Long-time readers know I’m lukewarm at best towards Jim Cramer, primarily because of his failure to see through the statism that is hard-wired into the Democratic Party.
But until we get the economy moving again, I think everybody wishes that Obama would just kind of go away for a little bit.
As he “goes away,” Obama needs to take Pelosi and Reid with him. Then maybe, just maybe, the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy, which they have inflicted on us for the past 12 months, will go away too.
Original Text of Taken-down vid (that’s why they’re transcribed :–>) –
Off-camera questioner: Is everything okay?
Fisher: I just don’t like being filmed at 1:12 in the morning, when I’m exhausted and I’m trying to do something. …. (unintelligble)
Off-camera questioner: I apologize, but this is what you signed up for, it’s truthful and honest here …. This is …. all right?
Fisher:(following crosstalk and mumbling) I do not think that we have a clear, concise, memorable message in this campaign. And it is eating at me every day. And I cannot go to sleep until I send this memo tonight to some of my friends in the campaign saying to them, “It’s time that we clearly hone our message,” and make it clear (vid cuts off)
Yes, it’s an absolute laugh riot.
But getting to the lesson, what Fisher is really telling us, despite the facade, is that he doesn’t have a message, and that he’s still trying to figure out what he should pretend to believe so he can be victorious.
You doubt? Look at Fisher’s cynical flip-flop on gay marriage. If you’re in your late 50s and still have to wrestle with where you stand on this at least 13 year-old issue, chances are you have no core except the desire for power, and that you’ll “believe” whatever you need to believe to win.
That’s the fundamental left-right political campaigning divide in a nutshell.
Leftist politicians know that the large majority of the voting public can’t stomach their true beliefs, so they “hone their message” to most effectively fool ‘em, while co-opting the sympathetic media elite.
Sensible conservative politicians start with the comforting proposition that they are in the single largest ideological group by far (“moderate” is NOT an ideology). They already know their message; all they have to do is figure out how to best reach their presumptive supporters while, sadly, maneuvering through or around the media elite’s filter and fighting the other side’s (that would be their opponents’ and the media’s) lies.
Exit request: Nothing personal, but I think I speak for more than a few Ohioans when I express a sincere wish that Fisher’s Democratic Primary opponent, Jennifer Brunner, resist the urge to do a copycat vid.
UPDATE: While Fisher engages, intentionally or not, in pectoral electoral poses, the verdict on his performance as Ohio’s Director of Economic Development, as well as the damage done to the Buckeye State by the creators of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy, is in from Uncle Sam’s Bureaus of Labor Statistics.
Ohio’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May was 10.8%, up from 6.3% in May 2008, the month before the POR Economy began. Not seasonally adjusted, it was 10.4%, up from 5.6% a year earlier.
Neil Cavuto interviewed Lou “God Bless Him” Pritchett yesterday. The transcript is here.
Michelle Malkin has the goods on Michelle Obama,patient-dumper.
“Big News” (HT Hot Air Headlines) — “Pick for Protocol Post Corrects Failure to File Taxes in 2 Years.” Well, actually not so big — “A version of this article appeared in print on June 19, 2009, on page A18 of the New York edition.” Yep, that’s where it is, complete with this howler: “Tax issues have bedeviled several high-level Obama appointees and cost the administration at least two of its picks.” It’s as if these “issues” are diseases that came out of nowhere.
At the Politico — “President Barack Obama’s strict ban on lobbyist contributions will limit the haul from Thursday night’s fundraising dinner for congressional Democrats, but organizers have found a way around it: a morning-after event at the same hotel where lobbyists — and their money — will be welcomed with open arms.” One lobbyist’s complains of being treated “like the ugly girl that you want to call late at night — but don’t want to be seen with on a date.” No, it’s more like the mistress you hope the wife — in this analogy, the voter — doesn’t discover.
