The Obama is perfect myth gets a first look.

The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund takes a look at the myth surrounding Barack Obama that he is without gaffe, with imperfection. 

Aside from the people he chooses to associate with (William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, etc.), he’s not exactly known for being able to speak off the cuff.  No doubt that he’s brilliant at delivering a line that has been written down, but off the cuff he sounds like a stutter.

Mr. Obama told a Portland, Ore., crowd this month that Iran doesn’t “pose a serious threat to us,” saying that “tiny countries” with small defense budgets aren’t much to worry about. But Iran has almost one-fourth the population of the U.S. and is well on its way to developing nuclear weapons. The next day Mr. Obama had to reverse himself and declare he had “made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”

The debates are going to fun to watch.

Worthy reads.

Absurd “Windfall” Profits Taxes. John Stossel shreds the silly thinking of Senators Obama and Clinton (and others), who want to impose higher taxes on energy companies when prices exceed an arbitrary level…

Politicians Taxing Michigan to Death. The Wall Street Journal analyzes the negative effects of Governor Granholm’s tax-and-spend policies in Michigan…

Eastern Europe Trying to Restore Market Forces to Health Care. The New York Times has an interesting article on efforts in nations such as Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to have consumers pay for health care services. Though the reforms are unpopular, they do seem to work. The article also is interesting since it acknowledges that the flat tax has helped Slovakia boom…

Is EU Savings Tax Directive Dead on Arrival? Tax-news.com reports that both Switzerland and Luxembourg have unambiguously stated that they will not weaken their financial privacy laws. Combined with the opposition of Hong Kong and Singapore, this means Europe’s high-tax nations will have to lower tax rates if they want to stop the flow of capital to jurisdictions with better tax law…

Battle for Health Insurance Freedom in New Jersey. Statist politicians in New Jersey have caused big increases in the cost of health insurance by imposing costly mandates. The system is now so broken that there is some possibility that state politicians will consider restoring the freedom (supposedly guaranteed in ther Constitution) to trade across state lines so that consumers can buy insurance from providers in states with less regulation. The Wall Street Journal opines favorably…

Douchebag of the Week - Keith Olbermann

Anyone who doubts the fact that MSNBC, in general, and Keith Olbermann, in particular, are in the tank for Barack Obama is either a Kool-Aid drinker or has the sense to avoid watching the network. That’s why the fact that Olbermann felt the need to compose a “special comment” on Hillary’s pointing out that things happen in electoral politics in June came as no surprise. But the lengths to which Olbermann will go in an attempt to claim a sense of moral superiority and stump for his candidate are a bit surprising.

Olbermann’s douchebaggery has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the media, you can read all about it here, here and here, but a complete lack of credibility doesn’t seem to bother him. Keith just keeps on trucking.

While Keith could win at least honorable mention, if not the award outright, every week, this week was a banner one for him because he’s finally getting the press for his bias and arrogance he deserves. Rather than going through each of his douchey comments individually, we’ll just post the video and let you laugh along.

While watching the video take special note of how he knows which camera is going to be on him each time the shot changes as if he’s worked it out in rehearsal for (what he sees as) dramatic effect.

Keith, rarely have we had a more deserving hack and recipient that personifies on such a regular basis the spirit and name of the award. So, congratulations to you, Keith Olbermann, you are the Douchebag of the Week!

IF you thought opera was borning before, wait till they sing about Al Gore.

As if opera wasn’t naturally difficult for most people to take when the topics covered by it are love and war, just imagine how tough it will be to sit through when the plot is an Al Gore PowerPoint presentation!

That’s what is on the way thanks to the Italians…

They should just stick to pasta and switching sides in wars once it’s clear they’re going to lose.

Howard Kurtz calls out MSNBC on bias.

You know it has to be pretty bad when the Washington Post points out a liberal media bias, but that’s exactly what Howard Kurtz does in today’s edition. 

In a piece called “MSNBC, Leaning Left And Getting Flak From Both Sides,” Kurtz quotes NBC Senior Vice-President Phil Griffin as saying:

“We have people with multiple points of view. Everyone is getting a little thin-skinned. We argue and debate every topic.”

Here’s a bit of advice for our friends at MSNBC; You can’t claim balance when the “conservatives” or “Republicans” you have on your network consist of John Dean and Pat Buchanan, because they aren’t either any more, except when compared to the hosts and reporters on the rest of the network.

Scott McClellan: Show me the money!

Pretty trendy to be bashing Scott McClellan right now, but we are really flabbergasted by what a f-ing choch this guy is. If this is how he feels that he’s a coward for not quitting the administration much earlier. Actually, coward is the wrong word. He has blood on his hands. Furthermore, if you want to claim to be some white knight getting the truth out then you don’t do it in a fashion that you make a quick buck off of.

Which leaves us with the alternative which is that this guy actually has the capacity to work with a group of people for seven years, in long hours and tense situations, presumably make some meaningful friendships, and then throw everybody under the bus for a payout. What an absolutely miserable human being. Here’s to hoping he lives out his days in an unfulfilling and lonely fashion. But, if history is any guide, we’ll soon see him blogging for Arianna Huffington or the start of McClellanpost.com for all your “I’m a complete douchebag” needs.

Here is Rove’s response…

Media shocked by market forces in home sales, what else is new?

The fact that the media is be shocked by the news that new home sales increased in the last month is very telling about their intelligence and ability to even think rationally.  Here’s why…

Remember all the stories about how home prices were going through the roof? 

Then, remember all the stories about how they’ve peaked? 

Then, remember all the stories about how they were “too high” and bound to come down?

Then, remember how they came down? 

Then the government wanted to save everyone from mortgages they signed in good faith, but hasn’t yet?

When the prices dropped to where the properties were worth it again, they started selling.  This is called a correction in the real world, it’s called a “crisis” in Washington, especially in an election year.

Congress should do nothing about the “housing crisis” and allow the market to rebound the way it always has, when not bastardized by the government. 

Global Warming, the biggest scam in human history, keeps getting bigger: UK considers personal carbon ration cards.

The hysteria whipped up by the global warming/climate change crowd never ceases to amaze, and the public’s willingness, at least in Europe, to go along with the scams cooked up to “address” it elicits the same reaction. Never mind the fact that the earth has been cooling since 1998, making all the data showing doom and gloom suspect, at best, and a flat-out money/power/liberty grab at worst (where we fall), there’s no money in everything being the way it’s been forever, no money in the earth’s temperature being controlled by the giant fire ball in the sky that gives us all our heat, no money in the truth in this area of “science.” Where there’s no money there’s no power, and no power grab by the government, so it must be ignored.

The latest example put forth to save us from ourselves is an idea in England to issue each person a personal carbon ration card. Each person would be given a set amount of carbon they are allowed to release through heating their home, buying gasoline, plane tickets, pretty much everything but breathing, though a tax on that can’t be too far off. Once they reach the government allowed limit through that pesky polluting activity called living, individuals would have to purchase more credits from people who were home-bound, carless and/or simply always comfortable as far as temperature goes for whatever price the market sets. Until, naturally, someone complains they can’t afford the market price, then the government will set it.

Barely mentioned in the article is the “specialist company” that would be set up to handle the sale of credits between those who have them to spare and those who need them. It would be as simple as a gift card transaction or a PayPal deal on eBay, and really wouldn’t need a 3rd party butting in and taking a cut. But that’s not how the “environmental” movement works, there’s too damn much money in it. Even Pope Goreus the VI, commonly called Al Gore, has seen his personal wealth rise exponentially thanks to the hysterics he’s helped whip up. Al, if we’re all going to die and it’s so important, why not invest your money, then give the profits away to organizations seeking to make a difference? You can’t take it with you. Could it be that all the little carbon offset companies, etc., you pluck your cash into are simply ways to get even more rich? It would explain why you don’t fly commercial over private jets, after all, being asked to sign a few autographs can’t be such a big inconvenience that you need to increase your carbon footprint by a Statue of Liberty every time you want to go somewhere. Who knows, maybe he’s collecting enough cash to build a giant raft? Does a billion float if all tied together by, undoubtedly, hemp rope?

It’s only a matter of time before scams like this become law somewhere, and even a shorter period of time after that they will make their way over here and be assimilated by the Left as a way to save us from the evils of Capitalism.

You’ve been warned, now warn others.

Worthy Reads.

