Bloodthirsty Liberal

One of our readers, Martino, posted this as a comment. I think it is terrific and wanted to make sure that everyone sees it:

“Obama Breaks Silence on Gaza, Voices ‘Deep Concern’ Over Civilian Deaths”–headline, Ha’aretz, Jan. 7

This is just great:

Reader Judi sent a copy of the flyer the WaPo was handing out to lobbyists like the carnival barkers in Times Square 20-30 years ago (”Girls, girls, girls—check it out!”) I’ll leave it oversized for ease of reading.

If you squint and read carefully, you can see the editor’s name on the document. Odd, given that he claimed to know nothing about it.

Delicious detail: a lobbyist ratted them out and gave it to a reporter because he felt it was a conflict of interest. A lobbyist!

Wasn’t Bush ridiculed for the “jobless recovery”

Somehow, I doubt that Obama will suffer the same fate.

…

According to the government, 14.7 million Americans were unemployed in June; add in “discouraged workers” who’ve fallen out of the official survey and the figure rises to 19.6 million, according to T.J. Marta, chief strategist at MartaontheMarkets.com. What really troubles Marta is the rising number of unemployed who have little or no hope of finding a job. “Your ‘Wall Streeters’, your autos workers and your housing workers – those jobs are not coming back,” he says.

While hiring typically doesn’t pick up until well after the economy bottoms, Marta predicts this “structural unemployment” means employment will be even more of a “lagging indicator” this cycle.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the macro economic data is going to deteriorate, but Marta thinks we’re in for a “jobless recovery” worse than after typical post-War recessions. The economist estimates unemployment will peak at 10.5% sometime in the second quarter of next year, meaning another year of job losses awaits.

There is a short film at the link with member of the Fed saying that unemployment will be very high for a couple of years.

Interesting how calmly the talking heads are taking this news.

If the media would treat Obama as they treated Bush, I would pipe down about this stuff. It is just disgusting that he is getting a free ride.

- Aggie

I’ve been hearing reference to this for a few days, but only now did I get around to posting something about it:

When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal…under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gasses, coal power plants, natural gas…you name it…whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retro-fit their operations.

That will cost money…they will pass that money on to the consumers. You can already see what the arguments are going to be during the general election. People will say Obama and Al Gore …these folks…they’re going to destroy the economy.

Yes they will and yes you did.

Here, see for yourself:

He even elaborated:

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

Not shy about it, was he?

And he still got elected. I think he must have been the most surprised of anyone on Election Day. That we were ready, willing, and able to elect a black person to the office, no one had any serious doubt. That we were prepared to elect the Anti-Chirst, well, I had higher expectations.

But he told what he was going to do, people, and now he’s gone ahead and done it. How do you like him now?

Americans won’t mind this a bit

After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, no one is better qualified than Tereza Tosbell to say whether a room is spotless.

So hospital bosses should take heed of her opinion after she spent four days on a ‘filthy’ ward.
…
Patient Tereza Tosbell was so disgusted at the cleanliness at Colchester General Hospital that she got out of bed and cleaned the ward herself

Disgusted at the conditions, she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom.

She then set about cleaning her four-bed ward, at one point dropping to her hands and knees to sanitise the floor as she dragged her drip trolley behind her.

‘It was shameful to see how sloppy the cleaners were while I was there. I was not prepared to put up with such conditions,’ said Miss Tosbell, a 48-year-old divorcee who was admitted to Colchester General Hospital in Essex with an abscess in her neck.

‘I reckon in total I was cleaning for about an hour. I could hardly move my neck because of the abscess behind my left ear and my left hand was bruised from the cannula but I had to do something.

‘The nurses and other staff saw what I was doing but just left me to get on with it.’

She added: ‘My 22-year-old son Liam came to see me on the first night and the first thing he said was ‘Have you seen how filthy the lift is?’ before complaining about the room I was in.

‘He’s a typical university student, so coming from him it must have been bad.’
Colchester General Hospital.

Why am I laughing?

- Aggie

He’s funny in a deadpan way

Like this guy, who ran for President unsuccessfully:

Pat Paulsen ran for President many times… His campaign motto? United We Sit

WASHINGTON (AP) — With joblessness rising, President Barack Obama said Thursday he was “deeply concerned” about unemployment and conceded that too many families are worried about “whether they will be next” to suffer economically.

