Obamamania - Catch it

Michael Medved on the 2008 Cult of Personality aka Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama isn’t just conducting a political campaign; he’s launching his very own religious cult.

Under the headline “Obama Supporters Take His Name as Their Own,” the New York Times reported on a bizarre fad among the candidate’s enraptured acolytes: across the country, they’ve begun adopting his middle name, Hussein. “The result is a group of unlikely sounding Husseins,” writes reporter Jodi Kantor, “from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Oklahoma, to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago.”

One of the key elements in many religious cults involves a name change – like transitioning from Richard Alpert to Baba Ram Dass, or from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. To Obama’s true-believers, adding an Islamic middle name is a small price to pay for connecting with a candidate who qualifies as a “lightworker” and “an enlightened being,” according to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford.

“Many spiritually advanced people I know,” he writes, “identify Obama as a Lightworker, the rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.”

I think the Obama campaign could be in deep trouble as a result of this cult like relationship he has with his supporters.

I can see a considerable backlash towards a candidate who makes news commentators legs "all tingly". You saw it during the campaign, when it took SNL to finally call out the incredible adoration of the media towards Obamamania. He started tanking almost immediately.

It's not the kind of thing that works real well in flyover country where people have their sense about them.

Money for nothin'

Old Gordon went to the Mark Knopfler show at Fraze Pavilion last night.

In my limited music knowledge, there are but a handful of guitarists who's sound is so distinctive, you know who's playing without ever hearing the song before; Robert Cray, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Neil Young & Walter Becker are ones who come to mind for me. Knopfler's sound may be the most distinct.

Unfortunately, I really hadn't followed him much since Dire Straits so I wasn't really sure what to expect last night.

Knopfler must have had every string instrument on stage, ukulele, violin, mandolin, the old time bass, etc. The show was a great evening of string harmonics.

He did do some old Dire Straits; So far Away, Sultans of Swing, Romeo & Juliet and Brothers in Arms. He didn't play Money for Nothin'. The Sultans of Swing solo was awesome.

It was a good show but a show like Knopfler's is difficult to enjoy when you have packs of douche bags talking behind you all night. I moved twice to no avail.

My recommendation. Take the $40 you'd spend for a ticket and buy 4-5 CD's go out on your back deck after all the kids are down and fall asleep to the sounds. Trust me. You'll enjoy it more.

Other concert notes...

1) When are whale tails going out of style? It's getting about as sexy as plumber's crack.

2) Hey Riverbend, you might want to talk to the plumbers at Fraze. They must have invented some new plumbing technique to drain that inch of piss/water off the bathroom floor before the show even starts.

3) Hey Mark, we got your point. You don't want to be videoed. Really, you ought to be thankful that there are fans interested in actually taping the show.

4) How is it possible that Knoplfer/Dire Straits & Rush are not in the rock in roll hall of fame before Jackson Browne, The Police & Madonna?

5) T shirt of the night "Dead heads for Obama". I'd say that's about right.

Obamamania - Catch it

Thanks to reader Bernie

Who do you love?

Each day, I try and rifle through most of the links in my sidebar for material to post on. But lately, it seems to be getting a little stale.

In addition, I'm trying to spruce up the old blog to include more of what my readers are interested in.

If you are a regular reader, please let me know some of your news/blog sources that you think are pretty good. I'll put those on the sidebar.

Drop your list(s) in the comment section or email me at gtvcpa@yahoo.com.

Also, feel free to send me anything you think might be of interest to the readers. Readers Mark and Tony send me things that are of interest and that is always greatly appreciated. This is still a non profit mission and, unlike PBS, I get no government subsidy so any help is greatly appreciated.

Obamamania releases list of official Obama jokes

From Andy Borowitz

Saying he is "sympathetic to late night comedians' struggle to find jokes to make about me," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) today issued a list of official campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes.

The five jokes, which Sen. Obama said he is making available to all comedians free of charge, are as follows:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos here." Barack Obama replies, "At these prices, I'm not surprised. That's why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, "I was expecting the farmer's daughter." Barack Obama replies, "She's not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream."

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Barack Obama replies, "His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans."

Q: What's black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

Move those jobs here

California State Automobile Association will close its California call centers - including its 500-employee Elk Grove facility - earlier than expected and send the jobs out of state, citing the cost to do business in California.

AAA's Elk Grove site on West Taron Drive will close by the end of 2010, said spokeswoman Cynthia Harris. Last October, AAA officials had said they planned to close the facility by 2011.

AAA's Livermore facility will close on Sept. 1. Its Irvine center will close in March 2009.

In all, about 900 people work at the three centers.

"It costs more to do business in California than other states," she continued, adding that increased demand for AAA's services and AAA's expanded geographic reach were also factors.

Hey AAA, move all those jobs to the great state of Ohio, The Heart of it All. We offer the following amenities for employers with good jobs....

- The eighth highest corporate tax rates in the country

- Oppressive unemployment and worker's comp rates

- Higher than average minimum wage

- No smoking, no where, no time

- Compliance with over 1000 city and school district income tax jurisdictions.

And soon to come..... Seven paid sick days for your employees.

It's a regular employer's paradise.

