Conservative Reactions to Obama State of the Union Speech

Conservatives reacted to the president's State of the Union speech. One count had the "I/me" count at 96; another at over 100.

President Obama promised to fight for the middle class--instead of sneering arrogantly at them as he did throughout 2009.

As can be expected, reaction was swift.

So, we present: a baker's dozen (13) of conservative reactions to President Obama's Statue of the Union speech.

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ALSO at DBKP: Obama State of the Union: No Apologies for Dissing, Demeaning and Demonizing Middle Class

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There's a story of an ex hausted tenor at La Scala who, facing repeated cries of "Encore," responded that he couldn't go on. A man rose in the audience to say, "You'll keep singing until you get it right."

That seems to be the defining principle of the Obama administration -- whose response to every problem, every setback, every hiccup and challenge has been, simply, "more Obama."
Jonah Goldberg, Obama's answer for America: more of me

“I found this one to be too long, too political, and if he had an intention to reach out to Republicans, I can tell you it did not achieve the objective. Nor did I think it was as much an assessment of the state of the nation as it was a political tirade.”
--Senator Jon Kyle, Sen. Kyl: Obama Speech Too Political

The bottom line from last night was Obama basically said, "Things sucked when I got here and you're lucky to have me, even if you are too stupid to know that. I understand you don't like what I proposed last year and...I don't care. I'm awesome and you're not, so deal with it".

As I said the night of Scott Brown's election, Obama's presidency is over as he originally envisioned it. Apparently he hasn't gotten the memo and that's only going to deepen his problems.
Drew M., Obama's State Of The Union: I'm Awesome But You And That Bush Guy Suck

Barack Obama has lost his promise. He has lost his momentum. He has lost his touch. He has lost his filibuster-proof Senate majority. He has lost his first year in office.

Tonight, he lost his grip on reality.
--Michael Gerson, State of the Union: Obama's reality problem

The president gave a campaign speech tonight, but the Democrats had better hope that this is not what their campaign speeches are like this year. It was amazingly disconnected from the moment — treating and describing the public as downtrodden, depressed, but resilient, when the public mood seems more like fed up.
--Yuval Levin, The State of Obama

4) Ending the influence of lobbyists and operating transparent government remains as important a promise to make today as it was during the 2008 campaign.

3) Joe Biden is very, very bored.

2) The problem with Washington is that everyone is eternal campaign mode. Accordingly, everyone should follow the President’s example and limit themselves to no more than 158 interviews and 411 speeches per year.
--Rich Trzupek, Top 10 Things I Learned Listening To SOTU Last Night

Watching him list one costly agenda item after another, I couldn’t help feeling that we need a constitutional amendment that requires politicians to start promises with the words “I want to take your money and.” It might be that such a rule would constrain them, since I can’t imagine anyone having the courage to say, “I want to take your money and use it to pay off the college loan for that rich kid down the block,” and “I want to take your money and use it to help your plumber buy a new wrench.”
--Kevin Hassett, Cut-and-Paste State of the Union

After that bizarre, defiant, blame-dodging, position-ditching, doubling-back, credit-grabbing performance, I’d be inclined to call Barack Obama a joke. But protocol and manners require me to call him the president of the United States, and after all, we’re stuck with him in that role for another three years, at least.

I don’t really want to go down the road the left did, with their rabid hatred and childish insults of George Bush. It’s probably too late to swear off that. I’ve tried really hard to be respectful to the office and the fact that he holds it. But I’m beginning to get the left’s visceral reaction to everything our often inarticulate, chimp-like former president did and said. The difference between the Bush and Obama cases is, that clown-like cheering section notwithstanding last night, even Obama’s own stalwarts are rejecting half of what he does and says, and feel he has betrayed them and let them down.
Jules Crittenden, About Last Night

All in all, this was a nonchalant performance that ran for well over an hour. The president’s above-it-all cynicism, mocking, and dry humor didn’t work. The whole thing reminded me of a flat grad-school seminar with a snickering prof talking down to clueless students.
--Victor David Hansen, The Usual Straw Men, &c.

Obama's not the only one doubling down on stupid.

Did I ever tell you the slogan on the masthead -- the Mencken quote -- I got from the quote-page (you know, the epigram, or whatever, that novels start with) from the Christopher Buckley book Wet Work?

Did I also tell you the book sucked and I never picked up another Buckley book again? And when, for example, a girlfriend tried to get me to see Thank You For Smoking, I refused, knowing it would be a precious, fey pile of repressed-cum-wannabe-lurid crap like Wet Work was?

Yeah. He sucks. He's always sucked.

He continues sucking.

One can do the whole verb-inflection exercise for the verb "to suck" with Christopher Buckley.
--Ace, Chris "Rara Avis" Buckley: Watching Obama, I Was Beating My Dick Like It Owed Me Money

[NOTE: I know that, technically, Ace wasn't commenting on Obama's SOTU; he was commenting on C. Buckley's commenting. But, I thought it was funny and I wanted to include it.]


