We wondered what would happen without his safety blankie teleprompter, now we know.

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

When asked about the remark, the White House had no comment.

I'll be right back.

*currently looking for retard pics of the president*

Success:

From the Indispensable Slublog.

And another: By Damiano.

(Yes, I know I'm going to Hell. Don't write letters.) more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:06 PM | Comments (16)
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The night games are under way.

I'm 7 out of 8 in the early games...good for a very multi-way tie for 37th. Oy.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:00 PM | Add Comment
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Good article about yesterday's (or was it Tuesday's?) Fed buy-up of long term Treasuries, essentially swapping debt for newly-printed cash.

One of the biggest monetary gambles in history.

I don't immediately reject moves like this, because, if there really is a threat of deflation, some inflation is needed to check it.

But it is dangerous.

What is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke really trying to do? He wants to unfreeze the “credit crunch” that is making it too expensive or even impossible for U.S. consumers and businesses to borrow money, which was the trigger for the current recession. The Fed directly controls only the shortest-term interest rates. But consumer purchases (including mortgages) and business investments are sensitive to longer-term interest rates. QE is the Fed’s way of trying to reduce real interest rates in the 2 to 10-year range of the spectrum.

This is also the biggest experiment in monetary policy in history. Milton Friedman is known for having explained the genesis of the Great Depression in monetary terms. Bernanke, a close student of the early Depression, is determined to prevent the wicked asset deflation of 1930-32 that ruined so many lives. At what cost? Well, the FedÂ’s balance sheet just grew by $1.15 trillion: itÂ’s now 50% bigger than it was a day ago. ThatÂ’s a scary amount of inflation.

Oil Hits 2009 High of $52/bbl: As the dollar is cheapened further.

And bear in mind: Oil prices will continue going up due first to inflation and then (hopefully) to increasing demand, assuming we recover, and our TPOTUS and his shit-for-brains Congress has refused to increase domestic drilling by a single drop.

Posted by: Ace at 01:49 PM | Add Comment
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Behold the power of this fully-operational Meme Star.

Funny, all the JournoList bloggers (and fellow travelers) are eagerly repeating Tim Geithner's claim that the AIG bonus controversy is a "distraction."

Maguire:

Don't think of the JournoList as an echo chamber - think of it as a time saver!

Let me suggest one enhancement - why couldn't they just designate one message as the JL Theme of the Day and post it at a dedicated blog. That would save us even more time since we wouldn't be seeing the same message kicked around in non-echo chamberish fashion at multiple blogs. Of course, the downside is that we would miss the pleasure of seeing different artists present their cover version of the tune of the day. Tough call.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 01:26 PM | Add Comment
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Nearly as smart as Hillary.

One problem with this report: It doesn't say how much stock Obama actually bought. If it were a small amount, it's hard to make the case he was trading with information gained as a Senatorial insider.

The article's focus on percent profit rather than gross profit makes me think it wasn't a lot of stock.

Still, I'd like to know for certain.

Thanks to Arthur.

$5,000 on AVI Biopharma, and Another $50,000 on Another Insidery Company That's a lot of stock.

Numbers above corrected.

More: The predictable NYT whitewash.

Something Here? Tipped to me as the best recap by, um, "Assman."

Ozymandias, the smartest man in the world.

Public filings show that Obama bought somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of Skyterra shares in February 2005. Burton says there was a mistake made on the senator's disclosure form and that he actually invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in shares of Skyterra. The discrepancy is in the process of being corrected.

Alas, he does not seem to have made money on that one -- lost $15,000 or so.

On the other hand, there's AVI Biopharma.

OMB Watch reports that AVI received $164,078 in 2004 for research grants. In the first three quarters of 2005, the year that Obama made his trades in the stock, that amount increased nearly three times to $471,696.

...

Burton says the Senator recorded a profit of roughly $2,000 on the trade, leaving him in the red for his stock trading in 2005 by $13,000.

