Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Same Old Double Standard

Video of Joe Biden's daughter doing cocaine. I suppose, since Obama has admitted to this in his book, then it's a non-story. The video is not released but is for sale "to media". Somehow, I think some stimulus money might finds its way to the seller and the video will never be heard from again. (Powerline)

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I'm not very interested in Ashley Biden's cocaine use (assuming the woman in the video is in fact Ms. Biden). But then, I wasn't very interested in the Bush twins' underage drinking or the drug-related arrest of Sarah Palin's daughter's boyfriend's mother, either. Yet both were major news stories. Does anyone seriously believe that if there had been a video of Barbara or Jenna Bush snorting cocaine during their father's administration, the press would have refused to write about it?

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Close It

You want to close Gitmo? Fine. Send them back to fight. Then you must change the rules-of-engagement to "no prisoners" and kill on sight. And you must drop liability on the troops if they kill innocents. I suppose this is an acceptable alternative if you really want to close it. Corner

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The Taliban fighters said the Afghan Taliban delegation [to the fence-mending confab] was led by Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a commander from Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, whose real name is reported to be Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul.

A front-line commander during the Taliban government, Mullah Zakir was captured in 2001 in northern Afghanistan and was detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until his release in 2007, Afghan Taliban members contacted by telephone said.

Judges Rule

Why voting in the executive branch is so important. President Bush appointed Judge Roberts and Judge Alito into the US Supreme court. They helped rule the DC gun ban unconstitutional. Now one Massachusetts judge rules the Massachusetts "lock" law unconstitutional. But a second Massachusetts judge, in a separate case, rules the law constitutional. (via Volokh)

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After a police officer's 12-year-old son got access to the officer's handgun, the officer was prosecuted for violating Mass. Gen. Laws. ch. 140, § 131L:

... Last month, the court held the statute was unconstitutional (Commonwealth v. Bolduc), and dismissed the prosecution. I only just now managed to get a copy of the opinion, and here's the relevant discussion:
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Follow link to read the judges opinion.

Four judges, all appointed, all making a judgment on the same subject, not all the same judgment. Your vote for governor or president is a vote for who makes the judgment.

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Right Decision by Obama

President Obama has got this policy right. Will he stay the coarse, or fully commit to victory, time will tell. But for now, I'm happy with his leadership, here. WashTimes

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He said the Afghan government cannot fall to the extremist Taliban or it would "again be a base for terrorists,"

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One thought, though, is that he's putting 4000 troops in to make a total of 27000. But is that enough? Afghanistan is a different theater than Iraq - fewer big cities, smaller population, rural - and there are other NATO troops there. But Bush's "surge" was 24000 troops. Is 4000 enough? Time will tell.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

"It Can Happen Here"

Sobering final statement in this WSJ opinion piece about our political climate. Don't forget to note who is driving the climate, today. And you can't blame this climate on Bush.

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But the biggest lesson here is the old one that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance -- beginning with insistence on the rule of law. Americans clearly cannot trust their elected officials to defend their rights and interests, or care whether justice is served, when the slightest political risk might attach to doing so.

Which brings us back to Mr. Cuomo, whose office has been implicitly threatening to publish names of AIG employees who don't relinquish pay they were contractually entitled to.

Mr. Cuomo is a thug, but at least he reminds us: It can happen here.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Consequences of Trivialities

What is $160M in bonuses when you've shelled out $1000000M? Here is a result of bonus bashing by our esteemed leaders. Resignation letter from AIG bonus recipient in the NYT:

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. ...

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

(Read the rest)

Home Coming

Long War Journal:

More than 20 Britons who have trained in al Qaeda terror camps inside Pakistan have returned to Britain, according to Pakistani intelligence.

The Problem with Shades of Gray

Liberals like President Obama criticized President Bush for only seeing things as black and white. The problem with always being is some shade of gray is that anything can be reasonable. This is what got Tres. Sec. Geithner in trouble recently. When you are "open" to anything, you send a message that anything is possible, no matter how dangerous it may be. (Politico):

Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Tax Revolt, by You

Tax protests are rising. The media is disinterested. Soon, they will have to cover it. And when they do, people will say, "How come I didn't know about this?". Massachusetts tax protest at the state house on April 15th. Find out where you local tax day protest will be. Don't miss it. Don't let them ignore us any longer.

