When Things Go Boom in Iran

Courtesy Ace:

Here's some other suggested terminology:

SEALs = Amphibious insurgents

Delta Force = Delta Clerics

CIA Paramilitary Death Squads = disaffected youths

The notion that we might be conducting devastating stealth raids in Iran fills me with shame, despair, and raging red boners.

Apparently, the leftists are beginning to get upset that America might be up to no good against our enemies.

Building A Religion

Obama, liberal fascist:



There are only two reasons a person would vote for Obama. You either vote for him because you are a leftist of some stripe (communist, socialist, fascist, environmentalist, progressive, liberal & etc.) or because you are an unthinking, uninformed, uncritical registered Democrat who pulls the D lever just because you have always pulled the D lever.

Nobody will vote for Obama for any of his positions on the issues or any other reason.

Going ... Going...

But not yet gone:

New York Times Co. says its second-quarter earnings fell 82 percent from the year-ago quarter boosted by a one-time gain. Meanwhile, print advertising revenue continued to shrink.

Slowly, but with ever-increasing speed, the mainstream media is shrinking in size and influence. Coming soon, the end of leftist ideological control of the national narrative and, perhaps, a return to sanity and perspective.

Idiots at the Helm

What happens when you let unadulterated leftists run your community? Normally, err, always, high taxes and idiotic social policies that always, always backfire. Witness San Francisco and its policies toward the "homeless." Idiots.

When Winning is Losing

Apparently, the US mainstream media can't shoot straight. Remember that battle in Afghanistan from a couple of days ago that resulted in nine American soldiers killed? That was reported as a defeat in the mainstream media. Only, in real life, not so much:

As recounted by the AP and other media outlets, nine U.S. paratroopers lost their lives -- a full fifth of the American contingent.

Further, fifteen U.S. and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack, meaning that, against an assault and support force of nearly 500 militant fighters, only 21 U.S. and 21 Afghan soldiers were able to fight at full strength -- and they succeeded not only in killing dozens of attackers, but in repelling the onslaught completely.

This is the way the media works. Remember the Black Hawk Down incident in Mogadishu that some douchebag college professor wanted repeated a million times over in Iraq? We lost 18 soldiers and the Somalis lost a couple of thousand. That's the way the US rolls, bro. Ace has more.

It's called the I-and-I defense: you're either incompetent or an idiot, which is it? In Pennsylvania, the state house Democrats have a corruption problem, and the leader of the caucus is claiming innocence:

HARRISBURG - Every year, House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese painstakingly picks a subject not so much to study, but in which to immerse himself.

One year, it was Judaism. Another, it was Shakespeare. So intense is the personal course work that he has traveled to foreign lands and met with noted world experts.

Some say he should have devoted as much attention to the inner workings of the Democratic caucus, which he has led for 15 years. Now that caucus is embroiled in a major scandal alleging that millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on campaigns - and that government-funded bonuses were handed out as rewards for the political work.

DeWeese, 58, has insisted that he knew nothing about the bonuses and that they were the purview of subordinates.

But with details now laid out by a grand jury, many no longer believe him.

First, notice how many words separate DeWeese's name and the word Democratic. Second, notice how gentle the approach to laying out DeWeese's claim to be unaware of what was going on: he focuses so intently on other things, it's possible he missed this as an honest mistake. Nice.

Fake Bad News

The local AM radio news person was on at the bottom of the hour with the news briefs (anti-capitalism propaganda) you need to know to feel bad about life in America, and one of the blurbs was that the stock market was down thus-n-such points, and then he referenced the drop in the price of oil as an example of the stock market woes.

Now, that's supposed to be a good thing. Unless, of course, you're a leftist hoping to trick the average American into voting Democrat in the fall by pretending the high price of oil is a Republican-generated problem.

Fifth Column Cries Foul!

CNN reporting on war crimes:

Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group for transport to another rebel area.

Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute a "war crime" under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law and could endanger humanitarian workers in the future, according to international legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association.

Well, of course the leftists at CNN are upset, the losers were communist terrorists who were tricked into turning over their hostages to the Columbian military. LGF has more.

Harrassment by Reading

Via Hot Air, this bit of complete and total leftist idiocy:

Behold the ne plus ultra of campus tolerance, in which the act of reading scholarly material now constitutes an actionable offense.