"Progressive" NIMBY

TIM Robbins' and Susan Sarandon's mission to protect the poor and needy doesn't apply to their Greenwich Village neighborhood. The Oscar-winning liberals recently attended a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing to oppose St. Vincent's plea to build a new, larger hospital on West 12th Street, three blocks from their home. This despite their support of causes like UNICEF and Champions for Children. "The hospital provides $40 million in care to the indigent every year," one proponent told us. "Robbins dismissed more than 100 people rallying in support of the hospital - low-income, union workers and veterans of the AIDS crisis - as 'those people out there.' " Sarandon said in a statement: "Improving the hospital is a great idea. However, this can be accomplished without compromising the neighborhood. St. Vincent's should consider the proposed alternative solutions." Robbins declined to comment.

It's always important to help the poor and downtrodden as long as they can live and stay in Africa.

The Billary never dies

In a Freddy Kreuger like political life, You can't kill the The Billary with a stabbing, some gun shots, a good hit with flame thrower and a toss off the building.

Or in this case, maybe it's her supporters.

Big news folks - it looks like our efforts in contacting those Superdelegates are starting to pay off, so keep on writing to them (ok, maybe Donna B's a waste of time). There are unconfirmed reports, based on phone banking efforts to reach out to Super Ds, that eight previously Obama SDs expressed that, given the opportunity, they would vote for Hillary at the convention. I heard about an interview Will Bower of PUMA did recently, where he said delegates are starting to say they'll vote for Hillary in Denver if the DNC did the right thing and ran an open and fair convention. That means a roll call vote with Hillary's name put into nomination, and on the ballot. So I shot an email to Bower to ask him where he got that info from, and here's what he sent me regarding the efforts of a friend of his "A large phone banking effort to the super d's combined with Obama's flips and poor presumptive nominee performance, etc have yielded doubts within the super delegates, enough that 3 elected and 5 DNC members have confided that should they have the opportunity to do so, they will vote for Hillary." Maybe this is why BHO and the Toxic Trio are pushing so hard to keep Hillary off the roll call ballot eh? I've been wondering what they're so afraid of now it looks like we have part of the answer.

Alegre :: Breaking: Eight Supers Switching to Hillary

I think Politico may have stumbled upon one or two reasons why the Supers are starting to take a fresh look at Hillary. The above news paints this article in a whole new light for me. MassLib touched upon all this in an earlier diary today re BHO being a PUMA but I thought this was worth another rant. The folks on the Hill (aka Super delegates) are getting pissed at BHO for the lack of effort on his part when it comes to fundraising, coordination and support theyre getting in their own bid for re-election etc. Todays Politico has the story After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obamas presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November. They think they know whats right and everyone else is wrong on everything, groused one senior Senate Democratic aide. They are kind of insufferable at this point. From a total lack of effort re fundraising for Dems in town-ticket races, to little or no heads-up when he turns up in their district, theyre feeling more than a bit dissed and ignored by our presumptuous nominee.

You keep dreamin' that dream.

Where are the jokes?

Apparently, the late night comedians cannot find a way to work Obama into a joke...

Of course they can't. I bet back in biblical times you'd be hard pressed to find a Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett or Shecky Greene coming up with good zingers about one J. Christ.

When we're talking about The Messiah, jokes are hard to come by..... After all, that whole eternal salvation is nothing to laugh at.

Although, somehow I still think they can work in a couple of good arugula shots, if anyone actually knows what arugula is.

The socialist republic of Ohiostan

A behemoth lies in our midst, sucking in ever greater amounts of cash and growing at twice the rate of inflation.

What's more, we're feeding it with billions and billions of tax dollars. An unprecedented study released today shows that the combined cost of government across 16 northeastern Ohio counties -- teaching our children, running our cities and tending myriad other public services -- had reached at least $16 billion by 2002.

That amounted to $3,750 for every man, woman and child in the targeted region, which includes counties including Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit.

The $175,000 study, paid for by civic and business leaders to gauge government spending, used the latest available U.S. census data to look at 800 publicly funded entities in the region.

And while the numbers are dated and incomplete, they suggest our system of governance is bloated and drags down the region's economy, according to the people who commissioned the study. "The expensive, fragmented local government system we have costs money," says David Abbott, board chairman for the Fund for Our Economic Future, an economic development philanthropy. "Some of that could be redirected to make us more globally competitive -- to early childhood or college education, or directly to economic development efforts."

More....

And here's an article on the bloated cost of local government in NE Ohio... $3,750 for every man woman and child in the region.

And at NRO

In addition to the oppressive tax burden noted by Jonathan Adler below, Ohioans, already struggling with a mammoth jobs and brain drain, will be voting this fall on a ballot initiative called the Ohio Healthy Families Act. The Act will require most Ohio businesses to provide up to 7 paid sick days to their employees who are ill or who have an ill family member. The paid sick leave begins to accrue immediately upon hire.

Over the last 25 years, policies based on economic populism have been strangling businesses in Ohio. As noted recently in the WSJ by Ohio native Chester Finn, the best and brightest young people are fleeing Ohio in droves. Cleveland lost more residents last year than any major city in the country.

Whatever the merits of OHFA, it's likely to contribute to that trend. Before you can take sick leave, paid or otherwise, you have to have a job.

