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Morning Whip, Jan. 30, 2010

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A (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention. (Yeah, it's possible I might have ADD . . .)

I surf the Web, so you don't have to!

Section One: The Word:
An occasional comment, rant, or snark, brought on by the flow of events:

OK . . . does anybody other than me detect the inherent contradiction reflected by this Reuters article title: Obama assails Republican foes, urges bipartisan effort? Would it help if I pointed out that Obama waited ONE ENTIRE FRICKIN' YEAR to have this meeting? Why shouldn't the Republicans feel just a bit miffed--at least? Obama has spent the entirety of the last year demonstrating by his actions that he and his party didn't give a rat's ass what the Republicans wanted, and had absolutely no interest in talking to them, hearing what they thought, or even paying them the simple courtesy of respect. Anybody remember "I Won?" But now, all of the sudden, Obama wants to play Mr. Bipartisan, and oh by the way, you Republicans are the bad guys?

Who held all the cards for the past year, Mr. President? Who sat in the White House? Who had 60 votes in the Senate? Who had an unassailable majority in the House?

If the Congressional Republicans were smart they'd tell Obama to take his "Bipartisanship" and stick it where the sun don't shine. This is your show, big guy, they would say, and it's been your show for the past year. If you can't do the job, it's not the Republican's fault.

Obama, you are headed down a road that will completely ruin the American economy. What you are doing has been tried before. It does not work. So yes, indeed, we hope you fail at that. You, sir, are not FDR, and this is not 1934. You are much more Herbert Hoover than you are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it's much more like 1930 than it is 1934, and a huge section of the American public knows it. (Oh, by the way, the New Deal was pretty much a disaster, too, extending the Great Depression by six long years (according to UCLA economists)--extending it by implementing precisely the same kind of policies you are inflicting on the country now. ) You don't know the right things to do to heal the American economy, and the things you think will help will wind up causing much, much more damage, and much, much more suffering for the people you were elected to serve. That's "elected to serve," not elected to reign over, by the way. So pull your nose down out of the sky and stop trying to look (and act) like Benito Mussolini.

See you in November, Il Duce.

More after the "read more" . . . Section Two: Things That Amuse Me:
2.1: Simians and other aminals*:
Empty, again. Nobody likes simians any more.
*Yes, I know it's "animals," it's just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

2.2: Travel:
Cruise Line Cuts Antigua Calls After Passenger Murder

2.3: Sports:
Summit Points (Jan. 29, 2010) - Notes from the Summit League . . .
(2) Kansas (19-1) at (11) Kansas State (17-3)
High-stakes games await Jackrabbits: Oral Roberts, SDSU to clash in Tulsa

2.4: Science Fiction and Writing:
Oh. I wish . . .

2.5: Miscellany:
Obama Girl Tells Hannity 'At Least I Wasn't The Edwards Girl' -- She had a really good point, there . . .
Moderately Overweight Elderly Live Longer?

2.6: Science, technology, and space:
Laser fusion test results raise energy hopes
The iPad's Unexpected, Hidden Peek at the Future of Computing
Apple Source: Adobe’s Flash Is “Too Buggy” For the iPad -- Actually, I can believe that. I'm not really that much of a Flash fan . . . it just seems too . . . intrusive for me to be completely comfortable with it . . .
White House: The new moon mission is canceled -- Let Burt Rutan and Richard Branson do it.
Pundits On The iPad’s Closed System: It’s Doom For PCs, No It’s Great

Section Three: The News, featuring Liberty And Its Enemies:
3.1: Strategy and tactics for defending human freedom and liberty:
By the Way, Free Markets Are Free
Campaign Finance Reform: A Libertarian Primer
Time to Add on Official Judicial Response to the SotU?
Video: Nick Gillespie makes libertarianism look pretty good
Transparency and openness, finally: The GOP & Obama Q&A show -- Assuming this ever happens again, I reserve the right to move future articles to the Enemies of Freedom section (a pox on both their houses) . . . because I'm pretty sure IT'S A TRAP!!!
Some thoughts on Obama, Alito, and the new war on the First Amendment
Obama to GOP: Don’t demonize me, teabaggers
Pull the Plug on This Program: No matter what happens in a State of the Union address, the opposition's official response is going to feel pathetic.
Liberator Tony Blair Stands Tall at Iraq Hearing- Takes Jab at Obama & Brown
Palin is framing the debate. “my common sense v your bullcrap” .


