Your powers are weak, old man…

Comments

Lovely:

President Barack Obama on Thursday abandoned plans for a large missile defense shield in eastern Europe, promising instead a stronger, swifter defense system to protect U.S. allies against any threat from Iran.

In a brief announcement, Obama said he was dropping a plan to base interceptor missiles in Poland and build a radar system in the Czech Republic — a move that could ease tensions with Russia but fan regional fears of resurgent Kremlin influence.

Poland and Czech Republic took a big risk for us, annoying the Kremlin by agreeing to host those anti-missile bases. And keep in mind that those anti-missile missiles couldn’t do much to stop Russian missiles. First, there would have been too few of them. Second, most of Russia’s missiles would head north, over the pole and towards the US — safely out of range of the interceptors.

So what do you think will happen next time we need to ask something of Warsaw or Prague?

And there’s really nothing quite like a preemptive surrender, to Moscow and Tehran, on the eve of misguided talks with the Iranian government.

Comments

I won’t even try to explain the headline — that would take ages, and then, leave even most Monty Python fans scratching their heads. That aside, it’s all I could think of when I got this link from Stacy McCain. It might just be the last word on the RSM/CJ controversy from last weekend.

And I’ve closed the comments on this post, because I don’t want it turning into yet another Charles/Stacy slamfest.

Comments Off

I’ll be on Martha Zoller‘s show Thursday morning at 11:20AM Eastern on WDUN. North Georgia radio? Oh, yeah, we’ll be talking about Jimmy Carter.

You can find the streaming version on WDUN‘s main page.

Comments

“This is not the ACORN I knew.”

OK, so the President hasn’t said that. I don’t think. But here’s the official White House statement, delivered by Robert Gibbs and blogged by ABC’s Jake Tapper:

“Obviously the conduct you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable,” Gibbs said, raising the issue of videotapes posted online by BigGovernment.com and aired frequently by Fox News Channel that seem to show ACORN employees advising a faux prostitute and faux pimp on how to skirt housing and tax laws. “The administration takes accountability extremely seriously.”

Gibbs said the Census Bureau decided that ACORN could not assist the group in meeting “the bureau’s goal of achieving a fair and accurate count in 2010″ and that some other agencies are evaluating their relationship with the group. “We constantly evaluate to ensure that any grantee is living up to what has to happen in order to fulfill that grant application.”

He pointed out that “previous administrations” had awarded grants to ACORN either through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Comments

Click for the pictures of the chesty Boob Czar, stay for the haiku.

Comments

It’s today’s Trifecta, in which I stack up the right’s crazies (birthers, etc.) against the left’s… rank & file. And, oh yeah, those Whittle and Ott fellows were there, too.

Seriously though, the three of us had a blast taping this segment, and I think it shows.

Comments

Under the Obama plan, 95% of Americans will receive a tax cut, unless they happen to heat or cool their homes.

Comments

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no:

It’s going to be awfully hard to avoid President Obama on television this Sunday.

The president is going to appear on five Sunday talk shows – five – to press his case for health care, White House officials disclosed. That is a presidential record.

Well, you can probably guess what next Monday’s “Hair of the Dog” will be about.

Either that, or I need to put in for some vacation time. On second thought, scratch that. If the President thinks it’s important enough to make all the rounds, then it’s silly enough for me to ridicule as mercilessly as I know how.

Which reminds me, I’m not sure what it was about this week’s episode, but it’s gotten more feedback — and overwhelmingly positive — than any of the 20 or 30 preceding shows. So, thanks for that. And if you’ve got an explanation, I’d sure like to hear it.

Comments

President Barack Obama.

He’s liberal. He’s black. He’s the President of the Untied States of America. What more could the Democrats want?

Well, apparently they’d prefer it if he was maybe just a skosh more effective, because his every failure — or even misstep — is now met with charges of “Racism!”

Funny how the American people weren’t racists when we elected him. We weren’t racists when he Rahmed his $780 billion special-interest payoff through Congress. We weren’t racists when the polls supported the non-specific, hopey-changey version of his health care reform.

