Yesterday's Elections...

The New York Democratic pervs (Weiner, Spitzer) lost.

The nannies lost (Morse and Giron, Colorado's two Democratic gun-controlling state Senators) – recalled from office and replaced with gun rights Republicans.

We won!

Ouch!

And:




And (Hugh Hewett via Twitter):

Caller just now: "The president's problem tonight is he had to give a speech with John Kerry's foot in his mouth"

Hmmm...

Via reader Jim M:

The One Pisses Me Off, Part 827,395...

A few days ago, President Obama made some remarks on Syria that included these:

Now, I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm. But as I've already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options. We have consulted with allies. We've consulted with Congress. We've been in conversations with all the interested parties, and in no event are we considering any kind of military action that would involve boots on the ground, that would involve a long-term campaign. But we are looking at the possibility of a limited, narrow act that would help make sure that not only Syria, but others around the world, understand that the international community cares about maintaining this chemical weapons ban and norm.

There's one part of the remarks above that really pisses me off.  It's this part:

...my military...

Last time I checked, that military belonged to the United States of America, not this president (or any other president).

I think that choice of words reveals an essential truth about Obama: his presumption of the status of a monarch.  This is no surprise, certainly – his behavior fairly screams that presumption.  But to have him actually say it in a public context is somehow especially infuriating.  He's openly flaunting his belief that he possesses the unlimited powers of a monarch.

And at the same time, he (lamely) punts the Syrian intervention decision to Congress.

William F. Buckley, Jr. famously said “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”  I'll paraphrase that slightly and say I'd rather have a President randomly chosen from the Boston phone book than have Obama.

Hell, I'd rather have Biden than Obama...

On Syria...

Reader, friend, former colleague, and Idaho real estate mogul Doug S. sends along this tongue-in-cheek summary of all the reasons why we shouldn't intervene in Syria.  The Wall Street Journal today summarizes the reasons why we should.  Foreign Policy tells us what the big consequences of a Syria attack will be.  Michael Yon publishes the pithiest Obama criticism, a comment by Adam Holloway (member of the U.K. Parliament): “Outrage is not a strategy.  I thought military action always had to have a purpose behind it – so what is the endstate here?  Hit, and then hope?”

Me?  I'm with Sarah Palin: let's let Allah sort it out...

Oh, If Only...

Via my mom:

Flying Pig Moment...

Is the New York Times finally getting it?

I'm So Depressed...

The Filthy Filner saga is over.  No more reliable morning entertainment for me!

They're All Bozos...

...in the White House...

A Nation of Sullen Paranoids...

That's the title of an excellent piece by Peggy Noonan, and a quote from an unnamed Senator...

How Government Thinks...

In California, anyway.  Five years ago, the state government passed legislation offering tax credits for investors in certain kinds of small businesses.  Recently, the California Supreme Court ruled those tax credits unconstitutional.  Now the state's Franchise Tax Board (the tax collectors) are assessing back taxes retroactively for all five years, to those claiming the tax credits.  And not just back taxes – interest and penalties, too.

No individual or business could ever get away with an obviously unfair practice like that.  Only the government...

The asylum really is being run by the lunatics...

Quote of the Day...

As seen on the “Book of Face”, via The Smallest Minority:

Obama wants Catholic institutions to provide birth control and abortions.  Does this mean he will force Muslims to serve alcohol and bacon?

Awesome.

Obama Cashes a Check...

Via my mom:

President Obama walks into a local bank in Chicago to cash a check. He is surrounded by Secret Service agents. As he approaches the cashier he says, "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me?"

Cashier: "It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?"

Obama: "Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the President of the United States of AMERICA !!!!"

Cashier: "Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of 9/11, impostors, forgers, money laundering, and bad mortgage underwriting not to mention requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID."

Obama: “Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am."

Cashier: "I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them."

Obama: "I am urging you, please, to cash this check. I need to buy a gift for Michelle for Valentine’s Day"

Cashier: "Look Mr. President, here is an example of what we can do. One day, Tiger Woods came into one of our bank branches without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a coffee cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check.  Another time, Andre Agassi came into the same place without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot where as the tennis ball landed in a coffee cup. With that shot we cashed his check.  So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?"

Obama: Obama stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, "Honestly, my mind is a total blank...there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don’t have a clue.”

Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?

Quotes of the Day...

