I Can't Imagine This Will Help Democratic Turnout In Wisconsin Come Tuesday...

The key to this election, however, is not really whether Governor Walker wins. More or less everyone expects him to do that. The key is how much he wins by.

 If Gov. Walker under-performs, then it will be a huge win for the Liberal-Labor coalition. The Obama campaign will feel the warm rush of political valium, soothing their November jitters. Everyone expects Gov. Walker to win this election, despite the razor-thin margins of every special election that has been held across Wisconsin since the 2010 general election. The polls say he will win by 6 percentage points, at least.


So in other words...the entire purpose of the "recall" of Scott Walker was to use Wisconsin as a weather vane for Obama's 2012 political fortunes? Not sure how much that will motivate Wisconsinites on "re-election day"...

Weak pre-game spin, ladies....you're embarrassing yourselves.   Again.

Do Wisconsin Unions Understand That Families May Contain... Children?

For a political wing that screams that they do it all "for the children", they sure don't seem to have any idea about what is appropriate for the little ones to see, and hear.

Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, hosted a “Recall Ball” tonight at the Madison Labor Temple. Hundreds of union heavies and Occupy-types attended the outdoor concert, which featured droning acoustic covers of union tunes and beer — lots of beer. It was billed as a family event, and many young children dotted the lawn, but the language of Morello and other performers was quite blue. Within the opening half hour, Governor Scott Walker was cursed repeatedly and humorlessly. Later, attendees were urged to vote “early and often” by one punk rocker. The crowd laughed knowingly.

Fists in the air, a sea of blood-red shirts, the stench of sweat and alcohol — you get the idea. The only real difference between this show and any other cacophonous, hastily-arranged music festival was the security. The local cops, who are allies of Democrat Tom Barrett, were having a grand time, nodding along to Morello, rapper Brother Ali, and a pair of C-list vocalists.


I'm hoping the good residents of Wisconsin will see fit not to hand over their government to people who feel the above is all-ages appropriate entertainment.  Or who feel that part of the proper ideological  indoctrination of children requires them to be surrounded by swearing, beer-swilling louts.

I'm quite confident of Governor Walker's chances next week, just as I grow increasingly confident of Mitt Romney's chances this fall.  The left wing of the Democratic party, and their grassroots supporters, are an ugly bunch, and they have gone from trying to hide their base proclivities to reveling in it, as they did last night in Wisconsin.

America now sees the Left for what they really are, not what they claim to be.  And it's too late to put the mask back on and pretend the last four years never happened...


UPDATE:  ....or to ignore the overt threats being made to average citizens by the unions, and the Democratic Party, should they dare deviate from the party line...

Breitbart's Torch Being Carried By...Mitt Romney?

Who would've thunk it? But while the Left caricatures him as some sort of a 50's throwback from a weird religious cult who is disconnected from the average American, it turns out that he's a savvy street brawler, leaving Obama and the Democrats dazed and confused on the mat.

They thought they were fighting Glass Joe, but they are instead fighting Mike Tyson.  Or even worse...Andrew Breitbart:

The unapologetically aggressive tone of Romney's campaign is manifest at every turn — from his aides' fierce Twitter wars, to the candidate's surprise press conference at failed green solar company Solyndra, and the campaign's continued refusal to apologize for Donald Trump's outlandish conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate.

Romney’s aides and advisors tick off a series of punches and counterpunches that form the core of this new brand of conservative outreach, beginning with his staff’s decision to turn Democrats’ absurdist attacks on his treatment of a family dog into an absurdist assault on Obama’s memory of having eaten dog meat as a boy in Indonesia.

“Same thing with the Mormon issue,” said the advisor, noting the course of MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell’s attack on Romney’s faith. “The nex thing you know you’ve got Ricketts talking about Jeremiah Wright” — a planned Super PAC, unconnected to the campaign, which threatened to air ads attacking Obama’s former pastor — “and David Axelrod comes out and says everything is off limits.”

