Monday, December 29, 2008

If you don't think bad news sells better check this out

Via the NYtimes.com:

One result is that, as the war claims fewer American lives, Iraq is fading from TV screens. The three network evening newscasts devoted 423 minutes to Iraq this year as of Dec. 19, compared with 1,888 minutes in 2007, said Andrew Tyndall, a television news consultant.

A drop of 78%.

Let me cynically point out that good Iraq war news didn't fit the "failed policies of the past" Obamedia playbook.

A Holiday without Kids

Yes it was a little more relaxed, but it was a lot less fun. Both daughters were away with their own lives this year and we spent the time with in-laws. I'd set the expectations bar so low it was easy to step over, though I did keep a keen eye on the clock to see if we had achieved the minimum allowable visitation time. Gotta get back and check on the dogs you know!
They probably felt the same way about us.

One daughter's friend, an officer in the Navy stayed with us on her way to Maine for a visit with another friend. It was great to see and talk to her but she had to suffer the fate of being the surrogate daughter for a day. She's a great human being and really has her head on straight about what's to be valued in life.

With the New Year coming up most folks will want to say a bitter sayonara to 2008 - but I look back fondly from a personal standpoint. Our first grandchild from one daughter and an engagement announcement from the other, bringing another great guy into the family. Both daughters achieved great things in their professional lives as well. 2008 wasn't so bad, except for how the media collapsed under the weight of it's own bias.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

2008 Not so good for Anthropogenic Global Warming Alarmists

Christopher Booker of the Telegraph thinks AGW is a big lie. He's right of course.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

My fear is that Obama's appointment of John Holdren as his "science advisor" bodes a full steam ahead Global Warming fear fest even as many climate science heavyweights are jumping off the bandwagon. Holdren is the one who helped the Danish Government nearly imprison Bjorn Lomborg, author of the Skeptical Environmentalist when he dared to defy the whole AGW gestapo.(via Powerlineblog.com) When the government is behind a scientific fearmaking steamroller like AGW, watch out. Research money skyrockets and facts get molded to fit the meme.
Al Gore = PT Barnum

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bush Has Doubled the number of neighborhood health care centers

As promised in his 2000 presidential campaign Bush added over 1200 neighborhood health care centers. Via NY Times:

In Mr. Bush’s first year in office, he proposed to open or expand 1,200 clinics over five years (mission accomplished) and to double the number of patients served (the increase has ended up closer to 60 percent). With the health centers now serving more than 16 million patients at 7,354 sites, the expansion has been the largest since the program’s origins in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty, federal officials said.



With President Bush also saving hundreds 0f thousands of lives by boosting our support for AIDS care and prevention in Africa it's apparent that GWB is a compassionate man.

Spinning POTUS fitness.

Michelle Malkin gets it right again with a piece on the fawning over BHO's fitness results. In the piece she quotes the Washington Post's front page man love from Eli Zaslow:

Sighed smitten reporter Eli Zaslow: “The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Drool cup to the newsroom, stat.

She goes on to point out that the LA Times printed an op ed piece from WaPo reporter Jonathan Chait who equated GW Bush's fitness regimen with creepiness:

Recounting how President Bush ran 3 1/2 miles a day and preached more cross-training to a federal judge, Chait fumed: “Am I the only person who finds this disturbing?…What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.”

As Michelle points out -

Fit Republican president = Selfish, indulgent, creepy fascist.
Fit Democratic president = Disciplined, health-conscious Adonis role model.


Read the whole thing, it foreshadows how the POTUS and POTUS elect have and will be comparatively referenced in all areas in the Main Stream media.

Seems fair to me.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost. Loser of the Week 122508

I have to agree with the great bloggers over at Powerlineblog.com on this one. Phillipe Sands, he of the dishonest effort Torture Team literally lies about his interview with Douglas Feith regarding treatment of POWs at Gitmo.

The Powerline guys give him dishonest journalist of the year. That'll get you, at the very least, our weekly award around here.

