A

s workers throughout the land – particularly in California – are just glad to have jobs and are going without raises and even accepting pay cuts, the goofballs in Sacramento decided quietly to give a bunch of California Assembly aides over $350,000 in bonuses.

Assembly speaker Karen Bass apparently never heard of the little uproar over AIG bonuses or thought she could stealth this through, but no dice.  Papers throughout the state carried the story and today, like a typical Dem politician, Bass tossed the folks she was championing under the bus.  Her quote:

“In hindsight, this was really becoming a distraction.”

You bet it was.  The Legislature and Gov. RINO are going to the people in three weeks with a package of ballot measures designed to bail them out from the state budget morass they’ve created through their intractability and obliviousness.  If they don’t pass, Sacramento will have to face reality and start cutting the feel-good bloat from the budget and do something to keep businesses from fleeing the state.

Bass’ recognition of reality probably comes too late to save the ballot measures.

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“There’s never been anything like this,” a former Pentagon official told the WSJ about spy attacks on computers holding top secret weapons development information, along with national infrastructure control systems. “[They've attacking] everything that keeps this country going.”

The most recent revelation reveals spy hackers going after F-35 fighter secrets, says the WSJ:

Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department’s costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.

Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force’s air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.

The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together.

Someone is after us, big time.  So what are the Dems doing?   Attacking Bushl  Natch.

Obama stepped up the campaign against foreign spies the Bush admin this week by releasing memos detailing torture harsh but fitting interrogation techniques, which is sure to offend the Spanish, who, BTW, have never gotten around to ratifying the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Committee Against Torture.  It certainly has incensed the Dems:

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote Mr. Obama asking him not to rule out prosecutions until her panel completed an investigation over the next six to eight months. (NYT)

Meanwhile, Obama did one of his classic “go talk to the people you just screwed” stints, reminiscent of his chat with USS Cole families, to the CIA, telling them to ignore the folks from his admin who are intent on knocking the agency down, and reassuring them that they’re all his good friends in Obama Happy Land. All the while, the president’s staff was refusing to rule out legal sanctions against the lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the interrogation methods.

And to ice this particularly untasty cake, we learned from Dick Cheney last night that memos exist detailing in explicit detail the intelligence gained from the interrogations – memos that so far the Obama admin has refused to release, despite the president’s CIA-directed hyperbole:

“Don’t be discouraged by what’s happened in the last few weeks,” he told employees. “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes. That’s how we learn. But the fact that we are willing to acknowledge them and then move forward, that is precisely why I am proud to be president of the United States and that’s why you should be proud to be members of the C.I.A.” (NYT)

The NYT buried the Cheney demands deep in its story, after detailing all the yahoos that want to get their  hands on the Bushies.

If the president didn’t want them to be discouraged, if he’s really interested in learning from the past, if he wants to acknowledge history, he will give us history, not just one side of it.

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Y

es, I do feel like an ambulance chaser writing this … or worse, the kind of guy who just might be wishing for Obama to fail (which I admitted to on inauguration day) … but if things keep stinking this bad, we’re up for a “change election” in 2010 – and that’s not the kind of change the Prez-O’s been yammering about.

Right now, the US misery index – that’s the unemployment index and the inflation index added together – is at 8.34 and rising .  At the TQIA blog penned by my polling friend Steve Kinney and his business partner Gene Ulm, this is all explained:

Of the 15 midterm elections held since 1950, 13 have been “change” elections in which the party that held the White House lost seats in the House and Senate; only two have been status-quo elections where the White House party gained seats. It would be easy to dismiss this as Americans having a structural push toward the party out of power, but a review of the economic data shows that the party out of power had A LOT OF help in their midterm wins.

The average Misery Index just prior to election day (October) for “change” elections was 10.1 while the average Index going into status-quo elections was 6.86. More striking is that the President’s party lost an average of 26 seats in these “change” midterms. In only three of twelve elections were there single-digit losses, the rest double-digit losses in the House, with a high of 52 seats in ‘94.

When the misery index is in double digits, the average number of House seats lost by the party holding the White House is 22. The economy could turn around by 2010, but with the business-punishing policies Obama’s rolling out, that seems unlikely. He could continue to charm the American electorate into voting for him; I’m not going to say that’s unlikely – underestimating Obama is a risky proposition – but people do get tired of words.

So let’s find us a bunch of good candidates and go out there and take back control of our country!