It sounds like an all-purpose speech for President Anyone: We've met here in good times and bad, war and peace, prosperity and depression, Shrove Tuesday and Super Bowl Sunday, riding high in April, shot down in May. We've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing. Each time we find ourselves flat on our face, we pick ourselves up and get back in the race. That's life, pause for applause . . .

There's no sense that, even as platitudinous filler, it arises organically from who this man is. As mawkish and shameless as the Clinton SOTUs were, they nevertheless projected a kind of authenticity. With Obama, the big-picture uplift seems unmoored from any personal connection — and he's not good enough to make it real. Same with all those municipal name-checks.
--Mark Steyn, Mister Speaker

"The president is going to explain why he thinks the American people are angry," said his spokesman Robert Gibbs, teeing up the State of the Union address. Is this what the American people crave? To have their anger explained to them by the person causing it?
George Neumayr, The President Who Knew He Was Right

I have watched many, many State of the Union speeches. This is the most partisan, least presidential of them all. His rhetoric, his glances at the GOP side, and his almost mocking tone at times — not to mention his over-the-top dissembling about the deficit, among other things — will not, I predict, improve his position with the public. Nor should it.
--Mark R. Levin, Tonight


Compiled by Mondo Frazier
image: DDBKP file
Originally posted at DBKP: Obama State of the Union: Conservative Reactions









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Pulitzer Prize: National Enquirer for the Pulitzer

John Edwards Scandal, Affair and Cover-up
Over 150 DBKP articles on the John Edwards' Love Child Scandal: John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library of DBKP Stories




HOW THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER PURSUED THE STORY OF JOHN EDWARDS
THE AFFAIR, THE SCANDAL and THE COVER-UP FOR 27 MONTHS

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DOES THE ENQUIRER DESERVE A PULITZER PRIZE?

Should the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for its multi-year investigation of the John Edwards affair, scandal and cover-up? That's been the question that's been asked lately: in some cases, at the same Mainstream Media papers which participated in the news blackout of the Enquirer's Edwards' coverage.

Edwards, who had been Sen. John Kerry’s running mate in 2004, was one of the front-runners at the time the Enquirer broke the second installment of the story on December 18, 2007.

The Enquirer released a cornucopia of easily-verifiable information at that time: Rielle Hunter, a former Edwards campaign worker, was pregnant with what the Enquirer reported was Edwards' love child; she had been moved to within five miles of the Edwards campaign headquarters in Chapel Hill, NC; Hunter was living an exclusive gated community, a few houses down the street from Edwards' former Director of Finance, Andrew Young; and, she was driving around in a BMW registered to Young.

Although the Enquirer's report contained unnamed sources who named Edwards as the father, there were certainly enough hard facts to make most people curious--unless you were a MSM reporter. Still, the Enquirer kept working the story in the face of a complete and utter cone of silence imposed by Big Media.

Although a few mid-size newspaper columnists wrote about Edwards after the Enquirer's reporters cornered him leaving Hunter's Beverly Hilton room on July 22, 2008, Big Media's silence was finally broken on August 8, 2008, when Edwards 'confessed' to the nation on ABC's Nightline.




But Edwards did not come clean; in fact, hours after the "confession", he was ridiculed by DBKP[John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Continues Deception in Interview and John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Admits Affair, Lies, to ABC News].

In the latter article, we wrote, “In a coldly-calculated political move, John Edwards has now admitted that he had an affair, but did not father Rielle Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter.”

In the former:

“In a coldly-calculated political move, John Edwards has now admitted that he had an affair, but did not father Rielle Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter.”

A few short minutes after ABC announced that John Edwards admitted his affair with Rielle Hunter and was going to appear on Friday’s Nightline to talk about it, we wrote the words at the top of the page.

We also wrote then:

“The political calculus is: Edwards hopes that his admission of having an affair will allow the incident to blow over, allowing him to proceed with his political career.”

After reading Edwards’ statement, our immediate instincts were confirmed: John Edwards only came forward after he was cornered by the National Enquirer–which he repeatedly labeled “tabloid trash”–and a few in the traditional press were finally, after almost a year, beginning to take an interest. After watching Edwards’ Nightline appearance and examining the allegations he made in the interview, we’re convinced–and we’re not the only ones.

How do I deceive thee? Let me count the ways.”

Was John Edwards the “99% honest” man on Friday? At DBKP, we noticed one falsehood almost immediately, which was confirmed the next day. John Edwards said that his affair with Rielle Hunter ended in 2006. He said it three times in his statement, so it must have been an important point.

It was–and is.

It allows Edwards to claim he is not the father of Frances Quinn Hunter. We weren’t the only ones who noticed that point–and others, as well.

How many times did Edwards prevaricate in his statement and interview? We believe that it happened three times–it’s likely there’s more when the whole truth finally comes out.

In an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal, David Perel confirmed what we wrote then.

Mr. Edwards had already shown us his willingness to lie in the face of overwhelming evidence. In July 2008, Mr. Edwards knew the Enquirer had him on video and he waited. Behind the scenes we sent him a message—deny the affair and we will release the video and prove you a liar. At the same time an ABC News investigative team pounded him.

