These Clowns Can't Quit

It seems some BDS-afflicted souls will never tire of the witch hunt:

Senior Democrats and watchdog groups demanded Friday that the Justice Department investigate the disappearance of e-mail messages by Bush lawyers who drafted memos blessing harsh interrogation tactics, saying their absence cast doubt on an ethics report that cleared the lawyers of professional misconduct.

The lost e-mails cover a critical period in 2002 when Justice Department attorneys labored under heavy pressure on a memo that gave the CIA a green light to use simulated drowning, sleep deprivation and other since-repudiated interrogation techniques against al-Qaeda suspects.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), at a hearing Friday, pressed authorities for answers. "Why were these critical records deleted? Why were they kept from investigators?" he asked.

Here's a hint, Pat: The missing emails are being kept in a vault between Obama's "real" birth certificate and Bush's TANG records.

Military Kept Eye on Abortionists, Racists During 2002 Utah Olympics

Sad:

The U.S. military monitored Planned Parenthood and a white supremacist group as part of the government’s security preparations for the 2002 Olympics in Utah, according to new documents released by the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Joint Forces Command liaison collected and disseminated information on U.S. citizens who were members of Planned Parenthood and the white supremacist group National Alliance regarding their involvement in protests and distributing literature, according to an intelligence-oversight report released by the Pentagon. The documents indicate that the JFC liaison was working with the FBI's Olympic Intelligence Center at the time.

That the government may have been monitoring potential threats just after 9/11 and may have danced on the edges of legality concerns critics.

And while some will question the legality of the monitoring, very few will question why supremacist groups may be on the radar as potential threats. Many of these same concerned citizens, however, seem appalled that Planned Parenthood was on the list of organizations being monitored.

While PP has never taken up arms to conduct killings, they've never need to do so. Founded by a eugenicist, they continue to target minority communities, accept donations to specifically abort minorities. Planned Parenthood, a sacred institution for many on the left, is likely responsible for more deaths in minority communities in any given year than all racial supremacist groups in U.S. history, but they insist on viewing them as benign.

There is something quite wrong with that.

We're Not Canadians, Eh?

McDonald's used crowd shots from Carolina Hurricanes games to represent Canadians in their north-of-the-border Olympics ad, "Anticipation."

What... they can't find a crowd for them otherwise?

I Thought He'd Be Greener

But how do the other Star Wars action figures feel?

In case you were wondering, this is CNN.

Keith Olbermann Has Daddy Issues

I never watch Keith Olbermann for the same reason I ignore Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly— I can't stand their drama-queen antics. But while I ignore O'Reilly and Beck for their theatrics, it is a bit harder to turn your back on Olbermann's rhetoric, especially when his frothing hatred and bigotry is on such violent display as it was last night.

Brad Wilmouth suffered through Olbermann's latest attempt to dehumanize his critics at Newbusters:

On Wednesday's Countdown show, in his latest "Special Comment," MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, after recounting some of the heartrending details of his father's current health problems, went on to slam Sarah Palin, Betsy McCaughey, and ObamaCare critics, especially those who have used the term "death panels," calling such national health care opponents by the names "subhumans," "ghouls," and "fiends." He went on to "damn" to "hell" those who use the term "death panels." Olbermann: "It's a life panel, and damn those who call it otherwise to hell!"

Actually, Mr. Olbermann, the kind of health care rationing system that you and your fellow liberals would force upon America is the equivalent of "death panel" triage, with a deadly combination of apathy and accountancy leading to appalling care.

As Barack Obama and his socialist allies in the Democratic Party engage in political theater this morning to try to revive their attempt to intrude into your family's health care decisions, I want you to turn to this dreadful cautionary tale of what Britain's attempt at socialized medicine has done to its population.

The Democrats simply cannot be taken seriously when they claim to be against torture while attempting to implement a health care rationing scheme that isn't as good as the care detainees get at Gitmo.

Patients were routinely neglected or left "sobbing and humiliated" by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.

An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs.

The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing NHS trusts being struck off.

Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses "left a lot to be desired".

This is the kind of care Keith Olbermann wants for his own father?

It sounds like somebody has daddy issues:

Biathlon: Finally Worth Watching

(h/t The Firearm Blog)

L.A. Times Can't Tell Difference Between U.S. Army, NRA

Hey, they've all got guns, right?

A caption for the photo (bizarrely placed at the end of the article) notes that the photo was taken at a memorial service for those killed at Fort Hood by Muslim Major Nidal Malik Hasan in an apparent act of jihad... which also has nothing to do with the NRA.

I Hate It When The Politico Screws Up a Story

Under the headline Exclusive: White House privately plots 2012 campaign run, Mike Allen writes:

President Barack Obama's top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.

Allen needs to get his ears checked.

I suspect that what sources have told him is that Obama's top advisors are laying the groundwork because they expect to be run out of Chicago in 2012 when Obama loses the White House after a constant string of broken promises, gaffes, and policy failures.

Reid: Out of Work Men Become Abusers

It sounds like Landra will be in for a tough December.

And They Call Themselves Scientists

Anthropogenic climate change cultists are forced to retreat again:

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

What is interesting about this particular report is that scientists don't know if see levels will rise or fall, only that the method by which they reached their conclusions are wrong. To me, that seems to sum up what is wrong with the entire anthropogenic climate change movement.

We don't know if the world is getting warmer, or colder, or even if we are looking at the right factors and variables. All we know for certain is that it has been warmer for short periods of time, and far colder for much longer periods of time, and that the sea has been both higher and lower than it is now.

In our arrogance, we assume that whatever is now is "correct" and that variations are bad, and that somehow we must be responsible.

