Poll: Brits Want Their Guns Back, And How

Daily Mail Poll:  Overwhelmingly, compared to other policy alternatives, Brits want the right to protect themselves with firearms back.

I'm guessing this might have something to do with Islamic radicals being free to butcher people on the streets of London.

Or the appalling level of violent crime against ordinary citizens.

Or the epidemic of burglary.

Or the uselessness of the UK police force.

Or the lawlessness of the 2011 riots in Tottenham, Brixton and elsewhere.

California Will Drill, Baby, Drill

I have stated/predicted that California's finances are so parlous and its financial commitments so vast that the only way out is to embrace the economic development and tax dollars that come with aggressively pursuing hydrocarbon development.  Simply put, California will have to drill for oil on a massive scale, whether they like it or not, in order to save the utopian paradise they've built.

And it appears that even the Democrat supermajority gets it.

California Lawmakers Turn Down Moratorium on Fracking

And when the day comes, Sarah Palin will get no apologies from anyone on the anti-hydrocarbon left.

Incendiary Thought: Men Don't Whine About Work-Life Balance, They Just Get It Done

That's not me speaking so lay off me seething feminist hordes!  Here is BloombergBusinessWeek on the topic, although emphasis mine:

“ ‘Work-life balance’ is one of these terms that tends to get overused,” says Rob Lanoue, a partner with Deloitte’s consulting group in Toronto. “It’s ‘balanced/unbalanced,’ ” chips in colleague Andrew Hamer, a senior consultant.

Lanoue, 43, in an open-collar shirt and sporting a wall clock-size dive watch, exudes a relaxed jock vibe, while Hamer, 29, is more hunky corporate hipster, with a beard, jeans, and checked blazer. They, along with Jonathan Magder, 35, a slender, mellow-voiced manager in Deloitte’s corporate strategy group, are eating breakfast across the street from their office, spearing eggs and discussing how they juggle their careers and families. In its contours, the conversation happens countless times a day among groups of women. This male version also touches on the challenges of getting home for bath time, showing up at recitals, and how all that must be reconciled with driving ambition. The only thing missing is the guilt and self-flagellation, which, if they were women, would be accumulating on the floor in puddles around their feet. You might call them “Alpha Dads,” guys who are as serious about their parenting as they are about making partner. What they illustrate is that men might actually be better at handling women’s issues than women.

Men have given up the pipe, smoking jacket and slippers routine to help around the house and do some actual parenting.  We're better off for it, but I don't hear alot of whining among my set about what has been lost or the lack of balance yadayada.  We do what we have to do and life is mostly good.  That doesn't make for ripe or copious material to keep hundreds of Men's Studies professors preoccupied in our illustrious higher education system.

Eric Holder Has Always Sucked, Still Sucks

Eric Holder was always an extreme poor choice to be Attorney General.  It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing, but the inevitable has been kept at bay for a good five years.  The bill for bad choices usually always comes due.  It's coming due now.

Note, this is what I said the day Holder was appointed. 

The economy is without question the most important issue of our day - layoffs are accelerating, bankruptcy fears are rising, the stock market is down 15%+ since the election - and is critical to all else that we do as a nation, but what does Obama hop right on? Making sure that a run-of-the-mill, uninspiring Clintonite bureaucrat is our new AG. Brilliant. Oh yeah, and give the market a nice shot of "climate change". The market is coming to realize that we bought ourselves a pig in a poke. But that is what all the big money hedgies and Goldman liberals wanted. Enjoy.

It spoke volumes about who Obama is and would be in office.  We weren't paying attention.  Shame on us, but forget shame, the costs will be real not psychological.  Be prepared to pay, the bills for our national folly are rapidly coming due.

UPDATE:  Although I wasn't nearly as prescient as Mark Tapscott.  Wow, that was a call.  Actually, not really; in terms of analysis, it was pretty easy.  But it was ballsy, to throw a turd in the punch bowl of Hopenchange like that.

Push Back Twice As Hard

Simply frightening.

In December 2010 the FBI came to ask about a person who’d attended a King Street Patriots function. In January 2011 the FBI had more questions. The same month the IRS audited her business tax returns. In May 2011 the FBI called again for a general inquiry about King Street Patriots. In June 2011 Engelbrecht’s personal tax returns were audited and the FBI called again. In October 2011 a round of questions on True the Vote. In November 2011 another call from the FBI. The next month, more questions from the FBI. In February 2012 a third round of IRS questions on True the Vote. In February 2012 a first round of questions on King Street Patriots. The same month the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did an unscheduled audit of her business. (It had a license to make firearms but didn’t make them.) In July 2012 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did an unscheduled audit. In November 2012 more IRS questions on True the Vote. In March 2013, more questions. In April 2013 a second ATF audit.

All this because she requested tax-exempt status for a local conservative group and for one that registers voters and tries to get dead people off the rolls. Her attorney, Cleta Mitchell, who provided the timeline above, told me: “These people, they are just regular Americans. They try to get dead people off the voter rolls, you would think that they are serial killers.”

Maybe it's because I'm from Jersey, but I would never be bullied like this and nor should anybody.  When these dickheads push, you up the ante, you redouble your efforts, you multiply the conduct that they are trying to squelch.  When global warmists tick me off I drive my gas guzzling beast for shitsandgiggles, when the Wal-Mart haters come out with more ridiculousness it's time to go on a Wally World shopping spree.  When Andy Cuomo rams his SAFE Act through in the dead of night...well, we won't go there.  Anyway, there should be about 100,000 applications from prospective Tea Party groups flooding into the IRS right about NOW.  Everybody who is outraged by this out to start there own Tea Party group and apply for status. Push back twice as hard.

This is a good start.

But Of Course

California Fudges the Math to Make ObamaCare Look Good.

I'll Take This Type of Hypocrisy All Day Long...

This is mildly annoying, but it is merely hypocrisy. 

Commerce Nominee Sails Through Confirmation Hearing Despite Not Reporting $80 Million Income, Offshore Tax Shelters

More hypocrisy is just another drop in the ocean.  What we need to be on guard for is dangerousness.  Penny Pritzker is not dangerous.  She's a trust fund baby, she does nothing and knows nothing.  She is "in business" simply because she has wealth.  And Commerce Secretary is a meaningless post.

If we just got empty people filling meaningless posts, we'd be in good shape.  But we've empty people filling important posts (see Kerry, John or Lew, Jack) or dangerous people filling powerful posts (see Perez, Tom). 

Give me hypocrisy all day long, but only if we can end the dangerous zealotry and the dangerous idiocy.

