All you need to know about the Scott McClellan nonsense

....as addressed to McClellan in this quote:

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don't have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues...

No doubt you will 'clean up' as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me.' Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years"

-- Bob Dole

No doubt about it, Senator......

Uncle Ralphie says that Barry O is "a creature of corporate America"

And he's not too happy with the prospect of a Hillary candidacy either, as reported in the WSJ.

Noteworthy:

"So is it all just a charade? 'Yes,' says Mr. Nader, implacably, 'a charade. His health-insurance plan lets the health insurance companies continue their redundant, wasteful, often corrupt – in terms of billing fraud – ways, ripping off Medicare. My vice-presidential candidate, Matt Gonzalez, has written a 3,000-word tract on Obama that's on our Web site, VoteNader.org. You should read it.'"

Echoes of good old Dave Ribar's erroneous take on Medicare, isn't it?

More evidence on the weakness of an Obama candidacy for the Dems, pt 2

Lannie Davis puts more more fuel on the fire of the discussion that absolutely enrages the Tinker Bells who comprise a big slice of Obama supporters.

Excerpts from Davis:

"The latest state-by-state battleground polls (published May 21-23) by other respected polling organizations verify Gallup's findings that Sen. Clinton is significantly stronger against Sen. McCain in the key states that a Democrat must win to gain the presidency."

"Even the theory that Sen. Obama can open up significant numbers of 'red' states has not been borne out by recent polling."

On the other hand, the Dems won't figure this out until it's too late......when the networks call the election at 10PM on election day for President-elect McCain. Even Davis's fantasies of an Obama/Clinton or a Clinton/Obama ticket will not be able to avoid the inevitable.

Barry O tries to cut his losses

He's giving up his membership at the racist Trinity United Church of Christ.

Note to the Obama Rama: It's too late......the damage is done......you will carry the responsibility for your poor judgment forever.

Here's the Fox link.

The Cone Project for 5-31-08

Cone posts a link to a Tony Wilkins blog piece featuring Sheriff B.J. Barnes' response to questions about a merger of Greensboro Police Department and his Guilford county Sheriff's Department.

As expected, some of our "upstanding citizens" totally gloss over the real issues, and turn the focus back to the "Wray the Incompetent" meme , which they trot out from time to time when the "Wray the Racist" and "Wray the Liar" memes need a well deserved rest.

At this point, no one (except perhaps Rosenberg) seems to want to address the real issues: Namely, the undermining of the GPD by the political power groups in this county, the absolute incompetence and complicitness of the current and former city councils regarding this problem, and the total mitch-management by our city employees of the events in our city these past number of years.

The problem lies not in the institution of the GPD itself. It lies in our lack of political will and our lack of competent leadership.

Fatuous statement of fantasy (so far) for the Cone thread: self-appointed Queen Bee/Blogger Maven/Arbiter of All Local Things Political, Social, Economic, And Cultural Sue Polinsky:

"Perhaps the recent bonds packages that passed are the citizens way of saying, 'Fix it. We'll suffer for the positive outcome, but darn it, fix it!'"

As if.......

More evidence on the weakness of an Obama candidacy for the Dems

"A Tale of Three States".

Key point:

"It is I think a reflection of the weakness of Obama as a candidate. Starting with the revelations about Reverend Wright, the Obama campaign has dropped from the semi-celestial status it enjoyed in the eyes of many. The gaffe-a-day express, the foot in mouth disease among Obama advisors, the glaringly weak posture on national security and foreign relations the candidate has put forth (and for which several times he has been forced to backtrack), all have damaged Obama's chances. Now he is a mere mortal -- except to the true believers, and they are not enough to put him over the top in a general election.

He could still win with the huge financial advantage he will undoubtedly have, but it will be close and hard fought, and he will have to be lucky to triumph. The Democrats in their 'wisdom' will take a pass on what could have been a much easier road to victory with Clinton."

We can see excellent examples of that "wisdom" right here in our local blahgosphere by assorted fools and arrogant little twits.

This particular massive tax increase will be disguised as a "market friendly cap and trade solution"

It's just another case of separating you from MORE of your money, all in the name of supporting the phoney "scientific consensus" on "anthropogenic global warming".

Noteworthy:

"Our analysis makes clear that S. 2191 promises extraordinary perils for the American economy. Arbitrary restrictions predicated on multiple, untested, and undeveloped technologies will lead to severe restrictions on energy use and large increases in energy costs. In addition to the direct impact on consumers' budgets, these higher energy costs will spread through the economy and inject unnecessary inefficiencies at virtually every stage of production and consumption--all of which will add yet more financial burdens that must be borne by American taxpayers."

Here's the costs to North Carolinians.

A huge boondoggle is headed your way, all to satisfy an agenda item that is based on academic fraud.

(hat tip: Fred Gregory)

Florida Dem primary voters get the finger from the DNC

It looks like the DNC (and their faithful Lame Stream Media pals) really want Barry O to snag the Dem nomination at any cost.