Not a lot of money. It's still quite possible he was making these trades based on insider tips -- tips, in the case of Skyterra, that didn't pan out. But it looks difficult to prove.

Seems like a dry hole.

Posted by: Ace at 12:53 PM | Comments (2)
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As long suspected -- though no one in the American media would dare to ask. They didn't even cover the story, so of course they wouldn't want to make it even more embarrassing.

Yes, indeed, Super-Diplomatic Ultra-Charming Globe-Trotting Mega-Sophisticate forgot that American-coded DVD's won't work in British DVD players:

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.

A Downing Street spokesman said he was "confident" that any gift Obama gave Brown would have been "well thought through," but referred me to the White House for assistance on the "technical aspects".

A White House spokesman sniggered when I put the story to him and he was still looking into the matter when my deadline came last night.

Yes, it's a sniggering matter, no doubt.

Gee, which White House spokesman routinely sniggers and giggles at every fucking question put to him?

I have no idea who it could have possibly been. But let's just say he's the Gibbs who keeps on gibbing.

Thanks to Ken.

Bleg: Canceled. Slublog came through.

Chris Matthews' Spin? If Matthews mentions this (which of course he won't), perhaps he can argue this is Barack Obama's thoughtful, diplomatic way of saying, "You're so important to me I'm trying to force you to spend at least 50 more hours visiting in America."

By the Way: For those idiot liberals arguing this is no big deal...

Really? Not a big deal?

Then why did the PM's office leak this embarrassing detail and call to complain?

If they weren't pissed, they'd have let it slide.

They didn't. Their own diplomacy is sending the signal, loud and clear, that We are not amused.

Is it too much to ask that Obama get the most basic, simple diplomacy right?

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (3)
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Pretty cool lookin. South Pacific undersea volcanic eruption, near Tonga.

Everybody knows where Tonga is.

Why do I want a cigarette now?

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:41 AM | Add Comment
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Nuance:

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?

NAPOLITANO: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

The Obama Administration

It's euphelicious!

Snark: TMF --

I think its best not to be like Bush, whose scarywords were constantly terrorizing my fearmind.

Posted by: Ace at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)
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The cold-blooded killer Marines? I guess so.

The Citation reads:

Congressman MurthaÂ’s selfless devotion to the NationÂ’s Sailors and Marines ensured they were provided the resources necessary to effectively conduct the Global War on Terrorism....

Selfless devotion. Fought for the resources necessary for the WoT. Like so:

This morning at the Republican Conference meeting, House Minority Leader John Boehner told members to vote against the supplemental funding request if Democrats insist on including John MurthaÂ’s latest Iraq plan in it. MurthaÂ’s plan, while fully funding the war, would place so many requirements on troop readiness that it would actually be impossible to find 21,500 qualifying soldiers to be deployed.

Or thus:

On November 17, 2005, Murtha submitted the H.J. Res. 73 in the House of Representatives, calling for the redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq, saying, "The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home.”[21]

The bill cited that lack of progress of towards stabilizing Iraq, the possibility that a draft would be required to sustain sufficient troop numbers, Iraqi disapproval of US forces and approval of attacks on the soldiers, and the increasing costs of the war. The bill proposed that deployment to Iraq be suspended and that US Marines establish a "over-the-horizon" presence in nearby countries.[22]

Of course he did eventually credit the surge he tried to stop as having worked. Here's his explanation -- the surge worked because our troops stopped murdering people:

Murtha: I think they have 17 or so guidelines and theyÂ’ve solved 4 or 5 of them. . .

Murtha: I think the short term it (the Bush Surge) has reduced incidents. IÂ’m not sure if itÂ’s because the Iraqis are just worn out but certainly the way they are doing it today it makes a big difference. It used to be we broke down doors. We went in and we killed people inadvertently. Now theyÂ’re much more careful about it.

Elections have consequences.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (185)
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She needs a bill to do so -- which will likely be defeated, I'm guessing.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (7)
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