The Barber Police Protect the Citizens of Houma, LA. These posts generally comments on national and international economic policies, but sometimes there are developments at the sub-national level that require attention. A good example is the utterly absurd law against Sunday and Monday haircuts in Houma, Louisiana. This law apparently was imposed after pressure from hair cutters trying to thwart competition. The good news is that the local prosecutor is refusing to pursue the charges. Wtop.com reports…

The Terminator Is not Protecting California Taxpayers. The number of state bureaucrats is growing in California, and so is the number who receive excessive salaries. The total cost for bureaucrat compensation has jumped by 37 percent during Schwarzenegger’s first four years after rising only 5 percent in the preceding four years. Even more shocking, the number of bureaucrats getting more the $200,000 annually has skyrocketed, climbing from “less than 10 to more than 1,000. Arnold Schwarzenegger is very brave fighting in the movies, but he apparently has scant courage when he fights government employee unions. The San Francisco Chronicle has the sad details…

A Reaganite Message for the GOP. Senator Tom Coburn is one of the few Republicans who is still fighting for limited government. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he warns his colleagues that special-interest deal making and so-called compassionate conservatism have destroyed the GOP’s ability to protect taxpayers. Unless they want to lose more elections, he says, they should return to Ronald Reagan’s vision of small government…

Climate Change Legislation Would Boost the Cost of Government. The Wall Street Journal explains how the global warming movement has generated legislation that dramatically would increase the size and scope of government. A cap-and-trade scheme is a big hidden tax that will substantially reduce economic output…

Music and Topics from this week’s First Friday Podcast.

You can hear the show on our homepage, http://www.itsfirstfriday.com/ (New shows every Tuesday, unless Monday is a holiday, then the new show is posted on Wednesdays.) You can download and play all our shows on your iPod or media player and have the ability to fast forward and rewind by going to the archives here.

IF YOU LISTEN IN THE ARCHIVES YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FAST FORWARD AND REWIND ALL YOU WANT WITHOUT HAVING TO DOWNLOAD THE SHOW. JUST MOVE YOUR CURSOR OVER THE LINK FOR THE SHOW YOU WANT TO HEAR AND CLICK PLAY IN THE WINDOW THAT POPS UP.

 

Hillary 2012 ad
Suedehead - Morrissey

Podcast theme
Fearless - The Bravery

Welcome, special guest announcement, Memorial Day.

Democrat primary, Obama’s problems with Hillary’s voters and Hillary’s problem with just about everyone. The Kentucky exit polls and whose voters will vote for the other candidate. The Obama/Hillary ticket prospect and the “love” they share for each other. Obama and the problem of non-Obama Democrats not being willing to vote for him. The veep-stakes with Charlie Crist, Bobby Jindal and Mitt Romney.

Exit music
Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney and Wings

Teddy Kennedy ad for Obama
Jump in my Car - David Hasslehoff

The Adventures of Superdelegate
Superman 1950’s TV theme

Bumper music
Vertigo - U2

Hillary and her RFK assassination comment, how to make a news cycle, the media (MSNBC) and how they’ve latched on to this. The push to get Hillary out of the race, SNL’s take, the non-apology apology. The demise of the Clinton Machine, where is it when they need it? The “change” issue is easy when you aren’t questioned on anything, Obama wants things to be “more hope-ier” and no one thinks to ask what that means, giving everything to everyone, Clinton specifics vs. Obama emptiness. Hillary op-ed only rates NY Daily News, the Democrat Rules Committee to rule on Michigan and Florida.

Exit music
Debaser - The Pixies

Hope Energy Drink
I’ll Buy - The Replacements

Sleazealis by Eliot Spitzer
Me So Horny - 2 Live Crew

Bumper Music
Don’t Ask Me - OK, Go!

News of the Weird, News of the World, the News of…Whatever!

Vancouver may consider cigarette butt deposit.

A boy in Georgia, 15, charged with grabbing and biting women’s butts in stores and malls.

United Astrology Conference predicts victory for Obama.

Man in Quebec has 6 months knocked off his prison term because he’s gotten so fat while in prison that he barely fits in his cell.

Minor league baseball player traded for 10 wooden bats.

Wrap-up, goodbyes and cash as an anniversary gift.

End music
A Day in the Life - The Beatles

Memorial Day.

To put it simply, thank you to everyone who has ever served. Words could only cheapen the gratitude we feel…What we owe we could never repay.

Worthy Reads.

