Grauniad: Obama Votes “Present”

My goodness, when The One loses the Guardian…

Barack Obama’s speech disappoints and fuels frustration at Copenhagen

Barack Obama stepped into the chaotic final hours of the Copenhagen summit today saying he was convinced the world could act “boldly and decisively” on climate change.

But his speech offered no indication America was ready to embrace bold measures, after world leaders had been working desperately against the clock to try to paper over an agreement to prevent two years of wasted effort — and a 10-day meeting — from ending in total collapse.

…But in the absence of any evidence of that commitment the words rang hollow and there was a palpable sense of disappointment in the audience.

Ain’t nothing nastier than a disillusioned lover…

With any luck this whole circus will dissolve into a mess of hurt feelings and huffing-off-onto-their-jets and we will save trillions of dollars.

Oh, and the East Coast of the US is getting hit with a blizzard; a foot of snow in DC should convince anyone that there is, in fact, a God.

Codey Does The Right Thing

At least there’s one Democrat in Trenton who doesn’t want NJ to become Massachusetts

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) today essentially struck a death blow to Democratic efforts to change the way U.S. senate vacancies are filled.

Codey said that he would not post a bill addressing the issue in his final weeks leading the state senate.

“I do believe that whoever replaces the United States senator should be of the same party,” said Codey. “But having said that, any party could have changed this at any point in time… it just looks strictly partisan and is the wrong message at this time.”

Damn straight, sir.

It only “looks strictly partisan” because it, er, um, is strictly, shamelessly partisan.

We vote for individuals for offices, not Parties. If someone leaves office then that office is up for open election.

Just When I Start To Worry About The Future Of This Great Land

I come across a heart warming story of traditional family values and I rest assured that the next generation will be our greatest yet

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WTVC-TV) – A 4-year-old boy, beer in hand, is accused of stealing Christmas presents from his neighbors. It’s a strange story, but also a sad one.

April Wright is 21 years old and is going through a divorce with her husband who is in jail. She says she is not sure how her 4-year-old managed to get out of the house, open a beer, and steal the neighbors presents from under their tree. Now she’s just glad he’s okay and says she won’t let it happen again.

The child, Hayden Wright, was found around 1:45 am Tuesday, wandering the streets of his neighborhood. In a police reports, officers said he was wearing a little girl’s dress and drinking a beer.

THS will vouch that I waited until my 8th birthday to behave in such a manner.

This really is a story of timeless togetherness for the holidays

“He runs away trying to find his father,” she said. “He wants to get in trouble so he can go to jail because that’s where his daddy is.”

He shows creativity and that good-old American Can-Do attitude

Wright said, “He got it out of my father’s cooler in the back and how he got it open I don’t understand because it was one of those tab beers.”

But it doesn’t stop there. The report said Hayden then snuck into a neighbor’s house through an unlocked front door, and stole five wrapped Christmas gifts. One was a girl’s brown dress which Hayden was wearing when police found him.

This story shows the human, fragile side of parenting

She said she tries to be a good mother and loves her son, but now feels like a failure.

But, via the Magic of the Season, we get a Happy Ending

Wright did meet with child protective services today who told her she will get to keep custody of Hayden.

Our future is looking brighter all the time.

While I Can’t Profess to Have Any Mathematical Leanings WHATsoever

…I get a little weak in the knees for guys ~ like major dad and ebola ~ who do.

You know…kinda gives me the shivers.

Shock Headline Of The Year

You know, we hear this so often it’s become a freakin’ joke

New jobless benefit claims rise unexpectedly

WASHINGTON – The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week as the recovery of the nation’s battered labor market proceeds in fits and starts.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of new jobless claims rose to 480,000 last week, up 7,000 from the previous week. That was a worse performance than the decline to 465,000 that economists had expected.

The economy remains in the toilet, but we’re told “golly everything is great and if we don’t spend trillions more we’ll go bankrupt.”

Oh joy.

One Sponsor Who Likes Tiger Even More Now

It’s the guys who invented the harem

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Tiger Woods’ business partners in Dubai won’t comment on the golfer’s personal woes, but say they are still pushing ahead with plans to build a course bearing his name despite the emirate’s cash problems.

It’ll be the only course in the world where you can reserve a ten-some…

Hold Me Comrade

I’m cold

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports.

