The NewsHour on PBS Tonight Jumped Right On the U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Controversy

In fact, they state a lack of science and engineering training is to blame for hi-tech jobs going overseas.

And then they promptly misspell “engineering” [min. 1:45] in their fancy graphic illustrating the figures that prove it.

Watch How Many Manufacturing Jobs Can U.S. Realistically Maintain? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Later in the broadcast, they treated us to a natty academic fellow who explains how liberals are different from conservatives in his new tome. I’ll give you the short version:

Liberals are emotional, caring, empathetic and won’t survive the coming apocalypse because they’ll be too busy worrying their heads off about everyone else. Little kitties included. Conservatives, on the other hand, are so used to taking care of their spoils of war, ill gotten gains, protecting their riches, et al, that they’ll do VERY well, because they can “cause harm” (“no insults intended”) and not feel bad about it, not being so overly concerned with the poor, etc. who would otherwise divert resources necessary for tribal survival. Conservatives have F.O.C.U.S.

I think I got it about right. You watch what you can and tell me if I do.

Watch How Scarce Resources Could Shape U.S. Politics on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

So yeah. We got it. You’re the smart college guys.

ths adds: A big Swill Welcome to Instapundit readers and thank you, Glenn! (After last night, I’m still not sure if this should be “National Spelling” or “Be Kind to Kittens” Day. Academia, flyover country’s looking at you for answers…)

Obama Picks Another Weiner Or: Are You Sure That Company Name Isn’t Spelled E-N-N-U-I?

Sure seems like it should be.

Obama-backed electric car battery-maker files for bankruptcy

An Indiana-based energy-storage company, whose subsidiary received a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department, filed for bankruptcy Thursday.

Ener1 is asking a federal bankruptcy court in New York to approve a plan to restructure the company’s debt and infuse $81 million in equity funding.

“This was a difficult, but necessary, decision for our company,” Ener1 CEO Alex Sorokin said in a news release. “We are extremely pleased to have the strong support of our primary investors and lenders to substantially reduce the company’s debt.”

Via Ace

Lucky Damn Thing He Got All That Hooting About “Detroit” in the SOTU Over and Done With

…because the “STFU report” came out today.

Taxpayers still owed $132.9B from bailout: report

A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion that companies haven’t repaid from the financial bailout, and some of that will never be recovered.

The bailout launched at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 will continue to exist for years, says a report issued Thursday by Christy Romero, the acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout. Some bailout programs, such as the effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing mortgage payments, will last as late as 2017, costing the government an additional $51 billion or so.

…If Treasury plans to sell its stock in the three companies at or above the price where taxpayers would break even on their investment — $28.73 a share for AIG, $53.98 for GM — it may take a long time for the market to rebound to that level, the report says. AIG’s shares closed Wednesday at $25.31, while GM ended at $24.92. Ally isn’t publicly traded.

Why is Ally Financial Inc. a big deal? Because taxpayers own 77% of the company and why don’t you recognize the name?

Because it rebranded itself after being known as GMAC Financial Services became kinda unpopular. Literally WE own the bank.

And will, apparently, for quite some time.

Australia Day Disgrace

Via Tim, Australian PM Julia Gillard and Opposition leader Tony Abbot were trapped by a mob of several hundred today in a restaurant where they were celebrating the founding of their wonderful country.

This is a complete and total disgrace, and I would think the local police have got some serious explaining to do.

Headline Of The Century?

Gordon Ramsay’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead in a Badger Den in Wales

The story lives up to the headline.

Only CNN…

…could do an extensive investigative report on a “chilling honor killing” in which 3 teenage young ladies and one middle aged woman were brutally slaughtered

and not ONCE mention just what was the basis for this “honor.”

A Very Fine Fellow Passed Away This Weekend

On Friday, actually. I was delighted to be able to number Larry and his lovely wife Peggy among my friends here. Not in the “go out together/live at each other’s place” type of friends, but the easy kind of friends you have. Where it seems like you’ve know each other forever, see one another on the porch of a business, or the post office, say “Hi!”, hug (MEAN it) and sit a spell. Know all the questions to ask to catch up on family, life and enjoy the conversation.

Larry was another of those local Pensacola prodigies I’m always marveling about. We first met when I was delivering my glasses to a business in Orange Beach, Alabama. Killing time waiting for the owner, I struck up a conversation with the genial, bearded gent in the Hawaiian shirt sprawled in an hot turquoise Adirondack chair on Tootie Green’s porch. Things went from there, since Peggy was a dear friend of said owner and wound up helping out there a lot. The CD’s Larry was recording in his home studio were selling like hotcakes at Tootie’s and he would have signing sessions on weekends. For his birthday one year, I even did him up a big, fat wine glass covered with everything imaginable music-wise ~ from clefs to notes, staffs and codas. I think I even threw in a “maestro” for good measure.

