MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY MERRY & BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!

3…2…1… None for 2016???

Former VP nominee Paul Ryan may or may not have been involved in the purge of conservative members in the House committees (Boehner and McCarty have their hands dirty, Cantor and Ryan might also be involved).

LA Gov. Jindal says that prescription contraceptives should be made available over-the-counter.

Now pretty-boy Sen. Rubio (already a bit squishy on illegal immigration) decides to take advantage of the CT tragedy to find ways to limit our 2nd Amendment rights.

…and then there were none…


If it wasn't so pathetically tragic, it'd be laughable.

*SIGH*

Big East 2.0: My Dream League??? (college hoops diversion)

The AP and ESPN were burning the wires yesterday and this morning on developments with the Big East Conference.

AP here and here.  ESPN here and here.  The main ESPN article is here.

[AP] The Big East is headed for another break up. This time, the seven prominent basketball schools that don't play FBS football are planning to cut ties with the ever-changing conference.

The divorce is expected to be complicated, maybe even contentious, with millions of dollars and possibly the future of the league at stake.

The Big East's non-football members decided Thursday to separate from the conference, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because officials from those schools are still sorting through details and trying to figure how best to split from the conference

More:

[ESPN] According to the source, there is a lot of interpretation regarding exit fees, the waiting period, and on who gets the Big East name and Madison Square Garden for a conference basketball tournament.

The departing schools conducted a teleconference with Aresco on Thursday morning. They have scheduled a second conference call for Saturday, when they are expected to address these issues and possibly make an official declaration.

Because the seven schools are leaving as a group, they can use a league clause that eliminates the exit fee for a collective departure, a source told ESPN. However, the schools would have to honor the league's requirement to provide 27 months' notice.

The seven schools could negotiate an earlier exit, but the Big East would undoubtedly require some sort of financial compensation.

It's unknown who would keep the Big East name...

… Initially, both the FBS [football school] and non-FBS schools believed, sources said, that the seven Catholic schools could dissolve the league by a two-thirds majority vote, which they have. However, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN on Thursday that the league may not be dissolved without at least two FBS and two non-FBS members each voting to do so.

That won't happen as only 10 full members -- the seven departing, non-FBS schools plus UConn,Cincinnati and South Florida -- remain in the conference and the FBS schools don't want the league to dissolve. Temple is a football-only member. The Owls will be full members next year but would not get a vote on dissolution this year.

Without voting to dissolve, the seven schools are expected to move together to form a new league. They would keep their automatic berth in the NCAA basketball tournament because NCAA rules state that as long as a group of seven universities has been in the same league for five years, it keeps its bid after a move together to a new conference.

So, the seven remaining "smaller" Catholic basketball schools - Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette and DePaul - have decided to "leave" the Big East en masse, yet may be able to take the Big East name and the hoops contracts/revenues with them.  Strong rumor is that they are thinking of creating an everything-but-football conference (like the Big East used to be), with other highly successful, mid-to-large sized Catholic universities.  This 10- or 12-school conference may include the following:

Big East originals:
Villanova
Georgetown
St. John's
Seton Hall
Providence
Marquette
DePaul

Most likely possible new schools:
Xavier
Dayton
St. Louis
Creighton
Butler (non-Catholic)

Other possible schools could be:
Boston College (a former Big East school who now may be uncomfortable with a bloated ACC)
Notre Dame (a more recent Big East school to leave for the ACC except for football)
St. Bonaventure
St. Joseph's
LaSalle
Dusquesne
Richmond
Valparaiso

As a Villanova grad (Class of '85… yes, THAT class), I and a friend of mine (another Villanova grad from the 70s) have been dreaming about a men's basketball conference that would be a blend of various Catholic schools from the Big East and a few other conferences that were strong in college hoops in that general region.

Our dream conference may finally come to pass. :-)


12/18 UPDATE:

Upon further analysis of my suggestions, above, I think Xavier, Dayton and Butler from the A-10, plus Creighton from the Missouri Valley would be the best fit with the C-7 of the Big East.  Those four teams each have a two-decade success history in men's hoops and would fit in well.  That would bring the new league to 11 schools.

The 12th member should be from of the following list: UConn (for everything except football, are currently stuck still  in the Big East and are a founding member), or Notre Dame (for everything except football, another long-standing Big East school that was about to go to the ACC next year).  If neither of these schools wants to join, then start looking somewhere else.  Possibly St. Louis, VCU or Valparaiso.

The Fiscal Cliff Clavin...

The "fiscal cliff" is a bunch of BS, in the sense that there is going to be a fiscal cliff whether it occurs with or without a "deal". The question is two-fold: (1) will it be a shear cliff crash, or a slower downhill roll crash (either way, it's gonna crash), and (2) where the blame will lay. 

If the Republicans don't make a deal now, and push the "fiscal cliff" over the edge, the Republicans will get the blame. ALL of the Republicans. The narrative has already been set by the Administration and the MSM for quite some time. 

I say they "make a deal" now [with this important caveat!!!] . The Democrats have the White House. The Democrats have the Senate. All they really need are a small handful of squishy-Republicans in the Senate (to prevent a filibuster, aka, Graham, McCain, Snowe, etc.), and approx. 25 squishy-Republicans in the House. 