But when Americans pushed back — against having their heating bills doubled, against having their health care plans usurped — suddenly, now, yes, we’re racists. No less an authority than Jimmy Carter (and his peanut heads from Kos and HuffPo on down to Garofalo and other, even less successful, hangers-on) has said so.

So. Has the America which elected President Obama by a comfortable majority not even one year ago, become suddenly more racist than it was on November 8, 2008? Or, implausible as it may seem, has a center-right country unsurprisingly soured on a left-left President and his left-left-left-left-left enablers on Capital Hill and in the Washington press corps?

And could it be just barely possible, that even some center-left folks here in America be a little put off by their Commander-in-Cheif telling them to knock off all that oh-so-inconvenient “bickering” and back-talking?

It doesn’t take Occam’s razor to slice this one, does it?

Comments

Scott Ott, Bill Whittle and I take on Joe Wilson – and can’t come to any agreement at all. I’ve got hosting duties and start off, and end up, right in the middle.

Comments

From genuine rocket scientist Ed Lambert:

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average “Cash for Clunkers” transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that’s 224 million gallons/year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels of oil is about ¼ of one day’s US consumption. And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.

We all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million. How good a deal was that ???

They’ll probably do a better job with health care though

Er…

Comments

So — is conservatism dead? Ed Driscoll tackles that question on the new Silicon Graffiti.

Comments

Wolverines!

But what about Roadhouse, arguably the best movie ever made by man or beast? (Leaving aside bikini girls reading Star Wars.)

Comments

This week’s Hair of the Dog is up on PJTV. On this week’s episode:

Jay Rockefeller and his Senior Citizens Brigade are here for your money.

Joe Wilson loses his battle, wins his war.

David Axelrod thinks you’re cute.

Plus, how to thin the Congressional herd — with handguns.

Comments

Dear Democrats,

When the American people put you in power, it was because they were sick of the Republicans, not because they felt they needed someone to make the Republicans look good.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

-S.

Comments

Bruce Webster has a ton of pics from Saturday’s rally. Of the bunch, I think “No Child Left a Dime” is my favorite.

Comments

Raquel Welch, because bombshells never go out of style.

More after the jump.

(more…)

Comments

Charlie Martin — a computer scientist with extensive intelligence experience — emails from his secret bunker near Boulder, CO:

I did a back-of-envelope based on the photos and reports. A pretty dense crowd is about 1.8 people per square meter, and the National Mall alone is about 125 hectares, 1.25 million square meters. So that would be 2.3 million people.

Given the report from Steve of an actual literal count of 450K early on, I think the 2 million number is *very* plausible.

Knowing Charlie like I do, I’m inclined to trust his guestimates more than most people’s “facts.”

Which in this case… whoa.

Comments

Just got off the phone with Barbara Espinosa, who sent in tons of great pics from DC earlier today. Hopefully, we’ll have some video later, too. As a volunteer, she had “full access” to all parts of the protest. Here are some of the things she saw today, by the numbers.

•70 outdoor port-a-potties.

•90 minute wait to use one.

•The People Meter on Penn Ave had read 450,000 by noon, and 1.5 million two hours later. (That last number still looks awfully high to me.)

•1 DC police officer, who told her, “I’ve been here 20 years and this is the largest crowd I’ve ever seen.”

Comments

Over at LGF (no link, sorry) Charles Johnson notes that I’m taking phone calls from “white supremacist” Stacy McCain. (Thanks, Darlene.)

Now, I’ve worked with Stacy in person a couple of times, at the DNC last summer and at CPAC in February. Both were crowded, high-stress situations. At no time did I see Stacy treat anyone — of any color, creed, whathaveyou — with anything less than respect and good humor.

So, is Robert Stacy McCain a white supremacist? Hell if I know. But he enjoys breaking bread with agnostic half Jews like me, which would certainly make him a different kind of white supremacist.

Comments

The new PJM Political is live and on the innerwebs — and, man, did I go on an angry rant this week. Plus, our second anniversary extravaganza. Lots more, too, including Five Questions for James Lileks, and Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft.

NOTE: Yes, I’m still updating the Washington TEA Party protest below.

Comments

I’M BEGGING YOU

From Ed Driscoll.

