POWERLINE BLOG'S WINNING ENTRY..

..makes the hair stand up on my neck:

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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!

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"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.

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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?.

-30-

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!

-30-

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!"

-30-

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!

-30-

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."

-30-

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?

-30-

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.

-30-

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.

-30-

HOW BAD HAS THIS PRESIDENCY GOTTEN?

People pile on that "Miss me Yet?" Bush poster, proposing that it is time for a Carter version of the same.

..so Barack Obama's presidency has become such a malodorous stink bomb that we all have forgotten our misgivings about "W", cruised right past yearning for Bubba, the philandering cohibitator, and now grow nostalgic for disco, platform shoes, the Bee Gees, 8-tracks, and the days when our "only" problems were waiting in gas lines and having to endure an insufferable double-digit misery index.

In some ways, we long for Jimmah Carter.

To be clear: I hated Carter and I still do. I despised the bumbling ineffectiveness during his presidency and the absolute pig's breakfast he's made of his post-presidency. He is a garrulous, demented, senile old tool and useful idiot of lefty turd bags like Cheeseburger Moore. His utterances lately are the closest thing to diarrhea a human can evacuate orally.

But there is one thing to his everlasting credit: when the chips were down and he was at the absolute nadir of his presidency in the midst of the Iran hostage crisis, he kept America's interest and well-being first and foremost in his heart. He may have bumbled his way through this, but he did not give empty, self-absorbed speeches, did not embark on narcissistic "listening tour" bus trips, nor indulge in incredibly tone-deaf, exorbitant vacations. (And, insofar as I can remember, he and Rosalind travelled together on their vacation trips, sparing the American taxpayer the obscene double-billing.)

At the peril of his re-election, he imprisoned himself in the White House or Camp David, eschewing many opportunities to campaign while worrying over those poor unfortunates held prisoner by those sonsofbitches Aqua-Velva-Jhad and his merry men..

Carter always tried to be "like the common folk" with his cardigans, the "malaise speech", the imposition of 55 mph, and the other stupid things that festooned his four years. He was annoying, grating, and stupid. But he was not condescending nor was he arrogant.

Also, Rosalind Carter -- whom I irrationally disliked because of her association with Jimmah -- was a fine first lady who behaved decorously and kept in the background. In the main, both were -- in those days -- honorable people.

So, I never thought I'd say that but there it is:

Yes, President Carter, we do miss you very much!

(Tomorrow, I enter rehab.)

-30-

Wal-Mart vs. The Morons

..courtesy of my good friend and fellow radio amateur radio operator, George, N6VNI:

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx. 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.

You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.

This should be read and understood by all Americans Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature,

It is now official that the majority of you are corrupt morons:

1. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

2. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

3. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

4. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.

5. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

6. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

7. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

-73-

Enjoy your vacation, Obama!

..the voting public will be waiting for your plan in September. Woe betide you if you fail to come up with anything.

(Frazetta's Death Dealer -- no special significance. )

-30-

Sleaze-Bag-in-Chief

No time to "focus laser-like" on jobs or the economy, but -- from USA Today via Hot Air always time for a two-sortie vacation and time to golf and time to party at the White House and time to campaign:

President Obama has headlined 127 fundraising events for himself and others, significantly outpacing the fundraising activity of the previous five presidents during their first terms, new research obtained by USA TODAY shows.

By comparison, President George W. Bush had held 88 fundraisers and President Clinton, 76, at this point in their first terms, according to data compiled by Brendan Doherty, an assistant professor of politicial science at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Doherty, who also studies presidential activity with the non-partisan White House Transition Project, examined fundraising going back to President Carter…

“We have entered the era of the permanent campaign,” said Anthony Corrado, a campaign-finance expert at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. “This is a reflection … of the enormous sums that are anticipated for the election.”

Here's hoping this sorry sack drains all of the coffers of the Democrat high rollers and loses in a massive landslide taking the Senate and more seats in the House with his sorry ass. That'll set the party back years and make them think twice before they nominate an incompetent boob with no executive experience again..

..but,m then again, they're Democrats. It's what they do.

