Saturday Potpourri

If you read one thing today, this is it from Andy McCarthy on the “Transformation” Obama hopes to  accomplish and why the statists could care less that ramming Obamacare through using reconciliation will destroy their party.  They have long term goals, i.e. single payer health care and punitive taxation forever. 

Today’s Democrats are controlled by the radical Left, and it is more important to them to execute the permanent transformation of American society than it is to win the upcoming election cycles. They have already factored in losing in November — even losing big. For them, winning big now outweighs that. I think they’re right. 

I hear Republicans getting giddy over the fact that “reconciliation,” if it comes to that, is a huge political loser. That’s the wrong way to look at it. The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary. Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with.

Read Pundit & Pundette, Legal Insurrection, and Potluck for more. 

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I can’t believe this made it in print, let alone the WaPo: The Green Jobs Myth . 

Awww…Lefties feel left out, heh, and have created their own party: a Coffee.  And they called us astroturfers, eh?  More from Fuzzy at the Potluck. 

This should anger everyone: Americans see US Military as #1 now, but not in 20 years. 

As should this, from Carol: Selective abortion and female genocide

Worth watching, H/T Hillbuzz.  So much for Leftie compassion, eh?

And to end on a high note, this made me smile: Bush jokes about intelligence, knocks Carter.

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Two polls, 23,000 jobs, and a joke

I. Rasmussen numbers for the day: Obama’s “approval index” hit -20

23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20. For President Obama, the Approval Index has been lower only once.

I checked the graph.  It was lower the week of Christmas, and I don’t think it’s coincidental that was the week the Senate voted on Obamacare v.1

II. Thank you, President Obama:  Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights.

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Can we deduct 23,000 from whatever number of jobs O claims to have “created or saved”?

23,000 Floridians will lose jobs because of Obama cuts to the Space Program.  A troll response would be, “but I thought you wanted Obama to cut spending to save money?”  Heh.  Yes, I do, but on unnecessary social programs (or like the $410 million he’s given the Safe Schools Czar to make sure schools are gay-friendly and give fisting lectures). 

But nixing the space program which creates jobs–private sector jobs?  No.   AJ Strata warned of this a few weeks ago.   And there aren’t other jobs necessarily waiting for these people, either.  No jobs. Jobs cut. Foreclosures in Florida already extremely high.  Welcome to a mess.

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Try not to laugh: Weather “experts” say January was the hottest on record.   AJ Strata has serious number crunching up for further education today in his post, The Walls of Anthropogenic Global Warming Come Crashing Down.

Sleight of Hand

If the media can’t spin yesterday’s Obamabuki Theater as win for the Democrats, then it’s reasonable to assert that the GOP kicked Obamacare Butt.  

Case in point, a Politico headline: No clear winner in seven-hour gabfest. HT: Memeorandum.

Meanwhile, David Gergen admitted it was the best day the GOP had in years. 

Why did it come off so badly for the Democrats?  Well, besides a petulant, bored Obama digging for gold in slowmo (put down the coffee lest you ruin the monitor.  Be warned.) (HT: Pundette)

Pundette concludes “too much Obama” ruined the Obamathon.  Maybe they’ll get a clue.  (probably not.)

But he did offer an important reminder at the end, though the center and right of the electorate are not likely to forget it come November: “That’s what elections are for.”

Aint’ that the truth!

 Yuval Levin at the NRO:

Third, an important part of the Democrats’ problem is that Obama himself is their only star, and this format is not working for him. He certainly seems engaged and well informed (even given a few misstatements of fact, at least one of which John Kyl made very clear.) But he doesn’t seem like the President of the United States—more like a slightly cranky committee chairman or a patronizing professor who thinks that saying something is “a legitimate argument” is a way to avoid having an argument. He is diminished by the circumstances, he’s cranky and prickly when challenged, and he’s got no one to help him. The other Democrats around the table have been worse than unimpressive.

Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Ryan rocked.  Matthew Continetti at TWS:

Obama didn’t even bother questioning Ryan’s presentation. He changed the subject to Medicare Advantage. The expression on the president’s face as Ryan made his case was absolutely priceless. Simply put, he looked like someone who realizes he’s met his match.

Quote of the year from Ryan:

Hiding spending doesn’t reduce spending.

It always has if you’re a Democrat.