Is America Heading for Jimmy Carter Monetary Policy? The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page offers a strong critique of the Federal Reserve for its inflationary monetary policy…The Medicaid Swindle. The Wall Street Journal appropriately denounces dishonest schemes by states to bilk the Medicaid program. The answer, as the editorial notes, is to shift the program back to the states. A block grant (hopefully followed by a phase-out of any federal monies) would vastly improve incentives to allocate resources more efficiently, and allowing states to chart their own paths would promote innovation as policy makers began to see which policies are more successful and which are less successful…

Financial Privacy Facing Major Assault from High-Tax Nations. An article from Der Spiegel in Germany analyzes the aggressive campaign against nations like Switzerland that have strong human-rights policies on financial privacy. High-tax nations are opposed to privacy, of course, since that makes it more difficult for them to enforce bad tax law…

But the campaign against financial privacy extends beyond Europe. As a report from the Wall Street Journal indicates, the United States also is putting pressure on Switzerland and other jurisdictions with financial privacy laws…

More Anti-Capitalist Demagoguery from Europe. The Daily Telegraph reports that a number of former high-level politicians are urging more regulation to protect against “casino” capitalism. Even Barack Obama avoids this kind of rhetoric…

Obama’s Anti-Growth Social Security Bailout Plan. Investor’s Business Daily eviscerates Senator Obama’s plan for a huge tax increase on entrepreneurs and other highly-productive taxpayers…

Jail Time, not Gun Control, Is Key to Crime Reduction. Walter Williams explains that putting thugs in jail is the best way to reduce crime. Gun control, by contrast, encourages crime by lowering the risk of being a criminal…

McCain’s Statist Cap-and-Trade Scheme. The best way of describing Senator McCain’s global-warming legislation is to paraphrase Winston Churchill and state that, “Never have so many been asked to pay so much to accomplish so little.” John Stossel, with his usual skill, summarizes the issue…

Douchebag of the Week: Laura Richardson

Who is Laura Richardson, you may be asking yourself, and how does someone you’ve never heard of achieve the the coveted status of Douchebag of the Week?  First of all, she’s a Member of the California House of Representatives, and second, anyone and everyone is under consideration for DBoTW.

Sure, we could have gone the easy route and picked Congressional Democrats for their farm bill SNAFU, but that was too easy, and complete incompetence is hardly rare for them, so they’re graded on a bit of a curve.

Rep. Richardson wins because she, while earning $169,300, has lost one of her houses to foreclosure.  She didn’t lose her house because she couldn’t afford it, she loaned her campaign $60,000, so she’s got some cash, and it’s not her primary residence.  Still, under the bailout bill in Congress now, she would qualify for federal help (our tax dollars) and would probably have taken it.

Rep. Richardson is the personification of the problem with mortgage “crisis,” someone who decides it’s better financially for them to let their house go because property values have dropped rather than keep paying their bills (read: keep their word).  For this selfish move at a time when you think you can get away with it because a tiny minority of mortgage holders are suffering, YOU, Laura Richardson, are our Douchebag of the Week!

Henry Waxman: a boy and his gavel

Congressman Henry Waxman, the joyless liberal from California (who single handedly disproves the theory that Californians base everything on looks), recently acted like a little kid (or perhaps Nikita Kruschev, if you know his politics and remember the shoe) during a hearing he was chairing on ozone standards.  This is actually typical of Waxman, unpleasant human being that he is, he’s a fan of his own power, not the rules.

Massachusetts town seeks to ban the bag, the plastic grocery bag.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, the settlement founded by the Pilgrims to escape religious persecution is now seeking to impose some religious persecution of their own…on people who use don’t worship at the Holy Church of Global Warming.

The town is considering a flat-out ban on plastic bags for grocery stores and drug stores.  Why?  Because they’re petroleum-based.  (And possibly because they have a hand in making money from garbage like this.)

The bags being targeted are petroleum-based, lightweight, low-cost and water-resistant. They are widely used by businesses and popular with the public. Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based global research organization with environmental concerns, has long opposed the bags. Americans throw out more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year. They end up in landfills, even though they take centuries to decompose, according to a Worldwatch report, and less than 1 percent are recycled. They also clog storm drains, pollute the ocean, harm marine life, and blight the landscape, the report stated.

Who would’ve ever thought that an environmentalist group would release a report that was favorable to their goals?  What a strange coincidence.  Seems you have to give up liberty and choice for the planet, read: the greater good. 