When Mr. Edwards realized there was no way out, he tried to control the damage and decided to confess to the affair. He appeared on "Nightline" on Aug. 8, 2008, and admitted only to the affair, knowing the Enquirer had his meeting with Ms. Hunter on video. At points in the interview he offered ridiculous denials about paternity and the photo of him with his child.

It had taken 10 months for the Enquirer to prove Mr. Edwards affair, and once he confessed we knew it still wasn't over. Paternity was the next issue. But again, Mr. Edwards would admit the truth only when it was absolutely necessary.

Edwards' mendacity--and the Mainstream Media's complicity--makes the number of pieces discussing the Pulitzer for the Enquirer somewhat surprising. Is this the mainstream press' way of 'doing penance' for totally ignoring the story and helping cover it up until Edwards was no longer a factor?

We posed that question to Perel, who is the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer and directed its coverage of the John Edwards affair. Perel, now the head of RadarOnline, thought for a moment, then said, "I think it might be their way of saying, 'That was a great little story.'

First, Newsweek named the Enquirer's John Edwards story on its Decade's Top Ten Lists of both Sex Scandals and Startling Scoops.

Then, Politics Daily's Emily Miller wrote in Does the National Enquirer Deserve a Pulitzer for Breaking the John Edwards Scandal?:

The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid, but the time has come for the media elite to admit that it has an excellent investigative reporting team, which broke the biggest political scandal of 2009, the John Edwards affair.

While its own editor concedes that the paper would never be given a Pulitzer Prize -- the jury is dominated by the newspaper establishment -- I believe the time has come for us to recognize the Enquirer's political investigative reporting.

Howard Kurtz even discussed the Pulitzer/Enquirer question in the Washington Post--a paper which refused to report a word of the scandal when Edwards was a presidential candidate or being considered for a high-level post in the Obama administration, most likely attorney general.

Not all of the Pulitzer talk is positive; New York's Adam K. Raymond dismissed the idea.

One problem with The Enquirer's dream of winning a Pulitzer, as Howard Kurtz notices, is that most of its significant reporting on the story happened in 2007 and 2008 and this year's Pulitzers will honor work done in 2009. Another problem is that it's The National Enquirer.

Continue reading: What Does the National Enquirer Have to Do to Deserve a Pulitzer Prize?


by Mondo Frazier
images: DBKP file









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John Edwards Scandal: John Edwards Caught Cheating--again

ONCE A DOG...

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For updates to this article; updated throughout the day: John Edwards Scandal Redux: John Edwards Caught Cheating Again!

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Another scoop for the Enquirer--and another heartache for...Rielle Hunter? Elizabeth Edwards?

Oh boy.

JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT AGAIN!:

ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Cheating killed his political career, destroyed his reputation and left his marriage hanging by a thread - but John Edwards has done IT again! The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that the philandering ex-senator embarked on a "sex-and-booze bender" after what appeared to be a marriage-ending blowout fight with his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth.

While still publicly not admitting paternity of his love child - who turns 2 in February - the disgraced former presidential candidate shocked eyewitnesses by recently spending several consecutive nights trawling bars in search of women.

We'll be updating this within the hour, so check back. There are several updates in the works, actually.

John Edwards, once a dog...


by Mondo Frazier
image: National Enquirer.com









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Jonathan Gruber: The Best Health Care Expert Government Money Can Buy

[It's GRUBER TIME!]

IT'S RAINING MONEY!

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IT'S GRUBER TIME!
The Best Health Care Expert Goverment Money can Buy!


More crap-weasel-behind-the-curtains goings-on by Captain Wonderful and his Traveling Magic Salvation Health Care Show.

From Grassley Sends Letter to Sebelius; Seeks Explanation, Transparency on Gruber:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in reference to Jonathan Gruber’s failure to disclose his financial relationship with the Obama administration when he was testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. It appears that, at the time, Sen. Grassley was unaware Gruber had been given a lucrative, sole source contract by the HHS to do analysis of the “President’s health reform proposal.”

Some background from FDL's Jane Hamsher:

For almost the entirety of the health care debate, the Obama Administration has relied on economist Jonathan Gruber to make the public case for its idea of reform - even the most unpopular parts. But as Firedoglake revealed on Friday, the Obama Administration has failed to disclose that it paid the same economist more than $780,000.

Jonathan Gruber's work has been cited by the White House, Members of Congress, and countless media outlets, but not once did the Obama Administration disclose it was paying him more than $780,000 in tax dollars. This is a huge ethical violation that undermines the entirety of health care reform.

Now, we're going to do something we seldom do: send you to a lib website to sign their petition. Remember to come back.

Sign our petition to President Obama: Come Clean on "Buy an Economist" Scandal.



But, Firedoglake is right about this. (Can you believe it? But in these dire times, with Washington so lousy with weasels, you need every ally you can muster.)

Just like RINOs, some "progressives" will roll over and let the weasels scratch their bellies for a little bit of power. So you have to admire the progressives who are protesting this--even if you never agree with them on anything else.

