Dead Grandmas...

My initial response to the Great and Powerful Ob's health plan...



The simple fact is, National Health Services Kill People. Examples to follow.

A Reader's Guide to Global Warming Journalism...

...and other sad science...(HT: Theo Spark, see links)

Translating Scientific Reports:
The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone reading a PhD dissertation or academic paper.

"IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN"... I didn't look up the original reference.

"A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT"... These data are practically meaningless.

"WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS"... An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.

"THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY"... The other results didn't make any sense.

"TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN"... This is the prettiest graph.

"THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT"... I might get around to this sometime, if pushed/funded.

"IN MY EXPERIENCE"... Once

"IN CASE AFTER CASE"... Twice

"IN A SERIES OF CASES"... Thrice

"IT IS BELIEVED THAT"... I think.sciencebad.jpg

"IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT"... A couple of others think so, too.

"CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE"... Wrong.

"ACCORD1NG TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS"... Rumour has it.

"A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS"... A wild guess.

"A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA"... Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of Mountain Dew.

"IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS"... I don't understand it

"AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES"... They don't understand it either.

"THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR ASSISTANCE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO CINDY ADAMS FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS"... Mr. Blotz did the work and Ms. Adams explained to me what it meant.

"A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY"... A totally useless topic selected by my committee.

Then the Nub of Mr. Geithner's Gist...

...if I understand it correctly, is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying up toxic assets and creating financial 'instruments' secured by them was a bad idea that cratered the mortgage industry and collapsed the economy, but the Treasury Department buying up toxic assets and creating financial 'instruments' secured by them is a great idea because we're going to pay for them with folks' pension money.

I guess the right letterhead makes all the difference.

Tragic 'Defibulator' Accident in Washington

Apparently the device simply let go as Obama opened his mouth to answer his first question on '60 Minutes'...

The defibulator, whose existence was revealed for the first time on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, is a seldom-used device in the Obama White House, and apparently its capacity had not been upgraded to meet the demands of the new Administration.

White House Press Secretary Gibbs was later quoted as saying, "Tee-hee, maybe it was Rush Limbaugh, snicker..."

Obama Unveils New Food Stamp Program

Tea Party Tax Tips

"I'm a naughty President..."

OK, by now, you've either paid your taxes, or you're about to.  If you've already paid them, congratulations! That means you've already accomplished a feat that just about everybody Barack Obama knows couldn't.

And whether you've paid or you're going to pay, either way you're about to be handed the bill for the biggest increase in government spending and government debt in 250 years.

I think we need to show Mister Obama and the Congress just how much we appreciate their little gift.  And April 15th is the perfect day to do it.  So here are a few suggestions:

1.  OBEY THE LAW.  None of you are Friends of Barry, even if you voted for him, even if you -- brace yourselves -- donated to him.  So fill out the right forms, include all the right attachments, and pay it if you owe it.  This year, anyway.

        

2.  THEN, after you fill out your proper and lawful taxes, and send them in, take a new form, a blank 1040A, 1040EZ, whatever you filed in the first place, and fill it out as follows:

I FORGOT

Just scrawl it across the page, like below, and mail it to the SAME IRS PO box you sent your return to.  They're opened mechanically and scanned, but every one of them that does not register has to be reviewed manually.  Let's show them how much we appreciate the gift Obama, Nancy and Harry have given us!

BTW: You probably want to leave your return address off the envelope.  Just sayin'...

Fuck You Very Much, Mistah Commander-in-Chief. Sir (4)

Obama to demand veterans pay for war wounds out of private insurance
First he wants to crowd their families out of Tricare into private coverage they may or may not be able to get and may not be able to keep if they do, according to the CB0...

Now he wants the veterans themselves to be financially liable for their own wounds...

BARACK OBAMA WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Do We Need a Rent Strike for the GOP?