Let the squishes make the deal, and let the true fiscal conservatives (200+ in House and 40+ in Senate) stand together and say en masse, "we are NOT a part of this, when the economy crashes due to either stagflation, hyperinflation, recession, or depression, the blame will/must be on those who voted for this monstrosity." 

When the proverbial sh*t hits the fan, fiscally/economically, all the Republican-squishes and all the Democrats that voted for "the deal" are prime targets for primary challenges in 2014.  So, let's recruit now for the next wave of Ted Cruz-like candidates for the mid-term elections IN EVERY ONE OF THOSE DISTRINCTS.

Union Ding Dongs...

When I was a teenager (in the early '80s) my first official job with my working papers was with a supermarket in Philadelphia.  This was my job to help pay me through college.  It was unionized with the Retail Clerks union.  Started at minimum wage as a CSA (Customer Service Agent… in other word, a bag and cart boy).

After a year I got my annual union-negotiated pittance of a raise.  Sometime after that, the minimum wage increased.  My wage increased to that new bottom level.  Next thing I know, new people were being hired, and getting paid at the same rate I was.  But, they had no experience.  I'd been there for well over a year and was already working my way up to full retail clerk.  Shouldn't I get paid more than the newly hired CSA's?  Nope.  Union didn't think it was worth fighting for people like me in that predicament.

Flash forward to four year on the job.  Union says we should strike because we weren't getting the same wages as other supermarkets in the area.  I was young and stupid.  I went along with the vote to strike.  Stood on the picket lines outside the store.

Strike ends.  How?  Supermarket closes down the location.  I'm out of a job after four years of working my way up with income and experience.  Can't find another job at other area supermarkets.  Not hiring.

Six months later, I get a call from my old supermarket company.  They remember me from the old store, loved my work ethic. Got an opening for me at a store in the suburbs.  Same union, too.  The catch?  I was to start as a CSA agent again.  At minimum wage, again.  I told them thanks but no thanks.

A few years later I worked for a retail music store.  No union.  One day, a union rep came to try to get us to "organize" to get better pay.  We all basically told him to go pound sand.  I eventually ended up getting to Assistant Manager on my own, thank you very much.

Today, I see the likes of unions acting like Ding Dongs (pun absolutely intended), and now 18,500 people are out of a job while Hostess Brands goes bankrupt.

I see SEIU picketing outside LAX on one of the busiest travel days of the year because one company's employees dared to vote to decertify, and ended up getting better deals with the company's management directly.

I see California public employees unions illegally influencing the vote on Nov 6 to pass Prop 30 (which  now raises sales taxes for "the children" aka, schools… problem being, the proposition was written so that none of the money will be sent directly to the school.  Instead, it'll most assuredly go towards two things: the ridiculously over-paid public employee unions' pensions, and the multi-multi-billion dollar boondoggle "bullet train" to nowhere).

So, here's my take on the modern day unions.

Imagine my longest digit on my right hand firmly, proudly and defiantly raised up in the air.

(effin' idiots)

AFTERMATH: The Whale, The Disinterested, and The 1%...

First, "The Whale"- More specifically, Project ORCA (Ace really let's 'em have it in that link), Team Romney's election-day GOTV (get out the vote) machine and the failure of a not-thoroughly-tested smartphone/tablet/computer app that basically harpooned the efforts of 37,000 GOTV operatives.  More about it here and here.  RedState's Ben Howe has a fascinating take on the whole mess here.  Ace of Spades takes the Romney camp to task for their weak response to the claims of the massive system failure.

But this only had a limited effect on the overall voter turnout because...


Secondly, "The Disinterested" - As of this moment (updated 12/3) in the almost finalized numbers, while Romney received three quarters of a million more votes that McCain got in 2008, Obama received 4.2 million fewer votes than he did four years ago.  Counting all candidates who received votes, in 2008 there were a total of 131.4 million votes cast.  This year, 128.3 million.

Basically, over 3 million people who voted in 2008 were so disgusted with either candidate that they decided to just stay home (in addition, a small percentage voted for a third party candidate in both elections; approx. 1.5%, or 2 million).  In 2008, 58.8% of voting-age people voted. In 2012, only 54.6% of voting-age citizens voted.

Given that with a US population of 315 million, and of those 235 million are of voting age, that means 45.4% of voting-eligible citizens never bothered to vote on Tuesday (many never even bothered to register to vote).  [All numbers updated 12/3.]


Third, "The 1%" - The left and the Occupy Wall Street fanatics ranted and raged against the evil 1% (the richest 1% of the country), so they went out and voted for Obama 50.8%-47.4% (because Romney was in the backpocket of those evil 1%'ers, donchaknow).

Fact:  The Top 10 richest counties in the country voted on Tuesday, and 8 of the 10 counties voted for Obama.  Those eight counties combined voted for Obama by a 60%-40% margin!!  All Top 10 combined voted for Obama 56%-44%!  Notice that it's by a much large margin than the general population.  Those who voted in those counties accounted for 1.1% of the voters on election day.  In other words, those evil 1%'ers.  So the lefties voted for the exact same candidate that the evil 1% wanted.

