Bring Her On

Will President Obama haul out the First Lady in a new attempt to rejuvenate his moribund domestic policy initiatives?

Three words:  Bring it on.

If they think they’re gonna get the sympathy of white women by trucking out someone whose affirmative action sinecure do-nothing job salary tripled because her husband won an election, more power to them.

Don’t Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste

Portugal’s financial system is falling apart.

I’m sure some of you are wondering if there is a nationalist political party there that could be the big political winners in this calamity.

The answer is yes.  It’s called the Partido Nacional Renovador (PNR), or “National Renewal Party” in English.  It does not hold any seats in the Portuguese Parliament right now, but should it become a majority, Portugal’s new Prime Minister would be José Pinto-Coelho.  The PNR has borrowed the French Front National’s flame logo, and has also borrowed the “black sheep white sheep” ads from the SVP in Switzerland.  Borrowing St. George’s Cross from the BNP would be a bridge too far, though :)

Cherish Is The Word

Maine Public Broadcasting:

Democratic Candidates Differ on Gun Background Checks

(snip)

Right now in Maine, if you buy a gun at a store like L.L. Bean or Cabela’s you have to undergo a criminal background check. But if you buy a gun from a friend, or from a private seller at a gun show, or through an ad in Uncle Henry’s, no background check is performed. Background checks are designed to keep guns out of the hands of illegal immigrants, underage children and those convicted of a felony or domestic violence assault.

“I think that it’s important that someone who’s turned down for a purchase of a firearm can’t turn around and buy it at some other venue,” says Rosa Scarcelli, who runs an affordable housing business and is a Democratic candidate for governor.

She says she was surprised to learn that she’s the only Democrat in the governor’s race in favor of mandatory criminal background checks on all firearms purchases. “I thought it was a common sense measure and one that certainly should be part of our party’s position and I think it’s important that we show leadership on this issue.”

(snip)

He says a law requiring background checks on all firearms sales is unenforceable and unnecessary. “Maine has the highest gun ownership per capita in the country, but it is also the second safest state in the country,” McGowan says. “So when we look at those issues of gun ownership and gun purchases, just remember that from the day Maine was started, people have been buying and selling and trading guns back and forth, it’s part of the rural economy.”

You have the second safest state in the country, partially because you have the highest gun ownership per capita in the country, but more so that Maine is 97% white.  But you’re not going to have a the second safest state much longer, because the black population, mainly Somali “refugees,” have increased the state’s black population by more than a third between 2000 and 2005.

BTW, I have my doubts about Maine being the most gun-owning state in the union.  Compared to Texas?

Drafting For Potential

I referenced this story earlier today, albeit in a more jocular manner.  It’s the one about the 13-year old 7th grade quarterback committing to USC a full five football seasons before he graduates from high school.

In June 1995′s NBA Draft, Kevin Garnett was the first high school basketball player to go directly to the professional ranks in a very long time.  He had some success in his rookie campaign with the Minnesocold Timberpuppies, and that led to a lot more high school seniors coming out for the NBA the next draft, in 1996.  That was the draft class where Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O’Neal made the direct jump, and on top of that, an inordinate number of college freshmen and sophomores came out, including #1 pick Allen Iverson.  (My roommate the following two semesters was a huge Georgetown fan, and I couldn’t get through one day w/o him telling me about Iverson being the first Georgetown player under John Thompson Jr. to come out early.)  It was also the first draft where white players from Europe started showing up on the boards.

The rationales given by team GMs and talent scouts for drafting men that young were utterly ridiculous.  Most of it revolved around drafting for potential rather than reputation and proven ability.  At about the time of the ’96 draft, Chiquita Bananas ran a commercial showing a teenage boy, no older than 13 it seemed, constantly shooting hoops in his driveway.  The jist of the ad was that Chiquita’s bananas would give you the energy and nutrition to develop into a better athlete.  I called Kevin Slaten, who at the time was on KSD (now KTRS), and told him that the NBA should draft the Chiquita banana boy for his far future potential rather than his proven ability.  Slaten doesn’t LOL very often, but he did at that.

So now I find out that a 13-year old is already verbally committing to USC.  While USC isn’t professional football (in theory, ahem Reggie Bush), it’s as professional as Los Angeles has these days.

