Influence Peddling

Obama secured state tax dollars for local slum lords. Those slum lords provided the financial backing for his 2004 senate run, hold senior positions within his campaign and can look forward to federal dollars should Obama become president.

The spin

Influence Peddling

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.dixon24jun24,0,7363358.story

Prosecutors are investigating whether Baltimore Mayor
Sheila Dixon received thousands of dollars in gifts - including fur coats -
from a prominent developer whose projects benefited from tax breaks and zoning
changes she supported as City Council president, a document obtained by The Sun
shows.Court records, drafted by the state prosecutor's office in November,
indicate that Dixon also went on lavish trips to Boston, the Bahamas, Chicago
and Colorado with the developer, Ronald H. Lipscomb. In one instance, the two
left Baltimore for New York by train hours after she had voted to approve a tax
break for one of his company's largest projects.

I wish I could remember that other large Midwestern city where this sort of thing is de rigeur.

Intentional?

What could go wrong?

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President
Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White
House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of
US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of
Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain,
try something else.
Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security:
“Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”
He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could
learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate
superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football
fans.

I don’t think Zen Mind, Beginners Mind is going to cut it on national security for most people.

Farrakhan Flashback

Due to the low profile he’s kept in recent years I think people forget just how evil this guy is.

Is this why Hillary is sticking around?

But
the real reason for Obama’s extraordinary freakout is that he fears the
release of the videotape, reported here, of Michelle Obama in the pulpit of
Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church railing against “whitey.” And we don’t mean
Whitey Ford. Four Republican sources have told me that the tape exists. I’ve
also been informed that Karl Rove and his allies have a copy of it and are
using it to raise funds for independent expenditure groups. The tape, I’m
told, will be disclosed as the GOP October Surprise. It’s a ticking time
bomb. And I’ve learned that a right-wing Republican billionaire has put a
$1 million bounty on the video. He doesn’t want John McCain to win, like a
number of conservatives, and thinks Obama is a pathetically weak candidate.
The billionaire wants that video released now.



New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I’ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack’s headaches are only starting.

We’ll find out tomorrow.

This is more like it!

Age-Progression Technology Indicates Missing Child A Prostitute By Now

The Onion is getting back its edge.

It's the simple things...

Less Oprah. More Military Channel Nelson.

"McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues"

Laser-guided weapons were first developed in the United States in the early 1960s. The USAF issued the first development contracts in 1964, leading to the development of the Paveway series, which was used operationally in Vietnam starting in 1968.

On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese.

I want one!

This is the coolest thing I've seen all day. I'm now seized with the desire to buy a painting by an elephant...

but we bought 5 seasons of Climate Connections...

I got a good chuckle from this story this morning on th drive in.

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.
"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant," Willis says. So the buildup of heat on Earth may be on a brief hiatus. "Global warming doesn't mean every year will be warmer than the last. And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming."

Or maybe climate models predicting a climatic apocalypse are just plain wrong.

Climate science: where Occam’s razor doesn’t apply.

Sullivan’s Latest Crush

Here’s a pretty good demonstration of Andrew Sullivan’s latest bout of intellectual inconsistency:

Remember this next time someone on the religious right says something vile. “The full record of _____’s oratory is much broader, more complicated and more nuanced than the handful of quotes from a few inflammatory sermons.”

Also, where was this guy when Fallwell blamed 9/11 on gays? “When will people accept that strongly worded condemnations of the United States are a fundamental part of our literary tradition–as they should be of any vibrant democracy?”

And then there’s this: “Because I think that the kind of politics that ensures that someone’s pastor’s rhetoric trumps every other issue in a campaign is waning.” Why, just a few days ago John McCain’s fleeting association with John Hagee was worth mentioning.

I wonder why Sullivan doesn’t understand that the full record of Hagee’s oratory is much broader, more complicated, and more nuanced than the handful of quotes from a few inflammatory sermons. When will he accept that strongly worded condemnations are a fundamental part of our literary tradition–as they should be of any vibrant democracy?
Why did Sullivan make such an uproar about Hagee, but so little uproar about Wright? Doesn’t the answer have to be about race?

How can anyone take this guy seriously when his value system seems entirely dependant on whether he likes someone or not?

strange website

(karla here, who can't remember her password)

I found this strange website.

May I suggest using all cowboy, all diarrhea.

Femocrats gone wild

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot
down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do
wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a
captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the
audience.
McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half
years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in
captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to
be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

I wonder how hot Gloria was when she worked as a Playboy bunny......

