The hits just keep on comin' -- "Mama Voted for Obama."

Which should look nice on the shelf next to "Mama Came ThisClose to Aborting You But She Missed the Deadline by Three Days Because She Was at Burning Man with a Roadie from Enuff Z'Nuff."

Thanks to Frank, whose last post concerns my putative honeymoon.

Ummm... sure. That could happen.

Posted by: Ace at 06:43 AM | Comments (2)
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Remember, though: Obama says this isn't about him.

Seriously. It's not. Don't make it about him.

Except if he wants your vote, in which case, he needs you to know: It kinda is about him.

A telling episode recounted by Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley reveals the Obama administration might be more worried than they are letting on that a Republican senator's comparison of the healthcare overhaul to Waterloo might be dangerously close to the truth.

Grassley said he spoke with a Democratic House member last week who shared Obama's bleak reaction during a private meeting to reports that some factions of House Democrats were lining up to stall or even take down the overhaul unless leaders made major changes.

"Let's just lay everything on the table," Grassley said. "A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn't going to pass if there weren't some changes made ... and the president says, 'You're going to destroy my presidency.' "

Further analysis from a quartet of Scandanavian vloggers here.

Posted by: Ace at 06:21 AM | Add Comment
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45-44.

"Oh my," as Hot Air headlines it.

But of course he won't be the Democrats' candidate.

Still, it's terrific. I can't wait 'till this broken-down nasty old bastard is put out of our misery.

Posted by: Ace at 05:39 AM | Add Comment
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:30 AM | Comments (7)
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He explains why "experiment" has become the buzzword of the day, too.

Read the whole thing. This is not nearly in the bag or anything like that -- they have the numbers, after all, and even moderate Democrats realize how badly they'll wound their party's top official if they block him. But... things are turning.

“When Americans voted for change, it was for a change from the uncertainty and economic unpredictability at the end of the Bush years,” says Alex Castellanos, the Republican message master who helped shape the RNC campaign. “But the president is giving them economic unpredictability on steroids. There is the clear sense out there that he is moving so fast on so many fronts that his health care plan cannot be well thought out.”

...

Republicans believe thereÂ’s a real chance Obama will make his own situation worse by pushing too hard. People have heard this sort of thing before. Anyone whoÂ’s bought a car, a TV or an insurance policy knows the feeling when a salesman amps up the pressure to close the deal. You need to buy this today, sign the papers right now, donÂ’t wait another minute. When that happens, the smart customer backs off a little: Why is this guy trying to rush me into this?

...

For a long time, it looked as if Republicans were flattened and hopeless while Obama moved from victory to victory. But now, the sense of energy is palpable. The GOP critique of Obama is sharper, its discipline better, its fundraising up — all just seven months after the party got its clock cleaned in both the presidential and congressional elections.

The result of the Obama experiment might not be nationalized health care, but a re-energized Republican Party.

On Fox & Friends, they offered another good talking point: Currently 90% of all Americans are covered by insurance. Obama's vaunted plan will cover, theoretically, another 7%.

So:

We're destroying the entire system to move from 90% to 97% coverage? And that 7%, of course, includes a lot of young people who think they don't need health insurance because they're young and healthy (and, in fact, they're right, according to the statistics; even more right when you consider that each young person is forced to pay way too much for health care, as he subsidizes older customers).

Oh, and the Douchebag in Chief is going to be on television yet again, prime time tomorrow night, to tell you why you MUST ACT NOW if you want the Miracle Obama Plan with two Potato-Peeling SkinWizards (TM) included free of charge. (Now how much would you pay?)

Oh, and he will of course spend some time on his favorite topic: Himself, and how friggin' awesome he is.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times Obama intends to use the news conference as a "six-month report card," to talk about "how we rescued the economy from the worst recession" and the legislative agenda moving forward, including health care and energy legislation.

This is a bad move and it will backfire. I'm jazzed at Obama's decision to lie flatly into America's face. While pre-empting more interesting programing, like Real Housewives of Argentina.

More: Doubling down on failure.

"We're using every single lever that we can to get our message across," said senior adviser David Axelrod. That includes presidential visits this week to two hospitals, a trip to Cleveland for a town-hall meeting and a conference call urging bloggers to motivate their followers.

Followers? Well, on the left, I suppose.

And You Guys Thought That Obama's Utter Lack of Executive -- or Even Real Job-Type Job -- Experience Would Be a Problem: Democrats "baffled" as Obama votes present on pretty much every key detail of that health care plan he tells us it's time to start talking about and just pass.

Even though it's not written. Even though the basic parameters of it haven't been agreed to.

As the prospects for passing health reform by the time Congress leaves for its August recess look bleaker, Democratic grumbling about President Obama is growing louder. One Democratic senator tells CNN congressional Democrats are “baffled,” and another senior Democratic source tells CNN members of the president’s own party are still “frustrated” that they’re not getting more specific direction from him on health care. “We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on the Hill are looking for is for the president to weigh in and make decisions on outstanding issues. Instead of sending out his people and saying the president isn’t ruling anything out, members would like a little bit of clarity on what he would support – especially on how to pay for his health reform bill,” a senior Democratic congressional source tells CNN.