And in all honesty, that was before…well, here’s the wonderful thing about Larry Butler. I “knew” Larry, but Larry never made sure you knew “who” he was. I only knew he played a mean piano when I made his birthday goblet, vaguely recognized he was a local luminary and I’d known him for a couple years. He was sweet Larry on the porch I always looked forward to seeing.

Imagine my surprise when I heard he also wrote songs. You might have heard of this one ~ it won a Grammy.

But he didn’t just play piano and write songs. He produced albums for other guys. You might have heard of one of these, too.

Matter of fact, in 1979 he won a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, the only Nashville producer to ever win the award.

But you would have never known he had this “other” life until he started to tell stories, and then you’d wonder, “Where on EARTH…?”, like I did the first time I was at the edge of a Butler story circle on the porch. Mesmerizing. And entertaining as HELL.

Oh, God bless him. What a doll.

The Grinch has several of Larry’s CD’s that he was kind enough to autograph for him ~ I haven’t broken the news to him yet. major dad had to stop by the Community Center to drop off the card for Peggy and Schanda for me, since I had to work. He said the place was packed. I knew it would be.

Larry made real friends.

Another SOTU Clip

I think people are missing the most revealing thing about Obama’s “Milk Joke” last night

It isn’t the reaction of the audience to the fact that the guy simply can’t tell a decent joke.

No, it’s the chutzpah of a guy expressing shock that a government regulation would classify spilled milk as an “oil” and thus cost the farmer thousands of dollars…while at the same time his EPA is declaring human breath a pollutant that needs to be regulated.

I Didn’t Watch The SOTU Speech Last Night

Turns out I didn’t need to

as he’s given it several times before.

What a pathetic, simply pathetic “ruling class” we have.

Snuff Videos Aside, By All Means!

Let the negotiations begin with these jolly good fellows! Everybody knows the Afghani and U.S. governments are far less scummy than the Pakistani, so we have nothing to fear, and can have every faith in their good and fuzzy-faced full intentions!

Video purportedly shows Taliban executing 15 kidnapped Pakistani soldiers

The Taliban released a video over the weekend that purports to show the execution of 15 Pakistani soldiers — punishment, they say, for Pakistan attacks on the militants.

The video, according to AFP, which it says obtained a copy, shows the soldiers lined up in three rows, each with their hands bound behind their back and blindfolded. A Taliban leader criticizes the Pakistani government for killing 12 militants, and warns of more revenge killings if the attacks continue, AFP reports.

That’d Get MY Vote

…for sweet things I dream of Obama whispering.

Fantasy vs life is kah-ROO-ell that way.

‘I Resign,’ And Other Things Small Business Wants to Hear at State of Union

Small business owners are not shy about expressing their opinions when it comes to government policies. When we asked members of our Small Business Council what they hope to hear from President Obama in tonight’s State of the Union address, a few recurring themes that pop up. Among them: Reduce federal regulation. Loosen up lending. And, this: I resign.

That last one came from Joseph Dutra, president and CEO of Kimmie Candy Company in Nevada, where the unemployment and foreclosure rates remain high.

It’s unlikely he’ll get his wish, but he wasn’t the only one expressing unhappiness with our current president, or at least Washington.

On the upside, if he said it, that’d leave Sheriff Joe in charge, so schmaybe reality, while it bites, ain’t as bad as it could be.

Boehner’s Getting Pretty Cagey Trumpeting the Big Event

Once Again, In the Finest Tradition of Recent Arab/Islamic Culture: When the Going Gets Tough Reaching for the Moral Imperative

…just quit.

Gulf states to quit Arab League mission in Syria

Six-nation bloc to pull its monitors out of Syria, after embattled Assad regime rejected a proposal by the Arab League for new presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Gulf Cooperation Council plans to pull its monitors from Syria, an official said Tuesday, after President Bashar Assad’s regime rejected an Arab-brokered plan to end the country’s bloodshed.

The official said a statement is planned outlining the decision by the six-nation bloc, which follows a move by Gulf power Saudi Arabia to remove its 13 monitors.

The Gulf exit could expand rifts within Arab states about how hard to push Assad, whose forces have waged relentless attacks against opposition groups and mutinous security forces for 10 months. The U.N. estimates 5,400 people have died in the violence.

