The Victorious Opposition

A picture is worth a thousand words:

As HuffPo points out - don’t get caught with your notes written on your hand when you’re busting on the Prez for using a teleprompter:

Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words “Energy”, “Tax” and “Lift American Spirits” are clearly visible. There’s also what appears to read as “Budget cuts” with the word Budget crossed out.

Watch her quote from her hand during the post-speech Q&A:

Maybe this was actually Tina Fey standing in for Palin, and she simply didn’t have time to memorize her lines?

H/T: A Facebook friend

An uncertain economy, a changing political landscape and an important American tradition are the subjects of this week’s Sunday Programs.  There’s a lot of interesting television, and particular kudos is due to CBS, who as this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster took the day off from politics to talk about the state of the game and the prominent role the Super Bowl plays in American culture.  There’s also Fox News Sunday’s big interview with Sarah Palin.  Love her or hate her, you’re sure to find something interesting there.  Enjoy your Sunday Morning Roundup for February 7, 2010:

Some enterprising folks have set up the DC Snowmageddon website to counterbalance our latest display of global warming this weekend. Here’s some tunes:

OK, the images were not of Naomi Watts ( that’s the only Aussie babe I could think of), more like Asian porn? I can’t tell.

But this is just too good for words and it begs the question ,“What was this guy thinking?”. There is clearly at least two women working on the floor in close proximity (that I counted) which would be fast tracking their butts right to H.R. if they saw any of this. Aside from goofing off at work, fostering a hostile work environment ( I believe that is the correct parlance ) is something management every where goes ballistic over.

And how about that ,“Oh, shit” look we get at the end?

I see ‘roo poaching in this guy’s future.

I can understand if he was ogling naked pics of Chris Bath…...............crikey!!!!!

Many of the ill informed, those that think “Training Day” is accurate and shows how it really is done on the streets, may harbor some bogus ideas on what the police can and can not do, allow me to help out.

First, remember this:

In cop world, this is as good as it gets, being left alone, not being shot at, being far removed from smelly obnoxious drunks, imbibing and nourishing one’s self with the nectar of the gods. And yes, it is bad form to crack any donut jokes in our presence, despite the fact that we know every donut created by man and can give you a minute breakdown at to when the local places remove the fresh baked every day, we don’t want our noses rubbed in it. We carry PR-24’s and have the power to pretty much F__k up your entire day, so be civil.

One of the best web sites ever made has a very insightful piece on 7 bullshit police myths that everyone should be aware of, take notes.

Hollywood has never been afraid to sacrifice realism for the sake of an entertaining story. And since pretty much every movie or TV show features the police in some way, we as an audience get fed a lot of total horseshit about how the law works and how cops operate in the USA.

But as most of us are on the outside of the judicial system (for the moment) we usually don’t even realize that what we’re being told is incorrect.

It’s worse than that, blogs have done more than their fair share of spreading dis information, stuff that will empower you right into a smelly jail cell. All this stuff here is pretty accurate. Although different states have different rules, there is a uniformity since most procedures and guidelines are mandated by federal law.

Regarding #7, when dealing with physical evidence at a crime scene, it is important to understand that when somebody enters your crime scene, they are bringing stuff in that does not belong there, same with leaving, they are taking something out that might help you. This is why they try to preserve it and keep out the fire guys and the paramedics, if at all possible.

Regarding #5, I have read of certain hubris on blogs (maybe some think so here as well)  of certain people possessing the opinion that nothing good can come from talking to cops and that they will never ever saying anything to them, even when stopped. I have never understood this attitude. As the article makes clear, there are times when you are required to discourse, and if not, off you go. But there are many legitimate reasons why you would want to help, if you witness a crime or can provide material information that would help a victim. Or, if narcissism is you motto in life and you find yourself on the wrong end of an accusation, and you are innocent, by all means, blab away.  Say you are driving home from a late night business meeting,  stopped a mile from home by the cops and get pulled out the wing window by gunpoint, if your attitude is ,“I ain’t saying shit”, then you will get your car impounded and will spend the night in the slammer. But if your brain works somewhat logically and you demand to know whats going on, they will inform you that 15 minutes ago there was a liquor store robbery in the area and a guy matching your description fled the scene in a car kinda like this one. You then identify yourself, explain that you were in a business meeting, here is the address and phone number, and after a few minutes of corroboration, you are uncuffed and sent on your merry way with an apology. So let’s see, a good story to tell the wife, or a bad experience that you will remember for the rest of your life?

All of the other ones are also accurate and informative. The only quibble I would have with #2 is that Miranda will usually be read even to already arrested suspects, both to inform about the attorney being provided and if any other questions need to be asked, which is usually always the case.

I’m not going to say ,“we are here to help you”, as with government, any exertion of authority should not be taken lightly, but certain common sense things like not spitting into the wind or tugging on Superman’s cape should be re iterated from time to time. I have never ever heard anyone regale with an arrest story with a punctuation of “Good Time”.

While wasting time over at iowntheworld I came across probably the most awesome, scary, apocalyptic, scathing, damning, and altogether sinister political ad I’ve seen in a long, long time. Fasten your seat belt prior to viewing, this is one wild ride.

Where to begin?

This guy has a ready made niche, doing voice overs for Satan in any more “Omen” remakes.

I don’t know if any of that stuff he said is true, political ads by their very nature run fast and loose with the facts, but that voice and those red eyes scared the crap out of me.

At first I thought this was a goof, I can’t see a 3 plus minute ad getting much traction but I saw an article in my local paper this morning about the California Democrats getting all indignant over it, funny, but the ad didn’t even mention them, what is their beef?  Maybe there is like a shorter version, about 1 minute in length, that will get aired.

The other thing I thought interesting, for an ad touting Carly Fiorina, we see precious little of her in it. Maybe she is still self conscious about her haircut. Here is the Carly for California website. For those unaware, Carly has been undergoing daily radiation therapy for breast cancer, no doubt the treatment has been kicking her ass, but she beat it, good for her.

The ad mentions that Carly “accomplished enormous things in life”, if he is talking about her cancer battle then I would agree. If this is meant to tout her particular business acumen, I’m not convinced. Without delving too far into her wiki page or her background ,the two things I know her for is her CEO’ship at HP and her work as chairperson of the McCain campaign. In my mind both were dismal failures. She did nothing to strengthen the HP name or it’s balance sheet before she was ignominiously let go (with a Warren Buffet style golden parachute) and we all know what a bad campaign McCain ran, if her fingerprints are anywhere near that debacle, she should distant herself from that immediately.

I have heard her speak on the issues and she has a command presence that, in my mind, would serve her better in giving Boxer the boot than these Beelzebub ads her campaign is running now.

I found a funny line over at ed driscoll

“I like it! Boys, we’ve got a winner with this one. Run that baby! Get it up on YouTube, pronto.”

“Don’t you mean EweTube, boss?”

“BWAHAHAHAHAH! What could wrong with this idea?!”

And Mary Katherine Ham had some choice comments:

  This thing’s going viral, but not necessarily in a way that will help Carly Fiorina’s message. It just oozes that special brand of ludicrous hilarity that the Internet loves, and the Internet will give the demon sheep many, many lives. And, you will now be able to say, “I knew the demon sheep when.”

  If I thought the creation of the demon sheep was an intentional Internet hit, I’d be impressed, but I’m not sure it was. Nor am I sure that the true inanity required to produce viral hits will ever be the kind of thing that serves political campaigns well, but here’s to the Fiorina campaign for creating something we’ll all remember.

I hope Carly gets the nomination, I can’t wait to see what this crew will come up with in targeting Boxer, but stick with the Satan theme, is always works with democrats.

As faux pas go, this is way more amusing than damaging, but as for him being a slow learner, you make the call.

Nicely done, Mr. Mayor.

It always amuses me when I hear certain politicians talk about belt tightening, I guess lavish amounts of glue was applied to all the seats in the audience to prevent mass people falling out of their chairs convulsing with laughter.

I wonder if the president thinks that any vacation, anywhere, is a frivolous luxury deserving of derision for it’s execessiveness . Since almost all parents are trying to save for their kid’s college, all leisure activity should be considered wasteful and selfish, OK.

Seriously, should the president get pilloried for this comment? small potatoes, I think, since we all get the sentiment involved.

Discovering that people actually do listen to what he says, some smoothing over was in order.

Perception and reputation are sensitive issues for Sin City as it struggles to find footing amid a two-year meltdown of foreclosures, bankruptcies and unemployment. Tourism is the Silver State’s backbone, and several lawmakers said they were shocked that Obama singled out Las Vegas again after commenting last February that bailed-out banks shouldn’t go to Las Vegas using taxpayer money.

