Retiring Vermont Senator Judd Gregg was quoted in The Hill arguing in a sour fashion that the Democrats would pass some version of healthcare by moaning about 60 votes in the Senate and then constructing them afterall. The bill then will go to Conference, where all the progressive cooking by Mrs. Pelosi will be ladled into the Senate’s cautious cake mix, and then Hary Reid will find another 60 votes to pass the public option lite. Gregg offered no evidence for his measure, just craggy and disconsolate fatalism.
Than look at ACORN. Yet, the hits just keep on coming. There is another tape out from James O’Keefe of filmmaker James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles going to ACORN offices in an expose of the lengths to which ACORN workers will go to assist in setting up an underage prostitution ring. Here is the latest video released by O’Keefe:
Oh, boy. So, did I get this right, ACORN has/is working with Larry Flynt, the king of pornography??? Holy crappydoo - I am sure so many people will be happy to know that’s to whom their hard earned dollars are going. Read the rest
The housing market dropped off a cliff in October, as the original Nov. 30th expiration date for the first-time home buyers tax credit approached, according to the Housing Market Monitor of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
I love that pearl of wisdom shared by Danielle Park, my guest this past Sunday evening on No Quarter Radio’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle. I find it very applicable to the recently released economic report on housing starts. What did that report indicate? Housing starts in October registered a supposed surprising decline of 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted 529, 000 annual rate.
Is this truly a surprise? Market analysts and government pundits who continually ‘oversell’ economic data as legitimate, when in fact that data is gamed via government props, need to show surprise when a report disappoints. If they do not act surprised, then they merely expose themselves and lose credibility.
The simple fact is the housing market in our country remains in decline. One merely needs to look at the continually increasing levels of delinquencies to understand that. I addressed this important data last May in writing, “The Most Critical Economic Statistic”:
Which economic statistic is the most important? Unemployment? Housing starts? Trade deficit? Inflation? Retail sales?
Nunly (aka, Divine Democrat), has allowed us to publish her post from Bad Habit.
Last night, while watching TV, I heard a blip on the news about how woman are being told that we don’t need those nasty ol’ mammograms anymore until we are 50 years old…and even then, only once every two years. My jaw just dropped. I thought it was some ridiculous rogue group that were shooting their mouth off, but no…it’s our government telling us that.
By now I’m sure most have already heard this news, so I guess I’m just writing this to blow off some steam and write my own views on this subject.
Ok…first let’s look at this government task force that has decided women should be the first in line to be thrown under the health care bus in order to save our government and the health insurance companies the costs of caring for us. According to the Chicago Tribune, this is “an influential group” called The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a government sponsored group whose work is closely followed by doctors and insurance companies. Read the rest
Here’s Tina Brown’s lament for The One’s visit to China on today’s MSNBC Morning Joe, transcribed by moi:
It’s sad that Obama can’t say anything about dissidents when he goes to China. It’s sad that he can’t raise anything. You know, he just has to go there and suck up.
I’m sure we all agree that Miranda warnings for U.S. citizens are a precious right. (See the original Supreme Court decision and its history: Miranda v. Arizona.) Most everyone, thanks to countless TV shows, is aware of that right. And, also thanks to TV dramas, we’ve all seen instances in which an innocent person accused of a crime inadvertently said something to the police that came back to haunt him/her. Had this person taken advantage of having an attorney present, s/he would have advised the accused to remain silent. Read the rest
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1182) on November 19, 2009 at 4:10 PM in Current Affairs | 181 Comments
I know some consider us a full-up Barack Obama hate site. We are not. I do not hate the man. I do think he is a good husband and a good father. His daughters clearly adore him, and it is tough to fake what teenage girls think about their father–good fathers have a warm relation with their daughters. My beef with Barack Obama is simple–he is unqualified by experience and by judgment to be an effective President. At the end of his first term he will at least have the experience to be President. The judgment issue remains in question.
All of this is prelude to a comment about what Barack did on Veteran’s Day courtesy of Daily News reporter, James Meek. James is a friend and, if you have read his pieces, known for his steely-eyed search for truth. He certainly is not an Obama cheerleader or sychophant. So check this out:
The Republican charges of “Death Panels” in the first House health care bill (a jumbled mess for the most part) was over-the-top dramatic. But as any reader could easily discern, the tide had shifted from “get a team OK before letting them go” towards “get a team to assess keeping them going.” In any event, this section was abruptly withdrawn and has not reappeared in any obvious way.
I don’t think I am being paranoid when I suggest that the new tactic for rationing health care will be to do it slowly, quietly, in little bits and pieces off to the side, and maybe no one will notice.
Well, a new set of mammogram recommendations has just been issued, and it would appear to be a good example of such a sly attempt.