Isn’t is amazing how liberals can run around complaining about and fear-mongering about the government listening in on conversations between two people, neither of whom is in the United States, yet while screaming about a loss of rights that isn’t will actually make small, baby-step moves like this one to literally rob us of our liberty.  Death by a thousand paper cuts, and all for the greater good…just like Fascism.

Hat tip to reader Kurt for the story.

Bureau of Printing and Engraving – Discriminating Against the Blind?

 

In a 2-1 decision handed down by a U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday, the court ruled that the United States government discriminates against the blind by printing paper money.  In American Council of the Blind v. Paulson, the court ruled that it is impossible for blind individuals to distinguish among the various denominations of paper money.

 

The decision could require the Treasury Department to print paper money in different sizes for each denomination, vary the color of bills and print bills with raised markings.

 

The majority said, “We hold that the Council has demonstrated both the denial of meaningful access and the availability of facially reasonable accommodations that are feasible and efficacious, and that the Secretary has not demonstrated that implementation of every such accommodation would involve an undue burden.”  It is still to be determined if the Treasury Department will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

It should be noted that the government has taken steps on its own to make differing values of currency more distinguishable for individuals with vision problems. In March, a redesigned $5 bill was put into circulation that includes a large purple “5” on the lower right hand corner on the back of the bill.  

 

Judge Randolph in his dissenting opinion noted that, “The government put forth evidence indicating that it would cost billions of dollars to alter private vending machines and ATMs and that rendering current wallets and purses obsolete would impose additional costs…varying the size of the currency ‘really does pose an undue burden on business.’” 

 

In the end the court has handed down a decision that will make them feel warm and fuzzy on the inside without seriously considering the economic impact of such a decision on business and consumers.  And to make matters worse, as Judge Randolph concludes, “In short, my colleagues have not identified a single accommodation that is undisputedly ‘reasonable, effective, and feasible.’”

 

Douchebag of the Week: Joe Biden.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden isn’t your average douchebag, he’s way above average.  Elected to the Senate at age 29 (though not able to be legally sworn in until his 30th birthday), Biden had the audacity to tell a recent Supreme Court nominee that he didn’t think the man had “enough real world experience” for the job without any sense of irony about the fact that he has no real world experience himself since he’s been in the Senate since graduating law school.  But that is not why he is Douchebag of the Week, clearly.

Biden wins for his asinine comments about President Bush’s comments to the Israeli Knesset, when President Bush said:

Speaking before the Knesset, Bush said that “some people” believe the United States “should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.”

“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said. “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Everyone assumed Bush was talking about Obama and his willingness to speak with any dictator at any time, especially if they were funding attacks on our troops.  But why stop there?  Nancy Pelosiwent to Syria and treated the despots there like they were Canada.  There are so many liberals who’ve met with terrorists and dictators that the picture of Rumsfeld and Saddam will be laughed at in the future. 

But back to our Douchebag.  Here is what Biden had to say about the President’s remarks:

“He is the guy who has weakened us,” he said. “He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”

So in Joe Biden’s world, if we had just taken the punch on 9/11 eventually there would be less terrorists in the world, though he leaves out any reason for that (they continue to commit suicide killing Americans?), and everything would be great!  He also called the President’s remarks “Bullshit.”  Bullshit pretty much explains Joe Biden’s political career. 

It seems now that Barack Obama has weighed in on the comments, claiming the President and John McCain are “fear mongering.”  Biden has said similar things.  Hmm, if pointing out that talking to terrorists and despotsis a bad idea unless and until they renounce their terrorist ways is fear mongering, what do you call it when every liberal follows up the charge of fear mongering with lines like “And thanks to George Bush we’re less safe than we were before 9/11″? 

Could just be us, but that line doesn’t seem meant to inspire tranquility.

Joe Biden, while we’re only mostly sure what you said were your own words, there is no doubt that you are the bullshit artist here.  And you are also our Douchebag of the week.  Congratulations!  Now go get ready for yet another failed Presidential run.

Damn you, fattie, stop causing global warming!

Global warming is the cause of, or caused by everything, depending upon who is pushing their particular agenda at any given moment.  Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (no, we aren’t making that up) now blame the obese for contributing to global warming AND high food prices.  That’s quite a lot of damage done to the planet by people who generally lead a sedentary lifestyle.