BUT, they are right on this point and conservatives and libertarians agree: this Health care bill stinks.

Tea Partiers, Progressives, Union Guys, Paleo-Gronks, whatever: everybody can find something to HATE in this abominable Health Care Bill.

And who doesn't hate paying "experts" to do "analysis" that magically confirms the crap Washington is spooning to us rubes--and coincidentally, not telling anyone the Feds are paying the leading "expert"?

Strangle this bill in its cradle. Kill it dead.

Sign the petition. Hold the weasels accountable.



by Mondo Frazier
image: Media Tumbler










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Harry Reid, Racism: You Can't Say That!

You Can't Say That!
Nancy Morgan
RightBias.com
January 11, 2010

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been caught in a firestorm that appears likely to undermine his political viability. His sin? He was actually caught telling the truth. Gasp.

Harry's problem stems from the fact that certain truths are no longer allowed to be uttered in the public square. As former Harvard president Lawrence Summers found out in 2005 when he dared to point out that men and women had differing proclivities for math and science.

That factual comment was enough to get him fired. After being forced to issue multiple public mea culpas for offending the sensitivities of feminist elites by challenging their fallacious dogma of male-female sameness, Summers was forced to fork over a cool $50 million to feminist studies groups as penance. That'll teach him.

Harry Reid's sin is worse. He dared to not only notice, but comment upon, 'the Negro dialect.' You know, the dialect skilled politicos mimic when addressing black churches. The dialect currently in use by young black men struggling to show that they haven't joined Uncle Sam's plantation. The dialect that is clearly associated with a certain skin color.

Harry made the very astute observation in the run-up to the 2008 election that then presidential candidate Barack Obama had a chance of winning because he was both "light-skinned" and didn't speak with a "Negro dialect." By daring to point out what every American knows is true, Reid finds himself on the hot seat.

Talking heads and pontificating pundits are all atwitter. How dare he acknowledge the obvious! The networks are calling back all those racial experts we thought had been retired since a black man was elected president. How terribly delicious.

It seems everyone has an opinion on Harry's opinion. The opinion no-one is voicing however, is the acceptance of the underlying premise that acknowledging cultural differences automatically makes one 'racist.' But only when dealing with Negroes.

The leftists celebration of multiculturalism mandates that to be considered evolved, one must not only pay homage to, but actively celebrate cultural differences. But the rules stipulate that what might be perceived as negative traits must be ignored. It gets kinda confusing.

The message here is that blatant lies are preferred to uncomfortable facts. Better to bamboozle voters with phony health care figures and vows of transparency than dare to voice an uncomfortable truth.

And a truth it is. Human nature dictates that people tend to gravitate towards and feel comfortable with people that are similar to themselves. Whether they live in tribes in Africa or the suburbs of Los Angeles.

And Reid knows, as do most Americans, that if Obama's skin was black as coal and he spoke ebonics, there would be absolutely no chance he could be elected President. This is a fact that directly challenges liberal orthodoxy. To acknowledge it would expose the fallacy of the leftists' new, improved version of reality. And that's a big no-no. So poor Harry will have to be burned at the stake in order to keep alive the false illusion that all races and cultures are equal.

The silver lining is, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.


by Nancy Morgan
image: Right Bias.com

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina.


Article may be reprinted, with attribution

The Lancet Investigates Fraudulent Chinese Science

DBKP COMMENTARY/OPINION
Original article published at DBKP: The Lancet Investigates Fraudulent Chinese Science: Pot, Kettle Commentary Time



Lancet Laughs

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Dr. Horton Hears a Chinese Who


The BBC reports that the famed British Medical Journal, (Britain has only one of note, so fame may have have not been difficult to obtain) The Lancet has requested the Chinese government crack down on falsified scientific research.

This is somewhat funny.

But first a little background. China is the second-largest publisher of research papers after the USA. China has made a concerted effort to become the most scientifically-oriented nation on earth, much like the USSR attempted.

And failed.

The USSR failed because no one was allowed to discuss research. The Chinese realized, that on this point, the Russians were fools and directed their scientists to create a culture of publication like one sees in the USA, Canada, Japan, India, Germany, and, frankly, few other countries.

There's just one problem: the Chinese periodicals are filled with fraudulent studies. All bullshit. All paid for by the government as if print were cash.

Not like the Western press eh???

Richard Horton, editor in chief of the Lancet, speaking in Lancet urges China to tackle scientific fraud:

"When you make prestigious jobs and large amounts of money closely tied to publication, that creates conditions for fraud."

Last December, two teams of researchers at Jinggangshan University in central China were found to have falsified 70 papers published in 2007.

"It's very tricky. The problem has existed for a long time," says Dr Lu Yiyi, Associate Fellow at Chatham House's China programme.

She believes universities need to teach about the importance of honesty but that the government will have a very difficult job stamping out fraud.

"There weren't strict rules established in the first place so a large number of people went though the system and got their professorship.

"If you apply stricter rules retroactively then their past work would be vulnerable to criticism," said Dr Lu.

