Bill Richardson, who had served in Clinton’s cabinet and later became governor of New Mexico, kindly stopped to speak to our delegation at the [2000] Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He commented favorably to us: “What do Hispanics want? Fully funded government programs!”
Dang! Did someone do something to piss off James Kirchick? Not to get all ghetto on my readers…but, Damn homeboy got an attitude!
Kirchick Writes in the NY Daily News:
Barack Obama isn’t even President yet, and he’s already angering some of his most devoted followers on the party’s left wing. This is the mark of what could be a very successful presidency.
“With its congressional majority, the Democratic Party has refused to seriously try to end the war, to stop the bailout and to stop the trampling of civil liberties, just to name a few off the top of my head,” wrote David Sirota on the popular liberal blog OpenLeft, decrying the serial betrayals of Obama and the congressional Democratic majority. The Democratic Party, he wrote, has “faced no real retribution” for its manifold heresies, something that Sirota believes he and his band of angry bloggers must change. “We better understand why this happened,” he fumed.
Allow me to provide an answer. You don’t matter.
Ouch. That’s harsh. 😮
The week before Tuesday’s meeting, Obama let it be known that he bore “no grudge” against Lieberman. Setting a positive tone so early after a hard-fought election, he is already making good on his promise to, if not end, then at least lessen the “petty partisanship” he decried in the campaign. Among the positive outcomes of this week’s abject lesson in letting bygones be bygones, it is reassuring to see that the leadership of the Democratic Party isn’t as petty, vindictive and small as its left-wing supporters.
Not a good way to win or keep friends, if you ask me. I mean, I’m no Miss Congeniality here, but I don’t go around pissin’ into electric fans either. (Or so to speak…)
Others: DownWithTyranny!, Eunomia, The Heretik, Whiskey Fire, Riehl World View and Booman Tribune
Via Breit Bart:
Back Story Via the Edmonton Sun:
Researchers are trying to track down a meteorite that flashed through the skies Thursday night before a snowfall makes the search impossible.
Otherwise they’ll have to wait until spring when the snow melts, and chances of finding it may be slim by then, said Frank Florian, director of space sciences at Edmonton’s Telus World of Science.
“That’s why we need to iron this down today,” he said.
Florian has been receiving hundreds of phone calls and e-mails about the meteor sighting, all with varying accounts of where the flash of light took place.
“We’re trying to take all the reports and put them together in a meaningful conclusion as to where it might have fallen,” Florian said.
The rock seems to have flown in the general direction east of Red Deer and west of Saskatoon and appears to be about 18 metres or larger, he added.
Wow… Reminds me of a song:
Exit Question: They found this scary? Wow. Ever see any of the women up there? Yikes! 😮
Second Exit Statement: After all, these are the same people that turned thier backs on us, during vietnam. Just sayin’…. 😛
I expect that we’ll hear more of this as time goes on….
Via Breit Bart: (Dateline WMAQ Chicago)
I just wonder, were the Police Officers that did the beating White or Black? That will answer the racism charge.
However, judging from comments on the WMAQ site, Chicago still got issues when it comes to racism.
Exit Question: Will the ObamaMassiah ask for a congressional Investigation into the mistreatment of his people?
This is truly a sad story. 🙁
Video (Thanks to Breit Bart)
I’m sure some idiot liberal will say, “See? This is why we need to get rid of guns!” While flapping their Liberal stained hands in the air.
Let me be clear on something, with owning a firearm, comes responsibility; obviously this man neglected to properly store his firearms away from the eyes of his son and his son accessed those firearms and now we have a double murder on our hands. Either this or that kid knew where the firearms were and how into get into the cabinet where the firearms were located.
Either way, this is a extremely sad case, and there is no easy answer, Guns are a America freedom that we cherish. However, with that freedom comes responsibility, we should always remember that. Least sad events like this happen.
