Make your travel plans now

Looking to get to that tropical paradise but you don't have the cash to make that flight to Bermuda or the Caribbean?

Here's an idea. Go out and try and kill some innocent US citizens and the Obamunists will take care of all the travel arrangements.........

Bermuda and Palau may not be the only beautiful tropical islands to host illegal Islamist combatants being released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. If a Hawaii County Councilman and a Kauai County activist get their way, some would get a new home—and complete freedom--on two of Hawaii’s most beautiful islands.

Thanks to reader Jeremy for the tip

More here........

Life in "Progress" City

From the "progressive" city of Detroit, who hasn't had a republican run the city since Hitler was an aspiring artist.....

City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company.

Conyers, a fiery 44-year-old first-term council member, admitted in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery, responding quietly to questions from Judge Avern Cohn.

She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she's sentenced.

A coincidence that Conyers stopped his investigation of ACORN right at the exact same time his wife made her plea deal?

The real question though is this; when dear Monica gets out of the slam will she be reelected?

Thanks to reader Becky for the tip.

More.....

Sure why not

Ahmadinejad Demands Apology From Obama


Hey, he's apologized for everyone else for everything else, how about apologizing for something he's done for a change........

A libertarian dilemma

As a libertarian, I have no problem with casinos in the state of Ohio. As far as I'm concerned anyone who wants to waste their money on gambling; go for it. After all, I waste more than enough money on beer.

However, each and every casino initiative we get in this state is nothing more than a real estate cartel masked in a gambling statute.

And here we have another one coming down the pike; making it number 6 or 7........

Supporters of an initiative to bring casino gambling to Ohio want to take their case to the voters.

Petitions will be filed Friday asking that the Ohio Jobs and Growth Plan be placed on the November ballot.

The plan is a proposal for an amendment to the Ohio constitution that would allow casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

They argue that casino gambling has the potential to bring up to 20,000 jobs to the state, as well as more than half a billion dollars in tax revenue.

Now here's my beef with these deals.

Why can't Lorain, Canton, Akron, Youngstown, Marietta, my home town of Lancaster, Springfield, Dayton, Athens, Portsmouth, etc. have a casino?

Why is it OK for these other cities to suck revenue from outlying communities for benefit of the four "chosen" cities? Why can't Nelsonville Ohio have a shot at building a casino if it deems that they could use the jobs.

And how about the states race tracks where authorized gamblig activity is already zoned and taking place? Why can't Beulah Park, Scioto Downs, River Down, Thistledown et al have gambling in their establishments?

Instead, what we get is a half ass attempt to line the pockets of some rich guys who own the land these casinos are allowed to inhabit. Of course, no one in the rest of the states want to support these bills because they get no benefit out of them.

When will anyone in the state legislature take the initiative and write this law the way it should? After all, isn't that their job?

More.....

Did he get his health care?

From yesterday's Enquirer.........

Two Cincinnati men were arrested in a hotel room early today and charged with the shooting Monday of a 22-year-old man at a Lockland business.

A fugitive task force and Lockland police took Fonta Whipple, 26, and Jashawn Clark, 25, into custody about 12:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn, 600 W. 3rd St., Covington police said. The men were located in a room with two other people.

Whipple was charged with felonious assault and is accused of being the gunman who pumped 10-15 bullets into Derryan Holland of Lincoln Heights just before 2 p.m. Monday at Bad Boyz Car Wash and Detailing on North Wayne Avenue, Lockland police said.

snip

The victim suffered life-threatening injuries and remained at University Hospital Wednesday.

So here's my question.

When the Emergency Squad took Mr. Holland to University Hospital did the hospital ask him for his insurance card before they pulled the 10 - 15 bullets from his body?

Is it actually possible he's sitting in a hospital room with no coverage?

How is that possible?

Ha ha Ha Ha ha

This was so funny I spit my diet Dew all over my keyboard when I read this headline.

Congress Must Pay for What It Spends

Democrats won't be the party of deficits.

Read the hilarity here

Is it real or is it The Onion?

Congressman Offers Preemptive Apology For Extramarital Affair

Morons, idiots and liars aka Democrats

Remember a few weeks ago when Barney Frank dressed down a questioner who challenged his role in the housing debacle?

Well, how is it that no one in the mainstream media has the balls to challenge this.....

Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "roll the dice" in the name of affordable housing. That didn't turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is returning to the scene of the calamity -- with your money. He and New York Representative Anthony Weiner have sent a letter to the heads of Fannie and Freddie exhorting them to lower lending standards for condo buyers.

You read that right. After two years of telling us how lax lending standards drove up the market and led to loans that should never have been made, Mr. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to take more risk in condo developments with high percentages of unsold units, high delinquency rates or high concentrations of ownership within the development.

Fannie and Freddie have restricted loans to condo buyers in these situations because they represent a red flag that the developments -- many of which were planned and built at the height of the housing bubble -- may face financial trouble down the road. But never mind all that. Messrs. Frank and Weiner think, in all their wisdom and years of experience underwriting mortgages, that the new rules "may be too onerous."

More.....

Socialism 101.... ask California

From reader Bernie

Congressman Tim Bishop Encounters Angry Citizens at Townhall Meeting

Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

Another politician admits to spooning with a skank. Here's my question. I can barely manage the one relationship I have with the lovely Mrs. Gekko. Where do these guys find the time, money, and energy to juggle multiple relationships? Maybe I should give these guys some of my yard work......

.

The National Debt Road Trip

HT Porkopolis

Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

Obama says that under his plan you'll be able to keep your doctor. But, under his plan, will your doctor want to keep you?

.

The science is settled

The American Thinker has a piece abut the perils of implementing a public policy based on bad science.

Here's a time line they've put together on "the science" of global warming....

Read the piece here......

Tapper calls Him out

Jake Tapper, outside of Major Garrett, the only DC press member who doesn't pack a set of knee pads as part of his job description.

Deja Vu all over again

So if we're going to shore up the housing market, what we need to do is relax lending standards; right? Despite the fact that is what aided our current economic straights.

If you're Barney Frank, the rainbow dinosaur, that's the answer...........

Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "roll the dice" in the name of affordable housing. That didn't turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is returning to the scene of the calamity -- with your money. He and New York Representative Anthony Weiner have sent a letter to the heads of Fannie and Freddie exhorting them to lower lending standards for condo buyers.

You read that right. After two years of telling us how lax lending standards drove up the market and led to loans that should never have been made, Mr. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to take more risk in condo developments with high percentages of unsold units, high delinquency rates or high concentrations of ownership within the development.

Once again, I ask the question; are liberals mentally ill or dolts?

More.......

Life in "Progress" City

From the city of San Francisco, who hasn't seen a republican since man invented time......

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' office on Monday defended allowing about a half dozen first-time drug offenders to clear their records by going through a job-training program, even after prosecutors learned they were deportable as undocumented immigrants.

But Harris' aides said they have since made changes in the program that would prevent a recurrence of instances in which illegal immigrants got their criminal records cleared by going through the Back on Track jobs program, which trains offenders for jobs that undocumented immigrants legally would be prevented from holding.

The Los Angeles Times first reported Monday that illegal immigrants had been enrolled in the program and that Harris' office had let several graduate and go free even after learning of their status.

What's so "progressive" about giving benefits to illegals over Americans?

More......

Thanks to reader Jeremy for the tip. How he lives out there, I'll never know.

Mr. Polite

at Hope n' Change Cartoons:


HT Doug Ross

Major Garrett - What took so long?

The only reporter who dares question The One.

Surprise, surprise, surprise

In, what should be a surprise to no one, the three major networks evening news ratings are hitting all time lows.....

TVNewser has learned the CBS Evening News has once again set an all-time low last week with 4.89 million Total Viewers and 1.42 million A25-54 viewers. But it was also the lowest (since records began in the 1991-'92 season) for ABC's World News with Charles Gibson. The Gibson program drew 6.42 million Total Viewers and 1.77 million A25-54 viewers.

Here's an idea for CBS, NBC, and ABC.

If you intend to just do Obamamercials, go hire Billy Mays and/or the Shamwow guy; they're a lot more entertaining.

Read the rest......

Yep

No one can put this any better....

He places personal and party ideologies over what is best for America. I thought when appointing justices, it was supposed to be "the best person for the job" and "justice is blind." Affirmative-action policies and "empathy" aren't part of the requirements for appointment.

He fits the definition of being a narcissist perfectly. This makes him extremely dangerous for the country. He only cares about what is best for him, not the country.

He is ashamed of our country (as was his wife until Barack won his party's nomination) even though it has given him immense amounts of opportunity. He constantly feels the need to apologize for our country's history of perceived repressiveness.

Sorry, Barack, we are the greatest country in the history of the world. No country has done more for other countries where there has been suppression of human rights, and Americans are unmatched in raising money and supplies for others when natural disasters hit.

You have been hanging around the Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers too long.

You have been going around (the Muslim world in particular), speaking of "the promise of a secular nation." How much more arrogant and ignorant can you be?

Even though you think highly of your rhetorical skills, you are not going to change the fact that a vast majority of Americans believe in God.

Why do you keep implying to other countries that our country was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles?

Your history of duplicity is unmatched. This was illustrated numerous times throughout the campaign. You carry it forward into your presidency.

You incur the largest-ever budget deficit and then insist that we operate on a pay-as-you-go principle from now on. Of course, shortly thereafter, you exempt your government-run health program costs from this rule. You are great with smoke and mirrors, Barack. You are the ultimate flim-flam man.

You are a corrupt man. You appoint tax cheats and disreputable people to positions of power. You promise no lobbyists in your administration, yet no other administration had close to the number you now have.

You fire people who uncover very serious issues of impropriety by organizations run by individuals who are close friends of yours. You had your Justice Department cancel a criminal suit against goons, representing your friends ACORN and the Black Panthers, involving voter intimidation tactics at election polls.

read the rest.......

Life in "Progress" City

From the city of New York, where the public schools haven't seen a republican since Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery..........

Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.

Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.

The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.

"You just basically sit there for eight hours," said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. "I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.' `I've been sitting here for six months.' That sort of thing."

What's so "progressive" about educators not in class?

Read the rest.........

Finally...... Democrats who get it

From the state of Maine, who just reduced their top marginal rates to make their state income tax more flat....

This month the Democratic legislature and Governor John Baldacci broke with Obamanomics and enacted a sweeping tax reform that is almost, but not quite, a flat tax. The new law junks the state's graduated income tax structure with a top rate of 8.5% and replaces it with a simple 6.5% flat rate tax on almost everyone. Those with earnings above $250,000 will pay a surtax rate of 0.35%, for a 6.85% rate. Maine's tax rate will fall to 20th from seventh highest among the states. To offset the lower rates and a larger family deduction, the plan cuts the state budget by some $300 million to $5.8 billion, closes tax loopholes and expands the 5% state sales tax to services that have been exempt, such as ski lift tickets.

This is a big income tax cut, especially given that so many other states in the Northeast and East -- Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York -- have been increasing rates. "We're definitely going against the grain here," Mr. Baldacci tells us. "We hope these lower tax rates will encourage and reward work, and that the lower capital gains tax [of 6.85%] brings more investment into the state."

These changes alone are hardly going to earn the Pine Tree State the reputation of "pro-business." Neighboring New Hampshire still has no income or sales tax. And last year Maine was ranked as having the third worst business climate for states by the Small Business Survival Committee. Still, no state has improved its economic attractiveness more than Maine has this year.

