October 09, 2009

Who Nominated Obama For a Nobel Just Nine Days In?

Only the shadow knows...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:57 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sure Sounds Familiar

Lots of acclaim, and undeserved kudos that became an embarrassment.

I was just ahead of my time...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:30 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ig-Nobel

In a travesty out of Oslo, hope defeated change as Presidential candidate Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today for precisely no accomplishments. Obama took office less than two weeks before the February 1 nomination deadline.

Noel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland was pressed by the media to explain why Obama deserved the award, and could only offer this defense.

As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, he said: "We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do."

The prize committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama's diplomatic efforts so far rather than anticipate events in the future.

Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for President.

Good. Grief.

Update: With their typical dissembling, Media Matters links to this post and claims it represents "open disdain for American achievement under Obama. "

I, along with the rest of the world, can only ask, what achievement under Obama?

If the President had actual accomplished something of note in the twelve days of his Presidency before the Nobel nominating deadline passed, he would have at least some argument in favor of his award. As it presently stands, he was given the award for rhetoric. This awarding of the Peace Prize to Obama dishonors those who have done far more in the cause of peace than running a self-serving political campaign full of empty promises.

Even Obama—ever the narcissist—admits he is unworthy of the award:

I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize.

Being a liberal, however, he gladly took what he admittedly didn't deserve.

It would have been a mark of class if the President agreed with the rest of the world and declined an honor he admittedly didn't earn as an acknowledgment to those who risked so much more in the name of peace.

But that is asking too much of a man who has delivered so little.

Update: Verum Serum brings the Media Matters lapdog to heel, while the DNC wets themselves.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:24 AM | Comments (38) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 08, 2009

Fake Mais Précis

Apparently, the Obama's questionable taste in art includes a penchant for frauds.

Alma Thomas' 1963 "Watusi (Hard Edge)" is unmistakably a knock-off of Henrí Matisse's 1953 "L'Escargot." No, I'm not an art buff, the symmetry is uncanny, and forms a near-perfect overlay.

In other news, Michelle Malkin is plagiarizing my original.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:12 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Internet Can Now End

There is simply no way to top this Bulwer-Lytton-quality line from Mark Steyn:

The State Department really ought to issue travel advisories warning visitors to the United Kingdom about cage-fighting transvestites and poisoned curries from gay tripedal-catnappers.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:40 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

WONDERFUL: Obama Administration Too Stupid/Lazy to Understand COIN; Now Waffles

It seems that the most brilliant President evah and the rest of his Administration are now claiming that they bought into counter-insurgency (COIN) doctrine for Afghanistan without, uh, bothering to understand what it meant:

To some civilians who participated in the strategic review, that conclusion was much less clear. Some took it as inevitable that more troops would be needed, but others thought the thrust of the new approach was to send over scores more diplomats and reconstruction experts. They figured a counterinsurgency mission could be accomplished with the forces already in the country, plus the 17,000 new troops Obama had authorized in February.

"It was easy to say, 'Hey, I support COIN,' because nobody had done the assessment of what it would really take, and nobody had thought through whether we want to do what it takes," said one senior civilian administration official who participated in the review, using the shorthand for counterinsurgency.

The failure to reach a shared understanding of the resources required to execute the strategy has complicated the White House's response to the grim assessment of the war by the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, forcing the president to decide, in effect, what his administration really meant when it endorsed a counterinsurgency plan. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's follow-up request for more forces, which presents a range of options but makes clear that the best chance of achieving the administration's goals requires an additional 40,000 U.S. troops on top of the 68,000 who are already there, has given senior members of Obama's national security team "a case of sticker shock," the administration official said.

Government officials could be forgiven for not understanding what COIN entails... in 2003. But a model of COIN doctrine similar that proposed for Afghanistan has been tested and proven in Iraq over the past several years. There will be some specific tweaks to the doctrine proposed for Afghanistan based upon differing human factors and tactical and strategic goals, but the basic components, theories, manpower levels and logistics are not dissimilar.