These quotes are all from a single article, and mostly what makes them notable is who said them.  Read the quotes first, then click on the link to see who said them – and read the whole piece:

If Americans are worried about money in politics, there is no larger concern than the Clintons, who are cosseted in a world where rich people endlessly scratch the backs of rich people.

I never thought I’d have to read the words Ira Magaziner again. But the man who helped Hillary torpedo her own health care plan is back.

You never hear about problems with Jimmy Carter’s foundation; he just quietly goes around the world eradicating Guinea worm disease. But Magaziner continues to be a Gyro Gearloose, the inept inventor of Donald Duck’s Duckburg.

Clintonworld is a galaxy where personal enrichment and political advancement blend seamlessly, and where a cast of jarringly familiar characters pad their pockets every which way to Sunday.

Until Harry Truman wrote his memoirs, the ex-president struggled on an Army pension of $112.56 a month. “I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable,” he said, “that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency.” So quaint, Packer wrote, observing, “The top of American life has become a very cozy and lucrative place, where the social capital of who you are and who you know brings unimaginable returns.” 

The Clintons want to do big worthy things, but they also want to squeeze money from rich people wherever they live on planet Earth, insatiably gobbling up cash for politics and charity and themselves from the same incestuous swirl. 

Ouch! Who dumped on the Clintons?  Hint: it's someone whom you'd expect would be leaping upon the Hillary bandwagon right about now, winding up for 2016...

California: You Will Earn 3% on Your Retirement Savings...

If I were still employed by a small business in California, this would really piss me off – the nanny state telling me that it knows how to save for my retirement better than I do.  The proof is their guaranteed rate of return: a whopping 3%. 

Oh, vey.

We gotta get out of here...

A Peek Inside North Korea...

Michael Malice is an American writer who was born in the Soviet Union, but came to the U.S. at the age of 2.  He visited North Korea as a tourist, partly on a quest to see a land that might give him a sense of what life in the Soviet Union was like for his parents.

He wrote about his week in North Korea for Reason.  He has some fascinating, sober, and insightful observations about the people there; well worth reading.  I continue to be impressed with the quality of the writing in Reason - one of only two magazines that I still subscribe to (the other is Science News).

A lot of observers who claim to be much better informed about what's going on inside of North Korea are convinced that the government there is about to collapse.  Nobody can be precise on the timing, of course – but the consensus seems to be that the intersection of a better-informed public (mainly through smuggled devices giving them access to Chinese media) and a disintegrating state apparatus (mainly because of its inability to pay, or even feed, its minions) makes a collapse inevitable.

That can't happen soon enough for the suffering people of North Korea.  But when the collapse does come, it will pose large problems for South Korea, and to a lesser extent, China.  South Korea will be in the same position as West Germany in 1991 – but with an even greater economic disparity, and with the enormous disadvantage of a relatively poorly educated and brainwashed North Korean population.  China will inevitably be taking in refugees and probably supplying humanitarian aid.  Even worse for them, however, will be losing the useful thorn in the West's side that North Korea has been for them...

Organize for Action FAIL...

Organize for Action is the child of Obama's permanent campaign, and claims “millions” of members.  Yesterday they called for a rally in Georgetown (on the outskirts of Washington D.C.) to agitate for Congressional action on anthropogenic global warming.

Nobody showed up.

Not one single person.

Awesome.

Filthy Filner: Just About Out of Support...

Weeks after the public revelations started, the last Democrats willing to defend Filthy Filner are turning on him.  The last city council members have called for his resignation, as have California's two Democratic Senators and nearly all of his former Democratic colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Even the national lamestream media is starting to take notice, though (of course!) they rarely mention Filner's party association.

Michelle Malkin has a good piece on the Filthy Filner coverup at NRO, and San Diego's 10 News has a straight up piece on the latest twist in the Filthy Filner Saga: allegedly he started his intensive therapy a week early, and so finished a week early – yesterday.

Will Filthy resign?  Will he fight on?  For locals, it's an entertainment smorgasbord, with every choice quite tasty...

Remember When...

Passed along by reader, friend, former colleague, and Idaho real estate mogul Doug S:

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do remember...

How To Safely Keep Those National Secrets...

Passed along by reader and neighbor Marisa S., who says “Good One!”:

I wasn't able to confirm that it was actually Mike Huckabee who said this, but it does sound like him...