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W

atch this two-minute clip – even if you have to hunker down in your cubicle with the volume turned down as your boss lurks nearby.  The premise is simple:  The Marines welcome Bush/the Marines welcome Obama; the Marines say goodbye to Bush/the Marines say goodbye to Obama. 

God bless the Marines – they just don’t mask their feelings about their Commander in Chief well at all.

A big hat-tip to Infidels are Cool for this one, especially since Infidelesto grabbed this freeze-frame from the video that pretty much says it all:

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Porkasaurus Summary

T

here is still hope – students in Boulder, Colorado aggressively turned back a proposal to rename their high school Barack Obama High. But pore through the 1,000+ pages of the stimulus spending bill, and a sense of hopelessness becomes overwhelming.

As a small business owner, I see nothing in Obama’s largess to help me, even though we all know that small business s the primary job generator.   I don’t want a government handout, but …

The government’s economic stimulus plan doesn’t include many provisions that directly benefit small businesses, but economists say those companies are more likely to find a cure for their financial ills closer to home _ with their own customers.

The plan does extend two provisions of 2008′s economic stimulus bill that allow small businesses to take a bigger upfront deduction for the cost of new equipment. But companies whose sales are hurting may be reluctant to make big expenditures, putting those tax breaks out of reach. (source)

We’re trying to shed leased equipment; we’re hardly in the market to buy it.  So it’s a zero there.  Then let’s look into what a bill purportedly about economic stimulus does for that scandal-plagued friend of Obama, ACORN:

The total amount of money for which groups like ACORN would be eligible in the bill is $4.2 billion, under a provision for “neighborhood stabilization activities.”  According to the bill, the money can be utilized by state and local governments and also “nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities.”

ACORN can possibly collect more money under this legislation that it has over the past 15 years, and you can bet that ACORN is expert at accessing those funds. (source)

And as I’ve written previously, the spending bill is the official kick-off for universal health care, quoting Bloomberg:

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Gun owners are concerned that the health care provisions of the stimulus bill will be used against gun owners:

But of even greater concern to gun owners is the fact that a government-coordinated database (which government can freely access) will now contain all records of government-provided and private psychiatric treatment -– including, in particular, the drugs which were prescribed. (source)

The green industry – which employs relatively few and offers products that are not popular – loves the bill …

“I think what we’re seeing in the final bill is the best of the House bill combined with the best of the Senate bill (and) provides a strong boost for renewable energy, and solar in particular,” said SEIA President Rhone Resch. (source)

… but the housing and auto industries, which absolutely must get back on their feet if we are to get out of the recession, isn’t:

Instead of reducing the rampant non-stimulus spending in the bill, House-Senate negotiators …Cut $35.5 billion in tax incentives to boost the housing industry and encourage Americans to buy homes. The Senate bill included a provision to give Americans a $15,000 tax credit to purchase a new home, but negotiators reduced the credit to $8,000, only allowed it for first-time homeowners, and limited the relief to purchases made by this August.

[Negotiators also] cut $8.5 billion in tax incentives to boost auto sales and put Americans back to work. The Senate bill included a provision to allow Americans to deduct from their income taxes both the sales tax from a new car purchase and the interest on the auto loan. Negotiators eliminated the loan interest write-off – the bulk of the incentive – and instead allowed the sales tax deduction to remain. What was a $1,500 tax benefit was slashed to about a $300 benefit, not really enough to encourage someone to buy a new vehicle. (source)

And all this crazy, useless misspending is happening when the nation’s deficit in 2008 was a mind-numbing $455 billion.  No; check that – it was $5.1 trillion before Porkasaurus, because the budget should be figured on an accrual basis to compensate for known future payments, not on a cash basis, which ignores little things like future Social Security payments. Continue Reading »

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R

ahmbama has stepped in it, and the stink isn’t washing off.  The Deceptive Duo’s attempt to move the Census to the White House so they can play Chicago ward politics with it has sparked more outrage than even Porkasaurus Socialistum, the stimulus spending bill – and none too soon.  The GOP, seemingly on the verge of being reclassified an invertibrate, is finding its spine again.

House Republican leaders said Thursday they’re ready to go to court against President Obama if he doesn’t scuttle his plan to move the census into the purview of the Oval Office, saying it’s an unconstitutional abuse of power. …

Under Obama’s plan, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, who has yet to be named, would report to White House senior management in addition to the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau.