Apparently, some gentle-soul, compassionate, tolerant and understanding person was offended by the words "Ku Klux Klan" on a book cover. Incredible, only not so much.

California Will Decide What You Can Eat

Should your government decide what you eat, or should you decide what you eat? In California, the government is on the verge of banning trans fats because some people think they're bad for you:

California is poised to become the first state in the nation to ban restaurants and other food facilities from using trans fats, which are known to increase the risk of heart disease, under a bill approved by the state Legislature Monday and sent to the governor.

As usual, some asshat frames this in your standard-issue racist/multiculti/PC leftist pap:

Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia (Los Angeles County), who wrote AB97, said the measure is intended to promote the health of Californians.

"When it comes to heart disease and diabetes, communities of color are leading the way," Mendoza said. "I figured that the use of trans fats in our restaurants is a leading contributor to that."

So, this a-hole is an expert in trans fats and human health, especially when it comes down to politically correct sensitive groups. Right. And then a local doucebag health nut donut maker weighs in with his knowledge and experience on the subject:

Dari Shamtoob, owner of the popular - and trans-fat-free - King Pin Donuts near the UC Berkeley campus, said he wonders why Berkeley has not implemented a law like New York City's. He fully supports a California ban.

"I don't know what's stopped them, but these days they should," he said, "especially for the students. It's very important."

Hmm. Dari Shamtoob doesn't use them, but thinks they should be banned, anyway, because - wait for it - of the "students." It's for the children! Who could be opposed to that:

"The average population is mature enough to make their own decisions," said Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley (Nevada County). "I don't believe government was formed to tell citizens what they can and cannot do."

But attorney Stephen Joseph of Tiburon, a leader in the battle against trans fats, says now is the time for regulation.

"The public has shown in survey after survey that they want this," he said.

The "public" wants the government to force the restaurants not to serve the "public" food with trans fats because the public can't decide not to eat them, those in the "public" that think eating them will be harmful to their health. The public wants to be told what to eat. It wants this. Survey after survey has shown the public wants to be ordered around by the government.

And then, at the very end of the article, comes this:

Artificial trans fats, or trans- fatty acid molecules, result when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make the oil more solid, which changes its taste and texture and lengthens its shelf life. Health experts aren't worried about trans fat that exists naturally in high-protein foods such as animal products.

Oh, yeah, trans fats are dangerous. Except when they aren't. Trust your experts. Obey your government.

Cultural Idiocy

Isn't this supposed to be wrong, according to the mulitcultural leftists? Then why is this idiot reporter writing an article defending it:

Many Emiratis and Arabs visiting from other Persian Gulf countries increasingly feel Dubai's ambition to become a cosmopolitan metropolis and tourist destination is overrunning their own traditions and contradict what they feel is culturally acceptable.

Unlike elsewhere in the conservative Persian Gulf, tourists in Dubai are often seen wearing skimpy bikinis on public beaches and walk the city's streets in shorts. Alcohol is freely available in hotel bars and restaurants in this regional businesses and entertainment hub.

While pursuing the police crackdown, Dubai has embarked on a public awareness campaign to remind its Western visitors and foreign residents that the city may have flashy hotels and glitzy skyscrapers but it also is a Muslim country with traditionally conservative values.

Let's see, when Muslims come to the West, it is the West who must tolerate Muslim sensibilities, often at the expense of Western culture. But, when Westerners travel to Muslim lands, it is again the Westerner who must defer to Muslim sensibilities. What the hell is wrong with these people? This is Western cultural suicide at work.

That Leftist-written Right-wing Hogwash

Losing control of The Narrative:

WELL, HARDY, HAR, har. Have you seen that New Yorker cover with Sen. Barack Obama on it all dressed up in Islamic-style dress?

In the illustration, he's wearing a turban and a loose-fitting garment. Oh, and get this, Michelle Obama has - gasp - an Afro and instead of doing the Jackie O-thing, she's wearing camouflage, toting an AK-47 and has an ammo belt slung across her back.

An American flag is burning in a fireplace presumably in the Oval Office and over the mantel is a picture of mass murderer Osama Bin Laden.

Still laughing? Thought not. The editor of the New Yorker calls the magazine's latest cover a well-intentioned attempt to satirize some of the right-wing fueled hogwash that has dogged the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife.