His campaign's most recent muscle-flexing stunt came Thursday, when Romney pulled off the surprise visit to Solyndra in San Francisco, using the bankrupt company's headquarters as a backdrop to hammer the president for "picking winners and losers" in the economy. Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away, campaign aides, interns, and volunteers crashed a press conference scheduled by senior Obama adviser Axelrod on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse. The rowdy crowd drowned out the speakers at times with loud boos, blew bubbles at them when they were talking, and interrupted with chants of, "Five more months!"

"They were on our home turf," campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said. "They had this botched sneak attack. This was personal for us since they were right up the block. We’re not just going to sit by and let them do that — we're not weak."

Kevin Madden, a Romney adviser, said they're simply making good on their promise in the primaries to take the fight to Obama....

Mitt Romney:  NOT Glass Joe...

What will Mitt's next stunt be?  Who can say?  But be prepared to be surprised, because you know the playbook the Romney campaign is using...

Told that conservatives were comparing Romney’s tactics to Breitbart’s, one aide responded: "Oh great, that's what we were going for...."

8.2%? Whatcha Gonna Run On Now, Baracky?

...the notion that somehow, under Mitt Romney, things would get worse? That it is still George W. Bush's fault? That we didn't spend enough money the first time around, and we need to create even greater debt to reduce unemployment?

And - changing the subject ever-so-slightly - is the economic branch of the media jostling for space with their mainstream contemporaries for a prime spot up Barack Obama's asshole? Just look at this reporting, earlier this morning:

Job growth seen stepping up in May

Jobs growth probably snapped back in May from weather-related distortions that had slowed hiring, suggesting the economy was still expanding moderately despite strong headwinds from Europe.

Employers probably created 150,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after generating a paltry 115,000 positions in April - the fewest in six months.

That would bring nonfarm employment growth closer to its 176,000 a month average of the past three months and temper fears that economic activity could be stagnating...


Turns out that a mere 69,000 jobs were crated in May. The screenshot is classic, with a new banner over the old headline (click to enlarge):

So...back to the question posed at the top of this post.  With America (and the Courts) turning  against ObamaCare, with his economic policies proven a dismal failure, with even his supporters admitting his rival's competence (Bill Clinton: "Romney had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold”)and with multiple signs that the worst is still to come, what does a beleaguered president have left to run on?

Unless, of course, he has been planning for this eventuality all along:

Expect to see the big cities burning by autumn. And a certain brazen narcissist claiming only he can heal the nation he so skillfully tore apar

What Hath May Wrought? More Economic Malaise...

Sorry, small investors!

If the stock market is truly a leading indicator (and it tends to be one of the more reliable ones), then the Obama campaign had better start worrying. May has been a brutal month for the Dow. It closed May 1 at 13,279.  As it approached 2PM today, it’s at 12,390, down 29 on the day. That’s a decline of approximately 7% percent for the month, wiping out all the gains since Jan. 1.


Sorry, unemployed Americans!

New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week for the fourth straight week, which could heighten concerns the labor market recovery is softening.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 383,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The prior week's figure was revised up to 373,000 from the previously reported 370,000.
Claims have now risen in seven of the last eight weeks...


Sorry, small business owners looking for rising tide!

The U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated, reflecting smaller gains in inventories and bigger government cutbacks.

Gross domestic product climbed at a 1.9 percent annual rate from January through March, down from a 2.2 percent prior estimate, revised Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The report also showed corporate profits rose at the slowest pace in more than three years and smaller wage gains at the end of 2011.


Sorry, semiconductor industry!

I work at a large semiconductor company who does a LOT of business with Chinese firms (odds are many is not most of the electronic devices you have that say “made in China” on it buys it’s most expensive parts from us). recently orders have dropped precipitously. We are expecting to reduce the workforce before the end of the quarter by dropping contractor (temp) labor. We are entering what for the semiconductor industry is the Christmas sales season and the orders are going DOWN! Be afraid. Be very afraid.


I'm not.  Because the job figures for May come out tomorrow, and with more and more Americans dropping out of the work force, the unemployment rate will just as likely drop as not! And Barack Obama will tell us that is because his economic plan is working, and only more of the same (taxing and spending) can keep us afloat!

It's all OK.  If you can ignore the signs all around you, of course...

Matthew Yglesias Beats His Fellow Americans Over The Head With...The San Antonio Spurs?

Since day-to-day reality tends to undermine the worldview of liberals, they tend to resort to amateur etymology and dubious dissembling in order to "prove" their pet theories were right all along, or, more frequently, to find a new avenue of attack against a political adversary (the "macaca" moment, calling Obama "skinny" is racist, etc.).  Yglesias is fond of this genre of liberal "intellectualism", and uses it here to attack his worst enemy - the American people:

The Most Ignored Dynasty in Sports


The NBA’s most successful franchise reveals that America is a nation of hypocrites.

America—at least in its own imagination—stands for certain things. For the idea that hard work and sound judgment bring success, and that success deserves celebration. That winners should be celebrated as long as they play by the rules. That teamwork, leadership, loyalty, and excellence all count for something. And that’s why the San Antonio Spurs, currently riding a stupendous run of 19 straight victories, are America’s favorite professional basketball team.

Except, of course, they aren’t. Not this year when they tied for the best record in the league, and not last year when they were the best in the West. Not in their 1999 championship run or the follow-ups in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Not for a single moment amid the glorious 15-year run with coach Gregg Popovich and big man Tim Duncan have the Spurs captured the imaginations of the American people or even its basketball fans. That’s because we are, ultimately, a nation of hypocrites that prefers drama queens, bad boys, and flukes to simple competence and success.


And while Ynglesias doesn't go on to say it, I'll dissemble a bit here and call this piece an excuse to execute the changes that Matthew believes must be imposed upon America:  A complete societal makeover, from the Constitution to the court system to the role of government in our lives and the role of the citizen in his government. The absolute rule of  liberalism,.with the imposition of socialism, the acceptance of crony capitalism along with the revival of the welfare state, and the submission of the people to such.  Any protestations about individual liberty and the rule of law are simply the caterwauling of...hypocrites.  After all, he just proved it.  And if we really believed in hard work, honesty, and loyalty as their own rewards, why, we would all be Spurs fans.  The fact that we are not gives him moral cover for his lust to rule over us like a king.

Of course, it could just be the fact that sports is entertainment as much as competition, and we tune in for story-lines, much as we do with any TV show (or professional wrestling).  And it could just be that some teams have bigger fan bases than others.

Take the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. Both play a similar defense-first, sacrifice the body style of hockey.  The Rangers are beloved by their fan base and and are a draw nationwide, but Devils tickets to Game 1 of their Stanley Cup Final appearance last night were selling on StubHub for 65% of face value.

Do we hate America because we ignore the Devils, who have racked up more Cups in recent years than the Rangers have in their entire history?  Then how can you explain the love we have for a team with an extremely similar style of play?

Oh, you can explain it many ways.  Market size.  Amount of time in the league. Media coverage. Fan base.

But Yglesias would say it is because hypocritical Americans really don't like success after all, and thus secretly support the imposition of the Buffett rule, higher taxes, and income redistribution.  Oh, and ObamaCare, too.

And they call us "stupid" for not buying this....

Did Elizabeth Warren Whip Out Her Tit In New Jersey?

Sounds like another tall tale from Lie-awatha, but we'll report it, since she's claiming to hold some sort of a New Jersey record.  Via Legal Insurrection:

Warren, who had no public events yesterday, again refused an interview request from the Herald, responding to questions instead through a spokeswoman by email. Meanwhile, campaign officials scrambled to address another claim Warren’s made about her life’s story.

“I was the first nursing mother to take a bar exam in the state of New Jersey,” Warren told an audience at the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2011, in a video posted on the CHF website. When asked how Warren knows that, her campaign said:

“Elizabeth was making a point about the very serious challenges she faced as a working mom — from taking an all-day bar exam when she was still breast-feeding, to finding work as a lawyer that would accommodate a mom with two small children.”

Is this the bare breast of Elizabeth Warren, providing milk during the NJ bar exam?  Could be...just look at the cheekbones on that baby!

Seems to me as if the Warren campaign is tactfully admitting that when it comes to certain accomplishments that Elizabeth needs to burnish her liberal bona fides, the candidate just makes shit up, and awards herself "groundbreaking" credit.

Much like her claim to Cherokee heritage, it is fundamentally  impossible to confirm or deny Warren's latest wacky claim to fame:

Winnie Comfort of the New Jersey Judiciary, which administers that state’s bar exam, said there’s no way to verify Warren’s claim. Comfort said women have been taking the New Jersey bar exam since 1895, but she’s not aware their nursing habits were ever tracked.


Now we know where Time Magazine got the inspiration for their recent infamous cover:

But if, as is most likely, Warren was not the first woman to breastfeed while taking the bar exam in New Jersey, than once again she has appropriated the bravery, guts, and identity of another in order to further her own career by claiming the mantle of liberal heroine.

Somewhere, there is a woman reading this with a tear falling from their eye (much like the iconic Indian), knowing that she actually paved the trail for Ms. Warren, not the other way round, and has been robbed of her honor, such as it is.  Much like a certain proud Indian tribe...

But we'll be fair to Running Joke here.  I'm still calling her out for lying about her Cherokee heritage and about whipping it out in Jersey.  But there's another, equally unprovable boast that she mentions less often these days:

Elizabeth Warren is running for office in the most high-profile race in the country not involving Barack Obama. It’s a position that calls for some tact. So what does she think about the Occupy Wall Street protests that are roiling the country?

 “I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,” she says. “I support what they do.”

 Warren’s boast isn’t bluster..


We'll rate this claim "true".    No need to be shy, Ms. Warren, go ahead...brag on it!

Ms. Warren?  Why the sudden silence?

Worst IPO In A Decade? Really?

That's what they're saying about Facebook's initial public offering:

The social network has lost more than a fifth of its value since its faltering Wall Street debut on May 18, while its 28-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg has been honeymooning in Rome. It is now unlikely to recover in the short term, analysts claimed.

After placing at $38, Facebook’s shares briefly peaked at $45 before sinking back to $38.25 on their first day of trading. They have fallen every day since then, and today plummeted nearly 10pc to a low of $28.84 at the close in New York


Well, that's poor performance, to be sure.  But it's part of a trend to over-value companies that don't actually do much, or actually create anything, that just...are.  One would think after the tech crash of 2000, our banking betters might have learned something.

But the worst in a decade?  Either our economic experts have the same short-term memory damage as those investing billions in yet another internet-based company, or they are selectively forgetting an even bigger stock bust on an equally hyped IPO, from less than two years back..  November 17th, 2010:

General Motors Co GM.UL pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, raising $20.1 billion after pricing shares at the top of the proposed range in response to huge investor demand.


GM sold 478 million common shares at $33 each, raising $15.77 billion, as well as $4.35 billion in preferred shares, more than the initially planned $4 billion.

Including an option that would allow underwriters to sell more shares, expected to be exercised in coming days, GM looks set to raise $23.1 billion -- the biggest initial public offering ever.

The strong response to the stock sale reflects growing investor confidence that GM is moving beyond its unpopular, taxpayer-funded bankruptcy in June 2009 with sharply lower costs and higher profit potential.

The U.S. government's stake in GM will drop to about 33 percent from 61 percent if all available shares are sold.


So where is GM stock opening today?

Yeah, that's a 31% decline, greater than Facebook, with declines having reached as much as 43% when the stock dropped to $19.  The strong IPO, heralded at the time as a harbinger of GM's return to prominence and as a down-payment on the repayment of the company's debt to the American people have proven to be neither:

The stock price will need to rise by 47 percent to $48.58 for the U.S. government to break even on its follow-on stock sales.


Never going to happen.  And it's the US taxpayers, whose money allowed GM to stay afloat, who will never see a return on their investment.

Holders of vast quantities of GM stock bought at the IPO price will tell you not to worry, that the company is essentially a public trust, and will not be allowed to fail.

I'm not sure if President Romney, an expert in these matters, will feel the same way.

Sorry, Facebook haters and media naysayers.  But you've got a long way down still to go if you want to reach the failure levels of the General Motors IPO, underwritten by Barack Obama with the money of the American people....

Shocker: Obama's Atrocity Prevention Board Fails To Prevent Atrocities..

How's that "smart power" working out for the Democrats?  While Syrian civilians are mowed down by the thousands, Obama's failed attempts at liberal "diplomacy"  have proven to be less big stick, and  more limp dick

In April, after a speech at the Holocaust Museum, Obama announced the creation of an "Atrocities Prevention Board":

Samantha Power--who won a Pulitizer Prize for her book on genocide and now advises the Obama administration on the subject--will chair President Barack Obama's new Atrocities Prevention Board, which gets down to work Monday as Obama delivers a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.


Like all boards, it seems like they haven't done much work at all.  The fact that Power - Pulitzer or not - is a left-wing nutjob probably is contributing to the, ah, delay in the board's reaction to the ongoing Syrian massacres.

So where's the UN, one of Obama's pillars of a New World Order? Trust me...you don't want to know.  But if you insist, here's the response of "special envoy" Kofi Annan, after hearing of the massacre:

“I urge the government to take bold steps to signal that it is serious in its intention to resolve this crisis peacefully, and for everyone involved to help create the right context for a credible political process,” Mr. Annan said. 


Scary! I am sure Assad is shaking...with gales of hearty laughter.  What next, a very, very angry letter?

(By the way, if you want to know where the media is on this story, look no further than the headline the NYT attached to this story: "International Pressure on Syria Grows After Killings".  Really...)

So where's the personification of smart power, the woman the media now clamors for as a replacement for Joe Biden, the diplomatic dilettante herself, Ms. Hillary Clinton?

Probably still boozing it up in Columbia.  Hopefully.  Because she is utterly, completely, totally, useless:

In February Secretary Clinton said about the killings in Syria that “world opinion is not going to stand idly by.” Three months later, it is, and so is she. . . .


It's laughable, but only to a point.  When a big Texan carried a big stick and swung a big arrogant dick, people steered clear.  When a Harvard professor convenes a blue-ribbon paddle...death goes on the march:

An 11-year-old Syrian boy describes the slaughter of his family this weekend: 

 Speaking to the Guardian, the young survivor said government troops arrived in his district at around 3am on Saturday, several hours after shells started falling on Houla. “They came in armoured vehicles and there were some tanks,” said the boy. “They shot five bullets through the door of our house. They said they wanted Aref and Shawki, my father and my brother. They then asked about my uncle, Abu Haidar. They also knew his name.”

 Shivering with fear, the boy stood towards the back of the entrance to his family home as gunmen then shot dead every family member in front of him. “My mum yelled at them,” said the boy. “She asked: ‘What do you want from my husband and son?’ A bald man with a beard shot her with a machine gun from the neck down. Then they killed my sister, Rasha, with the same gun. She was five years old. Then they shot my brother Nader in the head and in the back. I saw his soul leave his body in front of me. 

 “They shot at me, but the bullet passed me and I wasn’t hit. I was shaking so much I thought they would notice me. I put blood on my face to make them think I’m dead.”


Sorry, kid.  Trust not in those who label themselves "smart" to save you, look for the steely-eyed, the brawny, the politically incorrect, the fearless, to set you free....should there be any left.

Once Obama Sees This, Defense Cuts Are Inevitable...

... because we know the way Barack governs:  Goodies to supporters, starvation for political opponents, or folks unfortunate enough to live in red states.  Just ask the victims of the Texas wildfires, Illinois tornados, the BP oil spill...

So what do you think he's going to do to the military after reading this Gallup poll?

U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge.

