The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

And Now, Zappa

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Insty links NBC Washington:

Cocaine use in the District was also high. The survey says that while D.C. residents age 17 and under reported some of the lowest cocaine use in the country, District adults were among the top coke users in the United States, with 3.78 percent of residents saying they had used over a one year period.

I’m not trying to imply any correlation between the amount of blow in play and the non-approach to integrity, economics, leadership, sense, planning, decency, &c evidenced by our Ruling Class Overlords.
Not me.

Category: Uncategorized

Pelosi to Dems: ‘Vote Your Conscience’

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 11 Comments

But Nancy, if they had a conscience, they wouldn’t be Democrats!

OK, beyond the cheap snark, here’s a EuroNews video report, which you may enjoy merely for the narrator’s accent:

Notice that even this lady with the weird foreign accent blames it all on “Republican right-wing Tea Party supporters.” And via Memeorandum and Breitbart, here’s Norah O’Donnell bitching and moaning:

Permit me to suggest that anything that makes Norah whine like a baby is, at some level, a victory. Tina Korbe has a pretty good roundup of the latest at Hot Air.


Category: Budget, Nancy Pelosi

Democrats? Cynical? You Don’t Say!

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 10 Comments

“You can blame the whole mess on cynical Democrats like Harry Reid, who could have raised the debt ceiling while in control of Congress last year. But they simply didn’t want to, preferring to play politics with the nation’s finances instead.”
— The Rhetorican, “A debt deal has been reached”

Category: Budget, Democrats, Harry Reid

An Obama Lexicon

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 8 Comments

For those who are not yet fluent in Obama-ese:

  • compromise – (1) verb – [when applied to Republicans] to surrender; (2) verb – [when applied to Democrats] to pretend to negotiate
  • lead – verb – to provide a plan
  • plan – (1) noun – teleprompted platitudes unencumbered by specific goals or means of execution; (2) noun – specific goals and means of execution developed by Republicans and rejected by Democrats
  • tax – noun – job creating mechanism …
  • job – noun – an activity intended to produce tax revenue
  • millionaire – noun – citizen with a non-union private sector job …
  • hate – verb – disagree …

Russ Emerson’s Obama vocabulary list also helps you understand many otherwise confusing idioms:

  • let – verb – watch
  • clear – adjective – equivocal

Thus, “let me be clear“ means “watch me be equivocal.”

Category: Barack Obama, Russ Emerson

Krugman, STFU!

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

Sitting There Feeling Useless sits Paul Krugman, unable to grasp that the American people aren’t buying his swill.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further.

Can you not grasp reality, man? Government Spending Triggers Fiscal Undertows.
Only somebody with the mentality of an insect would lack the wisdom to see that, beyond a certain early point (long ago passed in our case) the governmental cast on the economic limb with the fracture* causes atrophy of the market muscles. Human beings that do not confuse themselves with Socialist ants can grasp that an exoskeleton on the limb implies increasing weakness over time, not recovery. Load-shed the government spending, the over-regulation, the suffocating growth of bureaucracy, and go for some good, old-fashioned physical therapy.
Sincerely, Thanks For Understanding.
–Smitty

*Caused by a load of regulation that landed upon it.

Update: Surberlanche!

Update II: Linked at WyBlog, too. Thanks!

Update III: Left Handed Nib and That Mr. G Guy pick it up.

Update IV: Tagged by marfdrat.

Category: New York Times

Congress Expected to Vote on Debt Deal Today; Left, Right Spin It in Blame Game

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 37 Comments

Spin filters into the news at CNN:

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are expected to vote Monday on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit, a compromise that President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress reached on Sunday night.

The votes come one day before the United States faced the prospect of an unprecedented default on the nation’s debt. . . .

The Senate plans a first vote on the deal on Monday afternoon, a Senate Democratic leadership aide told CNN. If the measure passes an expected Republican filibuster attempt, the House could vote on it Monday night, the aide said.

The idea of Aug. 2 as the drop-dead default date? Spin. Tim Geithner estimated the Aug. 2 date months ago but — even if you trust Geithner, which I don’t — it wasn’t like we were automatically going bankrupt Tuesday. Also, now that Mitch McConnell has approved a deal, this “expected Republican filibuster attempt” exists only in the minds of the kind of deluded young leftists who work as Senate Democratic leadership aides or CNN reporters.

You want neutral objective facts? Try the blogs:

The debt-limit deal relies on gimmicks . . . the credit rating is still at risk, and our massive federal debt will continue to grow like a malignant tumor.

That’s Right Klik, pushing back against a lot of spin — from Chris Cillizza of the WaPo, among others — claiming that this deal is a Gigantic Right-Wing Triumph, “Return of the King” for the Tea Party Hobbits, which it obviously ain’t.

Yet if the debt-deal isn’t a Tea Party triumph, it does involve a couple of key defeats for Democrats, as Tim Carney says:

Abandoned in the debt deal are the liberal ideal of “shared sacrifice” (i.e., tax increases) and the Keynesian tenet of government spending surges during recessions. Preserved is the political framing that helps the Democrats in the 2012 election: no more embarrassing debt-limit votes before the election, no prominent debate on a balanced budget amendment, and a stage set for some good old corporate-jets-vs.-Medicare demagoguery.