Now claiming that they didn't understand the cost of COIN reveals that the Obama Administration simply failed to do their due diligence:

This is a damning indictment of the President and his lack of preparation for the job, but it goes farther than that. Obama has essentially been "on the job" since the transition, which started eleven months ago. Considering the priority of any policy that puts American men and women in battle, Obama should have worked to understand the implications of his COIN solution from Day 1 in the transition, if not Day 1 of his term in office. He appointed McChrystal for this specific purpose in the spring without bothering to understand the concepts and the resources required for COIN.

In other words, Obama has half-assed it, and has gotten caught.

Laziness and a "can do... nothing" attitude is steadily becoming the hallmark of an Administration that seems far more interested in appearing on talk shows or making campaign speeches that exerting actual leadership decisions.

The Peter Principle Presidency continues to underperform.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:27 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

RDU Acclaimed as #1 in Daily Beast America's Smartest Cities Ranking

Obviously, they chose to forget the IQ displayed by Duke University's Gang of 88, but overall, I agree with their assessment.

I've been working in the Research Triangle Park most of my adult life and have worked with and for some brilliant companies (including my current employer), and advanced degrees are commonplace. Combine that with the overall culture and climate, and it's a tough place to bet against.

That said, their methodology is questionable, even as it is flattering.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:53 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Infamous Pistol-Toting Soccer Mom Victim of Murder-Suicide

Meleanie Hain, who made the news last year after open-carrying to a youth soccer game and having her permit revoked and later reinstated, was shot and killed last night in an apparent murder-suicide:

A Lebanon woman who gained national notoriety last year as a champion of Second Amendment rights after she brought her loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game was shot and killed Wednesday night in an apparent murder-suicide.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott Hain, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. after a two-hour standoff with police outside their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street. The episode ended quietly when police entered the house after trying to make contact with anyone inside.

No cause of death was announced, and autopsies were scheduled for today, said Yocum.

Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright was guarded with information as detectives began the preliminary stages of the investigation late Wednesday night. He acknowledged that the Hains were both found dead and had suffered gunshot wounds inside their 1 ½-story brick home in a quiet neighborhood in Lebanon's southside. He would not provide any additional details, other than to say that police do not feel any other people were involved.

District Attorney David Arnold, who was at the scene, refused to comment.

Several neighbors said they heard or saw the couple's children run from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 Center was called at 6:20 p.m.

Murder-suicides are among the most selfish of crimes, often depriving children of both parents and destroying their childhoods and their ability to trust and relate to others during their formative years.

Like the murder-attempted suicide that took place in my town yesterday morning, my thoughts and prayers go out to the traumatized children first and foremost as I wonder what can turn "love" into such selfish, family-destroying hate.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:07 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 07, 2009

The CBO Non-Estimate of the Baucus Non-Bill

Democrats in the Senate and the media keep talking about the so-called "Baucus Bill," Sen. Max Baucus' attempt at something vaguely like a Senate health care bill. But is isn't a health care bill; it's merely an outline.

There is no substance to it, no legislation to vote on, a fact made abundantly clear in the first paragraph of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of this pipe-dream:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint
Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed a preliminary analysis of the
Chairman’s mark for the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009,
incorporating the amendments that have been adopted to date by the
Committee on Finance. That analysis reflects the specifications posted on
the committee's Web site on October 2, 2009, corrections posted on
October 5, and additional clarifications provided by the staff of the
committee through October 6. CBO and JCT's analysis is preliminary in
large part because the Chairman’s mark, as amended, has not yet been
embodied in legislative language.

In plain English, the CBO released a fantasy estimate based upon non-existent legislation. With no actual language in place, the CBO estimate is worthless as budget document, even if it has proven a very useful diversion for those trying to force socialized health care upon a nation that clearly doesn't want it.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:59 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

In Chicago, Blameshifting on Youth Violence Continues

Loyal Bloomberg employee John McCormick certainly knows who signs his paycheck. McCormick's article Chicago Violence Haunts Obama as Gun-Control Backers Left Cold laments the fact that when U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder meet with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley today, they won't be able to blame Chicago's most recent and high profile youth death on firearms.