Posted by: Ace at 04:49 AM | Add Comment
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Which demographics he found to be bitterly clinging to Bibles and/or Torahs, I don't know.

I'm sure curious though.

Big Correction/Retraction: Village Idiot and Christoph point out this story is unverified. In fact, it appears to just be a post by some guy with a fake internet handle.

I didn't realize that. I didn't know LiveLeak allowed community members to post stories unvetted. I assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that if this was on LiveLeak, it was vetted, the same way Yahoo has some organization in place to post its stories.

In other words, I thought it was posted by LiveLeak, not merely on LiveLeak.

So this appears to be a big fat misfire on my part. I didn't realize how little there was here. Even if it had been LiveLeak-vetted, it wouldn't be rock solid (but I would have been inclined to post it), but it's not even that.

Apologies for the carelessness. Sorry about this.

I've changed the headline from "Hmmm:" to "Claim:," "Claim" being my usual way of signaling sketchy sourcing. However, in this case, I wouldn't have posted it even as a "Claim:" story if I'd been more careful and checked more into the details about who was posting this.

So, it's not really a "Claim" at all. It's just something an anonymous guy posted on the internet. I'm putting "Claim" in there not to save the post (it's an unsalvagabele error) but just to warn people earlier about the dubious nature of this.

What I'd really like to do is simply delete it, to prevent bad information from traveling further (and to spare myself embarrassment), but I can't, as there's this rule about not burying errors, even when (as is the case here) there's a pretty good reason to do so.

Posted by: Ace at 08:10 PM | Comments (15)
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While the rest of the world squeezes them.

TEGUCIGALPA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Honduras' interim government on Tuesday gave 72 hours to Venezuelan diplomats to leave, accusing them of threatening to use force and interfering into the country's internal affairs.

"The Foreign Ministry has requested the honorable embassy of Venezuela the withdrawal of its administrative, technical and diplomatic staff in a term of 72 hours due to the threats of using force, the interference in internal issues as well as the lack of respect to the territorial integrity," Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado said

It's a damned shame they have to couch it in terms of "request". But that's what they're up against.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:45 PM | Comments (3)
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I'm geeking out over here because of the Game of Thrones casting news. First, an amusing headline: "Sean Bean to star in HBO's 'Thrones'". The part he'll be playing? Eddard Stark. So, starring, I suppose...

Others cast include Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon, and Harry Lloyd (greatx3-grandson of Charles Dickens) as Viserys Targaryen. Newcomer Kit Harrington has been cast as Jon Snow, but there's no info on him or whether he's up to the part.

They still have to cast some rather important roles: Catelyn Stark, Arya Stark (one of my favorites), and, of course Cersei and Jaime Lannister. Shooting of the pilot episode starts in October.

I suppose I should warn that the comments to this post may contain spoilers for the series.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:51 PM | Comments (2)
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Terms and Conditions: None. We will issue no quarter and we will accept none.

Today (or maybe two days ago…it’s hard to think clearly through this mist of pink, pork-colored rage which clouds my thinking) a blogger at IMAO named “Basil” dared to insult ham and by association all other delicious pork products (including bacon) by questioning its value under current economic recovery programs. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised considering this outrage comes from a blogger named after an herb (and who’s probably a secret chicken-lover as well.)

As evidence, he cites this procurement document from Recovery.gov which alleges to show a contracted purchase order for two pounds of ham for $1,191,200. To which I say: so what? Is there any price that can truly be placed on ham and ham-related products? Hell no! He then goes on further to compare ham to cheese, which is simply unforgivable and will not stand.

So I ask you: Will you stand up and fight against this porkism? Or simply drink yourselves into a stupor as you do every night on the ONT (and btw, you can actually do both…they’re not really mutually exclusive). Go forth, holy porkwarriors of the night, and rain down mockery and scorn against these heretics at IMAO. Before you destroy them and drive them from the field of battle it’s worth your time to check out their latest edition of “lolterizt.” But just briefly, because you have some carnage, slaying and butchery to take care of.

Hat tip to Bruce at And Still I Persist who has been a long time friend of pork. Sponsor/anthem below the fold.
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:40 PM | Add Comment
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Last week the AMA endorsed ObamaCare.

Pure horsetrading, as it turns out.

Those increased fees for Medicaid doctors' payments that Obama forgot to budget? Payoff to the AMA.

In the bill, Democrats provide $245 billion to eliminate an annual shortfall in payments to doctors under Medicare. Democrats resolved this annual headache, in large part, to win crucial support for the bill from the American Medical Association. That money currently counts against the overall costs of the bill, but Democrats have introduced legislation that would remove remove this obligation from federal deficit.

As they say: Every professional organization is a conspiracy against non-members.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

And, from the department of jaw-dropping irony, Barack Obama accuses opponents of BammyCare of utilizing "scare tactics."

Uh-huh. The guy attempting to bull-rush this through, predicting dire happenings in 20+ years if this isn't passed within the next two weeks, claims his opponents are using "scare tactics."

Thanks to Slublog for that.

Posted by: Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (5)
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