Obama's Red State Strategy

Climate Change Takes a Vacation

The last 12 months have seen the largest global temperature drop since 1875. This brief trend certainly isn’t dispositive of most AGW claims but it certainly doesn't help their argument. The most infamous Hansen Hockeystick trend (itself a product of dodgy math), presented in Inconvenient Truth, isn't much longer.

The Idiocracy Candidate

Here’s a few key parts Obama’s economic plan. If you’re poor, lazy and/or stupid, he’s your guy. (The fair trade part is so bad it's not even worth discussing).

Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures: In addition to taking important steps to prevent mortgage fraud from occurring in the future, Barack Obama will establish policies to help Americans currently facing foreclosure through no fault of their own. For instance, in communities where there are many foreclosures property values of innocent homeowners are often also negatively impacted, driving them toward foreclosure, too.Obama will create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners. The fund will also assist individuals who purchased homes that are simply too expensive for their income levels by helping to sell their homes. The fund will help offset costs of selling a home, including helping low-income borrowers get additional time and support to pay back any losses from the sale of their home and waiving certain federal, state and local income taxes that result from an individual selling their home to avoid foreclosure. These steps will ensure that individuals who have to sell their homes will be able to quickly regain stable financial footing. The fund will be partially paid for by Obama’s increased penalties on lenders who acted irresponsibly and committed fraud.

I certainly don’t think banks are innocent in this but most homeowners certainly aren’t either. Any one who thinks it’s realistic to get a $300,000 mortgage for less than $1000 a month doesn’t need a bailout they need a refresher course on reality.

Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: The tax code is supposed to encourage home ownership with a mortgage interest deduction, but it goes only to people who itemize their tax deductions. Like so much in our tax code, this tilts the scales toward the well-off. The current mortgage interest deduction excludes nearly two thirds of Americans who do not itemize their taxes. Barack Obama will ensure that anyone with a mortgage,not just the well-off, can take advantage of this tax incentive for homeownership by creating a universal mortgage credit. This 10 percent credit will benefit an additional 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year. Non-itemizers will be eligible for this refundable credit, which will provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings.

Yes, the 11.5 minutes it took us to claim our mortgage information in our tax return was a real killer. You truly are the next Jonas Salk, Obama.

Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimated in 2004 that it took more than 28 hours for an individual to complete his/her tax filing, and that half of the taxpayers filing the “easy” forms ended up paying a tax preparer to do it for them. Barack Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than 5 minutes. Currently, the IRS receives Americans’ financial information directly from employers and banks. Obama will ensure that the IRS uses this information to give taxpayers the option of a pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return to the IRS or online. This will eliminate the need for Americans to hire expensive tax preparers and to gather information that the federal government already has on file. Experts estimate that the Obama proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.

Honestly, who would think further empowering lazy, incompetent, union IRS workers to do our taxes will reduce “work and aggravation” for taxpayers?

Create Automatic Workplace Pensions: Currently, 75 million working Americans – roughly half the workforce – lack employer-based retirement plans. Even when workers are given the option of joining employer-based plans, many do not take up the option because it requires considerable work to research plans and investment portfolios, and enroll in the plan. Barack Obama’s retirement security plan will automatically
enroll workers in a workplace pension plan. Under his plan, employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan, will be required to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit IRA account that is compatible to existing direct-deposit payroll systems. Employees may opt-out by signing a written waiver. Even after enrollment, employees will retain the right to change their savings levels, reallocate investment portfolios or end contributions to the account. Obama’s plan will give options to the self-employed and new small businesses to access new easy-to-enroll savings plans and direct the IRS to deposit tax refunds into those savings plans for people who choose to save some of their refunds. Under the Obama plan when employees change jobs, their savings will be automatically rolled over into the new employer’s system to ensure continued savings. Experts estimate that this program will increase the savings participation rate for low and middle-income workers from its current 15 percent level to around 80 percent.

Not blowing your income on that new set of wave runners is hard. Choices in general are hard. Obama’s going to take those away from you so you can discover other inconveniences in your life he can promise to take away in his second term.

Obamulous

Barak Obama's interview with the Politico folks is well worth watching. Especially if you're a fan.

Black History Month

Just something I happened to stumble upon...

"'Movie People' might intermarry [but] good people, upright
people didn't do this", a remark suggesting that the college was as concerned
about its reputation as Cunningham's.

New song

Here's a song I just finished making for my mom's 60th birthday.

For those interested, there are 5 tracks total in the song:

1. Upright bass (plucking)
2. Upright bass (using a bow)
3. Banjo
4. Guitar
5. Dobro

Happy listening,

Mark