…The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

This is the New Scientific Method: decide on the conclusion you want and then select the data that supports it, then declare “consensus” and that the science is settled.

And rake in that funding!

No wonder these guys get along so well with government bureaucrats and politicians.

Their Finest Hour

Things are getting interesting in the Senate.

To make matters more complicated, the Senate stumbled into health care gridlock after a Republican senator forced the clerk to read aloud a 767-page amendment.

GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had sought approval to require that any amendment considered by the Senate must be offered 72 hours in advance and with a full cost report.

When he was rebuffed by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, Coburn invoked his right to require that an amendment by another Democrat be read aloud. That sent the Senate into limbo, since the amendment by Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders is 767 pages long. It calls for guaranteeing coverage to all through a public program similar to Medicare.

And now Hot Air is reporting they’re threatening to have the entire bill read aloud…all 2000-y pages of it.

This is the strongest weapon they have, and must not be used lightly.

But when the majority party is trying to force passage of legislation that is not even written yet, let alone when they won’t give people a chance to read it, it must be done.

The more people hear and learn about the ideas in this bill the more opinion turns against it, hence Reid’s rush to ram it through.

“We Firmly Believe In The Principle Of One Man, One Vote”

…Unless, of course, it’s a vote we disagree with

Liberal anger at Sen. Joe Lieberman spread across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with a House Democrat from Connecticut calling for his recall and Lieberman himself acknowledging the angst he has caused.

“No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I’ll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told POLITICO.

Connecticut has no recall law for state officials, and the Constitution does not authorize states to recall members of Congress, since each house has the authority to police its own members.

But of course details like that are irrelevant when we’re talking about ABSOLUTE MORAL OUTRAGE.

Iran Test Fires Missile

White House considers writing a letter

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran successfully test-fired a long-range, improved Sejil 2 missile on Wednesday, state television reported, in an announcement that added to tension with the West.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the launch underlined the case for tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Al Alam, Iran’s Arabic-language satellite television, said the two-stage, solid fuel Sejil missile had a longer range than the Islamic Republic’s Shahab model.

Iranian officials have in the past said the Shahab 3 missile can reach targets up to 2,000 km (1,250 miles) away. Such a range would put Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf within reach.

I’m sure they are developing this missile for peaceful purposes.

Centrifuges.

Nuclear technology.

Long range missiles.

Glorification of martyrs.

What could go wrong?

Yiddish Word of the Day

(Didn’t know we had one, did you? HAH!)

So, there I was, writing about the Precedent and I stumble across this:

bupkes

Which means this:

Not a word for polite company. Bubkes or bobkes may be related to the Polish word for “beans”, but it really means “goat droppings” or “horse droppings.” It’s often used by American Jews for “trivial, worthless, useless, a ridiculously small amount” – less than nothing, so to speak. “After all the work I did, I got bupkes!”

Man, it doesn’t get any better than that in the descriptive sense.

“Bubkes” Obama works…well, normally I’d say “for” me, but we all know that’s a lie.

President Jekyll

…and Mr. Rough ‘n Tough Hide.

The two faces of O

In public, President Obama is on a tear against Wall Street. In private, not so much

Over the weekend, Obama attacked fat-cat investment bankers, telling “60 Minutes” he didn’t become president to aid and abet Wall Street — which, only a year after the financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout, is now scheduled to hand out tens of billions of dollars in bonuses to its bankers and traders.

But the president’s meeting yesterday with the CEOs of the largest banks was nearly a lovefest, I’m told by attendees.

Kind of a sneaky schizophrenic snake, isn’t he?

…Bam exhorts the banks to pull off feats that are competing and contradictory. They are told to toughen up and brace themselves better for rough times, yet at the same time they should loosen up and expand lending in an economy that still hasn’t fully healed. Go ahead and increase the risks you take—but please be sure to slash your own compensation and cap any upside for placing those riskier bets.

The banks face new pressure to increase capital reserves, contribute to a new $150 billion meltdown fund, endure a profit plunge under new derivatives regulation, earn lower returns in credit cards because of new restrictions—and President Obama is sulky because these “fat cats” aren’t doing enough to pass out free money all around?

Isn’t easy money what got us into the Big Meltdown in the first place?