Assorted brilliant commentary from the Potluck (come check us out):

Carol: 

The Dems relied on cheap emotional tricks, telling stories of constituents who had suffered needlessly under the cruel American free market system of health care. I know I said it earlier but the story about the woman who wore her dead sister’s teeth was just bizarre. As a southerner, I felt like the story played in to almost every negative southern stereotype going. I say almost because all it needed to complete it was a mention that the dead sister’s funeral was held in a trailer park down by the river.

I wondered about this: has the I’m-so-poor-I-have-to-wear-my-dead-sister’s-dentures lady ever heard of Medicaid?

And Fuzislippers:

You have to wonder how someone so supposedly intelligent can sit there while his side rambles on about why reform is needed–sob story after sob story, but can’t articulate why their bill is the only acceptable or even make a case for it being the best possible fix, while his side lies outright (and got called on it in front of everyone in this country), and still think that it’s a good idea to push on via a very questionable procedure that will create a huge outcry from the American people, one that he won’t have to wait for November to hear. Bizarre squared.

Agreed.  But that’s why he sat there pickin’ his nose.  At least he didn’t use his middle finger to do it.

Oh, to laugh or to cry?

Government efficiency in action.  (And they want to run health care?)

Hat tip: Red State.

Why bother making mortgage payments?

Seriously.  That free Obama money grows on trees, dontcha know…

From Bloomberg News:

The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan.

“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,” Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate planned announcements on the issue.”

And last year’s foreclosures were but a drop in the bucket compared to what’s expected to come this year.

About 2.82 million U.S. homeowners lost properties to foreclosure last year and 4.5 million filings are expected in 2010, RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California data company, said last month.

Remember this:

The same for housing prices, only more so. It was headline news recently that house prices in “some” areas of the country had stopped declining quite as fast, while in some fewer areas there were even tiny increases in prices of houses sold, if not much increase in the volume. Yet there are uncounted hundreds of thousands of vacant houses, condominiums, and commercial office space for which there is no rational prospect of a buyer during 2010 or perhaps ever.

It will get worse. Of the 47.4 million home mortgages in place today, nearly 10.7 million are “underwater,” that is, the money owed on the loan is greater than the value of the house. And that’s not counting the 2.3 million other mortgages that are “near-negative equity.” Most of these latter will face sharply higher upward ratcheting of their interest rates in 2010 and 2011 and that will automatically plunge those debts below the surface.

What’s next? Obama telling everyone it’s ok to stop paying because banks are bad?  Welcome to strategic default by fiat.

Obamabuki Theater

Obama:

I don’t count my time because I’m President.

Oh la di dah.  Can your nose keep up with the ego, Pinnochio?

Pelosi:

It’s about jobs. In it’s life, it [the health bill] will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.

Before it destroys the entire insurance industry–how many jobs there, Madame Speaker?

And tell that whopper to these folks (unemployment “unexpectedly” higher again.  I long for the Bush Era stories, when the meme was labor stats were “unexpectedly lower.”   We won’t see that for a while…)

Only 25% of the public wants this monstrosity  (wouldn’t it be cheaper to just give them all a one-way ticket to Cuba so they can revel in the glories of Fidelcare?).

Speaking of the glories of socialized medicine: read AJ Strata’s post today, Obamacare’s Curse.  Drudge had the headlines up last night, but England faces the worst scandal yet of poor patient care in their National Health Service at an “elite” hospital (makes you wonder about the regular ones, eh?)

Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.

But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction.

The government employee in charge of the “elite” hospital

Martin Yeates, who has since left with a £1million pension pot, six months’ salary and a reported £400,000 payoff, did not even give evidence to the inquiry which detailed the scale of the scandal yesterday.

Obama has a fallback plan.  Pundette wonders:

Maybe this was the real goal all along. It will look positively benign when compared with the behemoths that came before.

I need a vacation from Obama.  Enough already.   But I’ll reread Now Is Not The Time For Weakness by William Jacobson to reinvigorate my waning strength.

Try not to hurl objects at the screen while watching.   (And another plug for the Potluck–Rubyslippers keeps adding Twitter updates to this post.)

Off to the kitchen: cooking and Rush, my favorite afternoon combination (well, other than napping).  On the menu: Chicken Penne for a friend with a new baby and Thai Noodle Salad (my new addiction, but meatless for tomorrow and with rice noodles).

Nothing is random with the Chicago Way

  

Pundette on Team Obama gearing up for 2012: “Get the styrofoam columns out of storage.” 