One question is how Democrats in Augusta were able to withstand the cries by interest groups of "tax cuts for the rich?" Mr. Baldacci's snappy reply: "Without employers, you don't have employees." He adds: "The best social services program is a job." Wise and timely advice for both Democrats and Republicans as the recession rolls on and budgets get squeezed.

Do you think the thought has ever crossed Governor Ted's mind?

More.....

The "progressive" Utopia of California

They called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
While the town got high


From the Golden State..............

California has exerted a weird, hypnotic pull lately, as Americans have watched the Golden State roll toward what might just be financial Armageddon. The state government is facing a $24 billion deficit, but Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento are showing very little ability to get the problem solved.

As a result, California is “less than 50 days away from a meltdown of state government,” the state controller said last week.

It’s hard to know whether to stare in horror or avert your eyes.

Our advice: Stare. Because in California’s example, there are lessons for Minnesotans and North Dakotans to learn.

One such lesson has to do with public-employee pensions and a state’s fiscal health. California faces unfunded public employee retirement benefits of somewhere between $300 billion and $1 trillion, a panel discussion at the Milken Institute’s State of the State Conference concluded in May.

Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, Calif., and a popular writer on public policy, agrees. “The item that is most killing the state budget is the huge pensions for public employees,” he said in a recent CNBC interview.

“We have to figure out what we’re spending, how we’re spending, and to begin to make the public employees live by something close to the rules that the rest of society does.”

Basically, California governments let many workers retire early and collect generous pension and benefits for life. In Vallejo, Calif., for example, “base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 per year, and employees can retire at age 50 with a pension equal to 90 percent of their salary,” Governing magazine reported last year.

Vallejo declared bankruptcy in 2008, citing pension benefits it no longer could afford.

More..

The Law of Unintended Consequences

How have attempts to encourage home ownership in this country worked out?

In December, the New York Times published a 5,100-word article charging that the Bush administration’s housing policies had “stoked” the foreclosure crisis—and thus the financial meltdown. By pushing for lax lending standards, encouraging government enterprises to make mortgages more available, and leaning on private lenders to come up with innovative ways to lend to ever more Americans—using “the mighty muscle of the federal government,” as the president himself put it—Bush had lured millions of people into bad mortgages that they ultimately couldn’t afford, the Times said.

Yet almost everything that the Times accused the Bush administration of doing has been pursued many times by earlier administrations, both Democratic and Republican—and often with calamitous results. The Times’s analysis exemplified our collective amnesia about Washington’s repeated attempts to expand homeownership and the disasters they’ve caused. The ideal of homeownership has become so sacrosanct, it seems, that we never learn from these disasters. Instead, we clean them up and then—as if under some strange compulsion—set in motion the mechanisms of the next housing catastrophe.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing once again. As Washington grapples with the current mortgage crisis, advocates from both parties are already warning the feds not to relax their commitment to expanding homeownership—even if that means reviving the very kinds of programs and institutions that got us into trouble. Not even the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression can cure us of our obsessive housing disorder.

More.........

CNBC's Jim Cramer: "Everybody Wishes Obama Would Just Kind Of Go Away"

HT Bizzyblog

Life in "Progress" City

Here's a list of the US's twenty five worst crime ridden neighborhoods in the country.

Congratulations to the 'Nati. They pulled in a big ole number one down in an area straddling Over the Rhine and the West End; or the area these passenger rail freaks want a trolley to roll.

Fact, If you live in that neighborhood, you have a 1 in 4 chance of being a crime victim in the next year.

Not to be left out, a Cleveland neighborhood at Cedar and 55th street made the list at #21.

Just out of curiosity, in these twenty five neighborhoods, I wonder how the vote demographic broke down between McCain and Obama.

That "Progressive" Utopia

They called it paradise
I don't know why
You call some place Paradise
Kiss it goodbye.............

From the liberal Utopia aka California..........

Call it the Dance of Death, the Kabuki or the Summer Follies -- the performance they're about to give in California's Capitol is a necessary ritual. But it shouldn't be taken very seriously by the outside world.

Both houses of the Legislature intend to debate the Democrats' deficit-reduction proposal this week. They're the majority party, but their budget plan has no chance of passing intact. It's doomed by nearly $2.2 billion in additional tax increases, mostly on oil companies and smokers but also on motorists.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators have the power through the veto and the required two-thirds majority vote to kill any tax hike, and they'll execute with relish.

Democrats expect to lose but will perform the dance anyway. It's a compulsion, an exercise to reaffirm self-identity and exhibit values to patrons and constituents, such as labor unions. Participants get to preach and shout.

"Everybody dances around the fire. They throw stuff at us. We throw stuff at them. Everybody falls over dead, and we start all over again" is how a senior legislative staffer, Phil Perry, once described the dance to me.

Schwarzenegger calls it "part of the Kabuki." But Kabuki is classic Japanese song-and-dance drama. These legislative act-outs give "classic" a bad name and hold zero drama. Observers will, however, hear some political song and dance.

Around the Capitol, such an exercise is derided as a "drill." The goal of Democratic drill leaders will be to show the party troops that they're fighting hard, even in the face of certain defeat preordained by last month's election.

Exactly how do "progressives" look at California and still believe that their policies are effective. Are you insane or an imbecile?

More.....

Currency issues run amok

Here's a long and involved piece about the condition of our currency.

Border guards in Chiasso see plenty of smugglers and plenty of false-bottomed suitcases, but no one in the town, which straddles the Italian-Swiss frontier, had ever seen anything like this. Trussed up in front of the police in the train station were two Japanese men, and beside them a suitcase with a booty unlike any other. Concealed at the bottom of the bag were some rather incredible sheets of paper. The documents were apparently dollar-denominated US government bonds with a face value of a staggering $134bn (£81bn).

How on earth did these two men, who at first refused to identify themselves, come to be there, trying to ride the train into Switzerland carrying bonds worth more than the gross domestic product of Singapore? If the bonds were genuine, the pair would have been America's fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the UK and just behind Russia. No sooner had the story leaked out from the Italian lakes region last week than it sparked a panoply of conspiracy tales. But one resounded more than any other: that the men were agents of the Japanese finance ministry, in the country for the G8 meeting, making a surreptitious journey into Switzerland to sell off one small chunk of the massive mountain of US bonds stacked up in the Japanese Treasury vaults.

In the event, late last week American officials confirmed that the notes were forgeries. The men, it appeared, were nothing more than ambitious scamsters. But many remain unconvinced. And whether fake or otherwise, the story underlines one important point about the world economy at the moment: that the tension and paranoia surrounding the fate of the US dollar has hit a new high. It went to the heart of the big question: will the central bankers in Japan, China and elsewhere continue to support the greenback even in the wake of the worst financial crisis in modern history, or will they abandon it as America's economic hegemony dissipates?

Heck, and we still have three plus years of the Obamunist rule to go.

More...

Remember?

Reader Tim with the heads up.......

In September 2005, I was sitting in a window seat on a commercial flight from Madrid to Philadelphia. It was mid-afternoon on a Tuesday. The plane was above the clouds in the sunshine, halfway across the Atlantic.

I was returning from a long trip in Europe. It was typically frenetic--six countries in five days, visit after visit with politicians and businessmen, diplomats and soldiers. I was tired, but marveling at what a great job I had. It's like being the chief legal officer of a medium size country. Any conceivable legal issue conjured up by the Department's more than ten thousand military and civilian lawyers could end up in my lap. I remember my head buzzing with those possibilities as I began to doze.

And then it hit me with a jolt. I knew this flight. It was the same flight that we had tracked four years earlier on September 11, 2001.

You know the story: Nineteen hijackers on four planes murdered almost three thousand innocent people in an atrocity unlike any in American history. What you may not remember as well is that on that day the Department of Defense tracked two suspicious international flights--one over the Pacific, and this one over the Atlantic--suspecting they, too, were hijacked and heading towards an American skyline. And we steeled and readied ourselves to shoot them down.

Read the rest

Welcome to the NFL

As long as it's not Bush, I guess the presidency is a cakewalk..........

There was one small consolation for Republicans amid last November’s shellacking. For at least four years, their opponents would enjoy the dubious pleasure of trying to govern the United States of America. Late on election night, while the confetti swirled in Blue America, more than a few veterans of the Bush years no doubt hoisted a toast to the exuberant liberals: Good luck with that

Oh, it seems easy at first. The press is kind; the Congress is pliant; the country loves you. You’re a breath of fresh air after the previous administration’s excesses. Your first attempts at big-ticket legislation shoulder their way into law. The opposition party looks easily divided, easily co-opted and deeply out of touch.

But eventually the hard part arrives. For Barack Obama, it may have started last week, courtesy of the abacus-wielding wonks at the Congressional Budget Office.

First, the C.B.O. slapped a $1 trillion price tag on Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy’s version of health care reform — a figure, it noted, that would buy coverage for only a third of America’s uninsured. A day later, the C.B.O. priced the Senate Finance Committee’s more self-consciously centrist draft of health care legislation. The good news: The bill would cover more than two-thirds of the uninsured. The bad news: It would cost $1.6 trillion across 10 years.

These are scary numbers, for a country headed for a fiscal cliff — scary enough to send the Finance Committee scrambling to craft a cheaper version of its bill, and scary enough to give liberals flashbacks to the collapse of Clintoncare.

But they aren’t actually surprising numbers. The current U.S. health care system is, by general agreement, overpriced, bloated and hugely inefficient. And if you expand a bloated, inefficient system, it stands to reason that you’ll end up with billions or even trillions more in bloat and inefficiency.

More....

Father's Day

Happy belated Father's Day. I was out visiting my dad yesterday and didn't get a chance to post.

Let me start by saying that I believe that fathers are the largest missing natural resource to our society.

My dad was far from perfect, as few are. But when I think of what my life would have been like without a father living in my home, it's not pretty.

I seriously doubt there would have been a high school graduation in my future; let alone a college one. Given the neighborhood and friends that I maintained, I'm certain the penal system would have become all to familiar.

If my father had used his father as a role model, I wouldn't have even known him at all.

The fact is, for a guy who never graduated from high school and never knew his own father, he somehow managed to raise five kids who have all become productive citizens.

I think that makes for a good dad.

Four more year of Bush

The Imperial Obama presidency.........

President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush, as administration attorneys repeatedly adopt the executive-authority and national-security rationales that their Republican predecessors preferred.

In courtroom battles and freedom-of-information fights from Washington, D.C., to California, Obama's legal arguments repeatedly mirror Bush's: White House turf is to be protected, secrets must be retained and dire warnings are wielded as weapons.

"It's putting up a veritable wall around the White House, and it's so at odds with Obama's campaign commitment to more open government," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a legal watchdog group.

More....

Man Cave complete

One of the projects happening in the Gekko household is the completion of my "man cave"; the place in the house where 1) nothing has to match 2) all my sports gear, beer can collection and CD's can go 3) A Brian Urlacher Fat Head adorns the wall 4)No Lifetime, Oxygen, Bravo, or Logo will be viewed on my 2000 inch high def TV and 5) I can leave my laptop on the coffee table without scorn from the lovely Mrs. Gekko.

We just got the HD installed and the leather couch delivered this morning.

Trust me, if you're a man, you're jealous.

I'll be in my basement for the next 72 hours. Have a great weekend.

Public Service Announcement

Former President, BJ Clinton, will be in town this weekend in celebration of Civil Rights Weekend.

