The Last Ephor

as none is needed.

Freeberg got me thinking. Yesterday he wrote: "Just talking to liberals face-to-face, and thinking back on those experiences…I’m having difficulty recalling even just one who was enamored of the liberal position on every single issue across the board." It's one of those things that I always knew but had never really put into words. More like one of those "ah ha" moments when someone precisely puts into words something you were thinking. Herewith is the latest example Freebergs point: "ABC, NBC Won't Air Ad Critical of Obama's Health Care Plan" . I can remember all the way back to June when ABC ran the completely non-partisan hour long informercial produced and paid for by the Obama administration extolling the benefits virtues of Obamacare. See how that works? When they ran the Obama ad, it was informative and newsworthy. Like anything there are two sides to this issue. ABC and NBC have determined that the other side is merely "p...

Obama speaking at Langley in April 2009: I have fought to protect the integrity of classified information in the past, and I will do so in the future. And there is nothing more important than protecting the identities of CIA officers. So I need everybody to be clear: we will protect your identities and your security as you vigorously pursue your missions. I will be as vigorous in protecting you as you are vigorous in protecting the American people. Remember that "outing" Valerie Plame was treason! Obama actually tips his hand here by using his tell. The one that let's you know he's going to lie to you. Can you spot it? Sure you can, "So I need everybody to be clear ". So, with Obamacare about as popular as turd in a punchbowl and his approval rating tanking, he's found his previous pledge really inconvenient. So he resurrects the Ghost Of Bush's Past to distract the rubes: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has named a veteran federal ...

Several items of note carried virtually everywhere else. First, Obama's spokesman takes the heat for Teh 0ne breaking his oft repeated campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class: Liberal blogs are completely ignoring this one because: 1. It hasn't happened yet (fair enough) 2. No criticism of Obama is permissable. Similarly, Axelrod made the rounds with the same message: No embed, video here . This one is good because it includes The Man Himself making said pledge. This is just the latest of many broken promises. The crushing moral urgency of closing Guantanamo? The crushing moral urgency of ending "Don't ask, don't tell". The hints and winks and nods that he'd reverse DOMA. Well, no. That one, at least, was made clear in the debates. He specifically said he wouldn't do anything for gays who wanted to get married. He merely hinted and implied that it was important and would, therefore magically change somehow. I'm most bot...

ZOMFG! Exclusive footage from inside the Air France crash!!!!!11!!!! or not. Apparently none of the news staff have seen LOST. Yet another example to pull out when we hear that Real News (TM) has layers of fact checkers and editors to keep them honest. Pure krep.

Every defining attribute of Bush's radical secrecy powers -- every one -- is found here, and in exactly the same tone and with the exact same mindset. Thus: how the U.S. government eavesdrops on its citizens is too secret to allow a court to determine its legality. We must just blindly accept the claims from the President's DNI that we will all be endangered if we allow courts to determine the legality of the President's actions. Even confirming or denying already publicly known facts -- such as the involvement of the telecoms and the massive data-mining programs -- would be too damaging to national security. Why? Because the DNI says so. It is not merely specific documents, but entire lawsuits, that must be dismissed in advance as soon as the privilege is asserted because "its very subject matter would inherently risk or require the disclosure of state secrets." What's being asserted here by the Obama DOJ is the virtually absolute power of presidenti...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMB6L487LHM

Text of the bill Earmarks in the bill: - Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) - Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503) - 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504) Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill. - Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308) - American Samoa (Sec. 309) - Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310) - Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311) - Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312) - Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315) - Railroads (Sec. 316) - Auto Racing Tracks (317) - District of Columbia (Sec. 322) - Wool Research (Sec. 325) No way. McCain promised to "make them famous". He better damn well start now. I don't care what side of the aisle their on if they're putting this shit into this bill they ought to be literally tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail. Screwing around like this after you've been declaring the nation on the brink of economic collapse is...

He was former head of Fannie Mae who resigned under a cloud after being investigated by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. He is alleged to have raided Fannie Mae to the tune of $100MM and used questionable accounting methods to show higher than actual returns. What's he doing these days, you ask? more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. UPDATE (and bumped): Apparently I'm a fool for trusting WaPo. This according to FactCheck . To wit: "So what evidence does the McCain campaign have for the supposed Obama-Raines connection? It is pretty flimsy , but it is not made up completely out of whole cloth. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers points to three items in the Washington Post in July and August. It turns out that the three items (including an editorial) all rely on the same single conversation, between Raines and a W...