You know what we need? A tax increase. Well, instead of that, let's shoot for paid time off for everyone; that always works to bring in business. Maybe we can vote for free hybrid cars for everyone with a job in the state. Or how about free double verdi, lattes, with an arugula garnish to help the closing Starbucks?

Purge the Surge

Obamamaniacs are working overtime to scrub the obamamania web site of his opposition to the surge, his church attendance, etc.

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a "problem" that had barely reduced violence.

"The surge is not working," Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle — for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the fewest since March 2004.

Obama's campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an "improved security situation" paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007.

It praises G.I.s' "hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice."

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is "not softening his criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in current events."

GOP rival John McCain zinged Obama as a flip-flopper. "The major point here is that Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that he was wrong," said McCain, adding that Obama "refuses to acknowledge that it [the surge] is succeeding."

And, thanks to the magic of the internets and all those tubes, here's the original plan:

THE SURGE IS NOT WORKING

"The stated purpose of the surge was to enable Iraq's political leaders to reconcile. They have not done so. . . .

Our troops fight and die in the 120 degree heat to give Iraq's leaders space to agree, but they are not filling it. .

. . The bar for success is so low that it is almost buried in the sand."

Iraqi Government Not Stepping Up: The goal of the troop surge was to create space for Iraq’s political leaders to reach agreement to end Iraq’s civil war. In January 2007, President Bush said the goal of the surge was to contain violence so that "Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas." Since then, more than 700 American troops have died, but the Iraqi government has not stepped up. In early September, the United States Government Accountability Office found the Iraqi government has not enacted legislation to meet critical benchmarks on de-Ba'athification, oil revenue sharing, provincial elections, amnesty, and militia disarmament that are key tobeginning national reconciliation.

Uneven Gains Not Sustainable Without Iraqi Action: At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Baghdad, but only when measured against the record levels of violence in late 2006 and early 2007. As The New York Times reported in a wide-ranging investigation, violence has decreased in certain neighborhoods only because they have become more ethnically homogenous as minority groups have fled. Most importantly, as a commission headed by General Jim Jones reported, the Iraqi Security Forces must take responsibility for holding the security gains created by the surge, but they are not doing so.

Anbar Province Success Not Related to Surge: The reduced violence in Anbar Province is the result of cooperation between American forces and Sunni tribes, which started more than 18 months ago, long before the surge. The province is overwhelmingly Sunni, and the tribal leaders there made a political decision to turn against al Qaeda. This does not demonstrate the success of the surge; it demonstrates that the solutions in Iraq are political, not military.

This guy is making John Kerry look as flexible as a sheet of plywood. How long before the liberal nutcases against Bush (LNAB) start to eat Obama.

Kill the speculators

Larry Kudlow with a great piece on the markets response to one little action, the announcement by Bush to lift the executive ban on drilling....

In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won’t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain — all of them.

Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.

The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California.

Did the taxstud call that or what?

By the way Senator, according to the investment bankers here today, most of the price spikes have occurred as a result of speculation in the market. Many of these people believe that this speculation has resulted in increases of $50 to $60 a barrel.

Why? On January, 2007, when this democratic congress assumed power, light sweet crude prices were hovering around $53 a barrel. Today, those prices exceed $120 a barrel. When this congress took power, the market knew that you idiots would do what ever it took to prevent drilling on US soil in order to protect some musk rat in Manitoba or water moccasin off the Georgian coast.

As a result, speculators know that world supply will be limited due to your inaction, so prices have no where to go but up. But you'd rather come here today and grandstand your fat ass and lecture us about crude prices instead of actually governing in a manner that will help the average American.

Now, do congressional democrats have the stones to support sea otters off the coast of California over the working stiff? We'll see. Of course, McCain will find a way to fumble this one all the way to ANWAR.

Trouble brewing in C-bus

It looks like the Great depression is hitting the Columbus area.

Starbucks announced the closing of its first fifty stores.

#2525- 1505 5TH AVE 1505 W 5TH AVE COLUMBUS, OH

#11883 - MAXTOWN 925 N STATE ST WESTERVILLE, OH

Man, where am I going to get my Yoko Ono's greatest hits to go along with my $8.76 verdi, latte, double somersault, with a squirt of hummus cup of coffee.

Obamamania - Catch it

Hank Aaron vs Duke Snyder Home Run Derby Part 1

A real home run derby

More democratic mismanagement

So now we have the financial debacle of Fannie Mae and Freddie mac and you're guessing it must be run by a bunch of republican fat cats.

Well you'd be wrong again. For some reason, you won't find a mainstream media organization talking about the who's who of democratic power players that ran these companies; especially one Jim Johnson.

You may recognize the name of Jim Johnson as one of those three Obamamania vetters who resigned from the Obama campaign last month.

Republicans shouldn't have been so quick to hurl on Johnson. If he would have run the vetting for Obama like he ran freddie mac, it would be a slam dunk for McCain.

Cocaine Bust

Yeah, I can see someone using that for drug paraphernalia.

Thanks to reader Tony. Rated "R" for local news coverage....

Thought of the day

When building your business, try to get it as large as you possibly can.

Then, when you become "to big to fail", the feds will bail you out no matter what dumb ass things you do to ruin your business.

This business tip brought to you by Jack Handey.

Obamamania - Catch it

Obamamania - Chicago style

When I first saw the title of this piece, Making It, and saw that it was in the New Yorker, I figured I wasn't up for literal pornography being performed on Obama.