Please keep your daughters, wives, and girl friends outside of the I-275 beltway for their protection.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Pocket Obama (Kevin Johnson) Nasty Personal Attack against Inspector General That Obama Fired

protection

A message from the President to the Iranians

Iowahawk with the transcript......

Greetings. As president of United States -- or, if you prefer, the Great Satan -- I have have been following with keen interest the vigorous post-election debate and vibrant political dialogue which has been taking place in your great and noble Islamic Republic of Iran over recent days. It has been both educational and fascinating, and as a sports fan I have thrilled to the pageantry, the suspense, and the fast-paced, hard-hitting action. I have to say It's been as exciting as a double overtime game seven NBA final between the Lakers and Celtics! Like millions of others around the world, I can't wait for the exciting conclusion of your distracting nail-biter so I can finally focus on my big health care project at the office. (Now that's what I call a real crisis!) But no matter who prevails in your hard-fought contest, you can rest assured that I will be out there in the stands watching, and ready to congratulate the team who brings home Tehran's coveted Golden Centrifuge Cup.

Now, I know that our two nations have had our differences in the past, and so it would be totally understandable if some of you were possibly upset my previous statements expressing "troubled concern" and "measured consternation" over your current situation. Please, do not interpret those statements as somehow taking one side or the other. I was not trying to be provocative or inflammatory, and far be it from me to interfere or play favorites. As we say over here in the Great Satan, "I don't have a dog in this fight," and so I was merely "calling 'em like I see 'em." Frankly, if America is going to regain respect as a geopolitical superpower, we need to make the tough call to sit quietly on the sidelines. That's why I have instructed my diplomatic team remain strictly neutral and to "let 'em play." With time and patience, I hope you will come to think of us as a bigger, flatter version of Switzerland. With less yodeling.

Read the rest here

Life in "Progress" City

From Chicago, The Windy City, who hasn't had a republican run the city since man split from monkey on the evolution tree..........

A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School. More than half of the kids didn't even pass the eighth grade. As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports there is fierce debate about who's to blame.

It is a debate that has gone on for years in poor communities: do you blame the schools for the students' poor performance or do you blame their parents?

You probably remember the old days when eighth grade was the toughest grade to finish with the whole being able to read and all.........

More......

Go Green, Build Nukes

Last summer, with gasoline over $4 a gallon, the leading criticism of off shore drilling was that it would take 10 years to get the first barrel of oil out of the ground.

Now. We're one year into that 10 years. How close are we to having a reliable alternative to oil and coal.

Well, we have one. It's called nuclear. And it looks like Duke Energy wants to build a nuke plant in Piketon Ohio.

An announcement by Duke Energy and state and federal officials about plans for Ohio’s first nuclear power plant in more than 20 years is expected Thursday morning at the federal government’s uranium enrichment facility in Piketon in Pike County, according to reports.

Gov. Ted Strickland, Senator George Voinovich and Rep. Jean Schmidt along with executives from several energy companies are expected to participate in an announcement about a “new clean energy partnership” at the Piketon facility, according to an advisory from USEC Inc., which operates the Piketon facility and is building a uranium enrichment facility there.

So it looks like we have lefties in the fold on this. But will the greens get in the way of using the best and greenest technology, available to date, so that in ten years we can have that power on line?

My guess is that they will continue their Quixotic pursuit of wind mills.

I'll keep the clock running. My guess is that in ten years, nukes will still be the best power source available.

More....

Choice

If you need to lose a few pounds and are looking for an appetite suppressant, read this series in the NY Time magazine (part 1, part 2 and part 3) before lunch. Trust me, you won't want to eat after that.

It's a series surrounding a college educated woman making her "choice".

Here's the money quote from the series.........

Once I came to the decision to terminate the pregnancy, so much of the guilt and sadness I’d been feeling melted away. I felt happy for the first time since finding out and I feel like my family is supportive of my decision. I’m focusing on the child I’ll have in a few years from now with someone I feel safe with and supported by. The life of that child will be infinitely better than this one and, sometimes, I wonder if such a miserable, lonely woman could even have a healthy child. There’s more to being a good birth mother than avoiding alcohol and eating right and I just don’t know if I have it. I’m a responsible girl but maybe that means knowing when you’ve put too much on yourself and it won’t work out.

Right......

It's so sweet that she's sacrificing so much for the child that she may never have over the one she's currently carrying.

Maybe she can tell that second child how noble she was when she killed the first one.

I'm just glad my mother didn't enact her "choice" when she had far less going for her than this ding dong does.

Where are all the English?

I had an interesting conversation with my sax instructor after he returned from a trip to his home country, England; where he hadn't been in a number of years.

He told me that during a tour of London his wife said "where are the English?" to which he said "They're all in America".

Why cheating matters

I couldn't care less who people sleep with. Yet, when it comes to politicians, it matters.

Why?

Because it makes you a target for black mail or extortion.

Case in point, John Ensign, Nevada senator.

Political insiders in Nevada and in the Senate said that Ensign decided to acknowledge the affair publicly after the husband of the woman he had been seeing asked him for a substantial sum of money.

Now what if Ensign wasn't so willing to come forward and his blackmailer wasn't looking for money but government secrets and/or cover.

You never need to worry about what people tell you; it's the stuff they won't you need to worry about.

Read the rest at Politico

What's a human life worth?

About 30 days in the can, if you're an NFL football player. Or about 1/16 of the time Michael Vick served for dog fighting.

Article here

Would you like some borcht with your government?

I guess it stands to reason that a country who's vodka consumption is increasing, should have more czars in the government.

Obama now has 28. Will they get Fabrage eggs based on their years of service?

