MaxRedline

Day Of Remembrance

Thank you.

Hardball

Somewhere in this favored land, the tingle has left Chris Matt's leg.

Coffee For My Breakfast; Shot Of Whiskey On The Side

Honest, occifer, I was just trying to put sugar into my cup of coffee.

Well, yeah.  Maybe you should pull over if you want to attempt such a complex operation.  Driving your SUV off a cliff and into a river is no way to go through life, hon.  This doesn't pass the smell test; I'd bet cash money (where legal, of course) that this woman's a Democrat.

Government At Work

That's the scariest line in the American English language, and with good reason.  The latest example comes to us from the Bronx, where a brand-new $421 million state court building features broken doors, glass walls boarded up, stairways cordoned off - and an infestation of sewer flies.  The building is two years old.  Obviously, those designers took their cue from Portland - the leaking ceilings are so reminiscent of the Portland Building by teapot designer Michael Graves.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This author is hated in the Islamic world, so much so that when Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam, a death threat against her was found pinned to his chest.  It's easy to see why: Her latest book turns up the temperature by suggesting that Muslims who want a peaceful and tolerant faith should convert to Christianity.  Far from being a religion of peace, she notes that Islam dictates a culture of violence and an obsession with females. Thus you find genital mutilation and infibulation, the demand that a woman be covered from head to toe, and eventual extension of the demands to the rest of the world.

It's worth noting that Islam is unique among global religions by virtue of the fact that it has been spread primarily through conquest.

Backing Away

While Nanny Pelosi uses the Gulf oil blowout as a political tool to push a "moral imperative" to move ahead with energy reform, some scientists note that oil is a natural phenomenon that is always present in our oceans.  While politicians like Nanny push forward, scientists are backing away from the portrayal of catastrophe.

They're also backing away from the politicized version of Mann-Made Global Warming:  The Royal Society has appointed a panel to rewrite the 350-year-old institution’s official position on global warming. It will publish a new “guide to the science of climate change” this summer. The society has been accused by 43 of its Fellows of refusing to accept dissenting views on climate change and exaggerating the degree of certainty that man-made emissions are the main cause.

The society appears to have conceded that it needs to correct previous statements. It said: “Any public perception that science is somehow fully settled is wholly incorrect — there is always room for new observations, theories, measurements.” This contradicts a comment by the society’s previous president, Lord May, who was once quoted as saying: “The debate on climate change is over.”

Golly, it looks like experts such as AlGore and David Appell (our local expert on all things related to climate change) didn't get that whole science thing right, after all.  No wonder they've been so quiet of late.  Davey used to trot through blogs, pointing out how stupid we all are and extolling his vast expertise regarding the religion science of Anthropogenic Global Warming, yet oddly has been missing in action of late.  Perhaps this explains his absence.

The Next Frontier Ain't Here

SEATTLE likes to compare itself to its neighbors. On issues from light rail to cycling-friendly streetscapes to the business climate and innovation, Puget Sound residents look to places like Portland and San Francisco and wonder whether the region needs improvement or is doing it better than others.

Generally, those are matters of political and public will, leavened of course with the realities of public finance.

But in the coming decade, the demographic changes that metropolitan Seattle will face should prompt a look at another set of places more like the region than its West Coast neighbors.

Over the 2000s, the Puget Sound region ranked above the national average on measures of growth, educational attainment and racial and ethnic diversity. The Seattle region faces challenges and opportunities distinct from those in the less-diverse Portland area, or the much slower-growing San Francisco Bay Area.

New Brookings research instead counts Seattle among a series of growing, highly educated, diverse "Next Frontier" regions like Austin, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

Obviously, the writer doesn't know anything about Portland.  Public will doesn't enter into anything here, and the politicians could care less about the realities of public finance.  One reason for the disconnect :

Oregon’s public school system is one of the worst in the nation, ranking 43rd out of 50 states in educational performance. 

State economists made a little math error.  It only came to $14.5 million, but hey.  A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.

Here, There, And Everywhere

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Joisy is in an interesting place, today.  The guy voted in favor of the Health Care thing, the bailouts, and has generally ticked off the people he's supposed to represent.  But he's a Democratic Senator, so he knows better than his constituents.

Enter the Tea Party movement.  They filed a proposal to recall Bob.

State officials refused permission for a vote.  And so it's now in the legal arena; specifically, the state Supreme Court.  While the US Constitution contains no provisions for recall, the state Constitution does, and Bob's ducking and weaving for all he's worth.  Rather than addressing the apparent dissatisfaction of his constituents, he's been applying every legal maneuver he can come up with in an effort to derail a recall vote.  It's worth noting that the opportunity to vote on a recall movement does not mean that Bob's out of office - it just means that his constituents get to re-think the job he's been doing, and then to decide whether or not to allow him to serve out his term in office.