Excerpt:

"Republicans should invite the unseated delegates to places of honor at their convention."

In the long run, it probably won't make any difference. Obama Rama has no chance of taking Florida in a matchup with McCain. In addition, his chances of beating McCain get worse as time goes on, and as he continues to show by his words and actions that he's an extremely poor choice for our next President.

As I've said here, and over at Spag's,
Hillary actually matches up FAR better against McCain in the general election than Obama does.

Oil speculation: The most dangerous of the commodity games

What role does speculation in oil play in the ever-increasing price of oil?

Key point:

"Meanwhile, Harvard’s Jeffrey Frankel, has argued for the idea that speculation is behind the run-up in price. He says that such behavior is due to the sharp reduction in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Low rates encourage commodity stockpiling, he says, by making it less attractive to sell commodities and put the proceeds into bonds and other debt instruments.

Critics of Mr. Frankel’s theory, including Paul Krugman, say the expected rise in commodity inventories hasn’t shown up.

Mr. Frankel has acknowledged that, but also notes that perhaps oil producers are leaving those inventories in the ground. That could be one reason why the Saudi king rebuffed President Bush’s request for increased oil production earlier this month."

(Related)

"That would be a reckless game to play, because it could lead to the types of shifts that caused energy prices to drop precipitously in the 1980s, inflicting heavy damage on the Saudi and other OPEC economies. Indeed, the combination of a change in consumer behavior and an economic slowdown that is showing signs of spreading beyond the U.S. may already augur just the kind of sharp drop in prices that occurred back then."

In addition, there is talk from different sources that ExxonMobil is internally preparing for a return of oil prices to the 30-50 per barrel level.

Very interesting.

What do they know that we don't?

Forgetting the "memorial" part of Memorial Day

A significant number of us are pretty oblivious to the significance of the day on this "holiday".


Excerpt:

"A new study of college students suggests that the true meaning of Memorial Day, a tradition dating back to the Civil War, is becoming even more obscure.

A survey of 14,000 randomly selected seniors and freshmen on 50 campuses shows they lack knowledge about the politics, causes and history of the wars that shaped America and killed the soldiers that the country set today aside to honor.

The data, analyzed by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, shows that college seniors averaged 52.7 percent on a series of questions about war history and related themes. College freshmen averaged less, 47.5 percent."

Starting shortly, I will spend the better part of my day today doing the same thing Larry Tyson is doing today in Kansas.

For some of us, duty still calls, regardless of the political and social forces that work against the remembrance and for the marginalization of those who gave all.

Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan

Hibbing's most famous son turns 67.

My advice?

Don't Look Back

The essential truth about Dems and the War in Iraq

"I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election ... when I say we... the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the ... we didn't say it, but we implied it ... that if we won the congressional elections, we could stop the war.

Now anybody who was a good student of government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the congress, so you sort of stretched the facts ... and people ate it up."

-- 12-term incumbent Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)


Ah, that rarest of creatures: A Dem who is honest enough to admit his party panders.


(hat tip: The New Editor)

If what Hillary says is true, it means that Dems are misogynists

Is she right?

Is she the victim of gender bias?

Key point:

"So let's give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that her campaign has indeed suffered because of sexism.

This fact (if it be a fact) reveals a hitherto unknown, ugly truth about the Democratic Party. The alleged bastion of modern liberalism, toleration and diversity is full of (to use Mrs. Clinton's own phrase) 'people who are nothing but misogynists.' Large numbers of Democratic voters are sexists. Who knew?

But here's another revelation. If Mrs. Clinton is correct that she is more likely than Barack Obama to defeat John McCain in November, that implies Republicans and independents are less sexist than Democrats."

Would we be surprised to find that the Dems, who are accomplished experts in marginalizing people, don't practice what they preach?

Is the Pope a Catholic?

An electoral blowout for McCain?

According to this info from Politico, a 50 vote electoral margin is quite conceivable.

Noteworthy:

"The case they make for a comfortable McCain win is not beyond reason. Begin with the 2004 electoral map. Add Iowa and Colorado to Obama’s side, since both are considered states Obama could pick off. Then count McCain victories in New Hampshire and Michigan, two states where McCain is competitive. In this scenario, McCain wins the Electoral College 291-246, a larger margin than Bush four years ago."

The REAL message of Barry O's campaign

(hat tip: Heading Right)

Barry O won't be able to shake off the Wright Effect

Despite the fondest wishes and the enabling support among the media, Barone says the Wright albatross is Obama's to wear.

Key points:

"Nevertheless, the negative verdict these voters render on Obama's honesty and his relationship with Wright is likely to be typical of some significant quantum of potential Democratic voters this year. And not just in states like West Virginia and Kentucky, which he will certainly lose, but in marginal states which he must carry in order to be elected."