Monday, December 22, 2008

There's Talking and Then There's Doing

"Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates."

Nicolas Kristof takes his own kind to the woodshed in this NYT op-ed. Read the whole thing.

via Don Surber

Which explains why Dick Cheney can give away $6 million in one year to charities (75% of his income) while his predecessor could not even give away $1,000 one year and why his successor averaged $369 a year in such donations (0.25% of income).

I think we all could do more.

A Baghdad Christmas Celebration

Replete with Santa, celebrated by Muslims and Christians alike. It's been decades since this was attempted publicly.

Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. "All Iraqis are Christian today!" he says.

Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. "Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism," he says, "and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties."


All military men and women should be very proud of what they've helped bring to Iraq. It is a shame that as part of the election campaign the last 2 years that it was necessary to belittle our efforts and portray the efforts in Iraq as "failed policies" . They're anything but that.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Now THAT's vetting a candidate!


Mother of Palin daughter's boyfriend arrested. Associated Press headline this morning. Tell me ONE time the parent-of- a- candidate's- daughter's-boyfriend was ever mentioned in a news story. Now that's going the extra mile. If the sister of the dog groomer of one of the Palin's neighbors Siberian Huskies has an unpaid parking ticket she'd better watch out.

Are the Democrats that fearful that Palin is going to be around with a little juice the next time we vote for President? It's going to take some doing to come up with a negative story a week to keep Palin's persona in the villain column. But given what they did to Palin this time around I won't question their talented imaginations.

We now know more about the Mother of Palin's Daughter's Boyfriend than we do about the President Elect's brother who lives in a hut and his aunt who was an illegal immigrant in Boston just weeks ago.

Seems fair to me.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Man Made Global Warming Taking Lots of Hits

Al Gore has done a disservice to mankind and made millions for himself in the process in linking human generated CO2 to the flooding of North America and the death of the planet. His disciples have swooned over his panic-inciting slide show and billions of research dollars have been granted to people to prove he's right. Well he's wrong and horror of horrors even the Main Stream Media is starting to pull back the curtain.

A second CNN meterologist is putting his job on the line....

“If we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were probably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous time for mankind,” Lehr said. “If go back to the Revolutionary War 300 years ago, it was very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle.”

Lehr suggested the earth is presently entering a cooling cycle – a result of nature, not man.

“The last 10 years have been quite cool,” Lehr continued. “And right now, I think we’re going into cooling rather than warming and that should be a much greater concern for humankind. But, all we can do is adapt. It is the sun that does it, not man.”


And Save the Planet Gore is more interested in saving for his retirement as he earns a minimum of $175,000 per speaking engagement. He earns enough to buy a 100 foot boat and jets around the world to all his lucrative speaking engagements.

According to Bloomberg.com

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore left the White House seven years ago with less than $2 million in assets, including a Virginia home and the family farm in Tennessee. Now he's making enough to put $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.

Yes, by all means we need to reduce the use of fossil fuels (mainly because of carcinogenic pollutants and the fact that it is a finite source)however, man-made global warming proponents are wrong and they need to quit stealing the hundreds of millions in research money that could be going to more badly needed areas of study.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost - Loser of the Week 121808

The winner is ...........dumb roll please..... Katie Couric. Our favorite female nightly news Obama lapdog asks this brilliant question (J School students cover your ears) " What do you think of the people who question the qualifications of Caroline Kennedy for Senator?"

Yup. Not what do you think of: Caroline Kennedy, her qualities, etc BUT "What do you think of the PEOPLE WHO QUESTION HER QUALIFICATIONS???"

Katie clearly thinks they should be shot. They are idiots to question giving a Senate seat to a woman who has run for nothing except maybe a Frisbee at the Kennedy compound beach in Hyannis, right Katie?

I understand her followup question was to be "When did you stop beating your wife?".