Honor student Derrion Albert was beaten to death with splinted railroad ties on September 24 by other youths in a crime that was captured on cell phone video and broadcast around the world.

Gun control vultures are predictably dismayed that they cannot use Albert's young corpse as a prop:

Some gun-control advocates question the administration's timing as Duncan and Holder arrive after a highly publicized beating that didn't involve a gun.

Missed Opportunities

"Where there have been opportunities for the president to speak out about the issue of firearm violence, he has missed any number of opportunities," said Thom Mannard, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

Doing so in the Albert case "provides the cover" to address youth violence without confronting the gun lobby, said Mannard, whose group's board of directors included Duncan until he left for his current post.

Groups like the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign have a structural flaw in their basic underlying philosophy. They have deluded themselves into thinking that a banning a device (a firearm) will somehow mitigate the cultural problem of violence in certain groups. It doesn't work that way, as Derrion Albert's death at the hands of an angry mob of his peers so readily proved.

A subculture that accepts, embraces, and glorifies violence in their entertainment (music, video games, television shows, movies, etc) unsurprisingly develops and nurtures individuals and groups that accept, embrace, and glorifies violence in the real world. Individuals so desensitized to violence find it socially acceptable—in many instances expected—to affect violence upon others with found objects, homemade weaponry, or their fists and feet.

Put bluntly, most pay lip service to the idea of quelling violence, but none are willing to face the fierce opposition that will arise when the offending subcultures are named, nor are they willing to face the economic backlash of taking on industries that make billions profiteering off the glorification of this lifestyle.

Such reflection is necessary for change, but interests that thrive of the status quo—Hollywood, record companies, clothing manufacturers, professional victims advocates, politicians, lobbyists, etc.—have no motivation to cut their own profits merely because urban youth are killing themselves in neighborhoods they will never visit.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:14 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 06, 2009

Blogger: Ayers Admitted Authoring Obama's Dreams from my Father

The meeting seems semi-verified by the existence of the photo.

Ayers blurting out that he wrote Dreams to the first conservative blogger he ran across seems much more suspect, but still plausible if Ayers merely wanted to jerk Anne Leary around.

Actually, seriously claiming authorship?

I doubt it.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:21 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Shovel-Ready

Writing in Tina Brown's Daily Beast, Conor Friedersdorf takes issue with the success of Andrew Breitbart's media outlets, claiming that Breitbart should try to meet the standards of the... New York Times?

Andrew Breitbart is the man in the middle of the current madness. Credit him for sponsoring Big Government, the site that broke the ACORN story and prompted the Times to begin monitoring breaking news on partisan sites. These are substantial accomplishments that improve the state of journalism.

But Mr. Breitbart's role hardly ends there.

As a proprietor of Big Government and Big Hollywood, part of the team that runs The Drudge Report, and a regular guest on Fox News, especially Sean Hannity's show, he is a leader among folks who complain that the Times is a pernicious force in American life—that it ignores stories that cut against its ideological bent, too often makes mistakes in its reporting, and gives insufficient consideration to ideological insights other than those held by its staff. This is somewhat odd given that Mr. Breitbart's media empire, and the outlets with which he most closely associates himself, are thoroughly ideological enterprises, publish few if any ideologically heterodox pieces, seldom if ever correct factual mistakes, and ignore liberal insights entirely.

Friedersdorf's screed is daft, to put it mildly.

The idea of an unbiased, objective media is a late 20th century invention proffered primarily by those within the media establishment that wanted to continue to push their ideas and ideals without being challenged by upstarts.

Sadly for Mr. Friedersdorf, that illusion was dashed long ago, mostly due to the heavy liberal bias that manifested itself time and again not just in how a story was covered, but which stories were covered to the exclusion of others.

What Breitbart's various sites provide are platforms for a center-right view of the world, with insights every bit as valid as those that the left-leaning media tries to sell. Apparently, the idea of a free marketplace of ideas isn't one critics admire once put into actual practice.

Are Big Government and Big Hollywood ideologically-driven? Unreservedly. But more importantly, Breitbart's sites all wear their viewpoint unabashedly on their proverbial sleeves... if only the Times and other news outlets weakly feigning objectivity would display such intellectual honesty!