A Senate committee has scheduled a hearing next month on the potential change. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are also pushing for an investigation.

GOP leaders sent Obama a letter to the White House on Wednesday demanding a reversal of the plan.

“If the president doesn’t acquiesce to our letter, then we will seek the courts,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at a news conference Thursday. (Fox)

That’s what I want to hear!  Obama promised an open administration and this outrage flies in the face of that promise. He deserves a long, hard, embarassing spotlight on this one, and I am glad to see the GOP is ready to shine it on him, instead of just shining it on.

Michelle Malkin linked to a post by former Census director Bruce Chapman in Discovery Blog:

It would be more expedient for the White House to have a pliable Secretary of Commerce in place if the aim is to “re-evaluate” the conduct of the 2010 Census in order to introduce adjustment of results through sampling and computer modeling. Gregg presumably would not have gone along–and would have been hard to run over.

But the legal issues will remain even if a willing partisan is nominated and confirmed as Commerce Secretary. There is a 1999 Supreme Court ruling that would make sampling-based adjustment difficult in the absence of compelling evidence that the customary hard count would be less credible. And that evidence not only is lacking, but a three year statistical study that was finished in 2003 to respond to this issue concluded just the opposite: adjusting the Census numbers through sampling and computer models could lead to a less credible Census result. A hard count has always been legally defensible. A fuzzy “adjusted” Census–where figures at the Census tract and block level would be demonstrably erroneous in many cases–could invite endless litigation and bad will.

Another problem for the Obama White House if it wants to change the Census approach: planning for the 2010 Census has been underway for years and now is in preparation for testing. The disruptions caused by an Administration decision to change those plans would cause great problems and probably agitate the resistance of career statisticians charged with responsibility for conducting the Census.

So, you see that while the vision was audacious, the execution was naive.  Rahmbama thinks the November vote provides a mandate for crapping on the Constitution and shuttling all promises of openess, but they’re not getting away with this one easily.

And here’s the kicker from Chapman:

Finally, one wonders if the President understands that the Census is a function of government that requires not only integrity in fact but also the appearance of integrity. The reputation of the Census should not be compromised. It is hard enough to get people to cooperate in the conduct of the Census without creating a reputation for politicization.

OBVIOUSLY, the Census must be above politicization, and the fact that Rhambama didn’t think this important enough to be a barrier shows an utter lack of integrity, a commitment to move America as far to the left as possible in the years they have in power.

And they quickness of their moves makes me think they may not be counting on getting a second four years.

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The Mullah’s Superbowl

I

started reading a new book today, Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (Kindle edition here), and was struck by the timing. Here’s how it starts:

The second half of the Super Bowl began right after midday prayers. The fans in Khomeini Stadium had performed their ablutions by rote, awkwardly prostrating themselves, heels splayed, foreheads not even touching the ground. …

Music blared as the cheerleaders strutted down the sidelines – all men, of course – knees high, swords flashing overhead. the Bedouins and the Warlords surged onto the field, and the crowd leaped up, cheering.

Interesting premise, eh? I’m about four chapters in (reading on the eliptical), and it’s off to a good start.  Here’s the article that tipped me off to the book, which I found today via What Bubba Knows. Continue Reading »

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Lawfare

I

‘ve been doing a bit of Facebook “wallfare” over Guantamo with liberal blogger Dan Chmielewski.  He knee-jerks on the subject, seeing Gitmo as a blight on America’s honor, without giving much more thought to the consequences of closing it other than disputing the recent report that 61 detainees released from Gitmo have been identified to be back at work trying to advance jihadism. Dan probably wouldn’t agree with this assessment of Gitmo, from a post on Civilian Irregular:

Our Nation is at war, and JTF-Guantanamo serves as an integral component of OPERATION Enduring Freedom. We are the model organization for safe and humane enemy combatant detention operations, and for the collection and dissemination of strategic intelligence supporting the Global War on Terror. We operate under the watchful gaze of the Nation and the world. We are a strategic asset operated by a highly trained and patriotic team of military and civilian professionals, dedicated to supporting our Nation’s interests in the Global War on Terror.

The post goes on to describe two reasons for keeping detainees at Gitmo. The first is gaining intelligence, which we all can understand and which has been written about ad nauseum from all sides of the political spectrum. The other is lawism, a new term for me.