Islamism Is the West's Death Wish

The guys at Powerline make the connection between today's Great Liberal Death Wish - Islamism - and the West's (the Liberal West) last death wish - Communism - a la Malcolm Muggeridge's seminal essay.  Mark Steyn, of course, has advanced this thesis forcefully and humorously over the years.  But it is not funny.  It is insane.  Everyday it seems there is more evidence of the West's fecklessness in the face of Islamic terrorism, a fecklessness which is manifestly more troubling than the barbarity of radical Islam itself.  Human barbarity is, if not acceptable, understandable - it has been with us since the dawn of time.  But denial - not passivity, not restraint mind you - but raw, head-in-the-sand cognitive avoidance is perhaps the West's most salient and infuriating trait in this conflict.

Douglas Murray has a blood boiler in today's WSJ.  British citizens might be ticked to learn that MI-5 knew all about this Islamic butcher, but, as Murray points out, they might be ragingly pissed to know that their government has been subsidizing them, perhaps even to a greater extent then their military personnel.

Most of the extremists who have repeatedly expressed their hatred of British soldiers are themselves supported by the British state. A prominent hate-preacher—Anjem Choudary, a leader of the disbanded al Muhajiroun—was even caught on video earlier this year extolling Britain's "jihad-seekers' allowance." As he explained to his followers, "The normal situation, really, is to take money from the kafir"—a slur for non-Muslims. "Allahu akbar. We take the money."

After the video showed up online, a BBC reporter asked Mr. Choudary to clarify how much he's taking—the press has long reported a sum of £25,000 ($37,770) per year. "It's irrelevant," Mr. Choudary replied.

This would not be the first time a country has paid both sides in a conflict. But if the reported figure is anywhere near accurate, it would surely be the first time in human history that a society has paid its opponents better than it pays its own. A British soldier can expect to start in the army on a salary of around £16,000 ($24,172).

Contemplate the raw reality of that, the British government gives more money, in the form of welfare asking nothing in return, to those who would butcher a man with a kitchen knife on the streets of London than it does to its military personnel, who work to serve the interests of the British people.  It's insanity.  It's fucking unbelievable insanity.  Yet the Brits accept it.  They'll bury Lee Rigby and go on cutting checks to the butchers - after the bombings and the beheadings they'll just keep cutting checks and denying.

Much like the Swedes and the world are denying who is behind the now five day long rioting and conflagrations wracking Stockholm.  It is just "youths" burning cars and destroying property every night.  Bullshit.  It is MUSLIM youths, but they won't say that.  Here is an encapsulation of the fecklessness:

Community leaders insist that a main reason for the violence is the high rate of unemployment in immigrant communities, particularly in the suburb of Husby near central Stockholm, one of the worst affected by the nighttime violence, Peter Oliver reported.

Although Sweden’s unemployment rate is below the EU average, joblessness among those under 25 has reached nearly 25 percent. The RT crew in Stockholm noted that a majority of those taking part in the violence are young.

Really?  Youths are responsible?  Didn't know that, because the world over it is usually geezers that take to the streets at night set things on fire. Read down deep into the article to get at what is really going on.

Finally as a grace note to this deep-seated disease (a gratuitous stick in the eye, actually) our shithead President has just now already declared the Internet to blame for any terrorism to come while noting that no "large scale attacks" have occurred on US soil since 9/11.  Perhaps, but the entire city of Boston was shut down for a day and residents of Watertown were forcibly expelled from their homes at gunpoint because of two Islamic goofballs (who we knew about and subsidized anyway).  The attack on the Boston Marathon may have not been "large scale" in the Lightworker's eyes, but the fallout sure was.

Just think what any sleeper cell of Iranian-trained Hezbollah terrorists here in the US might have thought after Boston.  They would have thought "Damn, because of these two goofballs, the US will be on guard and step up its vigilance and it will be harder to execute anything we are planning."  Au contraire, with Obama in the White House and with the West's death wish as real as ever, the opposite happens - Obama declares that the US is officially letting down its guard and reducing its vigilance. 

It is truly a sight to behold.  I know history and I can't think of a single example in history where a society reacted to overt signals of existential aggression by its sworn enemies by denying the threat exists, laid down arms, and pretended that this is a proper defense.  Death Wish indeed.

The door has been opened again.  Large-scale terrorism is coming to America.  The Brothers Tsarnaev were nothing.  Brace for impact. We have a Death Wish, and until we don't, death is what we shall receive.

UPDATE:  More here.  This is a piece of the second term "Obama Unleashed" that conservatives have warned against. 

In sum, President Obama is deliberately weakening America’s ability to protect its citizens from terrorism. Having been reelected, he feels free to be true to his core convictions. Thus, to a greater degree than before, he will permit left-wing ideology to trump national security concerns.

The Lightworker is not interested in protecting America from Islamic terrorism, and thus he won't.

"If I Had A Son, He Would Probably Look Like Trayvon"

...and be into street-fighting, weed, and guns (at seventeen years old)...




Lest anyone forget, this is the image, and the only image, that the media allowed us to see...

What an adorable kid. Puts me in mind of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities which mocks the media's ability to transform any troubled kid who makes poor choices and befalls tragedy instantly into an honor student.

Empty Words

“We will never give in to terror, or terrorism, in any of its forms.” except that soldiers shouldn't wear their uniforms in public.

Fact Is Stranger Than Fiction, Anthony Weiner Edition

In the 1999 movie Election, Matthew Broderick plays Jim McCallister, a sexually obsessed public servant (teacher) who abuses his power to prevent a high school election outcome which he deems to be wrong based solely on his judgement.  After his sexual prurience and corruption have been exposed and life as he knew it falls apart, he decamps for that one place where you escape your disgrace can bury and hide from your past.  New York City!

What happens to a man when he loses everything? Everything he's worked for... everything he believes in? Driven from his home... cast out of society... how can he survive? Where can he go? New York City!

Hell, not only can you run from your shame in the big city, you could even get to be Mayor!

Stop With the "Islam Is a Religion Peace" Stuff Already

I'm talking to you, Mr. Cameron.

Really.  At some point (either already passed or surely soon to be reached) rational people will have to reassess the pandering to Islamist sensitivities.  How many terrorist attacks, how many suicide bombers, how many meat cleaver beheadings on the streets of a modestly civilized Western town like, say, London does the rational mind have to be confronted with before we state the obvious - all these barbarisms committed in the name of Islam sure don't seem peaceful, perhaps there is something about Islam that isn't, you know, peaceful?

It wouldn't be the first time that level-headed, clear-thinking people made just that assessment.