PLAYING IT DOWN

Here’s the WaPo lede:

Conservative protesters by the tens of thousands crowded outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, a massive demonstration aimed at stopping what organizers called the over-expansion of the federal government under the Obama administration.

Tens of thousands? Technically accurate, but…

CABBING IT HOME

Calling from a taxi on the way back home, Stacy McCain said:

On our way out we spoke to Judith Knapp and her granddaughter Savannah Jackson, and they are from Baltimore. They were both wearing t-shirts that said American Patriot. I stopped and talked to them. Knapp said, “I’m not going to put her in debt, that’s my point.” And Jackson said, “Oh yeah!” to “are you a Beck fan?” after the subject of Cass Sunstein came up. “You wouldn’t believe what it’s like in the schools,” the indoctrination before and after the election, she added.

Plus this quip from Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), “You have redefined gridlock in Washington.”

BUT WHERE ARE THE HOT UNDERAGE GIRLS?

Courtesy of JeffDubya on Twitter.

CORRECTION

It’s ABC (TV, radio? Not sure.) that pegged the crowd at two million, not CNN. Official estimate is 1.5 — but those numbers always sound inflated. Settle for a million and call it a damn fine day.

LIVE FROM THE MALL

Mike Pence again, addressing the crowd: “After years of fighting runaway government on this hill, you people look like the cavalry to me.” And: “I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening.”

HERE IT COMES

Stacy was back on the phone, telling me about radio host Mason Weaver‘s speech — “I came here because I thought you might want to hear a black man speak without a teleprompter” — and then Ron Paul stepped onto the stage.

The crowd went so wild, I couldn’t hear Stacy anymore.

CORRECTION: It was a mere rumor of Paul then drove’em wild.

COMMENTING IT IN

“Gunboy3″ writes:

I arrived at Freedom Plaza around 9:30 and the place was well stocked. We started marching at 10 towards the Capitol but it was hard to tell just how big the crowd was while amidst it. I got to the West Lawn which was covered with folks and their signs, and turning to look up Pennsylvania avenue, I was heartened to see a stream of marchers still flowing. I don’t know what a million people look like, and I would be surprised if it was anywhere near that, but we can leave that to others to argue. I thought it was an impressive turnout…..I wonder how the WAPO will cover it…front page or Metro section?

Good question.

(more…)

Comments

From Bill Quick, on the GOP’s 2010 prospects, “sad to say, the GOP seems to do a bit better at observing its own principles when it’s out of power.” You know Bill was practically seething with understatement when he typed “a bit.”

And I’ll repeat what I said yesterday on the same subject: True dat.

ADDED BONUS THOUGHT: Can one seethe with understatement? If one isn’t actually British, I mean.

Comments

Give me five minutes, I’ll give you the entire Week in Blogs. Here are the links to this week’s picks.

How quaint.

Personally I prefer booze to boos, but whatevs.

The luckiest geek in the world. (You can meet of the lovely ladies here, where she blogs politics.)

The stupidest publisher in the world.

Do I have to choose just one?

Rev. Wright is wrong again.

Run away!

Why play fair?

Picking your fights carelessly.

Get well soon, Mike Cannon.

Find out what it all means, at PJTV.

Comments

Now this is how you go after pirates.

It’s a private speedboat/yacht thing, good for up to 150 kph (you read that right). The Royal Navy is getting some with remote-control machine guns.

UPDATE: I had this item schedule-posted because, duh, I’m not getting up at oh-dark-thirty on a Saturday. So I showed the picture to my wife Friday afternoon, and told her, “this boat can go almost 95 miles an hour.”

Melissa replied, “It’s very pretty, but why would you need to go that fast?”

Which was followed by a few seconds of me looking stupid, until I remembered. “This boat can go almost 95 miles an hour.”

Comments

From the rightwing nutjobs at the Baltimore Sun:

SECOND UPDATE: For those of you criticizing me for defending ACORN here, I’d like to say the existence of the second video has erased what little benefit of the doubt I was willing to extend before.

ACORN, it’s safe to say, is a criminal enterprise — a mafia racket with moral pretensions.

Comments