-30-

It's come to this..

Over at Drudge today, they have a wonderful juxtaposition of stories: Teh Won off to play golf during his Martha's Vineyard vacation and the lead story with the headlines "THOUSANDS LINE UP FOR JOBS".

Could there be a better example of tone-deafness and being out of touch than this?

If there could be, I am sure this clown will figure it out. I mean he has 15 months left in his reign of error.

THE-OBLIGATORY-IT-GETS-BETTER UPDATE: Kieth Koffler -- over at The White House Dossier -- reports that not only is The First Turd going on vacation in the midst of this economic maelstrom, but THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS and he are taking separate jets (emphasis added):

Michelle Obama and President Obama traveled to Martha’s Vineyard just hours apart, costing taxpayers thousands in additional expenses so she could have just a bit of extra vacation time.

Mrs. Obama and her daughters arrived just before 2 pm Thursday on a U.S. government jet, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Times, which got its information from the local airport. The first lady’s office has been silent on her travel. President Obama arrived in the evening along with the family dog Bo.

The extra costs related to Mrs. Obama’s solo trip mainly include the flight on a specially designed military aircraft she took instead of Air Force One, as well as any extra staff and Secret Service that had to be enlisted to go with her. She would also have had her own motorcade from the airport to her vacation residence.

Aside from the obscene flaunting of privilege and waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money just so this clown and his ample-trunked main squeeze (and the family dog) can have their exotic vacation, it offers up innumerable straight lines.

Oh, I dunno, like the part about THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS having to travel "on a specially designed military aircraft" and The Pantload traveling with Bo. Just spitballin' here. Perhaps it really is a weight and balance problem with AF ONE and THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS.

"Might be a little tight, Chief, but we may be able to squeeze her in..

-30-

After a hard road trip, a man deserves a little vacay..

Never mind the stock market is cratering, we stand on the brink of a double-dip recession, and,  in Europe, Germany's economy is folding like a cheap card table, The Magic Negro is headed off to his 10-day Martha's Vineyard vacation where he and THE WIDE LOAD FLOTUS will be biking, swimming, sucking down Soft Serv and $500 lobster dinners, while the proles get along on their Victory Meat and 300-grams-per-week rations and try to scratch out a living.

Oh, but it's o.k. because he's got a plan coming out -- after Labor Day -- that will rescue us all from these doldrums. Lessee, more taxes, extend the payroll tax reduction and, of course, extend jobless benefits and put more people on food stamps because, like the Ag Sec says, it stimulates the economy.

But that's not what's pissing me off. You wanna know what really pisses me off? Some clown riding a fruit-ball bike in faggoty Mom jeans like this fairy does.

If you're a POTUS, act like you got something between your legs and not some goddam metro-sexual fairy. Also, try riding with other serious riders, fer crissakes.

No wonder people are going ape over Perry. It'll be good to have someone in the White House who has a set of stones..

..and that includes Michelle Bachmann.

-30-

Frying his ass..

Here's the type of serious grilling that The Pantload is getting on his Listening Bloviating Bus[t] Tour, according to a twitter from Jake Tapper over at ABC:

Young man tells POTUS it’s “time for the wealthy to pay their fair share” — POTUS calls him “an extremely well informed young man”

And he seems to be whistling past the graveyard while slamming Boehner -- yet again -- about not taking him up on the so-called "Grand Bargain":

President Obama told CBS News Wednesday that the United States isn't facing the possibility of another recession - but added that there remains a risk that the recovery will be too slow to deal with the "unemployment crisis."

"I don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there," Mr. Obama told CBS News Senior Business Correspondent Anthony Mason. "And that's why we need to be doing more."

Man, is this jerkwad beating this subject like a rented mule or what? That ship has sailed, Your Eminence! Almost one month ago, Boehner bolted because Obama tried to pull a fast one on him:

House Speaker John Boehner on Friday pulled out of negotiations with President Obama on raising the nation's legal limit to borrow money, just days before the Aug. 2 deadline when the Treasury says the government will no longer be able to pay all its bills and possibly faces its first-ever default.