Removing All Doubt: Obama the Socialist

His pedophile mentor Frank Marshal Davis was a radical communist. His neighbor, alleged book doctor, fellow board member and fundraiser Bill Ayers is a murderous Marxist who hoped to put tens of millions of Americans in concentration camps in the American southwest. His pastor and mentor of more than two decades is a racial separatist and socialist, as is another one of his Chicago allies, the lynching-advocate Michael Pfleger.

So I'm not the least bit surprised to find that Barack Obama has announced a health care rationing solution on par with what you would expect from a petty tyrant like Castro or Chavez.

President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation's health care system, White House officials said Sunday...

[snip]

...By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, a new element not included in either the House or Senate bills, Mr. Obama is seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California and moving to portray the Democrats' health overhaul as a way to protect Americans from profiteering insurers.

When someone as moderate and even-keeled as James Joyner lambasts the Obama plan as "much more radical" than the Congressional plan Americans already hate, you know it must be extreme.

Existing government over-regulation in California led Anthem Blue Cross to loose customers, and kept them from finding new markets to keep their rates low for existing subscribers. As a last, desperate bid to remain solvent, they were forced to raise their rates an astronomical amount. Obama won't let insurance agencies compete and lower prices through competition for your business, and instead wants them regulated until they are choked out of existence and the American people scream for relief.

A corrupt politician from a corrupt political machine, Obama's "solution" seems patterned on the protection racket you see in organized crime, squeezing companies and the American people dry as he tries to profit from a problem he and his political allies created.

Every idea he has, and every bit of legislation he supports, reinforces the fact that Barack Obama simply doesn't like America as it is, and loathes capitalism.

He has no faith in the American people or in our ingenuity, and sees only more regulation and more government power as a solution.

He is pathetic, and easily the worse American President in history. It's simply a shame we have to wait until 2012 to boot him out into the street.

Joe Stack's Daughter Calls Him a "Hero"

In case you've already forgotten the name, Joe Stack was the man who set his house on fire last week, and then suicide-crashed his small plane into a building containing IRS offices in Austin, TX, killing Stack and Vernon Hunter, an IRS employee.

Samantha Bell, Stack's daughter, considers him a hero. Sorta:

The daughter of a man who crashed his small plane into an Internal Revenue Service building called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed a tax service employee, were "inappropriate."

Joe Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen."

It sounds like someone is living in what we here at CY like to call a "community-based reality." I think it is normal for most well-adjusted people to hold a somewhat idolized view of their parents, even as they know that they are far from perfect. But when one of your parents spends the better part of his life making the same bad decision over and over again, and then decides that his bull-headedness is justification to try to murder a building full of people, it's time to shake off that idealized view, and realize that you know, Dad was a real prick.

Dennis the Peasant, an accountant by trade, didn't know Stack in person, but certainly has had his fill of the type. I have no reason to doubt Dennis' insights. Stack was a crank and tax cheat, who blamed others for his failures.

The tax code is a mess, and is in drastic need of reform. I think everyone outside of the Beltway can agree on that. But problems with the tax code—and multiple attempts to defraud it—aren't grounds for mass homicide.

And Joe Stack is anything but a hero.

Andrew Breitbart Comes Out Swinging at CPAC

Andrew Breitbart had quite the time at CPAC, getting into verbal altercations with a black racist and a serial liar face-to-face, while taking down a another ignorant ideologue at the New York Times during a speech.

As others have noted, Darlye Jenkins of One People's Project is a left wing hate blogger without any expectation of standards or morals, and so he is hardly worth confronting, any more that it is worthwhile going after Amanda Marcotte or Oliver Willis for their wheezings.

Max Blumenthal, the limousine liberal offspring who has made a career out of attempting to destroy the reputations of individuals through lies, distortions, and innuendo also found himself downrange of Andrew, and scurried out in an embarrassed huff after being caught in another lie in the span of a few minutes.

And of course, Breitbart ripped into Kate Zernicke of the Times for lying about Jason Mattera in print, implying that Mattera was a racist for using his own normal speaking voice.

It was an interesting series of vingettes, as we saw progressive journalistic politics practices by dishonest individuals, biased online magazines, and ideologically-driven "news" organizations. All were exposed for using the same sort of tactics. These confrontations expose a simple truth: there is little difference in the ethics of rabble-rousing blogs, new media, and mainstream media outlets, with the only real difference being that the larger organizations have more reach and may face economic penalties if they are caught in a lie and do not retract it in a timely manner.

Conspiratorial Crank Wins CPAC Presidential Straw Poll

Never underestimate the power of crazy people to warp the outcome of small group events.

Finally, Some Common Sense Out of Holder's Justice Department

While it is sure to cause many a lefty to wet themselves, John Yoo and Jay Bybee have been cleared of any wrong-doing in their post 9/11 work providing legal advice on enhanced interrogation techniques. It's refreshing to see that even a Justice Department as corrupt and biased as this one hasn't been able to criminalize honestly argued opinion, even though they certainly tried.

Jennifer Rubin, who has followed this fare more closely that I, dissects the decision, and makes the case that if Holder really wants to prosecute those in Justice who have done wrong, he should start by investigating his own people.

Obama Appoints Nine Terrorist Lawyers to Justice

You've got to be kidding me.

If Byron York is correct, the CIA needs to start flying Reapers over Eric Holder's terrorist advocate-filled Justice Department:

Attorney General Eric Holder says nine Obama appointees in the Justice Department have represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department. But he does not reveal any names beyond the two officials whose work has already been publicly reported. And all the lawyers, according to Holder, are eligible to work on general detainee matters, even if there are specific parts of some cases they cannot be involved in.