...and:

"Though most in the press won't admit it, that's a problem -- for the Obama candidacy and for the whole Democratic Party once it nominates him."

You would not know this if you read only the fawning coverage in the Lame Stream Media, and on Dem/Lefty/"Progressive"/Libthink blogs nationally and locally, but the truth is there for those who will see it.

So you want to "make health care available for everybody"?

And that some version of the schemes proposed by Obama/Hillary/Edwards/Kucinich, et al, is the answer?

Learn the lesson that the new Big Dig in Massachusetts teaches us.

Key point:

"The real problem in health care is the way the tax code and third-party payment system distort incentives. That's where John McCain has been focusing his reform efforts – because that really does have the potential to reduce costs while covering more of the uninsured – and Republicans ought to follow his lead.

In this respect paradoxically, we can be thankful that Massachusetts ignored the cost problems that doomed other recent liberal health insurance overhauls in California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois. The Bay State is showing everyone how not to reform health care."

Chuckie Schumer, the quintessential Libthinker

"It is what it is, unless I decide it's not."

Noteworthy:

"So then, the increase he demands of 'Bush's friends,' the Saudis - which he claims would reduce prices by up to 25 percent -- is the exact amount he argued earlier this month would only reduce the price of oil by a penny' were it coming from ANWR - eco-sacred breeding ground of the Porcupine Caribou."

Ah but remember: Being a Dem/Lefty/"Progressive"/Libthinker means never having to admit you are actually wrong on ANYTHING!

The once mighty "Scientific Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming" gang takes yet another hit.

There's more than 31,000 scientist signers of this petition who think the True Believers are full of hot air. But we knew that already, didn't we?

Noteworthy excerpts:

"'That is a general principle of logic: correlation does not prove causality,' said Robinson. 'In this case, hydrocarbons don’t correlate with the temperature; the sun does.'

'There is nothing in the correlation that leads us to say it’s all the sun,' said Robinson, 'but there is everything in the correlations to say that it isn’t hydrocarbons; they have no measurable factor.'

Robinson contends that unlike the United Nations’ discussions in Kyoto, his research has been done in the proper manner dictated by the scientific community. Replies to inquiries of his petition have varied; Robinson would not detail how great the response was, but he noted that negative replies were simply 'vulgar.' (I can only imagine!)

'I can’t imagine anyone with a background in science proceeding this way,' said Robinson, 'where we have a political movement which wants to turn off the energy source that 85 percent of America is fueled by on the basis of a committee that got together to give an answer on a problem that is so far unsolved.'

'Are we really going to take away the human right to use energy, which is the currency of technology and progress; not only for the American people, but for the poor people around the world, on the basis of this nonsense? It’s just not right, and it’s certainly not science."

"See the USA in your Chevrolet......."

The Camaro returns.

Greensboro District 3 Town Hall get together: Will Zack be back?

I can't fault District 3 City Councilman Zack Matheny for trying. I think he is sincere in wanting to get in front of his constituents and listen to what they have to say. However, I'm not quite sure he was expecting the response he got at last night's meeting at Lawndale Baptist church.

It was clear from the beginning what Zack wanted to talk about. Upon entering the Worship Center where the event would be held, each of the 40-some attendees were handed a sheet entitled "2008 Priorities. What's Important to YOU?", which apparently came out of the City Council in January.

The list was interesting because of the topics listed and because of the topics NOT listed.

Here are the issues that made the cut:

Business friendly
Jobs/Economic Development
Communication
Police
City of Greensboro employee morale
Social Capital
Equity
Transparency
Gang Awareness
Transportation
Homelessness
Water Supply
Increase Public Trust
Other (please specify)

"Specify" we did.

The group wasn't too keen on discussing several of those issues, and immediately started airing their feelings about crime, and Matheny got an earful. A large segment of time was spent on this discussion, and GPD Eastern Division Commander Captain Chris Walker did a good job fielding many of the questions.

Bottom line: A number of people are angry about this; a number of people are flat out afraid, and it's a matter of major concern. Matheny was short on answers, plans, and solutions, preferring instead to frame the issue as a funding problem.

I brought up the question of re-opening the White Street Landfill, and immediately Matheny went on the defensive. He dodged the question artfully, but but the Rhino Time's John Hammer and I wouldn't let him off the hook.

Matheny claims that White St. is "not closed", which may be technically correct, but he danced all around my question of costs for the current way trash is handled. He refered to the issue as a political one, saying the votes aren't there (on City Council) to open it, and it would invite lawsuits if we did. I made a mental note to ask about lawsuits when we got around to discussing the fiasco of the management of the GPD and its on-going internal problems. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to bring that aspect up.

By that time, I think poor young Zack had started to wonder why he ever decided to do this sort of event, but he gallantly pressed forward. I think he used the term "exposing myself", which he most certainly did.

