Souter leaving SCOTUS

Today's news that Justice David Souter is retiring from the Supremem Court presents and interesting problem for President Obama. Can he find a liberal judge who is not a tax cheat? Not that they all are, but obama seems so good at finding and appointing tax cheats that he will surely follow suit here too.

Seriously, it will be fun to see if Obama can come up with an appointee with the ability and smarts of Chief Justice Roberts, the first Bush appointee.

The Administration Geniuses save Chrysler

The plan cobbled together by the Obama team to save Chrysler centers around paying off the unions for their support of the Democrats and producing future profits for Chrysler by turning to the Europeans to design new cars. Wow! The UAW gets half the company. One might well ask why this should be. At best, the union has an unsecured claim when compared to the bondholders. These bondholders are to get about 33 cents on the dollar and no stock. The unions claim is not much larger than the bondholders and they get half the new company. Seems equitable -- right. After all, they are unions and they support the Dems.

Better still is the alliance with Fiat so that Chrysler can have a European design. Obviously, the Obama folks are taken with the sophistication and knowledge of the Europeans. Ha! Have any of the geniuses ever driven a Fiat? I doubt it. My guess is that they do not even remember that Fiat had to pull out of the US market because its cars would not sell here. Oh well, when Chrysler fails due to poor product design in a few years, Obama can just blame it on Bush.

There is a reason why car people should run car companies rather than having the government do it. Chrysler is just a good example of this.

I can't wait to see how Obama arranges for GM to start making Yugos.

the truth is that Ford is looking more and more like a buy.

Arlen Specter -- portrait of the opportunist as an old man

It is unfortunate that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter did not have it in him to be true to his principles (or at least to those principles that he claimed to have). For the last two months, Specter stated repeatedly how important it was for the Republicans to maintain their 41 votes in the Senate so as to avoid total one-party control in Washington. Now, like gilda Radner's old character Emily Litella, he just says "Nevermid!" What an idiot! In an effort to keep his seat at all costs, he has just guaranteed that he cannot be re-elected. The people of Pennsylvania already had a low opinion of Arlen (55% disapproval ratings in the latest polls) Now he has given them another taste of Arlen the self-important. No one could deny the naked selfishness and egotism of this latest move. It reveals all his prior pronouncements on the the topic to have been phony posturing. Indeed, Specter could not even bring himself to describe his move as one based on principle. No, he himself characterized it as one that could allow himself to be re-elected. But why should anyone want him re-elected? He stands for nothing anymore. Indeed, no one could even know what he would do in another term. And it would not matter if he were to tell us his plans, since no one could believe him anyway.

Let's hope that Specter ride off into the sunset soon.

Mexican Flu

Today's news from Mexico continues to get worse. Hopefully, the swine flu outbreak there will fizzle like the avian flu outbreak 5 years ago in southeast Asia. The problem is, however, that no one knows or can know what will happen. As a result, the fear mongering on the internet is leading to a heightened state of panic.

Let's pray that this turns out to be nothing.

Big News!!! -- Obama orders cabinet to cut 100 million dollars from budget!

Today, the media is making a big deal out of the announcement that Obama told the tax cheats and hacks in his cabinet that they need to cut the budget by 100 million dollars! Wow!! Let's put this in context. The budget has a deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars. That means that Obama directed that the cabinet cut the deficit by a little less than one-one hundredth of a percent. It is like buying a house with a mortgage for $250,000 and getting it cut by twenty dollars. BFD!

Nevertheless, it still amazes me that the stories on the "cut" fail to put the amount into perspective. We just get breathless coverage about how Obama is cutting and cutting. They do not even mention that prior to cutting the budget by 100 million, Obama first raised it by about 900 billion dollars for this year.

How dumb does the media think we are? apparently -- very dumb.

Banks and the government

The news that the Obamacrats are refusing to accept repayment from large banks is -- hopefully -- a moment that will alert Americans to the true desires of the new administration. Clearly, the refusal to accept repayment is not tied to keeping the banking system healthy -- if the bank can afford to repay the government, then it should be healthy enough to go on by itself. One has to assume that these banks do not want to commit suicide just to repay the government. No, what is really at stake here is that the administration wants to keep control over the banks and through them, the economy. After centuries of extolling the virtues of the free market system, and winning a fourty year cold war that centered on that system, the US government is now doing all it can to undermine that system.

What is at stake here is not just the fate of a few banks. If Obama and his disciples are willing to destroy liberty here, they are not going to stop at this line elsewhere. There has never been a successful economy built on socialist principles. Those socialist states around the world have either eaten up the profits generated by a prior market economy or else led to a dud of an economy that plods along with little or no growth at best. Even China, a nominally communist nation, has moved to a market economy in order to grow. Are we now to have the USA give up its growth and the promise of a better life for all of its people just so Obama and his cronies can take control and have those who it favors get more power. The answer is NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Hope and Change

After the tea party demonstrations of April 15th, I was hoping that there would be some fair coverage in the media discussing the issues raised by these events. Silly me! There is no hope of this. Indeed, nothing will ever change. The NY Times and the Washington Post treated these gatherings as if they never happened. The cable news other than Fox used the events as a chance to make sophmoric jokes about teabags. There was little discussion of the points that the demonstrators were trying to make.

It is an amazing contrast to look at how the Times covered these gatherings which drew about three quarters of a million people and compare the coverage to that received when Acorn sent one bus of activists to the homes of AIG executives in NY and connecticut. The protests by 40 people hired by ACORN were given prominent front page coverage. The massive protests across the country by the grass roots were hardly mentioned in a back page.

It is no wonder that the Times is on the verge of bankruptcy. The paper of record that I used to read every day is nothing now but a partisan rag that can't even seem to discern what is actually happening. Oh well, soon it will be gone. and none too soon!

Sani-tea

I love reading the pieces by the MSM types who dismiss today's tea parties as a right wing wacko movement. It tickles me how much they fail to get this movement. the essence of the tea party movement is that it is not an organized group event. No union, ACORN, Dem or Rep involvement. Just plain Americans getting together to try to show the government what they think of spending and tax increases of the crazy sort pushed by Obama and the Democrats. Nearly everyone at these rallies is not in the $250,000 per year bracket that Obama and his lackeys say will be the only ones taxed to pay for 101 gazillion new dollars of expenditures. These people, however, are too intelligent to fall for the scam pushed by the Obamacrats.

My favorite part of the scam is the answer given by Obamatons when asked about the soaring expenditures -- "Obama will cut the deficit by one-half in the next four years -- all the experts agree!!!"

These Dembots seem not to notice that Obama came into office with a projected deficit of $400 billion for the current year and immediately pushed through expenditures that drove the deficit up to nearly one and one-half trillion dollars for this year. It is this incredibly bloated deficit that Obama is supposedly going to cut in half. In other words, after the supposed 50% cut in the deficit, it will still be about 700 billion dollars a year -- almost double the deficit when Obama took office three months ago. for these idiots, it is as if history never happened.

I hope the Obamatons remain as unhearing and unseeing as they are right now. they will get a rude shock in 2010 when they get bounced out of congress on their asses.

Finally

The captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed by Navy seals late today in an assault that killed all but one of the pirates who were holding him hostage. congratulations to the navy and the brave men who carried out this rescue. Too bad they missed one of the pirates. It is encouraging that president Obama finally found the courage to act, albeit days late. One has to wonder how he would react in a crisis facing not pirates who could be easily overpowered, but an adversary who could inflict real damage upon the USA. Let's hope we never have to find out.

piracy

Another day -- and another day of inaction by Obama with regard to the pirates. What a wimp!