“You guys caused the problem,” Obama says of the big banks in his little tirade on “60 Minutes.” Right—let’s ignore Fannie and Freddie, and Congress’s bipartisan effort to make home ownership easy-breezy for millions, and regulators for weakening capital standards, and the Fed for leaving interest rates too low for too long, and hedge funds and pension plans and individual investors for loading up on too much risk.

How can a President who is supposed to be so smart be so ignorant?

Political convenience, I guess.

Oh, it’s all about the convenience, all right. Conveniently most of the press keeps a lid on the whole fugly picture.

So far…

Mt. Hood In December

What could possibly go wrong?

(CNN) — Rescuers are looking for two missing hikers after finding a third dead on the slopes of Oregon’s Mount Hood, but the search has been hindered by the threat of avalanches, a sheriff’s deputy said Sunday.

I mean, I do feel sorry for these folks but

What

The

Hell

were they thinking?

Regardless Of What You Think Of Her

This is totally awesome

Via Ace.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

What The Hell?

Huh. I thought weather and atmospheric science was “settled”

Saturn’s north pole holds something even more strange than a globe-trotting Santa Claus — a giant hexagon shape within the planet’s atmosphere. Now NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has imaged the whole hexagonal pattern in visible light for the first time.

The hexagon has remained a mystery ever since NASA’s Voyager spacecraft first discovered it in the early 1980s. Cassini has used its spectrometer to observe the hexagon in both visual and infrared light since 2006, but at lower resolution than the newest visible-light images.

Amazingly cool.

“There’s No Way One of My Dog’s Hairs…”

“…are going to get into a bag of Doritos.“

Thanks, Goldberg

Now this stupid song is stuck in my head…aGAIN.

Cheap Shot of the Day

The difference between Santa and Tiger . . . Santa stops at three Ho’s.

‘Tis the season…

“God, I’m Amazing!”

Chapter 976

…Asked what he wrote, the president joked, “I wrote, ‘Thank you.'”

“No, what I did write actually is worth mentioning,” he added.

Of course it was is. Always.

(Via Instapundit, who noticed something entirely different.)

Tiger-Approved Recruiting Policy

The University of Tennessee would send “hostesses” to high school games

The New York Times reported on its Web site Wednesday the NCAA is probing the use of hostesses by Tennessee to attract top players. The NCAA has met with four prospects and is expected to talk to two more this week.

…Marcus Lattimore, a high school running back, told The Times several hostesses traveled almost 200 miles to watch three Tennessee recruits play at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C. They brought signs including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”

Lattimore had made an unofficial visit but was not interested in committing to Tennessee. But two of his teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have committed verbally to Tennessee. Lattimore called the hostesses pretty and real cool.

“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” Lattimore told The Times. “It’s crazy.”

Ah, the purity of NCAA football is such a blessed respite from this corrupt world, isn’t it? A veritable island of probity in these troubled times.

I’m thinking I picked the wrong sport in high school; we never had any of this sort of attention at my cross country meets…

A Post Crusader Just Sent

…has dredged up some happy Christmas Marine Corps memories.

Pole Licker Strikes, Again

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – It’s become an annual winter tale: A young boy gets his tongue stuck to a metal pole, perhaps as the result of a dare.

It wasn’t 10° ~ it was 10° below.

It wasn’t a little kid ~ it was a L/Cpl.

And it wasn’t a fence.

It was a frozen 500 pounder…

…hanging off the pylon of one of these…

…and he was the plane captain.

And no one had warm water.

“…Robert Gibbs Can Blame Gallup All He Wants…”

…but these results vindicate Gallup and show that his boss has a real problem.

People have begun to realize that this emperor wears no clothes.”

The way Gibbs’ boss and his thug friends are going, that could well be soon true for the rest of us…but in the literal sense.

DagGUM, This Guy Is Good!

The NORWEGIANS?!?!?!? He’s got the NORWEGIANS torqued at him?!?!?!?!

Bless his little, pointy head ~ Barack Obama is a unilateral pisser-offer, the likes of which the world has never seen.

And he’s all ours.

Can’t wait ’til he gets to Hopenchangen! Should be lip-schmacking fun counting the snubs, snarks and potential prostrations.

Save Cody!

Another job lost…