47 heads of state gathered and what happened?

Well, Ukraine, Canada and Chile agreed to ship some uranium to the United States. That's, um, nice but probably didn't require a two day show.

Oh and they agreed this is real important stuff and they will meet again in a few years.

World leaders concluding a 47-nation nuclear security conference on Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama's call for securing all of the globe's vulnerable nuclear materials within four years — but offered few specifics for achieving that goal.

Aiming for quick action, the United States declared that the Obama administration had submitted to Congress legislation to bring U.S. laws into line with two treaties: one to crack down on potential nuclear terrorism and one on the physical protection of nuclear materials.

Obama had called the summit to focus world attention on keeping such dangerous materials out of terrorist hands, a peril he termed the greatest threat facing all nations.

...

The summiteers announced that a follow-up nuclear security conference will be held in South Korea in 2012.

President Lee Myung-bak told reporters that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will not get an invitation until the North gives up its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.

North Korea's efforts — and its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that sets the rules of the road for nuclear technology — kept it out of the Washington summit. Syria, which is suspected by the U.S. and others of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions, also was not invited.

How do you know this summit was an event looking for some real news? The US and Russians announced a deal to shut down a Russian weapons reactor. Thing is, that deal had already been announced. As we might say here at the HQ, it's old.

Granted nuclear terrorism is an important issue but it's not actually the most important issue when it comes to nukes. Iran is. There's nothing that this summit did that couldn't have been handled at a lower level. But perhaps something dramatic could have been done on Iran. The thing is when it comes to getting agreement, Iran is hard, terrorism is easy.

It's almost as if Obama did something for show and not, I don't know, real results.

On the upside, it did give Obama a chance to bow to a despot.

Meanwhile, the health care law is unpopular and the economy is in the tank and will be for the foreseeable future but Obama got some happy press, so it's all good.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:12 PM | Comments (495)
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Obama and Congress take note -- THIS is what leading by example looks like.

/Instapundit mode

I thought about sidebar'ing this, but I didn't want it to just fly by unnoticed. This is precisely the sort of thing our overlords should be doing to demonstrate to the serfs that the "burden is being shared", but NOOOOO, our oblivion beltway royalty votes themselves pay raises and demands 7/24 access to Gulfstreams on our dime.

You know what? FTS. FTS Hard. We're starting to notice.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:54 AM | Comments (146)
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And by "right wingers", I of course mean thug union bosses.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie refused to back down Tuesday from his demand that teachers take a pay freeze and start contributing to their health care benefits as the state teachers union declined to take action against a local boss who prayed for the governor's death.

...Christie, a first-term Republican, told Fox News that he met with New Jersey Education Association Chief Barbara Keshishian on Monday to discuss the schools funding formula and an e-mail sent by Bergen County Education Association President Joe Coppola that mocked the governor.

...Keshishian apologized for the memo but refused to oblige Christie's request that Coppola be fired.

"If a member of my staff ... had said something like that about her, they'd be demanding his resignation. But you know what? They wouldn't have had to wait because I'd have fired him,' Christie said. He said Kershishian responded to the request by saying no.

"And she left my office, in a huff," he added.

Meanwhile, Christie is sticking to his "no more means no more" plan when it comes to high paid, low producing state employees. He's taking the standard liberal whining and throwing it back in their faces.

The children will be the ones to suffer from your education cuts. "The real question is, who's for the kids, and who's for their raises? This isn't about the kids. Let's dispense with that portion of the argument. Don't let them tell you that ever again while they are reaching into your pockets."

Your policies favor the rich. "We have the worst unemployment in the region and the highest taxes in America, and that's no coincidence."

Why not renew the 'millionaire's tax'? "The top 1% of taxpayers in New Jersey pay 40% of the income tax. In addition, we've got a situation where that tax applies to small businesses. I'm simply not going to put my foot on the back of the neck of small business while I want them to try to grow jobs by giving more revenue to New Jersey."

Budget cuts are unfair. "The special interests have already begun to scream their favorite word—which, coincidentally, is my 9-year-old son's favorite word when we are making him do something he knows is right but does not want to do—'unfair.' . . . One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life, and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits—a total of $3.8 million on a $120,000 investment. Is that fair?"

If Republicans and conservatives are ever going to instill some fiscal sanity on out of control governments, it's going to take not only true believers like Christie but people who can fight the liberals at their own soundbite game.

I'm not sure how this will turn out, it's New Jersey after all, but Republicans around the country really need to keep an eye on this. As New Jersey native Frank Sinatra might have said, if fiscal sanity can make it there, it can make it anywhere.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:22 AM | Comments (167)
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Just got back from voting.