"The White House moved the goal post," Boehner said Friday evening in a news conference, claiming that the talks broke down when the White House demanded an additional $400 billion in new revenues, on top of the $800 billion that had been agreed on -- "which was going to be nothing more than a tax increase on the American people," Boehner said.

"They refused to get serious about cutting spending and making the tough choices that are facing our country on entitlement reform," he added.

Boehner's comments followed Obama's comments at a hastily arranged news conference in the White House briefing room.

"It's hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this deal," a visibly irritated Obama said. "This was an extraordinarily fair deal.

He said the White House offered more than $1 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending, both domestic and defense and $650 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in exchange for $1.2 trillion in new revenues without increasing individual tax rates.

After informing the president in a phone call of his decision to walk away, Boehner sent a letter to lawmakers saying, "In the end, we couldn't connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country."

..didja ever get that kind of treatment when you went in to buy a car? You know, where the sleaze who you are dealing with runs all of the numbers -- verbally -- and then steps out of the room to get the o.k. form his boss and the final documents. When he gets back, you are paring a couple of grand more for the car or an extra $250 per month.

Boehner did what you or I would have done when dealing with someone not negotiating in good faith: dropped him like fourth period French.

..anyway, back to the original subject: funny how the fluffers show up at these whistle stops after King Putt had his head handed to him by that Tea Party couple in Iowa.

It's going to be an interesting fifteen months if the MSM ever mans up, staples on a set of cajones, and gets into this dick's face.

OH YEAH, BEFORE I POUR MYSELF A TALL LISMORES UPDATE: Here is The Magic Negro dismissing a farmer's concerns about government regulations:

"Don't always what you hear.."
..like when I am up here flapping my gums telling you, in effect, "Hi, I'm from the government and I am here to help you!"

-30-

We got "Self -Inficted" problems..

Here's one of the First Blowhard's speeches today:

It is absolutely how stupefyingly dumb this son of a bitch is. It is also mind-boggling how stupid the Kool-Aid drinkers are that listen to that crap and applaud.

Let's visit what Slick said in the clip up there:

"Nothing wrong with our country.."
Not if you like living in a third world toilet where there's rampant unemployment, a sputtering economy, low wages, socialism, an opressive, intrusive government, and a narcissistic dictator who thinks all he has to do is make speeches to his adoring masses.

"Something wrong with our politics.."
Well, slick, you are the titular head of one of the major parties in this two-party system. Your party has spent the last three years demonizing and slandering the other and those in a movement -- both Democrat and Republican (as well as Libertarian and other minor political factions) -- who have banded together because they are dismayed at the direction our country is going. One would think that the President of the United States of America could exhibit some leadership and bring the factions together -- especially since that was one of the campaign promises you ran on, slick. From the New York Times in March of 2008 about candidate Obama:

Political Memo
Obama’s Test: Can a Liberal Be a Unifier?
By ROBIN TONER

WASHINGTON — At the core of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is a promise that he can transcend the starkly red-and-blue politics of the last 15 years, end the partisan and ideological wars and build a new governing majority.

To achieve the change the country wants, he says, “we need a leader who can finally move beyond the divisive politics of Washington and bring Democrats, independents and Republicans together to get things done.”
...
Mr. Obama, in an interview that was conducted on March 15, in the midst of that controversy, said he was confident that Americans were eager for a new kind of politics and were convinced that “a lot of these old labels don’t apply anymore.”

He said he was a progressive and a pragmatist, eager to tackle the big issues like health care and convinced that the Democrats could — and should — rally independents and disaffected Republicans to their agenda. Only then, he said, could the party achieve what it has so rarely won in modern presidential elections: a mandate to do big things.

The past three years have shown you, Slick, to be a bitter, poisonous hack politician with not even a remote interest in dealing with those who disagree with you. The manner in which you, Pelosi, and Reid shut out any Republican participation when you had a massive super-majority in Congress was incredibly partisan. Even now, you do nothing to bridge the gap with the opposition.