Obama and Romney are tied overall at 46% apiece among all registered voters in this sample. Men give Romney an eight-point edge, while women opt for Obama over Romney by seven points. It turns out that the male skew for Romney is driven almost entirely by veterans. Romney leads by one point among nonveteran men, contrasted with the 28-point edge Romney receives among male veterans.


He could try them all for treason, of course...but why not just allow his liberal instincts to take over, and allow those massive mandatory budget cuts to the military that were written into the bipartisan "sequestration" deal take effect?

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talks about that possibility:

The thing that does concern me is the sequester which involves another $500 billion in defense cuts...

...These automatic cuts that would take place that I think would be disastrous in terms of our national defense. And I would say this. I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.

Of course, Obama has done nothing to prevent sequestration from taking place. And now, after seeing the poll above, you can bet your last buck that he's do whatever he can to poison the well, prevent any bipartisan reconciliation, and force those military cuts through.

That'll teach the military and those who served their nation so loyally to fuck with Barack Obama...!

Sacrifice

The New York Times blog "At War"  reprints a photo (two, actually) and tells a profoundly sad tale, one so appropriate for Memorial Day:

Taken by the photographer Todd Heisler from his 2005 award-winning series for The Rocky Mountain News, “Jim Comes Home” — which documents the return and burial of Second Lt. Jim Cathey of the Marines, who lost his life in Iraq — the photo shows his pregnant widow, Katherine, lying on an air mattress in front of his coffin. She’s staring at her laptop, listening to songs that remind her of Jim. Her expression is vacant, her grief almost palpable.

....What brings the tears to my eyes is not just the bereaved young woman, but the Marine who stands behind her. In an earlier photo in the series, we see him building her a little nest of blankets on the air mattress. Sweet Lord, I cry just typing the words, the matter-of-fact tenderness is so overwhelming. So soldierly. But in this photo — the one that lives on and on online — he merely stands next to the coffin, watching over her. It is impossible to be unmoved by the juxtaposition of the eternal stone-faced warrior and the disheveled modern military wife-turned-widow, him rigid in his dress uniform, her on the floor in her blanket nest, wearing glasses and a baggy T-shirt, him nearly concealed by shadow while the pale blue light from the computer screen illuminates her like God’s own grace.


As I alluded to earlier, there is more to the story, and another photograph as well.  A precurser to the one above:

"Oh, sweetie," her friend said. "I think this is his plane." As the three young women peered through the tinted windows, Katherine squeezed a set of dog tags stamped with the same name as her unborn son:

James J. Cathey.

"He wasn't supposed to come home this way," she said, tightening her grip on the tags, which were linked by a necklace to her husband's wedding ring.

The women looked through the back window. Then the 23-year-old placed her hand on her pregnant belly.

"Everything that made me happy is on that plane," she said.

They watched as airport workers rolled a conveyor belt to the rear of the plane, followed by six solemn Marines.

Katherine turned from the window and closed her eyes.

"I don't want it to be dark right now. I wish it was daytime," she said. "I wish it was daytime for the rest of my life. The night is just too hard."

...When a young Marine in dress uniform had boarded the plane to Reno, the passengers smiled and nodded politely. None knew he had just come from the plane's cargo hold, after watching his best friend's casket loaded onboard.

On the flight, the woman sitting next to him nodded toward his uniform and asked if he was coming or going. To the war, she meant.

He fell back on the words the military had told him to say: "I'm escorting a fallen Marine home to his family from the situation in Iraq."

The woman quietly said she was sorry, Conley said.

Then she began to cry.

When the plane landed in Nevada, the pilot asked the passengers to remain seated while Conley disembarked alone. Then the pilot told them why.

The passengers pressed their faces against the windows. Outside, a procession walked toward the plane...

From their seats in the plane, they saw a hearse and a Marine extending a white-gloved hand into a limousine, helping a pregnant woman out of the car.

On the tarmac, Katherine Cathey wrapped her arm around the major's, steadying herself. Then her eyes locked on the cargo hold and the flag-draped casket.

Inside the plane, they couldn't hear the screams....


In between the beers and hot dogs today, take a moment and say a prayer for Katherine.  And baby James, too...