But honesty is not part of their business model, nor is objectivity, nor is competence, or accuracy. If he thinks otherwise, Mr. Friedersdorf may need to check the prescription on his rose-colored glasses.

That said, Friedersdorf's hissy fit at the building of a conservative media empire that provides an alternative to the worldview he would like to protect is hardly surprising.

His specific criticisms, however, are amusing, especially coming from someone who writes at the Atlantic, home to infamous Trig Truther, hypocrite and ideologue Andrew Sullivan.

The temerity to criticize conservative media for inaccuracies and bias is laughable considering the dismal track record of the left-leaning legacy media, but the fact that Friedersdorf published his thoughts in Tina Brown's Daily Beast—the left-leaning, status quo-defending, botoxed and digitized old media-with-a-new-face—is even more ripe, considering that Brown's own husband abused the Beast in an article full of half-truths and outright lies that Brown refused to retract or correct.

Both old and new media have significant room for improvement, but demanding that a successful and growing enterprise follow the example of a legacy media spiraling into the ground is, quite frankly, absurd.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:57 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 05, 2009

Forget the Baby Steps Towards Fascism: Obama Administration Attacks Free Speech at United Nations

The old belief was that totalitarianism was effected in small bites, cutting off the fringes until only a tiny center remained, which was quickly overwhelmed. Such a thought was behind the famous construct of "First they came for..."

Our present Administration is foregoing that approach to totalitarianism. Instead, they've gone full-bore against our most cherished right, joining with an oppressive Egyptian regime to craft a resolution limits freedom of speech.

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.

President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president's penchant for "engagement" as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America's most treasured freedom.

For more than a decade, a UN resolution on the freedom of expression was shepherded through the Council, and the now defunct Commission on Human Rights which it replaced, by Canada. Over the years, Canada tried mightily to garner consensus on certain minimum standards, but the "reformed" Council changed the distribution of seats on the UN's lead human rights body. In 2008, against the backdrop of the publication of images of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, Cuba and various Islamic countries destroyed the consensus and rammed through an amendment which introduced a limit on any speech they claimed was an "abuse . . . [that] constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination."

The Obama administration decided that a revamped freedom of expression resolution, extracted from Canadian hands, would be an ideal emblem for its new engagement policy. So it cosponsored a resolution on the subject with none other than Egypt--a country characterized by an absence of freedom of expression.

What a disgrace.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:43 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Obama Residency

In well-written post on Saturday, Donald Sensing (via Instapundit) refers to our current disaster at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as the "Maye West presidency."

He explores other opinions about Barack Obama, and builds a compelling argument that we are presently saddled with a POTUS that is a narcissist that has risen well beyond his level of competency.

We have a President that loves campaigning and making speeches, but who is in far over his head, and who does not have the leadership skills or experience to do the job. Barack Obama has had only one previous executive role in his life. He was the titular figurehead of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which failed in its mission and was shut down.

So far as President, he has no notable successes, and in matters of real importance, he has either stood on the sidelines as a junior varsity punter (health care, the failed "stimulus," cap-and-tax), or has refused to suit up at all (war in Afghanistan, Iranian nuclear program).

Notes Sensing:

As others have exhaustively pointed out, there is nothing at all in Obama's resume that shows he ever made highly difficult decisions that depended, at the end, on his own personal reservoir of wisdom and experience. So he does not tackle the inbox because its contents are above his competence. (One is reminded of Obama telling Rick Warren that when an unborn child gets human rights is "above my pay grade." He tends instead to lesser matters that match his lower level of competence and gratifyingly feed the ego. And so he flies to Copenhagen to deliver a speech of no significance on a matter of no consequence. Why? Because he can do that - simply standing in front of a crowd reading eloquently from a teleprompter he can handle quite well.

We have a President who cannot do his job, and what's worse, a Vice President that has to be reminded not to eat paint chips giving his boss advice.

As his action—and inactions—slowly but surely separate the hype from the substance of the man, it becomes ever more apparent that the ever-present stylized "O" logo and the on-going campaign slogan of "Hope and Change" are being replaced in the minds of those who soberly assess the compounding failures of this President, and find an old image and slogan far more accurate, and ominous.

Duck and Cover

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:08 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

UnManned Handgun Attacks, Wounds Three

Tales of the gun weird:

Michael Thourot had just pulled his hand away from the warm metal when it started spewing bullets.

Moments before, Sherri Thourot had watched her husband fire and reload the Jennings 9mm. Then he set it down for her to shoot next at the range.

That's when the handgun started firing on its own, she said, spinning around in circles, landing the Thourots and an Irish tourist in the hospital.

"Nothing like that has ever happened," said Sherri Thourot on Sunday evening from her room at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:54 AM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

She's the One

Ann Althouse saw Michael Moore's new movie.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:36 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 02, 2009

Alert Janet Napolitano: Right Wing Terrorist Arrested in Texas

Did I say right wing? I meant incompetent radical left-wing eco-terrorist:

Former California resident Stephen James Murphy was taken into custody at his home in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, said FBI Los Angeles director Keith Bolcar in a release about the arrest.

Murphy was named in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles charging him with the 2006 attempted arson of unfinished townhouses in Pasadena, Calif., according to Bolcar.

On Sept. 19, 2006, the Pasadena Fire Department was called to the townhouse construction site after a "crude incendiary device" made out of cigarettes was discovered there, according to the complaint. The device failed to go off.

Construction workers couldn't start one of the tractors and noticed a message written in marker on the side that read, "ANOTHER TRACTOR DECOMMISSIONED BY THE E.L.F." — a reference to the Earth Liberation Front, an environmental extremist group.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:11 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Everything's a Nail: Lefty Blogger Blames Bush For Failure of Chicago Olympic Bid

It would be comedic if it wasn't so dead serious:

No doubt the President was sincere, but it's been quite a while since America has been "at its best," thanks to the Bush Administration. Why would anyone believe that the United States will indeed "make sure that all visitors would feel welcome," given our track record over the past eight years with regard to burdens placed on anyone who seeks a visa, the possibility of inquisitions (and being turned back) even upon arrival, vulnerability to "terrorist lists" that have a proven degree of unreliability, etc.? This is really a stunning rebuke of the United States, given the willingness of both Obamas to put themselves on the line. He's going to have to generate far more "change everyone can believe in" before the US will be chosen as a venue for an event like the Olympics (and properly so). And how confident can we be that he will be willing to take on the Glenn Becks, Rush Limbaughs, and other Republican demagogues (many of them in the House and the Senate) to reduce the burdens placed on foreign visitors?

Bush, Limbaugh and Beck... it's like they have a deflection template stored on their desktops that they can bring ready to blame their favorite bogeymen for any and all failures of the Administration, with fill-in-the-blank issues.

That much of the world considered Chicago a serious contender for the final two slots and only failed after the Obamas interjected themselves is a matter that the President's sycophants simply are not equipped to handle.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:34 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

NOBAMA! Chicago Ousted in First Round of Olympic Voting

Via the Beeb:

1625: Well, isn't that a turn up for the books? Chicago are eliminated in the first round - cue audible gasps around the auditorium - and a second round of voting opens immediately.

CHICAGO DROPS OUT OF THE 2016 HOST CITY VOTING PROCESS

1623: The vote closes and the scrutineers are now checking the results. If there is no majority for one city, remember, the city with the least votes will drop out and another vote will take place.

1622: The first round of voting for the 2016 Olympic Games host city is declared open.

Incoming Media Reactions:
"...a stunning defeat for the city that was expected to be one of the two finalists..."

"...the "biggest shock in IOC history."

"...a surprisingly early exit..."

"...stunned silence..."

CNN, for their part, quickly buried their gushing (and now obviously inaccurate) Michelle Obama steals the show in Copenhagen

Update: Comment of the day (so far).

I hear when the IOC announced the first city out was Chicago, you can hear somebody in the room yelling, "YOU LIE!"

And finally, via Cuffy Meigs:

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:31 AM | Comments (28) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Women Had Sex with Letterman?

I think the extortionist picked the wrong target.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:48 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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