China wants to become a research superpower and its influence is booming economically and scientifically. Dr Horton said it is vital China's government takes action.

How nice of Dr Horton to be concerned about Chinese research. Personally, we here at DBKP would just prefer the Chinese to be concentrating more on human rights and a bit less on destroying their imaginary enemies, of which there are no end.

But shouldn't Dr Horton be a bit worried about The Lancet? Let us review its recent publication history of interesting scientific frauds.

"Research scandal revealed: When in February 1998 13 doctors, led by former gut surgeon Andrew Wakefield, from London's Royal Free hospital, published research, in the Lancet medical journal, linking MMR with autism, it triggered a slump in immunization levels and led to outbreaks of infectious disease. But the key finding was a sham: laundering anonymized allegations by claimants in a lawsuit against vaccine makers - which Wakefield had been paid huge sums to back. --The Sunday Times, February 22 2004 "

Ahh. That little bit of nonsense caused the death of thousands of infants in Britain, North America, and Africa. It gave African witch doctors, Christian cults, and Muslim Imams an excuse to wave bones and rattles instead of properly vaccinating infants and children.

The results: uncounted deaths, spontaneous abortions, deformities, deafness, and polio. The Lancet played the story for years.

Then, there was the following bit of idiotic American hatred--no stranger to The Lancet readers:

From Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000:

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.

Of the total 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.

So what is the real death toll? The Iraqi government and independent sources say it is a stretch to get to 33,000--including all MIA military, many of whom are presumed to have left to take up Jihad and kill a few Shia, Americans, Nato forces and Kurds because that is what uber-religious Muslims like to do when they have some time on their hands.

This figure has been confirmed hundreds of times. But, The Lancet would rather take the word of two researchers that relied upon "models" to get the figure.

Yes.

8% of the total Iraqi population was killed in their computer. And all we can find are Saddam's mass graves.

And speaking of models, there's Health and Climate Change. The reader can see for himself how The Lancet spends its medical capital--and credibility--on the subject of climate change.

The Lancet has published so many global warming stories that have not come true that one would think it a fiction magazine. There is not a disaster that it has not attributed to global warming in recent years--other than American misbehavior.

Well before 2002 The Lancet started publishing articles that predicted the spread of diseases throughout the world; malaria and Dengue fever are particularly favored, but any would do. Malnutrition, dehydration, famine, floods, cold, snow, ice ages, and Americans.

It hardly mattered.

Anthropogenic Global Warming was driving The Lancet's editors mad. They must have all graduated from the sterling East Anglia University. Not exactly Cambridge or MIT, eh?

All of these projections, long since proven to be indefinitely deferred, were moronic.

Or as the Chinese would say, bullshit.

The Lancet is very much in the same class as the Chinese scientists who make up studies to confirm what the minders of the purse strings want to hear.

It, like Scientific American, Nature, etc., is a disgrace.

For it to take issue with fraudulent Chinese science, while vomiting its sophomoric bilge is laughable.

NOTE: The Lancet might look for guidance in Luke 4:23: "Physician, heal thyself".


by Pat
images: Daily Radar
other sources:
http://nygoe.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/global-warming-hoax-enabler-the-lancet/
http://image.thelancet.com/extras/01art11175web.pdf

Federal Government and Health Care: We're Just Here to Help

Original article at DBKP: Federal Government, Health Care: Here to Help


TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES:

Some random headlines from a random point in time, taken from a random day.

A quick look at how the federal government is helping American citizens everyday.

It's exactly the type of "help" these same citizens can expect from government health care.

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Internal Revenue Service

* IRS expects to answer only 71% of phone calls this tax season

If you call the Internal Revenue Service for help this tax season and someone actually picks up the phone, consider yourself lucky.

The agency has set a goal of answering only 71 percent of calls to its toll-free help line this year, and those fortunate enough to get through are expected to spend an average of 12 minutes on hold, according to a report released Wednesday by an IRS ombudsman.

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AMTRAK

* Amtrak "Train From Hell" Delayed Almost 24 Hours:

Arriving almost 24 hours behind schedule, Amtrak's California Zephyr arrived in Chicago with a trainload of passengers who described themselves as "tired, hungry and stinky."
[...]
Some passengers complained about a short supply of food and water on board, others criticized the crew for not keeping them informed. Most say they will never take Amtrak again.
[...]
In a similar incident, an Amtrak train bound from Denver arrived 23 hours late. A third train which runs from San Antonio to Chicago derailed in St. Louis yesterday, temporarily stranding 176 passengers and a crew of nine.

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Social Security, Medicare

* Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare

Even as Congress hunted for ways to finance a major expansion of health insurance coverage, the Obama administration reported Tuesday that the financial condition of the two largest federal benefit programs, Medicare and Social Security, had deteriorated, in part because of the recession.

As a result, the administration said, the Medicare fund that pays hospital bills for older Americans is expected to run out of money in 2017, two years sooner than projected last year. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than predicted, it said.

* Let Them Go Bankrupt, Soon: Solving Social Security and Medicare.