First the video of Bambi-Elect via Breit Bart:
The Story, Via CNN:
President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday offered an outline of his economic recovery plan and jobs were the top priority.
American workers will rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges, modernize its schools and create more sources of alternative energy, creating 2.5 million jobs by 2011, Obama said in the weekly Democratic address, posted on his Web site.
“These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis,” he said. “These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long.”
Details of the plan are still being worked out by his economic team, Obama said, but he hopes to implement the plan shortly after taking office January 20.
He referred to figures out this week showing that new home purchases in October were the lowest in 50 years, and that 540,000 new unemployment claims had been filed — the highest in 16 years.
“We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again,” he said. More than a million jobs have been lost this year, he said, and “if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.”
The plan will be aimed at jump-starting job creation, Obama said, and laying the foundation for a stronger economy.
“We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years head,” he said.
He noted he will need support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass such a plan, and said he welcomes suggestions from both sides of the aisle.
“But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action,” he said. “Right now, there are millions of mothers and fathers who are lying awake at night wondering if next week’s paycheck will cover next month’s bills.
“There are Americans showing up to work in the morning, only to have cleared out their desks by the afternoon. Retirees are watching their life savings disappear, and students are seeing their college dreams deferred. These Americans need help, and they need it now.”
Throughout history, he said, Americans have been able to rise above their divisions to work together, he said.
“That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come,” Obama said. “It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will.”
I personally think that we, as the loyal opposition, should take a wait and see approach towards this. It could help America. It might cost America a bit. But to sit and judge it foolishly before it is implemented will only serve to make us look foolish.
So, as someone who’s not had a job since 2005. I will reserve judgement at this time.
Others: Pajamas Media, www.redstate.com, EconoSpeak (Via Memeorandum)
A sad, but realistic look at World affairs from an outside source. There are many things to blame; Bush, Neo-Conservatism, and the like. There are some that would say that the BBC is liberally biased. But I disagree, I think it is a real-world view of things. Our world in changing, we, as Americans ought to embrace it, but be prepared.
Via Breit Bart:
Look at my fellow conservatives! There they go, glumly shuffling along, depressed by the election aftermath. Not me. I’m virtually euphoric. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not thrilled with America ‘s flirtation with neo socialism. But there’s a massive silver lining in those magical clouds that lofted Barack Obama to the Presidency. For today, without a shred of intellectually legitimate opposition, I can loudly proclaim to America : The Era of White Guilt is over.
This seemingly impossible event occurred because the vast majority of white Americans didn’t give a fluff about skin color, and enthusiastically pulled the voting lever for a black man. Not just any black man. A very liberal black man who spent his early career race-hustling banks, praying in a racist church for 20 years, and actively worked with America-hating domestic terrorists. Wow! Some resume! Yet they made Barak Obama their leader. Therefore, as of Nov 4th, 2008, white guilt is dead.
For over a century, the millstone of white guilt hung around our necks, retribution for slave-owning predecessors. In the 60s, American liberals began yanking that millstone while sticking a fork in the eye of black Americans, exacerbating the racial divide to extort a socialist solution. But if a black man can become President, exactly what significant barrier is left? The election of Barack Obama absolutely destroys the entire validation of liberal white guilt. The dragon is hereby slain.
So today, I’m feeling a little “uppity,” if you will. From this day forward, my tolerance level for having my skin color hustled is now exactly ZERO. And it’s time to clean house. No more Reverend Wright’s “God Damn America ,” Al Sharpton’s Church of Perpetual Victimization , or Jesse Jackson’s rainbow racism. Cornell West? You’re a fraud. Go home. All those “black studies” programs that taught kids to hate whitey? You must now thank Whitey. And I want
that on the final.
Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. Maxine Waters? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. Go ahead. I’m waiting.
Gangsta rappers? Start praising America . Begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. And please…no more ebonics. Speak English, and who knows where you might end up? Oh, yeah…pull up your pants. Your underwear is showing. You look stupid.