"..Debacle with the debt ceiling..Partisan brinksmanship.."
Debacle? As in certain individuals not bargaining in good faith? As in that party taking his ball and going home, leaving congress to decide matters? Again, it's called leadership, slick.

Partisan brinksmanship? Pot meet kettle!

"..Operating off a common ground..when we're divided.."
Again, it would be nice to have a President who was a leader and who could set an example by putting aside the partisan bullshit.

"Economy gotten better..last 17 month over 2 million private sector jobs.."
Boy, rather than bag on you, I thought I'd research this and came up with those propaganda links that your minions have strewn throughout the internet about how your programs created more jobs in 2010 that Bush did in all of his eight years.

Hah!

It's like your stupid-assed "saved or created" meme. You play with numbers and conveniently ignore facts:

 

The X axis shows the ENDING year (so the first data point shows the net jobs creation, and cumulative job creation for Jan-Dec 2001. The second data point from Jan-Dec of 2002 and so on).

The blue shaded backgrounds indicate the years President Bush was in office, with a GOP majority in the House (and, half the time, in the Senate as well).

The darker pink shows a Bush White House and Pelosi/Reid (Democrat) Congress.

The light pink shows an Obama White House and Pelosi/Reid (All Democrat) Congress.

What do we see?

- The Bush Administration with a GOP House and half-time GOP Senate started with the Clinton recession, and ended up building a net 4.2 million jobs over those 6 years.

- When the Democrats took over Congress, the jobs situation LOST 2.3 million net jobs

- President Bush left office with a net 1.9 million jobs created over his 8 years.

- President Obama has watched the number of net jobs drop from 1.9 million positive to 2.1 million negative. A loss of 4 million jobs on his watch.

Now, the article is barely factually correct; it states that 2010 saw more private sector jobs created than 8 years of Bush Administration. But is that a fair or balanced assessment? I would argue not; it's highly misleading and obviously so for political reasons only. Why do I state this? It's quite simple:

1. You are comparing 8 years of the Bush Administration with just ONE year of the Obama Administration. When you compare both years of the Obama Administration, you find a decidedly LESS rosy picture (4 million lost for Obama versus 2 million gained for President Bush).

2. You are discounting the impact of the Pelosi/Reid Congress (of which President Obama was a member, and thus also complicit in its effects). Note when the drop off starts - the blue line (net change year over year) takes a decided downturn when Pelosi and Reid take control. Coincidence? Given that was when the deficit spending (and budgets originate in the House) skyrocketed.

3. It discounts the 2010 effects. 2010 saw losses for 6 of the first 9 months; when the Republican sweep of Congress became inevitable (in October, 2010) we see employment taking off. And continuing to take off. Most of the gains for Obama came with a GOP-led or GOP-incumbent Congress.

Now, the original author and poster tried to insinuate that the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress were better for jobs than President George W. Bush and the GOP led House (and half-time GOP led Senate). Yet when we examine the data, we find that such insinuations are simply not supportable. They don't hold up under an examination of THEIR provided data.

The conclusions are unequivocal:

- President Bush, in his first 2 years, saw fewer losses of jobs than President Obama
- President Bush, and the GOP led House, saw a net growth of 6 million jobs
- Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Reid oversaw a loss of 2 million jobs
- President Obama and the Pelosi/Reid led Congress presided over a loss of 4 million jobs

How that translates into "Bush=bad for jobs, Obama=good for jobs" I'm not sure, but then again, liberal logic still is a complete mystery to me!

 Sorry for the cut-and-paste on this post, but's it's one of the better refutations of Obama's job numbers bullshit and i didn't want to trust the explanation to link rot or my mis-interpretation. Kudos to the author for the legwork!

"..not thinking about party first..elections first.."
So this is why you're out in the Midwest, burning up the roads with that 40-car Cannonball express flapping your lips, making speeches like the one above?

Sure sounds a lot like campaigning and it's pretty disgusting that your listening tour has turned into a series of whistle-stop speeches where you roadies have bussed in Kool-Aid drinking plants to swoon over every lie and misstatement you utter.

If you're gonna use our nickel to spout your drivel, try to not be so obvious, eh Slick?