At least nine Obama-appointed terrorist lawyers work in the very department that is supposed to be trying to put them away behind bars. This strikes me as a conflict of interest whether or not these appointees recuse themselves from cases involving their (hopefully former) clients.

Honestly, what the hell is wrong with these people?

Prayers for Dan

Dan Collins of POWIP has been admitted to the hospital. Please keep him in your prayers.

Eww

Uh, Tiger?

Love your mother, don't love your mother.

More therapy is exactly what you need.

Is Think Progress Capable of Publishing the Truth?

I'm a blogger, and have always worn my political views on my sleeve, and that seems to be the case for most political bloggers, right or left. We see the world through a certain point of view, and react to that news as we interpret it. I often disagree with how my peers on the left and right view things, but I can at least understand that their view—how ever much I disagree with it or view it to be distorted—is an honest one.

I can't say the same, however, about Media Matters or Think Progress, who like their nutty contemporaries at World Net Daily, seem intent on twisting even the most innocuous, innocent statement into something approaching an outright misrepresentation or lie. For a pair of sites that revel in painting their opposition as monsters in love with waterboarding, they seem far too comfortable with torturing reality.

Max Bergmanns' latest distortion targeting new Senator Scott Brown is a perfect example of the kind of willful deception that regularly oozes from , and Professor William Jacobson dissects the distortions with a surgeon's precision.

I almost feel sorry for them, individuals so wedded to an intellectually bankrupt ideology that they've given up all decency, integrity and honor in order to viciously cycle lies for a living. Anything to be relevant, I suppose. Even if that relevance is based upon habitual deception.

Bishop Defense: Elitist Entitlement Syndrome

Like we didn't all see this coming:

Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia. Miller discussed the case hours after hundreds of mourners attended the first funeral and memorial services for Bishop's slain co-workers.

Authorities said three more people were hurt when Bishop pulled out a handgun and started shooting during the routine meeting with colleagues last Friday. Charged with capital murder and attempted murder, she is being held without bond.

Miller said Bishop's failure to obtain tenure at the University of Alabama in Huntsville was likely a key to the shootings. Bishop, who has a doctorate from Harvard University and has taught at the University of Alabama in Huntsville since 2003, apparently was incensed that a lesser-known school rejected her for what amounted to a lifetime job.

"Obviously she was very distraught and concerned over that tenure," Miller said. "It insulted her and slapped her in the face, and it's probably tied in with the Harvard mentality. She brooded and brooded and brooded over it, and then, 'bingo.'"

So Bishop's defense is going to claim paranoid schizophrenia, even as it admits that the real trigger wasn't mental illness, but the arrogance and sense of entitlement Bishop acquired along with her Harvard degree.

It's the "I'm better than you" defense.

I somehow doubt that is going to win her freedom.

How Do They Define Terrorism?

When Timothy McVeigh used a truck bomb to target the Alfred P. Murruh Federal building, the world swiftly and correctly identified the crime as a case of domestic terrorism.

Even after an online manifesto revealed the pilot's motives for driving a small plane into a building housing IRS offices, the White House is refusing to call the suicide crash an act of terrorism.

Other than scale, what makes Joe Stack's assault on a federal building any less a terrorist act than Timothy McVeigh's?

Domestic Terror, or Criminal Insanity?

Joseph Andrew Stack, an apparently out of work engineer and conspiratorial anti-government crank, burned down his house today before taking off in a small plane and crashing it into a building in Austin, Texas, apparently in a bid to wipe out an IRS office:

Officials are investigating whether a small plane that crashed into an office building in Austin, Texas, Thursday morning was an intentional act, an NTSB official told Fox News.

An NTSB spokesman, however, told FoxNews.com that "we can't confirm any of that."

Authorities said they have identified the pilot as Joseph Andrew Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer who lived in Texas.

The small single-engine plane crashed into a seven-story office building in Austin around 10 a.m. local time Thursday.

Stack left behind an rambling rant on the web site http://embeddedart.com/, reproduced in full below:

Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man... take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, "Why did this have to happen?" The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn't enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was "no taxation without representation". I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a "crackpot", traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven't had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don't see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political "representatives" (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the "terrible health care problem". It's clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don't get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly "holds accountable" its victims, claiming that they're responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law "requires" a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not "duress" than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early '80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having 'tax code' readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful "exemptions" that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the "best", high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the "big boys" were doing (except that we weren't steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two "interpretations" for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their "freedom"… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of "paying my dues"), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I'm sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be "healthier" eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn't quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn't trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early '80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a 'wet-behind-the-ears' contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· "another person" is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· "taxpayer" is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· "individual", "employee", or "worker" is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it's not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can't believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my 'pocket change', and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their "freedom". Oh, and don't forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren't going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to "shore up" their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, 'special' facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I'm thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I'll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I've never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn't give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn't have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn't notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I'd never enter another accountant's office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl's unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn't have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the "great" depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn't it ironic how far we've come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn't have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s "business-as-usual". Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn't that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn't limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at "big brother" while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won't continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

You'll note the last written words of Stack's life were an apparent praise of communism and concurrent attack on capitalism, which followed an attack on the previous administration, which he singled out as "recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies."

I don't think enough definitive evidence points to this being an attack motivated by left wing politics, but Stack was certainly no fan of capitalism.

Update: Stephen Spruill makes a nice catch that I'd missed, when he notes that among the many things Stack was angry about was the Democrat's failure to pass government health care:

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it's time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country's leaders don't see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political "representatives" (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the "terrible health care problem". It's clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don't get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

Despite that, I'm leaning toward the conclusion that Stack's motivations were intensely and almost entirely personal, and that the various anti-government statements he issued were designed to give himself cover for his own failures.