Apparently, even that is too scary for the Democratic Senator. People across the country will be watching this case, and a decision is expected soon.

Meanwhile, over in Arizona, Gov. Brewer took the unusual step late yesterday of suspending the state's Democratic Attorney General from involvement in any legal proceedings arising from Arizona's tough stance against illegal aliens.  AG Terry Goddard was a vocal opponent of the law, so much so that the Legislature gave the governor advance authority to hire outside legal counsel.

Yesterday, Goddard met in D.C. with BO's AG, Eric Holder - who also has criticized the law.  That pretty much tore it.  In the face of apparent collusion among the Democratic lawyers, Brewer pulled Goddard's plug.

Closer to home:  Late Friday, the Yamhill County Clerk released the final unofficial ballot count in the county commission race between progressive incumbent Mary Stern and lunatic fringe challenger Mary Starrett.

Well, that's what the loon over at Blue Oregon says.  Starrett apparently eked out a four vote lead, which means that they'll get to do it all over again in a November runoff.  Note to head loon Kari: when someone that you choose to describe as a lunatic matches or beats your favored "progressive", it seems obvious that a lot of folks consider your candidate to be no better.

Meanwhile, the ever-tolerant Democratics yesterday filed an election law complaint with Katie Brown's office, charging that the Independent Party of Oregon isn't actually a "legitimate" party. Basically the same thing some of us have been saying about the Democratics for years.

Oregon Republican Chairman Bob Tiernan said he doesn't have any problem with the operation of the Independent Party. "The Democrats ought to worry about their own policies and procedures" instead of attacking other parties, he said. 

Well, perhaps they should.  But they won't.  Their "tolerance" extends only so far.  If you dare to disagree with them, it ends. 

Incapable Of Learning

With the welfare states of the European Union insolvent, they're being forced to cut back on their cradle-to-grave giveaways.  As former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once cannily observed, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money," which is precisely where the EU finds itself today.

Greece was the first to fall; in order to obtain the bailout funding necessary for its continued survival as a nation, its leaders have had to accept that the good times are gone, and to embark upon what are (for them) unthinkable austerity measures, such as pension reductions and extending the time-frame for qualification. The average Greek citizen, having been spoon-fed a pack of lies for as long as he can remember, is understandably enraged that the goodies they've been promised won't be delivered after all - or will be significantly reduced.  Their response, of course, has involved anti-government protests and even riots, which will accomplish nothing because, quite simply, they've run out of other peoples' money.

Spain has been desperately attempting to head off disaster of Grecian proportions: once the world leader in installation of so-called "green" technologies, they've pulled the plug on all such projects because they don't pencil out - the subsidies required to maintain that "green" cachet far outstrip the energy saved or produced by the projects.  Even so, their triple-A credit rating has been downgraded, and they're in a mad scramble to cut costs even further in the hope of halting the downward economic spiral and avoiding further hits to their credit rating.

Portugal and Italy seem to be essentially whistling along, hoping that nobody will notice that they're out of other peoples' money as well.  The value of the Euro has been dropping, and leaders of the more industrialized nations have been muttering about exiting the Union altogether.

Yet here in America, the Democratic leaders (bless their pointy little heads) continue to follow the Europeans in their continuing push toward socialism; demonstrating very clearly a pathological incapacity - they are unable to learn from the mistakes of others, and insist that Americans must repeat those mistakes.  Almost daily, they illustrate why it is the duty of Americans to do whatever they can to protect the USA from Democrats.

Amanda Aguirre Thinks The U.N. Should Step In

The Democratic Arizona state senator is appealing her state’s strict new immigration law to the United Nations as a possible human rights violation.  Unbelievable?  Should be, but she's doing it anyway. The law basically mirrors federal law, but is somehow a big deal among Democratics.

On the plus side, she's showing her true colors by pushing against a law that by all accounts is extremely popular.  As well, it's unlikely that her efforts will yield any results.  Apparently, the fact that the USA doesn't recognize legitimacy of international courts has completely escaped her.  It's a spectacularly stupid move, but being a Democratic, it's unlikely that she's even read the law.

As one blogger notes, it raises an interesting question: her oath of office requires her to uphold the laws of her state.  If she's unprepared to do that, then has she disqualified herself from her senate seat?

Oh, she's a Democratic, so oaths don't really matter.  Nevermind.