MaxRedline

Ripping Weasels

My gosh, a lot of folks seem fairly upset over the passage of the Senate health incurance bill.  Apparently, these malcontents don't understand that this is being done for their own good.  While it would be nice if everybody happened to be as smart as Democratics, that's obviously not the case.  So Democratics really had no choice; it's a sad commentary on the intelligence of the average American worker.  Oddly, that spin isn't playing well even in liberal places.  And it certainly isn't playing in Peoria:

As senators prepare this morning to vote on the package before them, they will do so knowing that it contains a provision for the federal government to pay 100 percent of Nebraska's expanded Medicaid tab forever, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson's backroom dealing. It's being called the "Cornhusker Kickback."

Although BO may be off to Hawaii now, confident and happy, this isn't a done deal.  It has great potential for ugliness, after the Christmas recess.

The Disconnect Grows

Obama flew into Hopenchangen in a desperate bid to achieve concensus on a plan to Save The Planet from Man-Made Global Warming.  It was a quick trip: it was snowing over there, and he had to leave quickly because blizzards were headed for the east coast of the USA.  This is emblematic of the disconnect between politicians and voters: Obama and others in the political class see global warming as an urgent threat that is caused by human activities, while most voters dismiss the anthropogenic part of the climate change hysteria; recognizing instead that the planet occilates between warm patterns and cold ones.

Most voters now oppose messing around with health care, yet Obama and his fellow Dems are set to foist their "plan" onto an unwilling public.  Most voters don't want the government messing any further with the financial systems, yet Democratics plan ever more governmental oversight. 

66% of voters favor smaller government and lower taxes, but the Democratics are pushing for a national sales tax in order to fund more government programs.

FERC has approved plans for an LNG terminal and pipeline in Coos Bay; Dem governor Kulongoski plans to spend tax dollars to fight it.  Oregon has high unemployment, but Kulo's going to fight against new jobs.  Anybody see a pattern, here?

Democratics, locally and nationally, demonstrate repeatedly an arrogant disdain of the wishes clearly expressed by the very people who voted them into office.  Perhaps it is time for Republicans to offer a clear alternative:  they should draw up a list of failed Democrat policies and offer the voters an opportunity to retract them.  They should tell the voters, in unambiguous terms, "Here is what they've pushed onto you.  Here's what it costs.  Here are the results.  If you're down with all that, then fine.  If you don't like it, then elect us to undo the damage."

It could be a winning proposition - if they are willing to put it forth and then follow through.  Back in the 1990's, the Contract With America resonated with voters, and Republicans were elected in droves.  But once in office, they promptly started behaving like little Democratics - which seriously disillusioned the electorate.  Their failure to remain true to the conservative principles they espoused led directly to what we have today.

Hope'n'Change

Big surprise:

Democratic districts have received nearly twice as much stimulus money as Republican districts and the cash has been awarded without regard to how badly an area was suffering from job losses, according to a new study. “You would think that if the stimulus money was actually spent to create jobs, there would be more stimulus money spent in high unemployment states,” said Veronique de Rugy, a scholar at the Mercatus Center who produced the analysis. "But we don't find any correlation."

Imagine that.  The Bama took your money and spent it not in order to create jobs in areas of high unemployment, but to reward Democratics.  Chicago politics, through and through.

For our analysis, we looked at the 435 congressional districts in the United States plus the District of Columbia, but excluded Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and foreign stimulus recipients, such as Canada. The average number of awards per district is 128, and the average dollar amount awarded per district is$355,103,891.

There are 177 districts represented by Republicans and 259 represented by Democrats.  On average, Democratic districts received 1.6 times more awards than Republican ones. The average number of awards per Republican district is 94, while the average number of awards per Democratic district is 152.

Democratic districts also received 1.89 times more stimulus dollars than Republican districts. The average dollars awarded per Republican district is $232,047,857, while the average dollars awarded per Democratic district is $439,200,100. In total, Democratic districts received 73.47 percent of the total stimulus funds awarded. In terms of numbers of awards, Republican districts received 29.77 percent of the total, while Democratic districts received 70.22 percent.