Impoverished pirates

Ever notice that each story about the somali pirates mentions that they come from an impoverished country, or-- worse -- that they are impoverished themselves. Media as diverse as don Imus' show (where the pirates were called starving) and the New York Times (where the country was called impverished three times in one article) make the implicit point that we should understnad the motivations of these enemies of humanity since they are poor. This has to be one of the greatest bits of nonsense ever promoted in the media. In the last year, the pirates have received well over 100 million dollars in ransoms for various ships they have taken. Even in Somalia, 100 million dollars is a lot of money. Indeed, the pirates now have enough as a group to live well for the rest of their lives. they are not taking over these ships due to their poverty. They are seizing the ships since they are criminals who have no respect for the law. It would make great sense for the US and other countries who have been affected to attack and wipe out as many of these pirates as possible. We have every right to do so under international law. Pirates are specifically denied the coverage of the Geneva Conventions. Pirates are also not considered criminals who must be tried and convicted; rather, they are deemed enemies of humanity who have no rights whatsoever. I wonder if the Obama folks will ever bring themselves to take action against these brigands. I will not hold my breath waiting for action, though. So far, Obama is making Jimmy Carter look strong and decisive, and that, my friends, is saying something.

Why can't Obama be honest?

Today, President Obama is in Iraq touting his new policy for US involvement in that country. After a campaign full of endless criticism of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, Obama has now made clear his plans for this middle eastern battlefield. What are these new plans? Why, they are the same plans as those he denounced, the same as those of the Bush administration.

Obama wants to remove troops as the situation in Iraq improves and Iraq can take care of itself. Bush used to describe this policy as "we will sit down as the iraqi troops stand up." Obama also has a withdrawal plan where he only withdraws about 2/3 of the US troops in Iraq. This is pretty much in line with the plans announced by Bush last summer, although Bush's plans had less certainty about the dates.

Does anyone remember the Democrat attack ads that ran when McCain said that his goal was not removing troops, but rather saving lives, so that it would be ok with him to have US troops in Iraq for 100 years if it meant that they were not being wounded or killed. Now Obama is leaving 1/3 of the troops there and we do not hear a peep out of the same Democrats.

Wouldn't it be nice if obama just once were to congratulate the troops for victory in Iraq. We hear about the dead and wounded, but never about what they accomplished. No one among the Democrats has the guts to admit that Bush and the surge brought us victory rather than the defeat that Reid announced and most of his Democratic colleagues rooted for.

Words and Deed? or just words!

President Obama took the occasion of North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile to roundly condemn the actions of that rogue regime and call for serious sanctions against the crazies in Pyonyang. Okay, we got words from the master orator. Now we will get to see (with apologies to Peggy Lee) "Is that all there is?"

The NK leadership has come to realize that words will never hurt them and that words from the UN are never accompanied by sticks and stones. What will Obama and his minions do? Speak louder? Try different words? Those are my guesses, since the likelihood of serious countermeasures against NK coming from this administration is essentially nonexistant.

Let's see if Obama can limit himself to meaningless words without looking impotent and foolish. Let's see if obama can realize on his own that his words will have no effect.

It will be interesting to watch.

More on NY - 20

As the recanvas continues in NY-20, Tedesco, the Republican, keeps picking up votes. As of Friday morning he is a dozen votes ahead. We should know in two weeks who won for sure. right now, the republican looks to be in good shape.

NY-20 Update

As of Thursday morning, the results in the NY-so district election to Congress shows the Democrat only 13 votes ahead. With thousands of absentee and military votes still to be counted and with those remaining votes coming nearly 60% from registered Republicans, we are more likely than ever to see a victory for Tedesco, the Republican. This is a real slap at Obama who just carried the district in November with 61% of the vote.

NY-20

The special election yesterday in NY's 20th congressional district has ended with a very close race, but with the likely winner being the Republican. As of now, the tabulated vote shows Murphy, the Democrat, about 64 votes ahead. There are over 6000 absentee and military ballots still to be counted, however. Of these, ballots received from Republicans outnumber those from Democrats by close to 800. There is still time to receive more absentee and military ballots in the mail -- although the most likely number of additional votes is under 1000. As a result, if these additional ballots break along party lines (which is certainly likely), the Republican should triumph.

This district voted over 60% for obama in November and has been represented by a Democrat in the last two terms. It is much more Republican than the average NY district,but a Republican victory here would still be big news particularly since Obama lgot involved in the campaign (along with many other national Democratic figures).

The message seems clear here. The honeymoon is over for Obama.