In a White House interview with The Associated Press, Obama said that since he took office, “we have successfully stabilized the financial markets,” and “started to see some stabilization on housing.”

“But what we are still seeing is too many jobs lost,” said Obama, commenting after new government figures showed the unemployment rate had risen to 9.5 percent last month.

OK. ‘Nuff said.

PS The Paulsen legend lives on. His wife runs the Pat Paulsen for President Headquarters at the Doo Dah Central located in City Hall Annex, 901 Asbury Avenue in New Jersey (where else)?

Policy proposals:

“His consistency has been amazing,” notes Mark Soifer, Doo Dah Parade co-founder. “He ran in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 when he beat Ross Perot in the North Dakota primary. In 1996, he finished second to Bill Clinton in New Hampshire. Now he’s returned from the Great Beyond in an attempt to haunt the Oval Office.

“I’m pleased as punch to have been named New Jersey Campaign Manager by Noma Paulsen,” says Soifer. “The Doo Dah Board of Governors believes that Pat’s ghost can bring a refreshing, humorous approach to the present campaign.

Paulsen has a solid platform, said Soifer. Here are two of his ideas:

On Foreign Aid: We should ask every country in the world to send us whatever they can.

On Taxes: No taxes. Let’s just tip the government 15% if they do a good job.

Maybe we need to call Mr. Paulsen back from the grave and give him the job.

- Aggie

When the framers of the Constitution wrote the following, they thought they were being pretty clear, pretty definitive:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What they didn’t foresee was that freedom of the press was purely optional:

According to Politico’s Mike Allen, the WaPo has begun offering a new service — matching up lobbyists with administration officials for face time, or whatever else the client has in mind. Like any pimp, er, business manager, they’re not offering it for free, either:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer—which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters—is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

A facilitator! That’s certainly more pleasant than “pimp”. I prefer the Night Shift term “love broker,” which reasonably applies between lobbyists and the White House — and for that matter, between the press and the White House, too.

…

In response to requests for comment, The Post issued a statement that stopped short of canceling the event.

Kris Coratti, communications director of Washington Post Media, a division of The Washington Post Company, said: “The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication. It went out before it was properly vetted, and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are, which is meant to be an independent, policy-oriented event for newsmakers.

“As written, the newsroom could not participate in an event like this. We do believe there is an opportunity to have a conferences and events business, and that The Post should be leading these conversations in Washington, big or small, while maintaining journalistic integrity. The newsroom will participate where appropriate.”

Huh? If the Post has a lucrative side business that depends on access to the Obama White House, that’s what undermines their journalistic integrity, not whether the news room knew about the program or participates in the events. This just confirms that the Post has decided to act as a pimp to connect “newsmakers” and those seeking influence.

I had to let Ed Morrissey have his say because he said it so well.

It occurs to me that for the media themselves they see reporting the truth as their last job. Rather, they are in the business of selling news. (That’s hardly controversial.)

My thinking goes that just as they are motivated by profit to sell the Obama administration (as Chris Matthews freely admitted), so they were motivated by profit to trash the Bush administration. In both cases, there is a story to be sold, not told, and there is strong disincentive to report the truth.

Open up your history books, boys and girls, and tear out the page on which the Bill of Rights appears. We won’t be using it for a while.

UPDATE
You’re nicked!

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

“Absolutely, I’m disappointed,” Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. “This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.”

Moments earlier, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview that he was “appalled” by the plan and had insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate.

“It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” Brauchli said.

“Suggests”? Your own publisher admits she’s disappointed only because she got caught.

I wouldn’t worry, however, WaPo. No one thinks the New York Times is any more legit. You’re in very good company—for what you do.

President Obama pitched his tent of freak shows in Virginia, and tried to sell his snake oil to a hand-picked crowd of believers:

President Obama offered a wonkish defense of his embattled health-care reform effort during an hour-long town hall meeting in Northern Virginia yesterday that featured seven questions, including one sent via Twitter and several from a handpicked audience of supporters.

With the president’s health-care ambitions meeting a cool reception on Capitol Hill, the administration is increasingly seeking to pressure lawmakers with evidence of the public’s desire for action as well as proof that the health-care industry is a stakeholder in — not an opponent of — the effort.

…

In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration’s new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for “tweets.”

…

The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.

And of course there was the obligatory hug:

The most dramatic moment came from Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., who was near tears as she described for Obama her fragile health, including a recently discovered tumor for which she cannot get treatment.

Obama waved her over and hugged her, saying, “I don’t want you to feel like you’re all alone.” He promised to “find out what we can do within existing law” and called Smith the “perfect example” of the kind of person his health plan is intended to help.

But wait, wasn’t he just telling people that maybe they should take a pain killer rather than undergo surgery? It’s his own belief that more care is not necessarily better care. Wait till Debby Smith finds out that a hug is all she’s going to get.

BTW, you know what happened to the last woman Obama hugged at one of these dog-and-pony shows, Henrietta Hughes, the homeless lady. She’s disappeared.

Looking out on the morning rain
I used to feel uninspired.

That’s how I’ve felt that last month here. This morning I took the Bloodthirsty Puppy out for a walk in the woods, but I could barely see her, so dim was the light (at 8:30).

Nerd that I am, I checked the meteorological records to see how many days we’ve had rain in the past month. From June 5th through this morning, July 2nd (when it’s pouring), we’ve had only three days without at least some rain.

I heard someone on the TV say that some trees are dropping their leaves because of the lack of photosynthesis (though I haven’t seen evidence of it myself).

What I did see when on vacation last week in a quaint New England seaside resort was the window of every shop featuring yellow rain slickers. No sun dresses, no bathing suits, no halter tops (move along, BTL)—just rain coats.

BTW, note that I’m not buying into global warming: the year-to-date average temperature is more than a full degree below normal. But this meteorological water boarding has my climate change skepticism close to the breaking point.

I heard this story on the BBC newscast at the top of the hour, but it’s not on their web site, so I’ll just report anecdotally.

Couples that violate the one-child policy in China (a common violation in the countryside) are fined heavily for the infraction. If they cannot pay, their daughters (so the story maintains) are seized from them and put into state-run orphanages where they are sold to wealthy Westerners for a hefty profit.

Hey, it’s good news for the daughters and good news for the Westerners, but I feel sorry for the families.

I know, bleeding heart pansy, that’s me.

UPDATE

The story’s up now.

Aunt Agatha has shown us that the Arabs have no intention of recognizing Israel at all (except as a cancer, I noted in a comment).

But that’s hardly surprising when they won’t recognize each other:

“Hamas has no intention of harming Fatah leaders and especially not Abu Mazen,” Rantisi said, claiming that in fact, the opposite was true.

“It is Fatah that is carrying out a massacre of Hamas people in the West Bank. Look at what happened in Kalkilya,” he said. “In my opinion,” he went on, “there has to be a response to Fatah’s actions in the West Bank. There must be arrests in Gaza.”

Rantisi said that Hamas had asked Fatah for the immediate release of detainees “a thousand times.”

Fatah official Khadoura Farez rebutted Rantisi’s denial.

“From what has come up in investigations, Hamas is ready to hurt Abu Mazen. I cannot say 100% that this is true. But according to security sources, it is,” he said. “I can say that there is willingness, whether it is reported daily in the media or demonstrated in the daily arrests on both sides. The willingness is there.”

…

Rantisi said in response: “We want to have reconciliation. We want to sit down and talk. But there are people in Abbas’ government who torpedo any efforts for unity.”

Abbas said Wednesday that the PA had “verified information” that Hamas had been planning terrorist attacks against senior PA officials.

“We are following the situation very closely and when the appropriate time comes we will produce the evidence to the media,” he added. “We have discovered tons of explosives and weapons cashes in residential neighborhoods in the West Bank.”

And this is after six sessions of reconciliation talks.

G’ahead and make them a state. I can’t wait for the civil war.

Hope and Change works… or can’t find a job

Euro zone unemployment hits 10-year high in May

LONDON (AP) — Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro spiked to a ten-year high in May, reinforcing concerns any recovery will take time now that more than 15 million people are out of work.

Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU, said Thursday the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for the euro zone in May stood at 9.5 percent of the work force, up from April’s 9.3 percent. It said just over 15 million people were unemployed in May, up 273,000 on April’s figure.

The increase was expected in the markets in light of the ongoing fall in output across Europe — in the first quarter of 2009, the euro zone economy saw output plunge by 2.5 percent as the global recession hit the industrial sector in particular.

The unemployment rate was at its highest level since May 1999.

Spain is the euro zone’s biggest casualty. Its jobless rate rose to 18.7 percent in May from 18 percent in April.

The lowest unemployment rate in the euro zone was in the Netherlands where only 3.2 percent of the working population were without a job in May, and Austria, where only 4.3 percent were jobless.

The unemployment rate in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was unchanged at 7.7 percent in May.

Unemployment is a lagging indicator, so the number of jobless will likely continue to rise for a while even when the recession officially ends. Recent economic releases have stoked hopes that the euro zone may start to see some sort of recovery towards the end of the year but that high unemployment levels will continue to weigh on consumption and sentiment.

I am just so thrilled about this. During the Bush years, all I wanted was to be more like Europe, more sophisticated and all. Not a bunch of cowboys. But our unemployment stubbornly hovered around 5% while theirs was always running around 9%. Finally, with Obama, we’ve solved the problem. Our new hostile attitude towards business, combined with higher taxes and borrowing, make us just the sort of place to have very high unemployment. I’m wondering if we can hit double-digits by the end of the summer. Maybe we can emulate Spain?

Jeez, I almost forgot this little nugget:

“Given that labor market developments tend to lag behind those in the wider economy, unemployment almost certainly has considerably further to rise,” said Jennifer McKeown, European economist at Capital Economics. Mckeown said she expects euro zone unemployment to hit 12 percent next year, the level many people think the U.S. will hit too.

- Aggie

A good reason not to be promoted in Connecticut Too Italian, you know?

Most racial preferences — for example, in college admissions — are shrouded in secrecy and dishonesty. Not here. In 2003, after 58 whites, 23 blacks and 19 Hispanics took tests to determine who would qualify as captains and lieutenants, no blacks and two Hispanics ended up eligible for promotion. The city’s civil service board refused to certify the results, denying promotions to all who had earned them. As the chairman of the New Haven Board of Fire Commissioners had earlier told the firefighters, many of whom were Italian, some men would not be hired because “they just have too many vowels in their name[s].”

Seventeen white candidates and one Hispanic sued, claiming a violation of their legal and constitutional rights. They struck out in the district court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who wrote the district court opinion, cavalierly dispensed with a trial on the facts, issuing instead a summary judgment. In the Second Circuit, Judge Sonia Sotomayor joined two colleagues in a panel decision affirming the district court’s decision; the substance of their opinion was confined to one paragraph.

Speaking for a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy did acknowledge an internal contradiction in employment discrimination law. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited intentional discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Yet another law, in 1991 — which built upon a 1971 Supreme Court decision — banned employment tests that had a disparate impact on the hiring of racial minorities, unless the tests were shown to be job-related and a business necessity.

But the court said that New Haven had violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It was not even a close call in the view of the majority.

Call it the unintentional hilarity of the Left. In order to help African Americans, they want to discriminate against Italian Americans - and tell them so directly. “You have too many vowels in your name; we won’t hire you.” Can you imagine? I guess I am so embedded in our culture that up until now, I assumed that the firefighters who took their case to the Supremes were White Protestant Americans. I don’t know why; I guess because the media never went into details of who they were, other than white.

This sort of thing will surely cause a backlash someday. “Typical white people” to quote Obama, have faced discrimination like this for a few decades now, and have mostly been ok with it. Yes, there has been some grumbling, but most people want to see African Americans succeed and are willing to help. But I get the sense that they are becoming annoyed. Especially given the fact that the President of the United States is an African American. It seems that racial discrimination is certainly not what it used to be.

- Aggie

He’s a failure

The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

The source said U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to begin normalization.

“In such a situation, the Americans can’t continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction,” the source said.

In response, a senior White House source said talks with the Arab states are continuing with the aim of obtaining a commitment to make gestures toward Israel, and there is still hope for progress.

Let’s all hold hands and hope together.

- Aggie