But I gave it a shot and now think it's a pretty fair piece about Obamamania's rise through Chicago politics.

From some of Obamamania's former supporters....

Although many of Obama’s recent supporters have been surprised by signs of political opportunism, Preckwinkle wasn’t. “I think he was very strategic in his choice of friends and mentors,” she told me. “I spent ten years of my adult life working to be alderman. I finally got elected. This is a job I love. And I’m perfectly happy with it. I’m not sure that’s the way that he approached his public life—that he was going to try for a job and stay there for one period of time. In retrospect, I think he saw the positions he held as stepping stones to other things and therefore approached his public life differently than other people might have.”

On issue after issue, Preckwinkle presented Obama as someone who thrived in the world of Chicago politics. She suggested that Obama joined Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for political reasons. “It’s a church that would provide you with lots of social connections and prominent parishioners,” she said. “It’s a good place for a politician to be a member.” Preckwinkle was unsparing on the subject of the Chicago real-estate developer Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a friend of Obama’s and one of his top fund-raisers, who was recently convicted of fraud, bribery, and money laundering: “Who you take money from is a reflection of your knowledge at the time and your principles.” As we talked, it became increasingly clear that loyalty was the issue that drove Preckwinkle’s current view of her onetime protégé. “I don’t think you should forget who your friends are,” she said.

Our future president?

Meet Green Party Candidate Cynthia McKinney.

Turning food into fuel

Here's a great scientific article about the use of corn for fuel.

David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTUS. Thus, 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it. Every time you make one gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs.

Mr. Pimentel concluded that "abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuels amounts to unsustainable subsidized food burning".

Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what Cornell University agricultural scientist, David Pimentel, calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.

At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food processors and some lawmakers, Cornell’s David Pimentel, one of the world’s leading experts in issues relating to energy and agriculture, takes a longer range view.

"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning", says the Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of the corn-to-car fuel process. His findings are published in the September, 2001 issue of the Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology

Ohio economic suicide

Cleaning up a few older pieces.

Here is a great piece on Ohio's economic suicide.....

Once known as the Mother of Presidents, Ohio is now getting poorer, older and dumber – and making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation.

And that may actually be a plus for Barack Obama. His party is finding that lofty, vague promises of change combined with high-spending, high-tax, welfare state-ish policies are a political winner in the state. How else to explain why Gov. Ted Strickland's approval ratings are in the mid-50s or why Democrats may even win control of the state House for the first time in 14 years?

AP

Gov. Ted Strickland

But as a formula for economic revival, it is madness. Ohio already has the fifth-heaviest state and local tax burden in the country (up from 30th in 1990) and finds itself stagnating. Its unemployment rate, 6.3%, is above the national rate of 5.5%, even as the state's work force shrinks as people emigrate. Ohio's median household income is also falling – in 2006 it was $44,500, down 0.5% from the previous year – while the national figure ($48,500) was up 1.6%. During the closing decades of the 20th century, incomes rose twice as fast across the country as in Ohio.

The state has been deindustrializing for ages – the sprawling General Motors and NCR plants of my Dayton childhood are long gone. Every metropolitan area has seen manufacturing employment plunge. The state lost more than 200,000 nonfarm jobs over the past seven years alone. Of Ohio's 10 largest corporations (including Procter & Gamble and other well known companies), just two have posted positive returns so far this year. A surefire way to have one's portfolio underperform the market these days is to invest in Ohio.

Assortment of Nuts

From Cincinnati's own Jim Borgman.

More Global Warming deniers.

Irena Sendler -VS- Al Gore

HT from reader Mark

Another one bites the bus

Obamamania throws another supporter under the bus.

This time it's Bernie Mac....

Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago, the 50-year-old star of "The Bernie Mac Show" joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

"My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'" Mac said. "I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.'"

As the joke continued, the punchline evoked an angry response from at least one person in the audience, who said it was offensive to women.

"It's not funny. Let's get Barack on," a man shouted from the crowd, which paid $2,300 each to support the Illinois senator.

Al Queda hires a consultant

From Iowahawk.

A memo to Al-queda staff

The "Q" is for "Quality"

A Message from the Director

Ayman al Zawahiri
Director of Change Management
Al Qaeda Industries Worldwide, Inc.

Hello, valued Al Qaeda associate! Welcome to the inaugural issue of Vistas, the new electronic newsletter designed to keep you informed on all the fast-paced comings and goings within our Total Quality Jihad family.

In a dynamic marketplace characterized by rapid change and unexpected missiles, even the most disciplined adaptive organizations can find it challenging to keep the lines of communication open. Without understanding the strategic "big picture," associates will sometimes be confused by misleading rumors they read on unreliable infidel blogs and websites like "F*cked Insurgency" and "Jihad Deadpool." With Vistas, you will learn the real story -- of how we are attacking the competitive casualty gap with a paradigm-changing tactical adaptive strategy focused on paradise value optimization. Yes, there will be some changes, but our core leadership mission remains the same one established by Chairman Emeritus Osama Bin Laden when he founded Al Qaeda in his family goat shed nearly 15 years ago: to create a robust, cave-centric, best-of-breed strategic organization for global caliphate management solution services. If we all pull together as accountable subteams, we are on-track to rebuild momentum after the Q4 Infidel elections!