To those Eurosnots who forged entire careers hating America ? I’m still waiting for the first black French President.
And let me offer an equal opportunity whupping. I’ve always despised lazy white people. Now, I can talk smack about lazy black people. You’re poor because you quit school, did drugs, had three kids with three different fathers, and refuse to work. So when you plop your Colt 45-swilling, Oprah watchin’ butt on the couch and complain “Da Man is keepin’ me down,” allow me to inform you: Da Man is now black. You have no excuses.
No more quotas. No more handouts. No more stealing my money because someone’s great-great-great-great grandparents suffered actual pain and misery at the hands of people I have no relation to, and personally revile.
It’s time to toss that massive, obsolete race-hustle machine upon the heap of the other stupid 60s ideas. Drag it over there, by wife swapping, next to dope-smoking. Plenty of room right between free love and cop-killing. Careful…don’t trip on streaking. There ya go, don’t be gentle. Just dump it. Wash your hands. It’s filthy.
In fact, Obama’s ascension created a gargantuan irony. How can you sell class envy and American unfairness when you and your black wife went to Ivy League schools, got high-paying jobs, became millionaires, bought a mansion, and got elected President? How unfair is that??? Now, Like a delicious O’Henry tale, Obama’s spread-the-wealth campaign rendered itself moot by it’s own victory! America is officially a meritocracy. Obama’s election has validated American conservatism!
So, listen carefully…Wham!!!
That’s the sound of my foot kicking the door shut on the era of white guilt. The rites have been muttered, the carcass lowered, dirt shoveled, and tombstone erected. White guilt is dead and buried.
However, despite my glee, there’s apparently one small, rabid bastion of American racism remaining. Black Americans voted 96% for Barack Obama. Hmmm. In a color-blind world, shouldn’t that be 50-50? Tonight, every black person should ask forgiveness for their apparent racism and prejudice towards white people. Maybe it’s time to start spreading the guilt around.
Too Much Denial Going On Around Here
By: J.J. Jackson
Dear God in Heaven above! There is so much denial going on right now among Conservatives that I feel like I have just arrived at an AA meeting where there are bunch of first timers, who have been dragged there by their friends and family, and are shouting about how they, “don’t have a problem.” I have just gotten about as sick of this as I can take and am ready to start slapping you denial riddled fools upside your empty little heads. So here is my hand and here comes the slap that you all so rightfully deserve.
For nearly the past three weeks I have been hearing conservatives softening their tones on Barack Obama after he beat John McCain and his moderate ramblings on November 4th. And if it did not sink in when I said in the last paragraph that I am sick of it, then let me reiterate it again. I am damn sick of it.
You little pansies, and you know who you are, who are talking about giving Barack Obama a honeymoon and talking about waiting to see what he actually does really do make me sick. You make me sick because a lot of you were the same people who were unloading on him and his Marxist ideology (clearly able to be seen by anyone reading what he has written and listening to anything he has said) for months prior to the election. He deserved that barrage from the big guns then and he deserves the same firepower, if not more, pointed and unleashed upon him now that he has won. The man does not deserve any sort of a “honeymoon.” There is no, “wait and see what he will do,” reasoning that is valid. We know what he wants to do. He has said it time and time again. The only question is will he be allowed to do it.
But a lot of you namby-pambies, who try desperately to put forth your conservative, pro-liberty credentials, are denying everything that the man has said and done within his life and his campaign. You are hoping, beyond hope if you ask me, that he will all of a sudden change his stripes and not go full auto Marxist on our butts. My God, what has happened to you cowards?
I would love to think that you are maybe just scared of saying something that Barack Obama or his “truth squads” might find objectionable and that you are moderating your tones out of fear. We all know that history is replete with examples of how people with Obama’s ideas deal with their political opponents. I cannot believe that you actually however believe that things will be different than what he promised when he was on the campaign trail.
Maybe he will be more moderate on taxes? He will not be if you keep making excuses for him instead of preaching economic reality!
Maybe he will be more reasonable in fighting the war on terror? If you start giving him a honeymoon and believing that now, all of a sudden, he will see how serious terrorism is, he will not be.
Maybe he will be a little more considerate of the first amendment? Yeah, I see that happening if you start making excuses and take a wait and see attitude!
Maybe he will not rush headlong into trampling on the second amendment? Ok, sure … you believe this despite all his anti-gun, anti-self defense remarks during his life and on the campaign trail why?
Oh, I know what your excuse is because you keep saying it. You keep saying that now, because he is actually going to be sitting in the oval office and (you assume) held accountable for his actions, he will recognize the reality of the myriad of situations which will confront him and that he will have to act in more moderate ways because his is “smart”. Yeah, “smart” … that’s what they call spouting Marxist talking points and promoting an ideology that has failed time and again from Mussolini’s Italy to Hitler’s Germany to Stalin’s Russia to Khrushchev’s Soviet Union to Mao’s China to Kim Jong Il’s North Korea to Castro’s Cuba to Chavez’s Venezuela? Not to mention how it is currently failing in the plethora of European states that continue to struggle under chronically high unemployment rates and legacy costs for the “free” healthcare and welfare of Marxism light and the entitlement mentality.
You want him to change his stance on anything he believes? You have to unload on him and keep hitting him with the truth. No honeymoons. No grace periods.
If I hear one more conservative or so-called capitalist (most of whom I believe are corporatists, in that they are capitalists looking to game the socialist system for their own ends, and not true capitalists) claiming that Obama is “smart,” despite my previous points about his promotion of an idiotic ideology that has always and will always fail, I may have to move from slapping them silly to putting a boot up in where the sun does not shine. It is a ridiculous notion that you folks espouse.
“Smart” people do not rush headlong down a road that leads off a cliff. I do not care how many degrees and letters they have after their names. As we all know the halls of academia are littered with the corpses of people that have such honors behind their names and could not think their way out of a paper bag. But they can certainly pontificate on the way things, “ought to be,” in their minds and muse and whine about why things are not that way.
It is time to stop denying who Barack Obama is, and always has been, and admit that he has given no reason to “hope” that he will be anything other than the man he has shown us to be. It is time to admit that in order to “change” him (and the course this country has been on for the previous century regardless of what liberals believe) that he must be ridden and ridden hard. He must be constantly smacked upside the head with the facts and not allowed to get by on good looks, charm and lofty, vacuous rhetoric. He must not be given a free pass. He must not be given a honeymoon. And most importantly he should not be given any more credit than he is due.
Right now, his credit is zero. So get up and stop being a bunch of wishful hopers like the mindless Obamatons that voted for him are. And stop feeling, as they do, that by merely having “hope” that our troubles will be washed away and get your butts to work.
=====================================
J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the lead editor contributor to American Conservative Daily and also the founder of SignalCongress.com. He is the owner of The Right Things – Conservative T-shirts & Gifts (http://www.cafepress.com/rightthings). His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at http://www.libertyreborn.com
I am sure that you’ve heard about the Rumor or the Conservative talking point that the Detroit Auto Workers make $70 an hour. The Conservatives will try and tell you that if you figure in all thier benefits, it totals that amount.
There’s only one little problem with that, the math, is quite frankly, wrong.
Jonathan Cohn at TNR Explains:
Well, here’s one reason: The figure is wildly misleading.
Let’s start with the fact that it’s not $70 per hour in wages. According to Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automative Research–who was my primary source for the figures you are about to read–average wages for workers at Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007. That works out to a little less than $60,000 a year in gross income–hardly outrageous, particularly when you consider the physical demands of automobile assembly work and the skills most workers must acquire over the course of their careers.
