The Other McCain

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

One Approach Exceeds The Other

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Via No Quarter:

Spoke with David Drucker, Roll Call, to learn that the Democratic leadership in the Senate openly describes its strategy for the mid-term election as a version of going negative early, late, and always.

The Democratic campaign charge, according to Robert Menendez of New Jersey, is to paint the Republicans as extremists, outside the mainstream, unready, unworthy of mature leadership.

Sharron Angle, extreme. Rand Paul, extreme. Carly Fiorina, unready. Marco Rubio, unworthy.

It sounds lame, however it is the unanimous choice of the Democrats just because they know that there is no positive metric to debate, and that the joblessness, housing collapse, flaccid market, world drift, are all losers.

Via No Sheeples Here, the Glenn Beck method:

It just doesn’t seem rational that the Left would embrace the losing side of history with such nihilistic fervor. If picking through the wreckage wasn’t going to take so long, if their self-destructive thoughts affected only their own miserable selves, one might be move to some sort of empathy for the left. Politically speaking, they’re drowning: throw them an anvil, say I.

Via BlackFive, save a spare sea anchor for the Iranian oppressors:

Much props to Roger Waters for giving permission for the usage.

Category: Democrats, Progressivism

Al Gore Cleared Of Portland Harassment Charges

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 10 Comments

by Smitty (via HuffPo)

While one has precious little respect for the gentleman, bogus accusations are unhelpful. It seems that the actual content of the Portland harassment charges clocked in somewhere between a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for a propaganda documentary. The world is now a little less bogus. Yay.

Category: ManBearPig

Remember the Ugly Daughter on the Old ‘Roseanne’ Show? Well, Guess What?

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 22 Comments

You’re really not surprised, are you?

Sara Gilbert quietly came out of the closet during a Wednesday press conference at the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Now 35, the former Roseanne actress and executive producer/co-host of upcoming talk show The Talk has two children with TV producer Allison Adler, but has declined to discuss her private life in the past. . . .
A couple since 2002, Gilbert and Adler have son Levi, 5, and daughter Sawyer, who turns 3 in August. (Adler gave birth to Levi, while Gilbert gave birth to Sawyer.)

The Artificial Insemination Sisterhood.

Category: Celebrities, Gays

It’s FDIC Bank Failure Friday!

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 13 Comments

Today’s lucky loser:

Regulators have shut down a small bank in Georgia, lifting to 104 the number of U.S. banks to fail this year as the industry has struggled to cope with mounting loan defaults and recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday took over NorthWest Bank and Trust, based in Acworth, Ga., with $167.7 million in assets. . . .
The failure of NorthWest Bank and Trust is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $39.8 million.

Given evidence that we’re now entering another slowdown, it’s very likely we’ll reach 180 bank failures by the end of the year.

UPDATE:  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that “41 Georgia banks . . . have collapsed since August 2008, the most in any state,” and more Georgia banks are on the FDIC’s regulatory action list.

UPDATE II: Let’s just go ahead and round up the economic gloom here. July was the best month for the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the past year — posting a net gain of more than 700 points — but the DJIA gave back about 75 points in the last two days of the month, indicating lingering doubt about future prospects. The New York Times was forced to confront the reality:

There is no more disputing it: the economic recovery in the United States has indeed slowed.
The nation’s economy has been growing for a year, with few new jobs to show for it. Now, with growth at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter and federal stimulus measures fading, the jobs outlook appears even more discouraging.

Note that the NYT clings stubbornly to the assumption that what we’ve been experiencing is a “recovery.” As I’ve been saying since last summer, this is a dead-cat bounce. The financial crisis of fall 2008 knocked the economy down so far that quarter-to-quarter growth was practically inevitable at some point. Pump in a few trillion dollars of deficit-funded stimulus action and, yeah, you could generate the artificial appearance of a “recovery,” but (a) employers still aren’t hiring enough to offset the job losses, and (b) now the stimulus is running out, as the Times explains:

Fiscal stimulus policies are also expiring, which may further drag on growth. And individual stimulus programs like expanded unemployment benefits have faced huge political battles each time they have come up for extension in Congress.
The approaching midterm elections may further entrench the political stalemate after Congress returns from its August recess. As a result, pressure will probably increase on the Federal Reserve to use its tools to prevent a double-dip recession. Recent reports from Fed officials suggest the central bank has become increasingly worried about where the economy is headed.