Katie Couric. Jourtegrity Lost - Loser of the Week.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Maybe the Chicago Newspapers are Getting it

And the hits just keep on coming. Chicago Sun-Times laying the smack down on the new Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. Holder, of the "Marc Rich is perfectly pardonable, Mr Clinton" apparently isn't that keen on pointing out his fiduciary relationship with Blagojevich regarding casinoes in Illinois.

It's starting to look like Change We Can Deceive In.

Is Blago the Bad Guy here?

He is undoubtedly a bad guy. But is he the baddest guy? Turns out Rahm (don't get between me and my bone) Emmanuel spoke 21 times to Blago about getting the Senate seat for Valerie Jarrett (Obama's closest female confidant). I suspect Blago said "what, you're telling me who and when??" I suspect Blago got ticked and began spouting to anyone who would listen that this "f'ing Senate seat is worth more than just appreciation!!"

I think it got to be a macho thing between Emmanuel and Blago. Rahm in his new role as king of the world pushed too hard and Blago puffed out his chest. Obama probably had no direct part in this but Emmanuel got his marching orders from somewhere. I'm sure the 21 phone calls weren't Rahm asking for advice on a great steak house in ChiTown. Emmanuel will either take the fall, or get severely reprimanded by Obama and take his medicine apologizing all over the Sunday talk shows. By New Year's Eve either Rahm will be gone or he'll be severely defanged for awhile.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Top ten people responsible for the economic collapse.

US News and World Report's James Pethokoukis names names. My favorite is number 7

Barney Frank. This is a quote, from 2003, that the Massachusetts Democrat would like to have back: "These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'' Turns out that the two government-sponsored entities were walking farther and farther out onto thin financial ice. And as late as last year, Frank wanted Fannie and Freddie to take on even more subprime risk. Washington and Wall Street have to share the blame for the financial crisis.

If you only got your news from the leftist dailies and blue journalism cable news shows you'd think Democrat Barney was a brilliant economic strategist.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Gutless Shoe Thrower

Gutless because he threw and ran. Talentless because he couldn't hit the mark from 12 feet with two projectiles. But irony of ironies - he would be dead today if he threw even one shoe at Saddam Hussein.

The Global Warming Scamarama Moves On

The emperor has no clothes. The elephant is in the room. Now one must understand (according to AP, our neutral newsservice of record) that cold is actually hot. I'm beginning to understand how so many people voted for Obama's line of nothingness.

Don Surber has it right.

Rahm, Rahm, Rahm, Rahm, Rahm he ran

Obama's sidekick Rahm Emmanuel knew something about Blago and the pay for play scheme. But he ain't talking. He's got a family you know...

Blago, Rangel, Dodd and now Richardson

Democrats. Liberals. The heroes of American politics. Not.

Oh how the dam of suppressed stories has burst forth from the Main Stream media now that the election is over and the One got sent over the top to victory.

Obama's Secretary of Commerce nominee, Bill Richardson apparently has a boatload of tainted campaign contributions from a Wall Street advising concern. There's a little investigating going on.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Let's say this was McCain's or Palin's head speechwriter


None of the feminists I know have told me how horribly sexist this picture is and how the guys in the photo should be strung up by their twig and berries and left to die. Why is this so? Because Jon Favreau is Obama's speechwriter and Obama is god. And of course, because the MSM hasn't made anything of it. This royally pisses me off. The whole thing about feminists is that they are....sorry....hypocrites.
Bill Clinton was the world's biggest chauvinist, ruining the lives of several women and cheating on his wife and embarrassing his daughter. Not a word from feminists. John Edwards cheats on his under-cancer-care wife, lies to and about his mistress and may have a love child. Not a word from feminists. Obama, for crissakes, calls the female reporters in the reporting pool "sweetie". Mum's the word. And Sarah Palin, who has probably made more strides for women in the past three months than Caroline Kennedy (somehow fit to be a Senator!) has in her lifetime, is unfit to run for Vice President.
Well thank goodness at least one woman gets it. Former press secretary for Clinton (of all people) Dee Dee Myers is outraged enough to tell all in Vanity Fair. Read it, she's right on.

