KURU Lounge

Something has gone horribly wrong with your life

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:17:49 PST

when 7/11 cashiers comment that you look "wrung out"

I just had that happen. Really I am just damn tired got up early to get breakfast and try and get ahead in some reading and coupled with a cold I guess I don't look spectacular.

It's been a busy week

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:33:11 PST

2 midterms and a paper but my devotion is such that I have made it back for Rule 5 Sunday.

This week we have Russian Popstar Anna Semenovitch:

and musical accompaniment by some weird Russian music video

It figures

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:37:26 PST

I was sick as a dog last night and all day today but now that it is time to go to bed I feel fine and probably won't be able to sleep.

Around the Moronosphere 11/2/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41:07 PST

Washington Post via Memeorandum - Why American health care costs so much -

There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care in any other country: because we pay so much more for each unit of care. As Halvorson explained, and academics and consultancies have repeatedly confirmed, if you leave everything else the same -- the volume of procedures, the days we spend in the hospital, the number of surgeries we need -- but plug in the prices Canadians pay, our health-care spending falls by about 50 percent.

In other countries, governments set the rates that will be paid for different treatments and drugs, even when private insurers are doing the actual purchasing. In our country, the government doesn't set those rates for private insurers, which is why the prices paid by Medicare, as you'll see on some of these graphs, are much lower than those paid by private insurers.

I have heard it argued that this proves the market doesn't work when Health Care is involved, but really doesn't this prove that it does? At the point that people (or insurance companies) begin to refuse to pay then prices will begin to come down. It's like charging $8.00 for a beer at a baseball game. If now one buys then the price will come down. Some believe that because consumers are a "captive marke"t that keeps the free market from taking hold. I think that anytime there is an artificially inflated price there is an opportunity for a motivated entrepreneur to move in and undercut prices. Lets be honest most minor illness could be treated by somebody with training equivalent to a Navy Independent Duty Corpsman or a Paramedic. The medical establishment has a vested interest in preventing that. That is an avenue of competition that is blocked artificially. If it was opened and every Walmart had a small clinic with an IDC in it then the cost of medical care would plummet.

Hot Air - Neil Cavuto goes after Sheperd Smith - About time.

Ace and Betsy - The Golden State isn't worth it - Normally I would credit one or the other but I like this story so much both get credit.

Texas has usurped the leadership position that, decades ago, belonged to California. Today California is in decline, likely irreversibly so. William Voegeli draws the sad but instructive comparison in the Los Angeles Times:

In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. ...

California and Texas are not perfect representatives of the alternative deals, but they come close. Overall, the Census Bureau's latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858. ...

But those higher taxes in California must be going somewhere. Why aren't they benefiting those many thousands of citizens who are leaving the state for greener pastures?

In what respects, then, does California "excel"? California's state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California's public retirement funds. The "dues" paid by taxpayers in order to belong to Club California purchase benefits that, increasingly, are enjoyed by the staff instead of the members.

And just think California is the model for the nation.

Working on a paper this morning

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:16:11 PST

I will try and get the moronosphere round-up online sometime this afternoon.

Around the Moronosphere 11/1/09 - In which it is revealed scientifically that I am a dumbass and I prove it by questioning the NEA

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:45:36 PST

Ace steps in it with Dede's Farewell I understand exactly what he is saying and agree completely. Many of his readers apparently disagree vociferously.

Dilbert - Experience is just another word for losing hope.

Doubleplusundead - Awesome local television - Jeebus, at this point we just need to legalize marijuana and get it over with.

JustOneMinute - If only reviewers read the books they review -

...Yet while Rand took to wearing a dollar-sign pin to advertise her love of capitalism, Heller makes clear that the author had no real affection for dollars themselves. Giving up her royalties to preserve her vision is something that no genuine capitalist, and few popular novelists, would have done.

Hmm - is Steve Jobs a capitalist, and what is his view on compromising his vision for a few extra bucks? Never mind. More to the point, has Mr. Kirsch the vaguest familiarity with "The Fountainhead", Ms. Rand's earlier book whose protagonist, Howard Roark, was always refusing to compromise his vision in exchange for a bit of business? As to Atlas Shrugs, it is replete with characters who are similarly uncompromising and non-businesslike (as Kirsch understands it).

Stop the ACLU - Another conservatives are stupid accusation - People have told me all my life I am a dumb-ass. Now there is scientific proof

Conservatism and cognitive ability

Lazar Stankov

Abstract

Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated. The evidence is based on 1254 community college students and 1600 foreign students seeking entry to United States’ universities. At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with SAT, Vocabulary, and Analogy test scores. At the national level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with measures of education (e.g., gross enrollment at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) and performance on mathematics and reading assessments from the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) project. They also correlate with components of the Failed States Index and several other measures of economic and political development of nations. Conservatism scores have higher correlations with economic and political measures than estimated IQ scores.

