Stop Digging!

One of those editorials that was too good to pass up:

PRUDEN: Ol’ Stupid begins to notice things

By Wesley Pruden  | Friday, July 3, 2009 – Washington Times

Too bad for Barack Obama and the Democrats, but George W. Bush is the shrinking man of American politics, growing ever smaller on the far horizon. Merely invoking his name will soon no longer frighten women and horses.

The not-so-new president has treated his predecessor as his training wheels, invoking his presence every time (which is often) the ground trembles, a dog barks, the wind blows, the rain falls and he threatens to topple over. We were promised nirvana, or at least a lollipop, if only we could banish George W. and the inept and evil Republicans. Banish we did, and the messiah from the South Side of Chicago has been practicing miracle-working for five months. Alas, there’s no sign of clearing skies.

Five months is not very long, of course, and it’s unreasonable to expect nirvana so soon, but that’s the nature of the impatient American public. Reason, like love, has nothing to do with it. With every nightfall, the news gets worse, or at least not any better, and growing numbers of Americans are beginning to doubt that he has all the answers he so confidently insisted he did. The public-opinion polls clearly show deteriorating public confidence in the confidence man. Worse than not having the answers is the growing suspicion that Mr. Obama and his wise men even understand the question.

The unemployment numbers, the closely watched benchmark by which presidents are judged, stood at 7.2 percent when Mr. Obama took his oath, and Thursday, it inched up to 9.5 percent. The average workweek subsided in June to 33 hours, lowest since the feds began keeping such records in 1964. Cutting hours and freezing pay has spread even to companies awash in profits, with managers, never wanting to waste a crisis and looking to an uncertain future, are taking advantage now, just in case.

“We are in some very hard and severe economic times,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told an interviewer in the wake of the new bad news. “The president and I are both not happy. I do think the public needs to be patient. We know they are hurting.”

The president is saying the things every president says when recession hits and panic and depression threaten. Some of the president’s friends insist they see “tiny green shoots” on the landscape, promising prosperity soon. The president himself concedes the economy is in a hole and blames the man who preceded him. His predecessor’s policies “have left us in a very deep hole,” he says, “and digging our way out of it will take time, patience and some tough choices.” The secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, likes the shovel-ready metaphor, too. “You know,” she told a television interviewer the other day, “we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out.”

Breaking: Sarah Palin Stepping Down as Governor

She says that she will be resigning later this month.  Such a move is sure to fuel speculation that she is going to run for President in 2012:

Obama’s Eugenics Program Exposed

Very interesting…

ISNA Conference Makes a Mockery of Independence Day

I’ll be sure to throw a couple of pork-chops on the grill this 4th of July:

The ISNA Conference
By Dave Gaubatz – The American Thinker

American Muslims gather by the tens of thousands in our nation’s capital this weekend, as our nation celebrates its birthday.

They will be filling the Washington DC Convention Center for the 46th Annual ISNA National Conference.  http://www.isna.net/home.aspx Muslims from all across America will be at the event to do their part in helping to celebrate the success of ISNA.

Did the leadership of ISNA randomly pick our nation’s Independence Day to hold their event? Islamic scholars openly lecture to not follow man-made holidays created by the Jews and Christians such as Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, etc.  In addition, ISNA informs American educators that Muslim children are not encouraged to any allegiance to America, which also includes wearing lapel pins or standing for the pledge of allegiance.

Last year I attended the ISNA Conference in Ohio. There were an estimated 30,000 plus Muslims who attended the conference, including Congressman Keith Ellison/D-MN and several other U.S elected officials. (Ellison refused to use the Bible during his official searing in ceremony and instead was allowed to use a Quran.)

There were hundreds of vendors, and since the conference was being held only a couple of months before the 2008 Presidential Election, there was an enormous outpouring of support for Barack Obama. Non profit organizations are not supposed to favor any certain political candidate, of course.

In 2008 ISNA had several booths with anti-American slogans on shirts, along with pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian, and anti-Israel garments. In addition Barack Hussein Obama material was in abundance. I researched the hundreds of vendors and saw no material for Presidential candidate John McCain.

