Archive for July, 2012

Is Hindsight Really 20/20?

Posted: July 31, 2012 by veeshir in Random Crap

I don’t think so. You know, except my 20/20 hindsight.

What makes me think of this is that I’ve been reading Churchill’s history of WWII for the last few years. I pick up a book, read ii for a week or two, put it down for a month or more, pick it up again…. I’m up to getting ready to put book 4 down for a while.

This got long so it’s below the fold.

I’m writing this because I really can’t force myself to write about politics. Obama and his Chicago Machine have been too horrible to really pay attention to and while I’ll vote for Romney, I’m not going to pay attention to what he says until then, I just don’t want to know.

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Yelling at Bumperstickers

Posted: July 30, 2012 by veeshir in Filthy Hippies

Fighting for peace is not like fucking for virginity.

It’s like killing rapists for virginity.

Stupid hippy.

I’m not the first one to think it, but I just wanna get a post I can refer back to while laughing at the painfully transparent and easily predictable Minitrue.

We’ve been in a “recovery” since right around late January, 2009 even though the numbers have sucked throughout.  In that example, the NY Post is talking about “double dip recession”. How many double dip recessions does it take before you’re in a depression?

When Bush was Emmanuel Goldstein, a “jobless recovery” was a cause for tut-tutting.

While Obama has been God-President, the jobless recovery is a good thing, what with all the funemployment and extended food stamps for all.
Under Obama, over 8% unemployment is ignored, while the actual numbers (including those who have given up) are way over 10 and that’s not just ignored but verboten to even mention..

Under Bush, at under 5% unemployment, those who had given up were mentioned an awful lot.

Which is even more egregious considering that 5% unemployment is pretty much full employment.

All the people who want a job can get one. So the ones who “gave up”, just didn’t want to either work or move to where their work was. Now people just can’t get jobs.

So if Obama loses in November, we’ll be in Depression by around late January to early February. Count on it.

We’re all gonna be doomed if Romney doesn’t fix in 2 weeks what it took Obama 4 years to break.

Never bring musketeers to an artillery fight

Posted: July 29, 2012 by doubleplusundead in Uncategorized

I may or may not have downloaded Age of Empires III and rekindled my crippling addiction to strategy games…may.

Veep pick poll

Posted: July 29, 2012 by socklessjoe in Fun with Elections

The question is who will Romney pick, not who he should pick.

I admit to editorial prejudice in selecting the options, presented in alphabetical order.  The very tip-top tier is said to be Portman, Pawlenty, and Ryan.  I put in Jindal because he’s extremely competent, he understands Medicare better than just about anybody, and Romney would be foolish to dismiss him.  I’m putting in McDonnell because Romney could sure use some help in Virginia, and McDonnell surely wouldn’t hurt him with the base.

Notable omissions –and feel free to vote “other” and complain in the comments– Rubio and Rand Paul.  I think Rubio is a smidge short on experience, and will irritate the base with his immigration policy.  On the other hand, a truly balanced (not “comprehensive piece of [crap]”) immigration policy might be electorally helpful.  I mention Rand Paul because I keep seeing these persistent rumors of papa Paul speaking at the convention and a general atmosphere of comity between Mitt and Ron.

Poll closes after one week.

I think it was Socrates who said it best, “You don’t get the funny without the endy.”*

The Olympic Committee acts like “Internationalists” everywhere yet, for some inexplicable reason, people seem to think is not an inherently evil organization.

In today’s exciting episode, we see fine Olympic values on display.
First, no remembrance of the murdered Israelis 40 years ago in Munich. Wouldn’t want to bring up a painful episode that can only cause remorse in some nations’ contingents (The ones who don’t like that the Israelis killed the Freedom Fighters involved, of course).

Next, we have a kinda hot, Greek triple jumper (pauses for dirty jokes about jumping) kicked out for this over the top, racist tweet.

‘With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!’

Quelle horreur. Obviously beyond the pale. Especially since she’s so….pale.
So what sort of statements and gestures are A-OK with the IOC?
Oh, the Lebanese judo team refuses to train near the damn, dirty Jews….errrr…uhhhh….Israelis. It’s not Jew-hatred, it’s protest against the policies of Israel. Wait, you mean there are Jews there? Huh.
While some Syrian Olympic poo-bah is saying that the Army is protecting Teh Peepul in Syria.
No, really. I wouldn’t kid you. Well, I would kid you, but I’m not kidding you this time.
Khayata says the army is trying to “protect people and keep them safe.” He says that laying the siege to the country’s largest city “is maybe the way to stop bloodshed throughout Syria.”

Wait, did he just say, “We have to blow up the country to save it”? Seriously?

Okay, that’s funny. And endy, considering what he’s talking about. Especially considering his family is in Aleppo.