3.2: The reality of Obama and the Democrat leadership as blithering idiots:
Sessions: Obama was wrong to assail Supreme Court
Sarah Palin Obliterates Narcissist in Chief’s SOTU Address -- The term "evisceration" has been used. It's pretty brutal, and richly deserved by Barack . . .
Cato Institute, Rush Limbaugh Critique Obama's SOTU Lecture
Delayed Reaction to the State of the Union
Obama Letting It Ride on a Bad Bet
Try Googling It, Mr. President
Tit for Tat
A bit… petulant to cut 9/11 health funding, no? -- Yes, it does seem very much like we elected a petulant teenager as President . . .
Has Obama become bored with being president? -- President "Present."
Obama Decries Divisive Rhetoric, Says Healing Can Happen if Opponents Stop Being Such Effing D-bags
Obama At House Republican Retreat
Bush’s Third Term -- "CHANGE!!! . . . er . . . not so much, that is, if you can trust my words (which you can't) . . . "
Obama's Lost Decade
CBS: You know, Alito was right
Letting You Know About Some "Better Solutions" -- Another whack from the 'Cuda's Facebook nightstick . . .
Obama, Post-Partisan Blah-Blah-Blah -- "Hey, let's be non-partisan, and just agree, you guys suck and are being too partisan." See The Word above. Yeah. That's basically what his message to Republicans is . . . the question is, is the Stupid Party stupid enough to fall for this bullshit?
The Obamarang -- Good enough for extended quotation (it is Victor Davis Hanson, after all):


All politicians fudge on their promises. But this president manages to transcend the normal political exaggeration and dissimulation. Whereas past executives shaded the truth, Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is true, is a clear guide to what he will not do, and what is not true. It is as if “truth” is a mere problem of lesser mortals.

. . .
Here are four brief reasons. They are complementary, rather than mutually exclusive.

What are the reasons? Heh heh heh . . . click on the article!
Conservatives Deliver Ideas, Again, to President Obama -- Obama: the "don't confuse me with the facts" President . . .
Nevermind All Those Opposition Solutions; Obama's Opposition Has No Solutions! -- On the other hand, The Emperor Has No Clothes . . .
FDR Knew Better
Well, This Would Explain a Lot -- "The Globe" is no "National Enquirer" of course . . .
Scott Brown: 'People Aren't Stupid--And leaders should figure out they're better informed now than ever.' -- Why hasn't he taken his seat in the Senate yet?
The Center Can Be No-Man’s Land -- I like his idea about "The Steel Law of Bureaucracy" . . .
Duncan: Katrina Was The "Best Thing" for New Orleans School System -- Another argument for eliminating the Department of Education . . .

3.3: The reality of the Republican leadership as blithering idiots:
Scott Brown: Romney’s much cooler now than he used to be -- Romney is looking positively George-Washingtonian in the context of Obama . . .
RNC adopts watered-down “purity test” for Republican candidates -- Here's my "litmus test": 1) Do you believe that human freedom and individual liberty are the highest human political aspirations, and do you commit without reservation to supporting freedom and liberty in everything you do? 2) Do you interpret the U.S. Constitution by it's plain wording and original intent? It is unclear if the Republican Party passes this test. But I know with certainty the Democratic Party does not.

3.4: Opposition Research: The enemies of human freedom and liberty:
Wolf seeks Panther case dismissal probe -- Not about animals . . . well, possibly, in a sense, it is . . .
The Fannie And Freddy “Secret”
The Astroturf ‘Expert’
Obama Switches High-Speed Rail to Fast Track
High-speed half-truths from Washington
Is High Speed Rail Stimulus Spread Too Thin?
Obama's high-speed rail plan: Which states get the money? -- Why yes, in fact, "high speed rail" is a collectivist boondoggle. If it made any rational sense at all, a private company would have already done it (assuming that the government had gotten the hell out of the way). The fact is that high speed rail makes ZERO economic sense in the United States. (It also makes zero sense almost everywhere else in the world it's operating, but that's collectivism for you--it sees a pretty, shiny thing, and it wants it!)
The Human Filth of Politics, as Conveyed in Two Book Reviews -- You could say politicians and journalists deserve each other. Too bad they have to include the rest of us . . .
Too Late, SEIU -- Trying to culture-jam the Tea Party movement . . .
Class War: How public servants became our masters -- Corruption. Just another kind of corruption.
ANGRY Obama Lashes Out at House Republicans– Tells Them “I Am Not an Ideologue” (Video) -- Then, Sir, STOP ACTING LIKE ONE.
The Power of Women and Life
Another good reason to use transparency rather than McCain-Feingold for reform
WSJ: Rumors Fly That Crist May Switch Parties
Selective Freedom of Speech on the Left and the Right
Variety’s Todd McCarthy: Why No Conservative Docs at Sundance? -- Because they Don't Fit The Narrative, that's why . . .
TROLL DISSECTION 101: Can You Spot And Counter Troll Comments?
Broadband For All, or Bigger Government?
Confirmed: “Tea Party Is Over” Website Is Funded By SEIU -- Another "false flag" operation from our lying bastard SOBs on the left . . . I guess lying about who you really are never gets old to these people . . .
On What Freaking Basis? -- "Light rail" is as stupid an idea as "high-speed rail" is--and they're both stupid.
"[P]eople ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president..."-- There are two schools of thought on Obama: One--he's a blithering idiot; Two--he's an ideological neo-Marxist collectivist. The two are not mutually exclusive and in fact are often found together. (Oh, there's another school of thought--that he actually knows what he's doing, but evidence does not support that assertion in the slightest.)
An Open Letter to Anyone Attacked By Trolls and PUMA Hunters -- Another quote-worthy link:

We believe, as these connections are revealed, the parties involved in coordinating these attacks across state lines and national borders could be charged under RICO statutes. Anyone assisting them at the DNC would also be culpable. If anyone in elected office is in any way connected with personal attacks upon American private citizens, then voters need to know about this involvement before the next election.
If you are an Obama supporter who has called anyone a racist or engaged in attacks upon that person, and you are reading this, we suggest you take down everything you did to attack that person. If you are a regular at Daily Kos or DemocraticUndergrond, we suggest you advise your cohorts there to cease and desist their libelous attacks, lest they join Mr. O’Sullivan in Birmingham as a co-defendent as this case moves forward.

The Hillbuzz guys have declared open season on collectivist/leftist hate-mongers. And about time, too.
No plans for Hillary Clinton to attend another SOTU (until she delivers it herself) -- I remain unconvinced that Hillary isn't a collectivist, although she's undoubtedly a much smarter politician than Obama is . . .
Question: is one of the world’s largest advertising firms being paid by the DNC to attack moderate Democrats?
Obama Turns On the N.Y. Banks -- He and his kind turn on everybody, in the end . . . that is the sad lesson of history . . .
Why Elitists Fail
In Davos, regulators tell bankers new rules coming

3.5: Media bias--and incompetence:
Statement from James O’Keefe -- The needle moves toward "Stupid, naive kid who was set up" . . .
Keith Olbermann has another meltdown — calls anyone criticizing Obama a RAAACIST! -- Why does Keith Olbermann still have a job at a national cable network? Why hasn't MSNBC fired him yet?
“The New Foundation” -- They are coming for you and for everything you have and hold dear. Are you ready to hold them off, or will you welcome them with open arms?

3.6: Fear The 'Cuda--A spotlight on Citizen Palin, who really needs to find a better phrase than "Common-sense conservatism" to describe her philosophy:
Conservatives 4 Palin --Semi-permanent link for Palinmania . . .

3.7: "Global warming" aka "Climate change" -- or should that be "Climate Reform?":
Climategate: The Shaming of “Scientific American”
Warmists Gain New Ally
Ice in Chinese ports “exceeding anything experienced in 30 years”
Full Disclosure -- The SEC ruling that companies must disclose the risks of "climate change" could produce all manner of entertaining, unanticipated consequences for our Green/collectivist friends . . . shareholder lawsuits are a *censored* . . .

3.8: Health care "reform" aka health insurance "reform" -- or should that be health care "change?" Perhaps "Global healthing?:
Health care moves to back burner It ain't dead. It's central to collectivist plans to control--well--everything.
Democrats’ Health Care Plans Come at High Cost to the Young
Congress’ New Secret Plan to Pass ObamaCare – The Nuclear Option
Mental Health Parity for Insurance -- I don't even understand what "Mental Health Parity" is, let alone why the government should be mandating it . . .

3.9: The Economy:
Fourth-quarter GDP 5.7% -- Restocking inventories, mostly . . .
Obama unveils $33 billion tax credit to boost jobs -- Small business hasn't wanted to spend money, Genius, because you Democrats have utterly terrified them with your health care schemes and your spendthrift "Stimulus" irresponsibility . . . these cretins have absolutely no idea where wealth comes from . . . here, I'll let an actual real live small business owner tell you in the next link . . .
Economic Stimulus -- "If Obama really wanted to get small businesses to start investing again, he could announce that both cap-and-trade and the health care bill are dead-dead and will not be disinterred this year. These two bills affect nearly 2/3 of our company’s cost structure. "
A huge fourth quarter for our economy
Big jump in GDP may veil weakness in economy
Obama’s State of the Union Address Dampens Hope for a Real Budget Action
Gov't economic reports not designed for downturns
GDP Is Up, But Government Unions Ate Your Raise

3.10: Foreign affairs and National Security:
The George W. Obama Administration’s Foreign Policy
Momentum building for blocking terrorist trials?
Russian Stealth Fighter Takes to The Skies
A Shrinking Navy
Russia's Military Shopping Spree Raises Specter Of Gunboat Diplomacy