It was apparent by then that he wasn't relishing a discussion about the ongoing soap opera that has become the GPD and the City Manager's office. That led me to make the statement that "We (the City of Greensboro) lack the political will and management ability to solve the problem". His blood pressure must have shot up 30 points, and he immediately came back with a question that bordered on losing control. I resisted the urge to engage him, and instead told him he would be better served by calling on the other people who wanted to respond in light of my comment. Afterward, he made some whiny comments about the media, not so subtly directed Hammer's way, followed with an exclamation of "I'm one person!"

Things were a little anti-climactic from that point on.

Other things to consider.

Protest Petitions are no big deal in his eyes, that they "leave us open to sprawl", and claims that the Guilford state legislative contingent "passed the buck to City Council" with he recent statement.

Because time was short, he briefly covered the rest of the items on the 2008 Priorities sheet. I managed to camouflage my snorts of derision when he talked about Equity and Social Capital, and it was all I could do stifle loud guffaws when Transparency came up.

It's pretty clear.....Matheny is over his head. We made a bad choice in electing him, and we need to fix that mistake.

So Barry O thinks the TN GOP is "low class" for daring to criticize his political wife?

Let's take a look at some REAL low class behavior from the "progressive" Nutroots.

Just when we think it can't get any worse, these scumbags always seem to establish a new level of depravity in their hate campaign.

Yet more evidence Obama is unfit for the presidency

According to Barry O, Iran "doesn't pose a serious threat to the U.S.".

Noteworthy:

"So, taken literally, he seems not much concerned about Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, its sponsorship of terrorist organizations, its commitment to eradicate Israel, its current actions in supplying weapons that have killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq, and its role in eroding Lebanon’s sovereignty through its client Hezbollah."

....plus:

"You can understand why every attempt by John McCain to discuss global threats is labeled 'fear-mongering' by Obama. In his world this is all a fantasy and we are not at risk. All perfectly logical . . . if you divorce yourself from reality."

How much more do we need to know about this guy?

Here's another example of the insidious influence of Libthink in Academia

Blatant Dem/Lefty/"Progressive" agenda talking points by those who profess to "teach" are nothing new.

Dan from Madison has the story about a typical intellectual and academic fraud committed in support of gun control.

Excerpt:

"If people like Ms. Washington are basing their articles on blatantly false facts and provide no links to studies or evidence that support their positions, what do they expect their students to do?"

They expect them to swallow it without question, Dan.

It's Indoctrinate U at its finest.

Revisionist history at the Seattle Times

"Oh, c'mon guys! Hitler wasn't really THAT bad!"

Some people will do virtually anything to rationalize a policy of appeasement by politicians, won't they?

The wheels of progress keep on turning....

(hat tip: American Digest)

High prices for fuel got you down?

Think it's all Bush's fault? Or Big Oil is gouging you? OPEC holding us hostage?

How about pointing the finger in the direction where it belongs: Your (not so) consumer friendly Democrat Congress.

Noteworthy:

"But the shale proposal went down to defeat with Allard and 13 other Republican members in favor and 15 Democrats opposed. Once again, Democrats were on the wrong side, opting to keep oil in the ground and punish you with higher prices as a result.

This was no minor thing. Estimates put the amount of oil locked in shale in both Canada and the U.S. at more than 1 trillion barrels. Pulling out even a tenth of that would quadruple our current reserves."

....and this:

"With its failure to tap the vast supplies in ANWR and offshore, its passage of costly global-warming legislation and now its refusal to exploit our massive resources of oil shale, Congress has set us on a path to less energy, higher prices and weakened national security."

Just more Business As Usual for our Dem pals.

Kind of like our Greensboro City Council, and the ruling cabals in our city, isn't it?

The Cone Project for 5/17/08

Nowhere is Cone shown up as the arrogant fool he actually is than when he pulls his trademark false equivalency stunt, such as seen here, where he (a) tries to group McCain in the same category as Obama Rama, and (b) by implication, tries to put words that were never said in George Bush's statement.

Regarding Cone's implication that McCain is some sort of "appeaser", he links to a weak attempt at a hit piece by some former Dem mouth, who tries to say that McCain favors appeasement. When reading what McCain actually said, it's clear that the accusation is not even close to being correct.

In addition, the ex-Clinton hack (and Cone, by his own implication, in conjunction with the rest of the Nutroots/Blahgosphere) takes George Bush to task for the Knesset statement.

Mark Steyn put this latest bit of Dem/Lefty/"Progressive"/Libthink babble into proper perspective:

"Nonetheless, Barack Obama decided that the president's speech was really about him, and he didn't care for it. He didn't put it quite as bluntly as he did with the Rev. Wright, but the message was the same: 'That's enough. That's a show of disrespect to me.' And, taking their cue from the soon-to-be nominee's weirdly petty narcissism, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Joe Biden and Co. piled on to deplore Bush's outrageous, unacceptable, unpresidential, outrageously unacceptable and unacceptably unpresidential behavior."