 

So a semi-funny tweet  and a remembrance of some murdered Jews are too terrible to even contemplate, but Jew hatred and defending war-crimes murderers are just fine.

Yup, the Olympics. What’s Right With the World.

 

*Loosely translated from something he said at a Symposium, a more….picky translator might put it as, “The genius of Comedy and Tragedy are the same, and should be written by the same authors

An example of what the IOC deprived us of. (more…)

And then the BBC comes along to help you get over that feeling

For some other fun BBC News check out this response to the BBC’s refusal to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel:

Seriously, BBC, if you’re willing to list Jerusalem as the “seat of government,” is it such a stretch to simply write the word “capital?” You’re being stubborn over semantics? That’s like me going the distance with you and claiming that we didn’t have intercourse — I just inserted the seat of my penis.

Ahh, the Beeb where would the world be without them?

I’ve actually been kind of excited to see exactly how low Minitrue would go and if they would actually be bad enough for people who don’t really pay attention to notice.

We’re finding out, watching Journolist or whatever they’re calling themselves this year, go about their job of getting Obama re-coronated by writing coordinated Obama campaign ads under the guise of “News”.

They’re really pulling out all the stops for their God-President.

I’ve also been wondering what Romney would do. He can’t go as negative as a Dem as a matter of course or else he’d be attacked for it. If Romney could find footage of Obama singing “God Bless America” (a big if) and used it in an ad, the cries of “Questioning His Patriotism(TM)” would be deafening.

So Obama’s been hitting Romney on Bain and outsourcing jobs.

The Bain attacks on Romney have been less than useful.

A strong majority of Americans say Mitt Romney’s background in the private sector, including his management at the private equity firm he founded, Bain Capital, would help him make the right decisions on the economy.

So their push-poll backfired (you know they made sure to tell people about Obama’s ad when asking about “experience”). That’s pretty darn funny.

They failed even with the Journolist branch (Journolist is the only part of Minitrue I think is a conspiracy, the rest are just a consensus who go along they figure out what Journolist wants them to do) doing their best.

From July 10,

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post and the Obama campaign worked together to attack Governor Mitt Romney with proven lies about outsourcing

That was the Wash Post headline about “Romney’s Bain killed and ate orphans” or whatever, that the Wash Post then claimed didn’t tie Romney to the killing and eating of orphans, which story Obama is currently using in his ads now.

Worse, Romney has had the unmitigated gall to actually notice that Obama has sent many $billions  of our money overseas under the rubric of “Stimulus”.

Well, Minitrue can’t let that happen.

First, we’ll do a two-fer that’s truly funny.

From March 4, 2010, when senators were running for re-election not Obama, we have this story about the OUTRAGE! felt by these Dem senators at furriners being stimulized with ‘Murican’s money.  They need to act all American and shit to win re-election.

Senate Democrats lashed out at the Obama administration on Wednesday, saying its stimulus wind energy program creates jobs overseas instead of in the U.S., and they’re calling for the administration to put a stop to it.

Fast-forward to 2012, nowRomney is running ads hitting Obama on his outsourcing so it’s time to get Obama re-elected so he has to act American.

I personally would have an ad saying,

“My esteemed opponent in the upcoming has been saying I’d be bad for the economy because I outsourced. Well, my company took over other companies and spent the companies’ money and did what we had to do to make the company profitable under current laws. My opponent has taken US taxpayer money, claimed it was to make the company, the US, “profitable”. Instead he sent money overseas to study prostitutes in China. Meanwhile, his “company”, our great nation, has record deficits and high unemployment”.

But nobody listens to me.

To counter the ads Romney has been running, we have PolitFact, ready, willing and (differently) able(d).

Labeled “Mostly False” (which is what we used to call “true)

A TV ad running in eight states blames President Barack Obama for sending stimulus money overseas while Americans are out of work.

Heh.  I could full this whole page with nothing but PolitiFact links saying things are “Half-true” and other euphemisms for “True”, but you can just click around their cess-pit for yourself. It’s good for a laugh actually as they contort themselves into knots trying to say things could be “Misinterpreted” that way, but smart people(tm) know better.

This is a great link, chock full o’ facts about exactly where Obama outsourced our tax money. It’s from the Breitbart link above.
I’d say don’t click that unless you want to blog about something, otherwise you’ll just get really, really, angry and kick the dog. (mine’s hiding as I write).

So from the polls, we see Romney is winning the “Who knows how to run an economy and who outsourced more money” race.

Minitrue’s full force must be brought to bear.

Here we have  the Wash Post fresh from their tying Romney to the eating of orphans at a company when he didn’t work there.

They need to counter Romney’s ads and assure their (shrinking) readership that the forces of Good will prevail.