Translation: everyone is equal - but some are more equal than others.  Yes, TOTUS promised bipartisanship and hope'n'change, but you can't really hold a teleprompter accountable for such promises.  They'll say anything.

But what about The Bama hisself?  Is he really into all that stuff he was reading from the teleprompter?  Ask Peter DeFazio. 

“Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” Obama told DeFazio during a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus, according to members afterward.

Play ball with The Bama, or you might just be fitted with some concrete overshoes.  Hope'n'Change!

Providing For The Common Defense

The Boy Wonder and his administrative drones have come to rely heavily upon - well, drones.  It's safer to use them, because sending people in could be politically risky.  And if the data streams were encrypted, drones might be safer.  Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case, and so the streams can be captured with an off-the-shelf software product that retails for around $25.

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

Now, how could something like this happen?  Two answers:  Congress, and bureaucracy.  In the early 1990's, the U.S. government's anti-encryption laws were known to be counter-productive, but Congress had enacted those laws for a reason: they're all lawyers with little real-world experience.  Elect people like that, and this is what you get.

And there was governmental bureaucratic inertia involved as well: historically, they follow the Apple model, in which everything is custom-done, proprietary stuff.  When encryption technology was finally made legal, modifications to the drones were deemed just too difficult and expensive.

So today, anybody with a $25 program and access to the right equipment can download real-time drone imagery.

Oddly, some folks believe that these same entities can provide quality health-care decisions, or put the brakes on global warming.

Memories Of Hillary And The Travel Office

Lady Obama

Children at your feet

Wonder how you manage

To make ends meet?

 

Congressional investigators looking into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin have discovered that the head of AmeriCorps met with a top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama the day before Walpin was removed.

He denied it, but log files tripped him up.

Presented with the files, his memory cleared a bit: he met with Jackie Norris, but he didn’t discuss Walpin.

Of course not.

Paging Randy Leonard

Portland City Council member Randy Leonard wants to arm his storm troopers to safeguard the municipal reservoirs, and he just may be able to get a deal in this regard.  Buy in bulk.

OregonGuy notes that the EPA wants to buy some cool Glocks, so Randy may be able to bundle in on the deal.  After all, they're both on the same team - protecting the environment, and all.

Why does the EPA need to buy weapons?  Of course, from Randy's perspective, that doesn't matter; it's all good.  But...why does the Environmental Protection Agency plan to buy high-quality weapons?

Might be time to add to our collection.

Yet Another Of The Bama's Czars Turns Up Dirty

And this one's filthy.  Breitbart broke the story a bit ago, and now Fox is onto it: Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings has been implicated in some really pervy stuff.  The Bama is clearly nothing more than a lot of flash (with teleprompter) and a whole lot of trash.  Kevin Jennings is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network(GLSEN). 

GP: So he was at this conference where they were promoting sexual acts with kids. They were promoting sex between kids and adults and he was the keynote speaker there?

MT: Yes.

Over and over, The Bama screws up.  He may be a likeable guy at a beer summit, but he has no judgement whatsoever - as he's repeatedly demonstrated.  This guy makes Jimmy Carter look positively responsible, which was seemingly a tall order to fill.

EPA Goes To War

Lest there be any doubt regarding the effort to expand governmental control, EPA has announced that "greenhouse gases" such as carbon dioxide constitute a "public health risk" and that they will therefore draft regulations to control such emissions - regardless of whether or not Congress adopts any climate change legislation.  In other words, the agency believes that it has the power to make law all by itself, without regard to the wishes of the legislative branch of government.

When The Bama put Browner in charge, the question was not if, but how soon afterwards bad policy would follow.

In The First Year Of The Reign

Democratics are bailing.  Well, no - they're jumping ship.  The surprising announcement by Washington's Brian Baird is quickly seconded by Hawaii's Neil Abercrombie.  What's going on over there, anyway?  Wasn't the magic of The Bama supposed to unify, and glue everybody together in a great glob of hope'n'change?  No problem, though, they still have time to plug the holes in the keel of the ship of state.

Hey!  All right...who's hiding the corks?

Busted TelePrompter Blues

That could be a great song, actually.  Thus far, sadly, it isn't.  It's just Breaking News:

Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner