Start stockin' up, old son..

They's some tunes we're gonna be a-needin' for November 6th 2012. I offer this one for The Departin' Pantload:

..also an anthem to his crumbling empire.

(Sure as hell hope I am right!)

BY THE WAY: You'all know what has 40 arms and legs and 25 teeth? That's right, the front row of a Willie Nelson concert.

-30-

Quitting Winners..

I was listening to Mary Katherine Ham on a morning show this morning when John Fund called in with his thoughts about the Dick Turner victory in NY-9. The audio below is interesting listening. John speculates that a committee of prominent Democrats might go to Obama in "a couple or three" months -- if the economy were still mired as it is now -- and confront him, requesting he consider stepping down or not running:

This put me in mind of the truly extraordinary era I have been privileged to live. Born in 1945, I barely squeezed into the end of FDR's regime, thereby experiencing a president dying in office. When I was a little older I and my peers endured the insufferable agony of having John F. Kennedy taken away from us with an assassin's bullet.

A side note here: while I liked him then, I do believe JFK was mortal and he would have added the mismanagement of Viet Nam and other warts to his botching of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, etc. But I digress.

Soon after that, his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, ("LBJ" or "El B.J." as we called him) rolled over Goldwater and then opted out of his second term:

All us college kids -- both on the left and the right -- hated this guy and were happy to see him go. But, except for the fact that he ran the entire Viet Nam war by himself (and bragged about it), he knew his way around Washington and where the bodies were buried.

So chalk one up for a president giving up a second term when he was a shoo-in.

His successor, Dick Nixon just flat resigned in office. I won't bore you with the details; I am sure you all know this anyway. However, in hunting for the resignation speech on You Tube, I came across this interesting clip. It is the moments before Nixon gave that speech and it is surprising in how seemingly carefree and jovial he was:

From thence, it was pretty conventional until November 2000. That election took us almost a month of waiting before we knew who Clinton's successor would be. Boy was that a time -- and every time I htink about the 175 or so votes that gave us George W. Bush and what Al "ManBearPig" Gore has become, I just get down on my knees in thanks.

So, since 1945, the presidency has been a pretty turbulent affair: a death, an assassination, a foregone term, a resignation, an election controversy, and then this sorry piece of work in office now. I gotta tell you that I would not mind at all having the Chicago Jesus pull an "LBJ" or -- better yet -- a "Nixon".

-30-

MAXINE..

 

..just up reveling in the (R) victories in NV-2 and NY-9 special elections. Will write more tomorrow after some sleep. But in the process of following the threads to get election results, I came across the above thanks to KEY WEST READER over on Hot Air and did not want to lose this.

MAYONNAISE UPDATE:

"I think my garter belt just snapped!"

O.K., but just this last little juicy tidbit! Our beloved Mayo-head, Debbie Blabbermouth-Schitz spun the loss of NY-9 (Brooklyn/Queens) as follows:

Democratic party leaders insisted the loss wasn’t a harbinger of things to come. “It’s a very difficult district for Democrats,” said Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, noting its Democratic margins there tend to be the second lowest of all the districts in New York City.

For the record and in case you've just come back from a vacation on Mars, it was probably THE safest district in NYC, being Chuckie Schumer's and, until he unzipped his pants and tweeted his tweeter all over the internet, Anthony "the" Weiner. It was a district that Obama took 55% of the votes and HAD NOT BEEN IN REPUBLICAN HANDS SINCE 1922.

For this absolutely delusional assertion, Ms Schitz gets the Beetlejuice spin award:

-30-

"All that for a flag.."

This video is making the rounds today:

It is a looped (replayed) segment of THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS making some smirking comment to her PANTLOAD spouse during the 9/11 ceremonies this past Sunday. The smirking expression on MOO's face coupled with a a few people attempting to decipher what she was saying leads to this explanation over on native You Tube:

Michelle Obama says something about the flag to BO and then smirks and shakes her head. What is it she is saying?

Some lip readers are saying she says - "all that for a flag?"

The ceremony beforehand included a choir singing and bagpipe playing before unfurling a tattered US flag.

..woe betide this woman if there is ever a confirmation or any audio on this event.

UPDATE: I posted a new -- hopefully more clear -- video of the incident. A lot of the controversy rages over whether she said what she said or not -- of course. But a number of people have pointed out that the expressions, scowls, and shaking of her head from side to side was enough to evince disrespect for the ceremony and the solemnity of the occasion.

-30-

Stand and deliver..

I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..

-30-

"Fake heroes like..Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush.."

September 11, 2011, 8:41 am

The Years of Shame

Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.
What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.

Krugman may not allow comments to his post, but I will. Please unload in this chicken-fornicating son-of-a-bitch if you like. To the gentler, more sensitive visitors to this blog, I issue a harsh language alert: read at your own risk.

UPDATE: You can channel your vitriol to the following address:

editorial@nytimes.com

There are also these portals into which you may pour well-earned slime:

Arthur Brisbane, public editor, represents our readers. He can be reached by e-mail, public@nytimes.com, or by calling (212) 556‑7652.

You can also contact Krugman at Krugman@nyt.com or Pkrugman@Princeton.edu.

..thanks to HA reader BacaDog for these links.

-30-

9-10-2001

"HURRY UP AND PASS GAS.."

I just got back from the ARRL HamCon in Torrance, California tonight and caught this on a link to The Brussels' Journal article on Obama and his abilities. It os NOT a phot-shop but one of those candid freeze-frames (like that memorable picture of McCain after the third presidential debate in 2008) that will haunt Joltin' Joe and The Pantload for ages.

MEMO TO WOODSTERMAN: Please, please, please steal this picture.

For the record, here is a remix of this butt-wipe telling us to eat our peas or pass out or..whatever:

-30-

HURRY UP AND PASS IT NOW!

"Pass it now! Pass out! Forward pass! Pass the peas! Pasadena! Pass gas! Pass water! ..just pass!"

Being that I am lazy and being that this is Friday and being that I have plans for the weekend, I am going to run AP's fact-check deconstruction -- unredacted -- of The Pantload's lie-fest last night. Copyright and other stuff at the bottom. Feel free to clip and save, cut and paste, whatever. But Like Boehner, I do not feel like responding to this -- FOR THE MOMENT.

FACT CHECK: Obama's jobs plan paid for? Seems not
By CALVIN WOODWARD and TOM RAUM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.

It will only be paid for if a committee he can't control does his bidding, if Congress puts that into law and if leaders in the future - the ones who will feel the fiscal pinch of his proposals - don't roll it back.

Underscoring the gravity of the nation's high employment rate, Obama chose a joint session of Congress, normally reserved for a State of the Union speech, to lay out his proposals. But if the moment was extraordinary, the plan he presented was conventional Washington rhetoric in one respect: It employs sleight-of-hand accounting.

A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "Everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

THE FACTS: Obama did not spell out exactly how he would pay for the measures contained in his nearly $450 billion American Jobs Act but said he would send his proposed specifics in a week to the new congressional supercommittee charged with finding budget savings. White House aides suggested that new deficit spending in the near term to try to promote job creation would be paid for in the future - the "out years," in legislative jargon - but they did not specify what would be cut or what revenues they would use.

Essentially, the jobs plan is an IOU from a president and lawmakers who may not even be in office down the road when the bills come due. Today's Congress cannot bind a later one for future spending. A future Congress could simply reverse it.

Currently, roughly all federal taxes and other revenues are consumed in spending on various federal benefit programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, food stamps, farm subsidies and other social-assistance programs and payments on the national debt. Pretty much everything else is done on credit with borrowed money.

So there is no guarantee that programs that clearly will increase annual deficits in the near term will be paid for in the long term.

OBAMA: "Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including many who sit here tonight."

THE FACTS: Obama's proposed cut in the Social Security payroll tax does seem likely to garner significant GOP support. But Obama proposes paying for the plan in part with tax increases that have already generated stiff Republican opposition.

For instance, Obama makes a pitch anew to end Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which he has defined as couples earning over $250,000 a year or individuals over $200,000 a year. Republicans have adamantly blocked what they view as new taxes. As recently as last month, House Republicans refused to go along with any deal to raise the government's borrowing authority that included new revenues, or taxes.

OBAMA: "It will not add to the deficit."

THE FACTS: It's hard to see how the program would not raise the deficit over the next year or two because most of the envisioned spending cuts and tax increases are designed to come later rather than now, when they could jeopardize the fragile recovery. Deficits are calculated for individual years. The accumulation of years of deficit spending has produced a national debt headed toward $15 trillion. Perhaps Obama meant to say that, in the long run, his hoped-for programs would not further increase the national debt, not annual deficits.

OBAMA: "The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away."

THE FACTS: Not all of the president's major proposals are likely to yield quick job growth if adopted. One is to set up a national infrastructure bank to raise private capital for roads, rail, bridges, airports and waterways. Even supporters of such a bank doubt it could have much impact on jobs in the next two years because it takes time to set up. The idea is likely to run into opposition from some Republicans who say such a bank would give the federal government too much power. They'd rather divide money among existing state infrastructure banks.

Associated Press writer Joan Lowy contributed to this report.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

ADD LAZY UPDATE: In keeping with the spirit of this post but also to provide you with great resources on this subject, THE OBAMA FAIL Blog has done it's usual superlative job of chronicling this speech and the abortive run-up to it:

He promised a new plan to save us from his own failed economic policies.

Then he went on vacation.

He came back and tried to pre-empt a GOP debate with a speech to a joint session of Congress to announce a plan so important and so urgent that it took weeks to unveil.

Now, the speech is over. It was a failure on many levels. Here's why:

..but then you'll have to go over there and read the cogent reasons this latest episode of Diaper-Man's POTUS-ship dragged bottom. You will not be disappointed, I guar-ohn-tee!

-30-

THIS WEEK'S COMING EVENTS..

(courtesy BKeyser at FLICKR.)

-30-

LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL..

(courtesy BKeyser at FLICKR.)

-30-

..sometimes, Odie, I just enjoy some quiet time reading the classics.

-30-

Sarah versus the A.B.Os

..this ain't me; this is from Drudge today.

Kingjester is another conscience of conservatism, a gentleman from Mississippi who writes thoughtfully about all that is right with this philosophy and all that is wrong with The Chicago Jesus and his ilk. The hallmark of his posts are careful attribution, citation, and a good degree of wit. The blog is, by any account, entertaining and informative reading.

However -- and this is not a "however" in the usual sense -- KJ advocates for Sarah Palin and I fear that these sentiments may cloud reason ~~ not KJ's, but most others who would become resentful if Palin enters the GOP race and does not garner the nomination.

My regular hangout -- Hot Air -- sees these wars being raged and the sniping has become vicious. Too many times there are those who comment "I will stay home if Romney wins the nomination" or even "I will vote for Obama rather than give a RINO my vote".

To that end, on a recent post he did on Sarah Palin's Iowa speech, I commented as follows over on his blog:

Kingjester,

For the record, I am a Sarah Palin fan -- not a Palinista, a fan -- but I believe her value to this campaign is not as nominee or commander-in-chief but rather as voice of the conscience of conservatism.

Her hesitancy to declare (or to declare NOT) is becoming tedious and I suspect has already damaged her reputation. There is poll after poll pointing out how she will lose to Obama and Republicans and conservatives say they would never vote for her, etc. (The latter citation is an old Quinnipiac poll; I could not find a reference to the most recent one that stated some 70-plus percent expressed similar feelings.)

Also for the record, I am very conservative, worked my tail off for Palin (not McCain) in 2008, and will do so again if she is the nominee. But at this juncture I and many are ABO (Anybody But Obama) voters and we will also work equally hard for Perry or Bachmann -- even Romney.

It's nice to have the luxury of principles when there is no threat to this country but these are not such times. What that incompetent boob has wrought with his clown troupe administration and accomplices in Congress is criminal and another four years of this will see the destruction of this country.

Doubt me? How about the historical first of the credit downgrade and the unending string of unemployment figures and low job creation numbers -- culminating in the 0.0 this past month?

Not carping; I am just another poor slob in the crowd who believes this country needs saving.

I took the liberty of cross-posting this with reference to your post on my blog.

Respectfully,

The War Planner

Believe me, I do not condone nor approve of the GOP offerings like Dole or McCain -- particularly in these times -- but I do fear the prospect of another four years of this bumbling incompetence and downright leftist agenda. As stated above, I will work for whomever wins the nomination but it is my belief that Ms Palin -- as dynamic and as vivacious as she is -- would provide the other side with a lot of negative campaign material and would bring disaffection and disappointment to us in 2012.

She is a darling and has a history of eventually winning all of her battles, but her place in this fight is to help us win the Presidency and the Congress.

-30-

FEETS DO YOUR STUFF II

Thanks to KeyWestReader over on Hot Air for this:

Just so you know what's up, ladies and gentlemen, these pictures were taken in The Oval Office. It has been the official work place of The President of the United States since John Adams first occupied it in 1800. It has seen the likes of the Adamses, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, the Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, the Bushes and Clinton.

It is now being treated with disrespect by its current occupant, Barack Obama who apparently does not give a flying crap for the history and tradition of the office ~~ in both senses of the phrase.

Along with the other furniture that this classless boor has a fondness for placing his feet upon, there is the centerpiece of the Oval Office: The Resolute Desk. It does not have the history nor tradition of The Oval Office. Nonetheless, it is the sacred property of the people of the United States of America and were I president I would certainly keep my shoes off it.

Moreover, I would be sure to dress and act like the chief executive of the greatest country in the world instead of some refugee from a third-world toilet or former poverty-stricken, inner-city denizen.

-30-

FEETS, DO YOUR STUFF!

The jobs numbers were as bad as it could get for Obama and the economy. I mean, you can't create less than zero jobs can you? That is, you can fire people, you can lay them off, but you just cannot can't create less than zero jobs! Did you ever see a sign out in front of your workplace saying,in effect, "We're hiring. -5 Job Openings. Inquire Inside!"

Neither did I.

Anyway, it was so bad that The Chicago Jesus slinked out of town before sun-up to duck the press. He literally boarded Marine One and made his get-away when the landing site at Camp David was below minimums and there was a weather advisory:

In a highly unusual maneuver, President Obama’s 30 minute flight to the Presidential mountain retreat at Camp David this afternoon was diverted to an undisclosed landing near Frederick, Maryland and a motorcade assembled to drive him to the nearby site. White House press secretary Jay Carney tells ABC News a “bad weather call” was made before the President and his younger daughter Sasha even boarded the aircraft.

Carney says they have now arrived safely at Camp David. It remains unexplained why the President would be allowed to board Marine One knowing that the landing site on the mountain was experiencing weather making a landing difficult.

The press first learned of the diversion when wire agency still photographers, who traditionally stand by at Camp David for news coverage in case of an emergency, were told by the military at the mountain top Marine base that the President would be motorcading.

One wonders if THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS would be making the trip four hours later in a separate USMC CH-53? Also, why didn't he just jump into a limo and do the who trip by car instead of taking Marine One to some off-field landing site, ginning up a motorcade (which you know originated in D.C.) to drive there, and then drive to Camp David.

He must be in love with the trappings of power and be desperate to flee the probing questions.

But nothing ceases to amaze about this clown. It was disclosed this afternoon that his heralded, earth-stopping speech that he just absolutely, positively make before a joint session of Congress would not contain the entirety of his so-called economic plan outline:

Aides say Thursday’s speech will be part of a bigger plan the White House will roll out throughout the fall with the president hitting the road for speeches and town hall appearances. Aides have already confirmed that Obama will be traveling to California, Colorado, and Washington state for one three-day swing later this month that will include economic events as well as some fund raising.

The move could be a way to try and lower the stakes for Thursday’s Joint Session appearance, but it could also be an attempt by the administration to show the president is trying to stay all over the economy heading into what will likely be an uphill re-election battle.

“There’s no question the president will want to keep returning to jobs,” one top aide told Fox News. “I don’t want to downplay the speech [next week] — it’s going to be substantial. But the idea that this is the be-all and end-all is wrong.”One scenario being discussed by White House aides is the president highlighting individual economic proposals at appearances around the country throughout the Fall, just as the Republican presidential candidates are ramping up the sales pitch for their own economic proposals.

Swell.

So The Craven Coward not only slips out of town to avoid commenting to the press on the putrid job numbers, but he also spent 10 days on Martha's Vineyard only playing golf and motorcading around the island visiting his cronies instead of working on his plan outline.

Now that isn't even done!

Christ! He's like some kid in college who fritters away a Winter vacation and now has to pull an all-nighter on the Sunday before class to complete a 50-page term paper. And when that doesn't work, he shows up in class and hands the prof chapter one explaining, "I'll be turning in chapter two next Monday and the following chapters in subsequent weeks."

..which reminds me; how's that effort to get him to release his college transcripts coming?

AFTERTHOUGHT UPDATE: Another aggravating thought occurred to me. He's making a swing through the nation to pitch the remainder of his pathetic plan at the same time the GOP candidates are "ramping up the sales pitch for their own economic proposals"? And it's going to be interspersed with fundraisers? Sure as hell sounds to me like he's campaigning for President on our nickel.

Doesn't it to you, boys and girls?

-30-

Ø.Ø

..well, he's finally done it! Obama's finally lived up to (one of) his nicknames: Zero.

He and his merry band of shit-wits and his cronies in the congress have beaten this economy into the ground so badly that it's faint pulse has ceased. The August jobs report is a big fat zero.

I am too dispirited to write. Here are some quotes from the underlying article:

o The government also reported that the unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent. It was the weakest jobs report since September 2010.

o The weakness in employment was underscored by revisions to the jobs data for June and July. Collectively, those figures were lowered to show 58,000 fewer jobs added. The downward revisions were all in government jobs.

o The average work week also declined and hourly earnings fell by 3 cents to $23.09.

o Weak growth, Standard&Poor's downgrade of long-term U.S. debt in early August and a sell-off on Wall Street likely kept some businesses from hiring.

o With job creation stalled and wages declining, consumers won't see much gain in incomes. That will limit their ability to spend, which undercuts growth. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

o "The stagnation in U.S. payroll employment is an ominous sign," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics. "The broad message is that even if the US economy doesn't start to contract again, any expansion is going to be very, very modest and fall well short of what would be needed to drive the still elevated unemployment rate lower."

o No growth in hiring puts more pressure on President Barack Obama, who will deliver a rare address to a joint session of Congress next week to introduce a plan for creating jobs.

o The Obama administration has estimated that unemployment will average about 9 percent next year, when Obama will run for re-election. The rate was 7.8 percent when Obama took office.

o The White House Office of Management and Budget projects overall growth of only 1.7 percent this year.

o The economy needs to add roughly 250,000 jobs a month to rapidly bring down the unemployment rate, which has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.

o In August, the private sector added 17,000 jobs, the fewest since February 2010. That compares with 156,000 in July and 75,000 in June.

o Hiring fell across many different sectors. Manufacturers cut 3,000 jobs, its first decline since October 2010. Construction companies, retailers, and transportation firms also cut workers.

o The health care industry added 30,000 jobs last month.

o The economy expanded at an annual pace of only 0.7 percent in the first six months of the year. That was the slowest six months of growth since the recession officially ended in June 2009.

o In August, consumer confidence fell to its lowest level since April 2009, according to the Conference Board.

o Most economists forecast that growth may improve to about a 2 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. But that's not fast enough to generate many jobs.

Shall I pass the cyanide and Nembutal now, or do you want to wait a bit?

PRESIDENTIAL LASER-LIKE PIVOT ON JOBS NUMBERS: So, The Chicago Jesus, faced with this latest bump-in-the-road and these newest blasts of headwinds is going to buckle down and get to work on crafting his jobs plan/outline/speech, right?

Wrong, rhinoceros breath!

After 10 days in Martha's Vineyard and an aborted attempt to schedule a joint session of Congress to try to upstage the GOP debate, he's thrown in the towel for the week and is headed out of town for a relaxing weekend:

-30-

POWERLINE BLOG'S WINNING ENTRY..

..makes the hair stand up on my neck:

-30-

THE PANTLOAD LAYS DOWN 9-11 CELEBRATION GUIDELINES

(Courtesy of Scooter Van Neuter and Big Hairy News.)

From an insider on Obama's plans for the 9/11 10-year anniversary observance:

“The important theme is to show the world how much we realize that 9/11 — the attacks themselves and violent extremism writ large — is not ‘just about us,’ ” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal White House planning.

Revolting! Absolutely and remorselessly revolting!

The sequence of events over the last month-and-one-half are coagulating into a perfect storm of disgust and disapproval for this incredibly small man with his incredibly big ego.

His temper tantrums and mishandling of the so-called debt-crisis, his tone-deaf three-day Canadian bus tour, his even more tone-deaf vacation to Martha's Vineyard, his posturing photo-op at the FEMA/NHC/whatever HQ in the wake of that intense morning dew that struck the Eastern Seaboard with its 45-kt zephyrs, the massively-hardware-supported three-minute oratory to introduce his new "Clunker-for-Clunkers" czar, and now, we all breathlessly await his impending pronuncimiento on his new...newer...newest plan...outline on how he will pivot with lazer-like focus on THE JOBS PROBLEM.

This bumbling sequence of incompetent missteps is not enough? He will follow this with a watered-down, Kumbay-ya, politically-correct observance of all of the A-RAB MOOZ-LEMS who perished in, and because of the tragedy that occurred a decade ago and ranks as one of the worst transgressions against Americans on American soil..

..with a "shout out" to those brave American civilians, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and first responders who spilled their blood and have given their all that day and the following 3,654 days since.

I just want to vomit!

-30-

"Three minutes, two teleprompters"

Be advised that I am not so much writing this post but flagrantly purloining most of it from The Beltway's recent Campaign 2012 article on President Downgrade's recent announcement of his new chairmen of economic advisers. Another little bookmark in the chronicle of how woefully inadequate this man is.

Put another way, I am sure most of us could stand up uin frnt of an audience and make a three-minute announcement more or less extemporaneously -- and with out of a teleprompter.

So tell me, Kool-aid drinking bum osculator, how accomplished The Light Crap-Bringer is.

Obama announces that he will appoint Alan Krueger to replace Austan Goolsbee as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Photo by Hayley Peterson.
...
President Obama required two heavy-duty teleprompters on Monday during a three-minute speech in which he nominated Alan Krueger to serve as chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers.

Krueger stood silently to the right of Obama as the president spoke.
...
Obama did not give Krueger a chance to make any comments on Monday.

EXIT QUESTION: Is The Pantload wearing a tie or just a shirt and jacket. Probably the latter as he only had three minutes to make the announcement and get out to the links.

-30-

CRAP! THE FLASH-BRINGER CAUSING OCEANS TO RECEDE..

Sometimes a post just jumps right up and bites you right in the butt. That seems to be the case when The Light Crap-Bringer visited the FEMA or NOAA or whatever command center to sit in on the monitoring of Hurricane Tropical Storm Rainstorm Heavy Drizzle Irene that has lashed the East Coast with 80-mile-an-hour intense zephyrs Saturday.

Yahoo News did an article entitled "Obama takes charge at hurricane command center" that was singular in the tongue-bathing given to this putz for his decisive action and command presence. A sample:

Obama on Saturday chaired a meeting at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) set up at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, which is marshaling federal and local hurricane-relief efforts.

"This is going to be a tough slog getting through this thing," Obama said during a video teleconference including senior federal officials and local government agencies in the east coast path of Irene.

"It's going to be a long 72 hours. Obviously a lot of families are going to be affected ... the biggest concern I'm having right now has to do with flooding and power," Obama said during the videoconference.

"(It) sounds like that's going to be an enormous strain on a lot of states" that could last days, or even longer in some cases, he said.

Now it can be argued "better safe than sorry" and thus far, eleven deaths have been attributed to this storm. But, even as early as Saturday morning it was apparent that this Storm was winding down drastically.

..oh, it did pick up some intensity when it came ashore over New Jersey and New York City, but that was probably due to the hurricane-force winds coming out of Shep and Geraldo and all of the other cable media types trying to hype this into it's former glory for the sake of ratings.

However, despite the Yahoo article's sequined knee-pad job on Obama's attempt to Out-Katrina Bush, the readers weren't buying it. The comments were almost universally cynical, acerbic, and derisive. A sample:

Thank Alla that we have a truly fearless leader who is not afraid to stand in the face of Hurricanepalooza, give a speech, and make the godless storm move away from his voting base. I wish that I could bear his child.
~Peter

The rest are pretty much the same; some with not as much wit but every bit as derisive of The Crapload's patently transparent effort to bolster his sagging ratings.

Well, I could ramble on some more, but I got cars to wash and lawns to mow.

-30-

FLASH! THE CRAP BRINGER CUTS SHORT VACATION..

With the impending hurricane bearing down on him, and Bo, the wonderhund, sans THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS, has decided to return to DC early. Guess he's scared to play golf in the rain. Kinda reminds me of Caddyshack.

"OH RAT F**K!"

..of course, we get another twofer; the WIDE LOAD FLOTUS is returning separately on Saturday as originally planned.

-30- 

TIME FOR A CHANGE FOR A CHANGE..

"Wish someone would read me 'My Pet Goat' tonight before bedtime.."

Ah, the old days when you read articles in newspapers (remember them?) that were somehow special so you clipped them out and carried them around in your wallet next to your spending cash (remember that?) and other sundries.

I have two I have clipped and saved -- electronically -- that I drag up from time to time and re-read to my everlasting pleasure. The other one is a recent post by by Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air. It is a dissection of the liberal meme that Obama inherited the mess he was in. It can be found here and I recommend you commit this to memory in the event you engage one of those insufferable Kool-aid drinkers and wish to cause the scales to fall from his or her eyes.

(I know, I know, don't try to teach a pig to sing..)

This one -- I remember reading this and others on the same subject -- was written in November 2008 and expresses the joy and elation all on the left (and a few soon-to-be-disillusioned in the middle) felt over the election of Obama and the exasperation at the gathering storm of economic gloom.

I have quoted pretty much THE ENTIRE COLUMN to save your having to jump and also to preserve the structure. Just for kicks, it's edited a bit ~~ but it needed surprisingly little changing. Try substituting "Obama" for "Bush" in the article and see if that works out as well for you as it does for me.

Enjoy!

The United States is facing its greatest financial catastrophe in almost 80 years. With shares crashing, houses foreclosing and banks vanishing into thin air, the time for competent governance is of paramount importance.

Instead, the United States is headed by a C+ student whose only qualification seems to be running several businesses into the ground. George Bush is without a shadow of a doubt the most incompetent leader of any western democracy in modern history, and has failed in just about every aspect of his presidency. He has utterly failed to occupy the countries he has invaded, ignored the most pressing issue of our time -- global warming, allowed the country's infrastructure to collapse, run the economy into the ground and destroyed his own party from the inside.

Why is this man still president? Forget the massive crimes he has committed, his incredible incompetence trumps everything else. The world's economy is literally hanging on a thread, and the last person you would want to lead the way out of the crisis is the person who bumbled his way into it.

Bush is a lame duck president, no question about it. He has only a couple of months left and has no serious sway with his party any more. The economic mess is something that requires new leadership, and it is of vital urgency that Bush gets out of the way.

Perhaps Bush could do one decent thing in his presidency: Resign, and walk away gracefully. His legacy can't get any worse, and he may do himself a favor by putting the country in front of his ego. His sins will not be forgiven, but he will be remembered less harshly for the abomination his presidency has represented.

If Bush walks now, the crisis won't be solved, but it will send a message to the world that America is serious again. Serious about practical, non ideological solutions to the many, many problems we face, and serious about putting itself on the right track. It would be symbolic, but the right symbol at the right time can do the world of good. Markets need calming, and people need reassurance. Bush cannot do this, and the consequences this time are far too serious to ignore. He must go, and he must go now.

Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same, innit?.

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Gibson Guitar Company in Fed's Crosshairs

By the Left Coast Rebel

Is it any wonder that American business is dying? Is it any surprise that China and India (not to mention several European nations, Asia et al.) are eclipsing the United States in entrepreneurial activity, wealth creation and business friendliness?

A story like this tells us everything that is wrong with the federal government:

(WSJ) (Memeo) Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

(SNIP)

In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name "United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."

....But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot and tittle.

Cross an international border with an instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution.

Potentially illegal Indian ebony wood? Give me a friggin' break.

The WSJ also includes an extremely spooky, related story in the link above:

Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique Bösendorfers. Mr. Vieillard asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species how to fill out the correct paperwork—which simply encouraged them to alert U.S. Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny.

There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn't have his paperwork straight when two-dozen federal agents came calling.

Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr. Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.

The delicious irony here is that a lot of musicians -- and creative musical types -- are raging libs that vote in ludicrous gunpoint-enforced laws like this.

Now, when their houses are raided (or companies) and they face airport coercion and molestation, they know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of government largess.

A conservative is a liberal musician who's
been mugged by the federal government

Cross posted.

OH, THE HUMANITY II!

"Thanks, you all, I am having a simply marvelous time!"

I hate to harp on this, but..

(No, War Planner, you do love to harp on this.)

..the London Daily Mail has an article out on the absolutely obscene lifestyle preferred by our beloved WIDE LOAD FLOTUS and it is a rather searing indictment of her tone-deaf excesses -- a lot of it on our nickel.

The Obamas' summer break on Martha's Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances.

White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10 million of U.S. taxpayers' money on vacations alone in the past year.

Branding her "disgusting" and "a vacation junkie", they say the 47-year-old mother-of-two has been indulging in five-star hotels, where she splashes out on expensive massages and alcohol.