Herb Allison-TARP Czar

Alan Bersin-Border Czar

Dennis Blair-Intelligence Czar

John Brennan-Terrorism Czar

Carol Browner-Energy Czar

Adolfo Carrion, Jr-Urban Affairs Czar

Ashton Carter-Weapons Czar

Aneesh Chopra-Technology Czar

Jeffrey Crowley-AIDS Czar

Cameron Davis-Great Lakes Czar

Nancy-Ann DeParle-Health Czar

Earl Devaney-Stimulus Accountability Czar

Joshua DuBois-Faith-based Czar

Kenneth Feinberg-Pay Czar

Danny Fried-Guantanamo Closure Czar

J. Scott Gration-Sudan Czar

Richard Holbrooke-Afghanistan Czar

John Holdren-Science Czar

Van Jones Green-Jobs Czar

Gil Kerlikowske-Drug Czar

Vivek Kundra-Information Czar

George Mitchell-Mideast Peace Czar

Ed Montgomery-Car Czar

Dennis Ross-Mideast Policy Czar

Gary Samore-WMD Czar

Todd Stern-Climate Czar

Cass Sunstein-Regulatory Czar

Paul Volcker-Economic Czar

more here

What happened to decorum?

I went to the Warren County Sheriff's office today to get my concealed carry permit.

The office is next to the Common Pleas Courtroom.

While I was waiting for my appointment, I was absolutely amazed at the number of people entering that courtroom in shorts, flip flops, t-shirts, visible tattoos, etc... I saw not one person wearing a collared shirt, tie, let alone a suit.

Now riddle me this Batman. You're going to court where a jury and/or judge is about to make a big decision on your future. Do you think it might help your cause to wear something that might communicate some respect for the process?

Enough Letterman

I'm old enough to remember watching David Letterman when he had an afternoon show.

I always thought the show was funny with Larry "Bud" Mellman, The guy under the stage, Mrs. Marv, My dog Bob. It was a throwback to the Paul Dixon days (again for those of you old enough to remember him).

I don't watch Letterman at all anymore. First, I'm rarely up that late. Second, Jimmy Kimmel's show is actually funny. Third, Letterman has gone from emulating the Paul Dixon's of talk shows to the Smothers Brothers and Dick Cavett (again , I'm showing my age) genres.

I did happen to catch the Letterman slam on Palin. The thing that amazed me most was how many people wrote and commented on that joke before Letterman actually let it rip on his show. Letterman can qualify his remarks with some lame apologies but the remark says a lot more about him than Palin.

With that said, conservatives looking to have him fired sound like babies. In my mind, we have the obligation to call him out as an idiot and then not watch him anymore.

Trust me, if David Letterman has no audience, he'll go away and his lazy attempts at ripping a teenager, not in the national debate, will as well.

Who would he vote for? #4190

Meet Salahidin Abdulahat. Why is Mr. Abdulahat in the news?

Four Chinese Muslim Uighurs are adapting swimmingly to their new lives in Bermuda after leaving the Guantanamo Bay prison -- taking a dip in the ocean in the island paradise they now call home.

One ex-detainee, Salahidin Abdulahat, took his first-ever swim in the ocean and called it the happiest day of his life.

The men are settling into island life as they continue to explore the carefully manicured island's ice-cream shops and fishing spots while they plan for the future.

So these terrorists go from Gitmo to life in Bermuda.

Mr. President, have you ever heard of my plot to blow up an embassy somewhere? the Gekko's are looking for a vacation in some ocean locale and if I confess to terrorist activity it appears I can get free travel.

So let's pretend Mr Abdulahat got to vote for our president this last election. Would he have voted for the Maverick or the hope and change candidate making nice with terrorists by subjecting them to beach currents and sunshine?

Read the rest of this sickening piece here.......

Life in "Progress" City

You may remember a few weeks ago when the Cincinnati mayor responded to warnings of decreased city revenues by saying

"Who knows what the number will actually be?" he said. "The number is a projection. We get forecasts all the time."

Well the "actual" numbers are rolling in and guess what? It sounds a lot like old Gordon warnings.

It's a bad time to be Cincinnati's top budget official.

Finance Director Joe Gray is the one who, with help from economists at the University of Cincinnati, put together a budget that projected the city's income tax collections would go up this year. The tax is the biggest single source of operating money the city gets, and the budget counted on $238.7 million - up by 3 percent, or $7 million.

Those projections were wrong. That 3 percent up turns out, so far, to be about 8 percent - or $15 million - down.

With other funds expected to be down, too, the city faces a $20 million deficit this year and as much as a $40 million shortfall in 2010. Gray's boss, City Manager Milton Dohoney, presents his ideas for cuts and/or ways to generate new money to City Council today. Dohoney already asked department heads to lay out what a 5 percent cut would mean. He has promised no increased fees or taxes this year.

The kicker is the headline of this story

Tax drop caught city off guard

Really?

You mean to tell me all those smart "progressive" city leader types had no idea a revenue drop would occur despite 1) a collapse of the housing market 2) a national unemployment rate approaching 10% 3) business relocations to business friendlier environments.

Yeah I can see how they would be caught off guard.

What's so "progressive" about being terminally idiotic?

Culture of Corruption

Dick Durbin

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway's Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.'s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent.

"Durbin was doing what a lot of other people were doing, taking a look at their savings" and seeing it "start to tank and trying to preserve some level of wealth by getting out of the market," said his spokesman, Joe Shoemaker.

A total coincidence that he changed his portfolio at the same time the markets would collapse.

Please...........

Article here

P.J. O'Rourke on the new "Obamamobile" at the Cato Institute

Tonight's waste of government resources

Will be in Clermont County......

A drunk driving checkpoint will take place Friday night on Ohio 125, just west of Interstate 275, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Batavia post.

I guess all the Bengals are in town for mini camp the cops must be looking for autographs.

Article here

Obamaland

So what will the US look like after four years of Obamunist rule?