Romney’s ad (according to the Wash Post)

– Narration from Romney campaign ad

“Seventy-nine percent of the $2.1 billion in stimulus grants awarded through it went to overseas companies — $2.1 billion.”

— 2010 remarks from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), featured in Romney campaign ad

Okay so far.  How to handle this?

First, the set-up.  We need to set the stage that Romney is a serial liar.

We’ve covered most of these claims in the past, with each one receiving Pinocchios to one degree or another.

Zero is a degree.

Now to the attack.

Romney claims the Obama administration funneled stimulus money to friends, donors and campaign supporters

Wait, didn’t you just say Romney quotes Schumer attacking Obama about sending money overeas?

I see what you did there, you can’t counter those claims because they’re true so you’ll throw them in at the beginning, then go on to obfuscate about some other stuff, declare victory and we call go have cocktails and laugh and rage at the racists who don’t appreciate the magnificence that is Obama.
They run a few paragraphs about the attacks, with some key facts left out.

Beyond Solyndra, a February report from the Post revealed that the Department of Energy had awarded $3.9 billion in federal loans and financing to companies backed by firms with which Obama administration staffers and advisers had previously worked. None of the White House insiders had direct control over the federal funds, but e-mails show that they informally advocated for some of the businesses that received taxpayer money.

Notice the soft voice, “informally advocated”, nice adjective there.”Informally advocated”, in this instance, means, “Overrulled federal employees whose job it is to check things like this”.

This deal is NOT ready for prime time,” one White House budget analyst wrote in a March 10, 2009 email, nine days before the administration formally announced the loan.

If it had been Cheney, it would have been something about bullying them. They had no “direct control over” blah, blah, blah. That’s all about being hilarious considering the previous article whose headline directly tied Romney to Bain’s doing things when he didn’t work there.

Some more without too much editorializing.

This PolitiFactOhio link where they say that Romney’s ads talking about sending stimulus funds to a campaign supporter who spent the money in Finland is “False”, you know, except it’s true.

This hilarious, NY Times link, explaining that even though everything is true, in the aggregate it’s not.

This Roto-Reuters article is pretty darn good too. I absolutely love this quote.

Romney has sought to batter Obama over the stubbornly high U.S. unemployment rate and the weak economy, but instead has been forced in recent days to defend his business past, particularly his career as a private equity executive with Bain Capital

Yeah, those Bain Capital ads that, as we saw above, have actually raised Romney’s economic polls. While the whole article  is basically an Obama campaign ad, they have to make sure you understand that with their closing.

Obama has characterized the former Massachusetts governor and presumptive Republican White House nominee as a wealthy investor who is tied to Wall Street and corporate interests and is out of touch with ordinary Americans.

I’ve read the whole, 8 paragraph, article and I couldn’t figure out how it would have changed if it had been written by the Obama campaign.

This, mini-Minitrue outllet (CBS affiliate), has a good one.  Romney’s ad is “partially true but mostly false” (read: True).

I bring this one up because I wonder, did they just figure out what they were supposed to do or are on the Journolist mailing list?

As for Solyndra, the failed solar panel manufacturer from Fremont, Calif., was initially invited under the administration of President George W. Bush to apply for a government-guaranteed loan

An Obama approved message, they leave out how it was rejected by Bush’s people.  (From the above ABC article about Obama overruling the bureaucrats, page 2)

The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department’s credit committee made a unanimous decision not to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.

Oh well, just a Congressional probe into the situation, no need to bother your readers with that.  It’s Bush’s Fault ™.

Since I’m bashing Minitrue, I should link this actual news story  from ABC about Romney’s ads. It just reports on what’s in the ad in a dry, factual tone and doesn’t editorialize or put in Obama-Approved Talking Points.

It’s an Honest to God news article on a political matter. Will wonders never cease?

*PING!*

Posted: July 26, 2012 by doubleplusundead in Random Crap

Okay, being the old schooler that I am I have a wood bat as backup for my boomstickery, but man I may have to give aluminum a second look, that is an incredibly satisfying sound.

Bold, decisive action required

Posted: July 24, 2012 by Sean M. in FAIL

A lot has been said about what needs to be done in the wake of the massacre in Colorado, but most people seem to be turning the same tired, old solutions, so here’s my (ahem) modest proposal: Starting immediately, every adult shall be sworn in as a police officer.

Think about it. If anybody is law-abiding, it’s cops, right? No more crime. Anywhere. And cops–as gun control advocates will tell you–are the only people with the proper firearms training, so if everyone is a cop, everyone will be able to carry a gun safely. Furthermore, cops are the kind of public sector employees that everyone (well, everyone who matters, anyway) agrees we need more of, so there goes the unemployment problem. And you’ll never have to mutter about how there’s never a cop around when you need one because there you are.

It’s really quite elegant in its simplicity.

(Okay, maybe not, but it’s no stupider than this.)