So, because a billion or so Muslims aren't all about town murdering and beheading infidels, we must adhere to the notion that Islam is inherently peaceful?  This is poppycock.  First, about 800 million of those billion are not in enough proximity of an infidel to contemplate a beheading in the name of Allah.  Furthermore most are too poor and intent solely on scraping out a living and something meager to eat. However, of that small population of Muslims (what, maybe 100 million) that mix with non-Muslims everyday in modestly heterogeneous socieities, there does seem to be a disproportionate amount of decidedly non-peaceful meat cleaver, firearm or explosive material uses.  Funny that.

The West needs a resurgence of cultural confidence whereby until such time as there are zero beheadings in the name of Allah, we will deem Islam an inspiration of violence and treat its adherents accordingly.

UPDATE:  Um, er, this would not be indicative of that cultural confidence of which I speak.   General Napier is turning over in his grave.

UPPDATE:  The Powerline guys have a typically excellent take on the whole affair.  And, I just thought of a better title of this post apropos Mr. Cameron, "How Do You Say 'Man-Caused Disaster' in Etonian"?  Perhaps we should naturally expect Orwellian Bullshit from the land of Orwell, no?

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

You can't make this stuff up.  CBS News has a president whose brother works for THE President.  The latter brother is Obama's spinmeister on several uncomfortable fronts, notably the Benghazi scandal, and he has a degree from NYU in...wait for it...fiction.

That reporting revealed that President Obama’s deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes — brother of CBS News president David Rhodes — was instrumental in changing the talking points in September 2012. ABC’s reporting revealed that Ben Rhodes, who has a masters in fiction from NYU, called a meeting to discuss the talking points at the White House on September 15, 2012.

It used to be said that frustrated fiction writers went into journalism where they continued to write fiction.  Nowadays, I guess, they go into politics.

Beheaded on the Streets of London

Civilization versus...well, the opposite...

I dunno, seems like civilization is losing.

Racism In America

As we are constantly reminded by our betters in the elite media and the halls of academia, an enduring and pernicious racism continues to plague America (yes, the America that elected and re-elected a mixed-race, foreign-raised black dude).

Behold the enduring pernicious racism that infects America.

"The Grave and Mortal Danger of Olive Oil in Dipping Bowls Has Been Removed"

While Europe's fiscal meltdown continues along, the world can rest assured that the massive problem of olive oil of unknown provenance on your dining table has been solved by the geniuses at the EU.

Olive oil jugs and dipping bowls will be banned from restaurant tables from next year following a controversial ruling by the European Commission.

From January 1, restaurants will only be able to serve olive oil in pre-packaged, tamper-proof, factory bottles which adhere to EU labelling standards.

The decision has unsurprisingly not gone down well with restaurant-goers and chefs alike.
European Commission spokesman Oliver Bailly tried to alleviate some of the criticism by claiming the new regulation would actually benefit consumers.

He told a news briefing in Brussels: ‘We are just making clear that when you want to have olive oil of a certain quality in a restaurant, you get exactly the one you are paying for.’

Europeans should feel better already.  Courtesy of Nigel Farage's latest beauteous rant.

Cheers to Energy States Hitting the Singles and Doubles

Readers of this blog and Mark Perry's blog know that Texas and North Dakota are America's great energy success stories of recent years, rare bright spots in Obama's centrally planned anemic economy.  They are the home run hitters.  But let's not forget the littler guys doing yeoman work to bring vitality and jobs to their economies and the wondrous blessing of cheap hydrocarbon energy to our country - the states that hit the singles and doubles of our energy game.

Take a bow Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah.

While Texas and North Dakota's boom in oil production have been well-publicized, five other western U.S. states made a notable contribution to the growth in U.S. oil production since 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Tuesday.

Production in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Texas' Eagle Ford play and Permian Basin outpaced other regions. However, gains in other Lower 48 states added up to approximately 320,000 bopd of production from February 2010 to February 2013, including the 290,000 bopd in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.

And there is this little tidbit.

Oklahoma and New Mexico production averaged over 530,000 bopd in February 2013, roughly the same as California's oil production in February.

All part of the "Reverse Grapes of Wrath".  Funny, there's no debt or pension crisis in Oklahoma...just sayin'

Is Liberal Scandal Outrage Phony or Are They Finally Realizing Obama Is a Cypher?

It is deeply enjoyable to watch the liberal media have to bash Obama over the multi-scandals now washing over his thuggish and incompetent administration.  I don't believe for one minute that the MSM is at all outraged by any of this or that they are willingly covering the omniscandal, but their backs are against the wall.  They have lost so much credibility over the years at the hands of their biases and have accelerated their downward spiral with their slobbering love affair with Obama, but four concurrent scandals are too much.  The notion of the Koch brothers buying the LA Times is swirling in the air, the NY Times has been rescued by Carlos Slim, and Fox News continues to grind every cable news competitor into dust; so crank up the faux outrage and the faux journalistic inquisitiveness because the dying patient that is the Democrat/Media complex can ill afford to lose its last lung and kidney in one fell swoop.

Us conservatives have said, time and again, that this is precisely what you get when you elect a man such as Obama.
- When you elect a man that has never had a real job, you will not get economic vitality
- When you elect a radical Alinskyite Chicagoan, you will get unsavory, bare-knuckled politics, not unifying optimism
- When you elect somebody nobody knows anything about, you will get unpleasant surprises
- When you get someone who disparages America, you will get policies that hurt America
- When you elect a man who has achieved nothing save getting elected, you will get nothing but campaigning

They've called us crazy for years.  How dare you call Obama incompetent.  How dare you call him empty. How dare you call him feckless in foreign policy.  How dare you call him economically ignorant.  How dare you call him thuggish.  How dare you call him radical.  How dare you call him narcissistic  How dare you.

Well, he is turning out to be all those things and more.  And it is your own fault, liberals, for placing all your hopes and dreams in such an empty vessel.

As I have said before, history will not wrestle with the question of why Obama turned out to be so disappointing, rather it will wrestle with the question of why Americans placed such lofty expectations onto a man of no consequence and no achievement.  Why did we pluck a small man out of obscurity and raise him up on a cloud of delusional hope?

That anybody expected even the most basic level of governance from Obama, let alone monumental and transformative things, is the story of greatest import here. And it is not that the hope, dreams and expectations placed into the Obama vessel were so grand, it is that the vessel that is Obama is so small. I have said it before - in November of '08 I said we bought ourselves a pig in a poke. Later I said that disappointment and pain is what we deserve given that we elected a man of no consequence and no achievement to the highest office in the land. Why we expected a man with no discernable track record or proven record of leadership to lead and to achieve in the name of this massive and complex society is a story of historical proportions. Did we think that plucking just any man off the street - essentially what we did - to wield enormous power was wise? And a young man to boot. And a man who never held a job at a profit-making organization. Why did we think that the wisdom acquired over a long life and the first hand knowledge of commerce gained by private sector work somehow weren't relevant anymore? Why did we think that - after over 200 years of electing (with a few exceptions) staid, boring, but presumably wise, adults, who could draw to them the counsel and assistance of many more wise, older adults - we needed a rock star of relative adolescence? Why did we think that a man with no knowledge of the private sector would lead a mostly private sector nation out of a severe economic slump? Why did we think that a man who consorted with raving America-haters would inspire a mostly proud and patriotic nation to excellence? Why did we think that a man who views our role in the world as flawed would draw our allies nearer to us? Why did we think these things?

Historians will gussy their conclusions up, but I think they will boil down to these:
Brain Fart and Affirmative Action Hire.

Cuomo Slush Fund Drys Up Without Secrecy

I missed this one.  Here is an awesome tidbit...without secrecy, donations to Cuomo slush fund dry up.

Donations for a lobbying group that promotes Gov. Andrew Cuomo's policies dropped from $17 million to zero after the state ethics board began requiring that donors be named, a 2012 federal tax filing provided Friday to The Associated Press shows.

The business-based Committee to Save New York has funded statewide TV ad blitzes boosting Cuomo's popularity and has lobbied the Legislature and public to support his proposals. The committee spent millions spinning Cuomo's image, without requiring the Democrat to touch his own massive campaign account, whose donors must be identified.

This is what Democrats are all about, and New York Democrats about 100x so.

Hey, Reject the Voices That Say Government Is Creeping Towards Tyranny

OK, so the IRS is targeting you for special scrutiny based on your political beliefs, the DOJ is illegally tapping the phone lines of the press (and these are their friends?!?!?!), the White House is lying to us about the existence of Islamic terrorism that is targeting us abroad and home, and cabinet officials are shaking down private businesses to fund an already lavishing funded entitlement.

But,naturally, us idiots have apparently a third thing that we inexplicably and irrationally cling to, and that is Rush Limbaugh.

This, of course, on top of what I have talked about that average Americans see every day:

Now, stop and think of what Americans are seeing and hearing every day.  First, their government just concluded a massive and contentious, but ultimately successful, effort to demand that they buy a product which many do not want and/or cannot afford.  This is on top of thousands of smaller petty tyrannies, such what lightbulbs one can use, how much water a toilet or washing machine may use, or what processing must be done to the milk you buy.  Then Americans look to some of the policy ideas that get put forth here and there, such as forcing the installation of tracking devices in all automobiles ostensibly so that government can tax you by the mile (good heavens, no, never to track your movements) or taking your retirement nest egg in return for a government provided annuity.  These are serious proposals put forth by credentialed people with access to those in power.

Finally, we see our elected representatives passing laws that no one has read let alone analyzed carefully.  Sometimes they do this in contravention of the rules and sometimes even with a sickening pride in bypassing the rules.  We have other officials suggesting the suspension of elections and there are countless examples were those in power don't seem to want or tolerate the rules applying to them, so we are increasingly living under a set of rules that the elites have exempted themselves from.  And I haven't even mentioned what to many is an obviously bloody-minded statist President who no one would ever accuse of valuing modesty in the exercise of power.

So, if Pat Caddell is right and Americans were "pre-revolutionary" prior to the IRS/AP/Benghazi/Sebelius crap, what are they now?

IRS Scandal, Sasha and Malia Hardest Hit...?

We know that Obama joked about targeting his political enemies using the IRS, and then he did it.  We also know that he joked about using Predator Drones to target boys that showed a romantic/sexual interest in his daughters. 

Knowing what we now know, how on Earth are these two girls ever gonna get a date?

Resurrecting the Democrat Calculus: How Much Pain Will the Party Take for Obama?

As readers know, I predicted a Lightworker re-election loss and was proven wrong.  (I along with Michael Barone and many other respected political prognosticators.)  In pondering this though, I think I was correct directionally but wrong electorally.  I claimed Obama was essentially a spent force, his initial intoxicating effect now irreparably diluted and anemic throughout the nation.

And I think this is true in terms of leadership, it just wasn't true electorally.  The Lightworker touched enough low information voters and Mitt Romney didn't inspire much enthusiasm, thus four more years of Obama.  But, it's four more years of Obama in office, not necessarily four more years of traveling Obama's path for America.  Yes, we will continue to give the Islamist threat short shrift and continue to be unprepared (or just lie about it);  yes, we will spend more and more taxpayers dollars on utopian bullshit, and yes we will have a feckless foreign policy that sacrifices our ideals and friends at the expense of courting rogues and liberal totems.  BUT, we will not feel the inexorable pull to the transformed America of Obama's inner vision (I say inner because nothing about where he wants to take us is ever revealed to the public).  I claimed Obama was done and wouldn't be President.  He is President but that doesn't mean he isn't done.  So, I'm salvaging a bit of analytical victory in this whole affair.

Indeed many in the press are (perhaps prematurely) entertaining the possibility of Obama 2.0 as one very long lame duck period, and the recent tsunami of scandals (real scandals that the press will be hardpressed to ignore unlike the myriad petty scandals which have been coming fast and furious (see what I did there?) since the day Dear Leader took office) is just the latest.  The press was coming around to this view after Obama's failure on the sequester and gun control.  But the key analytical framework for evaluating Obama's prospects for a successful second term is how the party leadership reacts.  I outlined the calculus that the Dem poobahs must be contemplating during Obama 1.0.

So in looking at the entire string of events from Virginia, New Jersey, and Scott Brown to what is shaping up to be a very bad Nov 2nd, what will Dem party poobahs conclude? Will they conclude that Obama is damaging to the party? Maybe, maybe not, but it is hard to draw any other conclusion. And what if they conclude he is? How will this affect the spending of resources and ability to attract competent individuals to the administration? As I state here, it will be difficult, making a turnaround very unlikely. This will be gut-wrenching for Dems, they are likely facing an intra-party debate on the fundamental question of whether to go all in for Obama and resurrect his presidency or pull the plug entirely on Hopeandchange and, as they so famously put it, "move on."

The calculus is still the same, and in fact, much more pressing as the emergent wave of scandals will resurrect the conversation in the smoke-filled rooms again and party poobahs will be assessing how much Obama is ruining the Democrat brand morphing it from champion of the downtrodden to thuggish would-be tyrants.  The answer will be critical to whether Obama 2.0 becomes the Guinness Book of Records Longest Lame Duck Presidency or something closer to what fanboy Obamabot nation had hoped for.