The "top source" told the National Enquirer: 'It's disgusting. Michelle is taking advantage of her privileged position while the most hardworking Americans can barely afford a week or two off work.

The First Lady is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.

And the first family's nine-day stay in Martha's Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.

The source continued goes on:

"Michelle also enjoys drinking expensive booze during her trips. She favours martinis with top-shelf vodka and has a taste for rich sparking wines.

"The vacations are totally Michelle's idea. She's like a junkie. She can't schedule enough getaways, and she lives from one to the next - all the while sticking it to hardworking Americans."
...
While the President and his wife do pay for some of their personal expenses from their own pocket, the website whitehousedossier.com says that the amount paid by the couple is 'dwarfed by the overall cost to the public'.

The magazine also reported that Mrs Obama, whose fashion choices are widely followed, had been going on 'wild shopping sprees', much to the distress of her husband, who, its sources reveal, is 'absolutely furious' at his wife's 'out-of-control spending'.

The President has already come under fire this week over his decision to take a family vacation while millions of Americans are out of work and countless more are financially strapped.

The article continues to describe the outrageous and obscene gambit of the Obamas flying separately to their Martha's Vineyard vacation rental a mere four hours apart. Obama took Marine One to Andrews AFB which then flew to the Cape Code U.S. Coast Guard station. From thence, he travelled the final leg by helicopter. THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS preceded him by four hours flying on a special USAF jet on "a specially designed military aircraft". As I said in a previous post, there is speculation that this was a weight and balance problem and that THE FLOTUS went on a C5A Galaxy.

The Daily Mail thoughtfully provides a summary of the more prominent outlays for this vacation-happy family:

FIRST LADY OF LUXURY TRAVEL: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE OBAMAS' LAVISH GETAWAYS OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS

GIRLS' TRIP TO SPAIN: AUGUST 2010
The exact cost is unclear as Mrs Obama and her 40 friends footed many personal expenses, such as hotels and meals themselves.

But the U.S. taxpayer would have paid for the First Lady's 68-strong security detail, personal staff, and use of presidential jet Air Force Two.

Per diems for the secret service team runs at around $281 each - nearly $98,000 for the length of the summer break.

Use of Air Force Two, the Air Force version of a 757, comes in at $149,900 for the round trip. This does not include time on the ground.

Mrs Obama's personal staff, of which there are an unknown amount and might cost considerably more per day, should also be taken into account.

CHRISTMAS BREAK IN HAWAII: DECEMBER 2010
According to the Hawaii Reporter, the bill for the $1.5m trip included:

    $63,000 on an early flight bringing Mrs Obama and the children to Hawaii
    (ahead of the President).
    $1,000,000 on Mr Obama’s return trip from Washington on Air Force One.
    $38,000 for the ‘Winter White House’ beach property rental.
    $16,000 to rent nearby homes for Secret Service and Navy Seals.
    $134,000 for 24 White House staff to stay at the Moana Hotel.
    $251,000 in police overtime.
    $10,000 for an ambulance to be on hand at all times

SKI TRIP TO VAIL: FEBRUARY 2011
Mrs Obama and her daughters stayed at the Sebastian hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms cost more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.

The family appear to have flown there on Air Force Two.

They were escorted to the resort by a motorcade of about a dozen vehicles, including 15 state and local law enforcement officers

SUMMER HOLIDAY ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD: AUGUST 2011
The Blue Heron Farm estate, where the Obama family are currently staying, rents for about $50,000 a week.

According to U.S. News and World Report, the Coast Guard is required to keep ships floating near the property, the presidential helicopter and jet remain at the ready and security agents will be on 24-hour duty.

Of course, the above are only a few of the more prominent getaways; remember the infamous vacation-after-vacation during the Gulf oil spill. it seems that every time we turn around, this couple has split town.

VISITOR ALERT: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to call your attention to the comments section. (You have to click the thing-a-majiggie to get there but it's worth it.) As always, I am deeply humbled when I am visited by what, on my pathetically-trafficked blog, could be construed as regulars. These include the inestimable Odie, Supi, T.C.L. M.A., and L.L. who have been dear friends.

I would, however, like to welcome several from one of the more far-out sites I have visited. It ranks up there with The Woodsterman in wit and style that will cause guaranteed keyboard and monitor destruction from beverage spew: Big Hairy News.

The creator and author -- Scooter Van Neuter -- is a creative genius whose wit and sense of the bizarre admit him to my puny pantheon of the truly deranged -- right over there in the West Wing alongside Odie. Scooter has brought some of his more distinguished comrades to grace the comment section of my blog. To them I bid a hearty welcome and a wish that these -- my new friends -- join with my old friends and let our electrons mingle and all that crap.

Scooter, jainphx, Geezmom, my sincere thanks for making the trip, please don't be strangers, and come back often. And Odie, you play nice with them now otherwise it's the genital cuff for you!

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OH, THE HUMANITY!

My cousin Cathy lives in Connecticut, and is liberal, and hated "W", and loves Barack Hussein Obama. She is generally sending me things about how conservatives suck and stuff like that.

