Here we go...

OCTOBER 30, 2011

FOR HERMAN CAIN, a high-tech lynching? Well, the press didn’t spend much time looking into the past of the last black guy who looked like he might be President, so they’re putting a lot more effort into it this time. . . .
Posted at 11:15 pm by Glenn Reynolds
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Oh, yes, indeed. The media went to extraordinary lengths to avoid investigating anything about candidate Obama, being far more interested in presenting him as the unblemished Savior of the World.  And attacking Sarah Palin's kids.  And covering for John Edwards.  And smearing the Tea Parties.  And so on.

Of course, Job One from here out will be a series of hit jobs on any GOP candidate who appears to be gaining traction.  That much you can count on.  CBS's Bob Schieffer just used his interview time with Herman Cain to scold him for a video that showed his campaign manager smoking.  This is the same Bob Schieffer who, for some reason, has never shown any interest in the fact that Obama himself came into the White House with a smoking habit, one that he probably still has.  

But none of the junk people like Schieffer throw around will be very effective, because tools like him long ago squandered whatever credibility they once might have had.  People are not as stupid as CBS thinks; most of them can recognize the difference between an agenda-driven poseur and a real journalist.

Byron

Same old

Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague


The Left is always full of passionate intensity, and it has always taken "truth" to be subjective, a fundamentally political construct. That's a view that gives you permission to do all kinds of things. Trouble is, of course, that the physical universe and the laws of economics operate independently of all such fervid theorizing, and just grind along as they always have. Thus is the Left continually disappointed, filled with righteous anger and frustration.

Byron

Incredible

Green-jobs success: Jobs created … in Finland  You have to read it to believe it, to believe that any administration could treat the public purse with the irresponsibility of the Obama regime.  Al Gore and George Kaiser are both involved in this particular mess, which alone is spending $529 Million in taxpayer money on a loan guarantee to build "green" cars in Finland, cars that get worse mileage than an SUV.  Yet another great crony-socialism investment by an administration so stupid (that's the benign possibility) they wouldn't know how to pour sand out of a boot. What they do know how to do is to pour vast quantities of public money down the drain.   Taxpayers are being treated as cows to be milked to create a slush fund, which then shovels money to Democrat insiders and their ridiculous, money-losing projects. This is being done under cover of a massive "green jobs" swindle. The tab is over a Billion dollars between just this Fisker outfit and Solyndra, and there are many others. Obviously, if these operations were at all financially sound, private capital would flow to them and they wouldn't need government funding in the first place.  This is the preposterous Obama model for economic development, a squandering of public money on a scale that is unprecedented by any measure. What's worse is that because 40% of what the Federal Government spends is deficit spending, all that borrowed money is being added to the enormous debt load being hoisted onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren, a poisonous legacy if there ever was one.   Byron

Subpoenas & grenades

(1) Issa subpoenas WH aide in Fast & Furious probe

This is the WH Aide that screamed and cursed at CBS's Sharyl Attkisson for covering the F&F story, for not being "reasonable" and covering it up, like the NYT and Washington Post.


(2) Gunwalking case becomes grenade-walking case?

Attkisson's bombshell report this morning about prosecutors standing by and allowing thousands of grenades flow into Mexico. MInd-boggling. The lady, notice, is not backing off the story. It's easy to imagine the pressure CBS is getting from the White House for being a disloyal team member. Let's see if Attkisson's grenade report makes it onto tonight's news broadcast, or if CBS decides to go instead with a story about, oh, some kid and his five-legged turtle.

Even if Attkisson ends up with the Pulitzer she deserves (she won't, needless to say), her future is probably now at Fox, not CBS.

Byron

What is it that keeps America a free country? It's not the Bill of Rights.

Justice Scalia: “Learn to love the gridlock”

Go to that link, scroll down to the C-SPAN video, let it buffer for a few seconds, then push it ahead to about 17:30.  Scalia gives a Congressional committee a lesson in the Constitution: What is it that keeps America a free country? It's not the Bill of Rights.

Whether you agree with him or not, the guy is an absolute joy to listen to. It's HD, and full-screen works very well.

Byron

Odd question(s)

WASHINGTON POST: Barack Obama, The Loner President.

Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people. This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer. . . . Which raises an odd question: Is it possible to be America’s most popular politician and not be very good at American politics?

Which raises an odder question: How, then, did he manage to get elected?

Answer: He didn't need to be very good at American politics, because the national media went deep into the tank to make sure he got elected. He was the liberal media's social/political wet dream, and they carried water for him every inch of the way, with every kind and manner of selective coverage, non-coverage, and cover-up possible in an all-out drive to make sure he ended up in the White House. No skepticism about his qualifications, no background investigations, just a worshipful pump job from beginning to end, coupled with vicious assaults on opponents like Sarah Palin. The contrast with the media treatment of Bush is so blatant and flagrant it's just laughable.

With Obama the liberal media finally had the kind of candidate they longed for, and they unflaggingly facilitated and promoted him and his campaign with every resource at their disposal. They're still at it today, with a parade of Hollywood half-wits happily serving as the frosting on the media cake.

The result in 2008 was that voters were left knowing virtually nothing beyond the carefully constructed media image, and that's what we elected.  Obama the actual human being has turned out to be a far-left ideologue/economic nincompoop (the first necessarily implies the second), the most destructive president in our history. America needs no enemies with Obama in office; the enemies we have need only stand aside and enjoy the show.

The only good to come out of this deplorable fiasco is a general disillusionment with the legacy media, which now enjoys the kind of wide contempt and deep mistrust it so shamelessly earned and richly deserves.

Byron

Climate models and prediction

Predicting Our Demise

Nice article. It reminds me of all those prediction models for stock market prices that work so well when back-tested. Those are really a dime a dozen. But forward testing? Funny how they all fail at that...

Byron

Progress in Civil Rights

Every Picture Tells A Story


Pro-choice.  And, as steady declines in gun violence clearly show, this triumph of commons sense has been bad news for gun criminals.  A few places, like Chicago and Washington, D.C, contribute to the issue by serving as stark examples of how gun prohibitions privilege criminals and create high levels of predatory gun crime.

In the early 1980s 90% of Americans lived in states that actively suppressed self-defense rights by severely limiting concealed carry of firearms by citizens.

By 2010, 2/3’s of Americans lived in states where law abiding citizens could conceal carry if they met minimal standards, and in some states (4 by 2011) needed NO state permission at all to concealed carry. A total of 41 states are now shall-issue or have unrestricted concealed carry status.