UPDATE:  Way back in 2009 I posited the theory that the stock market would rise on Obama's stumbles and sustain an upward trajectory as Obama's political power waned (see here and here).  So I present without comment this chart of the S&P 500 Index.  OK, here is the comment: note the pronounced slump right around early November and the sharp recovery that has gained momentum as Obama's 2.0 troubles have mounted.

Why Do Jews Vote Like Battered Spouses?

Despite crap like this (on top of his hatred of Israel and love of Palestinian terrorists) American Jews voted for the Lightworker in near lock-step.  I'll never understand the "battered spouse" voting habits of Jews.

Nobody Believes His Bullshit Anymore

Obama calls IRS targeting of conservative groups outrageous and nobody will believe him.

Obama gets are worked up over whatever in Benghazi and no one will believe him.

This POTUS has racked up such a record of insincerity, dissembling and misdirection that no one believes him any more. 

Hey Soledad...

This kinda rhetoric might get you a spot at Harvard, but that's about it.  Your musings don't make white America uncomfortable, they make us sigh.  Your "conversations" are jejune, banal, tiresome, empty, flat, bland, childish.  We're not not reacting because we are paralyzed by logical dissonance, we are not reacting because it is all so lame and ignorable.

Case in point.  Today's headlines bring us news that Detroit is bankrupt, that the ongoing municipal shit show that is the Motor City is worse that anybody thought.  The apotheosis of black America, the quintessential black run municipality is a disaster of epic proportions.  It is a model of the politics and theories that minorities would love to extend across the land and have.  And it is a fucking disaster and we can't say anything because of political correctness and the infernal effort to cow whites away from honest analysis with the accusation of racism.  Call Detroit what it is, a shit show if municipal corruption and malfeasance, and you are branded the worst sort of racist.  So what do we do?  Civically retreat - shut up, not care, and let places like Detroit burn.  If we're going to be branded racists for advancing the revolutionary concept that you shouldn't spend more than you take in, then we say "Screw this tiresome tripe, we might as well move out.  Disengage." 

We're down to the point where eating tacos is racist and a college logo of a dog is sexist.  It's all a magnificent farce and you and your fellow travelers have built this farcical world for us.  So, no, it's not uncomfortable.  It's silly.  And thus we treat YOU as silly, and you interpret that rejection as some sort of racial animus or defense mechanism.  It's not.  It is an old school purge of ridiculous voices in the public square.  It has been going on since time immemorial, in an open square there are always too many voices, a cacaphony.  To save time and energy, and get on with business, society dispenses with the useless ones so we can give those with something to say more time.

Scandal? What Scandal?

Dumb question of the day comes from Susan Collins.

The answer is that Obama and his ilk probably aren't upset about the IRS targeting "scandal", because they probably ordered it. Obama's base would probably be very angry to find out that the IRS wasn't targeting conservative groups.  Harassing conservative groups is what an Obama administration is supposed to be doing.  No scandal here.

They're probably just pissed that they got caught, but not that pissed because the MSM will protect them.

Meanwhile, Americans will grow ever more cynical about their government, buy more guns, demand more gridlock, refrain from taking economic risks (i.e. hiring) and wait for the storm of the Obama administration to pass.

No , Seriously, Where Is the Outrage?!?!?!?

I reproduce in whole the following from Instapundit.  This development is truly chilling.  This couldn't be any more vindication of our side's long standing claims that bigger and more empowered government will abuse it's power as a matter of standard operating procedure (kinda like this).  But I guess we're all a bunch of paranoid right wing nuts.  Is it even worth positing the notion of what the media would do if a Republican administration pulled this kinda shit...?  No I guess not, because when they do it, it's all for the good, or something...

SO WHEN HE WAS NEW IN OFFICE, BARACK OBAMA JOKED ABOUT TAX AUDITS FOR PEOPLE WHO DISPLEASED HIM. Now the IRS has admitted that it targeted conservative and Tea Party groups in 2012.

This won’t exactly be news to InstaPundit readers, but now the story has broken open.

My take: The employees involved should be fired and prosecuted. The affected groups should be compensated for the additional costs they incurred in responding to this illegal harassment, and Congress should take the money out of the IRS’s travel-and-entertainment budget.

More here: “Using the IRS to target political opponents is banana-republic stuff, a clear and intolerable violation of the public trust, not to mention relevant criminal statutes. This is not the sort of offense that should get these IRS workers fired from their jobs — it is the sort of offense that should get them five years in prison.”

Also: Do you think ObamaCare will be administered with any more fairness?
And some history.

UPDATE: They’re from the IRS and they’re here to apologize. An apology is not sufficient.
We need Congressional hearings, and the individuals involved need to explain what happened under oath.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rick Hasen: “Wow, this is not the way for the IRS to maintain credibility in a very politically sensitive area.”
Also:

Some conservative and libertarian groups have long suspected that the Internal Revenue Service has targeted right-leaning non-profits for extra scrutiny, but such allegations were always difficult to prove (and often sounded a bit conspiratorial). Now, however, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations has admitted her division targeted “tea party” and “patriot” groups — and apologized for it. In addition, the IRS apparently asked some groups for donor lists, even though such requests are usually contrary to IRS policy. (Hat tip: Rick Hasen, whose first comment was ”Wow.”) As they say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you.

Indeed. We do need hearings. Plus: “With IRS apology/disclosure, will Boehner/Issa know how to react to actual scandal?” Well, Benghazi is a real scandal. But the IRS scandal is a straightforward abuse of power that any voter can understand.

MORE: “If you were looking to establish a pattern, the McConnell bugger’s WH visit, Benghazi emails, & IRS targeting conservatives might be a start.”

Where Is the Outrage...?

In what form should the outrage over this take?

Idaho?  The highest paid government employee in Idaho is a football coach?  Do they even play football in Idaho?  Actually, that's not fair, I did see a few bleachers at ISU Pocatello last time I drove by.

Law School Dean in Maine?  Really?  Since when is the Pine Tree State a hotbed of legal talent?  Why the hell aren't they the state with a hockey coach as top earner?

This has got to be a little embarrassing for New Jersey...just saying.

Good for Dan Snyder

As a lifelong fan of the New York Football Giants, I loathe the Washington Redskins, but I have to say that I am in admiration of the Redskins organization today for taking a stand against idiotic political correctness. 

In Energy News

New Zealand looks to ramp up energy exploration.

Brazil looks to ramp up energy exploration.

Norway is expanding drilling in its territorial waters.

Even the EU says "Hey, this shale gas thing could be good for us."

California?  Not so much.

The Norwegians and New Zealanders are hardly callous despoilers of Gaia.  If they can do it, why can't California? 

The answer is, of course, Californians can do it.  And they will whether they like it or not.

Ugh. John Kerry. Just Ugh.