Perhaps I ought to stop making jestful predictions.

That’s One Hour of My Life I’ll Never Get Back

I was in a situation late this afternoon where I had to watch Oprah.  And by watch it, I mean the whole hour.

They say hers is the talk show of substance.  Yet, I could just feel the brain cells dying within my skull as the clock seemed to go backwards.  What’s worse than the wasted time was the wasted brain cell destruction — I could have done that with perfectly good whiskey.  Or perfectly good Jerry Springer:  At least there, I could have seen some implied boobs.

Her main guest today was that Dr. Oz.  Evidently, the topic was obesity and diabetes.  I know Oz comes on her show once a week, (and in fact, he’s getting his own show), and the one thing that gets me about his being on her show is that he always wears a dark blue scrub suit.  WTF for?  Is he doing surgery right after the show?  Does The Oprah think that that a medical opinion seems more qualified if the bearer of said opinion is in scrubs?  (As an aside, I think most of those hospital and clinic employees that wear scrub suits in the course of their jobs actually don’t need to wear scrubs, it’s just that it makes them feel important and gives them higher self-esteem if they’re wearing the same kind of garb as a brain surgeon doing brain surgery.)  Ian Smith, another physician, was a guest for a few segments, and he was actually in formal attire for an adult man.  Of course, the only drawback was that his advice didn’t sound so avuncular — “Avoid fried foods to consume less fat.”  Naw.  Ya think?

Sign of the Times

Belleville’s Finest to put up “Drug House” signs denoting residential properties where drug users and dealers have been arrested.

Belleville’s Finest will be ordered to remove them once someone figures out that almost all the “Drug House” signs are in front of houses whose denizens have a very high melanin level.  We’re not having that in the Land of Lenin.  Racial equality and all.  Okey dokey, smokey?

Melbourne’s Diversity Isn’t Its Strength

The State of Victoria Police Department will set up weapons checkpoints at a Melbourne train station.

In possibly related news, most of Australia’s quickly growing African population, and a lot of other non-African non-whites, live in Melbourne.

How’s that gun ban working out for ya, mate?  Funny that in places like Melbourne and Chicago where guns are pretty much banned, that you need all these metal detectors everywhere.

Note:  In Australia, law enforcement is solely a state responsibility.  So there are no Sydney cops or Melbourne cops, there are only New South Wales or Victoria cops.  It would be as if the Missouri State Highway Patrol was the only ground-level LEA for the state of Missouri, no city police departments or county sheriff’s offices allowed.

The $32,000 Question

Mediaite:  CNN Tops MSNBC In Weekday Prime Time For First Time In Six Months

The guy in Albuquerque who likes to switch between them must have changed the channel to CNN.

UK Telegraph:  Haiti earthquake: voodoo high priest claims aid monopolised by Christians

Just who are we to argue with black science?  Christians, get out of Haiti and let those benevolent Muslims send aid.

UK Daily Mail:  Tenants banned from using welcome mats over ‘serious health and safety fears’

And because they violate truth in advertising laws.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  Six more weeks of winter, Phil says

You know, it’s okay if you talk to an animal.  But once it starts talking back to you, you know it’s time to check into the dippy farm.

Miami Herald:  Everybody has a shot at being an athlete

It’s just that the only kind of athletes that get paid for being an athlete are the very best ones.

P-D:  Freed prisoners to discuss wrongful convictions

Everyone in prison was wrongfully convicted.  So much so that prisons only exist as a place to house innocent people.

NYP:  New Zealand virgin auctions herself for tuition

The good news is that all the guys at that school will know how expensive are her tastes.

“Questioning” — In Other Words, “Loophole”

Good news for the few remaining white teenagers in Los Angeles that partake of public education — There’s a new charter high school open.  Ostensibly, its purpose is for LGBT students to have a harassment-free high school experience.  That said, it makes you wonder who is doing the harassment in the regular high schools.  It’s gotta be a favored minority, because they don’t go into much detail otherwise.  However, you don’t need to be LGBT to get into that school, all you have to be is “questioning,” as in your orientation.

I can just imagine that there are a lot of conversations around supper tables in white homes this evening — The parents are leaning on their teenagers, and extolling the virtues of questioning their orientation.  They’d be able to go to a harassment-free school, except there would be no racial harassment, and some actual education could occur.

Obama’s Raising Taxes on Non-Rich People

Now we have proof –  The IRS is looking to buy shotguns.

If Obama and the Dummocraps were only interested in raising taxes on the “rich,” then they wouldn’t need shotguns, b/c “rich” people can hire lawyers and accountants to defend themselves.  The Yankee government’s involuntary contribution collection agents might have a little more difficulty getting its money past your thirty-odd-six.

BTW, what’s the matter with the ATF that it can’t be the armed Federal agency that investigates tax matters?  After all, at least until post-9/11 agency rearrangement after the creation of HLS, the ATF, like the IRS, was under the ageis of the Treasury Department, b/c the ATF was created at about the same time as the IRS, as the enforcement yin to the accounting yang of the IRS.

The Illinois Miracle

Halleljuah, there’s someone in Illinois worth voting for in a general election.  I know, it doesn’t happen often, or easily.

As of this writing, State Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) has a narrow lead in a Republican Gubernatorial primary where five candidates got at least 100 kilovotes.

I would have voted for Adam What’s-His-Face, but Brady’s name seemed familiar to me for some reason.  As it turns out, exactly 11 months ago today, Brady announced his campaign for Governor in Marion, which of course made the local news down there.  I sorta forgot about him, but his positions seem to be rather decently conservative, nothing great, but nothing horrible, either.  He’s for CCW.

And, most importantly, he’s in the lead right now over one of his Senate colleagues, Kirk Dullard, who hearts Obama.

What helps Brady’s cause immensely is that it looks like Pat Quinn is gonna eke out a win over Dan Hynes on the Democrat side.  Quinn is far more beatable in November, mainly b/c of the pardon scandals.  If both Brady and Quinn hold on to their leads, then Brady is as good as the next Governor.  And he would be the only reason I would come out to vote in November if I’m living in Illinois, save the chance that I could have an interesting race downballot.  I’m obviously gonna pass on Kirk vs AlexG, b/c I don’t like either one of them, and the Green Party is the only legit 3rd Party in the state.

Denny Hastert’s son lost in the R-primary in his bid to take his father’s place in IL-14.  That was the district that Jim Oberweis tried and failed twice to win, between Hastert’s resignation and now.

Fun With Double Dutch Buses Coming Down the Street

Miami Herald:  Obama budget aims at solidifying women’s support

You wanna know the mental image I get when I hear the words “women’s support?”  A real stiff hard rack.

CNS:  Factory Activity at Strongest Point Since 2004

Burger flip…aw, forget it.  You know the drill by now.

ABC:  Meet a Teenager Who Looks Like a Grandma

Meet a 22-year old who looks like a grandpa, at least in the face.

UK Daily Mail:  Cracked it! Woman finds six double yolk eggs in one box beating trillion-to-one odds

If today were my lucky beating trillion-to-one odds day, I sure wouldn’t waste it on a carton of eggs.

UK Daily Mail:  Taxi drivers accused of racism for displaying sign saying they are ‘English speaking’

Hey dummy.  English is a language, not a race.

WSJ:   Why Chicago Loves Portland – Mayor Daley has his eye on jobs from high-tax Oregon.

Frying pan.  Fire.  Jumping.

Sydney Morning Herald:  Use of Twitter, Facebook rising among gang members

On the other hand, it solves the problem of Twitter and F/B not having enough diversity.

WND:  Gibbs: Obama ‘smartly’ avoids MSNBC

Not even the President everyone on MSNBC shills for will watch MSNBC.

KSDK:  California schoolchildren attempt to break jump rope record

All to comply with the Federal education law known as No Double Dutcher Left Behind.

P-D:  Donation jar for Haiti stolen from restaurant

Better that it be stolen now and the money be put to bad use than it be pilfered later in Haiti for a worse use.

Day Day Gettin’ Years Years

“Da Man” in Metherson County thinks he stole a bunch of guns from a house in Imperial, one of which wound up being used by a robbery suspect in last week’s standoff in the same area.

My bet is that “Day Day” lives in Metherson County b/c he’s some white trailer trash meth addict’s jungle fever boy toy.

“Hey, How Da White Wimmen Votin?”