Or not " California's largest union local and a related charity have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by the wife and mother-in-law of the labor organization's president, documents and interviews show." Wait, isn't it CEO's and Evil Oil Men and Chimpy Bu$hitler who are always steering money to their cronies? The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton's steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show. I guess they're funneling money to those "low wage caregivers" by assuming they work at Morton's and cigar clubs. The workers, whose dues fill the local's coffers, often are described as "the poor caring for the poor." In its Labor Department filings, the local, headed by Tyrone Freeman, ha...

Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle � Blog Archive � Ranting Cant : "Climate eschatology really is the ultimate in big lie crisis politics. The far-left has failed so comprehensively to make the case for its vision of society and economy that the only thing left to do is to brazenly and repeatedly assert that the world will literally collapse unless we implement this otherwise indefensible vision." h/t: Insty They are the secular answer to the fire and brimstone preacher. They are the guys with the sandwich boards that declare "REPENT! THE END IS NEAR!" They have somethings in common with those preachers: Only by ceding to their authority will we be saved. They alone know what God's/Gaia's will and how to save us. They string their followers along sometimes for year with the Sword of Damocles dangling over them. "Any minute now! God/Gaia will bring the pain! Just you watch! Seriously, like, one more year." They are typically either charlatan...

Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq I patiently await a groveling apology from the entire dextrosphere as well as the MSM and every Democrat except Joe Lieberman. We now resume with our regularly scheduled silence.

and so is John McCain. At least that's what I keep hearing. Every utterance from the President is scrutinized for any possible interpretation that makes him look stupid. McCain is derided for saying Shia when he meant Sunni. What would the world say if either of them referred to the "57 States" they've visited? There would be unceasing howls from Berkley to Boston and rightfully so. So what to make of Obama describing his visits to 57 states? Some in the audience laugh but it's clear he's not joking. He goes on to say that he wanted to visit Alaska and Hawaii but his staff couldn't justify it. The fact that this is not news anywhere on the MSM is proof positive that democrats and especially The One will never be subjected to the same cynical eye cast on republicans

...as only the DNC can. DNC Superdelegate Puts His Vote Up For Sale Steven Ybarra Wants $20 Million For His Vote It's OK though because he wants to spend it on illegal alien voter registration Mexican-American voters. Right. None of that money would be redirected, squandered, stolen or what have you.

Inconvenient Untruth There is new evidence of misleading information in Al Gore's Oscar-winning global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth." ABC News reports one of the most famous shots in the movie — of Antarctic ice shelves — is a fake. The film's visual effects supervisor says the film took the shot from the fictional movie "The Day After Tomorrow," which created it from Styrofoam and scanned it into a computer. "Yeah, that's our shot," she says. "That's a fully computer-generated shot. There's nothing real in there." ABC wanted to ask Gore whether it was wrong for a documentary to use a fabricated shot to make a point, but says he did not return their calls. I can hear it now. "It doesn't matter if the footage is fake! He's trying to make a point you dolt! It speaks to a larger truth even if he's using footage from an alarmist Hollywood thriller."

These guys are always raising hue and cry about corporate greed. Somehow they missed this one: Unable to say exactly how it happened, DFL Senate candidate Al Franken acknowledged Friday that his personal corporation wrongly failed to provide employees with workers' compensation insurance in New York for nearly three years. According to campaign manager Andy Barr, the accountant for Alan Franken Inc. (AFI) who investigated the case for five weeks was unable to figure out "the exact circumstances that led to the oversight." However, the accountant "has determined that, in fact, AFI was not in full compliance during the period in question," Barr said in a statement. "Therefore, no further attempt will be made to contest the resolved judgment." New York state officials said Friday that since Franken had paid the $25,000 court judgment entered against AFI last year, they also considered the matter closed. Not so state Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey,...

Why do politics drive away the best people? “Get me more white people, we need more white people.”

John McCain's reckless machoism. Is "machoism" even a word? (that's beside the point. Get on with it. -ed) Anyway...Dana is annoyed with John McCain for not having a protective detail. He's putting himself at risk and blah blah blah. If, however, there was a report touting McCain for availing himself of extra protection the blog post would have read "McCain lives in fear, wastes taxpayer money with unnecessary security" or some such. Partisanship is boring. Less please.