I have this quick history lesson I pass on every St. Patrick's day (so bookmark this site, I'm sure you'll want to come back and laugh at it again). Short form, minus all the witty historical examples:

95% of Irish history ends with the words, "And then he was betrayed by..."
3% of Irish history ends with the words, "And then success went to his head and turned his brains to crap."
2% of Irish history ends with the words, "And then he made something of himself, but he had to get the hell out if Ireland to do it."

Who knew the GOP was Irish?

The current leadership of the Republican Party appears to have been inspired by Casey Stengel:



"Doesn't anybody here know how to play this game?"

Well, apparently not...

Seriously: what are we paying these people for?

Thirty percent of this nation's wealth vanishes with the stroke of our new President's pen. Our oldest ally, Great Britain, is fobbed off with gift shop trinkets and insults from Administration flunkies. The braindead Democratic graft artist Dianne Feinstein, who California calls a senator, blows the cover of a top-secret airbase in an already unstable country wracked by a Muslim insurrection. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are busy dividing spoils that haven't even been printed up yet by the Treasury. The Great and Powerful Ob announces we are losing in Afghanistan even as he sends more troops. Military pay raises are cut and military families' medical coverage is slashed even as Congress votes itself raise upon raise and finds funds for illegal immigrants' abortions. The Great and Powerful Ob seems incapable of finding a Cabinet member who isn't a tax cheat, incompetent, a barking antisemite, or fleeing to Africa to avoid answering questions about impeached lllinois governors. Jobs are lost in the millions; pensions bankrupted in the hundreds of billions; Putin rattles his rusty, blood-crusted sabre and Chinese warships harass our vessels.

But the White House and their house-media know what the REAL problem is: RUSH LIMBAUGH! Never mind that Obama is reduced to appointing his kids' Portuguese Water Dog to the Treasury, A FREE AMERICAN CITIZEN IS EXERCISING HIS RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. BREAK OUT THE BILLBOARDS! ALERT CHRIS MATTHEWS! Never mind that Obama seems bound and determined to repeat the economic mistakes of every Democratic President from Jimmy Carter back through Jefferson Davis, RUSH LIMBAUGH HOPES HIS POLICIES WILL FAIL! DRIVE THIS HERETIC FROM THE AIRWAVES! Never mind that the Great and Powerful Ob is "reaching out" to the "moderate" Taliban (much the way he imagines FDR reached out to the "moderate" Nazis..."uh, uh,uh, look!  They weren't real SS, they were only Waffen SS!") even as he sends more troops to get shot at by them, RUSH LIMBAUGH IS LAUGHING AT ME!  MAKE THE BAD MAN STOP, KEITH OLBERMANN!

And the Republican party leadership scurries to agree with him.  Without, by their own admission, reading what the man writes or listening to what he says for themselves.  They condemn the loudest and most articulate voice for what are supposed to be their values.

What are we paying these people for?

Look, Newt Gingrich is understandable.  He is continuing his campaign to become the next MAC, that is, "Media Acceptable Conservative".  He knows Pat Buchanan won't live forever, and he is ready and eager to become the approved face of American conservatism, even if that means leaping into a steamy bed of global warming with Nancy Pelosi.

Michael Steele is simply inexplicable.  After the abuse he took in the Maryland Senatorial campaign, everything from racial invective to having his credit report pirated, Steele should know better.   Reaching out to Democrats just costs you fingers.

He comes out as pro-choice.  Because that's the selling point to the GOP base that stayed home on John McCain?

What are we paying these people for?

He says the Republicans  have given African-Americans "nothing."  THE PARTY THAT ENDED SLAVERY, that was instrumental in giving African Americans the vote in spite of everything Democrats could do to stop it? (Remember the schoolhouse door, Mr. Steele? Remember Bull Connor and his dogs?  Remember Robert Byrd THE DEMOCRATIC KLAN RECRUITER and his Senate filibuster of the Voting Rights Act?) The party that INVENTED affirmative action under Nixon?  THAT Republican party?  It wasn't the Republicans' 'New Deal' that destroyed an entire generation of black small businessmen and farmers, Mr. Steele. The National Recovery Administration that blacks in the Depression called 'Negroes Robbed Again' wasn't a GOP invention.  If you're going to lead this party, you should know these things.

What are we paying these people for?

And he criticizes Rush Limbaugh, sight unseen, for no better reason than... what? To seem 'moderate' to 'middle of the road' voters?  What have they done for us lately?  Where were they in 2008?  We ran a candidate who made his entire career one of appealing to these chimerical creatures, only to be billed as a warmongering fascist and racist anyway when it mattered.

Rush Limbaugh is perhaps our most articulate and most visible spokesman.  Maybe it would be better if that wasn't the case, but face it, the RNC can't fill that gap.  The e-mails they send to the party members read great, but when Steele gets in front of a mike or camera it's stumblebum time, and we get unchallenged assertions that Republicans resemble Nazis and fumbling statements that maybe abortion ain't so bad, or assertions that fly in the face of the party's own documented history on race relations.

What are we paying these people for?

Except for asking for money, the party doesn't seem to want to talk about it.  GOP Senators and Congressthings are making it harder and harder for anybody not from their state or their district to reach them.  Ladies and gentlemen, you are voting on national issues... expect to hear from the national electorate.  Don't hide behind your staffers and e-mail filters.  We can get that from Nancy Pelosi's office anytime we want.

So, if they're not going to listen to us, and don't, frankly, even seem to want to hear from us, perhaps we need to get the RNC's attention more, well, kinetically.

Maybe we need to to freeze our contributions to the RNC until they show they know how to engage the Democrats on our terms and uphold our values. Until they stop feuding with Rush Limbaugh and start showing as much passion to George Stephanopolous.  Until they make pointing out every botched appointment and hypocritical climbdown by Barack Obama as big an issue as whether Rush quoted the preamble to the Declaration or the Constititution.  Until Specter, Snowe and Collins learn they can't ignore the party leadership and the party principles without consequences.

Frankly, I don't want to give money to Arlen Specter or Olympia Snowe to betray my country's future to Nancy's pet constituencies.  I don't want to hear from Michael Steele until he's ready to respond to an attack on a free American citizen with outrage rather than eager, ignorant agreement.

In the meantime, maybe I'll just ask Rush Limbaugh which candidates he likes.

David Brooks: What the Hell Was I THINKING?!

David Brooks at the NYT gets smacked with the Obama cluebat.

Five months too late.



David Brooks, last seen standing bravely astride the path of history, crying, "Come back! Come back!

He is survived by Chris Buckley



The Hank Williams, Jr.



of conservative thought ("Gee, I loved his daddy...!")... who probably won't get the above reference.

Is it time for the mobs to storm the GOP Bastille?

Increasingly these days, it seems that the new motto of the Republican Party is becoming not "no," but "no, I don't want to hear it."



Those of you who have tried to contact a Congressman or Senator not your own may have noticed that e-mails at .gov are being set to filter out communications not from Congressmen's home districts or Senator's home states. They're voting on national issues but feel less inclined to hear from the national electorate.

The same thing is happening with their staffers when you try to reach them by phone.

I'm used to that sort of thing from Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank's crowd. This is new from the GOP and getting worse.

This is something I intend to keep in mind the next time I receive a solicitation e-mail from the RNCC.

Now we have Michael Steele taking a dump on Rush Limbaugh, even while admitting he has never listened to the show. Unelectable and stupid is no way to go through life, son. You would think his treatment during his senatorial run would have shown him the futility of reaching out to the opposition --




-- but it seems an inability to learn from experience is the hallmark of a Good Washington Republican.

Perhaps it is time to demand that the leadership of the RNC be selected by a radical new source. Voting Republicans. It could well be time to demand a national referendum on the GOP leadership. Such an election could be handled by mail-in ballots, and candidates for RNC leadership could state their case in venues made available by the likes of Fox News Sunday and even... dare I say it?... Rush Limbaugh's show.