Obama: A leader who doesn't lead

Robert Reich on Obama's ineffectuality: " Obama cannot mobilize America around the truth ... because he is continuously adapting to the prevailing view. This is not leadership."

Obama approval rating worst ever

 Gallup says President Obama's approval rating is at an all time low. of 40%

US economy falters: new recession alert

 Reuters reports that The U.S. economy was close to flat-lining in the first quarter and grew at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period, leading economists to warn of recession if a stand-off over U.S. debt does not end quickly.

Helicopter Ben's Power lifts off

 While inflation hawks have been busy looking for any sign,  or even any word, of monetary expansion,  says an article in The Freeman “[Fed chairman Ben] Bernanke has so expanded the Fed’s discretionary actions beyond merely controlling the money stock that it has become a gigantic, financial central planner.”   More...

Boehner commands: 'Get your ass in line'

Speaker John Boehner has bluntly told wavering GOP lawmakers today “get your ass in line” behind his debt ceiling bill .Boehner predicted Senate Democrats will fold and pass the Boehner debt bill if it can get through the House.   Read more:
(H/T Memeorandum)

US credit stalemate could cost $100 billion a year

If political wrangling over a plan to reduce the deficit costs the U.S. its AAA rating, it will add $100 billion a year to government costs while dragging down economic growth, according to Wall Street bond dealers.

Here's why the markets haven't crashed

 Obama Administration officials raised their rhetoric over the weekend about a possible debt default, while  privately telling top executives at major U.S. banks that a default won't happen.   

The aim:  scaring Republicans into reducing their demands. Fox Business is carrying a report here.   This is likely why the markets haven't crashed.

A third of USA believes Obama is hurting the economy

More than a third of Americans now believe that President Obama’s policies are hurting the economy, and confidence in his ability to create jobs is sharply eroding among his base, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Obama 'arrogant to his equals'

George Will at the Washington  Post, lucid as always, has lent his voice to the the chorus of outrage at the President's  arrogant attitude towards Congressional leaders "summoning"  them to the White House for a meeting. They are his co-equals in power and worthy of his respect.

Obama 'is a petulant and inept negotiator'

Peter Wehner at Commentary has harsh words for the President's performance on raising the debt ceiling:


"The president and his team entered these negotiations believing he could strike a grand bargain that would allow him to present himself as a born-again  budget cutter, as fiscally responsible, as a Man of the Center. And in the process, he kept instructing us, he would emerge as the only adult in the room. At this juncture, it looks like Obama is the most 
adolescent, even childish figure in the negotiations – a petulant man who also happens to be an inept negotiator"


more here.

The Madness of King Barack

It’s time to face the unpleasant truth:  President Barack Hussein Obama has gone mad, writes John Hayward at Human Events.

An Aussie spells it out

Welcome to Australia. Now assimilate.

Headless-body man now jobless

The man who created the classic tabloid headline " Headless body in topless bar"  has just retired from the New York Daily Post. In comments after a report on the retirement,  a  Post reader recalls another classic headline, this time in Scotland: "My all-time favorite was a report on a soccer match between Caledonian Thistles and the Celtic Rangers in Scotland: "Super Callie Goes Ballistic; Celtic Are Atrocious."

Mr President, some respect, please

Keith Koffler at the White House Dossier is appalled at President Obama's lack of respect towards Congressional leaders, and says it's all about Obama wanting to look like the only grown-up among bickering children. Not gonna work.

Beware of No-plan Obamaman

Mark Steyn is to be savored  like a fine wine: Here he is today on the US debt debacle:  
 "Obama has done his best to pretend to take the (GOP)
 seriously. He claimed to have a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan. The court eunuchs of the press corps were impressed, and went off to file pieces hailing the president as "the grown-up in the room." There is, in fact, no plan. No plan at all. No plan whatsoever, either for a deficit reduction of $4 trillion or $4.73. As is the way in Washington, merely announcing that he had a plan absolved him of the need to have one. So the president's staff got out the extra-wide teleprompter and wrote a really large number on it, and simply by reading out the really large number the president was deemed to have produced a serious blueprint for trillions of dollars in savings."