-30-

Pantload's Funeral Procession for the American Economy

..quoting one of the You Tube commenters. Here's a video of Obama'a Rolling Blunder the hideously excessive three-day campaigning-on-your-dime bus[t] tour:

Yassah! Sho 'nuf do like how our beloved leader get's out and rubs elbows with us common folk.

Love to get a glimpse of the costs of this fiasco. Also, as Rush Limbaugh pointed out on his opening monologue this morning, note the absence of American flags both along the route and at his listening speechifyin' stops. Also, boys and girls, you might want ot compare and contrast the audience size with the crowds this fraud used to pull in on 2007-2008.

Just sayin'.

LATE NIGHT COMEDIC UPDATE: Jay Leno weighs in on the bus trip:

"President Obama is off on his three-state bus tour this week. I believe the three states are Confusion, Delusion and Desperation."

EARLY MORNING COMEDIC UPDATE: The finally got a "cover" of the Beatles' ditty Magical Mystery Tour for The Pantload's Magical Misery Tour:

No, it's not the You Tube video; Woodsterman posted it and you should wander over to his site to view it. It's rich!

FINAL ADD BUS TOUR FOR THIS POST: Can't we all agree on this one thing? The Pantload sucks:

"..can't I just finish my Soft-Serv, sweetie?"

-30-

Scared Sh!tless..

It's started: The Pantload's crew -- telegraphing who they're really afraid of come next year -- is already trying to shoot down Perry on THE THIRD DAY OF HIS CAMPAIGN for president:

The video from Breitbart dissects the deplorable MSNBC edit/hack job. As Bette Davis said once, "Fasten your seltbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy night."

-30-

Cracks, 5.0

Apparently rodding around in those $2 million Greyhound hearses ain't doing our wayfaring POTUS any good. Gallup has him back down below the magic barrier at 39% today:

Also, scope out The RAZ DT. King Putt has racked up a pretty impressive string of -20 approval indexes over there -- from August 8th through today where he's weighing in at an unhealthy -23 percent. Also note the recent robust "Total Disapprove" and the anemic "Strongly Approve" numbers he's racked up since he sulked and pouted his way through at abortion of a financial crisis he concocted in the end of July:



Hmmmmmmm. Maybe Cracks or Crevasses are not appropriate titles for these kinds of updates..

..more like cratering?

-30-

Times are tough, even for members of Obama's flock..

Shepard Fairey -- the street artist who created the iconic Obama "Hope" poster -- was throttled heartily by some irate Danes who took exception to his carpet-bagging his politics to Copenhagen:

When graffiti artist Shepard Fairey turned his talents to US politics, his reward was international acclaim and a letter of thanks from Barack Obama. When he employed a similar tactic in Denmark, however, the response proved altogether less edifying.

Last weekend, Fairey – creator of the famous "Hope" poster that came to encapsulate Obama's 2008 presidential campaign – was beaten up after the opening of his exhibition at a Copenhagen gallery.

Earlier this month he was involved with a controversial mural that has enraged leftwing anarchists throughout the city.

"I have a black eye and a bruised rib," Fairey told the Guardian.

According to reports, 41-year-old Fairey and his colleague Romeo Trinidad were punched and kicked by at least two men outside the Kodboderne 18 nightclub in the early hours of last Saturday morning. Fairey claims the men called him "Obama illuminati" and ordered him to "go back to America".

The LA-based artist believes the attack was sparked by a misunderstanding over his mural commemorating the demolition of the legendary "Ungdomshuset" (youth house) at Jagtvej 69. The building, a long-term base for Copenhagen's leftwing community, was controversially demolished in 2007. In the intervening years it has become a potent symbol of the standoff between the establishment in Copenhagen and its radical fringe.

