IT’S AN EMBARRASSED SILENCE, THOUGH: U.S. Media Silent As Climate Scandals Continue. But yeah, The Times of London is eating their lunch. And dinner, breakfast, and bedtime snack.
Archive for January, 2010
January 31, 2010
AT AMAZON, outlet deals.
A REALITY CHECK FOR A LAME WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT TALKING POINT: From the comments to my Tea Party column in the Washington Examiner:
And how many times did you take to the streets to protest the deficit during the Bush presidency? I’m guessing zero.
You see this kind of thing pop up in comments a lot, and sometimes even out of the mouth of the less-honest variety of pundit. Which means, of course, that once again it’s time to roll out this graphic:
Notice anything? Like maybe how Bush’s deficits are dwarfed by Obama’s? And maybe how the deficit was falling throughout Bush’s second term? Until the very end, when TARP — hardly popular with the Tea Party crowd — rolled out. The “Bush was as big a spender as Obama” line is just a flat-out lie, which the apologists for the powers that be hope you’ll buy because . . . well, because a lie is pretty much all they’ve got at this point.
NO, I DIDN’T WATCH THE GRAMMYS. Didn’t even vote when I got my ballot this year. Just not that excited by the choices. Watching Holmes on Homes at the moment. Vindicates my home-looking technique of checking the main electrical service for neat connections. . . .
CHANGE: Michael Barone: Democrats fall as fast as Nixon Republicans in 1974. “The victory of a Democrat in the special election to fill Vice President Gerald Ford’s House seat in February 1974 was a clear indication that the bottom had fallen out for the Republican Party. Brown’s victory last week looks as if something similar has happened to the Democratic Party. Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble.”
KING BANAIAN: What’s the matter with you Americans?
RUBE ALERT: Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to be a multi-year process?
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Cynthia Yockey. “I think Obama is telling gays, ‘Bite me!'”
CLIMATEGATE — THE HITS KEEP COMING! London Times: UN climate panel shamed by bogus rainforest claim.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON OBAMA AND THE BCS:
One day shortly after the Second World War ended, Winston Churchill and Labour Party Prime Minister Clement Attlee encountered one another at the urinal trough in the House of Common’s men’s washroom. Attlee arrived first. When Churchill arrived, he stood as far away from him as possible. Attlee said, “Feeling standoffish today, are we, Winston?” Churchill said: “That’s right. Every time you see something big, you want to nationalize it.”
I’m reminded of that story by news that President Obama plans to regulate the college football playoff system. . . . With the government already running the banks and the auto industry, and trying to take over the health care industry, however, one might have hoped that sports would escape the ravening maw of Leviathan.
But I guess Attlee and Obama are kindred spirits.
Well, let’s hope that Obama doesn’t do for America what Attlee did for Britain, though that does seem to be the goal . . . .
“COME THE REVOLUTION, WE’LL OWN THAT PLACE.” And then?
The UAW turned the lodge into a stunning and sprawling $33 million complex, adding another 200 acres and a $6 million golf course rated among the best 100 public courses in the nation.
Although it bills itself as an education center, it is actually a world-class resort, long a favorite spot for the union’s leaders to unwind. Reuther, who made the place his personal retreat, died in a plane crash on his way to Black Lake in 1970. His ashes are scattered on the grounds.
But today a “For Sale” sign hangs from the resort, which has required more than $25 million in subsidies from the union’s depleted treasury over the past five years. The UAW’s membership has fallen to roughly 430,000, from a peak of 1.5 million in 1979.
The corruptions of power. Plus this: “Even in Michigan, the bluest of blue-collar states, union membership has dropped well below 20 percent, and there’s a growing drumbeat to get a right-to-work proposal on the ballot as a means of improving the state’s economic competitiveness.”
TEXANS’ CHEERLEADERS support troops overseas.
“WE ARE SO SCREWED.” “Perhaps more than anything else, failure to recognize the precariousness and fickleness of confidence-especially in cases in which large short-term debts need to be rolled over continuously-is the key factor that gives rise to the this-time-is-different syndrome. Highly indebted governments, banks, or corporations can seem to be merrily rolling along for an extended period, when bang!-confidence collapses, lenders disappear, and a crisis hits.”
I WANT ONE: The Artillery-Grade 600 mph Pumpkin Cannon. “Along with his friend and co-builder, John Gill, Arold’s favorite pastime is sending pumpkins—and other roughly spherical projectiles, including a bowling ball and a 12-pound frozen turkey—flying nearly 4,000 feet across Gill’s Hurley, New York, farm.”
TONY BLAIR: No Regrets For Removing Saddam.
VALENTINE’S DAY GIFTS for him and for her.
FRANK RICH questions John McCain’s patriotism. I thought it was wrong to question people’s patriotism. I guess this is more of that “change” people were calling for.
IS DISMANTLING THE ONLY GPS BACKUP SYSTEM a good idea?
POLITICAL AD OF THE YEAR? It’s going to be hard to outdo this, all right, but the year is still young . . . . .
ANOTHER ONE bites the dust.
DON SURBER: States Obama Would Lose If The Election Were Held Today:
Those states are Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
According to Surber Math those states carried 167 Electoral College votes in 2008 (2012 totals won’t be known until after the April 1 Census). Added to the 173 Electoral College votes that John McCain had and my friends, you would have a new president.
But the 2012 election is a long way off. Right?
Yeah, nothing for the White House to worry about. Move along.
UPDATE: Related: Chicago Cools to Barack Obama, Its Hometown Boy. “Gordy’s is the gathering place in this rundown, mainly black district. The chief topic of conversation is President Barack Obama, who started his political career as a community organiser in the area and whose wife, Michelle, grew up nearby. Over the past year, Clay, known as Cee Cee, has watched his clients go from soaring enthusiasm to deep disillusion.”
Plus this:
“Obama came to power because the American people were suffering from a bad case of charismaphilia,” said Milt Rosenberg, a social psychologist who hosts a radio show in Chicago. “But after a year of profligate spending and programmes, the public really didn’t want, like healthcare, the bloom is off the rose.”
Charismaphilia is out? That must mean that “charismaphobia” is in! Hey, maybe that gives me a shot!
STILL MORE: Chicago reader Fred Butzen writes:
Living in Obamaville as I do, it was quite common up through last autumn to see people wearing Obama T-shirts and campaign buttons – just as people in other parts of the country wear crosses or crucifixes. But now the buttons have largely disappeared, and the tattered Obama bumper stickers aren’t being replaced. And I’ve heard hard-core Democrats complaining that Obama is pulling the entire party down. Remember, Chicago’s unofficial motto is, “Don’t make no waves, don’t back no losers,” and Obama has “loser” written all over him.
With red ink.
FINALLY: Questioning Surber’s analysis.
POPULAR MECHANICS: Rebel Engineers Sit With NASA to Chart Future of Manned Space.