.....and:

"Increasingly, the Western world has attitudes rather than policies. It's one thing to talk as a means to an end. But these days, for most midlevel powers, talks arethe end, talks without end. Because that's what civilized nations like doing – chit-chatting, shooting the breeze, having tea and crumpets, talking talking talking. Uncivilized nations like torturing dissidents, killing civilians, bombing villages, doing doing doing. It's easier to get the doers to pass themselves off as talkers then to get the talkers to rouse themselves to do anything.

And, as the Iranians understand, talks provide a splendid cover for getting on with anything you want to do. If, say, you want to get on with your nuclear program relatively undisturbed, the easiest way to do it is to enter years of endless talks with the Europeans over said nuclear program. That's why that Hamas honcho endorsed Obama: They know he's their best shot at getting a European foreign minister installed as president of the United States."

"Weirdly petty narcissism". I like it.

Describes Cone perfectly, don't you think?

Is Obama an apostate?

...and WHY are our Dem/Lefty/"Progressive"/Libthink pals so obsessed with keeping Obama's heritage from being discussed as a proper and necessary item of debate needed in choosing our next president?

Excerpt:

"Having placed his heritage and middle name on the table as advantages in dealing with the Muslim world, the question of the downsides of his possible apostasy in the eyes of our Saudi allies, the Iranians, the Pakistanis and other Muslims needs addressing.

Accordingly -- while it's unclear at exactly what point in life Obama forsook the tenets of Islam, are questions pressing the presumptive nominee's positions on such topics as Shari'a in America or Palestinian right of return any less justifiable?

The stakes just don't allow such sophistry."

Ah, but the discussion of all this is somehow "racist", right?

New CA judicial campaign sticker, in light of the recent gay marriage decision

...Meanwhile, back at Cone's, the celebration of the CA same sex marriage ruling is proceeding along typical lines: The Usual Suspects are desperate to defend the indefensible activist court decision.

Here's my favorite, from Delirious Dave the Scientist, no less:

"In this case, those rights are paramount. I don't care if the guarantee of those rights happens through the courts, through the legislature, or through amendment to the Constitution. I also don't care what happens in a referendum; the fundamental rights of minorities are not subject to majority rule."

Don't you just love it when people like this can concoct non existent/imaginary "rights" out of thin air?

In Dave's case, it's certainly no more a stretch than inventing a bogus "scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming"that he so clearly (and so wrongly) supports.


Further, I note that all of the drumbeaters for the non-existent "right" reject the concept of marriage defined as a particular relationship between a man and a woman.

What you will NEVER see from them is what their particular definition of marriage actually is.

Here's the best political quote so far this year

"Two substantive political issues are the federal budget deficit and the war in Iraq. Now, if you're electing Democrats to control government spending, then you're marrying Angelina Jolie for her brains.

This leaves the Democrats with one real issue: Iraq. And so far the best that any Democratic presidential candidate has been able to manage with Iraq is to make what I think of as the high school sex promise: I will pull out in time, honest dear."

-- P. J. O'Rourke, at Instapundit

So why do Libs rarely venture to conservative blogs?

Over at Cone's there's yet another of the typical disingenuous discussions for which that particular blog is notorious.

It's just another of theroutine "conservatives are always wrong, we're always right, and you guys are nothing but trolls" from some of the most usual of Usual Suspects.

One of them asks the insipid question: "Why are there no liberal trolls on conservative blogs?"

Two reasons, pal.

One, most of the Dem/Lefty/"Progressive"/Libthinker Usual Suspects are way too fearful of venturing out on their own without the safety net of fellow Cone sycophants, who can be trusted to tag team and marginalize any conservative viewpoint.

Second, without the support of said safety net, Usual Suspects know their responses cannot stand on their own merit when challenged.

But I suspect you already knew the certainty of those particular truths, didn't you?

So John-Boy has endorsed Obama?

....now that the nominating race is almost over?

With any amount of luck, Obama will be dumb enough to pick Mr. "Two Americas" as his running mate.

Says Victor Davis Hansen:

"McCain should pray that Obama picks (he won't) John Edwards as VP—he brings no executive record of experience, and offers less ideological balance; he has a poor record of winning primaries over two failed runs for the Presidency, has never appealed to working-class whites, hurt the Kerry ticket as a mediocre VP candidate, did poorly in past and present debates, and went even harder to the left (in scripted fashion) in the primaries.

Moreover, he adds to, rather than ameliorates, the sense of elitism and out-of-touchness that plagues Obama. For all the talk of growing up the son of a mill worker, voters remember 'the haircut' and that gargantuan house with the 'John's room' inner sanctum. I'm afraid all that outweighs the photogenic youthful appearance and occasional glibness."

Same Stuff, Different Year: Easley wants to raise taxes

Why are we not surprised?