INTRODUCING QAEDANT

As a commitment to our spirit of goal-oriented adaptive martyrdom innovation, I am proud to announce the launch of Qaedant, our new corporate branding identity.

Developed in conjunction with our strategic branding agency FDB&D-Medina, this handsome new organizational logo will help us maintain consumer mindshare and let the world know that we continue on the cutting edge of advanced Jihad technology. Show your team pride by buying official Qaedant logo merchandise from the attached electronic catalog -- including mugs, keffiyas and semtex belts!

PERSONNEL PERSPECTIVES

As you have possibly heard by now, Team Satan and their subsidiary Iraqi Security Forces have made several key market acquisitions in the last few months. In order to meet Q3 Return-on-Mayhem targets and maximize stakeholder value, we need to refocus our client-facing resource model. As we are currently seeking a 17th round of venture funding, budgets are extremely tight, and this will require reducing our internal work team payroll load through adaptive right-sizing on a go-forward basis. Accounting estimates indicate that much of this will be achieved via natural attrition and Apache Hellfire missiles. Still, in order to achieve costing targets, we will need to engage in involuntary outboarding.

The Communications department will be most directly affected by this initiative, as we continue transitioning of our day-to-day public relations efforts to low-cost offshore service providers like Huffington Post, DailyKos, and Democratic Underground.

Read the rest....

I wonder if there are Islamic Dilberts on the payroll?

Who will she vote for? #20

Meet Joelle Fishman. Who is Ms. Fishman?

According to her tagline in the People's Weekly World, a communist publication, she "chairs the Communist Party USA Political Action Commission and is also chair of the Connecticut Communist Party."

So who will Ms Fishman vote for this fall? Let's just use her words.....

The choice is clear — stay with the Bush-McCain race to the bottom or come together and raise up the whole country with a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right.

Sounding like Grover Norquist, McCain speaks of never-ending war and shrinking government, privatizing services and cutting funds for human needs. In sharp contrast, Obama speaks of strengthening government to provide health care and jobs, address global warming and end the war in Iraq.

Obama’s program is not radical. Left and progressive voters will push for a stronger break from corporate control. This should not be cause for pulling back, but rather for greater involvement.

A landslide vote that is organized to stay in motion after the elections can challenge the demands that Wall Street and military interests will make on the new administration. Obama has shown he is ready to listen.

Big political shifts are under way. When Democracy Corps surveyed 45 congressional districts that voted Republican with big margins in 2004 and 2006, they found the majority of voters now plan to vote Democratic. Like the whole country, these voters are beleaguered by rising prices, rising death tolls in the war, rising unemployment and the inability of their state and local governments to maintain basic services due to federal budget cuts.

The big battles in Congress on war funding, Iran, children’s health care, extending unemployment benefits and immigration are connected to the elections. If the pressure is kept on, vulnerable Republicans and some conservative Democrats may be forced to change their votes or lose re-election.

But the business community has raised record sums and is also mobilizing with divisive messages against workers’ rights and civil rights.

During the primaries unions made different endorsements. The labor movement now has a pivotal role to unify and mobilize working families and their communities for November.

Thousands of grassroots union volunteers are already in motion as part of the largest-in-history labor mobilization, visiting co-workers to talk about the issues with the “McCain Revealed” program.

The Obama campaign, drawing upon the candidate’s community organizing experience, is also looking toward the grassroots. Unity for Change house parties across the country on June 28 will bring neighbors together for voter registration and getting out the vote.

Once again, I ask the question to all those Obamamaniacs. If Obama is no communist or marxist, why are so many supporting him? I don't remember all these people popping up when Kerry, Gore, or Clinton ran. There were no Che posters in the Biden, Richardson or Clinton campaign offices. What do these people believe that we should know?

There's going to be a new movie coming out this fall titled "Something about Obama".

Tony Snow RIP

Along with Tim Russert, one of the good guys in Washington.

A true loss for the American public.

Obamarrhea - Catch It!

Odell L. Thurman

A former Cincinnati Bengals football player is sought by local law enforcement on a felonious assault warrant.

Odell L. Thurman, 24, of Cincinnati, was indicted this week by Erie County grand jurors on a felonious assault charge.

On May 27, Thurman was involved in an altercation at Kalahari Waterpark Resort where he punched another man in the face, breaking his jaw, said Erie County Sheriff’s office Det. Bob Lippert.

More...

Friday Funny

The taxpayer and congress.

Abbott and Costello - Math

Senators figuring out how to fund social security

The Obamamania Judgment

We've been told repeatedly about the "judgment" of The Messiah. But how good is that judgment?

As a state senator, Barack Obama gave $100,000 in state money to a campaign volunteer who failed to deliver on a plan to create a botanic garden in one of Chicago's most blighted neighborhoods.

Obama -- who was running for Congress when he announced the project in 2000 -- said the green space in Englewood would build ''a sense of neighborhood pride."

Instead, what was supposed to be a six-block stretch of trees and paths is now a field of unfulfilled dreams, strewn with weeds, garbage and broken pavement.

That's a nice little metaphor for what the country will look like once he imparts some more of his judgment on the nation.

Drink Beer

George Will has a great column on the importance of beer to the survival of civilization...

