Back in February of this year, when a hyperventilating President Obama claimed that the Stimulus bill must pass with the utmost urgency, he had a pow-wow with James Owens, CEO of the machinery giant Caterpillar, Inc.

From msnbc.com:

President Barack Obama said [...] that heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar has informed him it will rehire some of the thousands of workers it has laid off in recent weeks if Congress passes an economic stimulus bill.

"The time for talk has passed," Obama said.

The world's largest maker of mining and construction machinery announced more than 22,000 job cuts last month (January) amid waning demand for its products.

Well, it's a good thing that Obama and the Congress rushed to pass that bill, 'cause the future's looking mighty bright for the company.

From centralillinoisproud.com:

Caterpillar Thursday reported a decline of 50 percent in worldwide machinery sales for the three months ending in October. The world's largest construction manufacturer said sales for the three month period in North America were down 58 percent since last year while sales in Europe, Middle East sales were down 41 percent while Asia Pacific sales were down 39 percent from the same period a year ago. Engine sales , according to a company release, dropped 30 percent from a year ago.

Heck of a job, Barry!

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Filed under: 2009 Spendulus Bill

Jim Geraghty's got an interesting piece up today at the Campaign Spot:

We find ourselves dealing with the frightening realization that with the Obama administration, there is no plan B.

There are a lot of unemployed folks out there. A lot more worried about their jobs, a lot more people wondering about how they're going to pay their mortgages, their rent, their grocery bills. Last year, when people first started to really worry, they elected Barack Obama to the presidency.

[ . . . ]

Obama's first crack at improving the economy was the stimulus, and we've lost three million more jobs since it passed. Now he's announcing a "jobs summit" at the White House, and a "listening tour." You've officially run out of good ideas when your plan to help people who can't find jobs consists of listening to them tell you that they can't find jobs.

If they had better ideas, the Obama administration would be trying those instead.

[ . . . ]

On Iran, the Iranians keep making clear that they don't want to talk and make a deal. On Afghanistan, the administration clearly thought the initial increase in troops would be sufficient; we've been in a holding pattern for three months while they rethink a warning from the commander on the ground that the situation will be lost within one year. China is willing to offer photo-ops, but no real concessions.

Polls show the nation evenly divided or worse on the health care proposal, but the administration pushes forward.

[ . . . ]

On front after front, Obama's proposals have slammed into the hard concrete of reality, and the response has been... keep doing the same thing and wait for things to get better.

Geraghty's point is that Obama, elected to "improve" everything, has failed. That he continues to implement "failed" policies in hopes of better results is evidence of political cluelessness. What we see is what we get---and that's not much.

The problem is that this interpretation assumes Obama is "failing". Does Obama see the results of his policy initiatives the same way? It may have been reasonable for American voters to expect "improvement" to mean "more" jobs, an "unarmed" Iran, a "democratic" Afghanistan, a "cooperative" China and health care that is both "cheaper" and "better". But what if an obliterated economy, a nuclear Iran, a chaotic Afghanistan, an uncooperative China and a collapse of our health care system are exactly what Obama intended?

We can't forget first principles. Obama is a radical, surrounded by radicals, completely in tune with the fact that he's got 2 years to leverage his Congressional majority into a gut renovation of America. At this stage, nearly a year into things, it's impossible to understand these "failures" we see burgeoning all around us as anything other than what he intended all along. The joke's on us for as long as we pretend this isn't happening.

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Filed under: Barack Obama
Tags: Afghanistan, China, economy, health care, Iran, jobs, Obama, unemployment

Because when it comes to Harry Reid and Stimulus Jobs, the tRuth is Way Out There.

Video: The R Files and the Phantom Congressional Districts
By Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com

Kudos to the Danny Tarkanian campaign for what is easily the funniest and most acerbic take yet on the phantom Congressional districts of Porkulus. As Jim Geraghty says, watch it while you can, because YouTube will probably pull this over copyright issues soon. Mulder and Scully figure out that with Harry Reid, the truth is way, way, way out there:

Video below the fold...

Continue reading "The "R" Files" »

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Filed under: Harry Reid
Tags: Harry Reid, Phantom Districts, R-Files, Stimulus Jobs, X-Files

The University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has had its email system hacked and a large amount of data released to the internet. The director of the unit (Dr. Phil Jones) has confirmed the leaked emails are genuine. The real story is the suspicious content of the emails. For example:

Once Tim's got a diagram here we'll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow. I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from1961 for Keith's to hide the decline.

The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

I can promise you I will continue to follow this story. Details to be posted as they are uncovered.

Update:There is some speculation that the leaked documents weren't the result of a hack, but the result of whistle blowing by someone on the inside. While this might not change the legality of the activity, it might change a discussion of ethics.

Many are covering the story which has been coined Climategate:

What's Up With That? is taking a lead on updates.

Pajamas Media.

Gateway Pundit.

JammieWearingFool.

Althouse links to more links.

Update: FOXNews has now picked up the story--it is the featured story on foxnews.com.

Update: Instapundit posts on the story, linking to Slashdot and comments from Tim Blair.

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Filed under: Global Warming

It's Friday, which means it's time for the Wizbang Weekend Caption Contest™. Enter your best caption for the following picture:

Winners will be announced Monday morning.

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Filed under: Weekend Caption Contest

Let's just say he didn't make the honor roll. The headlines pretty much say it all:

ABC News Exclusive: Obama Admin Slashed 60,000 Jobs From Recent Stimulus Report

$6.4 Billion Stimulus Goes To Phantom Districts "According to data retrieved from recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to 'create or save' just under 30,000 jobs in these phantom congressional districts-almost $225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84 million budget and is tasked with monitoring the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress..."

Recovery Board Chairman: We Can't Certify Jobs Data at Recovery.gov

Obama: Job creation not goal of Dec. 3 jobs forum Take comfort, O ye great masses of unemployed, The One is prepared to spare no effort in engaging in serious dialog, as often and as long as it takes, in order to gather ideas. Meanwhile, your unemployment benefits are drying up and your house is on its way back to the bank. But fear not, our President will do whatever it takes to ensure he makes the right decision.

Perhaps it's also worth noting that Herbert Hoover invested a great deal of time meeting with the heads of major industries and labor unions in the early days of the Great Depression, urging them to commit to new work expansion programs and asking them not to cut wages or lay off employees. The result of this effort was a lop-sided economy in which unionized workers employed by big business enjoyed job security and guaranteed wages, while other workers and small business owners lost their jobs or went bankrupt.

While we're on the subject of jobs, make sure you watch this chilling graphic of unemployment by county in the US, as it progresses from January 2007 (when the Democrats took control of Congress) through September 2009. Then compare the final map's ominously dark regions with the regions of the nation that voted overwhelmingly for Obama last year. With the exception of the Deep South, the areas that have seen the largest increases in unemployment were also the regions that voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And the Democrats are wondering why Obama is losing the support of independents in droves?

Incidentally, the Administration has yet to comment on how its "jobs made up out of thin air" will fit into its "jobs created or saved" Stimulus goals.

Okay, employment is tanking, but maybe the much-touted TARP bailout of our "too big to fail" banks fared a little better. Whoops, my mistake again:

Inspector General: Geithner Overpaid AIG in Bailout It seems that TurboTax Timmie really stepped in it this time:

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in trouble again, and this time he may not be able to save his job. You'll recall that his confirmation was threatened by revelations of cheating on his income taxes. Now he's accused of paying billions too much for the bailout of AIG and allowing the insurance firm's Wall Street creditors -- Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia -- to be paid in full for their derivative contracts with $27.1 billion in taxpayers' money.

The accusation comes from Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in a report issued yesterday. At the time of the bailout in September 2008, Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rather than bargain with AIG and its creditors for a reasonable bailout, Geithner agreed to pay "an amount far above the market value at the time," the report said. The bailouts for the big creditors was agreed to by Geithner "even though senior policy makers contend that assistance to AIG's counterparties was not a relevant consideration in fashioning the assistance to AIG."

Of course if Geithner, a former Federal Reserve bank president, had been appointed by a Republican, Democrats would now be screaming at the top of their lungs about cronyism and corruption and political paybacks orchestrated by a banking big-wig for his billion-dollar banking buddies. Thankfully, calls for Geithner's resignation have already broken out from both sides of the political aisle.

And finally, speaking of TARP, what happened to all of the money? Apparently the big banks corrected their balance sheets by writing off or re-valuing much of their toxic assets, replenished their cash reserves, paid their executives lavish bonuses, and ... well, not much else:

Obama mortgage rescue: Only a few get lasting help "Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications under President Obama's foreclosure prevention plan, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort."
...

Obama supporters may argue that everyone makes mistakes, and that none of this is the fault of the President or the Democrats.

Sorry, but I'm not buying that.

We just completed eight years of "it's all Bush's fault." Everything, whether he reasonably could have affected its outcome or not, was hung around George W. Bush's neck. Bush was also panned as the worst / dumbest / most uncurious president ever. When we as a nation elected Barack Obama we were promised hope and change. We were promised the best and the brightest, the keenest, most highly educated minds, the most promising collection of intellects that the Ivy League had to offer.

And this is the best that they can do?

ADDED: When compiling links for this post I inadvertently omitted this whopper:

Millions may have to repay part of Making Work Pay tax credit

They called President Bush dumb, but his simple "check is in the mail" stimulus refunds didn't end up costing taxpayers cash out of their own pockets. Once again, heck of a job Barry.

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Filed under: Democrats
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, foreclosure, recovery.org, Stimulus, TARP, Timothy Geithner, unemployment

When those in the MSM interview supporters of conservatives they get extra special treatment. Just watch as MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell grills, I mean interviews, a Palin supporter.

Here is O'Donnell's defense, via Newsbusters:

O'DONNELL: Well, her name was Jackie Seal and she voted in the last election, not 13 years old as some have suggested. And it is important to point out that when I walk and talk to a bunch of people up and down the line, I say "Who wants to talk on camera?" Some people say, "I don't want to talk." They're not ready to talk. Some people say, "I want to talk, So, I walked down and met that man who had the shirt that said Palin for president on it. And I said, "Is there a woman who will come and talk about Sarah Palin?" And he grabbed that woman and pulled her over. So, I did not choose that woman, it just so happens she had a shirt on and was confused about Palin's position on the issues. I think that is important to point that out. We do it with both sides of the aisle, sometimes people are connected to a politician or someone but know very little about them on the issues. This book wouldn't tell you about the issues, it requires reading. It requires examination. And so I think that that was a reflective moment in terms of finding out just how much people are either confused about the issues or didn't know about the issues. But, it is important to point out everybody we interviewed volunteered and that case, a previous voter and not 13 years old.

Jackie, the girl O'Donnell grilled has weighed in with the back story of the interview. She is 17 years old so those who identified her as 13 or 14 were wrong, but O'Donnell, who twice claimed she had voted in the last election, was wrong as well. Read her full detailed account. She definitely learned a valuable lesson.

In one day I met a role model, and met the liberal media and their crafty schemes. I fell prey to liberal bias, but I'd like to think I did an okay job. We always want do-overs, and I can assure you if I had a do-over with Miss O'Donnell you'd see a much more prepared (well rested) and ready to go at it side of this 17 year old. But unlike Norah I didnt have my note cards with me. I was forced to think on the spot and answer a gotcha question. Her goal was clear, make this teenager look like an uneducated Palin supporting buffoon. To liberals, and the 5 people who watch MSNBC she succeeded. To conservatives, she was the only buffoon during that interview.

I have no problem with a reporter asking the kind of question O'Donnell asked, as long as it is in context and is done equally on both sides of the aisle. I challenge O'Donnell to produce an example of her similarly questioning an Obama supporter. When I said "context" I was referring to the question fitting the type of interview. This was a reporter questioning a person in line to get a book signed. O'Donnell grilled this 17-year-old girl more vigorously than she does most of the liberal politicians she interviews. She regularly lets Democrats repeat their talking points on air without challenging or fact checking them. There are many instances when their talking points are demonstrably false, yet fail to even elicit a question from the "journalists" on MSNBC. Here's a bit of advice for those on MSNBC, start treating all your guests (including the liberal and Democrat ones) like Norah O'Donnell treated 17-year-old Jackie Seal and maybe the public will start taking you seriously. Who knows, if you did that maybe your ratings would even improve.

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Filed under: Media, Sarah Palin

In my previous blogging life I spent a lot of time focusing on ACORN and voter registration fraud. Despite numerous official investigations, that side of ACORN's illegal activities never really reached the public consciousness. So each time the folks over at Brietbart's Big Government release another ACORN sting video it warms my heart a little.

Here's the latest one from James O'Keefe titled The LA Story, Part IV: Program for Torture Victims.

Lavelle Stewart, of ACORN in South Central Los Angeles, tells us she thinks we have to hook up with "someone who's on that international sex business level," that "14 and 15 year olds been traveling overseas for years," that she can do independent research for us, and that she has had meetings with Porn magnate Larry Flynt. As for laundering the sex money into my faux political campaign, Lavelle says, "there are ways, people do it all the time. Yeah there are ways, especially out here in California."

What is there to say that hasn't been said? The organization deserves ten times the legal issues it will encounter. I don't have much hope they will be prosecuted heavily given their deep connections with the current administration. I am encouraged to think federal cuts to their funding are more likely to be permanent the more the evidence mounts. But even that is something to watch in the coming months.

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Filed under: ACORN

Offended at the prospect of drug companies trying to sneak in some last minute profit ahead of sweeping legislation designed to choke such impulses forever into submission, Congressional Democrats have taken up their pitchforks:
(emphasis mine)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats are seeking government investigations into recent price increases of brand-name prescription drugs, as Congress finalizes an overhaul of the healthcare system.

Lawmakers are concerned the companies are trying to reap gains ahead of reforms aimed at lowering drug prices and forcing drugmakers to partly fund changes that aim to boost the number of Americans covered by health insurance.

[ . . . ]

Drugmakers "may be artificially raising prices for certain pharmaceutical products in expectation of new reforms," wrote Charles Rangel and Henry Waxman, the respective chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"Any price gouging is unacceptable, but anticipatory price gouging is especially offensive," their letter said.

Well imagine that. Drug companies trying to "reap gains" by "artificially raising prices". What's not clear is how Congressional Democrats expect drug companies to continue the R&D necessary to bring new life-saving drugs to market if they're to do so without "reaping gains" on popular drugs already on the market. Do they expect that these drugs will fall from the sky? Profits are what businesses depend upon to fuel development of new products. Without profits, businesses fail, and failing drug companies should be low on anybody's wish list---even economic know-nothings like "Congressional Democrats".

And what's this about "artificially raising prices"? There's a market for drugs, isn't there? And drug companies sell drugs, don't they? There's nothing "artificial" about their setting prices for their product based on the public's demand for it. It's actually quite organic. You want "artificial"? Let the government set prices based on things OTHER than the supply of that product and the public's demand for it. See where that gets you.

As for price "gouging", what better way to guarantee the efficient allocation of scarce resources than to permit their prices to rise to meet the demands of the market? During a gas shortage, more people will be permitted to purchase more gallons (and encouraged also to conserve) if the prices for those gallons go up with demand. If that gas instead is "artificially" required to remain cheap during a shortage, it will be wasted as the first few people would simply fill their tanks with more than they needed while leaving the rest high and dry. Let prices rise, and people will buy less at a time, leaving more for everyone to use more efficiently. Genius.

Drug companies need profits to make new drugs and to make current drugs better. The "reforms" that Congressional Democrats have in mind (price fixing, taxation, etc.) will reduce those profits, raise prices on patients and result in us all having diminished access to life saving drugs.

This is not reform. This is suicide.

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Filed under: Health Care
Tags: capitalism, Democrats, drug companies, free market, supply and demand

It's all over save the scapegoating and finger pointing.

Bottom Line: Failure of Will.

Fred Thompson: Afghan war 'has been lost'
By Ben Smith
Politico.com

Former Senator Fred Thompson today intensified his party's criticism of President Obama's long deliberation over policy in Afghanistan, announcing that Obama's delay signals that "the war has been lost" and that nothing the president now does will "make any difference."

It really doesn't matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost. I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what's necessary to win it. His heart's not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it

I wish I could argue against Thompson's logic, but I cannot.

Hat Tip: HotAir

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Filed under: Afghanistan
Tags: Obama, War on Terror, will

By way of NeverYetMelted.

Crossposted(*).

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Filed under: Barack Obama, Humor

Jobs created in non-existent Congressional districts are merely a "side issue" :

President Obama brushed off criticism over his administration's inaccurate reporting on job creation Wednesday, telling Fox News the accounting is an "inexact science" and that any errors are a "side issue" when compared with the goal of turning the economy around. He said job growth is his No.1 responsibility.

The president was responding to criticism from Republicans, as well as Democratic Rep. David Obey, who drew attention to embarrassing errors on the Recovery.gov Web site that tracks stimulus funding. The site is under fire for claiming a number of jobs were created from the stimulus in congressional districts that don't exist and accepting unrealistic and inflated jobs data from various sources.

Obama said he understood the "frustration" but said his focus has to be on accelerating job growth.

"I think this is an inexact science. We're talking about a multitrillion-dollar economy that went through the worst economic crisis since 1933. The first measure of success of the economic recovery is, did we pull ourselves back from the brink? We did," Obama said. "The question now is, can we make sure we're accelerating job growth? That's my No. 1 job. Nobody's been more disappointed than I have to see how high the unemployment rate has gotten. And I spend every waking hour, when I'm talking to my economic team, about how we are going to put people back to work."

Meanwhile locally:

Alcoa Howmet is laying off nearly a quarter of its workers at its Hampton manufacturing plant to adjust for an unforeseen sharp drop in orders for industrial gas turbines, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The company, one of Hampton's largest private employers, informed 250 workers this week that they would lose their jobs by the end of the week.

About 90 percent of the workers who will lose their jobs worked in production; the remaining 10 percent were salaried employees, said Jean Moorman, director of communications for Alcoa Power and Propulsion, a business unit of Alcoa Inc.

The layoffs come just five months after the company announced a $25 million expansion of the plant to increase its production capacity for components of industrial gas turbines, which are used primarily by utilities and large industrial complexes to generate power.

And in nearby Franklin, less than a month ago:

International Paper Co. is preparing to close its Franklin paper mill, leaving in its ashes a city that was built on its fortune and 1,100 workers who will lose their jobs.

When the plant produces its final rolls of paper next spring, it will end more than a century of operation at Franklin's hulking, iconic mill and leave the city without its identity.

International Paper's main plant, which sits on about 1,400 acres on the southernmost fringe of Isle of Wight County near the Franklin border, will begin closing portions of its operations within weeks and shutter the entire operation by spring, the company announced Thursday.

The plant's closure will deal a sharp blow to Isle of Wight, which will lose its second-largest employer and more than a quarter of its tax base. The company is by far the county's largest taxpayer, doling out $5.7 million in property and equipment taxes in 2009, more than double the $2.3 million paid by Isle of Wight's second-largest taxpayer, Smithfield Foods Inc., said Commissioner of Revenue Gerald Gwaltney.

Rest easy however my local brethren... Obama spends every waking hour, when he's with his economic team, talking about how to put people back to work.

Would he lie to you?

Crossposted(*).

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Filed under: Barack Obama, Economics, Scams

From The New York Times:

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge found Wednesday evening that poor maintenance of a major navigation channel by the Army Corps of Engineers led to some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrina. The ruling was a major victory for homeowners who suffered damage in the aftermath of the storm.

...The plaintiffs' lawyers argued that the Army Corps had not exercised "due care" in its maintenance of the channel, and that the maintenance that was done, like dredging, only made things worse. The corps' actions, they said, brought salt water into the New Orleans area, killing off marshes; eroded the banks on which levees sat; and more than doubled the channel in width, giving water driven by hurricanes an unobstructed path to the city.

In his decision, Judge Duval largely agreed with this argument, at least as it pertained to St. Bernard and the Lower Ninth Ward. He was highly critical of the government, which had argued that the hurricane and its massive storm surge was simply more than the system had been designed to handle, and said the corps had manipulated facts.

"The corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so," he wrote. "Clearly the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here."

Wizbang, specifically former editor Paul, was the first to present a detailed case as to the Corp's responsibility for the devastation starting just days after the event. You can read the two summation posts (here and here) or browse the Katrina archive.

As Paul noted when the damning evidence was first released, the fact that the blame has been assigned (and now adjudicated) is small comfort. Here's what he said,

Starting just days after the storm I began following this story and predicted this day would come when all the evidence was in. I also began documenting the repeated lies told by the Corps.

Within a few weeks of the storm I was demanding that more evidence be released because the evidence we had was damning the Corps. It was about a month and a half after the storm that the evidence became -to my mind- overwhelming. And the crusade began in ernest.

Thru that time, I've sparred with some readers who were legitimately skeptical of my conclusions and ALSO with more than one or two people I've since found out had connections to the Corps and were trying to discredit me. (yeah, you guys (and gal) are busted, now run along.)

I'll admit to being human. When I read the headline I got a certain satisfaction... That it was a "victory." And it was in some ways. It was a victory for the truth, it was a victory for the engineering profession and it was a victory for openness in government. (although that last one was a tight race)

But my joy at the "victory" was short lived. Very short lived. Because it changes nothing.

In the end, this story is not about engineering reports, politics or blame. It is about people. By the time the numbers are all in, it will be over well 2,000 dead. - And imagine the number they left grieving.

It is a story of 250,000 people -a quarter million- who lost their homes and all their possessions. You can drive thru the streets of New Orleans and see mile - after mile - after mile - of ruined homes, destroyed cars and untold debris. It goes on forever. I can put you in car and drive for 2 hours and not see one livable home.

Behind every one of those homes is a story. They are numbers to the rest of America. To us they are our neighbors, our friends, our families.

None of their lives will ever be the same. Ever.

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Filed under: Hurricane Katrina
Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Katrina

There's been a lot of discussion here at Wizbang and across the country about the Obama administration decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a federal court. If you haven't seen it, here is a video of Lindsey Graham taking Holder to task for the decision.

Holder imagines that he can hide inside that "thoughtful" routine that Obama so often relies on, but it is utterly pathetic here. Either he knows damned well what he's doing and he's lying or he's outrageously unqualified for his job. His evasive style is so similar to Obama's that he makes Obama look worse.

Is Holder really that unqualified for his job? While there have be numerous comments made about the lack of experience and preparedness of the Obama administration, I find it hard to believe Holder is this amateurish.

Which unfortunately leaves the second option. That, as Jay Tea suggested earlier, the administration plans to use the trial to go after Bush, Cheney, and the evil-Republicans-that-torture. Perhaps they were still counting on a public environment where such a tactic would be cheered. What Holder was truly unprepared for was anyone questioning the decision in the first place.

Regardless, how sad is it that the only confusion is whether he is staggeringly bad at his actual job or staggeringly bad at hiding the fact that he is eschewing the important responsibilities of his job for political gain?

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Filed under: War On Terror

(I am a bit burned out concerning current events right now, so, I felt like writing about something completely different: video games. If you aren't really interested, you may want to skip this. If you are, you still may want to skip it. For what it's worth, I offer it as a bit of a deviation from the world of politics. -Shawn)

I am a video game junkie.

Since I was a little kid, I've been captivated by them.

Back when arcades were king, I'd spend almost all of my paper-route money (Yes, paperboys used to exist) on video games.

For those too young to remember what the world was like without remote controls, cell phones, and laptops, the pioneering games of the past (at least, my past) were housed in contraptions the size of refrigerators, with computing power equal to that of a modern-day wrist watch.

Games like Frogger, Donkey-Kong, and the undisputed heavy-weight of the era, Pac-Man, used to command the attention of young 'uns and teenagers alike, often becoming depositories for lunch money and loose change found between the couch cushions.

Games like those were sought after with great zeal, so much so that lines would form, ten deep with acne-faced kids. If it was a really great arcade, there might have actually been two Pac-Man machines.

You considered yourself lucky if the player before you was no good. If he was great, frustration would soon set in, for a player with mad skilz could tie up a game for an hour at a clip, with a mountain of quarters left to load on the console. But no matter what the situation, you never dared get out of line. You put your time in. Your curfew could pass, your bladder could pop, someone could have dropped a lit Sterno down your pants, it wouldn't matter. Come hell or high water, you were there until your turn.

Continue reading "Let's Talk About Something Important: Video Games" »

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Filed under: Personal
Tags: Video Games

• While the Newsweek photo of Sarah Palin does not scream political professionalism (it was intended for Runner's World, after all), it is, by itself, actually quite flattering. She looks like the All-American Girl: Pretty, confident, with a twinkle of "I know this will piss off the left" in her eyes. Did I mention she's pretty?

• The elation oozing from the left about the Obama Administration's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammad in a civilian court, where he will not be tried as a war criminal but will be given constitutional rights, is in stark contrast to the rabid liberal lynch mob that demanded George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove should have been "frogmarched" to the gallows and hung for war crimes. Simply a bottomless pit of hypocrisy.

• It seems "Bumbling Joe Biden Syndrome" is contagious. Over the past two weeks, members of his motorcade have been involved in three accidents, including one, in which, unfortunately, a pedestrian was killed. I can't help thinking what kind of garbage would bubble up from the sewers of the left had Dick Cheney's motorcade been involved in something like this. His hunting accident was talked about for months, and provided endless comedic fodder for late-night talk shows.

• The AP has assigned 11 people to fact-check Sarah Palin's book, and have supposedly found 6 minor discrepancies. If they had only devoted that kind of scrutiny to the two Obama memoirs, his ties to Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, Hillary's books, or perhaps to the stimulus and health care bills, they might not be looked at as liberal toadies, and we all may have been better off.

• It has been reported that Israel is planning to build new settlements within its borders of East Jerusalem. This has brought a storm of criticism from the Obama Administration, Europe, and Russia. Funny how Israel, a nation the size of New Jersey, gets beaten up for providing homes for its cramped citizens, yet, just last week there was a rocket attack launched from Gaza into Sderot, Israel, and nary a peep was heard from these same people.

• More "Plugs" Biden: Vice President Joe stopped off to serve food at a Washington homeless shelter last week. As head of the Middle Class Task Force, he must be preparing us for what to expect in the future. Next up: How to grate government cheese.

• And for a little levity, here is a video taken from a police car camera of a very affectionate cat climbing onto a police officer's head during a traffic stop. The longer the video goes, the more cute it gets.

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Filed under: News
Tags: Stuff

Lynn Steward is Finally Behind Bars

I say "Finally" for a reason. Steward started her treasonous activities in 1999. She was indicted in 2002. Her trial did not start until 2004 and took eight months to complete. The sentence was not handed down until October of 2006, and she has been free on bail pending appeal until yesterday.

Terror-abetting attorney ordered to prison immediately
by Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com

Perhaps Lynne Stewart should have quit while she was behind. Convicted of abetting terror while acting as an attorney for the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, Stewart had remained free on bail while appealing her conviction. Today, the federal appeals court not only upheld her conviction and revoked her bail, but they also sent the case back to the district court for reconsideration of the shockingly light 28-month sentence Stewart initially received (via JWF):

Disbarred radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is going to jail – maybe for a lot longer than she thought.

A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld her conviction for smuggling messages to her jailed terrorist client, and said she deserves more than the 28 months she got because she may have lied at her trial.

Stewart, 70, is to surrender to U.S. Marshals immediately. The Brooklyn resident has been free on bail since 2006.

Andy McCarthy, who prosecuted Rahman and faced off against Stewart in the courtroom, explains the issue of sentencing more clearly than the initial news reports:

Yes, the sentence — that’s the interesting part. The court has sent Stewart’s case back to the trial judge for reconsideration of her absurdly short 28-month jail term (after the government asked for 30 years). The sentence has divided the appellate panel. All three judges agree that the sentence needs to be reconsidered. But two judges, Sack and Calabresi, seem to be narrowing the complaint down to whether Stewart committed perjury at her trial, which — if she is found by the sentencing judge to have done so — would call for a modest increase. In dissent, Judge Walker’s point is that a 28-month sentence for the terrorism-related offenses Stewart committed is a travesty whether or not she committed perjury.

Andy also makes this point about the terror-related trial of Stewart, and its implications for the upcoming publicity-stunt fiasco for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators:

By the way, since my topic in today’s column is Attorney General Holder’s sudden concern over delays in the military commission system, it’s worth pointing out that, for conduct that started around 1999, Stewart was indicted in 2002; her trial did not begin until mid-2004 and took about eight months; after that, they dawdled for over a year before finally imposing sentence in October 2006; now, a decade after the conduct, seven years after arrest, four years after trial, and three years after sentence – and mind you, she’s been free on bail since 2002 – the appeal has at long last been decided, and it has resulted in … a remand for further sentencing proceedings. And, after they someday occur, there will surely be another trip to the Second Circuit, and then an appeal to the Supreme Court. After that, the habeas corpus petitions start …

Thirty years does not seem long enough, let alone 28 months.

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Filed under: Law

I kid you not:

Let the confusion end: The Atlantic has hit the news stands with a breaking revelation: It's the Christians! To wit: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

... recently, critics have begun to argue that the prosperity gospel, echoed in churches across the country, might have played a part in the economic collapse. In 2008, in the online magazine Religion Dispatches, Jonathan Walton, a professor of religious studies at the University of California at Riverside, warned:

Narratives of how "God blessed me with my first house despite my credit" were common ... Sermons declaring "It's your season of overflow" supplanted messages of economic sobriety and disinterested sacrifice. Yet as folks were testifying about "what God can do," little attention was paid to a predatory subprime-mortgage industry, relaxed credit standards, or the dangers of using one's home equity as an ATM.

In 2004, Walton was researching a book about black televangelists. "I would hear consistent testimonies about how 'once I was renting and now God let me own my own home,' or 'I was afraid of the loan officer, but God directed him to ignore my bad credit and blessed me with my first home,'" he says. "This trope was so common in these churches that I just became immune to it. Only later did I connect it to this disaster."

Whew! That was easy! Who knew? But is it really that simple? What are the facts on which this startling conclusion is based?

...Kate Bowler found that most new prosperity-gospel churches were built along the Sun Belt, particularly in California, Florida, and Arizona--all areas that were hard-hit by the mortgage crisis.

Makes sense: these were rapidly growing areas of the country; with rapid growth and cheap credit, lots of homes were getting sold. And lots of new churches and churchgoers would be expected. So, these Sun Belt areas grew quickly, had a lot of new churches (some of which were the "prosperity" variety) and ended up with a lot of foreclosures. But surely there has to be more evidence than that...

Nationally, the prosperity gospel has spread exponentially among African American and Latino congregations. This is also the other distinct pattern of foreclosures. "Hyper-segregated" urban communities were the worst off, says Halperin. Reliable data on foreclosures by race are not publicly available, but mortgages are tracked by both race and loan type, and subprime loans have tended to correspond to foreclosures. During the boom, roughly 40 percent of all loans going to Latinos nationwide were subprime loans; Latinos and African Americans were 28 percent and 37 percent more likely, respectively, to receive a higher-rate subprime loan than whites.

So, a lot of foreclosures occurred in the Hispanic and black communities -- and the prosperity gospel was increasingly popular among these groups as well. Pretty damning, I'd have to say. Pretty much nails it down, don't ya think?

Or not.

Doctor Bob goes on to skewer the logic used to draw the conclusion and quite effectively I might add... do read the whole thing and see for yourself but what he doesn't cover is the blatant hypocrisy.

In the Atlantic piece, you have the straw man argument that Christianity's prosperity gosepl is to blame for the economic crisis, this despite the fact that the prosperity gospel represents not Christianity nor that the prosperity gospel's proponents even make up a large population of Christendom.

Juxtapose that with the media's ignorance of Islam and its tenets (as documented in the Koran and as practiced by a ton of Muslims) and its refusal to in anyway blame Islam for terrorism.

Its truly a marvel to behold... assuming you find rank hypocrisy and bias marvel-ous.

Crossposted(*).

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Filed under: Christianity, Media

It's come to my attention that the cheesecake element of Wizbang has been sorely lacking of late, so I figured I'd best weigh in on the Sarah Palin Newsweek cover controversy. And since I've heard a few complaints about my being too long-winded, I'll make certain that at least 3,000 words' worth of content are covered by 3 pictures.

Let's start off with the actual Newsweek cover:

Great photo, extremely flattering, but definitely a bit on the cheesecake side -- unless, of course, she's posing for an athletic magazine of some sort. In which case, it's perfectly appropriate.

Which she was.

Now, Michelle Malkin believes that the most offensive photo in the Newsweek article is this one:

Yeah, nothing quite says "we're not sexist!" like taking a doll of someone and dressing them as a slutty schoolgirl. And it was all just fun and games, good sport, when Spy Magazine took shots at Hillary Clinton like this and this. (Not quite eye-gougingly horrific, but up there.)

Yes, it's pretty atrocious of Newsweek to have done that. But I'll give the cover the credit for being worse, on two fronts.

First up, there's the douchebaggery of Newsweek in using the photo. Runner's World, who first published the photos of Palin in her running attire, had this to say:

EDITOR'S NOTE: On the cover of this week's issue of Newsweek is a photo that was shot for the August 2009 issue of Runner's World, in which Sarah Palin was featured on the monthly "I'm a Runner" back page. Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with the image. Instead, it was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's stock agency, without Runner's World's knowledge or permission.

But for the truly most offensive part, let's take a good look at that original photo:

Say, what's that obscured by the writing down the left side of the Newsweek cover? What's blocked out by the "YOU?"

Look at that original.

It's Palin's "Blue Star Mother" flag.

The emblem she proudly hangs in her window to declare that she's the proud mother of a service member currently in Iraq or Afghanistan -- and at the time her eldest child, son Track, was in Iraq with the United States Army. Private Palin's unit was assigned to an area stretching from the suburbs of Baghdad to the Iranian border.

Newsweek couldn't do very much about the American flag Palin had draped over a chair -- she was resting an arm on it. And she was standing too close to the Blue Flag pennant to crop it out. They could have simply photoshopped it away entirely, but that would have been too obvious. So, instead, they covered it up with sneering text, obscuring the "U.S. ARMY" at the top, the blue star in the middle, and the "TRACK PALIN" at the bottom.

Keep that photo handy, Newsweak. The original -- not the one you graffiti'ed all up. Something tells me you're gonna be eating that one in the future.

Presuming, of course, you haven't gone as fiscally bankrupt by then as you have in every other aspect.

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Filed under: Media

I honestly had to check twice to see if this was satire. Interviewed in China, President Obama voiced concerns about the rising debt and consumer confidence.

"There may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those," Obama told Fox News' Major Garrett.

"I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."

I love the qualifiers in the second paragraph. First, he makes sure to comment that the economy is currently in a recovery. But if we keep adding people could lose confidence and there could be another recession. So if the growing debt is bad, then how does that mesh with the high economic cost of programs like Obamacare and cap and trade?

There were some more surprising quotes later in the article.

And the president said that despite the federal government's massive stake in General Motors, his administration will not weigh in on the possibility that GM could direct bailout funds toward its European Opel unit.

"We are not going to meddle in GM's decisions," Obama said. "We are a shareholder but we are not an active shareholder. We have specifically said that we are not in the business of running a car company. We're not getting involved in day-to-day management."

He said the Detroit automaker owes the U.S. government money, but that "we want to get out of that business as soon as possible" and encourage repayment.

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Filed under: Barack Obama, Economics