Jason Richwine discusses problems with the conclusion of this study here

Bring the Heat Bring the Stupid - Load Heat Kelly Ripa edition

Nice Deb - National Education Association Website Promotes Saul Alinsky’s Books For Teachers -

Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the 1910’s until he died in 1972, has written here a guidebook for those who are out to change things.

Hey teachers - how a bout a little less time spent on social change and a little more on bringing up math and science scores. Is that really so much to ask? You want a world free of hunger and full of justice. Educate the little shits so we have engineers who can build what we need for that world, and politicians who can understand basic economics. How's that for some radical thinking.

The Other McCain has the weekly Rule 5 round-up

Coming up on Rule 5 Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:32:49 PDT

I haven't done one of these is awhile so I am returning to my most reliable hit generator Jana Defi

I should just track her down and marry her then I would definitely have traffic out the butt. Of course the only way that will happen is if God sends the 4 Horsemen with instructions to ravage the Earth unless she agrees so I am not holding my breath on nuptials occurring anytime soon.

Is Gen. McChrystal a terrorist or a communist? I ask because they seem to be the only ones who rank as low on the White House totem pole as him.

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:27:03 PDT

Name	# of Visits	Who are they
Andrew Stern	20	Union thug in chief SEIU. Coordinating beating up protesters and "protecting" townhall meetings?
Kim Gandy	15	Head of the National Organization for Women. Possibly discussing Obama's failure to include females on his basketball and golf outings?
Nancy Keenan	8	Head National Abortion Rights Action League. Amazing how funding for abortions keeps slipping back into the health care bill.
Michael Moore	8	Filmmaker / Socialist toady. Chavista
Philip LaMarche	7	donor
Steve Elmendorf	5	Head CBO
Jeff Immelt	5	CEO General Electric
Michael Jordan	5	Basketball player. We all know that basketball is more important than actually working on the economy or anything.
George Soros	4	Owner of the Democratic Party, Moveon.org, Media Matters, etc.
John Edwards	4	Former Presidential candidate. I think Barack is just rubbing it in.
William Ayers	2	Terrorist / some guy from the neighborhood (Ace thinks this may be another Ayers but this list has the visit as personal and the visitee as POTUS so I am going with the Bill Ayers we all know and love.
Angela Davis	2	Communist. Accused and acquitted Kidnapper / Murderer
Al Sharpton	2	"Civil Rights Activist". Tawana Brawley Hoaxter
Stanley McChrystal	0	Head US forces in Afghanistan

Data stolen from Flopping Aces original source here.

FMJRA Round-Up 10/31/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:28:53 PDT

I link and I link and do I get any trackbacks or linkbacks? well except for my occasional mention in Smitty's round-up's over at The Other McCain that would be a big NO!! OK the problem may be that most of my links go to bigger bloggers. I do try and link small blogs (God knows Kuru lounge is tiny so it's not like I am snubbing them.) I go thru 80 blogs and 30 newspapers every morning looking for stuff. Apparently we just don't have the same tastes.

Making a little progress on the job front

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:27:44 PDT

At least F5 Networks is responding. They sent me a assessment for the Regulatory Compliance position I applied for and today notified me that I had been submitted for further approval.

Geekdom alert

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:17:12 PDT

Apparently the J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" DVD will contain the Klingons that were left out of the theatrical release via inclusion of a deleted scene:

Star Trek - DVD Bonus Footage

I don't see where this improves the movie any but hey KLINGONS!!!

Other geek news

NBC's Chuck may return early because of how badly it's other shows are performing and they have added 6 episodes to their order so it will almost make a full season.

Now if they would just bring back Life.

Around the Moronosphere 10/29/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:51:58 PDT

Doubleplusundead - Why Is Natalie Portman So Hawt And Yet So Foolish?

Good question. I'm reminded of a Simpsons quote - "You sir may have attended Harvard but you have the boorish manners of a Yalie" Portman is a self-righteous boor.

Top 10 hoffman Campaign Promises -

10) On his first day in Congress he'll rip Waxman-Markey in half with his bare hands. Not the bill, the actual moron congressmen. But don't worry, they won't be harmed at all: they have no spines.

...

7) Will create an American parallel to the Nobel Peace Prize, the Hoffman Hippy-Punching Prize.