"No sulking. You're moving  the goal posts.  I'm walking out."
Drawing by alagram

It's different across the Pond

Megan McArdle sums up different press cultures on either side of the Pond  very well. The biggest difference, in my own experience, is that the  biggest British  papers are all distributed  nationally, which creates murderous competition. There other significant differences which she also  lists. Together, she argues, they make the  Murdoch tabloid scandal much less likely to jump the Atlantic.

Debt ceiling caving in

President Ego, er..Obama  obviously sees himself as a great negotiator. Why else would he move the goal posts on his original offer to Speaker Boehner and seek $400 billion in additional  taxes? Boehner unsurprisingly walked out. We are down to the wire now, and if Obama has miscalculated, we and the world economy will pay a dreadful price. Seeing as Obama has miscalculated everything else, from the gazillion dollar stimulus that hasn't stimulated, to the  rapid ouster of Qaddafi, things don't look good.

Murdoch 'smoking gun': Police to renew inquiry?

Police have been asked  to investigate whether James Murdoch did, in fact, see a 'smoking gun' email, which he denied  during this week's Parliamentary inquiry into hacking. More here

FITZ N' STARTZ

"Do my kids go to public school? That's private."
Drawing by alagram

Rahm loses cool over school

Rahm Emanuel's notorious temper re-emerges as he hectors an NBC interviewer after being asked if he will be sending his children to public schools.

Dinner for the Murdochs, with no humble pie

Londoner's Diary at the London Evening Standard  has news of what the Murdochs did after their long Parliamentary grilling. Once again, it's clear that the old fox is in better shape than many  think

A foam pie for Uncle Sam

A foam pie hits Uncle Sam, as Latin America taunts the US on debt. So, BHO and Congress have brought us to this...being mocked by Argentinians crying with laughter.

Sssh! I once worked for Rupert Murdoch

I once worked for Rupert Murdoch, it can now be revealed. This shocking  and unprecedented tabloid  scandal began to unfold when I was  a young sub-editor at  the London  Evening Standard  and received a phone call on a strangely crackling line offering a trial shift at Murdoch's tabloid The Sun. I  had already worked an eight-hour  day at the evening paper and went straight over to  the old News of the World building  to work for another  eight hours on next day's Sun, creating a "center spread" (two adjoining pages at the center of the paper laid out as one.) But I  can't remember (this mysterious loss of memory affects all associated  with The Sun) if I wrote a headline and caption for their renowned Page Three topless girl. Leering puns were mandatory: "Anne of Big Boobingham" perhaps. "Perky Anne, aged 22, really stands out on the streets of her home city of Birmingham where she is reaching  the peaks of her modeling  career..."
When I checked out The Sun the next morning, my lovingly-constructed center-spread had been revised from top to bottom. There  had been  no phone hacking that I was aware of,  and nothing else untoward. I do  vaguely  recall a cop outside saying: "Will there be anything else, Sir?" as he  rubbed together a thumb forefinger,  but  my mind is surely  playing tricks on me.
 I  never heard from The Sun  again. What a lucky break that was.

'Nine Questions I wish they had asked the Murdochs'

The New Yorker has these " Nine Questions I Wish They Had Asked  the Murdochs"

Dear L.C....Our Advice Corner

Dear L.C: I am CEO of a multinational media company with 50,000 employees. I'm having difficulty recalling exact  details of meetings with my senior staff.  I am 80 years old, so some loss of memory  is normal.   What should I do?-- R.M.


Dear R.M: Remind me, what was your question?

Gang of Six Plan 'a total joke'

Mark Steyn is not impressed by the so-called 'Gang of Six' solution to the debt-ceiling crisis, approved by the House late Tuesday: "Americans who care about the solvency of this nation ought to be seriously annoyed at the contempt for them shown by the Gang of Six 'plan' which even by the standards of 'bipartisan' deal-making is a total joke", he says.   Read more:

New player holds key to Murdoch's future

The managers of a London investment  fund may have a key role in determining Rupert Murdoch's future, The London Evening Standard reveals.