As per the British Daily Mail, “Russian President Vladimir Putin kept Kerry waiting three hours before their meeting at the Kremlin on Tuesday and continuously fiddled with his pen as the top American diplomat spoke about the ongoing crisis in Syria.”

I’m told that when Kerry landed in Russia, he was told a) that his hotel rooms weren’t ready, and b) that a military parade made it impossible for the Americans to drive to the Kremlin anyway, so he’d just have to wait.  Add two hours (check-in delay at the hotel) to the Mail version.

Seriously, my first thought was "why didn't Kerry turn around and go home?"  Answer:  Because he is John Kerry.

It would have been a great opportunity.  The ensuing media attention would have raised the obvious question, "Why didn't you wait to meet with Putin?" to which Kerry could have replied, "Because Russia has a GDP the size of New Jersey, it's just not worth too much headache."  Alas, not to be, because, well, John Kerry, who is a doofus of legendary proportions.

UPDATE:  Ouch.  Ouch.  And Triple Ouch.  The title here is just so devastating.  And this no right-wing hit job website.  Did I say "Ouch"?

Yes, Greece Is Still a Disaster

When a nation's youth unemployment rate hits 60%, which it has in Greece, it is not a "recession".  It is a total collapse of the the economy.  Let's diagnose the problem correctly here, this has nothing to do with this level of "austerity" or that amount of "stimulus".  The Greek state effectively ran the economy and the state has collapsed into a pit of insolvency, thus has the economy done so as well.

It is just worth noting every time we are reminded of the catastrophe that is Greece that the US is heading in that direction under Obama.  We may or may not ever get there, but it is undeniable, that is the general direction in which we are headed.

Lastly, it is worth noting again that we ought to think deeply about whether we showing the "compassion" that many of us think we are showing by expanding government into every corner of our lives.  How compassionate is it to build a giant structure that collapses in on everybody?

Just Remember, Those Oil Companies Are Evil

Chevron Wins Suit Against U.S. Over California Oil Field

By Andrew Zajac & Tom Schoenberg - May 9, 2013 2:07 PM ET

Chevron Corp. (CVX) is entitled to unspecified damages against the federal government in a contract dispute over oil deposits in California worth $37 billion, the U.S. Court of Claims ruled.
The Department of Energy “repeatedly and materially violated” two agreements governing determination of equity interests in oil and gas deposits located in the Elk Hills Reserve of California, Judge Susan Braden in Washington wrote in a 90-page ruling.
Chevron “is entitled to be compensated for damages, in an amount to be determined, including sanctions for DOE and the government’s ‘bad faith’ conduct and abusive discovery tactics,” Braden wrote in the ruling made public yesterday.

 First, take note of the elemental premise here - the US government is in the oil business, big time.  Second, they are a very bad partner, major bullies.

Full article here.

Benghazi Proves We Really Are in the Twilight Zone

This post at Instapundit gets at the most bewildering/infuriating/embarrassing/shameful aspect of the Benghazi debacle.

The fact that the government was unprepared for a 9/11 attack.  Stupid, but it's the government.  So I can live with that.

The fact that they hung Americans out to dry, and ultimately to die.  Not fine, but I understand that statecraft is messy and that absolutely pure Judeo-Christian morality sometimes takes a backseat in keeping a great nation and its interests intact.  That I understand and lament but I can live with that.

But the fact that the government of the United States of America came up with a lie that wasn't worthy of my nine year-old son and broadcast that same lie to the world is shocking to the core.  These are powerful and putatively smart people and my nine year-old could have come up with a better lie.  (BTW, the young Master Baseball ate a half a box of Thin Mints and then tried to convince me that he brushed his teeth as brown saliva seeped out the side of his mouth, and his BS was more believable than the Obama/Clinton/Rice shit show.)

Among the myriad other depressing aspects of our modern government we now have the prospect of them not even being able to lie well.  They can't even cover up their feckless incompetence with any level of plausibility.

Enjoy your government America.

Bloomberg Media Bias of the Day

So Green Weenie politicians and bureaucrats set up these massive and complex "carbon exchanges" in an elaborate attempt to use market mechanisms (about which liberals generally know very little, and admire even less) to reduce carbon emissions in their ongoing quixotic fraudulent attempt to stop global warming climate change climate chaos or whatever. Then these exchanges fail in catastrophic fashion as they were destined to do. Liberal governments, who made big plans relying on these exchanges are now in a pickle.

 The cost of permits on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange, fast becoming the benchmark price for Australia as the nation prepares for market-based trading in 2015, fell to a record 2.75 euros ($3.60) a metric ton last month. That’s about 12 percent of the $A29 ($29.50) Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government was counting on, meaning tax cuts will be deferred and the budget will have to be revised before it’s delivered on May 14, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said today.

So, what is the takeaway? "Dumb Liberals Fail"?  "Green Weenies Crash and Burn"?

Nope.  "Polluters Win."

Yup. All those evil people who produce useless, soul-crushing products like electricity have us all over a barrel again. Woe is us.

Another Dept. of Energy-Backed Green Automaker Goes Up in Smoke

This one was actually a two-fer of government social engineering, green and "uniquely designed to meet or exceed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines."  Ah yes, the wheelchair-accessible way to save the planet.  I can just see Pavlovian grins stretching ear to ear on progressive faces everywhere.

Alas, it was not to be.

Another alternative vehicle company that received a federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration has quietly closed its doors and laid off all its employees after it failed to meet financial benchmarks required to keep getting taxpayer dollars.
Vehicle Production Group CEO John Walsh said that the company has stopped production and laid off about 100 staff.
...
The company was given a $50 million loan guarantee by the Obama administration in 2011 to build the MV-1– a six-passenger, wheelchair-accessible van that would run on compressed natural gas. The vans went on sale in 2011 at a starting price of $39,950.

But there is more, note this bit of intrigue.

However, The Washington Post raised questions about the loan in 2011, pointing out that VPG was part of a portfolio of companies under the investment firm Perseus. Perseus vice chairman James Johnson was an adviser and fundraiser to President Obama.

Johnson is not just another adviser and fundraiser to the Lightworker.  He is one of THE MOST tapped-in Washington insiders evah, and the single most responsible individual (if you had to point to only one) for the sub-prime housing crash.

The disaster would not have been possible, the authors make clear, without the early efforts of James Johnson, Fannie Mae's chief executive in the 1990s and one of the Beltway's most connected figures—at one time or other the chairman of the Brookings Institution and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as a member of Goldman Sachs's board of directors.

As an assistant to Vice President Walter Mondale, Mr. Johnson had little background in financial markets. When he was chosen to head up Fannie Mae, in 1991, he quickly grasped that the key to Fannie's success, and to his own astronomical bonuses, was persuading Congress to maintain Fannie's implicit government backing while preventing any bank-style regulation to interfere with the company's operation.