The leftists are upset that the left is satirizing the right's theoretical interpretation of who the Obamas are too accurately, thus giving the right ammunition to use against the left because it was generated on the left by the left, which, theoretically, makes it authentic and legitimate. Jeff G. breaks it down into its component parts.

But you have to wonder something about all this left-wing generated anti-Obama stuff: do they really want him to win? The left keeps creating all this right-wing-themed anti-Obama material under the aegis of immunizing Obama from theoretical attacks from the right along the same lines, and, yet, we never see such attacks from the right.

Unintended Consequences

Apparently, reducing air pollution over the last 30 years is a contributing factor to the slight rise in the earth's temperatures:

GOODBYE air pollution and smoky chimneys, hello brighter days. That's been the trend in Europe for the past three decades - but unfortunately cleaning up the skies has allowed more of the sun's rays to pierce the atmosphere, contributing to at least half the warming that has occurred.

And, another debunking of the anthropogenic global climate change and the ill effects of CO2:

One would think this would be the end of the discussion, that the laws of physics show us that CO₂ isn't even a significant "greenhouse gas" and certainly the human contribution is insignificant. We both now know that CO₂ can't possibly be the evil byproduct all the ballyhoo has been claiming, and in fact, our biologist friends tell us if we could increase the CO₂ content a little more, the planet would be much the richer... because plants love it, grow much larger with more of it, and we all like to eat. CO₂ is a non-toxic, non-polluting, earth-friendly component that really is critical to our survival. Maybe that's why we laughed so hard when the Popular Journalist in the Addison Independent insisted that 340, rather than 380 parts per million CO₂ was a "target" we should all shoot for. While you're pulling rabbits out of a hat, could you please bring me a Pepsi?

Why so many humans think humans are despoiling the planet is a mystery to me, but, then, I've long maintained that environmentalist nonsense is merely a substitute for religion, and religions don't have to make any sense, they just have to fill a spiritual void. And, who doesn't love trees and oceans and blue skies?

Celestial Racism

The idiots who govern us:

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

And to think that your average leftist thinks there is a supply of governmental technocrats who could run government efficiently and harmoniously, ensuring the best outcomes for everyone, and, yet, the only people applying for the jobs of running the government are complete and total morons. John Wiley Price should be forced from office and Judge Thomas Jones should be removed from the bench.

Your Government at Work

Sigh:

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below).

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

This is the government of the free and the brave, and it wants to be able to electrocute you while you're traveling by plane. How effed up is that?

Obama on the Ugly American

"You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish":



This guy is for real? Americans should learn Spanish to appease the illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America? And then, in the same breath, he's embarassed of Americans who can't speak any other foreign languages when they travel to Europe because - get this - everyone in Europe (who visits America, at least) can speak English.

Uh, can someone please explain to the Obamessiah that if everyone already speaks English, why should Americans need to speak any other language? Nice to know, sure, but not necessary, apparently, since all those Spanish speakers and Eurotrash already speak our language or will quickly learn to.

Which doesn't explain why every sign in America is sub-titled in Spanish...

Another Idiot Self-Identifies

Insurance is what you buy to mitigate against risk. That is, you buy insurance to cover in case you suffer some calamity. Insurance is not what you buy to pay for something else:

Chaim Benamor, 52, a self-employed renovator in this Baltimore suburb ... never found it necessary to buy insurance before having a mild heart attack last year and now, 13 years shy of Medicare, has little hope of doing so.

The heart attack left Mr. Benamor with a $17,000 hospital bill, $400 in monthly prescription costs and a desperate need for insurance. After being rejected by a number of commercial carriers, he turned to the Maryland Health Insurance Plan, one of 35 state programs for high-risk applicants whom no private company is willing to insure.

He decided that the annual premium — $4,572 for a plan with heavy deductibles — was more than he could handle on an income of about $35,000. Yet his earnings were too high for him to qualify for state subsidies.

“I’d like to get it, but what do you pay first?” Mr. Benamor asked at his dining room table. “Do you pay the mortgage? Do you pay your child support? Do you pay your car insurance? Do you pay for your medicine?

Boo frickin' hoo, idiot. You buy insurance before you have health problems, to cover you in case you get health problems; you do not buy health insurance after you have a health problem so that it will pay for the care of that health problem. People are so stupid.

This is the thinking the common man has thanks to 40 years of leftist propagandizing in the mainstream media and through the Democratic Party that health insurance is some new right, not a personal responsibility.

And Our Survey Says...

Worst. Congress. Ever.

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

With numbers like that, you'd think we'd get a new one this November. Instead, we're likely to get a worse one.

Leftist Hypocrites

In the world created by the left, there are the haves and the have-nots. This is fair, because the leftist haves determine who is on which side of the dividing line, and the leftists are always on the have side. This is how they get away with this kind of nonsense:

The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the "unnecessary demand" for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food.

Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were among 15 guests at the "blessings of the earth and the sea social dinner".

The dinner consisted of 18 dishes in eight courses including caviar, smoked salmon, Kyoto beef and a "G8 fantasy dessert".

This happens because Brown and his socialist enablers think they know how you should live your life, but they think those rules don't apply to them, because they're in charge and know better. Which is how you get this kind of idiot thinking:

The Government is to launch a campaign to stamp out Britain's waste food mountains as part of a global effort to curb spiralling food prices.

Supermarkets will be urged to drop "three for two" deals on food that encourage shoppers into bulk-buying more than they need, often leading to the surpluses being thrown away. The scandal of the vast mountains of food that are thrown away in Britain while other parts of the world starve is revealed in a Cabinet Office report today.

See that? Buying in bulk is contributing to excess waste. How? Who knows, the government says so. This is a lie of the most bold-faced kind, but, hell, the government has to do something in the leftist mentality. Simply, there is no way to know how much bulk food goes to waste through spoilage (none, if you go strictly by my bulk-food purchasing) because there's no way to measure it. And, if your government is spending precious tax money studying bulk food waste, well, your government is wasting your money.

But, then, that's how the leftosphere works: it's their money, not yours, you just earn it. Now, just shut up and do as your told while the leftists do what they want. It's for your own good.

Democrats and "Guns"

Apparently, non-lethal BB and pellet guns are "guns" to Democrats, because, well, they look like guns. Oddly, gun-shaped devices not in the hands of people scare the dickens out of well-trained cops, too:

The gun, a Gamo P-23, was sitting under the rear window of the 2004 coupe. Looking like a larger-caliber handgun, the firearm drew a quick response from the bicycle-patrol officer who stopped Narciso for doing 40 mph in a 25-mph zone. With gun drawn, the officer arrested him.

See that, the "gun" was sitting in plain view under the rear window when the scared police officer approached with his real gun drawn. This cop needs re-training or a new job, though you've got to give him props for chasing down a speeder on a bicycle.

Thanks to the leftist Democrats who control New Jersey, though, this should-be non-offense could mandate jail time, since BB guns and pellet guns look like "real guns," and that's just not allowed under the 2nd Amendment:

Under a new state law, Narciso's possession of the weapon qualifies as a Graves Act offense. Narciso could face what prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys call a "hard three," meaning three years with no prospect of parole.

This is just part of the ongoing offensive against guns, in which leftist Democrats and their willing accomplices in the mainstream media continuously portray guns as dangerous and immoral, encouraging cops to arrest anyone with anything that looks like a gun so that nobody will carry anything remotely gun-like for fear of arrest, thereby end-arounding the 2nd Amendment's provision that you can bear arms because doing so will likely be a hassle and get you a little jail time, even if the charge is ultimately dropped.

Think about it: you need a license to carry a concealed weapon, but no license to carry an gun strapped to your hip in public view, but who would ever do such a thing in public? Every cop in town would stop you, cuff you, search you, and have someone back at the station run a check on you for priors. The cops aren't generally bright enough to understand what's going on in this regard, and the leftists are patient enough to work over the course of decades to get what they want.

Do Nothing Democrats

Since the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, the price of oil has doubled. The Democrats somehow think this is blamable on the Republicans. The Democrats, though, don't want to do anything to increase increase energy supplies:

"Dick Cheney and Big Oil wrote the energy policy that has led the price of oil to double, and now they want to use it as a excuse to drill everywhere from Alaska to Belmar," Tittel said.