How are they contributing to global warming?  Well, it’s not methane, which was our first thought, it’s that they’re do fat that it takes more energy to transport them around.  A bus full of fat people will burn more fuel than a bus full of left-wing Hollywood actors.  Of course left-wing Hollywood types aren’t exactly going to be picked up by a bus after arriving at their destination on their private jet, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  (By the way, you can replace left-wing Hollywood actors with Al Gore anywhere in this post.)

Aside from needing extra gas to haul them around, the chunky set also eats too much of the world’s limited food supply, thus causing the price of food to rise.  No mention was given to the fact that the United States, thanks to the likes of Al Gore and other alarmists, is now burning up about 28 percent of the corn crop, just to use one example, to make ethanol, limiting the corn supply for humans and animal feed and driving up prices.  No, no, it’s the fat guy’s fault.  Well, consider this: Odds are the obese aren’t getting that way because of a diet high in vegetables and fruits.  If donut prices spike you can probably point the finger at them, healthy foods, not so much.

The mere fact that anyone would “study” this is a joke.  That Reuters would report it is, well, typical. 

Wrothy Reads

European Officials Urge More Class Warfare Tax Schemes. Productive people who get rewarded for creating wealth are a “scourge” according to tax-aholic European politicians. But this story, reported in the UK-based Guardian, is more than the typical class-warfare nonsense that one hears from politicians. The story behind the story is that politicians are trying to convince labor bosses -who are seeing rising price levels - to moderate their wage demands, and they figure bashing the rich gives them some moral authority. The real issue, though, is that the European Central Bank should not be following an easy-money policy (the same mistake being made by America’s central bank)…

Senator McCain’s Unseemly Climate-Change Posturing. Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal takes a much-deserved shot at John McCain for his combination of moral preening and statist economics…

Farm Bill Pork-Fest. The Wall Street Journal excoriates the farm bill, which just passed the Senate. The White House has pledged a veto, but the President’s arguments against the budget-busting bill ring hollow since he signed a similar bill in his first term. Nonetheless, this means there is a small chance that the worst excesses of the legislation may be excised before the legislation become law…

John Edwards endorses Obama, also bravely stands with clean water and against murder.

John Edwards, displaying the leadership voters soundly rejected him for, has finally come out and endorsed Barack Obama for President, now that Obama is pretty much the nominee.  How brave of Edwards to come out now that the race is essentially over and throw his support behind the winner.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Edwards’ 5 supporters had forgotten he had run this year and have already joined the Gravel campaign.  MSNBC spent the day covering this story as though JFK had come back from the dead and blessed Obama.

After the endorsement speech Edwards, champion of the poor, went back to the biggest house in North Carolina, turned on the central air and figuring out who to sue to cover his campaign debts.

Vatican to Dennis Kucinich (and everyone else): It’s okay to believe in UFOs.

Yes, Dennis Kucinch is crazy, but the Vatican says that’s alright with them.

Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes says it does not contradict faith in God to believe life exists on other planets.

Even more disturbing is the title of the interview:

“The extraterrestrial is my brother.”

Let’s wait and see if they’re jerks or really ugly or whatever first before we start a drum circle welcome wagon.

 

 

 

 

What have you ever done with your life?

Want to feel worthless about your accomplishments, or lack there of?  Check out this story and this story to see some people who will either conquer the world or become junkies or basket cases from the stress by the time they’re 30.

Can we ask Barack Obama the tough question? Well, the media sure as hell won’t do it.

For anyone who thinks the government should be bigger, should do more and tax us at higher rates.

In the month of April the federal government took in $403.8 billion of our dollars and will spend more than $3 trillion this year alone.

Unless Bill Gates is reading this, odds are you have no concept of what a billion dollars is, or even a million, so we’ll put it in perspective for you.

One million seconds is 11 days.

One billion seconds is 33 years.

One trillion seconds is more than 32,000 years.

This year the government will spend more than 3 trillion dollars, or nearly 100,000 years worth of seconds.  Still think the government is too small, doesn’t do enough, isn’t taking enough of our money?  With all the money spent this year, and all the money spent on big government programs since the New Deal and Great Society, you’d think all our problems would be solved, wouldn’t you?

