Obama Lie No. 444 – pressure me from the left

No surprise here, that Der Promise-Breaker would release this one on the Fourth of July, to bury it deep inside the Fourth of July holiday news black hole.

President Barack Obama claimed a few months back that he welcomed pressure from the left to push him further forward.

But he now says, on national healthcare, I didn’t really mean that, so stop running those advocacy ads against moderate Democrats.

But, that’s not all.

The president who either cannot or will not lead on the most important legislative issues of his term, so far, suddenly has no problem using the threat of “muscle” and smackdowns against these advocacy groups:

Obama also hinted that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on Democrats, according to the source, who did not have permission to speak on the record about the discussion.

Finally, note who was “chosen” from the WaPost staff to write this, whether solely because it’s her beat or because Team Obama wanted her.

The byline is from Ms. Health Insurance, Ceci Connolly.

Gail Collins snarks on Palin

NYTimes editorial editor wishes for a pants-down scandal, not the open-wallet one we may get, and regrets SP will inflict herself more on Lower 48 now. Just go read it.

Once again, China passing US on environmentalism

As we approach Copenhagen in December, China approaches passing the U.S. in wind turbines.

True, there may be construction underbids, or corruption, associated with a semi-command economy on such issues.

Nonetheless, Beijing is requiring electric utilities to get 8 percent of their power from nonhydroelectric renewable sources by 2020. Waxman-Markey allows dams built after 1992 to contribute to the U.S.’s desired 15 percent “green” by 2020 standard. It does also allow (theoretically) documented conservation measures to count.

In reality, which will be better, I don’t know. But, aside from China’s continued refusal to commit to overall CO2 cuts, the story shows the U.S. doesn’t have a lot of room, necessarily, to go around browbeating China.

Next round of foreclosures coming

The L.A. Times details what I first looked at more than a year ago — the likelihood of a second peak in foreclosures.

The Times primarily notes that many people who applied for mortgage modifications didn’t get them, and now their application-time grace periods are about to expire. However, it overlooks that many people either bought new, bought second houses, or refinanced, at the end of the housing bubble, in many cases with Alt-A, if not subprime, loans.

In turn, from my (until now) professional perspective, means more tough times for newspapers. Banks don’t take out ads to sell foreclosed homes. Sheriff’s may do legal ads for tax-delinquency sales, but that’s it. And, more individuals looking to sell, to pinch pennies, will do “for sale by owner” routes.

‘Copenhagen or bust’ for climate control

There is no Plan B in Copenhagen, if this round of global climate change control breaks down either before or during the Copenhagen summit in December.

That’s straight from the mouth of Denmark's Minister for Climate Connie Hedegaard. She admits there are still many hurdles, but stresses they are all political, not technical.

With her statement on the table, will certain GOP Senators do everything they can to deliberately monkey-wrench Waxman-Markey?

LA Times bias in Honduras?

In an otherwise-good article, Tracy Wilkinson says:

The two camps cannot even agree to call the coup a coup.

Well, you just called it a coup. Taking one camp’s side.

That said, Wilkinson does note this is more about “politics as usual” ideology as anything, because the two main political parties in Honduras are really two extended families in the 7-million person country. And, Zelaya himself is a timber baron, who, other than in Chavezista style, hasn’t given a tremendous amount of indications of true populism.

Overall, the Times story is very good. But that is a big oops in the middle of it.

France again rejects GMO corn

That’s despite the claim from the European Food Safety Authority, the European Union’s food watchdog, that Monsanto GMO corn is safe.

Not so fast.

The EFSA refused to follow through on a French request that it examine whether or not GMO crops, often bred to be able to be specially used with herbicides and pesticides by the same company that creates the GMO crop, didn’t perhaps produce chemically super-resistant weeds. EFSA said it wasn’t ready to do that until next year, but went ahead and claimed the corn is safe now.

Nice try.

Sea ice lowest in 800 years

Just one more global warming alert that Smokey Joe Barton, Jim Imhofe, etc., will try to deny away.

The REAL real reason for Palin’s resignation

Maybe she isn’t allegedly on the take from a contractor. Then why?

I have some alternative possibilities:

1. She’s lesbian
2. Todd is gay
3. She’s lesbian AND Todd is gay
4. She’s not just pregnant, she’s knocked up — by Levi Johnston
5. She’s lesbian AND Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson is her lover
6. She’s knocked up by the state’s top Democrat, Mark Begich
7. She’s knocked up by Uncle Fester himself, Dick Cheney
8. She’s lesbian and her lover is Audrey from the Palin’s Deception blog, and the two, through joint egg donation fusion, are actually Trigg’s parents

Submit your own. If we get more than 10, I can cull the best and mail it to Letterman.

Palin running from Feds?