I have long dreamed of a hippy punching prize

Slashdot - One of the stupider ideas I have heard - plus I think it's prior art Tom Clancy describes something similar in his novels

"To exist or not to exist: that is the query. That's what the famous Hamlet soliloquy might look like if subjected to Amazon's newly-patented System and Method for Marking Content, which calls for 'programmatically substituting synonyms into distributed text content,' including 'books, short stories, product reviews, book or movie reviews, news articles, editorial articles, technical papers, scholastic papers, and so on' in an effort to uniquely identify customers who redistribute material. In its description of the 'invention,' Amazon also touts the use of 'alternative misspellings for selected words' as a way to provide 'evidence of copyright infringement in a legal action.' After all, anti-piracy measures should trump kids' ability to spell correctly, shouldn't they?"

The Other McCain - Alyssa Milano doesn't follow me on twitter - don't feel bad my own mother doesn't follow me on twitter, much less @Alyssa_Milano.

Yahoo / Politico - Sarah Palin's $100K speaking fee upsets Iowa Republicans -

A conservative Iowa group’s effort to lure Sarah Palin to its banquet next month has had an unintended effect: Rather than exciting conservatives about the prospect of a visit from the former Alaska governor, the group’s plan to raise a six-figure sum to bring her to the state has GOP activists recoiling at the thought of paying to land a politician's speaking appearance.

...

But representatives from other Iowa-based political advocacy groups said they would never consider shelling out money for what many politicians see as a privilege: the opportunity to speak to a room full of sure-fire caucus-goers who often serve as precinct captains and can be instrumental to a presidential candidate’s success.

“If somebody tells me they want me to pay an appearance fee, it tells me they’re not very serious about running for president,” said Ed Failor, Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief and an influential GOP insider.

Or maybe she considers Iowa as irrelevant as I do. Funny though it was just a couple weeks ago that Politico was telling us how embarrassing it is that no one will pay Palin's speaking fee. Now it's embarrassing that they will.

Yahoo / AP - China, U.S. try to take sting out of trade disputes -

The United States, for its part, agreed that imposing curbs on Chinese exports was not the way to tackle the country's politically contentious trade surplus, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said.

"The two have agreed that the solution to the trade gap between the United States and China is not to restrict imports from China but to promote balance," Chen told reporters through an interpreter.

They're right. We shouldn't restrict imports, we just shouldn't buy them.

Wired - The Troubles of Korea’s Influential Economic Pundit -

Until the day he was outed, the most influential commentator on South Korea’s economy lived the life of a nobody. Park Dae-Sung owned a small apartment in a middle-class neighborhood of Seoul and freelanced part-time at a telecom company. Thirty years old, he still hoped to earn a four-year degree in economics. In the mornings, he would bicycle to the public library to study for the university entrance exam. His standard uniform was slacks, loafers, and wrinkle-free button-down shirts, as though he were going to work in an office. But with his slightly chubby moon face, glasses, and neatly parted hair, he easily blended in among the rows of students. While they worked through school assignments, he immersed himself in the text of his chosen profession.

...

Under the cloak of anonymity, Park believed he could insulate his real life from the adulation surrounding his online presence. Minerva had no published email address, and Park read only a few of the hundreds of comments that accumulated beneath his posts. Wearing the mask of Minerva allowed him to set aside the polite restraint that characterized his personal emails. As Minerva, he wrote with fiery bombast, comparing the gravity of the crisis to Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Minerva’s ascendance, he now believes, was due to the “pure purpose” of his writing — the sincere desire to help his readers ride out the crisis. “Some people use the Internet for money or fame,” he said later. “I didn’t.”

...

The first sign of trouble came when Park’s phone rang in early October. It was a representative from Daum asking if he would be willing to speak with a journalist. Park hung up in a panic. He had told no one about his secret, not even his sister. But he had submitted his national ID and phone numbers when setting up the Minerva account. So someone at Daum, he assumed, must have handed it over. Then, a few weeks later, the government’s finance minister reportedly urged Minerva to step forward so that he could correct the blogger’s faulty notions about the country’s financial policy (the minister later denied having made such a statement). When this invitation went unanswered, the attorney general announced an investigation into Minerva’s true identity.

Fearing exposure, Park began to scale back his blogging. “I will shut my mouth because the nation ordered me to be silent,” he wrote. A few days into 2009 he posted an epic farewell, which he hoped would cement Minerva’s legacy. Entitled “We Must Rely on Hope,” it contained fantastical confessions about Minerva’s life as a selfish financier and begged his readers to turn away from a life of greed: “Devils finance capitalism. Don’t live like me. Please take care of your family and yourself … Rescue yourself from money. It’s made of paper and ink.” His farewell ends, “I apologize again. I’m really sorry. I can only say sorry, nothing else.”

...

At trial, the government argued that false information published by Park had rattled currency markets and panicked thousands of citizens into selling off dollars, at a cost to the government of $2.2 billion. This, asserted the prosecution, violated a law forbidding the use of a computer to “spread a false rumor maliciously intending to damage the public interest.” They asked for a prison sentence of 18 months.