The mayor did give the president a way out, TDS…......Teleprompter Dependency Syndrome:

“He has to step up right away and say, you know, he wasn’t thinking,” Goodman said. “Sometimes when he’s not using his monitors and reading what he says, he doesn’t think. And this is one of those times he didn’t think, and he should straighten out the record because he’s been here, he knows Las Vegas is a great place.”

He shoots, he scores.

I’m not going to shed many tears for Vegas, Sin City has always provided remedies for misery. A lap dance with Bambi or raking in the chips yelling ,“Winner, winner, chicken dinner” can make that pink slip just a passing memory.

Some people really do live and die by the adage that a dollar is not useful until it is spent, and on Capital Hill, tapping unused TARP money is proving more fun than finding spare change under a couch cushion.

A little background, White House budget director Peter Orszag went to The Hill the other day with outstretched hands and a few choice suggestions on what to do with the remainder of the unused TARP slush fund, notably, to skim some off the top to fund Obama’s new business credit legislation. We should remember, this is not Stimulus money, money set aside to put the economy on better footing with new job creation, this is TARP money, money set aside to prop up a failing financial sector and free up credit. Some could argue that the banking system still needs assistance and is not where it should be, but most bank loans have been paid back, with interest ,so that catastrophe has been averted.

I’m not real big on congressional hearing grandstanding, showing the folks back home that their pit bull is on the job, but some of these clowns need to be chastised.

And did everyone catch the significance of the ending? The guy at the end that says ,“That is how laws are made, congress passes them”, I think that was Bernie Sanders, he is telling everyone that congress can give Orszag the authority to go against the TARP provisions of paying down the debt with unused or re couped funds. Essentially, nothing is binding, in any legislation if congress decides to make a switchero. It really is their money, and don’t you forget it.

One thing liberals do, either as a defense mechanism or as a pre conditioned reaction method, is to counter from a position of weakness with baseless pejoratives. The old (and often time tested) definition of a racist was someone who was bettering a liberal in an argument. Ditto with an accusation of being a homophobe. Branding an opponent with a defective mindset provides cover for a certain certitude,even when that certitude is tenuous at best. Another leftest leaning shortcoming that always irritated me was their lack of skin depth and how every little verbal slight was a capital offense, and thus worthy of instant termination.

I hate it when their side does it, and it is equally lame when we do it.

Obama staffer Rahm Emanuel’s penchant for profanity has drawn the ire of Sarah Palin.

The former Alaska governor is demanding that the President fire his White House chief of Staff for remarks she says were disparaging of the disabled.

In a strategy session between White House aides and progressive groups, Emanuel called a plan to air attack ads against fellow Democrats opposed to health-care legislation ‘f——ing retarded.’  The remarks were reported in the Wall Street Journal.

First off, lets remember who’s ears this comment was meant for. This is like a coach reading his players the riot act in the locker room during halftime. This is like Pelosi trying to get all her people on the same page for an important vote in some back room. No press is allowed and no public record is being made, it is a comment made in a room full of adults with the soul purpose to motivate. There is a big difference between public speech and private communications.

“Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them – is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the “N-word” is not quite on par, having more history behind it, I understand the sentiment and how Rahm’s words could be hurtful. But I do not understand the over reaction by calling for the poor guy’s resignation.

Will he get fired for this? of course not, nor should he,  Palin was correct in calling attention to it (since it was made public, not by her) and had the moral high road is using this to educate and enlighten, but then she loses her moral superiority by calling for a punishment that does not fit the crime.

We have seen this play out so many times in the past, some leftist group like Media Matters gets a hard on for something someone said (free speech, pshaw, where do you think we live?) and demands summary termination. I say give it a rest, on both sides. Palin looks petty and uncompromising, hardly traits for compassionate conservatives.

Allow Emmanuel to eat some humble pie, make the required mea culpas, then let’s leave it alone. Bigger fish to fry and all that.

I know, I know, technically this was pre fox but as you can see, he hasn’t lost any of that sophistication, Blogo hair and all.

O’Reilly has lost some of his cache lately, palling around with that goofball Glenn Beck, so for that I give him the business here.

Lately I’ve been thinking of a great UFC cage match that could easily bring in some big bank between the double O’s, O’Reilly and Olbermann. I’d put my money on Bill, drunken Irish guys can brawl.