Senate productivity is targeting a record low

Big issues are piling up in Congress, but halfway through the year, the Senate is heading for its least productive legislative session since records were first kept, while the House's output is better, it is still below normal, according to an analysis of floor activity by The Washington Times.

Broke and Broker: Obama traffic ticket unpaid

The USA  is already defaulting on its debts. A ticket issued to the US embassy in London  for an unpaid congestion charge on Obama's Presidential  motorcade has remained unpaid.

Murdoch takes it all in stride

His family is said to be concerned for his health, but 80-year-old  Rupert  Murdoch was out running early  today  in London's Hyde Park, with his  personal trainer. Running at 80? It seems to me that  he's in good shape.
Pictures and more here.

The President of Fear

Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino king,  unleashed an extraordinary  attack on the atmosphere of fear that President Obama has created among the business community and why billions of dollars are sitting uninvested and job growth is paralyzed. Here's a sample: "... until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America."  Read more: 

TSA are you listening?

TSA are you listening? Police conducting counter-terrorism searches at airports should abandon efforts to achieve a 'racial balance' in the numbers they frisk says a British  official report. 

The British Government's counter-terrorism chief, David Anderson, says that it is the 'antithesis of intelligence-led policing' for officers to ensure that the numbers of each ethnic group searched are proportionate to the general  population. In other words, profiling is effective: pretending otherwise does  nothing but endanger thousands of innocents.

Hello, Dalai: No Oval Office for YOU

 Dalai Lama

Could it be true? President Obama actually defying the Chinese by hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House? For a heady moment Keith Koffler thought that was going to happen, but when he took a closer look at the details,  he found  a very different story,  a tale of appeasement rather than defiance of China.

Boom! Bomb expert scores an F

Education can be  a  blast in Indonesia, says Tim Blair: 

Security forces arrived at the school at Bima town, West Nusa Tenggara province, after a home-made bomb exploded in one of the rooms, killing a man suspected of being a Philippine-trained bomb expert.      

He is no longer suspected of being an expert, adds Blair.

Gotcha! Rebekah Brooks arrested

Rebekah Brooks, freshly-resigned CEO of Rupert Murdoch's British companies, has been arrested and is being questioned by police in  London about alleged phone hacking and police corruption. A good time to repeat a banner headline in  Murdoch's The Sun, when an Argentinian warship was sunk during the Falklands War: GOTCHA! 

Obamazing!®

Obamazing!®  moment in the President's weekly radio and Internet address to the nation: "We have to ask everyone to play their part because we are all part of the same country." 
 Who knew?

"Obama claims  80% of Americans want higher taxes.
I guess you and Samuel Colt  aren't among them."
Drawing by alagram 

Dear L.C....Our Advice Corner

Dear LC:  My allowance is running out and I owe lots of money to  other  kids in my high school class. If  I don't repay them  by August 2, I am going to be in some serious shit. Especially with  the Chinese kids who I owe most to. I want others in my class to make me another  loan from their allowances so I can put off repaying everyone until  the school election in November, 2012. I have met with them several times, but they won't let me have any more money, unless I cut back on my spending. I think they are being mean and they made so angry, that  I walked out on them. Now what should I do?
-- B.H.O. Washington,  D.C.


Dear B.H.O: What were you thinking, you selfish little oik? (So, look it up).   Everything's always all about you, isn't it? All you do is borrow, borrow, borrow and  spend, spend, spend!  Put aside some money from your allowance each week until you have paid them all back. Don't waste other people's money ever again or you can forget getting loans in future. And, no, I can't spare five bucks. --L.C.

With a single paragraph, newspaper retracts key Murdoch allegation

One the most serious allegations made during the  tabloid scandals has been  that Murdoch's tabloid The Sun had procured medical records of a Prime Minister's son without authorization. Today the liberal London  newspaper The Guardian, which originally trumpeted the allegation on  its front page, today carried a  single paragraph retraction on Page 36. Liberals are always quick to scoff at Fox's claim to be  "fair and  balanced."  The words pot,  kettle and black  come to mind.