Have you seen this “News”Week cover? Never mind the title of the article, excuse me, the EDITORIAL, that goes along with the cover:
Holy smokes. Needless to say, there has been a LOT of discussion about this photograph, and why Newsweek would choose to run this particular photo. Taylor Marsh - former Clinton supporter now Obama water carrier - wrote a piece at Huffington Post on this, “What Was Newsweek Thinking?“. Media Matters had a post by Julie Millican, “Newsweek Should Worry More About How To Solve Its Problem With Sexism” (h/t to Bronwyn’s Harbor), though many of the comments would lead one to believe it is find and dandy to be sexist to someone if they are a Republican, and Palin’s an idiot anyway, so what’s the big deal?? (That was SNARK on my part, but sums up the sentiment there.) Read the rest
On Tuesday, I wrote “Just How Sorry Is Goldman Sachs?” in response to a blanket, unspecified, and unsolicited apology put forth by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. In my commentary, I asserted:
Wait a second. Blankfein admits that Goldman participated in activities that led to the crisis? Get Lloyd back in here and ask him for specifics.
In an attempt to probe as to Goldman’s culpability, I inquired:
What do you think Blankfein was referring to when he stated that Goldman “participated in things that were clearly wrong”? I’ll get the ball rolling with a few possibilities:
I admit, when I first saw the headline about the child refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, I just assumed it was about the whole “under God” thing in there. Well you know what they say when one “assumes,” and nowhere was that more the case than here, as this article makes clear, A Boy And His Flag: Why Will won’t pledge.
This boy, though only 10, is well, amazing. He outshines millions of adults in this country, that’s for sure. The article makes that point clear:
Will Phillips isn’t like other boys his age.
For one thing, he’s smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what’s playing on Radio Disney.
Recently, Vice President Biden reported that the Stimulus Program had created a huge number of jobs. If you have 41 minutes to spend to watch him - what the hell is the matter with you?? Oh, no wait - sorry. Ahem. I meant to say, if you have the time, you can watch Biden announce all of the many jobs recovered below in this “clip” (and I use the term loosely):
Isn’t that great?? Well, it would be if it was actually true. But it is not. For instance, did you know that Puerto Rico has 99 districts? Nope, me, either. Because they don’t. They have 1 (one). How about Arizona? Heck, they’ve got at least 38 (thirty-eight), right? Oh, wait, no they don’t - they have 8 (eight). The alleged “recovered jobs” bragged about by Biden and how our stimulus money is being spent don’t quite match up. I know, big surprise (almost as much as the following report being on ABCNews): Read the rest
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…”
Retail sales rebounded strongly this month posing a 1.4% gain. Good news, right? In an attempt to provide a degree of sanity to what has become an extremely volatile report, let’s break this report down a little bit further.
Recall that our automotive sales have bounced around tremendously over the course of the last three months due to the Cash for Clunkers program. Auto sales soared in August given Uncle Sam’s handout. Once Uncle Sam shut that spigot off, auto sales dropped like a stone in September. In October, auto sales had a respectable bounce. All this said, there is no respected economist who doubts that the Cash for Clunkers program pulled demand forward. In the process, it has skewed the overall retail sales readings. What is the American consumer doing away from the auto sector? Let’s navigate. Read the rest
Remember back in April when Obama traveled to the G-20 and bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia? If not, here it is:
Actually, that doesn’t look as much like a bow as it does a genuflect. Not, true, says Obama’s Spokes Weasel, Robert Gibbs. Oh, no - it is just because Obama is tall, and “bending over.” I am not kidding you - that’s what he claimed. So, don’t believe what you actually SAW, just believe Spokes Weasel that it’s not what it looked like it was. Read the rest
At Tokyo, the peculiar bow by POTUS to the diminutive Japanese Emperor Akhitio elicited predictable media chit-chat on the Monday following the event, including this anchor inquiry from MSNBC, “Why was this considered by some a gaffe?”
The answer is less significant to me than the speculation that the POTUS conduct may be connected to an apology or an expression of remorse with regard the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Editor’s Note: Reprinted from The Daily Beast with the express permission of Steve Clemons, whose excellent blog is Washington Note. Steve is Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, and you’ll often see his seminars on C-Span. This article has been featured at Memeorandum.com.
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The White House counsel was done in by a scurrilous leaks campaign. So much for the Obama team’s pledge to be transparent, forthright and accountable for their actions.
Gregory Craig, White House counsel to President Obama and national security advisor to Obama during the presidential campaign, resigned his post this past Friday. But when rumors broke Thursday of his imminent departure, Craig had not written his farewell note and may not have planned to leave – yet.
Since the summer, word had been leaking that Greg Craig’s days were numbered and that Obama campaign legal counsel Bob Bauer would be moving in to take Craig’s spot.
What is there to add? Well, there’s more below, but for now just kick back and enjoy Charles Krauthammer’s wry observations on yesterday’s Special Report:
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