More on the Non-Stimulating Stimulus....

1.9 million fewer Americans have jobs now than had them before the stimulus.  Hence, the artful "created or saved".

Yet Another Reason to Question Obama's Judgment

He thinks this woman is cute.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is Wrong--Plain Wrong--On Weiner

Anne-Marie Slaughter is a Princeton Professor, and reliable Democratic foreign policy type.  Generally considered a moderate and an adult, she spent some time in the Obama Administration's State Department.

She has taken now to providing occasional commentary at CNN (natch), and in this one, she concludes the following with respect to "L'Affaire de Weiner":  "Absent criminal behavior, which is another category entirely, the issue is whether sexual misconduct undermines a politician’s ability to represent his or her constituents and contribute to the common good."

 No, Professor Slaughter, sexual misconduct is NOT the issue; at least it is not the ONLY issue.  How about lying--repeatedly, cold-bloodedly, in situation after situation, to the public, your constituents, the leadership of your party and perhaps even your President?  What about the question of trust?  What about the smearing of Breibart and others in the not Bought and Paid For Media? 

No--sexual misconduct doesn't alone undermine Weiner's ability to continue to serve.  But his utter lack of  trustworthiness does.

I'm Sorry, What Were You Saying?

Men who are good listeners are apparently better at sex.

HT:  Instapundit

On the Palin Emails

Sally posted earlier in the week on the Washington Post's efforts to enlist "citizen" journalists to comb through the voluminous emails of then Governor Palin to her staff, family and others.  Conveniently forgetting to apply such modern flash mob tactics to anything resembling-oh, journalism (such as actually reading the Obamacare Bill or the Stimulus Bill)--the Post once again confirmed all that is suspected of the Bought and Paid For Media and its determination to make news, rather than report it.

But it seems that the pesky Ms. Palin simply won't cooperate, in that her emails appear to have been serious, sympathetic, rational and sometimes banal.  No smoking guns here, folks--though I wonder who among us would stand up to this kind of scrutiny.

This has not been a good moment for the media--but has been a wonderful time for Mrs. Palin.

Progressivism Jumps The Shark--Walter Russell Mead

I read this article this morning after a friend posted it on my Facebook page.  I like Walter Russell Mead generally, but this piece is so deftly done, so logically framed, that I may come to be more of a loyal reader.  In it, Mead takes us through the fateful Lifecycle of Progressivism, from Great White Hope to Great White Father to Great Elephant to Great White Shark to Great White Whale.  Creative and literary, yes.  But also logical and incredibly well-written.  His identification of the process through which good intentions become government programs promoting dependency and corruption is brilliant.  One group that didn't come in for the criticism it should in this piece?  Unions (he does touch on public sector unions).  One can see in the rise of the union movement in the United States elements of all five stages Mead cites--from a force to rectify what were truly horrific and indentured work conditions to what we have now, a bloated, bureaucratic, politically connected patronage program that artificially inflates wage scales, even as the public code of the nation enshrines worker protections that no union organizer in the early stages of the movement would have thought possible.

The question Mead's piece leaves one with is--what is to be done?  I'd really love to see a progressive criticism of Mead's piece--the logical gyrations necessary to contest it would be breathtaking to behold.  Mead sees a need for reform--but what kinds of reforms?  Can we as a people be trusted to vote in ways that may impact our short term benefits, but which are good for the nation in the long run?  Are we ready as a nation to concentrate on the truly needy and deserving--who presently comprise just a portion of the entitlement class (look around folks, we're all in it)?  I think we're moving in this country toward a great debate, one in which someone who tells the truth will be pitted against someone who protects the status quo.  I know which side I'd like to be on.

What Might Have Been

The breathless search through Palin's emails has yielded little, except to reveal that all the reasons she was tapped for the VP spot in the first place. Practical, tough, willing to work with politicians of all stripe and an eminently capable governor.