With a bit of insight from other blogs, parsing her speech, where she comments/complains about all the taxpayer dollars being spent on investigating her, I think we can guess she needs to resign to get into full-time “lawyer up” mode.

And, exactly WHY would the Whore of Wasilla be resigning, and, perhaps connected and even more, why did she announce it back there, rather than either Juneau or Anchorage?


Maybe it’s because of two structures, one public, one private, that she helped build in Wasilla, Brad Blog suggests. That would be the big “hockey complex to nowhere” and improvements to her house.

Palin might be able to block, sidle around, or whatever, on state investigations, but she can’t outrun the feds. If true, I’m dying to read what Bill Kristol will eventually be forced to write.

Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast has juicy details on SBS, the contractor for both projects, and one with close connections to First Dumbass Todd, not just Sarah.

So, instead of John Ensign and Mark Sanford, she did not get caught with her pants down. Instead, it was with her wallet open.

According to Alaskan TV, July 26 is the effective date.

A good roundup of conservative takes is at the Anchoress, who herself speculates serious family illness.

Almost everybody out of more than two dozen commenters says she’s politically toast. And, that was before this speculation started getting focused.

Note: For more on “The Whore of Wasilla” and other Palin nicknames, head here.

A good story on my newspaper’s demise

More in-depth, and with more nuance than The (MUST be capitalized) Dallas Morning News story, Brett Shipp of WFAA lets you know just what a community newspaper does and what it means.

Thanks, Brett.

And, he’s right about what a community newspaper does.

The small daily paper in the south Dallas suburbs, Focus Daily News? Doesn’t do obits. Or birth announcements. Or weddings. Or anniversaries. Or engagements.

And, I highly doubt owner Marlon Hanson will change that plan.

His primary purpose for his paper is, as a daily newspaper, to base his revenue on national advertising inserts.

So, if you want any of that “lifestyles” stuff, Best Southwest, and in the old-fashioned way of actually appearing in a newspaper, guess what? You have to pay Dallas Morning News rates for it.

Fort Worth mayor speaks – for good – on gay bar raid

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, breaking a week-long official silence, actually has something good to say about what needs to be done on the gay bar raid in his city last week.

He wants a thorough review of what happened at Rainbow Lounge – a thorough review conducted by federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney in Dallas, James Jacks, said Moncrief has already discussed the issue with him. And, people associated with the results of the raid are cautiously optimistic:

Todd Camp, who witnessed the raid and a has been outspoken about the incident, said Moncrief’s request was a start.

“I’m glad that the mayor has said what he said,” Camp said. “There was a very public call for an independent investigation separate from the ones that are ongoing.”

He said a Web site, rainbowloungeraid.com, would be launched Friday to provide information about the raid and the investigations that have followed. And a group will meet next week to form an organization that Camp said he hopes will address how to move forward.

“There’s going to be a lot of good that comes out of this,” Camp said. “Fort Worth is an inclusive city, and I agree with the mayor on this.”

Go, mayor, go!

The Whore of Wasilla is resigning

Claiming she can be more effective outside government than inside (so can my left butt cheek, for that matter), Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska

Full text of Palin speech, from state website, is here.

According to Alaskan TV, July 26 is the effective date.

If, as all speculation claims, it’s to get an early start on a presidential run, she’s an idiot. Just like in this picture.

Given that there’s a fair amount of resentment to her within the party, and that many Alaskans in the GOP were seeing her as less and less effective by the day, this gives both state- and national-level operatives a chance to sharpen the long knives early.

And, unlike a year ago, and since this is within the party, those knives WILL come out.

She should have stayed in the governor’s mansion and tried to repair her image.

Beyond that, even with the earlier and earlier start to the presidential campaign season, she has two full years now to fall of the radar screen as well as to be sliced and diced.

That said, both that fact and the bald-facedness of her lies, per the second link, show that, without plenty of fortunate outside help, she’s incompetent as a politician.

Per the third link, from local TV, she claims she resigned to avoid lame-duck gubernatorial status since she wasn’t going to run again for that position.

Yeah, you idiot, but until you officially said so, nobody knew that for sure.

And, before the long knives are fully sharpened, after the recent escapades of Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford, some people are going to start speculating what’s in your rearview mirror.

Like, some new affair? More about the Trig Palin pregnancy? Who knows.

Looks like a fair chunk of the conservative blogosphere, starting with the often-insightful Allahpundit, agrees with me and with MSM analysis that this is a career-ender, not finishing out your first term as governor. It doesn't help when many of them talk about the quality of your speech with words like "rambling."

A good roundup of conservative takes is at the Anchoress, who herself speculates serious family illness.

Almost everybody out of more than two dozen commenters says she’s politically toast.

The one exception to the “almost”? Kristol.

Note: For more on “The Whore of Wasilla” and other Palin nicknames, head here.