If it weren’t for lawfare we could execute them when their intelligence value has been exhausted. Lawfare, according to Colonel Charles Dunlap,

describes a method of warfare where law is used as a means of realizing a military objective. There are many dimensions to lawfare, but the one ever more frequently embraced by U.S. opponents is a cynical manipulation of the rule of law and the humanitarian values it represents. Rather than seeking battlefield victories, per se, challengers try to destroy the will to fight by undermining the public support that is indispensable when democracies like the U.S. conduct military interventions.”

We are struggling to find a way to combat lawfare without either providing terrorists with information they should not have, or stepping on the rights of American citizens.  We don’t have the solution, and we shouldn’t be forced to close Gitmo because of political deadlines until we have a viable lawfare strategy – and a strategy to keep ourselves safe from the damage these vicious animals can foist on us. Continue Reading »

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The Greens Go Very, Very Red

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just logged onto Terra Daily, a Greenie/Warmie hysteria site that books itself as “Earth News, Earth Science, Energy Technology, Environment News.” I often look at Terra while writing Sunday Scan because it’s so amazingly gloomy – all about environmental disasters and (related, they claim)  higher CO2. But today it reads like the People’s Daily. Have the Chinese bought the environmental movement lock, stock and barrel?

The lead story, China says Somali mission signals no change in military policy, is a statement from the Chinese military saying, in effect, “Don’t worry just because we have ships engaged off the coast of Somalia. We’re still just a passive little defensive navy.”  And this has what, exactly, to do with the environment?

The second lead is China pledges more support for impoverished Malawi, noting that last year Malawi switched its backing from Taipei to Beijing. The green connection seems to be missing here.  That’s followed by, under the heading “Farm News,” China couple first to take milk pay-out: State media, and under “Sino Daily,” China awash with fake 100 yuan notes. Again, does anyone see green here instead of red?

There are two more stories out of China before we finally get to the typical Terra Daily fare of surging CO2 levels and death tolls from floods (nothing to be seen about the various deep cold snaps, though).  Nothing on the site explains this transformation since I last looked at it last Sunday. It’s all presented totally matter of factly, as this news is the news that appeals to the Gaian deep greeners.

Maybe it does.  Maybe they’re finally letting their true colors show.  Or possibly, Terra Daily was flailing, unable to find enough readers to keep the owners in their metro-yuppie-hipness, so they sold out to the Chinese.  If so, it’s very heavy-handed, which is what we’d expect.  And if so, it won’t stop with little ol’ Terra Daily.  From sea to shining sea, major newspapers are looking for buyers.

Continue Reading »

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E

arlier in the week, I heard that Pres. Bush’s approval rating had climbed to 34 percent from the previous ratings in the low-20s, and thought how kind America is to think a bit better of the man as he prepares to leave office. Here’s the lead of the news item, as it appeared on the CBS Political Hotsheet blog on the 14th:

President Bush’s approval rating is rising as his presidency draws to a close, a new Gallup poll finds, and now stands at 34 percent. Sixty-one percent now disapprove of his performance.

But this morning, on CBS’ The Bush Legacy page, we see this:

President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush’s final approval rating at 22 percent. Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.

For those who went to schools funded by the federal government, that’s a 12 point drop in popularity and a 12 point increase in unpopularity.  And for those who went to the Pollyanna Institute of Higher Learning, no,  the second CBS story does not make a reference to the earlier, more favorable story.

Here’s the Gallup question that generated 34 percent support:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

And here’s the CBS/NYT question:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush has handled his job as President over the last eight years?

The only difference between the two is temporal, with Gallop asking generally how they approve, and CBS/NYT asking over an eight-year scope.  That will result in some difference in polling – I expect it could be as much as a two point swing – but it won’t explain a 12-point swing.  Gallup asked its questions between the 9th and the 11th, and CBS/NBC asked between the 11th and the 15th, so the only difference there is that the CBS/NBC folks may have heard Bush’s farewell address, which should have pushed his numbers up, not down.

The only way to explain such a difference in just three days is the methodology.  Gallup’s results are based on telephone interviews with 1,031 adults nationwide, but does not provide data on the make-up of the pool.  CBS/NYT does:

Total Republicans – 281
Total Democrats – 416
Total Independents – 415

Any questions about deeply ingrained media bias?  Anyone think CBS/NYT, if they wanted to, would have been able to put together a polling sample that more accurately reflected the political make-up of America?

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