They aren’t because they can’t be.  Individuals have to improve their own lives, government can’t.  But that doesn’t stop liberals from telling people they have the answer.  The only answer is drive and determination on an individual level, but government is too often in the way of that, becoming part of the problem, not the solution.

Remember that next time you vote.

Worthy Reads.

Obama Wants America to be a German-Style Welfare State. A German journalist writing in the Wall Street Journal explains that Senator Obama’s proposals to expand the size and scope of government will mean European-style stagnation and unemployment…

Energy Subsidies and Cost-Benefit Analysis. The Wall Street Journal’s excellent editorial page analyzes government data on the the level of subsidies compared to the amount of energy produced. Not surprisingly, solar power, wind power, and ethanol are exposed as being ridiculously inefficient. This does not mean that they will always be uneconomical, but it certainly suggests that market forces should govern energy, not politically-driven subsidies…

Barney Frank’s Housing Boondoggle. The premise of Congressman Barney Frank’s housing bailout bill - rewarding people who made bad decisions - is misguided. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The Wall Street Journal opines on the many unsavory features of the legislation…

Douchebag of the Week - Bernie Ward.

The competition this week was an easy one when the news broke today that liberal radio talk show host Bernie Ward decided to cop a plea and admit to trafficking in child pornography.  Sure, there were many options, the media and the way they’ve pounced on Hillary Clinton to undercut her fund raising and pressure her to drop out (since they don’t like their party in disarray), or Barack Obama for using code words to try to make John McCain’s age an issue.  But anyone involved in child pornography is the ultimate douchebag.

While we hope Ward spends a long, miserable life in prison, we couldn’t help but notice that his friends (and they were friends) at the Huffington Post have neglected to mention his guilty plea (or much at all about him once his guilt became clear, not even denouncing him).  Funny how liberals love, absolutely love to revel in the misery of some people but attempt to repress and deny that anyone on their side is scum.  Scum knows no political ideology, we can admit it, but the so-called “progressives” can’t, or won’t.  Whatever the reasons, the fact remains.

While Huffington and Kos certainly deserve honorable mention for their dishonestly and hypocrisy on this matter, nothing trumps Bernie Ward’s douchebaggery.  You can read about his plea deal here, but know he is the ultimate douchebag

The ultimate job for the lazy, lay in bed for 90 days and make good money. Thanks, NASA!

Are you extremely lazy?  Unemployable?  Looking for some easy cash?  If you are, NASA wants you!

Not exactly the job listing you might expect from NASA, known for picking the best of the best, but the best of the best don’t generally have 90 days to do absolutely nothing.

NASA is looking for people to stay in bed for 90 days to test the effects on the human body.  So if you’re interested, lazy (or willing to be) and want to earn $17,000 the easy way, get your resume together!  Here is your new office.

Since it’s Friday…

This needs little explanation, especially since it’s Friday.

Don’t do the two together, but if you have the choice between the two, pick the beer!

Worthy Reads

Criminals Benefit when Politicians Impose High Taxes on Cigarettes. Patrick Fleenor of the Tax Foundation explains in the Wall Street Journal that New York politicians are enriching criminals - including perhaps terrorists - when they over-tax cigarettes and encourage smuggling…

Investor’s Business Daily Eviscerates Statist Energy Plan Concocted by Senate Democrats. The good news is that big-government Republicans lost control of the Senate in 2006. The bad news is that big-government Democrats took over. One of the worst proposals developed by the new majority is an energy bill that combines bad tax policy and bad economic policy. Investor’s Business Daily shred the economic illiteracy of the proposal…

Massachusetts seeks to milk their universities because they can’t control their spending.

Rarely is it so difficult to pick a side…

Massachusetts is looking for some cash because they love to spend other people’s money.  Universities have large, sometimes huge endowments in the billions of dollars while raising tuition exponentially every year.

One steals liberty and money to redistribute it via the most inefficient mechanism ever designed by man, government, and the other oppresses free thought and imposes speech codes to crush dissent.  So it’s nice to see them going after each other for once.

Massachusetts is considering taxing universities huge endowments to close their budget gap.  The Universities aren’t that keen on the idea.  Good times ahead!

The best line in the piece is this one:

“You’d be taxing success here,” said Kevin Casey, Harvard’s associate vice president for government, community, and public affairs.

Isn’t taxing success exactly the Democrat party line?  Oh, the irony!

Hat tip to KH.