Among the experts who testified on Park’s behalf was Kim Tae-Dong, an economics professor at Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University who once served as an adviser to South Korea’s president. “Minerva is a much better teacher than I am,” Kim said later. “His writing is so easy for ordinary people to understand. I was surprised about his lack of a formal economics background.” The judge agreed with Kim’s argument: Even if the Minerva posts about the government’s policies were false, Park sincerely believed them. Park was acquitted of all charges.

...

When Park lost his anonymity, he lost his credibility as well. Rather than accept that the ramblings of a self-educated freelancer were superior to their daily newspapers, most of the public wrote off the cult of Minerva as a fad. Daum’s hardcore readership became consumed by conspiracy theories about the identity of the real Minerva, who must have set up Park through some Byzantine plot.

...

It is very difficult to find anyone in the South Korean government willing to talk about Minerva. The prosecutors say they can’t discuss the case until the appeal is over. Two spokespeople for the Korea Communication Standards Commission explain that they weren’t directly involved with the case, though they do have as many as 50 employees watching Daum and other sites at any given time. “We have to protect our children and our public,” one of them explains. “That’s the government’s job, to maintain a nice, clean Internet.” A spokesperson for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance says Park was beneath their notice. “If his theories were made by a publicly recognized institute, we might have some comment. And it is not appropriate for the government to comment on forecasts published by citizens on the Internet.” Months before, the head of the same ministry had argued that Minerva’s influence over exchange rates had cost billions. Now, however, the government had nothing to fear. Once again, as it had been during his whole previous life, Park could be treated like any other nobody.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned in that article. The power of the little guy, the oppressive power of government, the arrogance of the press. The most importnat one though get good lawyers when the feds come knocking. :-)

Around the Moronosphere 10/28/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:58:31 PDT

Ace of Spades - Shepard Smith = Asshole -

Two candidates for governor. One accepts a request for an interview and one doesn't. Does the news cycle stop because the second candidate won't accede to the interview? According to Smith it does. Does that mean the no interviews on Iran's nuclear program can be conducted unless an Iranian also agrees to an interview. What about in a murder investigation? What a douche.

Hot Air - Pathetic: Jarrett backtracks from Fox News bias claim when asked about MSNBC -

To the question of whether Fox News is biased, Jarrett replied: "Well, of course they're biased. Of course they are."

But when Brown followed up by asking Jarrett if she thinks MSNBC is biased, she quickly downplayed her original remark. "Actually, I don't want to generalize all of Fox is biased or that another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case-by-case basis," she said. "When we see a pattern of distortion, we're going to be honest about that pattern of distortion....

"We're actually calling everybody out. So this isn't anything that's simply directed at Fox. We just want the American people to have a really clear understanding," said Jarrett.

source

At least Brown had the cojones to call her out.

Instapundit- For first time under Obama, majority says US is on wrong track.

Fifty-two percent say the country is on the wrong track compared to 36 percent who say it is headed in the right direction with 9 percent saying conditions are mixed and 3 percent undecided. While there have been pluralities saying the U.S. is on the wrong track in four of the previous five WSJ/NBC polls during Obama's presidency, this is the first time the number broke 50 percent. The one month where that was not true was April when 43 percent said things were on the right track and an equal number said they were going in the opposite direction.

President Obama's job approval rating stands at 51 percent, the same number it had been during the previous two months.

But the approval ratio for his handling of the economy has dipped from 51 in September to 47 percent in October. Forty-nine percent are very dissatisfied with the state of the economy and another 31 percent are somewhat dissatisfied. Seventeen percent are somewhat satisfied and only 2 percent are very satisfied.

source

This has to be the fastest slide in Presidential history. Another take away here - 19% of Americans anre apparently too stupid to breathe.

Garnering Right Ideas - This made me laugh out loud

Locusts and Honey - Klingon Military Recruiting Video -

Seattle Times - Boeing talks fall apart; S.C. likely to get 787 line -

Discussions between the Machinists union and Boeing over the second 787 production line for Everett are effectively dead, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Boeing now appears close to choosing Charleston, S.C., as the location of the second line. The person close to the negotiations said an announcement could come within days.

I knew this was coming, the union and Puget Sound area as a whole, have been making every effort to drive Boeing away for years. I guess we will just have to see what happens next.

Suddenly I am getting hits off of searches for the Patriot Employer Act

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:54:29 PDT

Is something going on with the Patriot Employer Act today? Google and Bing searches on't show anything new.

The other big search is apparently for Wendy from Sports by Brooks

To make it easier for you here are the two posts Wendy from Sports by Brooks features in:

First

Second

Around the Moronosphere 10/27/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:03:03 PDT

Betsy's Page - The extreme dangers of the public option - essentially it boils down to it will bankrupt us. I don't believe that. Markets adapt. What it will do it decrease the availability and quality of care for avergae Americans while the rich will continue to receive the current level of care at private clinics. It will also fundamentally change our relationship with the government. Rights we take for granted now will disappear. This has happened with many other government programs - once you take the emperors coin he owns your soul.