Poor bastard, earns a ton of loot painting a poster used by King Putt to get elected and then goes to some Euro-socialist stronghold and gets his lights punched out by a bunch of commie libtards. I tell ya, there's no justice in the world. But don't cry for him, Argentina, he's doing all right fame- and money-wise. Besides, per the article, he kind of cops an attitude himself:

Born to a middle-class family in Charleston, South Carolina, Fairey began his career within the skateboarding scene, designing boards and T-shirts before finding wider fame with his "Obey Giant" sticker campaign. In 2008 his unofficial Barack Obama campaign poster was hailed by the New Yorker's art critic Peter Schjeldahl as "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You'."

While the Hope poster was never publicly endorsed by the Obama campaign, its subject sent Fairey a letter. "I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign," Obama wrote. "Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of your artwork and proud to have your support." Fairey's work now hangs in the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. These days, he admitted, he has grown used to defending himself against accusations of selling out. "I think there are a lot of people who think that if you've done well, you've done a deal with the devil," he said.

The artist said he had not filed a police report following the attack in Copenhagen. "I did not know any of the people or get a great look at them, so it seemed pointless," he said.

"I'm not a huge fan of the cops anyway. The only thing I could see coming out of it was further media commentary like 'street artist whiner Shepard Fairey can't hold it down in a fight so he snitches to the cops'."

O.K., enough of that. I got to get back to following our Best Beloved's America [is going] Bus[t] tour. Maybe more of them goddam redneck inbred Tea Partiers will have their head handed to them by The Light Bringer.

(Seriously, I am sorry I didn't get any money down on the Vegas over/under. I coulda had a nice vacation in Copenhagen this Summer.)

-30-

Magical Misery Tour Bulletin #1

..just caught a picture of one of the trailing vehicles in Obama's Debt End Bus Tour. And, as long as we're on the subject of needing a pooper scooper, here's a kick-off speech of The Turd Burglar's bus trip:

..I tried to get the video of another one of his stops but was not successful (CNN isn't a friendly sharer of their stuff) but the meme's pretty much the same.

I don't know about you folks, but this pretty much sounds like a campaign speech to me. Also seems like he's not doing a lot of listening and it doesn't seem like him bitching at his audience will create a lot of jobs.

So there's that.

More as conditions warrant.

-30-

Rick Perry, ManBearPig, and The Magical Misery Tour or something..

Man Bear Pig back in days of Yore: always bloviating

Now that Rick Perry is causing some additional soiled diapers in the White House these days, Politico is really working overtime to focus their Laser-like Destructo Ray on him and to take some off of The Light Bringer.

In what can only be described as the mother of all boarding-house reaches, they want to resurrect the hoary old legend of Perry supporting Gore on the 2000 POTUS campaign. Perry, of course, countered by saying that was back in the days when Gore was more normal -- not freaking out and crying Bullsh*t! over the unraveling of his pet cause.Anyway, here's how the saga unfolds according to the Politico Obama-Fluffers:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have forgotten a thing or two about the Al Gore presidential campaign he helped lead in 1988.

In an interview with an Iowa radio station on Monday, the Republican presidential contender explained his role as the Gore campaign’s Texas chairman by saying that “this was Al Gore before he invented the Internet and got to be Mr. Global Warming.”

But in fact, global warming was already a significant theme for Gore in 1987 and 1988 — long before his activism led to several books, a Nobel Prize and a part in an Academy Award-winning film. It was also well before the right gave him the "Mr. Ozone" nickname and talk radio heaped endless mockery on the future vice president.

Gore, then a young Tennessee senator trying to break out in a crowded Democratic field, mentioned the warming planet as one of his priorities for his presidential campaign in April 1987, according to news coverage at the time.

“He laid out a broad list of national objectives, from combating AIDS and Alzheimer's disease to curbing the ‘greenhouse effect’ — the threat to the Earth's atmosphere from the burning of oil, gas and coal,” The Los Angeles Times reported in covering Gore’s announcement. In May 1987, according to The Washington Post, his stump speeches included a call for the nation to “confront the emerging problems of the greenhouse effect and the threat to our ozone.”

Later that summer, Gore joined Republican Sen. John Chafee in calling for urgent action on climate change and the threat of coastal flooding.

My reaction? (1) Obama must be really, really scared,  (2) who cares, (3) if he did back Gore and believed in AGW, then some of Obama's followers might just be tempted to switch and vote for Perry, and finally (4) who cares?