That is a dish called "Irony" prepared, cooked and served to utter perfection.

So, why did the 1% vote that way?  Obvious (to some, at least).  Obama will be raising taxes on the wealthiest, but they can use tax loopholes and shelters to avoid the proposed increases.  Which means that the shortfall will have to be made up on the backs of the middle class. (DUH!)  Romney wanted to keep or lower those tax rates, but close a bunch of those precious loopholes for the rich.  Can't have that now, can we.


Passing thoughts by Gateway Pundit:

November 6, 2012 is the day America changed.

8 to 9 percent unemployment is the new normal. It’s good enough. 46 million people on food stamps is OK. It shows we care. Debt spending is good. It will get paid off some day and if not, our kids can worry about it. Trillion dollar deficits make sense. 

Socialized medicine is good. It will cost more, but did you honestly believe it wouldn’t? It doesn’t matter what you were told. Catholics should pay for abortions. Sandra Fluke is a prophet. Abortions and birth control should be free. We should fund abortions overseas, too.

The First Lady should be allowed to blow millions on lavish vacations. The White House parties should cost millions, too. The president should play as much golf and basketball as he pleases. They deserve it. They work hard.  They’re Democrats.

Greedy Americans should pay more taxes and millions of Americans who pay no taxes should receive more free money. It’s only fair. Businesses can afford to pay more taxes too. That’s what they teach you in school, right? We all know the Bush tax cuts that brought the deficit from $450 billion to $175 billion in four years and created millions of jobs didn’t work. Obama said so. And did you know Obama created 5 million jobs? Who cares how he came up with that number. In September he even created 600,000 part-time jobs somewhere. And, don’t you dare question his math.

Benghazi was a protest, or a terrorist attack. Obama said so from the beginning. Who cares anyway. Things like that happen all the time. And the media never covered anything up to help the president either. Right, 60 Minutes?
Al-Qaeda is dead or on the run.

We pushed the restart button with Russia. Putin is a democrat. He can be trusted. What do you mean there are Russian subs in the Gulf and off the east coast?

It’s not racist that 97% of blacks vote Democrat. It’s racist if you are white and vote Republican.

The media is your friend. The mainstream media is not biased. They would never hide anything from you.

Katrina was a national embarrassment.  It was Bush’s fault.  Sandy was not so bad.  And Obama did a great job focusing on it from between campaign stops.  The people are not suffering so much or we would have heard about it in the news.

America was once the land of the free. Now we want to be told what to do. More government is good. We want stuff.

On Tuesday America changed.

But the fight is not over.

God help us in the days ahead.

Passing thoughts by PoliPundit:

The end of America

No, I’m not exaggerating.

I’m an immigrant. I felt like I was born in the wrong country – a country where free speech was optional, freedom needed to be justified against other considerations, the successful were hated and resented, government was the career of choice for smart people, and business was severely limited by burdensome regulations. In short, a country in inevitable decline.

I yearned for America, a land of limitless possibilities where the people loved freedom, and a two-hundred-year-old Constitution guaranteed it. I made my way here as soon as I could, thus correcting the mistake fate had made when I was born.

For many immigrants, America was their last best hope, the only country that matched their ambition and optimism. There was no othersanctuary for people like me.

And now there is no sanctuary left.

The choice in this election was stark, and Americans have made their choice. They have chosen liberal piety over America’s future, free condoms over freedom. They have voted for a government that, in our president’s words, believes that American exceptionalism is the same as British exceptionalism or Greek exceptionalism. Given the course Americans have chosen, he may be right.

Consider:

• Our national debt dwarfs our GDP in the same manner as, say Greece’s debt dwarfed its GDP and led to the troubles Greece faces today.

• That will only get worse as we run trillion-dollar deficits for the foreseeable future.

• Not to mention the massive cost of entitlements, including the new one called Obamacare.

• Amid all this, government ties down business with endless regulation, and wants to punish success by raising taxes on “the rich.”

• Half the American people no longer pay federal income taxes. They have an incentive to soak the rich.

• Millions more get monthly payments from Social Security disability, unemployment “insurance” and the like. In fact, one in three Americans lives in a household that gets some kind of direct government assistance. They too will want to soak the rich.

• Power-hungry politicians will continue to divide us by gender, race, ethnicity and income. Each party will vie harder than the other to win the favor of this or that group. Freedom of speech, religion, and property will suffer. The idea that we are all created equal will effectively be written out of our founding documents.

• In fact, our freedoms are already gone. Government can mandate that we purchase products and, soon, “hate speech” will doubtless be criminalized, like in Europe. Don’t believe me? Look at the official assault on Chick-Fil-A. Do you think any company will dare to oppose gay marriage again? Or look at the federal persecution of anyone who dares to make movies disparaging Mohammed. How much longer before “anti-gay” or “anti-Muslim” speech immediately gets you fined or thrown in jail, like in the UK?

What exactly is the difference between America and Greece? I can’t tell anymore. Except that the scale of our problems dwarfs that of Greece, and has the potential to take down the entire world.