More important, and contrary to what you may have heard, the wages aren’t that much bigger than what Honda, Toyota, and other foreign manufacturers pay employees in their U.S. factories. While we can’t be sure precisely how much those workers make, because the companies don’t make the information public, the best estimates suggests the corresponding 2007 figure for these “transplants”–as the foreign-owned factories are known–was somewhere between $20 and $26 per hour, and most likely around $24 or $25. That would put average worker’s annual salary at $52,000 a year.
So the “wage gap,” per se, has been a lot smaller than you’ve heard. And this is no accident. If the transplants paid their employees far less than what the Big Three pay their unionized workers, the United Auto Workers would have a much better shot of organizing the transplants’ factories. Those factories remain non-unionized and management very much wants to keep it that way.
So, where did this wild figure come from? Jonathan continues:
But then what’s the source of that $70 hourly figure? It didn’t come out of thin air. Analysts came up with it by including the cost of all employer-provided benefits–namely, health insurance and pensions–and then dividing by the number of workers. The result, they found, was that benefits for Big Three cost about $42 per hour, per employee. Add that to the wages–again, $28 per hour–and you get the $70 figure. Voila.
Except … notice something weird about this calculation? It’s not as if each active worker is getting health benefits and pensions worth $42 per hour. That would come to nearly twice his or her wages. (Talk about gold-plated coverage!) Instead, each active worker is getting benefits equal only to a fraction of that–probably around $10 per hour, according to estimates from the International Motor Vehicle Program. The number only gets to $70 an hour if you include the cost of benefits for retirees–in other words, the cost of benefits for other people. One of the few people to grasp this was Portfolio.com’s Felix Salmon. As he noted yesterday, the claim that workers are getting $70 an hour in compensation is just “not true.”
I highly recommend that everyone that comes here, go read the rest of this great article. Because it really puts to bed some of the more idiotic rumors and false information. I mean, I have been raising hell about this whole bailout, but it is mainly because of the utter stupidity that is being parroted by the Far Right and by some of the not so far right. I will say this, that if this is the best that right can do, towards the middle class. They can forget about getting elected in 2010 or 2012. Of course, based upon what I’ve noticed as of late, there is not much hope of that happening anyhow.
I would suppose that there are those who might think, that I do not think that there is any problems with the Big Three. Trust me, I do. I also realize that the unions did get a bit greedy in the last 20 or so years. But, I also know this, that the errors that the present management and management in the past made at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are NOT the fault of the Employees. Nor do I believe that the employees of these fine companies should be punished for the incompetency of these companies. Nor do I blame the employees for the missteps of the Union officials, who were out for their own agendas.
It is just a plain and simple, the Republicans and some Libertarians think that punishing the middle class and allowing those who simply go to work and do their jobs to lose their jobs is perfectly acceptable. I am not one of those people.
In a personal level, my Dad never, ever made more than $21 an hour at his job. He worked for general motors for 31 years. He drove a Hi-lo, otherwise known as a Forklift. He worked for those people faithfully, rarely took off sick, he would work as many hours as they asked him to. Sometimes double shifts, he even worked triple shifts, before they outlawed it. My Father earned his retirement, and now, I have to contend with idiot Republicans, Conservatives and some Libertarians; who want to punish my dad for G.M.’s stupidity. It just is not right. As far as his benefits go, he’s got some good benefits, but they’re not as nearly as good as they used to be. He used to pay zero for Doctor’s visits and Prescriptions, he now pays a large co-pay for doctor’s visits and prescriptions. I think my Dad has earned every last bit of those benefits, and those Conservative who would want to punish my Dad, I will say to you, what Keith Olbermann said about those in the Bush Administration who knowingly send your Nation’s troops into battle for their second and third terms, despite the fact that some, if not all, are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome; they can go to hell.
It just seems very hypocritical of this Nation to give Wall Street 700 hundred BILLION dollars, for a damned bailout that did not even really work; but you let the big three ask for a bridge loan and the whole world is like “Detroit can go to hell!” It just does not make any sense to me at all.
Matthew Yglesias and Washington Monthly