What a nothing burger.

The real red meat will be the press coverage of The Chicago Jesus on his Rolling Blunder bus tour. I am licking my chops waiting for him to actually shut up long enough on those campaign whistle stops to listen to people bitch about being out of work. (Do you think he really cares?) Chances are, he'll be flapping his gums about (1) how it's not his fault, (2) he inherited this mess from Bush, and (3) the evil Republicans will not make deals with him.

Then again, maybe there won't have any irate, pitchfork and torch brandishing mobs at his stops. He'll probably have a caravan of fluffers to follow him wherever he goes.

Wonder what's the over/under in Vega him getting braced by more Joe the Plumbers?

Probably zero.

-30-

We are experiencing technical difficulties..

#@*&^%$!

..the goddam template I have been using has freaked out or Blogger stopped supporting it or some goddam thing and I gotta get this mess straightened out.Will be with you shortly.

Now, where's that goddam HTML book?

Goddammit!

-30-

Cracks..er..3.0? 4.0? Whatevs..

O.K., enough of this tear-stained, maudlin sentimentality over anniverseries. Now let's get down to some sard news.

Seems like The Light Bringer is fading. Gallup reported this day that his PERSONAL APPROVAL RATINGS have slipped into the 30s for the first time, evah!

According to the Los Angeles Liberal Fish-wrap:

New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency.

Obama's approval rating has hovered in the 40% range for much of 2011, peaking at 53% in the weeks following the death of Osama bin Laden.

But Americans' view of his job performance continued to tick downward as the debt-ceiling debate heated up. By the time he signed legislation averting a federal default, he was mired in the low-40% range.

The significance of this is that he has slipped below the 40% barrier despite Gallup and the other liberal pollsters math-tortured algorithms and skewed polling sampled efforts to keep this lead balloon afloat. ("In a poll taken of White House staffers and former Obama campaign workers, the president has emerged with a solid 40% approval rating..")

But I won't dwell on this because I have a brand-new-used Tektronix-7CT1N curver-tracer to play with today and wasting time on this worthless piece of crap and his numbers is not my idea of spending a nice Summer Sunday in Southern California despite this being a landmark event.

 

Besides, I told you I was a geek!

LUNCHTIME GEEK-BREAK UPDATE: If you want to have a real eye-opening experience, go to the cited Los Angeles Times article cited above and read the comments. There's the usual liberal v. conservative back-and-forth; but then there's a few like the one below:

mnehreps at 11:51 AM August 14, 2011
I worked very hard to get President Obama elected, including walking my neighborhood, raising money, and manning phone banks, and needless to say, I am beyond disappointed in him. Every day we are getting emails and letters with 'talking points' from the campaign to blame it on the teabaggers, blame it on bush, blame it on the japan earthquake, blame it on, well anyone but President Obama. Instead of being a strong leader who can get things done, like President Clinton did, President Obama is going to ruin the Democratic party for decades. I remember when Lyndon Johnson was President and tried many of the same things as President Obama. Our party came to him and said stop, you are setting back progressive causes for decades. LBJ was encouraged not to run again and he didn't. You can't eat an entire elephant in the first bite and if you try, you'll choke. That's where we are at now. It is time to get someone to primary against President Obama.  I, for one, regret not supporting Hillary Clinton. Run Hillary Run!

The point is that even Democrats are becoming concerned about how inept this guy is. They are beginning to realize that, not only will he lose the election, but he will take a lot of the 22 Democrat senators with him. Hope I don't jinx this, but we are watching a perfect storm brewing here.

-30-

О чем Этот Blog Является Всем (2nd Anniversary Post)

This is perhaps the height of arrogance, but I just realized I have been doing this blog for two years. Now, that's not as long as some but to me it's chilling that I could stick to this for such a long time -- and still have as much fun. The War Planner started out life as Voyska PVO (as explained in this reprise of my first post) but, in order to clarify the ambiguity, it reverted to my other Cold Warrior persona and was named as it is today. I am sincerely grateful to those who have been kind enough to visit, read, and comment; -- particularly Odie, LCR, Supi, MA, LL, and all of the others. I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting many of you in person but treasure all of you as close friends. Here's hoping we all stay fired up for the next fifteen months and beyond.