Hence the title of my post, “The end of America.” America is no longer exceptional, and no longer has much of a future. It is thus no different from doomed entities like Greece, Spain, or California. We are in a state of inexorable decline. The question is just how andwhen we’ll decline, not if.

Like Greece – and its apprentice on the Pacific, California – America will grow ever broker, ever more stifling, ever faster declining, ever more self-righteous, and ever more leftwing. The worse it will get, the more voters will vote for worseness. The decline will only accelerate. We may occasionally elect “Republicans” and “conservatives” to the odd office, but they will be compromised compromisers, powerless to stop the decline.

The decline may even be comfortable. What’s left of the American spirit, and our unimaginable wealth and resources, will ensure that. But, as in Europe, by the time the consequences are fully apparent, we will be unable to undo them.

Decades hence, America will take its place among the great civilizations whose success was their eventual undoing. Our descendants will marvel at the wonders we wrought, and they’ll wonder why they can’t come close to matching our achievements. Then they’ll go vote for faster decline. If they can still vote.

That’s not just me talking. It’s 53 percent of you.

Passing thoughts by Creative Minority Report.

Hitting Bottom

I can't help but think that America is now like your brother who can't keep a job, drinks too much, is constantly asking for money, and oh, has a crazy bad addiction that's destroying his life.

You tried just lending him money every time he promised to go straight but he just ain't gonna' do it. At some point you accept that he's going to have to hit bottom. You don't know what bottom looks like but you know that he's racing towards it. It might be jail, death, brain damage. Nobody knows. But at some point he'll hear the thud and wake up face first in a pool of his own vomit and he'll have to make the decision to turn over and get back up or just die.

And that's where America is heading. This country is going to have to go absolutely bankrupt and hit bottom before it starts getting better. This country is borrowing money from children that they're killing in the womb in record numbers. That, is not a recipe for success.

And of the children that we do have, many of them are being born into single parent homes where their chances of spending some time in jail are increased while their economic outlook is severely diminished.

For too many years we slept. Maybe we saw it coming, maybe we just suspected that everything was going to hell.

Leftists have taken over our education establishment, giving them firm control over what our children learn (unless you homeschool or have a great Catholic or private school). The left has long controlled the media and therefore control what people hear about current events. So think about it, they have control over the teaching of history and the present.

And why didn't we think we were going to be routed? And what did we do to prevent this? We talked about school choice but got weak kneed when the fight got bloody. We snarked about the media and congratulated ourselves on how many interesting and funny ways we tweeted that Chris Matthews was stupid. Here's the thing, pretty much everyone in the media agrees with him. It's an MSNBC media. Some just hide it a little better.

If you want to understand the true power of the media, this election is a prime example. The media propped up a corrupt and egotistical ideologue throughout this entire campaign. They ignored Solyndra. They ignored Benghazi. They covered up the economic ruin we were inviting on ourselves. Sure, FoxNews and the new media have hurt the media establishment but what the MSM showed in this election is that we can snark it up all we want, they've got one hand firmly on the levers of power and the other around our throats.

But here's the thing. I've gotten to the point now where I'm thinking about the fact that I have five kids, a wonderful wife, and a good parish. My life is good and full of love. We try to give to charity and work with a home for unwed mothers. We'll continue with these things. I'm focusing on what I can do in my life. I'll continue to write and work but I know where this country is heading.

I know where the country is going. I'm not going there and neither is my family. The Church will continue to exist whatever happens to this country. The country's barreling downwards and when it hits bottom it's going to explode like shrapnel. My job is to protect my family from the flying pieces. And then we'll start gathering the pieces.

The only good news in all this is that I think that we'll hit bottom awfully quick because we're heading there awfully fast.

You should read Erick Erickson's post-election post here.

Another important one by Erick here.


In the end, Romney was a poor candidate. Even though Obama was disliked and no longer trusted by a large portion of the public, Romney made those "not-Obama" potential voters go, "Meh."

Consider this.

Reagan won re-election in 1984 in a landslide with 59% of the popular vote, and all electoral votes except for Minnesota (which Mondale won by less than 0.2% of his home state's popular vote) and D.C.

Bush Sr. won election in 1988 by 53.3% (with the assumption that it would be Reagan 3.0) against Dukakis.  After breaking his "no new taxes" pledge, the country going into a recession, and voters realizing that he wasn't Reagan… here is a list of the "winners'" popular vote percentages of the following presidential elections:

Clinton in '92 (ugh) with 43.0% [against Bush Sr (ugh) and Ross Perot (ugh)]
Clinton in '96 (ugh) with 49.2% [against Dole (ugh) and Ross Perot (ugh)]
Bush W. (ugh) in '00 with 47.9% [against Gore (ugh)]
Bush W. (ugh) in '04 with 50.7% [against Kerry (ugh)]
Obama (ugh) in '08 with 52.8% [even with the hopey-changey rhetoric, against McCain (ugh)]
Obama (ugh) in '12 with 50.9% [against Romney (ugh)]

Notice that the first three didn't even get a majority of votes, and two of the remaining three barely got above 50%.  This is and has been a deeply divided and disillusioned country since approx. 1990, in desperate need of a true Reagan-like, common sense, constitutional conservative leader.  None of the candidates on either side since 1988 have measured up to that standard, and thus we are where we are.


Erick Erickson of RedState has one more must-read post here.

Michelle Malkin lists 21 things that went well on election day for conservatives.

Daniel Horowitz at RedState has 21 observations.

UPDATED with added text and links.

UPDATE #2:  Erick at RedState has much more to say about Romney, Conservatism and the Republican Party.  Please read not only his three posts (which I linked above here, here and here), but also his "No" and "I Told You So" posts.

VOTE!!!

With a well-formed conscience... VOTE!!!

Benghazi - The Investigation Continues...

News dates and the headlines:

9/13 - The Marines were not permitted to have live ammunition.

9/13 - After the June attack on the consulate, no extra security measures were taken.

9/13 - Total security at time of attack on Sept 11, 2012 = just locked doors and four Libyan guards.

9/13 - Administration was warned of impending attack 48 hours before it occurred.

9/19 - Killer of the Ambassador was leader of US-backed rebel force.

9/19 - Killer was also an ex-Gitmo detainee who was released by Obama Administration.

9/20 - Obama refused meetings with Israeli officials while instead meeting with  Egypt's leader (who's also now head of the Muslim Brotherhood)

9/20 - New Obama campaign "flag" very similar to fingered blood stains at recently attacked Libyan consulate:

10/12 - Biden claims that no one knew that more security was needed at the consulate.

10/12 - Gingrich says that Biden's comment will come back to haunt the Administration.

10/23 - Within two hours of the attack, White House & State Dept  received word that a jihadi group claimed responsibility.

10/26 - CIA gave order to stand down?

10/26 - General Petraeus states that no one in the CIA gave the order to stand down.

10/26 - Painting a target with a laser, and what it means.

10/29 - Flopping Aces has more on this crucial point about "painting targets".

10/26 - Father of fallen SEAL Tyrone Woods tells what Sec of State Hillary Clinton told him at his son's funeral.

NOTE to the clueless… that lame YouTube video had absolutely NOTHING to do with the attack, even though for two whole weeks that's what the Administration continued to lead everyone to believe.  There was NO "spontaneous" protest re: the video.  This was a well planned and orchestrated terrorist attack.

10/27 - VP Biden's crude and classless comment to Mr. Woods at his sons funeral.

10/29 - Mr. Woods "forgives" Obama and the administration, but wants answers…truth.

10/30 - Why the AC130's were not deployed.

10/30 - Audio tapes at the time of the attack!!!

10/31 - Do two networks have proof that orders came from someone in the Administration to "stand down"?

11/1 - Did the communications cable go straight to Sec. Clinton's office?

11/1 - Obama did NOT convene the Counter Terrorism Response Task Force during the attack.

11/1 - Documents found in consulate after the attack shows extreme concern about impending attacks.  State Dept never asked for military back-up.

11/2 - Three hours before attack, consulate warned of arms being gathered by the attackers.

11/2 - And the Obama Administration did NOTHING!

11/2 - And the finger pointing begins… State/CIA/WhiteHouse.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration hired an Al Qaeda radical to run security at the Tripoli embassy.

The State No One Is Really Paying Attention To...

As a former 31-year resident of PA, three things will be key issues in Romney/Ryan’s favor (in addition to the economy/jobs) for the state of Pennsylvania:

1) Coal & fracking (PA is huge in the rustbelt thru to WVa & OH)

2) Heavy Catholic population, and how the ObamaCare mandate affects Catholic hospitals.

It also helps that Ryan (a Catholic) is on the ticket.

Also, they still remember the “they cling to their guns and religion” comment from four years ago, which links #2 above with #3 below…

3) Guns. PA has the highest NRA membership of any state in the USofA, and is not too keen on more and more gun ownership restrictions.

Add to those the fact that (R)’s hold majorities in both chambers of the state house legislature, and the Governor’s office, plus have (R) Toomey in one Senate seat, and (D) Casey Jr is currently tied in the polls with (R) Smith for the other seat.

Then toss in with all of this the economy and jobs fiasco of the last four years, and well… you know.

I expect Romney to do decent enough #s in the Philly suburbs (Bucks/Montgomery/Delaware/Chester counties) as well as the Pittsburgh suburbs in order to swing PA to the Romney/Ryan column.  That occurs?  It's all over.

NEVER FORGET!!!

Before the Cock Crows You Will Deny Me Three Times...

Last week I went off on the whole GOP establishment power grab at their convention regarding rules for nominating delegates.  It may have been a move to cut off the wacky Paul-bots at the pass, but in doing so it seriously snubbed the true grassroots members and Tea Party activists.

Yesterday, the Democrats - not to be out-done - had to do their own power grab. And it was corrupt Chicago-style politics at it's best/worst.

Backstory… The Democrats removed the mention of God from their platform, and they removed the mention of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel:

Guess what? God’s name has been removed from the Democratic National Committee platform. This is the paragraph that was in the 2008 platform: 

“We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.” 

Now the words “God-given” have been removed. The paragraph has been restructured to say this: 

“We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us.”

and

[the key line removed from the 2008 platform] Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel.

Well, word got out quickly that this had happened, and the powers that been in the upper echelons of the DNC scrambled to get the removed language back into the platform before anyone noticed [see HotAir's post for full details].  Problem is, things didn't go quite as planned.  When they took the matter up for a vote on the main stage of the convention before the delegates, this is what happened:




The look on L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa's face is priceless.  It is OBVIOUS that at least HALF of the party delegates (if not MORE than half) did NOT want the mention of God nor the mention of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel back into the party platform.  But Chicago-style thuggery politics went ahead with the face-saving changes anyway.

CNN (CNN!!!) had this:



And just in case you actually think that President Obama and his administration actually believes that Jerusalem is and should be the capital of Israel, listen to his press spokesman Jim Carney from just this past July:




Given that just a few hours later, President "Lewinsky" was about to walk up to the podium to crow aloud to the nation, I find it prophetic that in front of the whole world the Democratic party brings to fruition the biblical verse: "Before the cock crows you will deny Me three times."

Empty Chair… Empty Suit… Exactly What I thought in 2008 & 2009...

Two days ago I posted about National Empty Chair day, and said I thought this was the best pic to describe "The One":

Then I remembered what I had written about the guy on April 1, 2008:

"The Obamessiah (the Inexperienced Empty-Suit Charlatan)"

And on April 15, 2009:

Given that it's tax day today, I want to express - in 50 words or less - what I have thought and felt about the current occupant of the White House since the first day he appeared on the national scene a year and a half ago:

He's a smug, snobby, arrogant and inexperienced empty-suit charlatan with a narcissistic messiah complex who sprung from and was steeped in the notoriously and perpetually corrupt Chicago Democrat Party political machine, and who brings a militant pro-abortion culture and a radical socialist agenda that will bankrupt and destroy America.  Period.

Don't say I didn't tell yah.  Don't say I didn't warn yah.  :-/

HAH!!! It's National Empty Chair Day...

Michelle Malkin called today National Empty Chair Day.  Was so successful she had to open a second post.

Gateway Pundit has a list of some great chairs.

My favorite is this one:

And this one:

No..... THIS one... yeah, this one:

2020???… (heh!)

RYAN/RUBIO in 2020

20/20 Vision for the

21st Century!

I know I know… I'm getting waaaaaay ahead of myself. ;-)

GOP Convention: The Final Day...

FL Senator Marco Rubio:




Clint Eastwood:




Mitt Romney's presidential nomination acceptance speech:

GOP Convention: Paul Ryan and Condi Rice...

Devastating!


Former Secretary of State Condi Rice:




VP Candidate and WI Rep. Paul Ryan (Part 1):




VP Candidate and WI Rep. Paul Ryan (Part 2):




And this is why I wished it was a Ryan/Romney ticket, and not the other way around.

Meanwhile, tonight will be FL Senator Rick Rubio and a few others, plus the man himself, Mitt Romney.

GOP Convention: Day 2/3...

More videos of key speeches at the convention from the last two days:


Ann Romney:





NJ Governor Chris Christie:





NM Governor Susana Martinez:





SC Governor Nikki Haley:

Former PA Senator and GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum:

GOP Convention: Day 1/2...

UPDATED: 

I thought we were finished with this after the 2008 election… I thought we were beyond race and race baiting… I guess not.

Chris Matthews (need I say more?):



Then Yahoo bureau chief David Chalian says this on live TV on a "hot" mic (whoopsie!):

“They aren’t concerned at all. They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.” [laughter]

NOTE:

Yahoo News confirms:“David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”

Then there's this nugget from Obama's website regarding former Dem. Rep Artur Davis. The page has since been removed (hat-tip Gateway Pundit):

  

[L]ess than two years ago, you routinely touted your progressive record as a member of the House of Representatives. You supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Wall Street reform bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and ending tax subsidies for oil companies. Despite voting against the final bill, you even supported major pillars of the Affordable Care Act like banning discrimination against pre-existing conditions, expanding Medicaid, and providing tax breaks to small businesses that provide health care, to name a few.

Contrary to your recent declarations, you hailed President Barack Obama as a “beacon of leadership,” touted President Obama as your “model,” and widely described the President as a friend. As a member of the House of Representatives, you supported President Obama’s agenda 95% of the time, were quoted saying “I agree with him on everything,” and repeatedly invoked President Obama in your failed gubernatorial campaign.

It is important that the American people have these important facts and draw their own conclusions about your true motivations for speaking at the Republican National Convention. We have come to the disturbing conclusion that your recent public statements have no basis in real policy or political disagreements, but rather they stem from transparent opportunism and a personal determination to overcome failing to win the Alabama Democratic primary for Governor in 2010. We regret that you have chosen this course, but are confident that the American people see your pronouncements for what they are and come to the same disappointing conclusion of your former colleagues.

Artur Davis responds here:



His speech at the GOP Convention last night here:




L.A. Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa then said this:

"You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect a vote for your party or your candidate."

Un-be-liev-ab-le.