The story asserted: "The (alcoholic beverage) industry's continued growth, however slight, has been a surprise to those who figured that when the economy turned south, consumers would cut back on nonessential items like beer. ... "

"Nonwhat"? Do not try to peddle that proposition in the bleachers or at the beaches in July. It is closer to the truth to say: No beer, no civilization.

More...

Obamarrhea - Catch It!

What is the problem with road signs?

From the AJC

Public Works officials are replacing 50 "Men Working" with signs that say "Workers Ahead." It will cost $22 to cover over some of the old signs and $144 to buy new signs, said Public Works spokeswoman Valerie Bell-Smith said.

I can see the problem with the old signs.... they imply someone is actually working.

Obamamania - Catch it

Courtesy of NRO

Global Warming Challenge Update

The updated score to the Global Warming Challenge

Warm - 188
Cool - 202

T. Boone Pickens

How is it that we can't get people like Pickens to run for elected office?

The brilliance is in his simplicity.

Blog of the week

Not exactly a blog but if you haven't run across this site, Ohio Media Guide, check it out.

It has the look and feel of the Drudge Report for Ohio news.

Let's follow Michigan's lead

Keno is coming on board next month to a bar near you.

For a moment, forget that this is a state sanctioned theft of money from poor dumb asses which puts pay day loans to shame. But this is what really caught my eye in this article.

The new games is expected to rake in $73 million in profits for Ohio schools. Sales projections, the number of Keno retailers and other factors are modeled after Michigan's success with the game, Metelsky said. "We're not re-inventing the wheel here. We're looking at best practices and what has worked."

I know that's what we've been missing in this state..... great ideas from Michigan. That wonderful state with what? a 10% unemployment rate?

I'll say it over and over again. I'm not the smartest guy in the world so I make up for it by imitating what the smart guys are doing. Conversely, if Michigan's doing something, I think I'd pass on it. They're not the model of what I would call "success".

This is how a "progressive" defines "success"

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told Cybercast News Service on Tuesday that they would support raising taxes to pay the $36.3 trillion needed to pay for promised Medicare benefits over the next 75 years.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), however, told Cybercast News Service that he thinks the level of health care provided to Americans through Medicare can be improved without raising taxes.

“We are going to have to pay for it, and there is no question that raising taxes is certainly one way,” Rockefeller said. “There is no way, if we continue on the current path, that we can pay for these services – and to prove that, they (Medicare services) are falling off rapidly on all fronts.”

Rockefeller continued by calling the Bush tax cuts an “obscenity” that benefits only the rich.

Bond, however, opposes a tax increase to pay for the projected shortfall in revenue to cover the people promised Medicare coverage, as detailed in the 2008 Medicare Trustees Report.

“I think we can provide better service without raising taxes,” he told Cybercast News Service.

Bond added that he thinks the Medicare program needs major renovation. “I think we need to reform the Medicare system,” he said. “It has worked well, but it will not work when we don’t have 16 people supporting each recipient. We need to make major changes.”

This is how it "works well"? That's like saying my budget is working well when I have $100,000 in credit card debt.

This makes the Enron scandal look like a pimple on an elephant's butt.

Who Will He Vote For? #28

From the Dayton Daily News....

According to police, a woman at the house said Conley stabbed himself because he was upset they had run out of alcohol. Sounds like a Bob Barr guy to me.

Who will they vote for? #18

From this article

As a sort of pre-Independence Day festivity, local residents celebrated the right to freedom of speech with their fourth annual Old Time American Flag Burn at Seabright Beach on July 3.

The ceremony was organized by Brent Adams and Sha Lar, both of Santa Cruz, who say the idea started in 2004 as a response to proposed constitutional amendments to ban flag-burning, including one in 2006 that fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass in the Senate.

"We never wanted to burn a flag before," Adams said. "But when we heard that they were trying to pass an amendment... we always felt that the fact that we can burn the flag in this country is one of the things that can make this country great."

I know that's one of the first things I do when I'm thinking about how great our country is.

Regardless, who do Brent and Sha vote for this November?

A) Community Organizer, Barack Obama

B) Libertarian, Bob Barr

C) Consumer Activist, Ralph Nader

D) John McCain

How compassionate are "progressives"?

Last week, I posted a piece on the preemptive closing of a check cashing operation near me.

This week, I have a story about a nearby deli that recently closed as a result of the smoking ban and minimum wage increase.

My understanding of the situation is this. This deli owner had been scrapping by for at least as long as I have been operating at my current location (about 11 years). He was basically making a small but decent living.

When the minimum wage increased, it did hurt his profits but he was able to get by and squeeze out a smaller income.

When the smoking law kicked in, it wiped him out. The irony is that his place was non smoking. Unfortunately, a big chunk of his business came from the bar next door. He catered their small bar menu (chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, etc.). The smoking ban hurt the bar business just enough to put him out of business.

So how sympathetic do you think our garden variety "progressive" is about the loss of this business. Based on a quote from a comment on this post, I'd say, not very....

The jobs that will be lost (payday lenders should be able to operate just fine at 28% APR) aren't value added jobs. They simply serve to assist and industry in pilfering hardworking Ohioans of their hard earned dollars. Payday loans provide no net tangible benefit for consumers or Ohio's struggling economy.