Ridiculous items

- $375,000 to establish an office of the State of North Carolina in Shanghai, China
- $15 million to renovate the Mattamuskeet Lodge
- $1 million for the “Freedom Monument”
- $2.7 million for a Polar Bear exhibit at the N.C. Zoo
- $97 million for the Jim Hunt Library at N.C. State

Does it EVER stop?

(via Red Clay Citizen)

High gas prices: Your Congressional Democrats in action

IBD is on the case.

Noteworthy:

"So were Democrats and members of Congress together merely short-sighted, with only a few having any real business experience?

Or were they just ignorant about economics — the fact that the law of supply and demand determines the price of all commodities such as oil, steel, copper and lumber?

Or were they simply and utterly irresponsible and incompetent in their actions that led us to become dangerously dependent on increasing oil imports from foreign countries?

We think it was 'all of the above.'"

.....and:

"Do those now in Congress really think Middle America's voters are so gullible that they will believe that its latest best and brightest answer to increasing our supply of oil and gas is to slap a 25% windfall penalty tax on oil companies and remove all other incentives for oil companies to drill and explore for oil?"

Yes, they probably do.

Especially given the record of the current Democrat Congress.

The latest on the TREBIC propaganda campaign

These people REALLY don't want us to have the power that citizens in other NC localities have.

Here's a letter they sent to legislators in an attempt to stave off the Protest Petition initiative:

May 13, 2008

Senators Stan Bingham, Phil Berger, Katie Dorsett and Kay Hagan, and Representatives Alma Adams, John Blust, Katie Dorsett, Maggie Jeffus, Earl Jones, Pricey Harrison and Laura Wiley

RE: Greensboro Rezoning Protest Petition

Dear Senators and Representatives:

We are very concerned at the discussion of instituting rezoning Protest Petitions in the Greensboro. We urge you NOT to pursue this.

Greensboro was exempted from this in 1971, we think in part because only Greensboro has a Citizen Initiative Petition where citizens can take any ordinance (including rezonings) to a citywide referendum.

Protest petitions were “born” in the early 1900s because getting information to the public was difficult. Now, nearly 100 years later we’re in a new century and the “information age” and the communication problem no longer exists. There are strict rules for public notice and most developers voluntarily meet with neighbors. "Infill" development and redevelopment was not an issue then, but it is now, and allowing protest petitions will make it even harder to achieve smart growth developments where neighborhoods generally oppose higher densities and mixed uses that fit into the "better land use management plan" that Greensboro adopted in 2003. Frankly, the protest petition is antiquated and should be repealed statewide.

NC’s protest petition process allows a mere 5% of property owners within 100’ of the subject property to petition for a 75% vote of the full council (not “those present”) to pass the rezoning. In Greensboro that’s 7, and it essentially gives just 3 Council members veto power over rezoning decisions. It is patently absurd that a mere 5% of neighbors can so severely curtail someone else’s property rights. A democracy is run by majority vote. You can change the constitution of the United States with a simple majority, or with only a 2/3 vote of those elected representatives (Congress) present.

Greensboro rezonings already require a 2/3 vote to pass (6 of 9 votes), or else a second reading at the next meeting, giving opponents 2 to 3 extra weeks to lobby the issue further.

The 100 counties in NC do not allow protest petitions. While some other states do allow protest petitions, it is not pervasive and we found no states that allow a mere 5% to lodge a protest.

Local news reports have quoted City Council members urging caution, and some neighborhood advocates who fear it will impede the implementation of neighborhood preservation efforts. Citywide neighborhood groups are not taking up this cause. Greensboro goes to great effort to balance business friendliness with neighborhood stability, and does a pretty good job of it. This is a local government issue, and the legislative delegation should not pursue it.

Sincerely,

Marlene Sanford

President

(hat tip: Keith Brown)

"Better land use management plans"?

Like the ones your group uses to develop our quality of life into oblivion?

"Severely curtail property rights"?

Like your group ignores when it doesn't fit your agenda?


TREBIC is busted.

We intend to protect our rights and take control of the way decisions are made in this community and eliminate the "business as usual" malaise that has been poisoning our societyfor way too long We don't care whether you or your fellow power-brokering special interest kindred spirits like it or not.

More Dem discord on the way

Obama will declare himself the nominee, according to this source.

Excerpt:

"It’s a train wreck waiting to happen, with one candidate claiming to be the nominee while the other vigorously denies it, all predicated on an argument over what exactly constitutes the finish line of the primary race."

Hillary undoubtedly knows the truth-- that Obama is the nominee, but she's bound and determined to submarine him, so that she can contest for the loser's nomination against President McCain in the '12 election.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Whoever thought I'd be saying that about a Hillary Clinton plan?

Will the call to General Quarters be sounded soon?

Here are some possibilities.