Run Away! UN Climate Change Chief Bails for Private Sector

At least he seems to be able to see the writing on the wall:

Yvo de Boer, the United Nation's top climate official, announced Thursday that he would step down from his post in July to work in the private sector on environmental sustainability.

De Boer has overseen international climate talks for nearly four years, laboring without success to produce a legally binding pact to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

His departure comes amidst uncertainty as to whether the 193 member nations of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change can produce a final treaty in Mexico in December.

"Working with my colleagues . . . in support of the climate change negotiations has been a tremendous experience", De Boer said in a statement. " . . . But I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge."

The "new challenge" is apparently to retain his credibility and ability to make money on "green" causes... which seems to be the primary driver behind many anthropogenic climate change fantasists.

Much Ado About Nothing

HuffPo writer Sam Stein is having a hissy fit because an unidentified speaker at a Washington state Tea Party meeting engaged in a bit of flippant hyperbole, stating that she wanted to treat Senator Patty Murray like the character Jake from Lonesome Dove, and have her hung for running with the wrong crowd.

Was the speaker really calling for a lynching? No honest person can watch this video clip and come away feeling that this woman was actually advocating Murray to be hung. It was obvious hyperbole, and a bit of political theater... nothing more.

Could Stein have argued that this exercise of free speech was over the top, without casting it as a death threat? Certainly.

But that wouldn't mesh with his goal of trying to smear all Tea Party activists for the words of one speaker.

Duke Lacrosse Stripper Jailed

It would have been really difficult for her to do this if she had been in jail for trying to frame the Duke lacrosse team for rape:

Durham police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend and set his clothes on fire in a bathtub.

Authorities charged her with five counts of arson, simple assault, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer and three counts of child endangerment.

It is believed one of her children called 9/11.

You stay classy, Crystal.

The Hundred Jobs Challenge

Barack Obama is attempting to claim that his $787 billion pork-laden stimulus is a success.

Many critics consider it a costly waste.

So here is a simple challenge to President Obama.

Please provide America with a list of one hundred different permanent full-time private sector jobs that can directly attributed to specific provisions of the stimulus.

You claim that the stimulus will create 1.5 million jobs, and that it has "saved or created" 2 million more, so documenting just 100 should be fairly simply, shouldn't it?

Biden Blames Our System of Government For Failures of Liberal Ideology

Our government is the oldest continuously functioning in the world. Since the United States has been founded, France has gone through five Republics, Russia evolved from monarchy to communist state to its current iteration, and and every other nation on earth has watched it's form of government die, transform,or be reborn.

But according to Joe Biden, our form of government is broken:

In an interview with CBS "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith, Biden was blunt about the nation's political system. "Washington, right now, is broken."

Having served in the Senate for more than 30 years, Biden has seen a fair share of gridlock in Congress, but the current version is the worst ever, he said.

"I don't ever recall a time in my career where to get anything done, you needed a supermajority, 60 out of 100 senators. You can block anything with 60 (votes).

"I've never seen it this dysfunctional," he said.

Biden is merely echoing a new talking point that liberal Democrats have issued in an attempt to explain away their failure to ram through unpopular legislation. According to the meme, it is the fault of our system of government that our socialist President and progressive Senate and House leaders have been unable to push through an economy-crippling cap-and-trade bill, a disasterous health care rationing bill, and a second costly, pork-laden attempt at stimulus.

Democrats, trapped in a community-based reality, simply refuse to acknowledge the fact that the same failed radical leftist policies that they have attempted to ram through multiple times in the past fifty years. They are part of a bankrupt ideology that has never worked, no matter how many times it has been tried.

But instead of admitting their own failures, Democrats arrogantly insisted these failures are the fault of the American people, or a problem of communication. They cannot admit that they belong to an intellectually stagnant movement devoid of new ideas.

It is no wonder that they stand on the threshold of squandering their attempt to lead yet again.

Another Day, Another Obama Tie to Terrorism

Yeah, that's hyperbole... I don't think that Dear Leader would openly consort with a new terrorist every single day, and frankly, don't think Osama bin Laden could make that claim these days.

Even so, Rashad Hussain is at least the fourth or fifth terrorist or terrorist sympathizer that the President has had far too close for comfort:

President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs quoted Hussain in 2004 as calling Sami al-Arian the victim of "politically motivated persecutions" after al-Arian, a university professor, was charged in 2003 with heading U.S. operations of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The United States has designated the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a foreign terrorist group as far back as 1997. At the time of al-Arian's arrest, then Attorney General John Ashcroft called it "one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world."

Al-Arian pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Hussain may not actually meet the lower threshold of being "close" to the President, especially when compared to terrorists with which Barack Obama has directly spent time such as Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, or PLO sympathizer Rashid Khalidi, but the President is long past the point where he deserves the benefit of a doubt.

Family: Bishop Obsessed with Obama

Yes we cantankerous:

A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was "obsessed" with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

This familial admission of her politics buttresses claims made by students, one of which claimed "she is a socalist but she only talks about it after class." Another student wrote that Bishop, "She's a liberal from 'Hahvahd' and let's you know exactly how she feels about particular subjects."

A liberal college professor who wore her politics on her sleeve and who was unable to deal with reality? Surely, you can't be serious.

Confederate Yankee Now On Kindle

Lookie here.

I have to confess that I don't yet have a Kindle, but it is on my tech toy list along with a netbook for my wife and an external hard drive.

Tea Party of Nevada: Real Third Party, or False Flag?