This is your government America.  Enjoy it!

SREGS to Kick Out Facebook Founder?

Mark Zuckerburg is taking heat for supporting the Keystone XL Pipeline. Huh?  Aside from the fact that building the Keystone XL Pipeline is an entirely normal, rational, beneficial thing for this country to do for our economy (the opponents are actually few in number but great in influence), last I checked Mr. Zuckerburg was a business executive, and one in charge of a company whose customers require enormous amounts of cheap and pervasive electrical power in order to use his product (until, of course, they make the cell phone or tablet that runs on algae).  Furthermore, almost all of Mr. Zuckerburg's wealth rests on the health of this company.  So, why on Earth would anybody expect him to feel otherwise about the Keystone XL Pipeline?  Because they thought he was a member of the club.  What club?  SREGS.  Sophisticated and Righteous Elites In Good Standing.  And SREGS has an orthodoxy and thou shalt not buck the orthodoxy.  The penalty is, of course, expulsion from the club.  We'll see how much Mr. Zuckerburg wants to be in the club.  The pressure is on.

Explaining Ted Kennedy

The Pritzker family fortune is not of the same ilk as, say, the Steve Jobs fortune.  This expose by Rick Perlstein is a helpful reminder.  Here is just a hint, there's alot more.

Did you know that in the early 1970s, the Internal Revenue Service investigated the Pritzker family, whose scion Penny Pritzker has just been tapped by President Obama to become Secretary of Commerce, because their Hyatt Corporation was paying no taxes? And that in the course of the inquiry, an IRS statement quoted an informant with access to the records of the offshore bank where they hid their assets that the family, “through their Hyatt Corporation, received their initial backing from organized crime”?

 Take this history and many others of similar provenance, the Kennedy family fortune to just pick one, and you go a long way (but not all the way) to explaining the existence of "limousine liberals".  Liberal politics, a great motivator of which is a desire to be seen as righteously selfless and caring, is the age-old salve for a guilty conscience over ill-gotten gains.  Of course, they never do give back the money or direct it to the poor do they?  They just run for office and take your money to give to the poor. Because they care.

Compare and Contrast. Um, Actually, Just Compare...

So, a wife-beating school bus driver (spends alot of time around children) lives in a home where neighbors reported seeing a naked woman crawling around on all fours in the backyard and saw women peering out the attic window reminiscent of some creepy horror movie...and the cracker jack cops of Cleveland, OH can't figure this one out?????

Clearly, what was needed here - to find teenagers that needed to be found - was a local/state/federal law enforcement juggernaut armed and equipped to the teeth with paramilitary weapons and materiel which could go door to door and efficiently and effectively find these girls.  Oh wait...whoops.

Classic New York City

Tried to duck into Num Pang on B'way and 26th to grab a sandwich b/c there was no line.  Held the door for four NYC moms struggling to navigate kids and strollers.  Got no thank you, and did they let me go to the front of the now four deep line?  Nope.  Your welcome ladies.

California Not the Only Big State Successfully Keeping Economic Prosperity At Bay

It's hardly a newsflash, but the WSJ's Op-Ed page focuses in on the comparison of energy policy, and thus economic performance, in Texas and California.  The money lines:

In short, Texas loves being an oil-producing state while California is embarrassed by it. And it's no accident that Texas has been leading the nation in job creation since the recession ended. The energy boom is creating thousands of jobs related to drilling but also in downstream industries such as transportation, high-technology, construction and manufacturing. The Texas jobless rate is 6.4% while California's is still the third highest at 9.4%.

It's an old story but worth continually pointing out, and Mark Perry has more here.  But California is not the only big state with a deteriorating fiscal outlook and that can't seem to shoot straight on the matter of economic growth.  New York state is sacrificing an economic bonanza on the altar of environmental zealotry as well.  A new study produced by The Empire Center for New York State Policy concludes:

[The data] suggest that over the past decade, had New York State counties on the Marcellus Shale been allowed to use these resources, economic growth would have been substantially higher—at up to 15 percent for a given four-year period, or 6 percent greater than would otherwise be expected. This corresponds to a potential $8 billion in extra income in upstate New York.

Most of the money would go to upstate residents directly while the economic benefits, direct and indirect, would also accrue to the state as a whole.  Unfortunately, for the 8 million residents upstate, they are outnumbered by the 11 million downstate who don't share their values and don't have their interests in mind.

WRM: NY's "Open for Business" Ads Are Bunk

I've seen these ads all over TV, but I can't think of anything concrete that NY has done to make it a good business environment, and I can't think of a single CEO or CFO that I know that would locate or expand in New York state today.

Gee, Government Doesn't Work

Brace yourself.  Shocker coming. (Read the whole thing, it's a Big F**king Bidenesque Deal)

Study: Giving People Government Health Insurance May Not Make them Any Healthier

One of the most important health insurance studies ever done shows surprisingly little effect

Medicaid doesn't work?  You mean like Head Start doesn't work?  Or the War on Poverty didn't work?  Or the War on Drugs?  Or Welfare?  Or promoting home-ownership via Fannie Mae?  Or student loans?  Or Solyndra?  Or Fisker?  Or the Bureau of Indian Affairs?  Or the stimulus? 

None of it works.  And yet people want more government.

That's because it is not supposed to "work", it is supposed to move money around as the WSJ points out a little honesty from lefties today.

Yet liberals are proclaiming the results a great success and a reason to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare. They point to a side finding that Medicaid increased economic security and led to "a reduction in financial strain," the share of personal income going to care. "Here Medicaid shined. It hugely reduced out of pocket spending," noted Aaron Carroll of Indiana University and Austin Frakt of Boston University.
...
So when liberals are confronted with robust empirical evidence that Medicaid offers little benefit for the money, they emerge to rationalize the program's failures as, well, at least they spread the wealth.

Mountain Dew Controversy Proves What I've Been Saying: Indra Nooyi Is Awful and Should Be Fired

I have commented previously (the read the whole, brilliant post) on what an utter buffoon Indra Nooyi is and that Pepsi's Board of Directors should have canned her years ago, but they are in a pickle because she's sort of a leftish saint, a woman of color.

Further evidence of her buffoonishness comes courtesy of the Mountain Dew ad mini-controversy.  Here is the background.  Forget about the putative racism here, the ad is utterly daft.  Moronic. Imbecilic.  If this is what sells soda to younger folk, I weep for both the future and the entire profession of marketing. But this is what you get when you drive the marketing talent away from the company.

Pepsi's Board needs to fire Nooyi.  They just need to to Dew It.