Oh, and speaking of Olbermann, we have not heard from Little O’Reily in a while:

H/T: barelypolitical

Since we’ve had no income, as part of our controlling discretionary spending, all of our annual renewals for various charitable/political/whatever organizations had been stacking up on my desk. Now that mrs. dwex has a job (well, will in 2 weeks), I went through the stack to send in my annual donations. After doing five of them, on the sixth one, my credit card was declined. After verifying that I’d entered my credit card info correctly, I guessed that all of these identically-priced transactions in very rapid sequence had set off an alarm at the credit card company. So I called them up and went through their voice prompt system (credit card number, social security number, password, etc). They immediately launched into an inquiry requiring me to indicate whether I recognized a handful of transactions. I indicated that I did, they removed the hold, and then back to submitting contributions.

All without having to interact with a human being for any of it.

God, I love technology

BTW - most credit card companies allow you to choose a password to use in place of “mother’s maiden name”. If you haven’t done so, I suggest that you do it. I did this five years ago or so after someone social-engineered the credit card company into changing the billing and email address associated with my account (which I found after having my credit card declined for some purchase or another and called them to complain).

I think I’ve mentioned before that I started having problems with my shoulder again last summer - pain, range-of-motion limitations and weakness. After a couple months of ibuprofin and getting back into my home PT program didn’t help, I went back to the orthopod. Went back on the high-dose anti-inflammatories, and did a month of physical therapy. Which got the pain under control and resolved the range of motion problems, but my shoulder is still crazy weak - I basically can’t lift more than 10 lbs or so if my arm is away from my body (i.e. no deficit if I lift something straight up at my side, but insanely weak if I have to lift or carry anything with my arm outstretched). We did another month of PT, with modest improvement of strength.

The big concern was that I had a rotator cuff tear. When I had my surgery in 2008, there was a tiny hole in one of the rotator cuff tendons, but they decided not to repair it, since repairing a tendon requires immobilization, and the problem we were in there to fix (the impingement) required that I get moving as quickly as possible after surgery. So there was concern that rather this hole had progressed into a significant tear, which would require another surgery and horrible long recovery. With school coming up, and the end of COBRA coverage expiring at about the same time, we decided we needed to figure this out quick, and if I absolutely had to have the surgery, to get it done ASAP.

So at the end of December I had an arthro-MRI done on my shoulder (a combination of an arthrogram with an MRI). This was a two-part procedure, done by two doctors in adjacent suites in one of the office buildings at the local hospital. For the first part, using a flouroscope, they injected a contrast dye into the shoulder joint (cool to watch, not a lot of fun to experience). Then over to the other suite for an hour-long series of MRI scans of the shoulder joint. The arthrogram is used for this because if there were a tear, the dye would flow into the gap between the tendon and the bone, and be highly visible.

Fortunately, there’s no issue that requires surgery. Unfortunately, my arm is still crazy weak. It’s improving - very, very, very slowly. So we’re sticking with anti-inflammatories, routine stretching, and weights three times a week to try to get it better. For the time being.

Anyhow, back on point. Let’s look at the billing, insurance payments and out-of-pocket payments for this. Since I’ve still got my old employer-sponsored insurance, via COBRA, it’s a good plan - an Aetna PPO with a modest deductible and co-insurance post-deductible.

It’s been a little over a year in the making, and will probably take another year to complete but here it is:

Despite a chorus of complaints from community activists, a City Council committee advanced a plan Monday to lay off up to 1,500 workers and slash spending across the board - including the previously untouched Los Angeles fire and police departments.

The aim of the plan is to make $400 million in cuts to help close a massive budget deficit. While Los Angeles officials say some layoffs can be averted if unions agree to concessions, they say they must plan for the worst.

With that in mind, Councilman Bernard Parks moved to include police and fire departments on the list of agencies facing cuts.

“We are asking you to give us a plan with no restrictions,” Councilman Bernard Parks, chair of the Budget and Finance committee, told City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana at a committee hearing.

“You cannot balance the budget when 70 percent is tied up in police and fire services. It is the elephant in the room that no one is talking about.”

I’d say that is a pretty skewed budget, wouldn’t you? And it is more than high time that it was talked about. Of course I’m a pariah for not immediately agreeing to the simpleton’s theory that more police/fire = more protection. When I was a young boy in Miami this same logic was being applied to deal with the cocaine wars. The city hired anyone and everyone they could strap a gun to, and wouldn’t you know that it didn’t work out. And while there’s plenty more instances of police misconduct I can point to for a case, the simple fact of the matter is that our security is simply unsustainable.