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling was all over the morning TV news shows today replaying his “shared sacrifice” broken record, while Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin mourned the death of Keynesianism:

The Republicans are killing Keynesian economics with their attempt to cut spending as the economy rebounds from a recession, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a floor speech on Sunday.”I would say … that symbolically, that agreement is moving us to the point where we are having the final interment of John Maynard Keynes,” he said, referring to the British economist. “He normally died in 1946 but it appears we are going to put him to his final rest with this agreement.” . . .

Oh, if only it were so! Most sane people had thought Keynesianism died in the “stagflation” debacle of the 1970s, and yet for the past three years the ghost of Lord Keynes has haunted us again. Despite the discrediting of Keynes’s theories, liberals still believe in him and so, any time liberals wield decisive influence, we can expect to see the same disastrous deficit-spending policies pursued.

That is a neutral objective fact!

UPDATE: Legal Insurrection has posted the entire bill and — mirabile dictu! — Da Tech Guy actually read through it.

UPDATE II: Linked by Cranky Conservative — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

This might be a good occasion to remind you that I’m rattling the tip jar to pay my way for a 10-day shoe-leather trip to Iowa.


Category: Budget, Economics

Jimmie Bise, Sax Machine At Large

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Coaxed a photo of Jimmie sporting the brass while on Twitter last night:

jimmie b!

If pixels could sound off, you'd be getting Baker Streeted right now.


Also, Mr. Bise is a blogger of no mean repute. But you probably already knew that. Did I mention that his podcast also rocks hard?
Truly a superior blogger, that Bise.

Category: Jimmie Bise Jr.

LIVE AT FIVE – 08.01.11

Posted on | August 1, 2011 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
President, Speaker Agree On Debt Deal

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Agreement has $900 billion increase in debt limit, $1 trillion in spending cuts, but can it pass Congress?
Asian Shares Rise On Debt Agreement
Yen, Swiss Franc Slide On Debt Deal News
Oil Futures Up In Electronic Trading

Germany Calls For UN Security Council Meeting On Syria
Over 140 dead in Sunday’s acts of repression by Assad’s regime



POLITICS
Tea Party Support Not A Given For Perry

Texas Governor Rick Perry

Lots of folks interested in his run, except he isn’t running yet

Cain Comes On Strong Out West

Credible Lead Surfaces 40 Years After DB Cooper’s Skyjacking


Senator Durbin Upbeat On Debt Deal

VP Charging Secret Service $2200 For Cottage They Need To Protect Him



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Dollar Gains On Debt Deal News
FDIC Closes Three Banks In Indiana, South Carolina And Virginia
HSBC Sells 195 Retail Branches To First Niagara Bank For $1 Billion
PIMCO Analyst Says US Credit Rating Still At Risk
Adobe Dives Into HTML With New Edge Software
AT&T To Throttle Big Users Of Unlimited Data
It’s Official: IE Users Are Dumb As A Box Of Hammers
Apple Has More Cash Than The Federal Government



SPORTS
Plaxico Burress Spurns Giants For Jets

WR Plaxico Burress, once again a free man

Released after serving 20 months on a weapons charge, Burress signed a one-year deal with the Jets

Paul Menard Pulls Off Upset Win At Brickyard 400


Red Sox Acquire Erik Bedard From Mariners In Three-Team Deal

Verlander Falls Short In Bid For No-Hitter, But Tigers Win Anyway 3-2

No Urgency Expected When NBA Owners, Players Meet Today

Braves Acquire Steals Leader Bourn

Storen Blows Save, Steals a Win As Ankiel & Desmond Come Through In The Bottom Of The Ninth

Marquis To The Snakes, Hairston To Brewers For Prospects, But No Deal Yet For A Center Fielder



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Al Pacino’s Daughter Julie Busted For DWI

Julie and Al Pacino

Admitted to drinking, smoking pot when stopped at DWI checkpoint

Amy Winehouse Planning To Adopt Ten-Year-Old

Kings Of Leon Rescheduling Texas Concerts

“Cowboys & Aliens” Gets Smurfed




“Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II” Hits $1 Billion At Box Office

Angelina Jolie: I Don’t Love Acting As Much As I Did



FOREIGNERS
Libyan Rebels Battle Qaddafi Supporters In Their Ranks
Heavy Rains Add To Somali Refugees’ Misery
PRC Blames Pakistani-Trained Jihadis For Deaths In Xinjiang
Anders Breivik Not Insane, Panel Says
Israeli, Lebanese Troops Exchange Fire
British Troops’ Tours To Be Extended To One Year



BLOGS & STUFF
Verum Serum: Durbin Says “We are having the final interment of John Maynard Keynes”
NRO Corner: Reid’s In, Pelosi’s Hesitant, And The GOP Is Looking For Votes
American Power: NY Times Slurs Republicans As “Hostage-Taking Extremists”
Atlas Shrugs: Summer Camp? Anti-Semitic Indoctrination Center!
Gateway Pundit: Obama Has Chairman Of The JCS Tell Troops In Afghanistan They May Not Get Paid
Jihad Watch: NY Times Concedes Spencer, Other Anti-Jihadis Not Responsible For Norway Murders
Weasel Zippers: Congressman Keith Ellison Whines That Islam Still Misunderstood By Americans
Jane Hamsher: Bernie Sanders To Primary Obama? Don’t Make Me Laugh
Ed Morrissey: Guess What Happened To That Obama Recovery?
American Thinker: Blame The Jews And Republicans
Don Surber: The Greatest Duh On Earth


SOTD: Disappointed

Category: Live at Five
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