Hmmm — “The challenge to TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky’s authority came as he began an investigation of the (Treasury) department’s role in approving bonuses to executives of insurance giant AIG, sources say.” Just a reminder: This refers to the incident where Tax Cheat Tim Giethner was shown beyond doubt to be a Proven Liar.
Earlier today, Julia A. Seymour of the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute (BMI) pointed to a fact-check done by her group showing that “from January 20 to June 16 those quoted in health care stories on ABC’s morning and evening news shows favored ObamaCare by a 3-to-1 margin (55 supporters to 18 critics).”
You think that margin is bad; wait until you see the ratio at ABC of Obama vs. McCain campaign contributions.
The McCain list (PDF) is pretty brief, and doesn’t amount to much:
The list of ABC employees’ contributions to Obama is, well, a bit longer.
The Obama (PDF) list has roughly 210 line items, with contributions totaling $160,813.
For those keeping score, that’s a 35-to-1 ratio.
A not well-formatted downloadable Excel version for posterity is here.
Great job by CPR keeping the debate about media bias alive, so to speak. What doesn’t have much life is ABC’s claim to be handling the heath care debate fairly.
The Office of Management and Budget (corrected from previous attribution) put out a graph the other day that had John Kasich and Ted Strickland all over it.
Michael Ledeen: “The Iranian people know that they’re on their own; they aren’t going to get any help from us, or the United Nations, or the Europeans. But paradoxically, this lack of support may strengthen their will. There is no cavalry on the horizon. If they are going to prevail, they and their unlikely leaders will have to gut it out by themselves. God be with them.”
Sadly, that makes 1956 Hungary more likely than 1980s Poland, and Ledeen is more likely than not engaged in wishful thinking. Hope I’m wrong.
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Not one, not two, but three government Inspectors General have been recently fired or interfered with. Their names are Gerald Walpin (fired), Neil Barofsky (document stonewall), and Judith Gwynn (contract not renewed under suspicious circumstances). The second and third are subjects of a Chicago Tribune story.
Dan Riehl notes the oddity that the Trib would be on this, and not the alleged newspapers of record or the Associated Press. Empty AP searches on Barofsky and Gwynn returning nothing of relevance confirm the media indifference. An AP search on Walpin shows that his firing didn’t become news until a Democratic senator spoke out about it.
(Correction: AP ran an item on June 11 that ap.org’s “7-day” search engine did not pick up, and IMO should have [the story was 156 hours old at the time of the search]. I regret the error, which I found without prompting. Update to correction:This AP search on Walpin — screenshot and saved at my host — somehow includes a June 9 listing that pre-dates the June 11 AP item, but not the June 11 story about the fired AG. What’s with that?)
Frequent commenter dscott emails that “Once is an incident, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern! Can you say the phrase, impeachment for corruption?” If it were Bush that had done this, that’s all we’d be hearing.
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The combined 169th-170th Carnival of Ohio Politicsis up, assembled by Jill at Writes Like She Talks, in one convenient double-shot. Three stories by BizzyBlog’s Rose are linked therein.
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Priceless video: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs “was unable to name one country where a single-payer health care system works.” That’s because there isn’t one.
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ABC as OBC,via Drudge — “ABC is refusing to air paid ads during its White House health care presentation, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, including a paid-for alternative viewpoint!”
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Finally,AP notices — “Gas prices rise for 50th straight day.” But it’s basically dry numbers. There’s no hand-wringing about what high prices are doing to the economy, and no person-on-the-street quotes from aggrieved consumers. The average retail price has broken $3 in Los Angeles, up from $1.72 six months ago.
Karli Parker could hardly bear to look as her 2-year-old daughter was rushed into an ambulance after fire tore through the family’s home six weeks ago.
Five firefighters had just fanned out into the house in a desperate search. Thick smoke swirled around them, including upstairs, where Jim Scapelliti found the young girl on a youth bed.
Neveah Parker was unconscious, and barely alive.
But the angels, it seems, had intervened for the little girl whose first name, with the letters rearranged, spells “heaven.”
“I was amazed she had no burns on her, just a little red on her stomach,” her mother said.
Neveah arrived at Women & Children’s Hospital a short time later, in critical condition. The smoke that had filled her rental house also filled her lungs.
She has made a remarkable recovery since the 6:30 a. m. blaze April 29, and is feeling so much better that she and her grateful family paid a visit Thursday to the firefighters who saved her life.
“Just a few minutes more, and we would have lost her,” said her grandfather, Terry Parker. “. . . Everyone is surprised at how well she’s doing now.”
Scapelliti and his fellow firefighters don’t fancy themselves as heroes.
The Parker family respectfully disagrees.
“From my point of view, they are heroes,” Neveah’s mother said. “All I can say is, they were just amazing. I never really paid attention before. They risked their lives and found her and lifted her out.
“I can’t imagine being them in that house. It was so dark, so black with smoke, you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face in the kitchen when I was exiting the house.”
Karli Parker broke down and began to cry as she again saw the firefighters who saved her daughter’s life. As she wiped away tears, other family members and several city firefighters were all smiles.
“We’re just so happy it was a great outcome,” Assistant Fire Chief Michael Seeloff said. “It’s a miracle. Our guys put their lives on the line.”
Neveah, who recently learned to knock knuckles, had all the firefighters laughing as she kept lifting her little fist to knock fists with them all.
Scapelliti carried her in his arms through much of the visit, showing her the fire station and fire equipment.
“You’ve got to come back and visit,” he told her before the little girl left. “We’ve got to keep up on you.”
Seeloff used a two-pronged plan to find Neveah on the morning of the fire. Several firefighters searched from the outside as others pushed inside. ….
Here are receipts through June 16, 2009, and June 17, 2008. Each day was a Tuesday, and represented the second day after estimated tax payments for June were due:
Noteworthy Net-Worthies, in relatively compact form:
From Elisabeth Eavesat Forbes — “The Rececession Is Great.” She make some valid points about deal opportunities for those who are still working, but seems quite ignorant of the long-term dangers posed by the ongoing POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy aka the POR Recession As Normal People Define It, particularly and the Democratic trio’s deliberate recession-lengthening disregard for the lessons of history (based on failing to either learn or care about them).
“Rural Mich. counties turn failing roadsto gravel” to save money — Anyone who has driven on gravel roads for miles at a time, which is what rural Michigan drivers will have to do, should recognize that this is a tangible, visible drop in standard of living in a state mismanaged to the point where providing even the most basic services has become problematic. Is it also a Buckeye State preview?
At the UK Times Online, following up ona days-old reportout of Italy — “Italian prosecutors were trying to establish yesterday whether US bonds with a face value of $134 billion seized from two alleged smugglers were real or counterfeit.” If we see a few years of hyperinflation, it may not matter.
Glenn Beck apparently solicited comedic help from, of all people, Joel Stein (HT NewsBusters). Stein, of course, expressed his gratitude by immaturely ripping Beck and his “reactionary, religious, libertarian audience.” NB’s Tim Graham calls Stein a “left-wing hack.” Those of us with longer memories call him “the voice of the neuter.” A related BizzyBlog post from early 2006 is here.
Larry Pike wasn’t in pain, but his body was looking increasingly strange.
In April 2008, comparing his current appearance with a photo of him taken at Christmas just a few months earlier emphasized the change. His face was thinner — a sign of all the weight he’d mysteriously lost — yet his midsection was inexplicably distended.
“I felt bloated all the time,” the St. Joseph man remembers. “Little did I know there was something in there other than air.”
An MRI taken at Heartland Regional Medical Center late that month revealed what was inside Mr. Pike was a tumor on his left kidney that had caused the organ to grow from about the size of a fist to about the size of a football. Several tests later, he was taken by ambulance to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City for the start of what would be months of tests and treatments — but also the start of a story he and his wife, Sally, believe will offer hope to anyone else facing a seemingly desperate medical situation.
Despite how quickly he was transferred to KU Med, Mr. Pike’s treatment didn’t begin for more than a month.
“Everyone realized the urgency of doing something,” Mrs. Pike says, “but they didn’t know what he had, so they didn’t know what to do.”
The course of treatment to follow became clearer after doctors’ plan to remove the tumor surgically had to be scrapped upon their discovery of multiple “cluster” tumors all over his abdomen. The only option, they told the Pikes, was to try to shrink the tumors with chemotherapy — a cocktail so harsh it initially shut down all his organs except his heart. Other complications arose, as well, from a blood clot moving toward his heart and bleeding of the tumors in his abdomen that resulted from a blood thinner he was put on to break up the clot.
It took 16 days for doctors to find the right chemotherapy combination and to bring Mr. Pike’s blood count and vital signs back to normal. Also during that time, Mrs. Pike was sending daily e-mail updates to a friend, Carol Lemirand, who forwarded them on to many others.
“I say she sent it to the world,” Mrs. Pike says. “We knew from that we had a huge prayer circle.”
She adds that even just three days after her husband’s diagnosis, they both felt inexplicably calm — something she attributes to the fact that “prayers had gone out. Prayers for healing, but also for comfort, and those (for comfort) could be answered immediately.”
The healing was slower in coming. Mr. Pike underwent chemotherapy treatments every three weeks for three days at a time from May until October last year. Finally, on Oct. 21, he went into surgery to have the tumors that remained after his chemotherapy removed, and Mrs. Pike told herself she wouldn’t worry unless the surgery stretched on more than six to eight hours.
“After just three hours, the doctor walked out of the operating room with a huge grin and said ‘He’s cancer free,’” she says, adding that it had been a much less involved surgery than they’d thought it might be, requiring the removal only of the kidney with the tumor and a few lymph nodes.
It wasn’t until his surgery was successful that doctors told the Pikes they hadn’t expected him to survive long enough to have surgery. They also told him they thought some of the most significant contributors to his survival were his positive attitude and all the support he had.
“He is definitely a miracle,” says Mrs. Lemirand, the friend who forwarded on Mrs. Pike’s e-mail updates. “You always hear doctors say how much of a difference a support system makes, but it’s something else entirely to actually see (the difference).” ….
WASHINGTON–The Obama administration has turned back pleas for emergency aid from one of the biggest remaining threats to the economy, the state of California.
Top state officials have gone hat in hand to the administration, armed with dire warnings of a fast-approaching “fiscal meltdown” caused by a budget shortfall. Concern has grown inside the White House in recent weeks as California’s fiscal condition has worsened, leading to high-level administration meetings. But federal officials are worried that a bailout of California would set off a cascade of demands from other states.
With an economy larger than Canada’s or Brazil’s, the state is too big to fail, California officials urge.
He’s the one who has allowed California’s welfare rolls to grow, as a percentage of the population, from 2-1/2 times the national average to almost 3-1/2.
He’s the one who would refuse to drill for oil off the state’s coast, or probably anywhere else, in the name of the what may be the greatest hoax in human history.
He’s the one who, excuse the pun, coasted during the 2003-2007 prosperity when he could have hacked away at waste and inefficiency with much less pain.
Oh, I forgot.
(/sarcasm)
It wasn’t Bush. I meant Arnold Scharzenegger, the decade’s biggest disappointment as governor thus far. Not the worst; that goes to IL’s Blagojevich. Not the most clueless, which OH’s Bob Taft totally owns. Not the most treacherous, which goes to Objectively Unfit Mitt Romney hands-down. And not MI’s Jennifer Granholm, whose actions are almost as bad as Arnold’s (but you can’t say she’s a disappointment, because she’s done the dumb things you’d expect of a Democrat).
Given that Ohio’s Kiddie Calculator Corps, er, I mean the state’s Office of Budget Management, run by Pari “in typical …. fashion, (her) answer was confusing” Sabety, has discovered another $2.3 – $3.2 billion-dollar hole in the state’s finances, Obama’s reax should make Team “Turnaround Ohio” Strickland more than a little nervous.
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UPDATE: No, I didn’t miss the POS (Perfectly Obviously Shoddy) claim in the first excerpted sentence that CA’s financial mess is “one of the biggest remaining threats to the economy” — as if there are very few remaining. It’s just that I can’t respond to it without breaking into uncontrollable, rolling on the floor laughter.
It has become downright embarrassing watching this administration dither and fumble around trying to figure out how to react straightforwardly to humanity’s cry for freedom and representative government in Iran.Mark Levin’s home page currently has an accurate sum-up: “President Obama has no idea what to do with Iran. His speech in Cairo last week was largely incoherent and contradictory, and now after an unfair election in Iran, we are leaving the protestors out to dry as they dispute the election results.”
To be clear, I’m not sure confident that any of our presidents since Reagan, with the possible exception of Bush 43, would have done much better on substance. But they at least would have said something more coherent and with more conviction in less than 24 hours than the eyes-down, let’s-get-this-over-with clip you’ll see here at the BBC.
Make no mistake — What’s going on in Iran has echoes of the 1980s Solidarity movement (which Reagan and America’s unions led by Lane Kirkland proactively supported) and 1989 Tiananmen. The world’s thugs are watching what this administration isn’t saying and doing, and are taking heart, while freedom lovers everywhere can’t help but be discouraged. La-la Lefties, apparently including this country’s president, who get so fired up the least little and often imagined infringement on their own freedoms never seem to get very excited about the real oppression of others.
Update: “CNN producer — Iranian students say they’re doomed if Obama accepts the election.” President Obama, please don’t.
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Jake Tapper Does Real Journalism relating to President Obama’s firing of Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service (in chronological order, here, here, and here).
Ed Morrissey’skey capsule: “(The firing) raises the possibility that Barack Obama broke a law he co-sponsored in the Senate that protects the independence of the IGs. …. The administration has overtly interfered with the IG in his investigation, and now has tried to fire him, apparently for reporting to Congress. If so, then the White House has abused its power on behalf of a campaign contributor and political ally — an act that would make Richard Nixon blush.”
But apparently not Barack the Untouchable.
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Tapper and his Political Punch crew are apparently the only ones doing journalism at ABC. The rest are apparently quite content serving as Obama administration spokesmouths.
Matt Drudge reportsthat the network is turning itself over to the Obama administration on June 24 in the name of promoting its nationalized, statist healthcare agenda.
Specifically, from Drudge – “On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm! …. ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House. The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, (and to) exclude opposing voices on the debate.”
Republicans complaining about this are right — These programs should be presented as paid political announcements by the Democratic National Committee, and should actually be paid for in full by the DNC.
But they are missing a bigger point by not calling out ABC for completely abandoning anything even resembling journalism.
It also should be hastily added, Republicans are not the only opponents. Lots of other center-right, sensible conservatives who aren’t Republican Party members are bitterly opposed to this statist encroachment.
Beyond that, it should be added that, in substance, not all Republicans ARE opponents. Objectively Unfit Mitt Romney, for example, may claim to be an opponent of nationalized healthcare. But since he designed and signed off on a completely state-run system when he was governor of Massachusetts that is a mess (I’d say it’s a mess when “doctors are turning away new patients, costs to the state are climbing and thousands have paid tax penalties for being uninsured” — and that’s from a sympathetic AP report), his claim has no credibility.
Do you think we’ll hear anything from the high and mighty Columbia Journalism Review, Roger Mudd, or any of the self-appointed journalistic watchdogs about ABC’s sellout?
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