Excerpt:

"I'm not big on conspiracy theories, not my style, but the coincidences of naval power availability and how obvious this has been unfolding for 8 months now is simply something observers like us can't ignore. We believe Stratfor is soon going to get an opportunity to test their theory, all signs point towards a time in the very near future where both nations will approach the edge of war. Lets hope Stratfor is correct in their analysis, and it is in that moment negotiations prevail."

(hat tip: Instapundit, who has even more conjecture)

Another naval factor to consider is what the amphibious fleet is currently doing. These are the guys who will put the first wave landing parties ashore by air and sea.

On the other hand, we heard some of this stuff last year, too.

The cover up on Obama's friends' complicity in murder

The Chicago Tribune won't tell the truth about William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn's complicity in a murder caused by a Weatherman cell's bombing.

Excerpt from FBI agent Larry Grathwohl's testimony before a U.S Senate subcommittee:

" When he [Bill Ayers] returned, we had another meeting at which time―and this is the only time that any Weathermen told me about something that someone else had done―and Bill started off telling us about the need to raise the level of the struggle and for stronger leadership inside the Weathermen ‘focals’ [i.e., cells] and inside the Weatherman organization as a whole. And he cited as one of the real problems was that someone like Bernardine Dohrn had to plan, develop and carry out the bombing of the police station in San Francisco, and he specifically named her as the person that committed that act."

Oh, but Ayers and Dohrn are just "casual acquaintances" of Obama's, and "all that stuff happened when Obama was just a kid", right?

Those particular lies have been laid to rest too many times to count.

Noteworthy:


"In 1995, they held a fundraiser for Obama, and Obama continues to defend his relationship with them despite their anti-American comments as late as 2007. Hot Air's Ed Morrissey explains why all of this is important:

'Obama and the Left want to demand an end to the probing of the years-long Obama-Ayers association as irrelevant. Never mind that Ayers has openly bragged of bombing the Pentagon. Never mind that Obama and Ayers voted to give $75,000 to Rashid Khalidi, a Yasser Arafat protege in the PLO, during their tenure with the Woods Foundation.'

The past two days, John Hinderaker posted numerous audio clips of Ayers's and Dohrn's hateful comments both past and present. Radio host Guy Benson uncovered the audio. 'These clips show that Obama's pals are as unhinged as ever, and they severely undermine Team Obama's spin that Ayers and Dohrn are now 'respectable' members of the political 'mainstream,'"

....and:

"Next, let's examine Obama's claim that his connection to Ayers and Dohrn is 'tenuous' and 'phony.' Is it phony that Obama's political coming-out party in the mid-1990s was hosted by Ayers and Dohrn? What about the panel discussions in which Ayers and Obama both took part—that were organized by Michelle Obama? Tenuous? I suppose the goodbye party for prominent Israel basher and Arafat apologist Rashid Khalidi, attended by Obama, Ayers and Dohrn, is also unworthy of discussion. That Khalidi himself hosted a fundraiser for Obama's first Congressional campaign must be completely irrelevant, too.

Then there's the pesky fact that Obama and Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund for three years—and continued to do so even after Ayers was quoted in the New York Times fondly recalling his days as a bomber, and despairing that he hadn't 'done more.' (This quote, the Obama fact sheet reminds us, comes from an interview that just happened to be published on 9/11—Ayers had made the incendiary remarks earlier. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel a lot better). The funds Obama and Ayers helped control at the Woods Foundation funneled thousands of dollars into both Khalidi's organization and the now-infamous Trinity United Church of Christ. Irrelevant, phony distractions? So what if the Obama campaign's top strategist concedes that the Senator's relationship with the terrorist is 'friendly'?"

Stay tuned, folks. I suspect there's LOTS more to come.

EXTREMELY bad news for the AGW True Believers

Not that they will ever admit that their huge scam is bogus, but the increasing evidence of things like this mean that the lies, double-talk. and the outrageous rhetoric will have to be re-structured.

Noteworthy:

"So what better way to buy time than to cloud the obvious solar connection by sacrificing their argument against a less threatening naturally occurring force? And then attributing that force to occasional periods of cooling by collectively admitting to its mitigating impact upon AGW forces? Especially when this little gambit allows them to continue reaping the benefits - for years to come - of the lie that an unchecked anthropogenic greenhouse gas effect threatens to literally destroy us all."

Fortunately, we're wise to those particular tactics that True Believers use.

Here's the REAL reason for the recent shark attacks

You get three guesses at what the cause is, and the first two guesses are just for practice.

Jonah Goldberg reports.

Time to bring back the M1

The car, not the tank.

The Dem New Deal coalition is finally history

......whether the 2008 version of the Democrats like it or not.

Here's why:

Key point:


"Unfortunately for the Democrats, the contest this year isn't just about politics and issues -- it's about identity. That won't be easy to mend. The big problem is the role for African Americans. No Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson has won the white vote. African Americans -- usually voting 90 percent Democratic -- have become the party's core constituency. The Clintons knew this in their bones. That's why the constantly kowtowed to Jesse Jackson and every other black leader -- and why they feel so bitterly betrayed now.