If you want to see what President Barack Obama’s America will look like, look no further than California right now. Out-of-control spending, deficits as far as the eye can see and unsustainable promises to key interest groups have all combined to bring the Golden State to the brink of economic collapse. The governor and the state Legislature are struggling to close a budget

deficit that has reached $42 billion.

The similarities between what Obama wants to do nationally and what California has already done should give Congress pause before it gives the president a blank check to remake our economy.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23637.html#ixzz0IFFMgiZ1&C

Are you a right wing extremist

Help Janet do her job and identify you as a right wing extremist looking to take out an abortion doctor.

Complete the questionaire here.

A feminist reacts

From Salon.....

Asking why it is that liberal women do not often take liberal men to task for these attitudes is well worthwhile. Maybe we don't want to appear shrill and humorless, unable to take a joke. Or maybe it's thought that conservative women are too ideologically reprehensible to merit a defense. But to challenge this kind of sexist talk is not the same thing as agreeing with a woman's politics. If the left is allowed to remain a refuge for this sort of misogyny, if this virus in the body politic is allowed to flourish, then it is likely only a matter of time before it is once again directed at liberal women who are threatening in some way, as happened to Hillary Clinton. Call Pamela Geller racist for her anti-Islamic views, but leave her "top-heavy frame" aside.

I just wonder if Letterman has the balls to tell that joke to Todd Palin over beers?

More...

Barney the rainbow dinosaur

Wanna know who I sleep with? That's what I thought

Apparently, Rolling Stone is coming out with an article describing the type of person one of the American Idols is attracted to.

Since I guess it's important to know who's sleeping with who, I want to describe in detail the women I've slept with....

Ah, Gordon, that's a little TMI

What do you mean TMI? Apparently, it's really important to know who sleeps with who. Aren't you always having conversations with co workers, friends, relatives about who you sleep with, the type of sex you're having with your partners, and the frequency of your sexual activities, the type of sexual partner you are attracted to?

That's what I thought.

Here in Cincinnati they have a showcase of new homes called Homerama (I'm sure city has something similar). You get to pay fifteen bucks to go through these million dollar plus homes.

I'm always telling people "when a rich guy pays fifteen bucks to go through my house, I'll pay the fifteen to go through his!"

The same is true about someone's sexual preference. I can't imagine someone being glued to this blog to hear about the type of woman I'd like to nail. Why would anyone be interested in this guy's sexual preferences?

More importantly, why would a magazine cover it?

Life in "Progress" City

Reader Jeremy sent me this link noting the insanity of tax increases, errrrrr, fee increases in the world's most "progressive" city, San Francisco.....

Mayor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly boasted of balancing San Francisco's dire budget deficit without raising taxes - but has quietly introduced hundreds of new fees and fee increases that would make living, working and traveling in the city more expensive.

snip

Get ready to open your wallets wider if you need a city ambulance. A ride, which now costs $1,053, would increase to $1,458, plus the mileage rate would rise from $18 per mile to $28.

Getting a proof-of-death letter from the medical examiner's office for insurance purposes would get more expensive, as would swimming in a public pool, renting a recreation center and working as a street artist. The permit for running a street fair would become three times more expensive than it is now.

Some of the fees would be charged to outside agencies, including charging the FBI, the U.S. Park Service or other counties for use of the medical examiner's advanced drug screening technology. Those fees include $1,200 to test a corpse for date rape drugs and $4,000 per piece of hair to test for drug residue.

More....

Ziegler, Brewer tangle over Letterman attack on Palin

HT Newsbusters

The misogynist party

Who really hates on women?

So-called feminists stand on the sidelines like so many Silda Spitzers or Elizabeth Edwardses or Hillary Clintons, standing by their menfolk while the boys treat women like dirt. Heck, Mrs. Edwards even served as her husband’s attack dog against any critic — even as she knew he was sleeping with his mistress of many years.

Consider the lack of any reaction by the left to David Letterman’s crude remark that Gov. Palin is buying make-up for that “slutty flight attendant look” insulted not just her but every woman. How could any woman respect such a man?

And yet the left said nothing.

The next night, Letterman hid behind joking to fantasize about the statutory rape of Palin’s 14-year-old daughter. His later “apology” only underscored his perversion:

“We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news. These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.”

Then this jerk had the nerve to invite Palin on his show, as if nothing was wrong.

Excuse me, he fantasized Alex Rodriguez knocking up Palin’s 14-year-old daughter when Palin and the girl went to a ballgame.

A new low was hit in America.

Letterman will get away with it because liberal misogyny is OK in America. It has the Seal of Approval of the National Organization For Women.

Hey, support abortion and NOW and its pseudo feminists will let you get away with murder.

Yeah, just ask a Kennedy....

The rest.....

The party of know

Terrible Ted on the party of know..........

We know that prosperity can not be brought about by taxing, borrowing and spending trillions of dollars. We know that leveraging the future tax dollars of our children and grandchildren is immoral, unethical, and should be illegal.

We know the economic producers cannot be punished without also punishing the working class. We know that bad economic decisions roll downhill quickly. We are surprised that everyone doesn't seem to either know this or care.

We know that GM and Chrysler will ultimately fail because they are now being run by the federal government and the labor unions. We know they are hopeless. We know that the people who brought us the U.S. Postal Service and the Internal Revenue Code are incapable of managing a three-car funeral in the desert.

Read the rest.....

The Obama Stimulus: Predictions vs. Reality

The Auto Company Business Model

Using the Obama auto manufacturer business model, Pepsi has told the Kroger Grocery store chain that they will no longer be allowed to sell their products.

It is hoped that by having fewer grocery stores selling Pepsi products, Pepsi's earnings will improve.

The country's most dangerous cities

The American Thinker with the list and the party of the people who run them......