When the trustees of Social Security and Medicare recently reported on the economic outlook for these programs, the news coverage was universally glum. The recession had made everything worse. Social Security, Medicare face insolvency sooner, headlined The Wall Street Journal. Actually, these reports were good news. Better would have been Social Security, Medicare risk bankruptcy in 2010.

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FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC


* The Price for Fannie and Freddie Keeps Going Up:

On Christmas Eve, when most Americans' minds were on other things, the Treasury Department announced that it was removing the $400 billion cap from what the administration believes will be necessary to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent. This action confirms that the decade-long congressional failure to more closely regulate these two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) will rank for U.S. taxpayers as one of the worst policy disasters in our history.
[...]
There is more to this ugly situation. New research by Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and a housing expert, has found that from the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A.

In general, a subprime mortgage refers to the credit of the borrower. A FICO score of less than 660 is the dividing line between prime and subprime, but Fannie and Freddie were reporting these mortgages as prime, according to Mr. Pinto. Fannie has admitted this in a third-quarter 10-Q report in 2008.

* Business Digest: Mortgage delinquencies up at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Delinquent home loans at government-controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged 20 percent from July through September, according to a new report by the companies' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Almost 1.6 million borrowers had not made their mortgage payments for at least two months. That's about 5.18 percent of all borrowers. Year over year, the number of delinquencies more than doubled.

U.S. Postal Service

* Going postal as New York pension checks lost in mail:

The state controller's office says the U.S. Postal Service has lost many of the 60,000 pension checks it mailed last week.
[...]
"This is why we encourage people to have direct deposit." [said Dennis Tompkins, spokesman for Controller Thomas DiNapoli.]

* Did top postal exec break contracting rules?

The U.S. Postal Service's top marketing executive directed more than $1.3 million in sole-source contracts to former business associates since July 2008, according to documents obtained by Federal Times.

Robert Bernstock, president of the Postal Service's Mailing and Shipping Services division, approved $600,000 to consultant Lynne Alvarez, $412,500 to consultant Richard Sorota, and $324,975 to consultant Kimberly Wolfson, all of whom Bernstock worked with in the private sector prior to joining the agency in June 2008.

Department of Homeland Security


* More Bad News for DHS Intelligence Capabilities

In the heavily redacted report titled “Information Sharing at the National Operations Center,” the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued some disconcerting findings about the abilities of the DHS National Operations Center (NOC) to perform its mission as the nation’s “nerve center for information sharing and domestic incident management, increasing coordination between federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local governments, and the private sector.” This report, coming as it does on the tail end of the total failure of the federal government to detect and prevent the Christmas Day bombing attempt, represents a serious blow to DHS and its leadership.

* Not Systemic Failure, But Failed System

"Systemic failure" is how President Obama described the homeland security and intelligence lapses that led to the unsuccessful terrorist attack by a Nigerian Islamist on Dec. 25. The accuracy of this assessment was underscored by another intelligence failure that resulted in the death of seven CIA agents in Afghanistan on Dec. 30.

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All of the assurances from your senator and congressmen--from President Obama himself--that you're in better hands than you realize, that their health care vision is the correct one, should be juxtaposed against any random headlines taken from any random point in any random day.

Feel better now?

Of course health care is better off being run by the government.

But Americans have more experience with dealing with big government bureaucracies in 2010 than they did in the 1930s or the 1960s or even the 1990s.

That's why the political elites in Washington, DC have to jam this one down Americans' throats.


by Mondo Frazier
image: DBKP file

Fox News Douglas Kennedy Learns to Speak Douche Bag

FOX NEWS DOUGLAS KENNEDY LEARNS TO SPEAK DOUCHEBAG
Repeats Tea Bag slur on Fox News Watch

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Glad to see that we weren't the only ones who noticed FOX News' Douglas Kennedy's obnoxious Tea Party comments Saturday on Fox NewsWatch.

NewsBusters' Brad Wilmoth also noted Kennedy's obnoxious remarks in FNC’s Kennedy Claims ‘Anti-Semitism’ in ‘Tea Bag’ Movement, Pinkerton Notes LaRouche Leftists Used Obama/Hitler Image:

On Saturday's Fox News Watch, panel member and FNC correspondent Douglas Kennedy referred to Tea Party members as the "Tea Bag movement," prompting admonishment from host Jon Scott who pointed out that he was using the "pejorative" term. In the next segment, Kennedy went on to accuse Tea Party members of anti-Semitism and linked Obama/Hitler posters to Tea Party members, leading panel member Jim Pinkerton to remind viewers that an Obama/Hitler poster sometimes attributed in the media to conservative Tea Party members had actually been brought to a protest by left-wing supporters of Lyndon LaRouche – who ran for President in the past as a Democrat:

The entire transcript is at the NewsBusters' link above.

We're not sure about Douglas Kennedy being able to speak Tea Bag, but from his offensive comments yesterday, he's obviously fluent in Douche Bag.

Fox NewsWatch should have been titled "Battle of the Network Perjoratives".

"This week: The Douche Bag vs. the Tea Bag!"