I've seen several articles today and have read some comments about the formation of the Tea Party of Nevada and their intention to run an unknown against struggling Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

As others have noted, there isn't a great deal of information online about the group or its principles... but there is enough to start wondering whether the group is remotely serious, or just a bunch of cutups.

You need look not further than Barry Levinson to know that the group is a farce. Levinson, former attorney for John Wayne Bobbitt is the Secretary of the organization, and holds a seemingly bizarre pedigree for a Tea Party patriot. According to his own blog, Levinson is a disgruntled Obama supporter:

America is falling apart and we are watching it crumble. Obama is just another politician and not the savor we all thought. His idea of CHANGE is a band aid. Maybe, Americans need to rethink the way our government is run.

He's also a Bush-hating conspiracy theorist:

I was thinking that if Osama bin Laden was captured early on or killed early in 2002 then, Bush's policies would have come to a halt.

Bush's administration lied to the public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). How can we trust anything else they said? Maybe, the government is keeping his capture or death a secret?

Why?, in order to further the patriot act; other agendas; spy on US citizens and to create a cloud of fear and distrust. Since, the bombing of Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden has not personally claimed any other acts of terror. Why?

Now, I'm certain that there are a representative sample of disgruntled Obama fans among tea party attendees and certain there are conspiracy theorists, but I've not heard of many that were pro-Obama tea party supporters spouting radical left wing "Bush lied, people died" conspiracies.

There is also a Larry Lathum[sic?] listed in the filing. There is a Larry Latham in Las Vegas with a conspiratorial mindset to match Levinson's. Is he the At-Large Executive Committee member that runs this web site and rabid supporter of Zeitgeist: The Movie, a veritable cornucopia of conspiracy theories including 9/11 trutherism and allusions to a shadowy network of "international bankers" running the world? I'm not sure... but he fits the conspiratorial profile Levinson mirrors, so it seems possible, if not probable.

Others listed among the officers are more difficult to pin down online, but I'm going with a preliminary conclusion that if this group isn't a false flag operation designed to split the opposition to Harry Reid and mock the tea party movement, then it is a sad, silly example of why third party runs are doomed to failure.

"Settled Science" Collapses Again

Another key component of the UN report on anthropogenic climate change collapses:

Ever more question marks have been raised in recent weeks over the reputations of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and of its chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri. But the latest example to emerge is arguably the most bizarre and scandalous of all. It centres on a very specific scare story which was included in the IPCC's 2007 report, although it was completely at odds with the scientific evidence – including that produced by the British expert in charge of the relevant section of the report. Even more tellingly, however, this particular claim has repeatedly been championed by Dr Pachauri himself.

Only last week Dr Pachauri was specifically denying that the appearance of this claim in two IPCC reports, including one of which he was the editor, was an error. Yet it has now come to light that the IPCC, ignoring the evidence of its own experts, deliberately published the claim for propaganda purposes.

All the scientific community has proven about anthropogenic climate change is that they are willing to manipulate data, hide facts, and sabotage their peers in order to claim it exists. They want and need it to exist, because the fear they are selling had funneled vast amounts of money, power, and prestige to this formerly obscure branch of science.

In this instance the data supporting the claim had no merit, and had been provided by an advocacy group, who had hired an academic who derived income from carbon trading in a clear conflict of interest.

Scientists and officials in the climate change community need to be investigated for racketeering. Considering the economic damage they have attempted to cause, there may be good reason to investigate them for other crimes as well... perhaps as extreme as economic terrorism or treason. I'm not a prosecutor, and don't pretend to know which charges should be applied to the politicians and thieves at the heart of this grand deception.

Considering the magnitude of the deception and the lives impacted, however, it would seem capital punishment should not be out of the question for those most directly involved in the conspiracy.

Did Congressman Delahunt Play Role In Cover-Up of Professor/Murderer Amy Bishop's First Killing?

Amy Bishop is facing three counts of first-degree murder for killing three and wounding three others during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Friday, and news broke yesterday that Bishop had shot her own brother to death in 1986. There are conflicting accounts of her brother's death, including a version where she seems attempted to carjack someone and escape the scene before being disarmed by police at gunpoint. There are also hints that Bishop was released and the death classified as an accident as part of a cover-up.

This is relevant to the future of Congressman William Delahunt (D-MA), the district attorney at the time Bishop killed her brother, who is considering whether or he will run for reelection or retire.

If Delahunt's name comes up too often in relation to the Seth Bishop case and there are even hints that he may have played a significantly suspect role in the decision not to charge Amy Bishop the first time she took a life, then retirement would seem to be the only logical decision.

Update: Good Grief. Bishop and her husband were suspects in a 1993 bombing as well?

The Anthropogenic Climate Change Lie Collapses Ever Faster; Why Don't We See Prosecutions?

I have some very simple questions: When will politicians, businessmen, and scientists active in anthropogenic climate change fraud be brought up on racketeering charges and imprisoned for attempting to steal siphon off trillions of dollars in what would have been the most expensive criminal conspiracy in human history?

Will any nation admit that the "solutions" being offered by this fraud, which would have radically damaged the economies of almost the entire developed world, constitutes treason?

These are legitimate questions, but don't look for serious investigations or prosecutions. Too many people in high elected and appointed offices—including our own President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Congressmen and Senators were either stooges buying an ideologically-convenient position that would only show their ignorance or complicity.

And the complicity is mounting.

Phil Jones, the embattled scientist that led East Anglia's Climate Research Unit prior to "Climategate," has now admitted that the world's temperate has not increased in the past 15 years, and that mankind may have no role in climate change.

Other scientists agree with Jones' admission, even as the so-called "settled science" continues to implode.

Climate change fanatics have now been exposed as rubes for the second time in the past 40 years (the global cooling freaks were out during my youth). Their arrogance, however, will never let them admit they were wrong, and you will never see Eric Holder or his boss in the White House push to prosecute their fellow believers.

Professor Bishop's Reviews From Students Very Mixed, Edited Post-Shooting

Amy Bishop, the professor that killed three of University of Alabama-Huntsville biology faculty members and wounded three others after being denied tenure, had very mixed reviews on her teaching abilities, according to the Web site ratemyprofessor.com.

While no students doubted her knowledge of the subject matter, a significant number of them accused Bishop of being an incompetent educator, unable to relate the subject matter to her students in a way that they could understand.

In addition, several made references to political comments Bishop made, including one who said "she is a socalist but she only talks about it after class." Another student wrote that Bishop, " She's a liberal from 'Hahvahd' and let's you know exactly how she feels about particular subjects."

The later user's comment had mysteriously been removed from Bishop's profile on www.ratemyprofessors.com/ by Saturday morning, the day after the shooting, after being referenced on multiple web sites and blogs.

Guy Who Likes Palin Arrested For weapons Violations

It's a damn good thing they got this potential terrorist now, before he did something really dangerous, like try to bomb a dance, or host a fundraiser.

Professor Snaps, Kills Faculty When Denied Tenure

Amy Bishop Credit: Bob Gathany / The Huntsville Times

Authorities said a female faculty member during a Biology faculty meeting learned she would not receive tenure. She then pulled out a gun and started shooting.

Tenure in this case refers to a senior academic's contractual right not to have their position terminated without just cause.

Police also have the alleged shooter's husband in custody. He has not been formally charged with anything.

UA-Huntsville spokesman Ray Garner confirmed three people were shot and killed.

What sickens me the most is that according to the story, the Harvard-educated shooter, Amy Bishop, obviously suspected that she was going to be denied tenure, and brought the gun into the meeting to kill those peers who told her she wasn't as good as she thought. Pathetic.

Even if it is found that she ended up leaving and returning with a gun, would that make her killings any less premeditated?

2/14 Update: Turns out Bishop was told she wasn't getting tenure last spring, and she sat quietly in the faculty meeting for a least a half-hour before pulling a 9mm pistol and gunning down her peers.

Research Bleg for a Student

Good morning, bloggers and blog readers... have I got an assignment for you.

Last night a student contacted me because she is working on a paper for a class, and she needs our help:

Unfortunately my instructor is very strict and in my opinion attempting to push her political views on the class. Unfortunately for me, I have never been a conformist and I feel I am being set up to fail. My assigned topic was The Media and the Military. My stance is the media (American) does not support the troops as much as they should. (I have articles where journalists admit what they are allowed to write about and not, and most of it shows that the military's positive actions are shoved to the back burner while bad news about the wars are headlines.)

...

I completely understand that the in your face lying is not out there and that the rhetoric used by the mass news media is sneaky and takes someone with linguistic ability to differentiate. You mentioned "plausibly 'accidental' smears or misreporting." This is what I am interested in. I have read the reports on the laws saying that you need to prove it was reported falsely intentionally. (I think that's a crock!) This is how Newsweek got away with it's misreporting of the specific torture events in 2005. Do you know of any other stories like this?

Here's the problem: the instructor won't let her use blogs as a source, thereby forcing her to rely on the media to report when they lie.

If you can think of examples where the mainstream media, academics, or other acceptable sources have documented examples of their brethren lying about the U.S. military, please leave them (with links) in the comments.

Empty Symbol Of Camelot Retires

Rep. Patrick Kennedy—like most Kennedys, better known for his name and substance abuse than any real achievements—is retiring his seat after eight terms. His desire to do something else was no doubt due in part to the fact that polls indicated that the possibility of him being reelected was very slim, especially in a climate that saw his famous father replaced by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

His retirement will leave the Congress Kennedy-free for the first time since 1962.

Goosed

Are they Really This Dim?

Just as a people-watcher, reading the blogosphere's responses to David Broder's op-ed about Sarah Palin is fascinating.

I haven't read what Broder has to say, finding it far more interesting to watch as left-leaning bloggers find new and creative ways to both insult Sarah Palin and the significant number of Americans that do not like how this country is presently being run.

Do they think their inability to mask an abiding contempt for their fellow Americans is really going to help their part remain in power?

Michelle Obama Channels John Kerry; Accidentally Describes Barack's Presidency

Only a select few individuals have the ability to contradict themselves in the length of a sentence. Former Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry was endlessly pilloried for his variation "I was before it before I was against it," and rest assured if Sarah Palin utters such a blunder we'll be hearing it blared on every cable news channel for weeks.

And yet this gaffe goes unremarked on:

"I think my husband has done a phenomenal job staying on course, looking his critics in the eye, coming up with clear solutions against staying the course," Michelle Obama told Robin Roberts in an exclusive morning television interview on "Good Morning America."

So according to Michelle, Barack has done a great job of staying the course, even as he come up with clear solutions no to do so.

Actually, that may not be a contradiction. That may simply be an accurate reflection of his policies.

Ripping Birtherism in the Media

The birthers remind me of the freaks who occasionally show up in court with long diatribes about how the Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Trilateral Commission, is acting unconstitutionally under their idiosyncratic view of the 16th Amendment, which all boils down to meaning that they don’t have to pay taxes. Oh, and the gold fringe on the flag in the courtroom makes it a flag of admiralty, meaning the court has no jurisdiction over them. The judge usually nods, and the deputies haul the "sovereign citizen" off to jail. And I laugh.

Kurt Schlichter at Big Journalism is dead-on accurate.

The handful of Birthers in fringe media outlets undermine and dilute legitimate criticism of the Obama Administration, and those outlets that aspire to keep the fever-dream alive should be marginalized and then ignored.

Love him or hate him, Barack Obama was duly elected by a solid majority of our fellow citizens. You can't revise that history, but you can take on his policies and head on... and those who insist on muddying the waters as they indulge conspiratorial fantasies should be ashamed of their obstructionism, if nothing else.

NPR Drone Hopeful That Bush Billboard is Ironic

I find his attempt at deflection amusing:

At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.

The message he is referring to is a billboard along the side of I-35 that contains the photo of a smiling George W. Bush and the simple question, "Miss me yet?"

The message is long-running internet meme against the perceived incompetencies of Barack Obama's administration, with variations of the saying with the same image of Bush being very simple to find online. Several minutes of Internet research would have should that this message is firmly directed against the Obama Administration.

Apparently, due diligence isn't to be performed if it obstructs your goal of muddying the waters in favor of "your guy."

Murtha Dead

It's a shame. I was hoping he'd last long enough to at least get indicted, and apologize to those Marines he smeared.

From the comments: "I wonder if Obama will speak of his time as a member of the Marine Corpse"

Update: ABSCAM Jack.

Selling Fear and Politics

Because she could not recite the alphabet, Joshua Tabor shoved his daughter face-down into a bowl of water. When authorities came for her, she was found cowering in a closet, covered in scratches and bruises.

Joshua Tabor is mentally ill and an unfit father. No sane person disputes that.

The UK Daily Mail, however, sensationalizes the brutality with the headline "U.S. soldier 'waterboarded his own daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet.'"

Tabor's sadistic act—as described by the Daily Mail itself—isn't waterboarding or remotely similar to it. Tabor's act of brutality was drowning. Waterboarding, as brutal as it is, only simulates drowning, and is done by professionals in controlled conditions. Tabor could have very easily killed his daughter.

By purposefully mis-characterizing Tabor's brutal act, the Daily Mail both minimized the life-threatening abuse of his daughter and simultaneously made an (as yet) unfounded correlation between his being a soldier and his suffering some sort of post-combat mental condition, when they did not know at press time if he was ever deployed.

It is cheap political grandstanding from a newspaper that has the obvious goal of warning UK readers that if their soldiers continue to fight in Afghanistan, their children could be next.

The Daily Mail should be ashamed of themselves, but they would have to be capable of feeling shame first.

A U.S.-based version of the story provides both more facts, and less editorializing.

The Night The TEA Party Ended

I think he's on to something.

Gotta Love That Vaunted Harvard Education

There's a world of difference between a corpsman and a corpse-man.

For most people.

I Guess They Don't Throw Fruit Anymore

DC Caller's Jim Treacher was injured in a hit-and-run yesterday:

I was more than halfway there when a black SUV made an illegal left turn and hit me head-on. I absolutely had the right of way. I yelled something like, "Are you really doing this?" as it hit me before I could move. I landed on my face on the street and smashed my glasses and scraped my hand and immediately I knew something was wrong with my left knee. I lay there screaming and cursing for I don't know how long, and a crowd of people gathered and told me to hold still.

Treacher's knee was broken. Pretty rough criticism, if you ask me.

According to witnesses, the vehicle that made the illegal left turn, ran Treacher down, and then sped away without stopping, belonged to the Secret Service (update: State Department security?).

Watch out, Jon Stewart.

Apology Unacceptable

As I noted yesterday, Tim Shriver of the Special Olympics simply isn't in a position to accept Rahm Emanuel's apology for calling the netroots "f—ing retarded."

Thanks to Allahpundit, I now know that Shriver gets this, even Emanuel isn't bright enough to figure it out on his own, and apologized again.

He's... uh...

Nevermind.

Mixed Messages

So I've noted the approving left-wing applauding of Admiral Mullen's stand on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," allowing gays to open serve in the military. For the record, Mullen's thoughts on the matter more eloquently reflect my own general belief that we should thank and applaud anyone willing to serve in our nation's military.

But have you noticed that many of the same characters that applaud the possible end of DADT are those who have stood solidly against our servicemen being used in actual wars?

Somehow, I doubt their motives.

"You Lie! " Government May Lose 824,000 Jobs In Revision

The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.

Drudge cites this Bloomberg claim and claims that the government's original data had been purposefully manipulated to show things were better than what they really were.

Really? The same people who encouraged climate change scientists to exaggerate data for their political benefit would do the same with economic data? I'm shocked.

Rough Audit? Probably Not.

Over at the John Locke Foundation's Right Angles blog, Jon Ham asks what I think about the Internal Revenue Service's intended purchase of 60 shotguns:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

The firearm in question does not seem to exist on Remington's Law Enforcement web site (at least by that model number), but the specs sound somewhat similar to a variation of the Wilson Combat/Scattergun Technologies Border Patrol Model.

I don't think there is any reason to worry about rank and file IRS agents showing up at your door with these shotguns. Instead, they seem like they would likely be used by the Criminal Investigation agents that focus on "Illegal Source Financial Crimes; and Narcotics Related and Counterterrorism Financial Crimes." They would presumably be raiding terrorist cells, drug cartels, and organized crime, er, organizations that participate in money laundering, tax evasion, and other socially unacceptable behavior under their jurisdiction who tend to go heavily armed.

But I'd still be nice to all IRS agents, just in case.

A Trumped-Up Appeal to Authority

Ben Smith notes that Sarah Palin wants Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel fired for calling progressive critics "F—ing retarded" at a weekly strategy session.

Emanuel seems to think he's absolved of the insensitivity of his comment because he called Tim Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics, to apologize.