Miami Herald:

Obama budget aims at solidifying women’s support

(snip)

Women are a key voting block for Obama. Exit polling from the 2008 election showed 56 percent of female voters cast ballots for Obama. Only 49 percent of male voters backed Obama. Women remain supportive: A Gallup poll conducted in early January found that 54 percent of women surveyed approved of Obama’s performance; only 47 percent of men said the same.

Back out blacks and Hispanics, and white women were about evenly split between Obama and John McCain.  Racial differences were far greater than gender differences in the 2008 Presidential election.

Read the rest of the article, and you’ll find that this is a play for more white women, not women in general.

Similarly, in about the middle of the first Bush 43 term, his handlers were mapping out their 2004 re-election strategery, and settled on Catholics, who voted Gore 53% in 2000, to be their great target demo.  Problem is, back out the Hispanics, and white Catholics and white non-Catholics voted almost alike.

Race, not gender or religion, por favor.

Bring On the Postcards

One of the main objections to thinning out the Federal income tax rules such that one’s tax return could fit on a postcard is that two deductions that serve the interest of the middle and working classes are charitable contributions and mortgage interest.

I heard this morning on Rush’s show that President Obama’s proposed budget for FY11 does away with those two deductions for filers over a certain gross income, and what will probably happen is that once those rich bastards making $200,000 a year can’t deduct CC for MI, then ten years from now, nobody will be able to.

That said, then let’s go full speed ahead with tax return simplification, if the deductions most often used no longer exist.

2010 Illinois Primaries Preview

In spite of living in the state for most of 2009, and perhaps living there again very soon, I haven’t followed the primary news in Illinois much.  The media buys in the St. Louis market have been few and (AFAIK) radio only.  The Andy Martin row has created the most buzz, as his are most of the ads around here.  None of the big names, the CW-endowed front runners, have taken out ads in St. Louis.

In spite of his clown act, Andy Martin’s last few ads have been decent and rational, so I would vote for him for the Senate in the Republican side.  On the Governor side, the Pole is starting to do well in the polls (rimshot), that being Adam Andrzejewski, and I would vote for him.  Among all the other reasons, Illinois needs to remain in the tradition of having Governors whose last names are hard to spell.  Just in case you’re wondering, I’m still on the voter rolls in far western Williamson County, and haven’t changed my registration back to St. Louis yet, as I expect to move back to Illinois pretty soon.  However, it would be impractical to me to trace all the way back to the Carbondale area to vote tomorrow.

Gov. Pat Quinn might lose in his own party’s primary tomorrow, if he does, it will be to Comptroller Dan Hynes, who was one of the two early front-runners in the 2004 Senate primary for Democrats.  Someone you’ve heard of, Barack Obama, won that primary and then the election, though Obama beat Hynes and Blair Hull in that primary in spite of not running ads in the St. Louis market until a week before the voting.  (Hull and Blair started their St. Louis ads six weeks before the vote.)  After Obama won, and to bolster his southern Illinois credentials against what he thought would have been a strong Republican in Jack Ryan, he held a rally on the riverfront in East St. Louis, with the Arch and St. Louis skyline in the background.  He admitted to the St. Louis media that this was the first time he even saw the Arch with his own eyes.  That shows you how Chicago-centric are Illinois politics.

I would vote Andy Martin, but Mark Kirk will probably win easily on the “R” side, the same for Alexi Giannoulias on the D side, for Senate.

Fun With a Weekend Hangover Slow Headline Monday

BP Sports:   PRO BOWL: AFC & NFC athletes voice support for Tebow about pro-life ad

That’s funny, I’ve always thought of the AFC as the more pro-choice conference.

UK Daily Mail:  Obama scraps Nasa Moon mission as U.S. president condemns ‘Monopoly money’ spending

If only the Federal government were limited to $500 at a time.  If only Obama could own just the house yet Tony Rezko owns Vermont Avenue underneath the house.  If only the income tax were 10%.  If only you could yell “God damn America US of KKK A” while they were taking you off to jail and you didn’t have the $200 for bail.

NYP:  Cop used baton to sodomize man: NYPD witness

I once knew someone whose main e-mail address started with “copsodomy.”  Seriously.

Take Two:  NYP:  Cop used baton to sodomize man: NYPD witness

If a baton could successfully go up his hole, then you can probably guess where he was and what someone was doing to him in the recent past.