So the question to Mr. "Progressive". Were these jobs "value added"? Is a bagger at a grocery store doing a "value added" job? What exactly makes a job "value added" versus one that isn't?

Was this business "pilfering hardworking Ohioans of their hard earned dollars". Afterall, you could probably get chicken salad a lot cheaper at Kroger's than this little place.

Do delicatessens provide any "net tangible benefit for consumers or Ohio's struggling economy"? Let's face it. The people who worked here help contribute to the country's obesity problem. I mean, how many jobs were lost here; 4 or 5 part time low wage jobs? What's the big deal? Right.

Maybe the reason for Ohio's struggling economy is that we have too much of this type of thinking from our state's "progressives".

What the hell is so "progressive" about unemployment?

Make the speculators pay

Walter Williams gives a great Econ 101 lesson for those public school graduates who can't seem to understand how speculators have driven the price of oil to $140/barrel.

Congressional attacks on speculation do not alter the oil market's fundamental demand and supply conditions. What would lower the long-term price of oil is for Congress to permit exploration for the estimated billions upon billions of barrels of oil domestically available, not to mention the estimated trillion-plus barrels of shale oil in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.

Some politicians pooh-pooh calls for drilling, saying it would take five or 10 years to recover the oil. I guarantee you we would begin to see a reduction in today's prices even if it took five to 10 years for us to get the first barrel.

Put yourself in the place of an OPEC member knowing there would be a greater supply of U.S. oil in five or 10 years, hence maybe driving oil prices lower to, say, $40 a barrel. What will you want to do now while oil is $130 a barrel?

You would want to sell as much oil now, and OPEC's collective efforts to do so would put downward pressures on current oil prices. Right now, the U.S. Congress is OPEC's staunchest ally.

Nah.... He's no snob

The democrats are going to wish they had John Kerry back in a few weeks....

Londonistan

From the "if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything" department....

If we didn't know better, we'd say the news out of England suggests the British are hell-bent on killing their civilization. But, of course, we do know better — don't we?

Last month, we lamented the emergence of "another sign that much of England has given up on being England." The cause of our grief were reports that Christian preachers in England had been warned by a police community support officer that trying to spread the gospel in a Muslim neighborhood is a hate crime.

While it's shocking at how far the West will go to avoid offending Muslims, it's downright discouraging to see how weakly it defends its own culture. It's as if the developed world is ashamed of its progress and the institutions that formed the foundation of its development.

Worse than a fear of offending a religious group is what appears to be an eagerness to simply give up and accept the fact that Islam is overrunning the West and we can't do anything about it because it would be intolerant, arrogant, hegemonic, racist and just plain mean to try to preserve our culture.

The fact is there is a world war brewing between three world views. Those opposing factions are
1) Judeo Christian, free market, American republics.
2) Atheistic, socialist, European style democracies.
3) Islamic, totalitarian, dictatorships.

Trust me. If your community/culture/country falls into second category, like much of Europe, you're going to be number three in a few generations.

B.O.'s Move to the Center - Catch It!

"...Senator Obama’s strongest supporters are uneasy, upset, dismayed and even angry at the candidate who is now emerging in the bright light of summer.

One issue or another might not have made much difference. Tacking toward the center in a general election is as common as kissing babies in a campaign, and lord knows the Democrats need to expand their coalition.

But Senator Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash."

More...

How low can you go?

Congress is working hard to come up with the first all time negative approval rating.

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.

The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month.

Wow, that's lower than the dog poop I scraped off my shoe yesterday. That's even lower than Bob Taft.

Let's pull out of the "War on Poverty"

In the month of July, the US has suffered 2 fatalities in Iraq. One of those was from natural causes.

One war fatality in eight days. You'd get at least double that on a warm Saturday night in any "Progressive" City USA.

Period		US	UK	Other	Total	DayCount	Avg
Total		4115	176	138	4429	1938	2.29
7-2008		2	0	0	2	8	0.25
6-2008		29	0	2	31	30	1.03
5-2008		19	0	2	21	31	0.68
4-2008		52	0	0	52	30	1.73
3-2008		39	1	0	40	31	1.29
2-2008		29	1	0	30	29	1.03
1-2008		40	0	0	40	31	1.29

When are we going to withdraw from the "war on poverty"? If we're going strictly on dollars and body count, the Iraqi War is a tremendous success in comparison.

Obamamania - Catch it

Now that's "community organizing"

Doug Ross has a great piece on the results of Obamamania's work as a "community organizer", state senator and lackey for Tony Rezko's slum activity.

A must read.

More "progressive" projection

Another "progressive" out there is slamming me for my bigotry.

He's upset that I've chosen to place a doctored "work of art" by Shepard Fairey on my blog.

I can’t remember the last politician to inspire artists to make great art. Shepard Fairey’s posters of Barack Obama, which indeed are art, have taken on a life of their own. And one perversion of them from the right has been catching my eye lately, because it’s popping up all over wingnut blogs. This one.

It wasn’t long ago in America that a black man striking such a pose, in just the wrong place, however fake this one may be, would end up hung from a tree. Which is why it’s no wonder the Republican blogosphere has made this one of their favorite hit pieces. How dare a black man be smarter than us. How dare a black man get educated. How dare a black man run for president.

Let address this racist's issues one by one.