I was the precinct's only customer at around 1:15pm.

The workers stated business was slow all day which is not surprising because the Palm Beach supervisor of elections did NOT send out any notices that an election was in fact happening today. One of the election workers also noted that major FAIL remarking that her parents were unaware until today that an election was scheduled.

There were three candidates on the ballot: Deutch(D), Lynch(R), and some other independent dweeb claiming a Republican past who was obviously a Dem plant to split the R's giving Deutch the plurality in a close one.

I expect this deceptive pattern to continue and expand as Nov rolls around. Spurious "independent" candidates will be crawling out of the woodwork.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 10:22 AM | Comments (113)
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Yeah, I know. Gabe is our go-to guy on International Law; however, I wanted to jump in with a couple of observations on court cases that impact us here in the US of A.

First, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, the jurist who issued an arrest warrant for Augusto Pinochet in 1998 using the concept of "universal jurisdiction", has been indicted for ... "ignoring a 1977 amnesty law and exceeding his jurisdiction in his investigation of the alleged atrocities committed by Gen. Francisco Franco and his allies during the Spanish Civil War and under the Franco regime".

It's Interesting that the Spanish government was willing to sit idly by and let him indict Pinochet, investigate members of the Bush Administration for crimes against humanity, and even indict Osama bin Laden - BUT as soon as he started "goring their ox", he gets slapped with legal charges.

("Interesting", in my local vernacular, usually means "yeah, that's about what I thought was going to happen")

In a somewhat related issue, which I found through the Volokh link to Overlawyered, it seems that Pope Benedict is facing legal issues in Britainistan. Lawyers engaged by noted Religious Gadflies Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are looking into ways to not only try to bar Pope Benedict from visiting Britainistan in September, but even have him hauled into the dock to answer for ....... crimes against humanity.

I'll leave the issues of law to the lawyers, (what constitutes a True State, who possesses "universal jurisdiction", will Lionel Hutz be representing the Catholic Church in this case) but I just wanted to ask a question myself.

If the Pope is determined to be immune to International Law as a Head of State, how could he ever be stopped? Garlic? Silver bullets? Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call" being played at high volume in his vicinity? And exactly how long does it take for you to turn into a Catholic after being bitten by the pope? I need answers. Pope Benedict seems like a nice enough fella, but you can never be too careful, I always say.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 10:21 AM | Comments (78)
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ROCKET. FREAKING. SCIENTISTS.

The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.

The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.

Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.

If these drool bib wearing imbeciles can't even get it right for themselves, what shot do you have with this? Expect more hilarity to ensue. Even if its a complete economic disaster, ObamaCare will be providing us with a steady stream of comic relief for many years to come. Even in a depression, people need to be able to laugh, and that's worth something, right?

The real shocker here is that the NYT ran this profoundly embarrassing story at all. It is something they easily could have ignored, but chose not to.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:47 AM | Comments (406)
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The Tea Party keeps on growing.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of U.S. voters now say they consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. ThatÂ’s an eight-point increase from 16% a month ago.

Another 10% say they are not a part of the movement but have close friends or family members who are.

Forty-two percent (42%) of Republicans say they are part of the movement, compared to nine percent (9%) of Democrats and 24% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Mainstream voters view themselves as Tea Party members, while 84% of the Political Class say they have no ties to the movement.

The Democrats are probably wondering why their hit-pieces in the legacy media are falling on deaf ears.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:27 AM | Comments (148)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:14 AM | Comments (105)
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Why?

I hope it's wink-wink spending more time with the family and not really spending more time with the family.

Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, one of America's most prominent labor leaders, is set to resign, according to a member of the union's board and another SEIU official.

The President of an SEIU local based in Seattle, Diane Sosne, broke the news to her staffers at 11:35 this morning, local time.

"Last night I received confirmation that Andy Stern is resigning as President of SEIU. He has not yet made a public announcement; we will share the details as we become aware of them," Sosne wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO.

Sosne offered no explanation for the move, but another SEIU official speculated that Stern had finally tired of the draining job.

"Health care getting done is a good culmination," the official said.

An even better culmination? Getting caught with hookers and diet pills.

Posted by: Ace at 06:43 PM | Comments (167)
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Welcome to the Monday.

For all the Simpsons Fans
This is a clip from James Lipton's Inside The ActorÂ’s Studio with the entire Simpsons' cast riffing in their character voices. And man does Nancy Cartwright have a high voice.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:46 PM | Comments (810)
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