It was easy to find DVDs, books, manuals, and pamphlets calling America a terrorist organization and for the destruction of our country and Israel. It was very easy to find material calling for killing innocent men, women, and children in American who did not belief in an Islamic Ummah (Nation) worldwide and under Sharia law.  There were material calling for polygamy and encouraging child marriages. If you wanted Muslim Brotherhood material, this was the location to obtain the intelligence you desired. These type materials were in abundance.

Man’s Best Friend Alerts Homeowner to Intruder

And, man’s second best friend puts the intruder in the hospital:

Alerted by dog, Sugar Land man shoots intruder
By DALE LEZON – Houston Chronicle

[Texas] – A man shot and wounded an intruder at his apartment Wednesday in Sugar Land, police said.

The shooting happened at the Fairmont Apartments in the 2300 block of Long Reach about 12:15 p.m.

An apartment resident said he feared for his life when a strange man rushed him in is apartment, said Doug Adolph, Sugar Land Police Department spokesman. The resident fired his gun and shot the man, Adolph said

[…]

Adolph said the resident, who has not been identified, was asleep when he heard his dog barking.

The resident woke up, grabbed a pistol near his bed and went to the front room.

He opened the front door but saw nobody.

When he closed the door and turned around, he spotted a man near him in the apartment.

The man rushed toward him. Fearing for his life, the resident fired once, hitting the man in the chest, Adolph said.

The man, who has not been identified because charges have not been filed, fell to the floor. The resident stepped a few feet away and called 911 and reported the shooting.

While the tenant was talking on the phone, the wounded man got up and ran out of the apartment.

However, Adolph said, a short time later they were alerted that a man with a shot gun wound in his chest had walked into a nearby hospital.

[…]

Obama to Oppose Sanctions Against Iran

Well, this comes from Haaretz which is notorious for its inaccuracies in journalism.  So, take it with a grain of salt, but it certainly wouldn’t be out of line with Obama’s current strategy of siding with our enemies while making enemies of our friends:

Report: U.S. to block Iran sanctions at G8 summit
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday.

According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8’s agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities’ suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the G8 is due to decide on new financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Berlusconi disclosed that he had spoken with the heads of the G8 nations and has discussed such steps with them.

According to the Italian prime minister, “the general leaning [among G8 leaders] is toward sanctions.”

However, diplomatic sources in New York reported that American officials are working behind the scenes to prevent new sanctions from being imposed against Iran.

U.S. officials claimed that a tough stance toward Iran could backfire, bringing about an opposite outcome to that desired by those who support such measures.

The Obama administration, according to the diplomatic sources, has discarded the notion of direct talks with Iran. However, the United States is still interested in re-engaging Iran through the renewed discussion of its nuclear program through the six permanent United Nations Security Council members.

American officials expressed concern that a decision to enact harsh steps against Iran during the G8 meeting could badly hurt the prospect of Tehran agreeing to renew negotiations with the permanent Security Council members.

In addition to U.S. reluctance to enact fresh sanctions, G8 members Russia and China have been known to oppose any punitive steps against Tehran.

The Security Council has already imposed several rounds of sanctions against Iran, including a weapons embargo and a ban on supplying Iran any materials which could be used to advance its disputed nuclear program.

New sanctions could include forbidding western oil companies from maintaining commercial ties with Iran.

50 Outrageous Features Found in the Cap-n-Bleed Bill

An excellent talking points resource when contacting your senators:

A Garden of Piggish Delights
Waxman-Markey is part power-grab, part enviro-fantasy. Here are 50 reasons to stop it.
By Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson
NRO

The stimulus bill was the legislative equivalent of the famous cantina scene from Star Wars, an eye-popping collection of the freakish and exotic, gathered for dubious purposes. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, known as ACES (the American Clean Energy and Security Act), is more like the third panel in Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights — a hellscape that disturbs the sleep of anybody who contemplates it carefully.

Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and the bailouts put together. Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life.

The House of Representatives, famously, did not read this bill before passing it, which is testament to either Nancy Pelosi’s managerial incompetency or her political wile, or possibly both. If you take the time to read the legislation, you’ll discover four major themes: special-interest giveaways, regulatory mandates unrelated to climate change, fanciful technological programs worthy of The Jetsons, and assorted left-wing wish fulfillment. We cannot cover every swirl and brushstroke of this masterpiece of misgovernance, but here’s a breakdown of its 50 most outrageous features.