FITZ N' STARTZ

"How did I expose the hacking scandal?  By hacking News Corp. phones."

Drawing by alagram

Voting now, GOP candidates would beat Obama by 8%, says Gallup

President Obama would  lose 39%  to 47% against a generic Republican candidate if a general election were held currently, according to Gallup.

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound, it's Superprez...

Ever noticed how that Man of Steel, Barack  Obama, bounds  up  all  steps, with calculated ease?  Whether it's boarding his Marine One chopper, or climbing three steps to a podium, he never misses a chance to project the image of high-energy SuperPrez. Alas, leaping tall buildings to bring hope and change to the people is impossible when the Kryptonite of debt saps your strength.

A Male non-PC Fairy Tale

Reader discretion advised:
Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess, 'Will you marry
me?'  The Princess said,'No!' And the Prince lived happily ever after
and rode motorcycles and banged skinny long-legged big-titted broads
and hunted and fished and raced cars and went to naked bars and dated
women half his age and drank whiskey, beer and Captain Morgan and
never heard bitching and never paid child support or alimony and
banged cheerleaders and kept his house and guns and ate spam and
potato chips and beans and blew enormous farts and never got cheated
on while he was at work and all his friends and family thought he was cool as hell and he had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up. The End.


(from a forwarded email)

"Robbing Social Security? Bad idea."
Drawing by alagram

Obama: Either arrogant or petulant

Rich  Galen  has a very insightful and amusing  column  today.

(Hat tip: Instapundit)

FITZ N' STARTZ

"OK, you can have a 2% raise, minus  50% carbon tax"

Drawing by alagram

Gas-guzzling Aussie Greens get free rides

Bruce, our man in Sydney, is sorely tried by the antics of Australia's Green activists. He sends this link about Greens, who want to impose carbon taxes that will impact everyone's  standard of living and severely damage the country's export competitiveness. These same Greens are being chauffeur-driven around  by a free (to them) gas-guzzling  limo service. The blatant hypocrisy is  enough to turn most  ordinary Aussies green, too. With nausea.

Lincoln's advice for Obama as the ship sinks

Barack Obama is lying awake in be in The White House, wondering how his plans for change have gone so wrong, when the ghost of George Washington appears to him.
Obama is unfazed and says: "Tell me, Mr President, "how can I best serve my country?

George Washington replies:"Never tell a lie."

Then the ghost of Thomas Jefferson appears and Obama asks: "Tell me, Mr Jefferson, how can I best serve my country?"

Jefferson replies: "Always put the People First."

Then Lincoln's ghost appears and Obama says:" "Tell me, Mr Lincoln, how can I best serve my country?" And Lincoln replies: "Go to the theatre."

Obama bombs Syria with lawyers

President Obama has responded to a mob attack on the US embassy in Damascus -- which Syria  did nothing to stop -- by taking Syria to court for damages.( h/t: Memeorandum). Imagine the sheer terror on the face of the despot Assad as he learned this  news.

Halleluya! we're saved. Or not.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner   claims that  President  Obama  has rescued the United States from a second Great Depression. Not so fast Timmy.  With unemployment  still stuck at 9.2 %  and global gloom still rapidly gathering, a Second Great Depression may  be ahead of us, not behind us.  If we get  another  nation-bankrupting Obama "rescue" like the last one, a  Second Great Depression is a virtual certainty.

A basic freedom: the right to waste your own money

Mark Steyn  quotes Energy Secretary Steven Chu on stopping the sale of  incandescent light bulbs  and replacing  them (right)  with compact fluorescents: "We  are taking away a choice," said Chu, "that continues to let people waste their own money." 
Steyn wonders if Secretary Chu has any idea how stupid this argument sounds from an administration that has wasted more of other people’s money than anybody else on the planet. 

Signs of the times

Terry Kirkpatrick's Gumbo has these cheerful signs  to add to your growing  list of worries.