Tony Villar disagrees with most of the public and the council:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has resisted efforts to cut police below the current level of 9,963 officers, saying public safety has to be the city’s top priority.

What a swell guy he is, with his (one and only) 24/7 police security detail. Please let that number of 9,000+ scare you, the goal has been 10,000. In addition we also have the LA County Sheriff’s department ballooning at about 20,000 employees. Of course, to hear people like Tony VIllar tell it, some of the largest employers in the state (larger than almost any private company by measure) is in a constant state of need.

Both of these departments (police and fire) now represent 70 percent of our budget. Yes, we will continue to lose services for this “luxury” I suppose. However, this will probably be the last year that Villar can get away with this, and the Council already has sent this cholo a little bitch slap. It makes for a good story to save a pooch from a river, but forgive me if I’m balking at it for seventy percent of the city budget.

Remember Obama talking about that bi-partisan budget reduction commission during the State of the Union address? The one that he’s going to now create via (pointless) executive order, since the Senate voted it down? Even the Republican sponsors of the bill voted against it:

A month ago, a bipartisan group of senators asked Obama for his “strong support” for a commission to solve the national debt crisis. “We don’t recommend this special process lightly,” they wrote, calling it “the best way to reach a lasting bipartisan solution that will put our nation back on a sound long-term fiscal path.”

One of the signatories, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), issued a news release trumpeting his sponsorship of the legislation. “Now is the time,” he proclaimed.

On second thought, maybe not. Obama heeded the letter writers’ advice and backed the commission. But when the proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor Tuesday, four of the Republican signers—Crapo, Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.) and Robert Bennett (Utah)—voted no. So did three other Republican senators who had also been co-sponsors of the legislation—2008 presidential nominee John McCain (Ariz.), Sam Brownback (Kan.) and John Ensign (Nev.). An eighth co-sponsor, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), didn’t vote.

And if that’s not bad enough, on Thursday, they voted against “paygo”, unanimously. And they laugh about it:

The Congressional Record will show that Democrats prevailed in the vote, but the enthusiasm on the floor was the other way around. There was no celebrating among party members, no congratulatory handshakes.

The 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), needed in the chamber to overcome the Republican opposition, voted from his wheelchair and rubbed his forehead. Across the aisle, Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), a GOP leader, belted out a “no!” and then chuckled.

They are so committed to opposing Obama, to voting “no”, that they will vote against the things that are theoretically core GOP fiscal conservative principles.

Pathetic.

I wrote about the GOP’s “Roadmap for America’s Future” after muddling through the 100 page document, and as I said then:

There needs to be more than “trust us, we really mean it this time”. Because, TBH, I do not trust the Republican leadership’s fiscal conservative talk any more than I would believe it if this document had Nancy Pelosi’s name on it (well, that’s an exaggeration,  but you get the point). For me, it’s a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” thing with the GOP leadership. I used to trust the GOP to walk the walk on fiscal issues, and most of our disagreements were in other areas. Nowadays, I don’t trust the GOP leadership on fiscal issues any more than I trust the Democrats. Sorry, I just don’t.

Or, as the author of that first piece put it:

There is a risk that so many Republicans have become so ideological in their opposition that, even in control of Congress, they would use their increased power to bring the government to a halt.

Then again, the government is already paralyzed. When Republicans are so eager to thwart the president that they vote against what they themselves believe is in the national interest, we’ve pretty much reached rock bottom.

Paul Ryan may be for real. Eric Cantor may be for real. But the GOP leadership, and the partisan hackishness of the GOP in general, is in no way superior to the Democrats. If I can’t count on the GOP to be actually fiscally conservative, I have no reason whatsoever to consider supporting them.

Pathetic.

Yes, I already said that. It bears repeating. I’ve said repeatedly that “party of no” is doing nothing but enabling Obama’s spending spree. When the GOP can’t even get it up to support “paygo”, they just provide the evidence to prove my point.

Pathetic.

H/T: DrWex

Holy crap. Talk about flying pop-tarts. She’s absolutely lip-synching this, but wow:

(YouTube keeps taking down the clips; here’s a link to the official video)

Given how horribly bad the Taylor Swift/Stevie Nicks “Rhiannon” duet was, this was a breath of fresh air. Taylor Swift needs to think about lip-synching, because well, she sucks…