The GCC official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in advance of the announcement. The bloc includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, which comprised more than half of the 11-nation Arab monitoring mission.

“He’s a great, nasty pile of camel hemorrhoids and won’t do a thing we say. We’re so through here.”

Happy Birthday Warren Zevon

I saw Chuck Norris walking with the Queen

doing the Werewolves of Jersey…

RIP

(via Tim’s Cowbell)

Eric Holder’s Priorities

According to one of his Assistant Attorney Generals

“Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing SAT fraud and safeguarding test-taker confidence … the state’s submission did not include any evidence or instance of either in­-person test impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state’s existing SAT identification requirement and that arguably could be deterred by requiring student to present only photo identification at the polls,” he wrote.

So Holder has struck done New York’s discriminatory SAT-ID law on the basis that it places an “unfair burden” on certain minorities and that

“We need – and the American people deserve – testing systems that are free from discrimination, free from partisan influence, and free from fraud,” said Holder.

Remember: you need to show ID to write a check, deposit a check, withdraw money from the bank, get molested by TSA, buy a pack of cigarettes and take the SAT.

But not to vote.

Shat!

It’s the past participle of “butt particle” right?

Then she thought shat if you aimed an infrared light at the tumors to melt the polymer and release the medicine, thus killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed.

CBS News: The Professionals.

Via Insty.

Guys, Seriously, Buck Up

I think you’re being way over sensitive here

Minister Vayalar Ravi termed the gag by “The Tonight Show” host as “quite unfortunate and quite objectionable” and said the Indian embassy in Washington would raise the issue, the Press Trust of India reported on Monday.

In a dig at Mr Romney’s privileged background during a show last week, Leno used a photo of the ornate Sikh shrine in the northwestern Indian city of Amritsar during a segment on the vacation homes of US Republican presidential candidates.

Angry members of the Sikh community in the US circulated an online petition protesting the “derogatory depiction” of the Golden Temple, adding that “Jay Leno’s racist comments need to be stopped right here”.

It’s not a bad gag by Leno, really. The proper response to this is to just laugh at them, but I’m sure NBC will issue some mealy-mouthed response saying “we apologize for any offense”.

Whereas I’d just say “I’m sikh of people with no sense of humor!”

Smart Power!

Hey, how’s that Arab Spring working out?

CAIRO (AP) – Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt’s first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to election officials and political groups.

The Islamist domination of Egypt’s parliament has worried liberals and even some conservatives about the religious tone of the new legislature, which will be tasked with forming a committee to write a new constitution. It remains unclear whether the constitution will be written while the generals who took power after Mubarak’s fall are still in charge, or rather after presidential elections this summer.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats.

Shroud the pyramids, infidels!

Note to Matt Drudge

You need the other Manning’s picture in your “Super Rematch” Manning/Brady front o’ the page photo there, bud.

The guy with the white helmet and blue horse’s hoof print isn’t going to the game. His little brother is.

Duh.

Normally I’d Say, “Oooo! THAT’LL Leave a Mark”

But you have to be able to feel something for that to be true.

It’s a waste of breath in President Numbnuts’ case.

Brazil Stiffs Obama on Oil Deal, Exposing President’s Incompetence

President Barack Obama has suffered the second embarrassment over oil imports within the space of a week. Brazil, whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration, has signed contracts with China for the product.

According to the Washington Times, Brazilian offshore crude may number about 38 billion barrels. Obama went to Brazil last month to put in a bid for the oil, offering loans and other support to develop the oil in an “environmentally responsible matter,” The Hill reported at the time. Republicans criticized that initiative, pointing out Obama has placed roadblocks in the way of domestic development of oil and gas reserves.

Hellava job he’s doing there…here…pretty much everywhere. And lucky effin us.

$6 a gallon gas…zoomzoom.

A Treat For Our Honored Guests

Straight from the Monkey’s Butt

O_o

**eyeroll**

Brian Kilmeade. When he just. Can’t. TAKE. HER. ANY. MORE!!!!!!

A Worry

We’ve finally got some snow, and as it’s a Saturday I just put some beans-a-soaking to make some cassoulet. I’m using black beans, though, instead of the “proper” white ones and I’m more than a little afraid the Gourmand Patrol™ will come and take away my Jacques Pepin Decoder Ring…

ths update: From an equally snow-bound Kcruella, to help you get through it:

Circus Peanut

Equal parts: Pinnacle whipped vodka
99 Bananas
French vanilla creamer
dash of grenadine for color

Chill, shake and serve

Had “Bingley” written all over it with that ghastly name.