No. 15 Philadelphia, Pa. Mayor Michael Anthony "Mike" Nutter (Democrat)

No. 14 Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Patrick "Pat" McCrory (Republican)

No. 13 West Palm Beach, Fla. Mayor Lois J. Lois J. Frankel (Democrat)

No. 12 Baton Rouge, La. Mayor-President Melvin "Kip" Holden (Democrat)

No. 11 New Orleans, La. Mayor Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr. (Democrat)

No. 10 Baltimore, Md. Mayor Sheila Ann Dixon (Democrat)

No. 9 Nashville, Tenn. Mayor Karl Foster Dean (Democrat)

No. 8 Charleston, S.C. Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. (Democrat)

No. 7 Little Rock, Ark. Mayor Mark Stodola (Democrat)

No. 6 Orlando, Fla. Mayor John Hugh "Buddy" Dyer (Democrat)

No. 5 Stockton, Calif. Mayor Ann Johnston (Democrat)

No. 4 Las Vegas, Nev. Mayor Oscar Baylin Goodman (Democrat)

No. 3 Miami, Fla. Mayor Manny Diaz ("Independent,"Obama-first voter and 2008 DNC speaker)

No. 2 Memphis, Tenn. Mayor Willie W. Herenton (Democrat)

No. 1 Detroit, Mich. Mayor David Bing (Democrat)

Anyone surprised?

More

Letterman on Palin

No words of outrage from Bitch magazine yet.

Krauthammer on Fox News

From the NY Post, an excerpt from a speech given by Charles Krauthammer......

On a slightly more serious autobiographical note: When I left psychiatry to start writing, I did so not out of any regret for the seven years I had spent in medicine -- years that I treasure for deepening and broadening my sensibilities -- but because I felt history happening outside the examining-room door.

That history was being shaped by a war of ideas and I wanted to be in the arena. Not for its own sake. I enjoy intellectual combat, but I don't live for it. I wanted to be in the arena because some things matter, some things need to be said, some things need to be defended.

Read the whole thing here

Bringing An End To This False Prophet Obama! Jon Voight

GM Reinvention Commercial

TOTUS interview

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rupert Murdoch: Unemployment Will Reach 10 Or 11 Percent

Party of the "little guy"

Reader Jeremy sent me a follow up to a post last week regarding a homeless guy getting his life straight.........

Larry Moore shined so many shoes on Thursday that he ran through two bottles of polish.

Then there were the women who walked up to give him a hug, the tourists who had their photo taken with him, and the people - more than one - who stuffed $100 bills in his shirt pocket.

"Honestly," Moore said, "it is probably the best day of my life. And not for financial reasons. It just means so much to have people come out and recognize someone working hard."

On Thursday, we reported that a city worker told the homeless shoe shiner that he had to fork over $491 for a sidewalk vendor permit. And that was roughly how much he had saved for a first month's rent that would get him off the streets. The city's inane bureaucracy put him back to square one.

Moore wasn't terribly upset. After all, he has lived under a Bay Bridge ramp for years. A few more months wouldn't kill him, he reasoned.

But San Francisco got outraged.

Workers and residents were furious at city government for making it so hard for Moore to pull himself up and out of the streets. They were also eager to lend a hand.

City officials got the message. It may have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication, but there was only one bottom line - taking almost all of Moore's money to pay for a permit was a boneheaded idea of epic proportions.

That would make them "progressives".

Article here.

Life in "Progress" City

At least one gunman sprayed upward of 20 bullets into a block party for a city council candidate, killing a 13-year-old girl, authorities said.

The Sunday evening drive-by shooting, about a mile from the Statehouse, was likely gang-related and could be connected to a shooting the night before at a Trenton nightclub, in which a man was shot in the leg, police said Monday.

The girl, Tamrah Leonard, was pronounced dead at a hospital; no other injuries were reported.

"It really started over some stupid argument at a local club ... that wound up with a little girl being killed," Trenton police director Irving Bradley Jr. said. "Our young kids have really been victimized by a lot of stupidity that has been going on in our streets."

Leonard was in a crowd of 80-plus people who had gathered for a campaign block party hosted by city council candidate Divine Allah, the national youth minister for the New Black Panther Party. Investigators are trying to find out who the intended target at the party was, but Irving said he was unaware of any known gang members at the barbecue.

More......

Life in "Progress" City

For more than five years, the longtime retired city of Cincinnati employee drew his monthly pension check, which zipped electronically into his bank account via direct deposit.

Given that thousands of retirement benefit checks go out from City Hall monthly, there's nothing unusual about that - except for the fact the former employee was dead all that time.

That case is one of nearly three dozen in recent years in which dead city retirees or their beneficiaries received monthly pension checks for months, even years, after their deaths, according to city audit documents.

The payments continued - in fact, they became more numerous and costly - even after a February 2007 city audit faulted the Cincinnati Retirement System for "weak internal and management controls" that routinely allowed for, among other failings, pension checks to be mailed out to city retirees long after their deaths.

More....

Palin speaks in Auburn, NY - Part 5

Palin speaks in Auburn, NY - Part 4

Palin speaks in Auburn, NY - Part 3

Palin speaks in Auburn, NY - Part 2

Palin speaks in Auburn, NY - Part 1

Are you feeling stimulated yet?

From reader Bernie

Socialized medicine at work

How good is the Medicare program?

EARLY this year, Barbara Plumb, a freelance editor and writer in New York who is on Medicare, received a disturbing letter. Her gynecologist informed her that she was opting out of Medicare. When Ms. Plumb asked her primary-care doctor to recommend another gynecologist who took Medicare, the doctor responded that she didn’t know any — and that if Ms. Plumb found one she liked, could she call and tell her the name?

More....

It's a good thing we did that stimulus

Otherwise things would suck
More Here

Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?