Yet it was only going to be so long before blacks tired of carrying water for the Democrats and asked, 'What about one of ours?'' The Obama phenomenon was inevitable. At some point there had to emerge a bright, articulate appealing African American who would step forward and say, 'Now it's our turn to run.'

The problem with Obama isn't that he's African American. It's that he's a pure product of academia -- Columbia, Harvard Law School, Hyde Park. He's never been outside that circle, never bowled (imagine that!), and didn't even realize he had insulted tens of millions of small-town Americans with his guns-and-religion remarks."


The Democrats' presidential hopes for 2008 are in big trouble.

Hillary and Obama can solve our illegal immigration problem

So thinks Don Surber.


Excerpt:

"Let me get this straight: Socialists like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton bad-mouth the American health system and yet illegal immigrants flock here to give birth in our country. But that free health system in Britain is so bad that illegal immigrants are fleeing England.

Maybe they can sell their government-run health care as a border control plan."

Getting our priorities straight

Quotes of the Day:


"Just about every generation has some horrific evil that it must fight. For the Democratic Party today that evil is carbon dioxide emissions. For the rest of us, it is an ideology that teaches that its deity is sanctified by the blood of innocents."

-- Dennis Prager



"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

-- Voltaire



"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-- John Stuart Mill



"History is not going to be kind to liberals. With their mindless programs, they've managed to do to Black Americans what slavery, Reconstruction, and rank racism found impossible: destroy their family and work ethic."

-- Walter Williams

Time for more fact checking on the purveyors of "Doom and Gloom Economics"

Somehow, we never read or hear things like this from them, do we?


Excerpt:

"As market strategist Ed Yardeni (hat tip to U.S. World and News Report) claimed, 'this profits recession is very much limited to the Financials sector and the Homebuilding industry . . . . Removing these two reveals that profits rose 15.9 percent in Q4 and around 12.0 percent during Q1. The resilience of "core'"profits and of the economy in the face of the worst credit crisis since the 1930s is impressive indeed.'

That kind of perspective is, typically, lacking in economic coverage. Take, for instance, the housing crisis. It is real. It is painful. Yet more Americans own their own homes now than ever before. Those evil corporate warlords who had the audacity to offer low-interest mortgages put millions of families that otherwise would never have been able to afford it into homes. Only a fraction risk losing their investment."

Here locally, the biggest demagogue of this meme is none other than Cone, as lately evidenced here:

"Definitely better than bad news, of which there is still plenty."

Always the negative spin......

This trend does not bode well for Obama Rama

The Obamanation better pray that this information is a statistical anomaly.

I suspect it is not.

Noteworthy:

" According to the poll, 'McCain now holds a three-point lead over Obama among women; last month, women gave Obama a 13-point margin.'"

Note the embarrassing first reply in the comments. It's proof positive yet again, as proven time after time by our experiences at places like Cone's, that you can never underestimate the intelligence of the typical libthinker.

(hat tip: Instapundit)

The myth of the "Racist Criminal Justice System"

The race baiters and those who enable such nonsense about this subject are just flat out WRONG.

Excerpts:

"The favorite culprits for high black prison rates include a biased legal system, draconian drug enforcement, and even prison itself. None of these explanations stands up to scrutiny. The black incarceration rate is overwhelmingly a function of black crime. Insisting otherwise only worsens black alienation and further defers a real solution to the black crime problem."


"Robert Grace, the Los Angeles prosecutor, is acutely aware of the fragility and preciousness of the rule of law. 'As a civilized society, we can’t allow what’s happening in Latin America to take over here,' he says.

'Venezuela and Mexico are awash in appalling violence because they don’t respect the law.' Thus, when prominent figures like Barack Obama make sweeping claims about racial unfairness in the criminal-justice system, they play with fire.

'For any political candidate to make such claims out of expediency is wrong,' Grace says. 'If they have statistics that back up the claim, I’d like to see them. But to create phony perceptions of injustice is as wrong as not doing anything about the real thing.'"

And yet locally we still bow to manipulation, abuse and jingoism from groups like the Pulpit Forum and the Simkins PAC.

WHY?

It's May Day! Time for Justice and Amnesty for All!

Here's some details.

It's crunch time for Dems/Lefties/"Progressives"

Will they heal the festering sore that threatens to consume them, or will they continue to ignore it, at the peril of their complete marginalization politically, socially, and economically?

Noteworthy:

"So it's not just Senator Obama who is stuck with Mr. Wright today. We are all stuck with a rageful Left, which really wants to destroy rather than to build. They mentally rehearse perceived injustices over and over again, and they blame this country for all the evil in the world, including AIDS in the black community. They never look at another side. Many have no honest conception of other countries, other cultures, or other points of view. They are not balanced people."

....as well we know from their work in the media and in the blahgosphere nationally and (particularly among some notorious examples) locally.