Great Minds Think Alike, David Harsanyi Edition

David Harsanyi is a libertarian columnist whose writings are showing up in more and more prominent places.  Here David takes note of a remarkable feat achieved by "progressive Democrats" which I have often, and varyingly, labelled "Pelosicrats" or "Obamacrats".

One of the most seductive parts of President Barack Obama's political message (and the message of progressive Democrats in general) is sympathy for the poor and a willingness to talk about the disparities of capitalism -- about the rich being too rich and the poor being screwed. In some ways, it's the predominant message of the Obama era.

...

Now, if you're heavily invested in the market, life is peachy. A confounding fact, no doubt, when one considers that nearly every economic indicator known to mankind has been pretty abysmal of late. We are experiencing high unemployment, a shrinking labor force, stagnant gross domestic product growth and rickety consumer confidence. A disconnected market, though, has been on a historic boom. So if we need any more proof that life really isn't fair, think about this: The rich have the Federal Reserve, and you have Harry Reid.

All of that is true and it sounds remarkably like this take, which all 15 readers of NBfPB will be quite familiar.

I have well-chronicled a phenomenon that you rarely read about - that the Democrats (the Pelosi, Reid and Obama gang) has created an economy that stinks for average people but that is not so bad for owners of things.

and

That's what Washington has created for us, a modest recovery that is accruing to capital and not to labor...Ergo the profits but not too much hiring. So that's how we got an economy that stinks for "workers" but is OK for "owners".

Read the full recipe for this outcome here. Unfortunately, it was all as predictable as the sun rising.

RIP

It's a sad day in the world of One-Hit-Wonderdom.  God speed Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly.

Tell Me Why Americans Are "Pre-Revolutionary" Again?

It is no secret that the federal government is not popular.  All manner of recent polls confirm this and suggest an even bleaker view - Americans go beyond merely not liking, they actively fear their government.  I discussed this sentiment in the context of the 2012 presidential race, citing Pat Caddell's view that Americans are "pre-revolutionary" in mood. There are literary thousands of examples of government run amok to explain why Americans feel this way, but you only have to look at the rhetoric of a President who claims the desire and intention to "go around" Congress to advance his agenda, or a (thankfully former) Governor who suggested we suspend elections, to see the genesis of Americans' fears.

The worsening of this mood has baleful consequences (very baleful if you are a leftist).  People who distrust government wish, at the very least, that it not get bigger and more intrusive. Thus, since 2010 Americans have voted for de facto gridlock.  People who distrust government greatly make contingency plans from reining in economic risk taking to bracing for a break down in law and order (gun sales, ammo shortage, anyone?).

If you were an elected official and this fear and distrust was counter-productive to your goals, you'd seek to allay these fears, no?  At the least, you wouldn't make half-baked decisions that would continue to fuel these fears, right?  Not really.

President Obama’s pick to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency once said that a “majority of white voters” would never vote for a black candidate and that they should be excluded from “the democratic process.”

The Voting Rights Act should be expanded to “adjust districts to take [racially motivated voting] into account,” Watts said.

Such voters “need to be factored out of the equation,” Watt said, because “I’ve got no use for them in the democratic process.”

According to a contemporaneous report of the hearing published by the Cybercast News Service, Watt said that black voters — unlike whites — don’t have “an absolute commitment” to voting for a candidate based on race.

“Black people have not had the luxury of being able to say, ‘Under no circumstances will I vote for a white candidate,’” Watt said in his remarks.

Watt is, indisputably in my view, an abomination by virtue of holding these views.  He also happens to be a buffoon, whites have amply demonstrated an ability to vote across racial lines, while, it must be said, blacks have not.  So, we've got a doubly whammy of repulsiveness here, idiocy combined with a racialist, fascistic worldview.  Triple whammy actually, as we now add into the equation a position of substantial authority. A mentally deficient, racialist fascist in a position of substantial authority in the federal government with sway over a large sector of the economy...?  Was there no other person around who do the job at the FHFA?  Of course there was.  So the decision to appoint Watt was either an out-to-lunch decision or a deliberately antagonistic one.

And people wonder why the government is unpopular and its citizens are angry and wary.

UPDATE:  And today comes this poll. While armed revolt is a consideration, thankfully, only among 29%, what is more interesting, and indicative, is that only 47% don't see it as necessary.  So less than half have taken it off the table.  "Pre-revolutionary" indeed.

November 2010 Pays Dividends: We Avoided a Cap-N-Trade Disaster

In 2008, I said let's let Europe's cap and trade experiment play out a little before we rush headlong into a similar scheme.

I'll say it again, let's stay well behind the Euros and see if these schemes actually work or drive the economy over a cliff before we do anything.

Turns out this was wise advice, although I think we avoided this pitfall mostly by accident rather than out of prudence.

Back in 2005, the European Union launched its Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), and as the New York Times reported on Sunday, it is failing spectacularly. Why? Because of "serious flaws in the design of the system," as The Times writes. It goes on to say:

This year has been stomach-churning for the people who make their living in the arcane world of trading emissions permits. The most recent volatility comes on top of years of uncertainty during which prices have fluctuated from $40 to nearly zero for the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide.

Thank the Tea Party and Joe Manchin's rifle.

Our Topsy Turvy World

Watching the Lightworker's press conference yesterday, I am reminded of one of the most penetrating social commentaries of the modern age by one of our most brilliant sociological observers, Charles Barkley.  Mr. Barkley said that you know the world has gone to hell when the best rapper is white and the best golfer is black.

Well, we seem to be living in such a world again, massively out of tilt because the blithering idiot Bush's malign influence has pervaded every nook and cranny of society and persisted like a virus long past his official tenure in office, and the inarguable, super-human genius and ability of our current President are somehow proving ineffective.

The world is indeed upside down.  That or some starting assumptions are...well...

How Does Obama Have Any Juice With This Team of Scrubs?

Well, many, including some of the die-hard believers in Hopeandchange and God-like Lightworking, are starting to wax skeptical of their saviour's abilities.  There are alot of reasons but the consensus seems to be coming down on the side of lack of administrative/managerial skill.  Fancy that from a guy who never had a real job.  Anyway it sounds alot like the accusation  - made in certain quarters - about only being able to attract B-Team level talent or worse.  It was never going to be good due to Obama's lack of deep and broad networks, but when the Clintonites abandoned him, we fell into C-Team territory. I applied this analytical framework to whether Obama could pull off re-election and was wrong.  Perhaps though this same framework is best used in analyzing whether Obama can actually do anything in his second term.

I'm guessing with the likes of Kerry, Hagel, and Lew and leftovers such as Napolitano and Sebelius, the team is too Scrublike to give him much juice.