Others contend that offshore drilling wouldn't provide any relief from $4-a-gallon, or higher, gas prices until years from now, if ever. Oil companies hold similar leases on about 68 million acres of federal lands they have so far not explored.

"We recognize the pain that families are feeling at the pump, but experts say it could be 2018, 10 years from now, before we could even get the first drop of that oil, and it would 2030 before we could see the effect on gas prices," Menendez said. "None of this does anything about gas prices today. What we need to do is to continue to create a realistic plan that makes us less dependent on oil instead of more dependent on it."

What's that Democratic "realistic plan" to make us less dependent? It's not more nuclear plants. It's not more oil drilling. It's not more clean coal plants. It's some make-believe fantasy energy that only a "Manhattan style" energy independence project could produce, which is to say, they have no idea what kind of magical energy they want to create, but only a government-funded, government-run project can find that new energy source. Pathetic.

If the American public had any sense, they'd run every Democrat out of office for this kind of idiocy.

Pelosi: On the Other Side

It seems Nancy Pelosi (D) has a communist Columbian terrorist problem:

New information reveals that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was indirectly sending messages to the FARC. The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is designated as a terrorist group by the US government. Speaker Pelosi was doing this while at the same time she refused to bring a free trade agreement with Colombia up for a vote in the US House. In fact, Pelosi took extraordinary steps to block this trade agreement with America's closest ally in South America.

It seems that Democrats will do anything to undermine the United States' interests.

Yucky Racists

Have the English had enough socialism yet? Apparently, their government hasn't:

LONDON, July 7 (UPI) -- Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."

The bureau says to be aware of children who "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying 'yuck'."

This is leftism at work, reaching down into the cradle to indoctrinate your children and teach them The Way of the State: The Official Way to Live^TM. But in a multicultural society, which food is "native" and which is "flavorful foreign food."

Marching Toward Dhimmitude

The West continues its idiotic embrace of Islam, rather than assimilating it and absorbing the useful and rejecting the useless to Western culture. Does the anti-Christian secularist Left even realize it's doing this? I doubt it. In the future, secular humanists will be Muslim fundamentalists.

Doom and Gloom

The Narrative^TM at work:

It's not much of a challenge to get gloomy about the economy.

We all know the bad news by now: high gasoline prices, high food prices, falling home prices, weak construction activity, layoffs, the sorry state of the stock market.

And:

It's getting grim out there.

Homes around the country are sinking in value, stocks are mired in a bear market and escalating food and energy prices are eating into American incomes as wages fail to keep pace and unemployment rises. People are dining out less, giving up entertainment and scaling back summer vacations amid $4-a-gallon gas, higher airline fares and fewer flights.

Those are the leads for two articles most people will never read, and those that do will stop right there, and the job is done for your average leftist reporter: mis-informing would-be readers of the state of the economy. If you read each article further down, you'll find out that, no, we're not in a recession and things are generally good for most people and most industries:

"You would think the economy has fallen apart. The answer is, it hasn't," said Joel Naroff, chief economist for Commerce Bank.

William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Temple University and chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, also said the economy was surprisingly strong. "The economy's not in recession," he said. "The positive is, look how resilient it is. You can keep slugging it."

Both pointed to continuing positive growth in the gross domestic product and the 5.5 percent unemployment rate, which is still low by historic standards, as reasons for optimism.

And:

Worth noting, however, is gross domestic product is still rising, and the group charged with officially calling a recession (the National Bureau of Economic Research) has not yet done so. Also, consumer spending (which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity) is holding up relatively well, contradicting the bleak sentiment reflected in surveys.

These articles could easily be written as "US has best economy ever, despite problems" but that won't happen until someone with a (D) after their name wins the White House, and if that doesn't happen this year, expect four more years of "world is about to end" types of economic stories.

Thanks for Noticing

You know what, this was one of the first things I did when I started my browser this morning:

July 04, 2008

THEY'RE OBSERVING INDEPENDENCE DAY at Google.

Because, you know, the "don't be evil" folks at Google are, so often, aiding and abetting "evil." Sheesh.

Profiles in Idiocy

American Idiot:

Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

Will Chris Satullo of the Phinqy turn in his America Membership Blazer Badge and leave the country, seeing as how this America is such a despicable, miserable place to live, or does he think his brave "analysis" of his country will wake up the sheeple? Really, you could fisk every single line of this idiotic and nonsensical column, but, honestly, a person with this severe a case of Bush Derangement Syndrome can't be helped with facts and logic, and anyone who reads this rubbish and agrees is a moron.