Hot Air - Fox News Ratings Up Almost 10% - Probably not the effect the White House was looking for.

Patterico's Pontifications - Things That Make You Go: Hmmmmmmmmm -

In re-researching the ACORN scandal for my letter to Nick Goldberg, I ran across something interesting that I had missed before. Apparently, Giles and O’Keefe went to ACORN in Los Angeles — and an L.A. Times columnist implies they got kicked out.

By contrast, Breitbart says they didn’t get kicked out anywhere.

Someone is going to end up with egg on their face. Who do you think it will be? Breitbart? Or the L.A. Times columnist?

After the guy in San Diego offered to help smuggle teenage prostitutes up from Mexico I don't know how it could get any better. Maybe the LA office will reveal that they are involved in smuggling Korean prostitutes to massage parlors across the US and offer to join forces or something

Belmont Club - How did Britian go from infatuation with the left to supporting fascism in such a short period of time? - In short because aside from some racial policies there really isn't that much different between the two. Both believe in the state as ultimate moderator of the public good, so making the switch really isn't that hard.

If fascism and Left wing socialism share most of their political DNA then this process is easy to understand. When the vital 5% — or whatever crucially differentiates them — flips then one becomes the other. The BNP is not a ‘conservative party’ in the American mold. It is essentially a racist but economically Left wing organization which accepts a large state role in managing the economy. Where it differs with the Left is for whose benefit the economy should be managed. For the Left the answer is: for the benefit of what it defines to be the historical victim — Muslims, immigrants from former colonies and people with special sexual needs. For the BNP the answer to the question is: for the benefit of the poor white; the indigene; the people who have lived in the British isles.

...

What the Left and Fascism share is a belief in the transformative power of the state. Both regard government as the “high ground” of society and not, as some Americans still believe, simply a necessary evil. It is a prize to be seized by main force; the castle to be stormed. In the long run there is little reason to think that Nick Griffin will allow any more freedom than Gordon Brown. What is likely to happen is the substitution of one set of sacred cows for another. When the Left and fascists contend for power, the surveillance cameras are in every case fully employed.

Instapundit - John Kerry's Speech to Council on Foreign Relations foreshadowing Obama's decision on Afghanistan? - No decision for at least another two weeks, maybe more, and if Kerry's speech is a trial ballon it looks like the hybrid approach that the Pentagon wargamed as essentially unsupportable / unwinnable.

Nice Deb - Obama's Cynical Afghanistan Policy - The takeaway is:

You, Paul and Stephen have the story dead to rights. I was involved in the the Bush administration’s 2008 Afghanistan review and it was every bit as in depth and serious as the one several years earlier for Iraq. It involved many of the same people who helped conduct Gen. McChrystal’s recent review and included Democrats, Republicans, our British allies, Afghans, etc. The strategy put forward was sound and competent, and carbon-copy similar to the one that President Obama announced in March.

It is also true that team Obama was briefed on this review before assuming office. In fact, we began briefing both campaigns even before the election. I don’t remember the dates, but well before the election we began bringing together the national security teams from both campaigns for in-depth briefing sessions under the auspices of the Aspen Institute. These were long events where Bush administration cabinet-level officials spent days — yes, days — briefing the two candidates’ advisers. After the election we began spending hours with the transition team on the details of the plan and the situation on the ground.

It is also true that Obama’s transition team asked us to hold the Afghanistan review findings, a request to which President Bush acquiesced because (as it was relayed to me) he did not want to box the new president into a narrow set of options. In March, when Obama announced his new Afghanistan strategy, I did not notice a single change from the new plan that we had given him…only Obama did not resource it with enough troops. (emphasis added)

someone is lying the question is who

The Other McCain - If Hoffman Wins all will be right with the world -

Doug Hoffman is a sworn opponent of ObamaCare. If a guy like that wins, in an underdog third-party bid where nobody gave him a snowball's chance two weeks ago, what's the message?

The message is that Democrats had better watch out in 2010. If a guy like Hoffman can win in a district that went 52% for Obama less than a year ago, it will be like a flare shot skyward from a ship on a moonless midnight. Add in a victory for Bob McConnell in Virginia (which also went for Obama last year) and any Democratic senator or congressman with half a brain is going to start thinking, "Ruh-roh. This kinda looks like 1994 all over again."

If Hoffman can pull off a miracle upset victory in NY23, it would be a shot across the bow of Obama, Pelosi and Reid that they won't be able to ignore.