FITZ N' STARTZ

 You're late again and still blaming Bush?
Drawing by Alagram

Obama's ticket to nowhere

President Obama is at it again, trying to promote high-speed rail as one way out of our economic hell, as if that train hadn't long ago left the station, with no-one aboard.

Playing the wrong cards

Maybe this is  why Obama is still blaming  Bush

Still blaming it on Bush

"We’ve added more than 2 million new private sector jobs over the past 16 months, but the recession cost us more than 8 million . . . The economic challenges that we face weren’t created overnight, and they’re not going to be solved overnight."--President Obama

Free speech, not so much: CEO fired for saying women take more days off than men

A business leader has been fired after stating a simple  truth: women, on  average,  have  to take more  time off work than men. Alasdair Thompson,  CEO of the New Zealand Employers and Manufacturers Association was dumped by the Association's board after he made the claim in a radio interview, after being asked why women's average pay in the country was 12% lower  than men's.  There's more here.

FITZ N' STARTZ

"No raise for  you this year, but Obama  sincerely feels your pain."
Drawing by Alagram

It's Good to be the King...

...or one of his courtiers, who got a nice fat raise, unlike most folks, as Terry Kirkpatrick at Gumbo points out. He analyzes the figures. If  you hot feel hot under collar, after you've read them, it won't be because of the heatwave. But rest assured, over at the White House they are sincerely  feeling your pain.

In-body bombs: An explosive case for passenger profiling

The one-size-fits-all P.C. approach to airport security has proved futile: we end up with precious resources being used to pat down little kids and humiliate old ladies. Meanwhile those who are far more likely to have to a stick of dynamite up their rear, with a protruding fuse, get a free pass. In practice a 'belly bomb' is likely to be more cunning than that. reports ABC.
In normal times, passenger profiling is against all we stand for, but these are not normal times. When 'all we stand for' is used as as a means to mass murder, exceptional measures are in order. Security officials must be allowed more discretion in using limited resources. If that means some profiling, so be it.
Agree? Disagree? Vote in our poll (see top,left).

Jihad Jellyfish Shut Israeli Power Plant

Jellyfish have clogged the water intakes of an Israeli Electric Company power plant and forced  it to temporarily  shut down.

FITZ N' STARTZ

"Making you a  manager would  be like putting  North Korea in charge of  disarmament...er...wait a minute."


 Drawing by Alagram

North Korea (yes, North Korea) to head UN disarmament conference

You simply couldn't make this stuff up. The Australian is rightly apoplectic about  a UN decision  as ludicrous as Qaddafi's Libya being a member of  the UN  Human Rights Commission as he was bombing  and shelling his own people. Now the Madhouse-on-the-Hudson  has put North Korea  in charge  of the UN Conference on Disarmament. Talk about lunatics running the asylum...

Egypt possible source of deadly E.coli

Fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt, then spouted, are the likely source of the recent deadly E.coli outbreaks in Europe, say reports today. Too late for Bruce, our intrepid Sydney correspondent who was laid low for days during and after a pre-revolution visit to Egypt, by recurring attacks of what used to be called "Gippo tummy" by British troops stationed in that country.

FITZ N' STARTZ

"I don't care what AOL said.  Real men don't fake orgasms."
Drawing by Alagram

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll blow...

A more liberal  viewpoint -- widely expected when Arianna Huffington took over as content chief  after the merger  of AOL and HuffPo--  is becoming  ever more apparent, Greg  Coleman,  once a colleague of mine, whose judgement I respect, has been  quoted as saying that  Huffington does not take kindly to being managed.
On Independence Day, the site demonstrated its patriotic spirit by running an article on men faking orgasms.
Read more here. Some say AoL is set to become major liberal Internet portal.  Ya think?                        

Even Aussie redheads reject green-hugging PM Gillard

 Bruce, our Sydney correspoondent, sends this gem  which reveals  green-hugging Carbon-tax-touting  Prime Minister Julia Gillard. is being spurned  even by  her fellow redheads.