Fuzislippers posted at Potluck: Transforming America One Logo At A Time.  

And suddenly it all makes sense.  Here’s the new logo for the Missile Defense Agency:    

oops, wrong logo

This one! The new Missile Defense Agency logo

  Drudge has this up with the O logo (made me laugh).  

   

First thought: Why is money being spent to redesign logos?  Unless, of course, Porkulus money was used and  five jobs were created or saved in the design.   

Then it hit me: Chicago.  pjHusband used to tell me of Mayor Daley’s brilliance as far as elections go. If you’ve ever been to Chicago, you’ve seen Daley’s name plastered everywhere. He welcomes you to the airport at least half a dozen times.  Every trashcan is “brought to you by Mayor Daley.”  Every building project.   His name is inescapable.  It’s “free” election advertising courtesy the taxpayers chumps that reelect him.  

And this is why we have new logos in government. For more background, read Michelle Malkin and watch this (Hat tip: Fuzzislippers) 

UPDATE: A Pundette “Recommended Read.”  (Thank you!)

Homebirth gains popularity, now this?

Too many abortion docs are retiring without a ready supply of new ones lining up to kill babies, so what’s a concerned abortion center to do? 

Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon plans cozy fireside abortions-at-home.  You know, go kill your baby in the privacy of your own home. 

How could this go wrong?

Let me count the ways.

UPDATE: A Pundette Recommended Read.  Thanks!

Ego is as ego does

Competing with Obama for “Largest Ego Ever,” silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko gives the President a run for his money.

Evgeni Plushenko’s long, delusional journey continues. Just days after the silver medalist for men’s figure skating denied that Evan Lysacek is the true champion of men’s figure skating, he has apparently awarded himself a platinum medal.

It reads, “Silver of Salt Lake, Gold of Torino, Platinum of Vancouver.” What’s impressive here is that not only has Plushenko’s website team fabricated an Olympic medal, it designed a platinum medal, too. Bravo. That’s commitment to a delusion.

Various and Sundry

With all the Obama–as-Ahab talk, I’m tempted to pick up my old copy Norton Criticial Edition of Melville. 

You’ll need a strong stomach to read this, but The Great Recession of 2011-2012  over at AmericanSpecator offers a sobering take on the economy.  On real estate:

It will get worse. Of the 47.4 million home mortgages in place today, nearly 10.7 million are “underwater,” that is, the money owed on the loan is greater than the value of the house. And that’s not counting the 2.3 million other mortgages that are “near-negative equity.” Most of these latter will face sharply higher upward ratcheting of their interest rates in 2010 and 2011 and that will automatically plunge those debts below the surface.

In Nevada already the amount of mortgages outstanding is estimated at $132.6 billion against property worth $116.7 billion, a loan-to-value ratio of 116 percent. Even another slight decline in prices in areas such as California (loan-to-value ratio of 72 percent), Arizona (91 percent), or Florida (87 percent) will swamp Washington’s promised next round of mortgage subsidy relief. The government’s own rescue agencies, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA, are dead in the water, and the government’s bank deposit insurance agency, the FDIC, says it has no more reserves to offset the coming next round of failing banks.

Of course with Obama throwing more grown-on-trees money after bad, the real estate market won’t hit bottom any time soon.

Amusing: Obama had time to meet with Shakira this week.  Does anyone else remember The One was “so busy” last year that he had only spoken to the commander of efforts in Afghanistan once in 70 days?  During which he was supposedly revamping the strategy?  But McChrystal isn’t a rock star.  So it makes sense, right?  Priorities, priorities…

Sen. Jay Rockefeller “throws a wrench” in Democrat plans to pass Obamacare v.2 by declaring reconciliation isn’t such a grand idea.  Agreed: Republicans should warn Democrats that they’ll use reconciliation against them to repeal all this garbage after the elections. 

With all the Scott Brown bashing going on today, here’s a little sanity/perspective from Jules Crittenden. 

Carol makes a point at the Potluck re Obamacare: where will all the socialists come when they need to flee their own poor medical systems?  As a Canadian Premier who recently came to the States for surgery,

It’s my health, it’s my choice.

What a great bumper sticker, eh?

And speaking of potluck, if you’re in a cooking mood, a fabulous soup recipe.  When I whip up something and pjToddler asks for seconds, I take note.  Disclaimer: I would never serve this to my husband.  But pjToddler and I like it so much we made a second batch today.