Category: politics

Quote of the Day

After an election loss, recriminations are inevitable.  Everyone believes they know what went wrong and who is to blame for it.  Conservatives in the Republican Party are blaming the corruption and apostasies of senators like Ted Stevens (R-AK) for the party’s tarnished image, while more elite conservative opinion-makers like Kathleen Parker and David Brooks are arguing that the party must head left, and specifically jettison social conservatives, to appeal to a broader base of the electorate.

Most of these arguments are not credible.  For instance, the latter group cites poll evidence showing that such-and-such demographic groups, who had voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, all of a sudden switched to supporting Obama and other Democrats.  That is a true observation, but it does not necessarily follow that the GOP should act more Democratic to appeal to these groups.  The problem is that all demographic groups favored the Democrats more this year than they did last election.  The GOP lost ground among men, women, all educational and income levels, minorities, and age groups.  There is no group here that can be targeted for a specific appeal, no Rovian strategy that will woo a particular demographic.  The GOP simply lost.

U.S. Courts have a shortage….of interpreters

(H/T Freedom Folks)

….and the idiot liberals say, “Oh there’s no massive immigration problem!”  Yeah, sure. 🙄

Via USA TODAY:

An existing shortage of certified court interpreters is worsening, court officials say, as law enforcement agencies step up actions against illegal immigrants.

Arrests leading to federal prosecutions and deportations reached record levels in fiscal year 2008, according to an October report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Wanda Romberger, manager of court interpreting services at the National Center for State Courts, says that almost every state is being confronted with a lack of certified interpreters — who have to pass difficult exams — especially in languages other than Spanish.

“I don’t know of many jurisdictions that would say they have enough qualified court interpreters,” she says. There are about 3,000 certified interpreters, says Isabel Framer, chairwoman of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators. Only 500, she says, work in languages other than Spanish.

The association did not estimate how many more interpreters are needed, but according to a 2007 report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, there was a 17% increase in the number of events requiring interpreters in 115 languages in federal courts from October 2006 to September 2007.

Framer says that several cases have been reversed because of poor interpretation. Parastoo Zahedi, a Virginia-based immigration lawyer says she “repeatedly had to reschedule cases because there was no interpreter.”

Administrative Office spokesman Richard Carelli says federal courts provide adequate interpreters for most Spanish speakers, who, he says, represent 95% of immigration-related cases.

However, he says, it can be difficult to find interpreters in some languages. Carelli also says that “finding interpreters for certain indigenous dialects from Central and South American countries has presented problems.”

Nothing to see here, just the United States of America being overrun with Illegal Immigrants. Move along. 🙄

Letterman Confronts Couric about McCain Ditching his Show!

Via Breit Bart:

Two Funny Moments, the first is when Katie Couric Says, “I had no idea until you, apparently, had a little cow on the air.” The other is when Katie Couric points out the fact that nobody knew Dave had swipped the feed of McCain and Couric! 😆

It is very funny! Watch it.

The Obligatory Hillary Accepts Secretary of State Posting

I figured she would…. anyhow, Because everyone and their uncle’s brother is talking about it. I guess I’ll follow the herd here. (Walk like a buffalo…..80’s humor, sorry… 😛 )

Via the NYT’s “The Caucus”:

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. Mr. Obama’s office told reporters Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but Clinton associates only confirmed Friday afternoon that she has decided.

“She’s ready,” said the confidant. Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general,” the confidant said. The purpose of the follow-up talk, he added, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.

A second Clinton associate confirmed that her camp believes they have a done deal. Senior Obama advisers said Friday morning that the offer had not been formally accepted and no announcement will be made until after Thanksgiving. But they said they were convinced that the nascent alliance was now ready to be sealed.

Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, Philippe Reines, issued a statement Friday afternoon cautioning that the nomination is not final. “We’re still in discussions, which are very much on track,” he said. “Any reports beyond that are premature.”

I can almost hear the Republicans screaming “RETREAD!” now. Which is pretty funny considering that Reagan used Nixon and Ford retreads.

The victims of the Waco Massacre, which included Seventy-six U.S. Citizens including 21 children and two pregnant women; were unavailable for comment.

Others: : The Campaign Spot, Washington Post, FishBowlDC, The Fix, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Donklephant, Guardian, Boston Globe, TPM Election Central, Sister Toldjah, NO QUARTER, Lost in Transition, TIME.com, RHRealityCheck.org blogs, Anglachel’s Journal, Wonkette, Tennessee Guerilla Women, The Reaction, Macsmind, Political Machine, The Daily Politics, Below The Beltway, MyDD, Talking Points Memo, Althouse, Salon and Patterico’s Pontifications and more via Memeorandum

The Gold Standard – Another view…

….and it’s an interesting one, at that.

From Citizen Economists:

Therein lies the fundamental problem of gold as a backing for fiat money, or as a direct global currency.

There simply is not enough gold on the planet, existing above ground or yet to be mined, to back all the fiat currencies that have been created to accommodate the continually rising population in this world.

Better yet, if we applied simple supply and demand laws, the price of gold would reach enormous proportions compared to the universally accepted world standard of the equivalent US$700 per ounce at today’s values. Careful, please, the price may rapidly move or down from that level!

We know reasonably well how much gold there exists on the planet. We also know approximately who owns how much, both in physical gold and in reserves still to be mined. With the expected gold craze to continue, major exploration and mining companies are hoping to bring those underground reserves to daylight to join in the speculative fever of potentially recovering gold.

For example, Northgate Minerals Corporation (TSX: NGX, AMEX: NXG) announced September 8, 2008 that it found new mineral reserves at its Australian site, including some 140,000 ounces of gold. In their press release, the company stated that the find “will extend the current mine-life by an additional 18 months until the fourth quarter of 2011.” (biz.yahoo.com). (www.northgateminerals.com)

If you do simple math and use today’s value at $700/oz., that results in some $98 million. At a cost of some $20/oz, that results in a nice profit for the company and its shareholders.

However, that amount pales on a macroeconomic level.

Egad, don’t tell that to the people that support Ron Paul, The Ludwig von Mises Institute or the people that are hawking gold on all the Conservative sites that run the ads for gold. The only response to this that I can offer is, if they ended the federal reserve bank and stopped the mass production of money. Perhaps we could go back to the gold standard. However, I will be the first to tell you that I am not, nor have I ever been an expert in economics.

It is an interesting article, I do recommend that you read it.


Ed "The Tool" Morrissey continues to live up to his name

It seems that my Favorite Madison Avenue Conservative, Ed “The Tool” Morrissey continues his one-man venomous crusade against the middle class, Detroit Auto Workers and the U.A.W.; of which my Father is a member.

He blathers on, in his rather idiotic posting, at the Neo-Con rag called “HotAir” which sums up Ed to a tee. He writes:

The UAW chief, Rich Gettelfinger, has a courageous proposal to resolve the standoff:

“In a news conference in Detroit, Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, said the Big Three CEOs should consider resigning if that would help win backing for a bailout.”

Why doesn’t Gettelfinger offer his resignation as well?  Why wouldn’t the UAW offer to help by restructuring its contracts with the Big Three, which shoulder far greater labor costs than its competitors, making them less competitive?  It takes a big, big man to offer someone else’s resignation.

Once again, I have to straighten out the four-eyed Neo-Con idiot:

  1. His is name Ron Gettlefinger, not Rich.
  2. He has done more work in his entire life, than you’ll ever hope to accomplish.
  3. Why don’t you do the blogging world a favor and offer your resignation from HotAir.com and from Blogging in General? Better yet; just drop dead. God knows, the world would be a much better place without idiotic morons like you around, that’s for sure.

Sorry folks, I know that sounds a bit harsh, But when this son-of-a-bitch decided to start his crusade against the Detroit auto workers, he declared war against me personally and my Family. Because of this, I will continue to write rebuttals to this idiots writings, until he personally apologizes to me or decides to stop writing insulting Blog postings about my Father, who is a retired auto worker and U.A.W. Member.

I refer to Ed as a Madison Avenue Conservative, However, I know he is not a rich man. But he has the mentality of your typical Neo-Conservative Republican. Of course, for Ed; it is easy to have this attitude. I mean, when you’re basically living off your wife’s disability check and plus getting a nice check from that Neo-Con shill that he works for. It is easy for him to take the positions that he takes.

Meanwhile, people like me, who live in the real world; who have all of $45 in our bank accounts. We know what would happen to this area, if the big three did collapse. This entire area would become desolate, families and individuals would begin to leave in masses. Like they did back in the 1980’s when that big recession hit. Jobs would become nonexistent, like they did during the great depression of the 1930’s.  Thankfully, my Dad’s pension would be protected by the Federal Government, due to laws passed many years ago. But those men and women working those production lines would not be. The unemployment claims would bankrupt our state.