Wait a minute — did somebody say the magic words? Oh, yes. Yes, indeedy!

Double-dip feared as US economic growth loses pace

. . .  The second-quarter slowdown led economists to question whether the US might be poised to enter a period of negative growth later in the year, leading to a much-feared double-dip recession. The Dow Jones fell sharply after the release of the GDP data before recovering ground to settle down 40.72 at 10,426.44 in lunchtime trading.
“The post-recession rebound is history,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist for the Conference Board, an economic think-tank. . . .
“The prospects of a double-dip or some facsimile thereof were bolstered… by the contours of the second-quarter GDP report,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Shef.

Everybody repeat after me: It Won’t Work!

UPDATE III: King Banaian has some technical analysis of the GDP report at Hot Air Green Room. The bottom line is that the housing sector, which caused the 2008 crisis, is still nowhere near the point at which it will be generating job growth. And if housing employment doesn’t recover, we’ll still be above 9% unemployment indefinitely.

Category: Economics

Lefties Go Nuts as Anti-Defamation League Opposes Ground Zero Mosque

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 55 Comments

Pamela Geller is surely laughing herself silly at this spectacle:

The Anti-Defamation League, which describes itself as “the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry,” released a statment this morning opposing the building of the 13-story mosque near Ground Zero.
“In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right,” says the ADL.

OK, so the ADL — historically, a liberal organization — feels compelled to side with Pamela and all those right-wingers who opposed the mosque. As you might expect, the Left is not taking this news cheerfully:

ADL: Some opponents of Ground Zero mosque are bigots, but we should let them win anyway
— Greg Sergeant, Washington Post

ADL Condemns, Enables, Anti-Muslim Bigotry
— Adam Serwer, American Prospect

And perhaps sweetest of all:

The ADL Backs Palin Against The Cordoba Mosque
— Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Monthly

Will update when Charles Johnson reacts. Here’s a preview:

Category: Atlas Shrugs, New York, Religion

What Doctor Zero Said

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Doctor Zero picks up directly and briefly after Prof. Angelo Codevilla, pointing out that the Federal government is not your friend and corruption is a function of time.

It’s worth adding, as a result, that incumbency is a function of the structural factors encouraging it and the fact that DC is where the money is located.

Thus, if you’re interested in doing anything else, you have to be talking about diminishing Federal over-reach. YouCut is a fine start, but trimming the edges is about maintaining the problem, not diminishing it.

Capitol Hill, like any compost heap, must be turned over at a regular frequency.

Category: Congress

Meet Antoine Dodson

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 22 Comments

You might be a racist if . . . you start laughing at 1:02:

BTW, is it just me, or does Mr. Dodson seem a bit flamboyant? NTTAWWT.

UPDATE: Blame Andrew Breitbart! Although I’m pretty sure Antoine never had a job at the Department of Agriculture . . .

Category: Alabama, Crime, Video

A Fine Pawlenty Intro

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 17 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Political Byline)

I’ve seen him live a couple of times, and he hasn’t disappointed. What’s intriguing about him is that he seems especially comfortable both in speech mode and, as far as I can tell, actually doing the job, as he has in Minnesota. My understanding is that he’s outmaneuvered an opposition legislature in some impressive ways. Also, the fact that he’s more of a quite than a napalm-flaming conservative may make him more acceptable to independents, and afford lower negatives than others. Being less polarizing might not be bad.

And, if he were elected and offered an inverse ideological pivot to the current POTUS, all the better.

Category: Politics
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin