So How Come That Restriction Doesn’t Work

…for car bombs?

…But a turning point came in 2004. U.S. troops and insurgents fought fiercely in Fallujah. Zobaie battled U.S. forces in the nearby town of Zaidan, where he grew up. By mid-2005, he had grown wary of the foreign fighters and radicals, with their brutal tactics and rigid interpretation of Islam. They banned smoking, satellite television, even Pepsi because…

…the prophet Muhammad never drank it.

As major dad points out: Muhammed never drove a Hyundai, either.

“Bedtime Stories for Catherine”

I can’t stop crying.

Commodities Give Me a Headache

And not just at the pump. A lesson in the Calculus of “Acceptable Investment Return”.

…But how is it that crude can still trade above $100 a barrel, three times what it sold for at the start of the decade, despite a very wobbly economy?

… Ponder that for a minute. Texas-based Exxon is the largest publicly traded company in the energy business. In fact, it’s the most profitable company in the history of capitalism, earning a record $40.6 billion on sales of $404 billion last year. Yet even with prices at the pump near all-time highs, Exxon isn’t planning on producing any more oil four years from now than it did last year. That means the company’s oil output won’t even keep pace with its own projections of worldwide oil demand growth of 1.2% a year.
Imagine a chief executive of another growth company making a similar announcement to Wall Street as Exxon Chairman Rex Tillerson. What if Steve Jobs said Apple (AAPL) wasn’t going to sell any more iPhones than it did in 2007? What if Howard Schultz said Starbucks’ (SBUX) latte production would stagnate, at least until the next U.S. president embarked on his or her reelection campaign? Shares of both companies would plummet.

When Fostering an Elitest Climate

…these things happen. Until the proletariat rises up in anger, that is.

San Diego Superior Court Judge ordered coffee chain Starbucks to pay $87 million plus interest to workers who say that their tips unfairly had been shared with supervisors.
…Starbucks in a statement said it would appeal the judgment, which also required that Starbucks cease letting supervisors share tips.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a supervisor tip dipping. That’s appalling. It’s pretentious ~ like a snobbish feudal system, taking a cut of the serfs’ own cabbage greens from their kitchen garden.
No wonder I find, “My mouth can’t form these words…” so snickeringly apropos.

Dancin’ in the Streets

Via HotAir.

UPDATE: As Lisa notes, the guy’s done time… the GOOD way.

BREAKING NEWS: Movement on the Schmuck Front

Spitzer is on his way from his 5th Ave apartment to the governor’s mansion. Old girl is in the limo with him. ::sigh:: The MSNBC reporter says, “They had a difficult night…” Duh.
Jay Leno said it best:

“If this guy was a plumber … he would have his wife’s SUV tire tracks over his head,”

Our long national nightmare may at last…oh, right.
Wrong schmuck.

Honestly. He’s Really Starting to Sound

…like the dullest tack in the box (‘Not the sharpest’ gives him too much credit.). So much for the Republicans bringing him down ~ he gets that label all to himself.

The feds might never have caught on to Eliot Spitzer’s hooker-loving ways had the governor not second-guessed himself over payments he made to his pimp’s bank account.
Last year, Spitzer wired more than $10,000 from a Manhattan bank account to a front company for the Emperors Club VIP, which hired out prostitutes to high-end clients, according to a newsday.com report.

… Despite that, Spitzer got worried that he could be tied to the transfers and asked the bank to remove his name from the transactions. The bank reportedly refused, not only because of regulations, but also because the money had already gone out.
The unidentified bank then notified the Internal Revenue Service, as required by law, that Spitzer had sent more than $10,000 in a way that appeared designed to avoid disclosure requirements, the report said.

Brilliant, prosecutor. Just brilliant.

Compare and contrast

Our oh-so-tolerant multi-culti betters in Europe have abolished the death penalty and hate it so much that they didn’t want to extradite a filthy murdering scumbag to the U.S. because he might face the death penalty.
Oh, but that was years ago. My how times change:

Dutch high court rejects gay asylum seeker
Tue Mar 11, 6:55 PM ET
SUMMARY: Britain, where Mehdi Kazemi, 19, first sought asylum, is deemed responsible for his case; sympathetic lawmakers fear he’d be executed in Iran.
The Netherlands’ highest court Tuesday rejected a gay Iranian asylum seeker’s last-ditch bid to avoid deportation to Britain, where he fears authorities will send him back to Tehran and possible execution.
In a ruling published on its website, the Council of State said Britain is responsible for Mehdi Kazemi’s case, because it was there that the 19-year-old first applied for asylum.
Gay rights campaigner Rene van Soeren said Kazemi’s Dutch lawyer was considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The lawyer, Borg Palm, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Boris van der Ham, a lawmaker who has taken up Kazemi’s cause, has tabled questions in parliament asking the junior minister for immigration, Nebahat Albayrak, to lobby British authorities on Kazemi’s behalf.
Albayrak should either urge Britain not to send Kazemi back to Iran or offer him asylum in the Netherlands, Van der Ham said in a telephone interview.
[…] The Netherlands relaxes its tough asylum laws for Iranian gays — virtually guaranteeing asylum to any who apply here — because of persecution they face at home. Britain, on the other hand, rejected Kazemi’s original asylum request.
Kazemi, 19, says he traveled to London to study English in 2005 and applied for asylum in Britain after learning that his lover in Iran had been executed for sodomy.
After British authorities rejected Kazemi’s application, he fled to mainland Europe and applied for asylum in the Netherlands.

Dhimmification. It’s what’s for (halal) dinner.

Grand Schmuck Spitzer

Ah, as one would have expected this is the gift that keeps on giving. Here is our dear and soon to be departed Spitzmeister during his campaign for Governor

Like all parents, I know it is increasingly difficult to protect our children from negative influences… we have learned that when self-regulation fails, government must step in… we must do more to protect our children from excessive sex and violence in the media…
Media content has gotten more graphic, more violent and more sex-based… Currently, nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ which rewards a player for stealing cars and beating people up. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…

I just can’t stop my giggling. Immature, I know, but so thoroughly enjoyable as to easily overcome whatever feeble attempts my sense of propriety makes to halt it.
In light of what we have now learned this week, perhaps a little editing is in order…

Like all parents, I know it is increasingly difficult to protect your college-aged children from negative influences like me… we have learned that when self-regulation fails, the urge to drop a couple grand on some high-class booty kicks in… we must do more to protect our children from excessive sex and violence in the media and keep it in hotel rooms where it belongs…
My busy schedule has gotten more graphic, more violent and more sex-based… Currently, nothing under New York State law prohibits a fortyeight-year old from walking into an adult video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Prosecute Aut-Ho,’ which rewards a player for using the law to extort money from companies and beating people up in the press. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…This is an outrage; they should be learning how to have real sex with a prostitute and how to hide the payments…

I hope this drags out for weeks.
(h/t to HotAir)

Lord Rove Entices Another

A good essay by longtime liberal playwright David Mamet on Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’.
He’ll never work in this town again…

Well…

…all the cool kids are doing it. So is Cullen.

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Man, the Hatchets Are Out

Check the subtle phraseology in this MSNBC article after the blockbuster headline.

McCain advisers lobbied for Airbus
…’Aesthetics are not good,’
McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been a key figure in the Pentagon’s yearslong attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.

Wow. It’s hard to be more slanted and still truthful at the same time. In this paragraph alone, they’ve left off the “after Boeing executives went to prison” etc., as well as mentioning Airbus, vice the fact that McCain wanted to insure a fair COMPETITION. That would mean, uh, yeah, that Airbus wouldn’t be excluded because who else could compete with Boeing? They sort of get around to that point a little further down…

…EADS retained Ogilvy Government Relations and The Loeffler Group to lobby for the tanker deal last year, months after McCain sent two letters urging the Defense Department to make sure the bidding proposals guaranteed competition.
…”All I asked for in this situation was a fair competition,” he told reporters Monday at Lambert Field in St. Louis, home of a Boeing fighter jet plant.
On Friday, he defended his aggressive oversight: “I never weighed in for or against anybody that competed for the contract. All I asked for was a fair process. And the facts are that I never showed any bias in any way against anybody — except for the taxpayer.”

Then there’s THIS gem:

…It is unclear what EADS hired the lobbyists to do. Loeffler and Airbus officials did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages left late Monday.

Perhaps…lobby? Does Boeing have lobbyists? Well, damned if they don’t! I’m shocked!! And is MSNBC calling to ask what they do? Maybe they’re not because we already knew the answer years ago.

Documents Show Extent of Lobbying by Boeing
In a last-ditch effort to block a controversial $20 billion proposal by the Air Force to lease a fleet of Boeing 767 aerial tankers…documents showing a high-level lobbying campaign by the Air Force and Boeing to fend off critics as well as potential competitors.
The documents, made public over the holiday weekend and first reported in The Washington Post and elsewhere, come as two Senate committees are planning to hold hearings this week on the $20 billion leasing plan, which Senator McCain, an Arizona Republican, has long criticized as corporate welfare.
In releasing the documents, which include Boeing and Air Force e-mail messages and internal memos culled from some 8,000 documents, he is trying to show that the Air Force and Boeing assisted each other in structuring the program, promoting it in Washington and setting requirements so that no other competitors could qualify.

The Air Force and Boeing have been winkwink, nudgenudge, cheek-by-jowl cozy for so long, they’ve forgotten what the concept of competition even IS.

…One of the more revealing memos among the newly released documents showed that Darleen Druyun, then the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management, told Boeing to ”keep in mind” that an Airbus bid was $5 million to $17 million cheaper per airplane than a basic Boeing 767. The information was disclosed in an April 1 meeting of Air Force and Boeing officials after Boeing had been selected over Airbus.

Ms. Druyun is now deputy general manager of Boeing’s missile defense systems.

(One hand washes the other.) And really, who needs a paid lobbyist, when you’ve got an good friend on the inside?

…”The Pentagon has been saying Ms. Druyun was a tough negotiator,” Miller continued. “Ironically, while she was working for the Air Force, as we initially suspected, she was actually negotiating on behalf of Boeing.”

Well, she’s not so much any more.
So who caused this big rumpus back in 2003 that crashed the pajama party?
John McCain.
I guess they’re hoping the memories fade and no one thinks to Google “boeing lobbyist”.

Much Like Spitzer, I Am So Busted

…by this quiz at Caltechgirl’s

Find out how totally 80’s are you at LiquidGeneration!
Can I wait 48 hours to decide my fate?

WAIT a Minute

I know things are bad, but creating a special purchasers’ category strikes me as…well…bad.

…Charlotte is working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development on a program that allows firefighters, police officers and teachers to purchase foreclosed homes at 50% of their listed price.

Friend of the little people

With his track record, I kind of expected to see Mr. Spitzer’s name show up too:

Bill Clinton Link in Ethanol Probe
(SAO PAULO, Brazil) — A team from Brazil’s Labor Ministry found “degrading” living conditions for 133 sugarcane workers employed by an ethanol company whose investors include former President Clinton and other high-profile financial players.
At five sites inspected, workers “complained they were suffering from hunger and cold, and all of the locations were overcrowded and with terrible sanitary conditions,” according to a statement issued Friday by Jaqueline Carrijo, who led the inspections last month.

Okay, Clinton is a minor investor in a company that is a minor investor in Brenco. That’s not much of a connection and not much of an indictment of him. But certainly, as in the case of uberprogressives Mark Dayton, Al Franken, and Paul Wellstone, one who makes a big deal about the little folk and “feels your pain” might want to look a little more closely at his business connections.

Send Some Prayers

Or good wishes or whatever the hell your outlook allows to one of our bestest buds.

Honor Their Service?

I just got an email from CafePress, whom I won’t link to, dressed all up in faux patriotic bunting, inviting me to buy some of their wares and “honor their service in Iraq.” The two most prominent ways they feel I can do this is to buy a shirt that says “Peace Love Return” and a bumper sticker that says “Support The Troops. Bring Them Home.”
Funny.
I thought the best way to “honor” and “support” the troops is to kill all of their goddamned enemies.

Hubris

There’s really nothing else that describes it. As I’ve been sitting here this morning thinking about this Spitzer debacle the image that keeps coming back to me is that of Pentheus in The Bacchae: a man who is so sure of his moral rectitude and correctness on all issues that he manages to degrade and destroy himself and those around him utterly. Look at his biography, and especially at the scandals he’s been bogged down with since taking office and his manner of treating with people. A horrid, brash, egotistical, well, pig really. HotAir has a nice segment on what a great guy he really is.
Look at his statement yesterday

“For the past nine years, eight years as attorney general, and one as governor, I have tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all. We sought to bring real change to New York and that will continue.
“Today I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better.
“I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good, and doing what is best for the state of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.
“I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.”

What strikes me most about his opening paragraph is his inclusion of the phrase “I have tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics…” This may be the only honest thing he says. His political view, shared by most in his party and sadly by too many on the other side of the aisle as well, is the elitist progressive agenda, where all power and wisdom is the sole domain of the bureaucrats and experts, where it is our Harvard/Yale educated ruling class that knows what is best for us and it is Government’s duty to wisely dispense blessings on us, as we are too foolish to decide for ourselves what we need. And woe be unto he who questions the wise government sages!
These people disgust me, these Spitzers, Clintons, Craigs, Cuomos, Corzines, Kennedys, McGreeveys; mostly Democrats it’s true but the Republicans all too often fall prey to the same sirens as well of late. Much like any human institution inevitably does, both parties have become corrupt institutions more concerned with maintaining their own existence as opposed to actually implementing a distinct philosophy of government, and that’s why there’s frankly very little difference between them. Bigger government is better, and they use our money to bribe us. And we let them.
And so here we have another politician coming out with one of these non-apologies, hoping to ride out the storm. This is not some “private matter;” “…doing what is best for the State of New York” requires you to resign. Now.
And it requires us to closely think about who we elect, and how well we are served by these party machines we have allowed to evolve.

Well, I might as well join the pile-on too

So I was listening to the radio on the way to work and the host posed a survey question to the female members of the show’s crew. As best I can recall, the survey question went something like this:
“Suppose your husband came home and told you he had spent $4000 for four hours with a hooker. Then suppose that the reason he tells you this is that he is being investigated and that the story is on nationwide news. Then suppose that he asks you to go onstage with him at a press conference to show your support while he faces the reporters.
“The survey question is:

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Let’s Just Say

…”He has to step down. No one will stand with him,” said Rep. Peter King, a Republican congressman from Long Island. “I never try to take advantage or gloat over a personal tragedy. However, this is different.

This is a guy who is so self-righteous, and so unforgiving.”

…Richard Cranium, shall we?

So How Will Spitzer’s Next Press Conference Start?

My guess is something like “I am an American John.”

Breaking News: Spitzer The ‘Ho Man!

Well well well, now we know how jealous you New Yorkers were of us with McGreavey

ALBANY – Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.
Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.
Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

I can’t wait for this press conference.
Update: Get ready for “Hillary For Governor”
UpdateUpdate: Well, he admitted it in his statement. Hot Air has constant updates.
Update Updated Updatedly: The Smoking Gun has the relevant transcripts.

More Heretics Coming Out Of The Closet

Tim has all the scandalous details of this obviously deranged individual

“Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations,” Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.
How did modern researchers make such a mistake? They relied upon equations derived over 80 years ago, equations which left off one term from the final solution.

In the gloried spirit of impartial scientific research, NASA refused to publish his theory.

Miskolczi believes their motivation is simple. “Money”, he tells DailyTech. Research that contradicts the view of an impending crisis jeopardizes funding, not only for his own atmosphere-monitoring project, but all climate-change research. Currently, funding for climate research tops $5 billion per year.

I’m shocked.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia

Not mine this time. KG has a quiz going and it’s a good one.
Being a fan from way back (like, from before he died nearly 35 years ago) I nailed all of them except the last one. That, I assume, is one of the ones released well after his death, like “Gunga Din”. I’m refraining from answering them for the moment, but please do drop by and answer them if you dare.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia (Lovin’ Spoonful edition)

Well, I spent another bike ride with the Mamas and the Papas. Until I heard the song “Creeque Alley” lo these many years ago, I didn’t know that the M&tPs were so closely connected with the Lovin’ Spoonful, whose songs I have loved for many years. Well, there’s actually one that I’m not overly fond of even though it happens to be their only #1 song. Funny that.
Anyway, I do like these guys and since people (especially Joel) know the connection, it seems apropos to go with them. So here we go:

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