"Imagine how different the reaction would be if an important aide to John McCain had been caught in similar picture featuring Michelle Obama?"

Her statement above addresses the issue of media bias and feminist hypocrisy all rolled into one.

Monday, December 8, 2008

When you bail out a sinking boat it's still sinking until you plug the hole


It seems all too obvious that the bailout for the Big 3 automakers is about to transpire. Somewhere on the order of $25 to $35 billion dollars will be made available with $25 billion already sent Detroit's way as of September for "retooling". That is, to make the auto megagiants more capable of creating green/hybrid cars. The current monies are meant to be a bridge loan, to get them through next spring. Then what? More monies, more bridges?


If Detroit's automakers weren't smart enough to foresee the need for smaller, more efficient cars on their own, why should we believe they have the good sense to make their companies leaner and more profitable? The phrase "throwing good money after bad" never had a more appropriate application than this travesty. Bloated, short-sighted and arrogant companies such as these burdened by poorly negotiated union contracts that make it nearly impossible to compete with foreign manufacturers need to be allowed to suffer the free market consequences of bad management.


This is the nature of capitalism and it has worked well when left to "the invisible hand". My very tiny company has made it through two previous recessions by making good judgements about costs, customer needs and service and there's not a single Ivy League MBA on the staff!

You can bet the Big 3 has tons of them.

Chart courtesy of heritage.org.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost in real numbers

dThe numbers from the Center for Media and Public Affairs regarding the bias shown by the electronic news media during the election cycle released today didn't even include the two biggest offenders; CNN and MSNBC.

"President-elect Barack Obama received 68% positive evaluations on the network evening news shows during the general election. His treatment was twice as favorable as John McCain’s 33% positive and Sarah Palin’s 34% positive evaluations."

How can we believe what we hear/see on the network news if they're willing to "manage" their newscasts to fit their political agendas? It's simple. We can't.

Tougher still, is to get this message out when the perpetrators of the crime control the means of communications to the masses.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

An Eight Year President

It strikes me that the moves Barack Obama is making in naming his cabinet and reversing many campaign promises (see Change entries 1-8 below) are the moves of a President and a party that wants to stay in power for 8 years, not 4. Obama did not win a mandate. 53% to 47% is not a mandate, 60% to 40% or better, would have been. Many would argue with the media providing cover, with Republicans in disfavor, and with the gift of a collapsed economy just before the election - any democrat would have won with a margin of 15% by just getting out of bed!

Sorry Huff Po-ites, Kos Kids and MoveOn folks - though you may have provided the margin of victory for Barry, he's going to leave you behind. Change We Need, Change We Can Believe In, was all smoke and mirrors. Puppeteer Rahm is in charge now and the Democrat mega powers funded by big business don't want to rock the boat. Middle class, schmiddle class - about all the lefties might get is a center left Supreme Court justice, a $1.50 minimum wage increase, and modified immigration amnesty.

Pretty close to what McCain would have been all about, or for that matter - a third Bush term.

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Part 8

Obama, after promising during his campaign (to deafening cheers) that he would impart severe windfall profits taxes on George "failed policies of the past" Bush's buddies - the oil companies, says...oh, nevermind.

Is this guy ever going to keep a campaign promise? It truly is at the laughable stage now. And of course the media isn't holding his feet to the fire on any of this. Maybe this has something to do with it.

Were I a Barack Obama supporter I would feel duped...again.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Justice....Almost

I guess the only thing better than the deer getting some revenge would have been for it to get away. My relatives in Upstate NY all hunt deer and they're very respectful and eat the deer meat and so on, but I was backing the deer in this story.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Parts 5,6&7

So you think the young, lefty vote will turn out for BHO next time?

Iraq war proponent Hillary Clinton is named Secretary of State.

Bush appointee William Gates is named Secretary of Defense.

Republican Jim Jones, proponent of the Iraq war named as National Security Advisor.