What if he loses? What message does that send? It will tell the GOP conservatives can't win for one thing. It will also give Blue Dogs and RINO's cover to vote yes on Obamacare. Equal and Opposite reactions and all that.

more at memeorandum

Update - The Washington Post has a good article about a Foreign Service Officer that has resigned over the conduct of the war in Afghanistan. I don't know if I agree with him but his experiences area worth considering.

Around the Moronosphere 10/25/09 10/26/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:43:07 PDT

Went thru all my feeds didn't find much except this.

It appears that fellow admirers of one of Anita Dunn's favorite political philosophers are on the move in central India. (No, they aren't Mother Teresaists)

RAIPUR: Four policemen died in a Maoist landmine attack in central India and six rebels were killed in a shoot-out, officials said Monday, as government troops prepare to tackle a growing insurgency.

...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the insurgency, which began as a peasant uprising in 1967, as the single greatest threat to India’s internal security.— AFP

LA Times - Pakistan villagers take up guns, sticks against Taliban -

With police presence in the Swat Valley still spotty, tribesmen band together to keep trouble from returning.

...

With most of Swat back in the hands of the government after a military operation that drove the Taliban into hiding, thousands of Pakistanis in towns like Kanju have been banding together to form lashkars, or tribal militias, to help keep trouble from coming back.

Good. Hopefully they will get the support they need

NY Times - Michael Moore irks Chavistas -

During a recent appearance on ABC’s late-night program “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Mr. Moore gave an account — apparently tongue in cheek — of how he drank a bottle-and-a-half of tequila with Mr. Chávez at the Venice Film Festival in September, and how he mistook Venezuela’s burly foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro, for a bodyguard.

Those comments have created an uproar here among some of Mr. Chávez’s loyal supporters, known as Chavistas.

So now the left hates him too. Pretty quick only space aliens will be watching his movies

WaPo - U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game -

The exercise, led by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, examined the likely outcome of inserting 44,000 more troops into the country to conduct a full-scale counterinsurgency effort aimed at building a stable Afghan government that can control most of the country. It also examined adding 10,000 to 15,000 more soldiers and Marines as part of an approach that the military has dubbed "counterterrorism plus."

Both options were drawn from a detailed analysis prepared by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior commander in Afghanistan, and were forwarded to President Obama in recent weeks by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

...

One of the exercise's key assumptions is that an increase of 10,000 to 15,000 troops would not in the near future give U.S. commanders the forces they need to take back havens from the Taliban commanders in southern and western Afghanistan, where shadow insurgent governors collect taxes and run court systems based on Islamic sharia law.

Interesting, but it seems like that is the option that is getting the most attention. So despite the fact that the military has implicictly told the President that option isn't going to work they are going to try it anyway and in another 6 months we will really be in a jam. Hopefully this article will wake somebody up.

more at memeorandum

Yahoo - New bill to make seizure of US companies easier: report -

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bill to be introduced in Congress by a key ally of President Barack Obama would make it easier for the US government to seize control of troubled financial institutions that are considered too big to be allowed to fail, The New York Times reported.

Citing a senior administration official, the newspaper said the measure would be proposed this week by Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, after extensive consultations with Treasury Department officials.

The legislation would make it easier for the government to throw out the financial company's management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution, the report said.

I'm sure this has no potential for abuse.

Newt Gingrich Says He May Run For President in 2012 -

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel "a requirement as citizens that we run." His comments came during an interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning.

Not a chance. After selling out of Global Warming, and supporting unpopular candidates, there is no way he can survive the primary.

An Update

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:45:02 PDT

In my post this morning I linked to a Little Green Football's post which, based on a Talking Point Memo DC post, accused Fox of lying about being excluded from an interview. From the comments of that thread:

"You know that story that was on Fox News yesterday, claiming that Fox had been excluded from a “roundtable” interview with pay czar Ken Feinberg?

And then (according to Fox News) all the other networks stood up and said, “If Fox isn’t there, we’re not going to be there! We’re all Fox News now!”

Well, turns out it didn’t exactly happen that way."

Apparantly, according to HuffPo, it did happen that way.

According to the article at the Huffington Post Fox did request an interview,was excluded, and then when the media pool insisted they be given time they were punished by having their time cut by more than half. The Huffington Post has people actually talking on the record so that adds a little credibility.

Clemente said that when Isham presented that scenario on a conference call with the other pool members — including Fox News — "they unanimously said, instantly, no, that's not gonna fly. Either Fox is in or none of us is doing it."

Once Isham relayed that message to Treasury, Treasury cleared it with White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who approved Feinberg's interview with Fox News' Major Garrett.

Clemente said, however, that there was now a catch: every network would get two minutes with Feinberg instead of the previously planned five.