I'm sure Shriver was gracious in taking Emanuel's call, but who elected Shriver to a position where he has the authority to absolve Emanuel for his insult?

I find the White House's attempt to dismiss this juvenile outburst with a faux-sincere call far more insulting than the initial offense. It asserts that Shriver is somehow a spokesman for an entire slice of the American population, and that his acceptance should nullify the anger of families and caregivers upset over his choice of words.

The Obama Administration has the ability to make bland speeches and write economy-crippling budgets, but it does not have the power to pass out absolute moral authority to individuals they intend to use as props.

2/4 Update: Heh. One of the rocket scientists at left-wing snark blog Sadly, No has shrieked "Ah-hah!" because he discovered that if you Google this site for the word "retarded," you get 80 hits.

Oh, the hypocrisy!

Of course, if you actually look at the the search she ran, you'll see that the vast majority of the hits were from comments people left on the blog—and the majority of those came from liberals.

I didn't bother to read all the results, but scanning over them, it appears that the only times I used the word was to use the verb form to denote something or someone with slowed mental acuity or growth, such as this example that they cited (and of course truncated):

I've long thought that the mental acuity of the average leftist was highly retarded by a wall of anti-Bush agi-prop (hence the tagline, "liberalism is a persistent vegetative state"), but even still, I was blown away by the blatant paranoia, open delusions, and thinly-veiled hatred of American soldiers manifested on liberal blog Talk Left, regarding the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The only other time I've used the term that I can find was when I criticized one of the local news media outlets for using the verb version in a way I thought was somewhat insensitive.

In essence, Sadly No! based an entire blog entry on the facts that:

• they lack the reading comprehension to understand my problem with Rahm Emanuel wasn't so much his use of the term "retarded," but how he sought to cover himself politically with an appeal to authority
• they are either too lazy to differentiate bloggers from blog commenters, or are too dim to understand the difference, and
• they can't can't tell a noun from a verb.

I don't expect much from the formulaic schtick writing of Sadly, No, but this is a sad effort, even for them.

Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Six More Weeks of Climate Change Fraud

Every day it seems a new revelation comes to light about how climate change advocates doctored research, tweaked models, excluded objective results that subverted their predetermined conclusions, or otherwise corrupted the scientific process in a heavily-politicized push for control over the smallest aspects of our lives in the name of saving the planet.

Even the loudest of global warming proponents are now calling for top global warming researchers to resign in disgrace.

How much longer can climate change cultists hang on to their fantasy that reputable science proves the existence of anthropogenic climate change?

Top Prosecutor in Landrieu Phone Incident Steps Down

This probably isn't close to being what it seems:

A Justice Department news release said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, recused himself from the case a day after the Jan. 25 arrests in Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. Letten's top lieutenant, assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, has taken over.

The news release didn't say why Letten removed himself, and his spokeswoman Anna Christman said she couldn't comment.

One of the suspects is the son of Letten's Shreveport-based counterpart.

Earlier Monday, the man who first published James O'Keefe's explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to the filmmaker's defense, claiming he "sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney" while the prosecutor made his case to the media.

O'Keefe was "framed" by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News.

Click here to read the affidavit.

"James O'Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as 'Watergate Junior,'" Breitbart said.

While the timing of the announcement of Letten's pulling himself of the case seemed suspicious because of Brietbart's claims of a set-up, the simple fact of the matter is that Letten recused himself more a week ago, on Jan. 26, with the most obvious reason being that one of men arrested with O'Keefe is the son of a colleague.

That being said, I would not be surprised at all if Eric Holder's Selective Justice Department is going to do all it can to discredit and smear O'Keefe considering the damage he did to ACORN, and if O'Keefe really did go 28 hours with an attorney and the Justice Department did leak information designed to smear these young men, then we could very well see a situation develop where the charges against O'Keefe and his fellow defendants simply go away.

While letting O'Keefe off would bring howls of protest from progressives still out for blood over ACORN's exposure as a bunch of thugs who willingly enable child sex slavery, avoiding an investigation into improprieties in Justice would be far more important to Holder, Obama, and the "Chicago Way" of politics if there is any truth in Breitbart's claims.

Can Nan

There simply isn't a clearer example of abuse of power in our current Congress, as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi abuses her power to commandeer military aircraft for use as private jets for her children.

Pelosi should step down immediately as Speaker. If Democrats have any integrity at all, they'd push for her to resign from office entirely and support an inquiry into whether she should face criminal charges.

Call Him Jack

Since he's a bower.

AP Photo/Edmund Fountain, Pool

The Mayor of Tampa Pam Iorio looks more Presidential than Barack Obama. Then again, she has far more leadership experience and actually likes those she works for, so maybe that has something to do with her having the gravitas Obama so obviously lacks.

Someone please try to beat some protocol into our moron President's brain. He's an embarassment to himself, and to the Office he temporarily holds.

Group Obama Was a Director of Calls to Reinstitute Black Codes

If a conservative think tank called for the civl rights and liberties of the black community to be removed because they could not exercise them responsibly, then every news outlet in the country would cry out in anger.

So why does a left-wing special interest get away with the exact same thing?

One can only hope that Josh Sugarman, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, is completely ignorant of the many mob actions and the thousands of deaths that resulted from laws that stripped African-Americans of their rights and liberties. Considering his long-running and strident anti-gun advocacy, it seems likely that Sugarman and the organization are well aware of history but made a political calculation in asking that African-Americans be disarmed.

Barack Obama is a former director of the Joyce Foundation, one of the groups that funded the so-called research. I'd love to see someone in the White House Press Corps asked Robert Gibbs what the Administration's view is of the report.