The Red And Nearly Ginger Association, which claims to represent the nation's redheads, said it is withdrawing its support because she is giving gingers a bad name. The RANGA group cited disloyalty, dishonesty and incompetence as three contributing factors. 

Why Australians Vote Green

 Bruce, our man in  Sydney, alerted us to this,  which is circulating on the Net Down Under:

Reasons I voted Green:

• I voted Green because I believe oil companies profits of 4% on a litre of petrol are obscene, but my government taxing the same litre of petrol at 27.5% isn’t.

• I voted Green because I believe my government will do a better job of spending the money you earn than you would.

• I voted Green because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

• I voted Green because I believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.
•  I voted Green because I think illegal immigrants have a right to free housing, health care, education, and welfare benefits – and the right to change our society to suit their cultural demands .

• I voted Green because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves.  They need to break even and give the rest away to my government for redistribution as the Greens see fit.

• I voted Green because I believe ‘enlightened progressive’ judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters. 

•  I voted Green because I think that it’s better to pay billions to people who hate us for their oil, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle or frog.

•  I voted Green because I want to convert Australia to a ‘carbon neutral green economy’ to create jobs – even after Spain has proven the green economy destroys three times as many jobs as it creates and leads to 20 percent unemployment.

•   I voted Green because my head is so firmly planted up my **** it’s unlikely that I’ll ever see another point of view.

Why Dominique Strauss-Kahnt

Just as the New York case falters, comes news, via AP and Yahoo News, that  DS-K  faces a  new sexual assault complaint, this time back home. That would likely end any remaining hopes  he has  for the French  Presidency.  But you never  know with the French. Only one thing's for sure: they're always there when they need us.

The Psychic Poet: 'And For My Next Trick...'

 If a hotel cleaner was really
Turning tricks 
on New York's dime.

It's time  
to seek a punishment 
That truly fits the crime

FITZ N' STARTZ

" Happy Fourth,  Mr Greenie. 
Enjoy your  soyburger cookout"
Drawing: alagram

Bwahahaha ! And a meaty Fourth to you, too

Verboten: Fireworks

Chris Wysocki  at Wyblog has  been having a fiendish laugh at a deluded tree-hugger's  "green" Independence Day advice over  at The Huffington Post.  

Have they finally gone Moonbat crazy at The HuffPo?  Naah... I'd guess they're just  temporarily high on green nuts.

Stimulating Indignation: the $278,000 cost of every job

Jeffrey Anderson at  the Weekly Standard was alert for hidden explosives in the White House economic report issued at the outset of the  long weekend. He was right: The figures reveal a cost  to taxpayers of $278,000 for  every job created or 'saved' by  Obama's stimulus. 
But wait, there's more!
Anderson further  asserts that, over the past six months, the economy would have added or saved more jobs without the “stimulus” than with it.  Compared with the way  things would have been, the “stimulus” has been working in reverse over the past six months, causing the economy to shed jobs. There's more here.

FITZ N' STARTZ

"OK, Smarty-pants, you'll get a raise, when you've halved your carbon emissions."

Wisconsin Over the Pond

 Blogger Michelle Malkin,  on vacation in England with her family, has  landed amid a massive public service strike in which 750,000 teachers and other public sector workers are protesting a modest nudge in retirement age to 66 and a 3% increase in their retirement fund contribution (they already have defined benefits that vastly exceed anything available in the private sector.)
"Left-wing teachers around the world spend many hours lecturing their students about the need for a ' sustainable environment', ” says Malkin.  "Too bad they don’t practice what they teach when it comes to their own unsustainable demands. "   Indeed.

The Psychic Poet

,

A Frenchman was held
For trying to meld 
With a lady hotel-room cleaner.
She filed a complaint, 
But honest she ain't,
So maybe the cleaner 
Was meaner.

Strauss-Kahn case 'near collapse'

The New York Times  asserts that the case against former IMF chief  Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse because of  growing doubts about the alleged victim's  credibility. You thought Parisians were rude to Americans? If he's cleared, you might think about packing body armor.