Well, I got an e-mail yesterday about the tragic destruction and devastation wrought by the recent 5.8 earthquake that hit NoVa and D.C. and parts of the (liberal) East Coast.

She and her husband John were severely hit but she assures me that they are persevering and will survive this great tragedy.

She also sent me a picture of the devastation:

"Oh, the humanity.."

..let's all pray for her and John and all of the other folks similarly afflicted on the East Coast. They may be liberals, but they are Americans, too.

..well, most of 'em anyway.

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ICONIC..

In what I hope becomes an iconic token of this upcoming political war, there's this poster floating around that sums up our situation perfectly:

..and then there's this picture -- that Allahpundit over on Hot Air calls "an obvious liberal counter-attack":

Man, if the left thinks this will influence the electorate after we have suffered their fool for the past 977 days, then their tank must be really empty.

I'd take a former USAF pilot over a sniveling, narcissistic, self-absorbed, academic communist any day of the year and TWICE on Sunday.

As "W" once said, "Bring it on!"

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LYING SACK OF..

A Town Hall video summarizes the litany of prevarications by The Light Crap Bringer..

Pivot on this, you bag of bull dust!

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POT MEET KETTLE..

One of those absolutely marvelous blasts from the past that will come back to haunt The Chicago Jesus as he begins his 14-month-long Jobs Tour. Courtesy of Hot Air:

What's this Jobs Tour you speak of, O mighty War Planner? Well, my son, this is the adventures of our beloved Magic Negro as he auditions before the American public in search of employment for the next quadrennial.

Of course, with Gallup and Rasmussen giving way beneath his feet, I suggest he dial his expectations down a wee and run for Alderman in the city council of his home sewer city of Chicago.

JUST IN CASE YOU JUST CAME BACK FROM A VACATION ON THE MOON: Gallup and Rasmussen served up a double decker crap sandwich for our darling boy yesterday. Obama sank to a new low 38% approval and the Raz DT had him also at a new low of -26% in their "Strongly" index.

He's still at 38% today at Gallup but the Raz DT has him back at a "more respectable" -23% in their daily tracking.

However the poll woes continue daily: also courtesy of Hot Air, a Magellan poll has him on life support at 37%  in the must-have state of Florida. There, Romney (+10%), Perry (+7%), and even Bachmann (%1) are beating this guy like a rented mule in the head-to-head polling.

Yo! Enjoy your golf game today, G.

ANOTHER DARK SIDE OF THE MOON UPDATE: Cue Pink Floyd, here is some more bad news, this time from Real Clear Politics. Their aggregate of polls have The Light Bringer underwater FROM ALL OF THEIR INCLUDED POLLS. Check it out:

If I'm Barry, I'm thinking, "Well, maybe one more year hear at Martha's Vineyard on the taxpayers' nickel and then I am on my own."

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HOLIDAY ROAD II..

Well, we paid all that money to haul the First Freeloaders up to Martha's Vineyard so you'd think that would be it, right? I mean, all they gotta do is run down to the book stores and restaurants to feed their faces ("Can't I just finish my waffles, sweetie?") and play a few rounds of golf or go sewimming..

..nothing high ticket, right?

WRONG!

Check out this motorcade he and sidekick Valerie Jordan took to his old bud's digs:

There's eight cars and a van of something going over those dirt roads of MV to the home of ComCast CEO Brian Roberts. Sayeth the Politico article:

The presidential motorcade on Martha's Vineyard peeled out of Blue Heron Farms at 5:15 p.m. with the president and Valerie Jarrett in tow.

After 10 minutes, we made an abrupt left turn on John Cottle Road— an unpaved, deeply rutted eight-foot-wide private path hemmed in by ivy, scrub oak and big, scary boulders.

After bottoming out four times — we're talking two-foot holes in a sand-and-gravel road, along with one hairpin turn — Obama and Jarrett arrived at the West Tisbury home of their friends Brian and Aileen Roberts, spokesman Josh Earnest informs us. It was 5:30 p.m.

Big scary shoulders? Were they talking about THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS?

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HOLIDAY ROAD..

Obama's vacation is receiving a nice skewering -- including the video below -- from the Michelle Obama's Mirror blog:

..the author, who writes from the perspective of THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS, presents a pretty witty take on the foibles of this dysfunctional first family (well, the alleged grown-ups at least) and deserves a visit once in a while for a great laugh.

In any event, kindly note the logistics involved in transporting one vain, narcissistic, vapid POTUS 500 miles from Washington D.C. to an island just off of Cape Cod South of Massachusetts.

Pretty staggering, huh?

Now multiply that by almost two because -- as you remember -- THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS could not wait for her hubby and went ahead by separate entourage in a special USAF transport. (See post below.) We are told that each sortie costs somewhere over $100,000 of our tax money.

Two thoughtless, inconsiderate piles of cow manure.

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WAR PLANNER CAPTION CONTEST..

"......"

First Prize:  Lunch at Burger King with "Slow" Joe Biden.
Second Prize: Lunch at Burger King with "Slow" Joe and The Pantload.
Third Prize: Lunch at Fat Burger with THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS; you pay.

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