"That's not very normal," he said. "I'm told that whoever was there was absolutely militaristic about the time limit. Usually two or four or five minutes means, 'Ask your last question,' with a little flexibility. But there was none."

The last correction has been up for over 6 hours and Charles Johnson has made no correction to his original post. Far below the standards he holds others too, such as when racist comment were posted by one of his minions at Hot Air. They were posted in the middle of the night but Hot Air was castigated by Johnson and his followers because they were not immediately removed. Nice double standard.

Screenshot

Around the Moronosphere 10/25/09

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:04:34 PDT

Flopping Aces - Sunday Funnies

Instapundit - GENEROUS PAY for new Freddie Mac CFO. -

“The government-controlled mortgage finance company is giving CFO Ross Kari compensation worth as much as $5.5 million. That includes an almost $2 million cash signing bonus and a generous salary that could top $2.3 million.” It’s okay to pay him a lot. He works for the government.

How does this not send a message that the Obam administration is anti-business/anti-free enterprise?

Little Green Footballs - The White House never tried to exclude Fox News from the Fienberg interview - this is based on an article in Talking Points Memo DC, (as far left as you can go), which is based on anonymous interviews. Amazingly when this story broke none of the other networks denied it, nor did the White House. They just let Fox go on blatantly lying and took all the heat they were catching from the NY Times, Washington Post, et. al. In other fantasy news Rahm Emmanuel has appeared on Fox News Sunday every week since the election. He always brings coffee and bagels for the host and crew.

The Jawa Report - al Qaeda and Taliban on the outs? - Ronin points to an article in Foreign Policy magazine that beleives they are going in opposite directions.

Al Jazeera - Afghans condemn 'Quran-burning' -

Afghan police have fired into the air to break up a protest in Kabul by thousands of people who are condemning an alleged desecration of a copy of the Quran by foreign soldiers.

Protesters, claiming foreign forces had burned a copy of Islam's holiest book during a raid in Maidan Wardak province last week, blocked traffic in the Afghan capital for more than an hour on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for US and Nato-led forces in Afghanistan said none of their troops were involved in the incident and blamed the Taliban for spreading a false rumour that a copy of the Quran had been burned.

Charles Johnson and TPMDC checked and it was actually Fox News that burned the Koran.

Yahoo - FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat -

WASHINGTON – Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.

In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."

Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.

Related - NY Times - How an Insurance Mandate Could Leave Many Worse Off - The problems appear to boil down to two. Implicit Marginal Tax Rates:

A subtler problem is what economists call “implicit marginal tax rates.”

The fiscal reality is that not all income groups can receive equal subsidies; as a family earns more, its subsidy would probably decrease, eventually falling to zero. But then we are taking money away from the poor as they climb into higher income categories. This is a disincentive to earn more, and the strength of the disincentive increases with our initial generosity. For many people, the health insurance aid would phase out when food stamps, housing vouchers and the earned income tax credit also end and the personal income tax kicks in.

This structure of incentives would likely discourage many parents from earning a better life for their children. Congress could tweak the subsidies so they don’t phase out so quickly, but then we’re back to very high fiscal costs and subsidies for many families in the higher income classes.

and Mandate Creep:

A further problem is “mandate creep,” which we’ve seen at the state level, as groups lobby for various types of coverage — whether for acupuncture, alcoholism and fertility treatments, for example, or for chiropractor services or marriage counseling.

There are now about 1,500 insurance mandates among the various states, and hundreds of others are under consideration. The dynamic at work here is that the affected groups have a big incentive to push for mandates, while most other people are unaware of the specific issues and don’t become involved.

Because mandates don’t stay modest for long, health insurance would become all the more expensive. The Obama administration’s cost estimates haven’t considered these longer-run “political economy” issues.

That one is fairly easily dealt with in my opinion by codify a basic health plan that must be available in all states. Maybe it has a $1000 deductible and only covers non-routine and catostrophic care. If the country decides that this is the way it wants to go then that would at least allow everyone to have a safety net policy.

Cheesy Music Alert - Joi Lansing "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else"

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:48:24 PDT

It's been quite awhile since I did one of these:

I thought that these were out of some 60's movie but apparently they were specially made for a video jukebox system called a scopitone.

A 3 Minute History of Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:16:52 PDT

Around the Moronosphere 10/24/09 - The Triumphant Return

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:34:16 PDT

I don't know what to say other than it's good to be back. Let's get to this -

Doubleplusundead - Mr. Rogers leaves his neighborhood to take on government run health care

Hot Air - Did Dems just put ACORN in charge of financial regulation? -

From the pages of Government Doesn’t Listen, Part MMXLVII, we have this stunning example from the House Financial Services Committee. Yesterday, Reps. Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, and the rest of the Democrats decided to grant community organizers governing powers by giving them a role in shaping and enforcing new regulations on the American financial industry. That seems to include, although not explicitly, ACORN:

Well they do seem to know a lot about non-traditional entrepreneurship and tax law, and the founder and his brother seem to be up on their accounting skills so maybe this isn't a bad thing.