First, I'm giving Obamamania the same irreverent treatment that I gave The Billary, and John "Gee my Hair Smells Terrific" Edwards. If he would ever read this blog, he would also read lots of snob reference to one John Kerry. To do something different to Obamamania because of his race would be racist.

Second, I noticed that this ding dong failed to mention some of the other works by Mr. Fairey mentioned on this blog in March. Those of other Communist/ Marxist leaders Stalin, Lenin and Mao. The Snobama picture is total satire on the whole cult of personality profile of Mr. Fairey's work.

Third, snobbery is not confined to socio-economic status. In fact, being a "progressive" makes you a snob by definition. You don't know a damn thing about me, so you frame me as a racist. You don't know a damn thing about my business, yet you tell me how much to pay my employees. You don't know a damn thing about my neighbors business, yet you know how many sick days he should offer his employees. As Ronald Reagan would say, "liberals know so much, they just know so much about what isn't so."

Fourth, Obama is a snob. Now pass me the arugula.

A Third Bush Term

E.J. Dionne, not exactly a garden variety conservative, bangs on Obamamania's flip flopping on the war.

You might ask: What's wrong with that? A commander in chief willing to adjust his view to facts and realities should be a refreshing idea.

But when news reports suggested Obama was backing away from his commitment to withdrawing troops from Iraq in 16 months, Obama's lieutenants no doubt heard echoes of those cries of "flip-flop" that rocked the 2004 Republican National Convention and proved devastating to John Kerry.

So out Obama came again to reiterate his timeline. "Apparently, I wasn't clear enough this morning on my position with respect to the war in Iraq," he said. "I intend to end this war. My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war -- responsibly, deliberately, but decisively."

I hate to clue in Obamamania on a little secret but Bush already did that. It's called winning.

But really, when you look at Obamamania these past few weeks you get a lot of Bush. Backing the FISA law, gun backer, faith based initiatives is starting to look a lot like a third Bush term.

Another Obamamania endorsement

Following the tidal wave of the endorsements from the world's despots, the US communist party came in with their endorsement.

Barack Obama’s patriotic tour has run into a snag. More evidence of communist backing for the candidate has surfaced. The latest to emerge publicly in Obama’s camp is Joelle Fishman, the chairman of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Political Action Commission. In a column titled, “Big political shifts are underway,” Fishman says that Obama could lead “a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right” this November and that he is “ready to listen” to the “left and progressive voters” backing him. Fishman makes it clear that the CPUSA is part of this coalition.

What's Wrong with Ohio?

HT to Gary at RightRunner on an excellent piece titled What's Wrong with Ohio?

Money Quote

THEN IT ALL CAME crashing down. In the 2006 elections, Democrats won every statewide executive office except for auditor, including the governorship by a margin of 60 percent to 37 percent. The Democrats picked up a U.S. Senate seat, a congressional seat -- with near-pickups in three others -- a net gain of seven state house seats, and one state senate seat. Republicans still control both chambers of the state legislature, won a December 2007 special election to fill an empty House seat, and have even increased their majority on the supreme court to all seven seats, but most trends aren't in their favor.

Republicans lost Ohio for the same reasons they lost the country: corruption, inability to cope with voter anxiety about the war or the economy, and reluctance to embrace a reform agenda. "Half our elected officials are just Democrat-lite," groused a Medina County GOP Lincoln Day reveler. "What's the point of being a Republican anymore?" The conservative, reformist wing of the state party was never dominant, not even at the height of 1994's revolutionary rhetoric.

More typical of Ohio Republicanism is George Voinovich, who was elected governor with 56 percent of the vote at the beginning of the GOP resurgence in 1990. Voinovich is a cautious moderate, somewhat more conservative on social issues -- he defended the state motto "With God, all things are possible" and says his pro-life position on abortion "is a matter of my immortal soul" -- than on fiscal policy. Consequently, he frequently held the more conservative Republicans in Columbus at bay while muddling the party's image as the taxpayer's best friend.

In addition to some tax cuts, Voinovich supported approximately twenty tax increases while governor. When the state supreme court ruled that Ohio's funding mechanism for the public schools was unconstitutional, Voinovich dutifully backed a $1 billion sales tax increase to mollify his black-robed betters. His record on spending wasn't much better: Between 1991 and 1999, the state budget more than doubled despite anemic population growth. Only six states increased spending more rapidly during this time period. At a 1998 speech at which Voinovich was touting what he claimed was his record fiscal restraint, a Republican activist turned to me and whispered, "I'm a moderate, but c'mon. Cut spending, George!"

Who needs republicans when we already have democrats.

Terrorist sympathizers aka Human Rights Groups

Mary Anastasia O'Grady with an excellent piece on how human rights organizations in Columbia have been so supportive of left wing radicals, the FARC rebels were more then willing to hand over their hostages to them.

I am reminded of President Álvaro Uribe's 2003 statement that some "human rights" organizations in his country were fronts for terrorists. Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd got his back up over Mr. Uribe's statement, and piously lectured the Colombian president about "the importance of democratic values."

But as the helicopter story suggests, Mr. Uribe seems to have been right. How else to explain the fact that the FARC swallowed the line without batting an eye?

This warrants attention because it adds to the already robust evidence that left-wing NGOs and other so-called human rights defenders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, are nothing more than propagandists for terrorists.