One bystander remarked that "..at least, Kennedy looked right for the part".



by Mondo Frazier
image: DBKP, Fox, I Own the World
Original article at DBKP: Fox News Douglas Kennedy: A Douche Bag Spurts About Tea Bags

Tamra Barney Divorce: Tamra Divorce Shocker, Simon Blogs It

Tamra barney, divorce, real housewives orange county, simon barney, Tamra Barney, Simon Barney, divorce, infidelity, cheating, Vicki Gunvalson, Donn Gunvalson, Gretchen Rossi, Bravo TV, Real Housewives of Orange County, blog, documents, papers,


Simon Barney Files for Divorce

It's official, Real Housewives of Orange County couple Tamra and Simon Barney have split up. It was Simon who filed for a divorce due to irreconcilable differences, but the real shocker, last night's episode may have been the final straw for Simon and, that Simon states in the divorce papers Tamra was verbally abusive, and, has "committed acts of disloyalty and infidelity".

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Real Housewives of Orange County: Library of DBKP articles
Over 35 in-depth articles on the RHOC going back to 2007.

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Barney Divorce Documents

Even curiouser, Simon's latest post on his blog at the Bravo TV, Real Housewives of Orange County website. The post is dated the same day as when the divorce papers were filed and while Simon never actually mentions divorce-he called his post, "Drifting Apart"-Simon's wording is filled with rich subtext beginning with the very first sentence:

"I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and have a great New Year. I know the kids and I did."

After not including Tamra, Simon wrote about Vicki and Donn "rekindling their marriage" then added this:

"I have to say I shed a tear when Vicki brought out the picture album at dinner. You see, I've been with Donn when he has been upset and heartbroken over his marriage. So it was especially touching to my heart when Vicki reached out to him and showed him love. It would be nice to see all the wives do loving things for their husbands."

Simon added this about Vicki and Tamra's relationship and Tamra's "behavior":

Continue reading: Tamra Barney Divorce Shocker: Simon Files for Divorce, Pours Heart Out on Blog

by LBG
images: DBKP file

Press and its Powerful Washington Lover: No Strike for the Smitten

ASKING THE PRESS TO STAND UP TO ITS LOVER


The Mainstream Mouthpiece Media is dying because purveyors (readers and viewers) of its news products no longer trust the MMM to deliver news or to stand up for "the little guy".

But how can the MMM stand up for voters rendered voiceless in Washington's present atmosphere when it won't stand up for itself? Big Journalism continues in a dysfunctional relationship with its powerful lover: it trades self-respect for just a little bit of that powerful loving.

For the uninitiated, "loving" is spelled a-c-c-e-s-s.


From Time for sit-down protests by Hill reporters:

The most radical expansion of central government power in American history is happening right under these journalists' noses, and yet they raise not a peep of protest when the doors close, effectively barring them from doing their jobs at a critical juncture. Where are the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and the Radio and Television News Directors Association? These august organizations vigorously and rightfully protested former Vice President Richard Cheney's secret meetings with oil company executives in the early days of the Bush administration. They also wailed loud and long about the Bush administration's abuses, many real and some imagined, of the Freedom of Information Act.

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Original post and updates at DBKP-- Washington Love Story: The Press and the Powerful

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The remedy to all of this government-behind-closed-doors? The Examiner thinks it knows:

It's time for a sit-down protest by journalists whose first job is to uphold the public's right to know what its government is doing. Invite readers to come join them in demanding open meetings. The last thing Reid and Pelosi want is the spectacle of the Capitol Hill Police dragging protesting journalists away from the closed doors. It's time to show some cojones, people.

But will the progressive press show any "cojones"? It's doubtful.

Many of the MMM have not only climbed into bed with the Congressmen and Senators they are supposed to be watching, they sit up anxiously waiting for their sweetie to show up and give them some of that lovin'.



"Access" carries more weigh than "the people's right to know".

The Examiner has it right: journalists and reporters could do more than sit down and shut up after they're lied to.

But that might be wishing for a modern miracle: asking the spineless to get out of bed and stand up to the power grab that's being perpetrated by their lovers.


by Mondo Frazier
images: desktopnexus

Interesting Internet Web Surfing Items: January 6, 2010

Wednesday: January 6, 2010
A few things I found interesting at the mid-to-late afternoon mark of the day

* Does Newt Gingrich Speak for Either Republicans or Tea Partiers?

Reason's Matt Welsh: "If the former, I hope the wilderness gets even colder. If the latter, it's a matter of time before the currently popular governance-less anti-big-government movement fractures along some of the same idiot lines that helped shrink and divide the GOP coalition in the first place.[...] Most likely, Newt Gingrich speaks just for Newt Gingrich."

* Deep secrets of economic growth

In an excellent editorial on December 4, Investor's Business Daily reported that Chile was expected to win entry to OECD's club of developed countries by December 15 -- "a great affirmation for a once-poor nation that pulled itself up by trusting markets." (The OECD followed up as expected on December 15.)

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More at The Internet: A Few Interesting Items from Afternoon Surfing

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* Obama's C-Span Problem

Today, when asked for the 3rd time whether President Obama believes that the "standard" he set during the campaign for transparency on health care negotiations is being met by the current process (which now appears to include bypassing the formal conference process), White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a flaccid but telling response.

"Flaccid but telling response" = "dodging like Neo in The Matrix".




* Congress Tinkers with Tax Withholding Tables for 2010

The trick, when looking at the new withholding tax tables for 2010 as compared to post-stimulus 2009, buries an increase in federal withholding taxes–for all income categories–basically giving the government an interest-free loan until current year taxes are filed next year. Some would blame the increase in withholding on the Making Work Pay tax credit being spread out over 12 months as compared to 2009, which was only over 9 months, but this would be impossible as some middle class wage categories carry an increase in the withholding tax of over $200 per pay period.

Unlike the middle class wage earners, who are going to see huge amounts taken out of their paychecks, unless they increase their exemptions on their W4 form, it’s an increase that most wouldn’t even notice–$10 or $20 in some cases. Here are some of the “highlights” of the new 2010 withholding tables:

Bastards.

* Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism is up and running. Good.


by Mondo Frazier
image: babble

Universal Voter Registration Equals Universal Voter Fraud

"Universal voter registration will create massive vulnerabilities to systemic voter fraud nationwide, and if Democrats have proven anything in recent years, it is that they can win elections that way."
--James Simpson, What the Dems know that we don't: Universal Voter Registration

WHO NEEDS ACORN WHEN THE FED GOVERNMENT
CAN CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN OF VOTER FRAUD?

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UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION = UNIVERSAL FRAUD = UNIVERSAL SLAVERY

In case you wondered why the Democrats are voting for wildly-unpopular bills: are they naive political lemmings?

Or do they have more tricks up their sleeves than run-of-the-mill Al Franken-type voter fraud?

From What the Dems know that we don't: Universal Voter Registration:

Many are puzzled that Democrats persist in ramming unpopular and destructive legislation down our collective throats while seemingly unconcerned by their plummeting poll numbers. A widespread belief is that the Democrats are committing political suicide and will be swept from one or both houses of Congress with unprecedented electoral losses next November. But since Democrat politicians rarely do things that will not ultimately benefit themselves, this column asked two weeks ago: "what do they know that we don't?"

We may have found out. It's called universal voter registration. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund described the Democrat plan recently at a David Horowitz Freedom Center forum. Watch the video:

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Originally published at DBKP. For updates, Universal Voter Registration Means Universal Voter Fraud

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IOTW, It’s The End Of The World As We Know It says of the following video, "The first 2 minutes are the important ones. Listen and cringe."

Fund describes the proposal as follows:

In January, Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank will propose universal voter registration. What is universal voter registration? It means all of the state laws on elections will be overriden by a federal mandate. The feds will tell the states: 'take everyone on every list of welfare that you have, take everyone on every list of unemployed you have, take everyone on every list of property owners, take everyone on every list of driver's license holders and register them to vote regardless of whether they want to be...'

Much more at the link, including intense douchemongering by reliable far-left fund raising/attack machine, Media Matters.



"We're gonna give each and every one of you forty acres and a mule!"
And a mule?! Gee!! Forty acres and a mule.
And your gonna become voters! And your gonna vote like your friends do"
--Carpetbagger to former slaves in Gone with the Wind

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And true to form for the most openest, honestest, transparent-est administration/Congress/Senate in the history of politics, it will be rushed through Congress in two weeks before the rubes in the countryside know what hit 'em.

And readers just thought it was gonna have to contend with run-of-the-mill ACORN thuggery in 2010?

What others have said:

* John Fund Universal Voter Registration Video: Voter Fraud Alert!:

Jim Simpson shook things up a bit yesterday when he posted at the Examiner.com about the Democrat plan to bring Universal Voter Registration to the Nation. Jim asks why Democrats would persist in "ramming unpopular and destructive legislation down our collective throats," while at the same they seem not to care that they are committing political suicide. John Fund has the answer. Beware - Voter Fraud Alert.

* Universal Voter Registration: Chucky and Barney Strike Again: Voter Fraud Alert:

The Democrats have a plan. The short story is told in the video, with John Fund of the Wall Street Journal explaining that the plan is…to quietly, and very soon, like now…this month, propose Universal Voter Registartion – which means that your state’s election laws are trashed

From the same good people who gave you Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Government Motors and the list goes on.

Universal voter registration is the card the Democrats play to try and trump the Tea Party anger at reckless lib policies.

Without UVR, all they have is just the garden-variety ACORN fraud.

Remember the simple equation when you hear hear the words, "universal voter registration".

UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION = UNIVERSAL VOTER FRAUD = UNIVERSAL SLAVERY

Our founding fathers knew it. Voting is a privilege for those who deem it important. For those who don't value it, it's a form of currency to be bartered to the highest bidder.



by Mondo Frazier
images: DBKP file

Video: We're taking our country back--You're Fired

America Rising: An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians
by Buckrush