogical fraud although at this stage the major media have been too defensive to consider. All the while Obama’s insouciance at the Summit of the Americas at Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago has been the object of growing concern in this country.

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Who's enabling her?

Karen Ferguson is unable to leave her trailer home in northwest Tarrant County, Texas. The last thing she wanted is attention, but she is reaching out for help.

"I would never bring myself down to go on the news looking like this," Ferguson said. "I would wish it'd be for a cure or that I'm doing good or something. But not like this. It's hard on the family."

Ferguson estimates she weighs 700 pounds. She said it's because of her diabetes. Several years ago, at around 300 pounds, she had open heart surgery.

Ferguson needs people to help her get to a portable toilet, which is only two steps from her chair. Ferguson said she's been turned down by nursing homes who claim problems with Medicare. Now she fears she'll lie here, unable to move, her bed sores festering and her body deteriorating.

Now call me a cold hearted conservative SOB but I'd like to know who's feeding a 700 lb woman who can't get two steps to her toilet without help?

And I'm also going to guess that whoever is buying her food, isn't loading her up with the all you can eat broccoli buffet.

Maybe someone would actually be doing her a favor if they quit feeding her shit all day.

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But at least we'll all have coverage

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that they do not know how President Obama will come up with the $634 billion allocated in his 2010 budget to lay the foundation for health care reform that could lead the country towards a single-payer system.

Furthermore, Republicans and one Democrat said the “efficiencies” Obama wants to instill in the health care industry to apparently generate revenue to fund his plan, will lead to “rationing” of health care.

As I've said before, there's a big difference between health care treatment and health care coverage. Do you know the difference?

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Want Less Corruption? Shrink the Size of Government

This is an excellent illustration of a point I made two years ago.

I'm outsourcing my job

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

Now that's "progressive" leadership

So you are a "progressive" getting ready to make a run for mayor in "Progress" City.

What says more about your qualities as a leader than packing up and walking away from your mortgage.

From the great "progressive" city of Detroit, who hasn't had republican leadership since Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.....

It was their dream home, a two-story, four-bedroom colonial in one of Detroit's nicest and most stable neighborhoods.

But then, one day in December, City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife packed up their belongings, locked the doors, mailed in the keys and walked away - adding another vacant house to the thousands in a city hard hit by the nation's mortgage crisis.

"We're already underwater when it comes to what we're paying on the house versus what the house is worth," Kenyatta said.

So?

Now neither he nor his wife lost a job. Me makes $81,000 as a council member and his wife receives retirement income from a government pension and they couldn't swing a $2,600 a month mortgage payment?

I'm guessing that this bum is residing somewhere. My guess is also that his rent is probably not much less than what he's paying on his mortgage payment.

I'm sure if he called Chris Dodd, he'd be able to get a nice VIP mortgage referral over there at Countrywide.

But the best part of this article isn't this bum walking out on his responsibilities is this little diddy.....

In Detroit, the median sales price for a home is now a pathetic $5,800, down more than $66,000 from seven years ago. An estimated 16,000 foreclosed homes are on the market in the city of about 920,000 residents. Detroit also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, at around 20 percent.

What's so "progressive" about $5,800 house?

It's probably George Bush's fault.

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Mr. Williams delivers a smack down

Now most people, including our subspecies of liberal, can agree that a monopolistic business enterprise doesn't serve the public interest.

Then riddle me this Mr./Ms. Liberal, why do you support monopolistic public schools?

Juan Williams does the Obama ass beating........

The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students.

The reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not speak well of the promise by Obama to be the “Education President.”

This is critical to our nation’s future in terms of workforce preparation to compete in a global economy but also to fulfill the idea of racial equality by providing a real equal opportunity for all young people who are willing to work hard to succeed.

In a politically calculated dance step the Obama team first indicated that they wanted the Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue for students lucky enough to have won one of the vouchers. The five-year school voucher program is scheduled to expire after the school year ending in June 2010. Secretary Duncan said in early March that it didn’t make sense “to take kids out of a school where they’re happy and safe and satisfied and learning…those kids need to stay in their school.”

And all along the administration indicated that pending evidence that this voucher program or any other produces better test scores for students they were willing to fight for it. The president has said that when it comes to better schools he is open to supporting “what works for kids.” That looked like a level playing field on which to evaluate the program and even possibly expanding the program.

But last week Secretary Duncan announced that he will not allow any new students to enter the D.C. voucher program. In fact, he had to take back the government’s offer of scholarships to 200 students who had won a lottery to get into the program starting next year. His rationale is that if the program does not win new funding from Congress then those students might have to go back to public school in a year.

He does not want to give the students a chance for a year in a better school? That does not make sense if the students and their families want that life-line of hope. It does not make sense if there is a real chance that the program might win new funding as parents, educators and politicians rally to undo the “bigotry of low expectations” and open doors of opportunity — wherever they exist — for more low-income students.

Kind of funny that you won't find that criticism from a white guy on CNN or CBS or NBC or Washington post, or NY Times, etc.... You have to go to a black liberal on FOX NEWS to get it.

More here............

Criminals - A Liberal Production

Meet Thomas Joyce. Why is Mr. Joyce significant?

Mr. Joyce was involved in a car chase that left a Lockland cop in critical condition as of this morning.

A West Chester police car following the fleeing vehicle accidentally struck Gehring, said West Chester Police Capt. Brian Rebholz. The car was driven by Officer Kevin Burger, 29, a five-year veteran of the department.

The robbery suspect, Thomas Joyce, 32, of West Union, Ohio, was caught minutes later in Over-the-Rhine. He was charged with aggravated robbery, failure to comply with police and operating a vehicle while under the influence.

Joyce was held overnight without bond at the Butler County jail. He was arraigned this afternoon in Butler County Area III Court in West Chester.

The chase began on I-75 near Union Centre Boulevard in West Chester Township after police spotted a vehicle seen fleeing the scene of an armed robbery at 5:42 a.m. at the Walgreens drug store on Cincinnati-Dayton and Tylersville roads.

The robber jumped the pharmacy counter at the drug store and stole painkillers OxyContin and morphine, a pharmacist told a West Chester dispatcher in a 911 call.

So why is this clown a product of liberal policies? Because this guy's rap sheet is as long as Ted Kennedy's bar inventory.

Monday’s incident was the second time Joyce has been accused of robbing the same drug store.

He was arrested in December for allegedly robbing the West Chester Walgreens in November. In that case, Joyce was scheduled for either a plea deal on April 30 or for a trial to begin May 1.

West Chester police said today Joyce has been charged in the past with a third Walgreens robbery in West Chester Township. On Nov. 24, 2008, Joyce threatened employees at the Walgreens off Ohio 747 and stole more than 1,000 OxyContin pills valued at $9,57, a police report shows. He was not apprehended at the time but, the next day, he was taken into custody at his residence by the Adams County Sheriff's Office until West Chester police could pick him up and charge him with robbery. The resolution of that case was not immediately available.

Basically, because of liberal policies, this douche bag was walking around on the street when he should have been behind bars.

See, liberals would rather spend money on street cars no one will ride rather than spend money protecting the public against a derelict like Joyce.

So if you are one of the liberals who support these policies, what to you have to say to Officer Gehring and his family?

Your lack of humility would probably preclude you from apologizing for allowing this asshole on the streets. But, maybe the next time you're voting, you can think about whether your vote supports a cop like Gehring or a ding dong like Joyce.

It's really that simple.

He must be a right wing extremist

From the AP

A fugitive animal rights activist charged with bombing two California offices has become the first domestic terrorist named to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terror suspects.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

It's a good thing Janet Napolitano (D-Illegal Immigrants) is making sure that this clown has been profiled as the right wing extremist he is.

I'm guessing he's one of those former military, anti abortion, anti government types.

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Owen and Payne- Heard on The Street

Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

In the sixty plus years of television, has Burger King ever done a spot that would make you want to actually buy their product?

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Life in a "Progressive" country

This is a satellite photo of Korea, North and South (Thanks to reader Mark.).

I've seen this before but always wondered if it's been photoshopped.

However, since I did a post last week on how Detroit doesn't replace burned out street lights.... I'm thinking this is probably accurate.

What's so "progressive" about living in darkness?

Dirty tricks

This is a hard one to follow but it appears that Rahmbo leaked top secret intelligence information to discredit Jane Harman, a democratic congress person, to weaken her support of Israel....

From The American Thinker......

Congressional Quarterly just reported a highly secret National Security Agency wiretap report on Rep. Jane Harman.

Wait.

Before we get to the content of the wiretap, all you ACLU types should be hitting the ceiling in rage. Because NSA wiretaps are the most carefully protected, super-secret operations carried on by the Federal government. Even during the Bush Administration, when the CIA carried on an unconcealed war on the Bush policy in the War on Terror through selective and politically damaging leaks to the New York Times, no wiretap recordings were released. Wiretaps of Members of Congress are even more sensitive, especially prominent Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.

Keep that in mind as we go on.

The news report quotes three or four sources (it's hard to tell). But the release of an NSA wiretap transcript, in the absence of a court order or public court proceeding, is unprecedented.

So this leak has to come from the top. If these sources are to avoid prosecution and/or loss of their jobs, they must have been assured that the Obama administration explicitly authorized it, and that Attorney General Holder would not prosecute. NSA presumably will not even complain about this leak of its top national security means, content and procedures. Without that top-level assurance, everybody involved in this report has to fear an instant subpoena from the Justice Department and from the House Intelligence Committee.

The report maintains that Rep. Jane Harman talked by phone with a person identified as an "Israeli intelligence agent," and promised to intervene with Nancy Pelosi on behalf of two people arrested in connection with an alleged collaboration between USG personnel and a Israeli government representative. That case is currently being in court.

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

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Demorcatic corruption du jour

Today's flavor is Dianne Feinstein...........

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.

Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.

Documents reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) - the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman - had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.

About the same time of the contract award, Mr. Blum's private investment firm reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it and related affiliates had purchased more than 10 million new shares in CBRE. The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE's stock closed Monday at $5.14.

Do you think there's a reporter from the NY Times on this. Or do they still have all those cub reporters checking out Sarah Palin's Victoria Secret receipts?

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Budget cuts

Dr. John Lewis Charlotte, NC Tea Party

Link:

The cost of ignorance

I've been of the belief for some time that Government backed student loans are nothing more than an enabler and transfer payment to the Bill Ayers' of the world.

If you ever wanted to get education costs under control, you'd get rid of financial aid of all types.

But Gordon, without financial aid, students couldn't afford college.

Really? Consider this. In those old fashion days before grants and loans, a student could actually work a part time job to pay for school.

Now, with annual rate increases of 8 percent or more (more than double the CPI) a student doesn't stand a chance of going to school without piling on tons of debt.

He's a quote from a current grad.

“You often hear the quote that you can’t put a price on ignorance,” said Ezra Kazee, who has $29,000 in student debt and has been unable to find a job since graduating from Winona State University in Minnesota last May. “But with the way higher education is going, ignorance is looking more and more affordable every day.”

If we zap these institutions of unaccountable government dollars, they'd actually have to tighten a belt or two, or three....

More at the NY Times

Mankiw on the Obama cuts

This is pretty funny, although the humor is non intentional.....

Fiscal Responsibility

The Washington Post reports:

President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official....Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed Obama's $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010, which includes unprecedented new investments in health care, education and energy. But the huge budget, which contemplates a $1.2 trillion deficit, has drawn the ire of small-government conservatives, who say that such high deficits jeopardize the nation's economic future.

Just to be clear: $100 million represents .003 percent of $3.5 trillion.

To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had be cut? By $3 over the course of the year--approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.

Check out his blog here.......

Open Veins

WTH... so an American President accepts a gift from a well-known slimeball, Hugo Chavez, that rips the West a new a-hole and blames U.S. "economic exploitation and political dominance over the region" for it's problems? Is this a late April Fool's joke or is Obama just an idiot? This is what goes down when kids run the country. BO's probably reading it right now as he touches himself.

A book by an Uruguayan journalist that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave to President Barack Obama is now the No. 5 seller on Amazon.com.

It's an astounding jump for "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," by Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano.

The paperback edition was ranked 54,295 on the online retailer before Chavez gave Obama a Spanish-language edition of the 1971 book on Saturday. It had jumped to No. 5 by Sunday.

The English hardcover edition is listed as out of print.

Galeano's book documents how foreign interests have dominated and afflicted Latin America since the Spanish conquest. It's a favorite among leftists.

Math Lesson

Ramirez

Al Frankenstein

This has been a farce from the beginning...

From the Wall Street Journal:

Meanwhile, back in the Minnesota Senate recount, the three-judge panel reviewing the race has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner. Republican Norm Coleman intends to appeal to the state's Supreme Court, while Democrats and the press corps pressure him to surrender. We hope Mr. Coleman keeps fighting, because the outcome so far hangs on the fact that some votes have been counted differently from others.

Even after the recount and panel-findings, the 312-vote margin separating the two men equals about .01% of the 2.9 million votes cast. Even without any irregularities, this is as close to a "tie" as it gets. And there have been plenty of irregularities. By the end of the recount, the state was awash with evidence of duplicate ballot counting, newly discovered ballots, missing ballots, illegal voting, and wildly diverse standards as to which votes were counted. Any one of these issues was enough to throw the outcome into doubt. Combined, they created a taint more worthy of New Jersey than Minnesota.

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