GOP congressional candidate and former mayor Mia Love speaks at the convention as well:



TeaParty fav and GOP Senatorial Candidate Ted Cruz of Texas speaks:



Funny… MSNBC didn't broadcast any of the minority speakers. (No surprise here.)

And while we're here… OH Gov. John Kasich:

GOP Convention Powergrab???...

UPDATED  TWICE (see below)

Is Romney purposely trying to pi** off the grassroots/tea party with this blatant powergrab?  Is he purposely trying to lose this election?

*grrrrrrrr*

The upshot is this (via Michelle Malkin):

For the first time in years you’re likely to see a real floor fight tomorrow over proposed changes to the party rules. The rules committee produced a proposal which takes away the autonomy of state parties and massively increases the power of the central committee and the states are fighting back with a minority report and a wave of protest which is sweeping through the party rank and file. This confrontation transcends ideological lines and is about whether the Republican Party will remain a party run by its members or merely become a tool of special interests...

… the ramifications for grassroots activist and state GOP’s are vast. This rule change would allow a candidate to select his or her own delegates, essentially the nominee would get to choose those who nominate him instead of the states. This proposed rule change is starting to sound more like an Obama executive order.

Tom Washington, who is speaking on his own accord but serves as the Assistant Treasurer for the Republican Party of Texas, told us, “If Romney, or any other candidate can select their own delegates the entire convention process will have been hijacked and eliminate the grassroots influence.”

Redstate continues:

… the Republican National Committee, led by Team Romney, is moving to shut down conservative grassroots activists… The first rule to be proposed is one that would give the Republican National Committee the power to change rules between conventions with a three-quarters vote of the RNC. One source tells me, “With a Republican President, of course this is doable. Everybody will roll over if a President Romney asks them too. They’ll be able to get Ben Ginsberg’s proposal next year.” 

In other words, if Team Romney prevails in this rules change, they don’t have to worry about Ben Ginsberg not getting his way today on the delegate changes. They’ll be able to do it later when the press and grassroots are not watching...

The second rules change would front load winner takes all primaries. Grassroots conservaives point to both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as reasons to stop this rule. Had there been front loaded winner takes all primaries, neither the Gingrich nor the Santorum campaigns would have been able to get any traction.

Freedom Works continues:

… just got off the phone with a concerned Florida activist, Laura Noble, who informed me that both of Florida’s Rules Committee members, Peter Feaman and Kathleen King, have been removed from the Rules committee and replaced with Romney-appointed delegates.

Clearly anticipating a grassroots backlash against the “compromise” on Rule 15 and the changes on Rule 12 has caused the Romney camp to preemptively replace delegates to ensure they have support on the Rules Committee.

It’s enough to make your blood boil.

Read it all here and here.


AFTERMATH UPDATE from Michelle Malkin here.

Footprints… Treadmarks...

(Hat-tip to Ironic Catholic)

Jobs & Econ 101 - Going Stag (as in Stagflation)...

In May, it was reported that factory orders declined to their lowest level in three years:

New orders for U.S. factory goods in March recorded their biggest decline in three years as demand for transportation equipment and a range of other goods slumped, government data showed on Wednesday. The Commerce Department said orders for manufactured goods dropped 1.5 percent after a revised 1.1 percent rise in February.

In June, the jobs report looked ugly:

Job openings fell to a five-month low in April and showed their sharpest percentage decline in about seven and a half years, according to a government report Tuesday that helped confirm a slowdown in the labor market. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, indicated 3.4 million job openings at the end of April, an 8 percent decline from the previous month. The pace of total hiring also slowed, with 160,000 fewer jobs filled during the month. Moreover, the drop showed weakness across the employment spectrum, with manufacturing seeing 62,000 fewer job openings and construction dropping by 2,000...

The numbers come just two weeks after the government reported a paltry 69,000 new jobs created in May and sharp downward revisions to the previous two months, while the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent. Leisure and hospitality, which had been leading job growth, saw 3,000 fewer openings, while government job openings fell 42,000 amid belt-tightening particularly at the state and local levels. 

CNBC then had this to say:

Uncertainty about U.S. fiscal policy, Europe’s sovereign crisis and slower global growth have turned the U.S. economy into what feels like a slow-moving zombie, leaving businesses and consumers hesitant and reluctant to act... 

“The U.S. economy has been unable to achieve escape velocity but the amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus in the system has proven adequate enough to keep it going at a 1-2 percent GDP pace. That is slow by historic recovery standards…it feels like a 'zomb'-economy,” said Ian Lyngen.

“People are increasingly worried about a double dip,” he said.

“It feels like it’s sleepwalking,” Moody’s Economy.com chief economist Mark Zandi said of the economy. "We’re walking but not going anywhere fast. I don’t think we’re dead like a zombie. There is some life underneath, but we are sleepwalking. The reality is people are so nervous and shell shocked, it doesn’t take much to get them to stop what they’re doing.”

By early July, the jobs reports got worse:

The jobs report for June shows another gloomy month in the US economy.  Job growth amounted to a disappointing 80,000, below analyst expectations of 90-100K, while the jobless rate remained the same at 8.2%:

This is only a bare improvement over last month’s report, with its addition of 77,000, an upward revision from the report a month ago, which had May at 69,000. The average monthly job growth has been 75,000 over the last three months — when we need 125K-150K to keep up with population growth. It’s a measure that shows us going backwards … again.The bad news gets even worse when looking at combined unemployment and underemployment, as measured by U-6.  That measure had dropped to a years-long low in March and April of 14.5%, but now has ticked upward two months in a row, and is back to 14.9%.  Joblessness among African-Americans jumped by 184,000 and the rate shot up from 13.6% to 14.4%, the highest it has been since December 2011.

Ed at HotAir added these updates to his post:

Update II: This is a good time to remind people of the implications of Barack Obama’s immigration policy change this month.  The pledge to issue work permits means that we may potentially add 1.2 million workers to the workforce over the next two years.  That means we will have to add jobs at a rate closer to 200,000 per month just to keep up with population growth and the policy change.Update III: The AP article also reports that one-third of the job gain came from temp hires.  That may or may not be a bad thing; temp hires usually presage some expansion, but that’s something you want to see more toward the beginning of a recovery than three years into it.  At this stage, and with these low overall numbers, it looks a lot more like bet-hedging.

Unemployment of the younger citizens shoots up to 16.8%:

...if all the young people who’ve already given up looking for jobs are included — the 1.7 million people aged 18-29 who’ve been out of work for more than a year — the latest 8.2% unemployment figure would be closer to 16.8% for that age group, Conway says. That’s the highest unemployment rate for that age group since World War II. “Their story is one of few opportunities, delayed dreams, and stalled careers,” he says.

Three reasons why jobs are hard to come by:

Opportunities. There are too many uncertainties hanging over businesses for them to make any significant moves in the next five months. Most reports indicate companies are flush with cash, but the lack of clarity with health care reform and the presidential election is making them too scared to spend and increase their payroll.

Incentives. Although people did start re-entering the workforce in May, the labor participation rate is sitting near a 30-year low. Some argue continued unemployment benefits are becoming a crutch for job seekers, but soon the aid will disappear as both federal and state benefits expire for some individuals.

Mindset. I frequently receive e-mails from job seekers complaining about the lack of job opportunities. They get frustrated because they don’t hear back from companies after submitting resumes, and they feel jobs aren’t being fairly advertised or posted.

We have entered an era where careers can no longer be pursued, they must be created. In order to get out of this labor market downturn, we have to rekindle the spirit of American entrepreneurialism. We have created a bailout mentality where people now expect the government to step in and fix any problems.

Since 2009, more people have been put on disability than have found jobs:

Barack Obama put 3.1 million Americans on disability since June 2009. Obama only created 2.6 million jobs in the same period.

Four reasons why the economy has stalled:

1. Good News Isn't Good EnoughThe American economy is not without its bright spots. Housing is improving, energy prices are dropping and factory orders are surging. But those trends have been offset by weakening consumer confidence and manufacturing, as well as the realization that one of the reasons energy prices are falling is because the world economy is weakening and sapping demand from big industrial consumers like China.
In all, the housing market, considered by some to be the final lynchpin to economic recovery, is far from escape velocity and its improvements are not enough to lift the broader economy...

2. Too Many Unknown UnknownsWhile hugely controversial, the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding President Obama's health insurance reform — Obamacare — helped clear one area of uncertainty, with businesses and individuals now knowing that a new tax is coming. And while the markets have had plenty of time to price in the known unknowns of the debt crisis in Europe, there still remain a plethora of unknown unknowns about tax and regulatory structure, China's growth slowdown and central bank activity...

3. Central BanksThough it seems that every weak economic sign or stock market downturn brings calls for more central bank easing across the world, people have begun wondering how effective these measures really are. After all, with interest rates in the U.S. near zero and other global central banks getting there as well, how much lower can you go, and how much more can it help?… Fed critic Michael Pento at Pento Portfolio Strategies said the U.S. central bank ought to get out of the way and let rates normalize, though he doubts it will happen. "There is nothing that can be benefited economically from lowering rates from here on," he said. "The only thing you will do is levitate asset prices and send commodity prices soaring. That is not the prescription for what ails this economy."...

4. Wall Street May Be Self-Destructing AgainA trader for JPMorgan Chase loses billions with a risky bet. Regulators are engaged in an ever-expanding probe regarding interest rate manipulations by banks. A steady stream of investment scams is getting exposed.  Investors have seen this movie before, and it doesn't end happily.

UPDATE:

Captain Ed at HotAir just posted this bit of info after the newest weekly jobs report came out today:

This week’s report puts the measure back on the same track it has held most of the year, rising 34,000 to jump back up to 386,000 — which includes the now-indispensable upward revision of 2,000… 

July has unique issues for this metric, with automaker furloughs more the norm than the exception, as well as the reporting difficulties over one of the truly national holidays in the year.  Skip last week’s result and we end up with a remarkably stable series: 386K, 374K, 388K, 392K, 389K  for the last five weeks apart from the holiday week report.  That would average out to 386K — which is exactly what we have today, at least until next week shows an upward revision in this number.

*sigh*