SIGN OF THE TIMES: The growing popularity of “layaway” sales.
Archive for 2009
November 17, 2009
ROGER KIMBALL ON Lou Dobbs’ departure from CNN.
FARSCAPE is out on DVD today. Here’s an interview with the cast.
PJTV: The Real Guantanamo Bay.
JENNIFER RUBIN: If Barack Obama is so smart, why isn’t he a better President? Generally, our smartest presidents — Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, for example — have been disappointments in office, haven’t they? As Jurgen learned, cleverness is not on top, and never has been.
GM PAYING BACK TAXPAYERS? Mickey Kaus isn’t buying it. “But of course it’s paying back that debt to taxpayers with money from … taxpayers. Even the new, nicer Truth About Cars isn’t falling for it. GM got $50 billion from the government, after all, mainly for a 60% share in the company. It’s planning to pay back $1.2 billion in December–basically a PR attempt, TTAC speculates, to erase its negative consumer image as a bailout baby.”
JAMES TARANTO: “You have to wonder if the Obama administration and its supporters bothered to think through the implications of their decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other enemy combatants as civilians. An immediate effect, and one that will only be strengthened by an actual trial or trials, is to bring 9/11 back into the public consciousness. That can’t be good for President Obama. . . . When appellate courts decide questions of law, they set precedents for future cases. If they make allowances for the exigencies of the war on terror in order to uphold convictions of KSM and his associates, it could end up diminishing the rights of ordinary criminal defendants. That’s why the smart civil-libertarian position is to oppose trying terrorists as civilians.”
That’s precisely Shannon Love’s position.
STIMULUS! Dave Obey Chides Obama Administration For ‘Stupid Mistakes’ On Stimulus Reporting.
A powerful House Democrat used unusually harsh terms to blast the Obama administration’s manipulation of stimulus data Monday night, and demanded an honest accounting of results from the $787 billion government program.
Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, took the administration to task for pervasive errors on the Web site designed to monitor disbursement of the stimulus funds. He called those errors “outrageous.”
Yeah all that money spent in nonexistent Congressional districts does kind of undermine confidence . . . .
ANN ALTHOUSE blogged Sarah Palin on Oprah.
MAMMOGRAMS? WHO NEEDS ‘EM! Now, now, don’t say “death panel.” They’re saying we’ll be better off. Really we will. Cheaper too!
November 16, 2009
REP. JIM MORAN gets a challenger. No incumbent should go unchallenged, in primary or general.
PAUL MIRENGOFF: “Bill Clinton is in Jerusalem trying to clean up behind President Obama and Hillary, whose strident anti-settlement policy has blown up in their face. Clinton’s comments are significant only because they show what a shambles the administration’s Middle East policy has become. Obama and his Secretary of State have managed to alienate the Israeli government by virtue of their initial hard line on settlements, and to place the leader of the Palestinian Authority in an untenable position by virtue of their retreat from that initial hard line. So now, it is left to an ex-president to play statesman and try to patch things up.” Smart diplomacy!
GERARD VAN DER LEUN: Ceci N’est Pas Une Bong.
WAPO: CIT’s Bankruptcy Raises New Concerns About Bailouts. “Today, CIT is in bankruptcy court, and the taxpayers’ investment is on the brink of being wiped out. It would be the largest loss so far from the government’s massive rescue of the financial system, but it isn’t likely to be the last.”
OUCH. And heh.
DON SURBER: From “Going Galt” to “Going Geithner.”
OUCH: Paterson Rips White House For NYC 9/11 Trial. “Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.” He’s getting a pretty lukewarm defense from Hillary, too. And the move is polling quite badly. I still wonder what the White House’s calculus is on this.
THESE MUST HAVE BEEN THE ONES WITHOUT GUNS: Video: Tea Party Protesters Attacked, Beaten by ANSWER Thugs. From the comments: “I am sure that Eric Holder will act swiftly – just like he has in St. Louis.”
UPDATE: Power Line: “We conservatives have long talked about our willingness to fight for freedom. In a sense, that’s generally been metaphorical, especially when talking about domestic rather than foreign enemies. With the far left now on the march, however, it isn’t metaphorical any more. It’s just one more sign of the Age of Obama–fighting in the streets, as the extreme Left has been empowered as never before.” Cram the video down their throats. Figuratively, this time.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joe Barnes: “Of course, this would be a racist hate crime if the situation in Ft. Lauderdale had been reversed. It would be all over the MSM nonstop. Olbermann’s head would explode. The violence and the resort to foul name calling (‘teabaggers’) demonstrates the complete moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the left. I expect more of this, particularly since there will be no prosecution of these thugs.” You know, the Fred Phelps gang seems to manage to file a lot of lucrative lawsuits over the violent reactions of those they protest against, with the help of on-the-scene video. That’s their real business, by some accounts. Perhaps the Tea Party movement ought to try the same. It shouldn’t be all that hard to identify the folks involved and sue them, and the organizations they’re affiliated with. It would be nice if some friendly public interest lawyers would help out.
BIG GOVERNMENT: ACORN Employee of the Year, Felix D. Harris.
THE HILL: Hoffman “Unconcedes” in NY-23. It’s getting close as they count the votes.