Bingley Update: Turned out rather tasty, if I do say so myself

especially with the bacon/romano biscuits

If a Disgruntled Homewrecker’s Bitter Spewings Are So Vital to National Security and Informed Consent of the Governed That the Media Feels We MUST NEEDS Be Subjected

…to her rehashing of ancient marital ills, then an equal point of “openness” and “informed citizenry”/”danger danger danger” could be made towards yet another request that The Los Angeles Times FINALLY release the 2003 Obama/Rashid Khalidi videotape, squirreled away in their vaults since 2008, eh?

…However, of greater importance in my view is the silence, save for a few journalists and pundits on the right, regarding exposing a videotape recorded in 2003 of Barack Obama at the farewell dinner for terrorist-supporting Palestinian Rashid Khalidi. News of the videotape’s existence came to light while Obama was a candidate, and the free pass given to him by the mainstream media was only just beginning to come to light when the enamored Chris Matthews’ shared news of the tingle up his leg.

While the birthers’ demands did draw some media attention, it was mostly negative and only made fun of the supposedly crazy loons on the far right who apparently were representative of all petty and irrational conservatives. No one seemed to notice that Obama had not written a single article while serving as editor of The Harvard Law Review, and no one pressed the issue of Obama’s suppressed college and law school transcripts since it was a given that his brilliance was perhaps surpassed only by the likes of Albert Einstein.

But there is a videotape sitting in the vaults of the Los Angeles Times, and every American should be screaming from the rooftops for its release…

According to accounts Roger Simon has gathered of the evening, it was very, shall we say, “Palestinian-centric” and an aspiring presidential candidate’s reaction/lack there-of to some of the purported inflammatory (no Molotovs attached THIS time) rhetoric…oh, well gosh. Could be problematic if viewed from the wrong perspective ~ like, anybody who wasn’t a Jihadi and supported Israel, schmaybe? Or your normal red-blooded American who hated poetry…

…And? Well, that’s about it. Wellsten doesn’t tell us much more from the videotape or the party other than:

“a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”

One speaker likened “Zionist settlers on the West Bank” to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been “blinded by ideology.”

So, think ~ visualize what The Dreamy, Cool, Distant One’s face was like as the “youth” recited his stanza. Of course you have to “imagine”, because his Praetorian Guard has ensured you won’t get to check your creative powers against the real thing.

Shoot. Is the tape even in existence any more? Accidents do happen.

Well, they have a way of happening.

Attempting to torpedo Newtie (who, by the way, is PERFECTLY capable of torpedoing himself and has REPEATEDLY) over Number One homewrecker’s ancient dreck about Number Two Homewrecker, when we’re ALL agreed Newtie’s a humongous ego and massive turd personally (We didn’t know this?), yet someone sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this very minute and no one has ever even heard an interview with an old girlfriend, or read a single college paper he wrote. And he’s a genius.

And he’s golden tongued like Daniel Webster, so there should be a trail of tapes, interviews and moments a mile wide of this young fellow blazing his way through the cornfields and boroughs of America, especially in THIS day and age, culminating in his ascension to that most American of aspirations: the White House.

But really, nobody knows Jack about Barack. Oddest thing, that.

The Stupid Is Strong In This One

It goes deep to the bone

DRAPER, Utah (CBS Las Vegas) – One Utah school district believes a cougar mascot would be insensitive to women.

The Canyons School District overrode the students top choice of a cougar mascot for their high school that is to be completed in 2013.

Would-be Corner Canyon High School students chose the Cougars as their mascot — a name principal Mary Bailey said carries an ugly connotation that is disrespectful to women.

Please note the definition in the very next sentence that Mary Bailey says “carries an ugly connotation and is disrespectful to women”

In popular culture, the cougar is a sexually aggressive middle-aged woman who attracts younger men.

I’m just not seeing either the ugly connotation or the disrespect here. Maybe it’s me. Hell, I’m sure it is.

So what did these defenders of democracy declare by fiat over the name the students voted for?

The school board, which consists of six men and one woman, thought the Charger would be more appropriate, which was on the ballot but failed to appeal to students as the cougar had.

Charger. As in, you know, a woman who spends too much time at the mall or on Amazon and uses her credit card so much that she’s memorized the numbers. How demeaning.

I have a suggestion.

Maybe they should choose a truly safe, pure, non-hurtful name.

Like “Biatch”.