Government Math

It isn't just the Democrats who do this kind of mathematics, but they seem to do it more often and worse, while pretending they aren't doing it:

The budget bill as outlined earlier this week will contain $545 million in budget cuts, nearly $300 million in new education funding, and more than $2 billion in borrowing for bridge repair and water and sewer projects.

In a non-budget-related issue, negotiators agreed to create a $650 million renewable/alternative energy development fund, of which $500 million would be borrowed.

This year's Pennsylvania state budget is being PRed as having a half-billion dollars in cuts, but if you look at those two lines above, the state is going to "borrow" $2.5 billion for a variety of things. Only, the state isn't going to tax anybody anything additional, nor is it going to cut and shift funding to make up for it, nor is it going to use all the magic casino money cover it. Typical government spending at work: the money is free, spend it!

And, of course, there are the government sycophants whining about not getting more:

But the more than half a billion dollars in cuts are new and remain a mystery. Rendell downplayed the impact of the reductions, saying they average 1.4 percent across all agencies and department budgets over what he proposed in February.

But some who advocate on social-services issues point out that many agencies that help poor and disabled people, women, and children received no increase in the February budget proposal.

"If their line item wasn't increased, they will end up having a reduction from last year," said Cathleen Palm, a children's advocate. "Most of the human-services line items were level funded."

Of course, there's no word if the 1.4 percents in "reductions" is a "cut" in projected increases, or an actual cut from last year's budget line (doubtful, it never is). Still, not getting a full increase in the allotment is always considered a "cut" by those not getting the full increase. Nobody, it seems, can live on a fixed income.

Obama's History of Good Public Works

Consider his affordable housing legislation from his stint in the Illinois senate:

CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.

But it's not safe to live here.

About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.

First, the word is spelled P-A-R-K. No wonder the place became a mess so quickly. If this is the best Obama can come up with - and, obviously, he's not coming forward with any information on this in an attempt to crush the story early - then this under-educated, under-performing know-nothing should be run out of the election on rails.

But I have a funny feeling the people living in that hellhole that Obama built will still vote Obama in November. Why, you ask? Because liberal Democrats/progressives are absolutely incapable of learning from their mistakes because they can't or won't admit to or see their mistakes.

For more, Mickey Kaus has this to say.

Grading Democrats on Energy Policy

Failure:

In May 2007, Nancy Pelosi announced amid great fanfare that the Democrats had made July 4, 2007 Energy Independence Day. Castigating George Bush for his inaction on energy policy, Pelosi noted that gas prices had reached record levels and that the newly-enacted Democratic majority would take charge of energy policy to take back the leadership from “Big Oil”.
...
What Pelosi failed to mention was that gas prices at the pump were $2.24 per gallon in January of that year, and that under Democratic leadership, prices went up over 30%.
...
What has happened in the year since the last Energy Independence Day? Prices have risen another 30% on top of the last increase. The oil companies still can’t drill in new areas, so the supply crisis has gotten much worse. Despite all of the money Democrats sunk into federal mandates and renewables, they haven’t come up with a single new source of energy. Instead of energy independence, we are now so strapped for domestic supply that we’ve had to go beg the Saudis to start pumping more of their oil for us. On top of the inflationary pressure from rising fuel prices, ethanol mandates have distorted the global food markets, creating shortages and starvation.

It's almost as if Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party hate America. They want higher gas prices and they don't care if poor brown people in the rest of the world starve to death.

Dissent is Patriotic

Unless, that is, you're dissenting against the Democratic Party:

The fence around the public demonstration zone outside the Democratic National Convention will be chicken wire or chain link, authorities revealed in U.S. District Court today.

That may allow protestors to be seen and heard by delegates going in and out of the Pepsi Center during the convention.

But the American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups have filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the city and county of Denver that says protestors and demonstrators may have their First Amendment rights violated by security restrictions.

The ACLU has said it wants to avoid the conditions that existed during the 2004 convention in Boston, where protesters were caged, infuriating First Amendment advocates.

This is the party of enforced group-think, where any deviation from the leftist collectivist vision is heresy.