Dean's World (via Instapundit)
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...a few hundred Iraq protestors garnered far more attention this week than any of the much larger tax protests.

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P.S. For some strange reason, taxdatteaparty.com doesn't show up on a Google search for "tea party". Nah. Probably a logical explanation...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Financial Malice

Mark Steyn finds some good points is the NYT. This weeks hypocrisy about bonuses only helps to destory the market. We own AIG and we spent a week talking investors out of investing in our investment. Smart.

Steyn:
As President Reagan said, we are a nation that has a government, not the other way round. The nation pays for the government, not the other way round. I pay for Congressman Frank and Senator Dodd, not the other way round.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Blatant

Do you see the bias, yet? Ok, I'll keep harping on it till you do. (Powerline)

The New York Times runs a long story on Senator Christopher Dodd's crashing reputation among Connecticut voters without once mentioning that Dodd is a, well, you know what.

Hypocrisy. Rhetoric. Perspective.

Charles Krauthammer on what the AIG Bonus means:

...Now, in the scheme of things, $165 million is a rounding error. It amounts to less than 1/18,500 of the $3.1 trillion federal budget. It's less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the bailout money given to AIG alone....

It is time for the president to state the obvious: This recession is not caused by excessive executive compensation in government-controlled companies. The economy has been sinking because of a lack of credit, stemming from a general lack of confidence, stemming from the lack of a plan to detoxify the major lending institutions, mainly the banks, which, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money used to be.

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[The stimulus] bill, we now discover, contains, among other depth charges, a Teamster-supported provision inserted by Sen. Byron Dorgan that terminates a Bush-era demonstration project to allow some Mexican trucks onto American highways, as required under NAFTA.

If you thought the AIG hysteria was a display of populist cynicism directed at a relative triviality, consider this: There are more than 6.5 million trucks in the United States. The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Stench

Via. Malkin:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group... bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. ...

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hell Freezing Over

Don't look now, but the NYT just publish a report critical of a Democrat and actually identified the party affiliation in the first mention of said congress woman!

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 of its stock.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

"Oh, the irony."

From the NYPost via Instapundit:

There was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, boldly testifying Tuesday before Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Ways & Means Committee - promising that the Obama administration intends to propose “a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce . . . tax evasion and avoidance.”

Did he look Chairman Rangel in the eye when he said this?

Can he look himself in the eye at the shaving mirror each morning?

A crackdown on “tax evasion and avoidance”? Oh, the irony.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Buffet Missed the Memo

Buffet didn't get the Obama memo telling the media that the word "inflation" is off limits. You'll have to read the UK Reuters to get this info.

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But Buffett said that with the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department going "all in" to jump-start an economy shrinking at the fastest pace since 1982, "once-unthinkable dosages" of stimulus will likely spur an "onslaught" of inflation, an enemy of fixed-income investors.

Broken Promises

Obama ending the Iraq war? I don't think so. He may be saying so, and the media may be giving him this credit, but as this article at Real Clear Politics defines, we're not running out of the country as the left would have liked. Obama is much closer to Bush's strategy than he is to his own campaign rhetoric.

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During the campaign, Obama pushed a plan to withdraw one or two combat brigades per month until they were all out. Only two things have changed in Obama's 16-month departure plan: It will take longer than 16 months, and we won't depart.

Instead of May 2010, the target date has been pushed back to August of that year. Nor will he bring back one or two combat brigades each month. Instead, The New York Times reports, Obama plans to withdraw only two between now and December, or one combat brigade every five months.

The administration claims it will speed up the pace of withdrawal next year. But if someone says he's going to sober up tomorrow, it doesn't mean he will definitely do it tomorrow. It just means he definitely won't do it today.

What we can deduce from the new timetable is that for now, we are staying put. As for what happens next year -- well, why cross that bridge before we come to it?