But people like Ed and Mitt Romney, they don’t care. They’ve got their money. They could care less what happens to us middle class folk. Here’s where the jobless rate hits home with me. I have not had a “Day Job” since 2005. Due to high gas prices and a bum car, that either needs to be sold or fixed; I cannot afford to drive to the job offers that I see in the listings, that are up to 50 or more miles from my house. My car has a bad “A Arm” in the steering. I cannot drive the car on the highway, I would be risking smacking the wall at 60 MPH, if I did. Not my idea of good time!  Besides, the car is quite old, as in 1990 kind of old. The money I would be putting into that car would far exceed the value. So, at this point, I am stuck. Unless I find something around here locally. But that market, is a part of the market that’s dried up around here. This is why I am a full time Blogger. It is all a can do, at this point.

Hopefully now, you will understand why I feel the way that I do about Ed, and his idiotic nonsense towards this area.

Update: To the commenter named Joel, who wrote a rather idiotic comment, accusing me of Ad-Hominem attacks. Well, the way see it. Ed has taken it upon himself in engaging in Ad-Hominem attacks against The U.A.W., The US Auto workers, which includes my Dad; and the middle class in general. So, the way I see it, what’s fair is fair.  I am sticking up for those who have no voice, and if that upsets you. Tough Shit! I’m sure there’s plenty of Neo-Conservative Blogs out there, that you can read that just brim with Anti-Union Propaganda. This is not one of those Blogs.

Liberals Whining about Gas Prices….Coming Down?!?!?!

(H/T Jeff G.)

Obama and the Liberal idiots are now flipping out of the sudden drop in gas prices! This according the Wall Street Journal:

Some government officials and environmentalists are worried the plummeting prices are reversing any energy-conservation gains realized in the past year, when high prices forced Americans to cut back. The economic case for investing in renewable energy, which was looking cheaper, compared with soaring fossil-fuel costs, now is less compelling.

Suddenly, public debate has shifted from trying to find ways to lower prices and give consumers a break to wondering whether federal gasoline taxes should be raised to support higher prices.

President-elect Barack Obama said this week it is even more important to curb Americans’ appetite for oil now that prices are cheaper. “Oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it’s not important,” he said during a television interview. “As a consequence, we never make any progress.”

🙄 First they bitch and gripe and say, “Aaaah! We have to get these prices lower!” and when they come down, They scream, “Aaaaah! We have to tax the gas so we’ll make a profit or tax it to death so people won’t buy it!” Tax it to support higher prices? Holy Moses… I hope that this story does not catch on with the rest of the media, or Obama might just find himself with some very upset supporters.

Liberalism is such a mental disorder.

An Eye Opening C.I.A. Report

An interesting article via Reason Hit & Run about a plane shot down by the Peruvian Air Force. Which had missionaries in it from Michigan.

The quote from this Blog entry that very much I agree with is this: (emphasis mine)

Collateral damage—and let’s face it, that’s how the CIA and federal drug warriors view Veronica and Charity Bowers—has always been an accepted part of drug prohibition, but this callous disregard for the loss of life and human rights seems particularly egregious in our foreign interdiction efforts.  See the House of Death case, where federal agents looked the other way while one of their Mexican informants participated in a series of brutal and entirely preventable murders.  See our pre-September 11 anti-narcotics alliance with the Taliban, or our continued drug interdiction aid to Thailand after the government mass executed thousands of suspected drug offenders, sans trial.

Collateral damage. That is how the Government viewed the victims at Waco, Ruby Ridge, The FLDS Children, and every other place that the United States Government; whether directly or indirectly; caused death and/or Destruction. All because some sort of supposed moral law could be upheld.

What this writer has to wonder aloud, how long will it be, before this new messianic President-Elect, will make the fatal mistake of using the Military power of the United States against an United States Citizen, all to uphold a so called, “Moral Law?” If Bill Clinton’s Presidency is any indication, it will be sooner than later.

Quote of the Day

Who killed the U.S. auto industry?

To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUV’s no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans, and Koreans prepared and built for the future.

I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, politicians, journalists, and muckrakers who have long harbored a deep animus against the manufacturing class that ran the smokestack industries that won World War II.

For once in my life. I am in 100% agreement with a Republican. Click the link to see who it is.