..Спасибо, мои друзья.

("About what This Blog Is All")
Firstly, disabuse yourself of any notion that I am Russian or that I speak the language. Or that I am a communist. The name for this blog came from a middle age spent absrobing too many Tom Clancy novels (especially The Sum of All Fears) and a youth, the first eight years of which were committed to the United States Air Force.

The name of the blog - Войска ПВО - literally translated means "Armies of Air Defence", pronounced as "Voyska PVO", and is the military organ of the now-defunct Soviet Union charged with repelling air attacks from, presumably, the United States, NATO, and their other enemies during the Cold War.

Many years ago, circa 1964-68, I attended the University of California, Los Angeles and, because I sought refuge from the grasp of the the Selective Service System, I had enrolled in the Air Force ROTC. My father - who was ponying up half of the loot for my education - wanted me around after my graduation to recoup his investment ~ and, I suppose, for other reasons. In any event, the operative theory was that being stationed stateside in the Air Force for four years was preferable to carrying a rifle in SEA for two years.

So it was that, when I graduated from UCLA in 1968, I received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and orders to report to Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. My work involved writing software for the SIOP - war plan - and my responsibilities involved developing the flight plans for the SAC B-52s and FB-111s in the event we went to war.

Still confused? Think of the envelopes that Slim Pickens distributed to his crew in the Kubrik movie, Dr Strangelove.

My counterparts - adversaries, as it were - were the members Войска ПВО, unseen but ever-present. I came to adopt this as my sobriquet from a perverse sense of irony and because of a respect for an opponent who, while misguided in spirit defending a political philosophy, were nonetheless noble in courage, sentiment and ambition. Posting on conservative sites fraught with trolls who patrol at the behest of their masters, I discovered that those cretins did not realize cyrillic characters could be pasted into the edit boxes. Therefore, it tended to cut down on annoying responses on blogs like PJM, etc.

So, to complete the mystique and since I was an officer in the USAF and a lover of military aviation from any country, I adopted the persona as a pilot in that arm of the Soviet air defense force. This is, I submit, a noble endeavor; an effort to defend one's country, it's innocent people, and it's integrity as opposed to attacking another to impose a political philosophy by aggression.

..I'll stop here lest the baloney gets sliced too thin.

But again, I refer you to the modern day camaraderie between Jack Ryan and his former Cold War enemies in the Soviet Union. By the way, that picture is not me on the left. It is - or was - an actual serving pilot in Войска ПВО.

But, while this is supposed to be a vehicle for my political rants, I also would like to post on other subjects of interest in my life. These might variously include amateur radio, bicycle racing, firearms, and other muddled subjects. By way of further introduction and to pad my posting count, these will be discussed in subsequent entries.

For now, a statement about my politics. I am decidedly conservative, Republican, but have respect for Democrats who are honorable and hard working and have a firm set of principles. Heck, my brother, James, is a Democrat and a former member of the New Hampshire state legislature. He sponsors a turkey shoot out on his expansive estate near the Vermont border and is one of the few Democrats who received the highest approval rating from the National Rifle Association.

But I am barely tolerant of ("big L") Libertarians - they are smug and do not begin to comprehend what is involved in keeping this country safe from foreign aggression. Also, I cannot abide leftists, socialists, apologists, and self-aggrandizing politicians (from either side of the spectrum). I will listen to argument and will, as much as I can, debate in response. Hell, I'll even concede points if they arise from well-reasoned discourse.

As for the rules for commenting here: they're mine, they're arbitrary, but they're fair (from my point of view). Trolls are the bane of our existence and there's a ton of sandboxes for them to crap in. Obscene comments will be deleted immediately. Whining, insulting, or carping will be deleted at the slightest provocation. Those whose views differ from mine and evince an attempt at civil debate will have a longer shelf-life -- in all likelihood, perpetuity.

So, that's it; more to come later..