Little Green Footballs - GOP Website cost a million dollars to set up - For once mad King Charles has a point. A million bucks for that. Jeez GOP pay me 20 bucks an hour and I will blog all day and you will get better results.

memeorandum

Slashdot - The obligatory weekly Hulu is going to start charging for content post - Very first comment "new headline: Hulu may begin loosing viewers next year." I have to agree. I like Hulu but not enough to pay for it. If I am going to pay for an episode it will be through iTunes so that I can carry it around on my iPod.

No Sheeples Here opens her Saturday reach around with a pretty funny pic

I've posted this video before but it's always funny - Traction Control

BBC - Pakistan takes key Taliban town -

Pakistani troops have captured the key Taliban town of Kotkai in South Waziristan, security officials say.

...

Kotkai, home to top Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, has seen fierce fighting since Pakistan launched its South Waziristan offensive last week.

Good. Now what are they going to do with it.

Fox News - White House moving towards hybrid Afghan strategy -

The emerging strategy would largely rebuff proposals to maintain current troop levels and rely on unmanned drone attacks and elite special-operations troops to hunt individual militants, an idea championed by Biden. It is opposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Kabul, and other military officials.

One scenario under consideration, according to an official familiar with the deliberations, calls for deploying 10,000 to 20,000 U.S. reinforcements primarily to ramp up the training of the Afghan security forces. But Gen. McChrystal's request for 40,000 troops also remains on the table

I am not one of those who believes the Generals are always right but I don't see this ending well. Split down the middle plans rarely do. Combine that with the fact that McChrystal has only been in country for 6 months and has been requesting troops since essentially day one and that he is Special Forces and Special Forces main mission is working with indigenous forces so you are ignoring him on an area in which he has some expertise and it's clear this is going to be a fucking disaster.

memeorandum

LA Times - Surprise another corrupt Alaskan politician -

A court filing points to 'United States Representative A' as a recipient of thousands of dollars in gifts. The state has only one U.S. congressman -- Rep. Don Young.

NYTimes Books - The Army You Have -

The story of that transformation, and of the generals at the heart of it, is the subject of “The Fourth Star” by David Cloud, a correspondent at The New York Times from 2005 to 2007, and Greg Jaffe, the Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post. (Cloud and I met once while he worked at The Times, and we contributed to two articles together and shared a byline on a third.) This book is about four generals — David Petraeus and Peter Chiarelli, who led the transformation, and George W. Casey Jr. and John Abizaid, who were ultimately left behind by it. As “The Fourth Star” makes clear, it was only the efforts of Generals Petraeus and Chiarelli, and other like-minded officers, that saved America from a cataclysm in the Middle East.

Sounds interesting. Maybe someone should buy a copy for President Obama.

Sydney Morning Herald - Make way, USA: fast-growing economic rivals eye top spot -

THE United States may have less than half a century left as the dominant global economic power before it will share top billing with China and India, former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has predicted.

''The first half of the 21st century, a large part of it, will still be the American,'' Mr Lee, 86, told the US PBS network. ''But I believe the second half you'll have to share top places with China and also with India. Make space for them, too.''

With the economic team we have leading the country now I would say we have more like a week.

Yahoo - Al-Qaida and the Taliban: Knowing your enemy - al_Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban may be forming ties? Who would have guessed?

I'm back

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:15:29 PDT

Finally got my main computer working again so I am back.

More Multiculturalism

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:54:54 PDT

Started Persepolis - required reading for the Global Literature class. Brings back long suppressed memories of 9th grade and Mrs. Regan. Hated that woman. I may have actually become a Republican because she was a Democrat. I remember that when the Shah actually fell my friends and I couldn't believe that US was abandoning Iran. Here we are 30 years later and we are still paying for that one.

School started again today

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:31:16 PDT

It's a multi-cultural quarter as I finish off distribution requirements. World Literature, World Theater and hopefully Statistics (no multicultural aspect there so far but maybe we will have to use roman numerals or something).

Once again books are outrageously expensive, it would be nice if instructors would actually take that into consideration, but I guess that is asking to much from life.

In addition to the normal first day hassles my senses were assaulted by a bunch of Lynden LeDouche supporters (at least no Paulites were around) and some stupid ass paper called Eat The State. God I will be glad to get out of school.

This weeks rule 5 submission

noreply@blogger.com (Chad) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:42:33 PDT

courtesy of Death Race, Natalie Martinez.

It might just be me but the only way I see this girl being any hotter is if she were set on fire.