I'm not a Palin supporter and wish she would exit the stage (and I wish the press would stop covering her every move as though she's a Kardashian or something). She's done very little to advance herself as a serious person and much (not all) of the criticism she's received has been justified. But just think what may have been if reporters had honestly covered her when she emerged onto the national scene a few years ago. Instead, we were treated to a portrayal of a woman that was power-mad, that had a low I.Q., and that may or may not have been the biological mother of her youngest child.

The irresponsibility of the media truly reached its nadir with Sarah Palin.

Big Fat Friday Free For All

Let it OUT folks--what's been bothering you?  Lose your staff like Newt?  Having your emails read like Sarah? 

The Washington Post Needs YOU

...to go through Sarah Palin's underwear drawer.

25,000 pages of Palin's emails during her tenure as governor of Alaska will be released tomorrow. Because of course these emails require total perusal by this country's news organizations, the Washington Post is seeking citizen journalists to analyze them. The Post is looking for 100 folks to work in teams to ferret out the most important information contained in the emails.

One can just imagine what they consider the 'most important information.'

Weiner Comes Clean

Finally announcing what had come to be obvious, New York Representative Anthony Weiner admitted that yes, that was his member on the Twitter feed and that yes, he had sent it.  Along with lots of other similar kinds of pics.  He announced this at a teary-eyed media circus--a a Mark Sanford a couple of summers ago. 

The media were justifiably all over the Sanford story--here was a conservative, married, God-fearing Governor sneaking down to South America without telling his staff.  The hypocrisy was manifest.  The media is all over this one too (though some conservatives think insufficiently, looking for a double standard), but hypocrisy isn't the issue.  As I said in an earlier post--Democrats aren't the "family values" party and they don't wish to be.  Scandals like this one are reprehensible in and of themselves--but in the case of a Democrat--there's not much here on the hypocrisy charge.

What strikes me about the difference in the Weiner and the Sanford cases was the motivation.  Sanford's wrongs--while many--were clearly the actions of a man in love (he is still with the woman).  He said it right there in the news conference.  Weiner's actions?  What motivated him?  Doesn't seem like love to me.

Debbie Does Doltish

My apologies for posting two photos of this ghastly woman in a weeks' time, but as luck would have it, Ms. Wasserman Schultz has come up with another doozy. It seems, per the DNC Chairwoman, that Republicans want to drag us back to pre-Jim Crow days. Why? Because of some of the new voter I.D. laws across the country.

This is not the first time we've heard that voter I.D. laws are somehow the same as voter suppression, but I've never heard anyone adequately explain how requiring a voter to have I.D. is racist. Can anyone help?

As long as she keeps talking, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Chronicles just may become a weekly feature on this site.

Don't know what to serve for dinner?

Don't do ANYTHING until you've carefully examined Michelle Obama's new meal guidance. I've helpfully provided a copy here; might want to post it on your fridge.

This apparently will lead to nothing but healthy, balanced meals on Americans' plates. Time to put away the Bugles, people!

Despite Mrs. O's claim in this article that 'I can already tell how much this is going to help parents across the country,' I'm pretty certain most of us have a good idea of what we should be serving our kids.

The Speech of a Future President?

Paul Ryan spoke to the Hamilton Society this week--a group of foreign policy experts.  Not generally considered to be Ryan's territory, he delivered up this wonderfully framed speech.  It is worth reading--all of it.

I would like to see Ryan get in the race.  He's so closely associated with GOP prescriptions for improvement that his forceful advocacy thereof on the Presidential stump would be a natural.  But I doubt he will.

Someday, however, he will be our President.

The Truth Hurts, Especially When It Comes From A Foreigner

Nile Gardiner hits the Administration betwixt the eyes.  Key line...

After 29 months of the most left-wing presidency in US history, the American superpower is heading towards the economic abyss

Behold, Mark Steyn on Weiner-gate!

I've been silent on Weiner-gate lo this past week, largely because of my views on hypocrisy.  When a "family values" politician gets caught with a dead girl or a live boy, well then, that gets my attention.  When a Democrat sends a picture of his schwantz to a 20-year old coed--why, birds gotta fly....fish gotta swim.  I get excited when Dems--climate change, eco-friendly, public teacher union lovin', tax the rich types--are caught with exceedingly large carbon footprints, driving SUV's, evading taxes and sending their kids to tony private prep schools. 

So--Anthony Weiner's wiener does not "rise" to the level of my attention--but it has got Mark Steyn's--which is wonderful, as it gives Steyn a platform for lines like this:  

"So we're drifting from outrageous cybercrime to "prank" to "Hey, who doesn't have snaps of his genitalia out there in the world?" To revive another Clintonian line: Everybody does it. "Everyone lies about Twitter-flirting," wrote the blogger Little Miss Attila, "and everyone knows that everyone lies about Twitter-flirting." "Flirting"? Why, yes: I'm assured by correspondents more au courant in "social media" that there's nothing unusual about Tweeting your nether regions to people you've never met in distant time zones. Get with the beat, daddy-o, it's a widely accepted courtship ritual of the 21st century: the flower of American maidenhood wants to see a prospective swain straining his BVDs at what I believe the lads at the TSA call Code Orange alert before they'll agree to meet him for a chocolate malt at the soda fountain.
To each her own. In my day it was "A White Sport Coat And A Pink Carnation," as Marty Robbins sang (Billboard Country & Western Number One, 1957). But apparently these days that leaves the ladies cold, and the pink carnation can prompt titters, unless it's artistically positioned across one's crown jewels, and you'd probably need to get in a professional photographer and some double-sided Scotch tape."
The man is unstoppable.

No--I'm more interested in Weiner's choice of vehicles....

Weiner, in his manly S-10 Blazer 4 x 4--for the mean streets of Brooklyn

Big Fat Friday Free For All

Yes indeed my friends, another Friday is upon us, and with it, another opportunity for you to let it all hang out.  What's on your mind?  Thrilled that Mitt Romney's in the race?  Wondering when Sarah will throw her motorcycle helmet in the ring?  What's going on where you are?

America's Public Schools, Busily Shaping Young Minds

Russellville Middle School in Arkansas, like most middle and high schools, published a yearbook this year. Not remarkable. This particular yearbook, however, listed among the usual yearbook fare the 5 Worst Persons of all Time.

Who made the cut, you wonder. Hitler? Check. Osama bin Laden? Another check. Charles Manson? Right-o. The last two? George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Parents are rightly outraged. The school district's brilliant solution was to cover the list with black tape. And no one seems to have any idea how it happened.

What would you do if your son or daughter brought home such a yearbook?

Someone Help Deb with the Definition of Illegal

This new DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is awful. And I'm not just talking about her hair.

Being bitterly partisan may go with the job, but she's so over the top it's hard to believe she's advancing her party's cause. Her latest gem is the assertion last week that 'Republicans believe illegal immigration should be a crime...the Republican solution is to pack them all up and ship them back to their own countries.'

Has anyone heard any serious person articulating this position? Tom Tancredo doesn't count. Why is the concept of illegal immigration so difficult for some to grasp?

Just Where a Hormonal 8th Grade Boy Needs to Go

A group of Berwick, PA 8th graders recently got a treat. They traveled to Baltimore to see the Aquarium. On the way back, they stopped for lunch...at Hooters.

The treat was the aquarium, of course.

June is Here

How should we acknowledge this? If you haven't made any proclamations, no need to fret: the Obama administration has taken care of this for us with a number of designations for June.

National Caribbean-American Heritage Month. African-American Music Appreciation Month. Great Outdoors Month. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

So have a mojito, crank up the Run DMC, go camping and watch Boys Don't Cry. Or watch Wild Things. It's downright American!