Just for fun - What American accent do you have ??

Take the quiz here.

It nailed my Philly accent. Yo!

National Sovereignty Day in Iraq

Iraq celebrates.

Made possible by the grit and determination of the US military; the greatest force for good the world has ever seen. And by the political courage of this man:



He was right; the surge worked and a fragile democracy is in its infancy in the Middle East.

The media, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and, most notably, President Hopenchange were wrong when they said the war was lost back in 2006. Many Iraqis should be grateful that Bush stood by his convictions.

Birds of a feather

Courtesy of Investor's Business Daily

Maybe there are reasons for hope

A new Gallup poll finds that 46% of Americans find the Democratic party "too liberal". Gallup's interpretation of their polling data:

The Democratic Party continues to hold the upper hand over the Republican Party in the current U.S. political environment by a variety of measures, including party identification and party favorable ratings. However, compared to last year, Americans are significantly more likely to see the Democratic Party as too liberal, and as a result, they are somewhat more likely to view the party as being too far left than to perceive the Republican Party as too far right. That may expose a bit of a vulnerability for the Democratic Party, and if perceptions of the Democratic Party as being too liberal continue to grow, the GOP may be able to win back some of the support it has lost in recent years. But that may be possible only if the Republicans are at the same time able to convince the public that they are not too far to the political right.

Senator Stuart Smalley

As if the news couldn't get any better today...the Minnesota Supreme Court has certified Al Franken the winner of last November's Senate race.

Hey Minnesota, I know it's cold there, but did your brains freeze?? You should be deeply ashamed.

Ummm, should we be concerned??

There is a Financial Times article about the decision to officially kill off the "war on terror" moniker. You may recall the idea of simply calling events "man-caused" disasters. (Sort of like the election of this administration.) But in the article there is this little nugget:

Ms Napolitano, who arrived on Monday night in the UK, said she was hoping to learn from her British counterparts, and others, how to improve public “resiliency” to terrorist attacks. “You have got to minimise risk and respond with resiliency – there are lessons to be learned from other countries and the UK is one of them,” she said. [emphasis mine]

Improve public resiliency ?? Really; this is what we need to study ?!? Sounds awful close to "just shut up and take it."

"Thank you sir, may I have another"

Dissent isn't patriotic anymore

For eight years we were constantly reminded that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism". Of course that was when Republicans ran the show. Now dissent is just another form of terrorism according to the Speaker of the California Assembly, Karen Bass.

Q: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work?

A: The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair.

Where to even begin in evaluating the ignorance and arrogance of this statement. Seeking redress from your government and exercising your right to free speech are now terrorism. And any though of actual being accountable to your constituency is unfair; can't let the concerns of the little people interfere with your lordly designs.

And this ignoramus is the Speaker ?!? California is f#@#*ed !!!

Publicly hed US government debt to reach 82% of GDP in 10 years

Some great news from the Congressional Budget Office to start the day. From the U.S. News and World Report summary:

The Congressional Budget Office has just released two reports--one on Obama's budget, the other on the long-term fiscal outlook--that give some more concrete numbers on the coming growth of both the annual deficit and the long-term debt. Of course, it's nothing new that America isn't in great fiscal shape, but attaching numbers to that realization is necessary to really comprehend what's going on.

The CBO finds that under President Obama's budget, the deficit would be $9.9 trillion, or 9.9 percent of GDP, in 2009. Accompanying this, the CBO also finds the total debt held by the public to rise from 57 percent of GDP in 2009 to 82 percent (!) of GDP in 2019.

Apparently, CBO Director, Douglas Elmendorf, has a blog (who doesn't?) and his related entry concludes that current fiscal policy is unsustainable (big surprise) and that something has to be done now!

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path—meaning that federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the U.S. population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario. Unless tax revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits and accumulating debt. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress income growth in the United States.

Keeping deficits and debt from reaching levels that could cause substantial harm to the economy would require increasing revenues significantly as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two. Making such changes sooner rather than later would lessen the risks that current fiscal policy poses to the economy. Although the policy choices that will be necessary are difficult, CBO’s long-term budget projections make clear that doing nothing is not an option: Legislation must ultimately be adopted that raises revenue or reduces spending or both. Moreover, delaying action simply exacerbates the challenge, as is discussed in the report.

Wise Latina is maybe not so wise

The Supreme Court sides with the white firefighters in the Ricci case. The opinion is linked here. I have not had a chance to read it.

UPDATE:
Meant to include that although the opinion was a 5-4 decision, all nine justices agreed that Sotomayor was wrong in her grant of summary judgment in favor of New Haven.

So, Obama doesn't mind "meddling" in the internal affairs of some countries.

This time in Honduras . Now even foreign policy positions come with an expiration date.

The Honduran military on Sunday ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica - an action rejected by much of the world, including the United States and its sometimes foe, Venezuela.

The apparent catalyst for the coup came last week when Mr. Zelaya decided to go ahead with a nationwide referendum on whether he could purse a second term in office. Honduran electoral law limits leaders to one four-year term.

Though the referendum vote was neither sanctioned by Honduran congressional leaders nor deemed legal by the country's Supreme Court, Mr. Zelaya scheduled the vote for Sunday. He further antagonized the country's elite by trying to fire the head of the Honduran military, which promptly retaliated against him.

In an unusual concurrence of views, the Obama administration and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said they still recognized Mr. Zelaya as Honduras' president. The State Department called the events an "attempted coup" and urged Mr. Zelaya's "return and restoration of democratic order."

And he aligns himself with Castro, Ortega and Chavez in the process. Zelaya tries to extend his term through an illegal referendum which was shut down by the Honduran military: and we call it a "coup". Just awesome!!

Of course Obama is again "deeply concerned" .

Geez, I leave you people alone for a couple of days ...

I had to go out of town to my daughter's beach soccer tourney in Wildwood, NJ (props to the Cape Express Soccer Club for a first rate tournament) and what happens... everything's gone to pot. Cap and tax passes; as does Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Jacko and even Billy Mays; Honduras implodes and Ahmedinejad sticks his finger in Obama's eye.

Cool optical illusion

Emailed by a friend. (I actually do have a few that can stand me.)

Believe it or not, the green and blue swirls below are really the same color.



Understand how it works here.

Mark Sanford implodes

Well there is now one less '12 hopeful. The Houdini act was flaky. But an affair in Argentina will be fatal. Any over/under on the days until resignation?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac asked to loosen condo lending rules

Banking Queen, Bawney Fwank, has learned nothing from the current financial crisis or how we got hear. He and fellow dem Anthony Weiner want to loosen their recently tightened lending standards.

In March, Fannie Mae (FNM.N)(FNM.P) said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent, the paper said. Freddie Mac (FRE.P)(FRE.N) is due to implement similar policies next month, the paper said.

In a letter to the CEO's of both companies, Representatives Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner warned that a 70 percent sales threshold "may be too onerous" and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.

This is the same Bawney Fwank that told George Bush there was no need to tighten regulations because they were oh so sound. Of course since these entities are nothing more than Democrat piggy banks this will probably happen.

Cap and tax works for me

In the America of Obama, groups are pitted against each other for their share at the public trough. Cap and tax is no exception. In that spirit, as a NJ resident I like the way cap and tax works based upon the chart linked here .Most of you poor bastards will be paying my electric bill. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!

Provided by the boys at PowerLine.