What's on your mind?

I'm wondering what kind of power 'heart' is, anyway (see pic below the fold). more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:28 PM | Comments (323)
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

Looks like NY got very lucky last night.

"It appeared that [the bomb] was in the process of detonating and malfunctioned," said police spokesman Paul Browne.

A street vendor alerted a policeman on mounted patrol—Wayne Rhatigan, 47 years old, a 19-year-veteran of the force. In an interview, Mr. Rhatigan said he smelled gunpowder coming from the vehicle and went toward it, thinking it could explode at any second. He grabbed two other officers to help move people away from the smoking Pathfinder as he called for backup at 6:34 p.m.

Police blocked the area from West 43rd to 47th streets along Broadway and Seventh Avenue with metal railings. Parts of West 48th Street were also closed. Most of the streets were reopened Sunday morning after police removed the Pathfinder.

Police later said the Pathfinder was spotted on security video at 6:28 p.m. The video wasn't clear enough to identify the driver and no videos have been found showing the suspect in the attack, police said.

Interesting note about the location of the attempted attack.

The dark green Nissan Pathfinder with tinted windows was parked near the junction of 45th Street and Broadway.

The location is also adjacent to the Viacom building, fuelling speculation that it might be linked to the company's controversial South Park cartoon which recently depicted Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

Could be a conincidence. Or not.

Since no one was hurt (this time), an amusing observation from TV's Andy Levy. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 09:45 AM | Comments (394)
Post contains 276 words, total size 2 kb.

It's surprising to me this hasn't happened already. (NYT link)

Police officials said they received a report about 6:30 p.m. of smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street just west of Seventh Avenue. The authorities found a smoking package in the vehicle and now believe it was a bomb. A bomb squad was sent to the scene.

The package did not explode, and officials said they did not know whether it was related to terrorism.

Allow me to help here. It's related to terrorism, because it creates terror.

You're welcome.

Update [Gabe]: Local news, WNBC, is reporting that the police have found three propane & two gasoline tanks, burnt wiring, and "something resembling an IED" inside the vehicle.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:06 PM | Comments (491)
Post contains 133 words, total size 1 kb.

Today is May Day otherwise known as Communist Victim Day.

The 4 Chord Song!

Here Aussie musical comedy group Axis of Awesome show that all you need to have a hit song is the right 4 chords. And in case you're wondering they're playing a I V vi IV progression in E. If you include the classic I IV V progression and the Ice Cream changes (I vi IV V) that pretty much defined 50's music, I bet you've covered 75%+ of all pop songs. So go write a 4 chord song and you too can have a hit.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:44 PM | Comments (932)
Post contains 572 words, total size 7 kb.

This does not bode well for a fast recovery of the construction or real estate business.

...the forces driving today's action couldn't be more different from those during the boom. Back then, people wanted to renovate their places so that they could trade up to bigger homes, or because their home equity was soaring and they wanted to reinvest some of the spoils.

Now, the opposite is happening: Many people who bought during the boom years are accepting the reality that they won't soon be swapping up for a sybaritic spread. Their mortgages may remain above water, but after years of falling home prices, their equity is so low that the transaction costs of buying a new house would leave little for a down payment...

In short, they are stuck.

...So these people are making their homes more comfortable for a longer-than-expected stay. Setting aside old calculations of how much a particular improvement will add to resale value, they are making smaller tweaks that can make a big difference in livability. You might call it "psychological return on investment."...

I'll certainly vouch for the notion of "psychological ROI". Doing all the electrical upgrades on my own crib recently has dramatically increased its usability and utility. There's very little that annoys me about the place anymore in that regard.

I'm doing some similar electrical usability work for a neighbor who has decided they're going to be in their house for a while. Not to the extent that I did with my joint of course, since I value my time at $0.00 when I work on something I want, because I want it.

Still, there were a number of modest material cost, "high impact" things we've done like adding recessed lights over the kitchen sink, a light for the pantry and shower (which were like caves), and adding an additional counter top circuit since they were tripping a 20A breaker constantly and adding some extra lights in the attic.

Its been shocking the number of egregious code violations I've fixed along the way. The electrical inspectors in Palm Beach must have passed houses based on the thickness of the envelopes they were slipped by the builders.

So, how long can this "modest remodel" trend continue? At some point people will have gotten everything done they wanted done. A couple of years? Five at most? At some point budgets will be expended and/or everything done. Undoubtedly a lot of this modest remodel work will be done on a cash basis or by the homeowner if they're capable. I don't see this as a long term economic engine for the economy, rather an indicator that people who are still employed or retired are realizing the lost decade(s) are upon us.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 03:53 PM | Comments (146)
Post contains 509 words, total size 3 kb.

In about 20 minutes on NBC.

Posted by: Ace at 02:04 PM | Comments (87)
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Here's CNN's headline:

Stimulus created nearly 683,000 jobs in first quarter

Created. Got that?

Here's the first line of the article:

The White House's $787 billion stimulus plan funded 682,779 jobs in the first quarter, administration officials said Friday.

Funded. Very different from "created."

Remember, the White House first wanted to change the criteria by which it would be judged from "created" -- the guage of every previous president -- to "created or saved," the latter being impossible to calculate and furthermore, being a wholly novel metric concocted only to benefit Obama, has no historical record against which to judge it. That is to say, even if we accept this metric as valid, how do we know if Obama is "saving or creating" more jobs than average, since we've never before measured this? Maybe Bush "saved or created" a lot more jobs.

At some point the White House decided that this made-up statistic was still too tough for Obama, so they changed their definition to "saved, or created, or funded." Merely funded. That is, if a dollar of federal money goes into paying/subsidizing a salary, that job counts as "saved or created or funded," as it was funded, after all. Whether or not it was saved or not is anyone's guess, but it was indeed funded.

It's also perfectly irrelevant. We care about the number of jobs in America, not whether the government is putting a little money to subsidize this one or that.

At any rate, Obama has now changed the standard by which he will be judged into something absolutely meaningless.

But look what CNN does here. Rather than headline the article with the meaningless "Obama Funds 682,779 jobs," they decide to amp up his accomplishment to Obama creates 682,779 jobs.

"Creating" jobs is the exact metric Obama has been running away from, because it so disfavors him. He has now reduced his burden twice, first to merely "saving" jobs, and then to even-more-merely "funding" them.

But CNN nevertheless gives him full credit in the headline for achieving the very Obama insists it would be unfair to measure him by.

Pretty cool, huh? First CNN rolls over and decides that sure, Obama is so special -- and apparently deserving of special treatment -- that he will be held to a meaningless standard for which there is no historical benchmark, thus ensuring his "success." Or, at least, no proof of his failure, as we simply have no other numbers to compare.

And then, having acceded to him on that, they nevertheless turn around and credit him for having met a real and verifiable goal which Obama himself refuses to be judged by.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (119)
Post contains 453 words, total size 3 kb.

I made up that last part, but you know they're thinking it.

Seventeen people have been detained in the search for suspects in Fridays shooting of Pinal County Sheriffs Deputy Louis Puroll by suspected drug smugglers in an isolated area of south-central Arizona.

Pinal County Lt. Tami Villar says 14 of those detained are suspected of being illegal immigrants, while three match the description given of the shooters give by Puroll.

The 14 suspected illegal immigrants are being held by Border Patrol, while the three suspects are being questioned by the Pinal SheriffÂ’s office.

Background at Hot Air. They shot a cop and then shot at the helicopters tracking them.

But let's ignore this mayhem because it's politically inconvenient for our Cultural Masters in DC and it's better that Arizonans should die and be terrorized than that our Cultural Masters should be disturbed off their talking points.

Peggy Noonan's column is worth reading in full.

We are at a remarkable moment. We have an open, 2,000-mile border to our south, and the entity with the power to enforce the law and impose safety and order will not do it. Wall Street collapsed, taking Main Street's money with it, and the government can't really figure out what to do about it because the government itself was deeply implicated in the crash, and both political parties are full of people whose political careers have been made possible by Wall Street contributions. Meanwhile we pass huge laws, bills so comprehensive, omnibus and transformative that no one knows what's in them and no one—literally, no one—knows how exactly they will be executed or interpreted. Citizens search for new laws online, pore over them at night, and come away knowing no more than they did before they typed "dot-gov."

It is not that no one's in control. Washington is full of people who insist they're in control and who go to great lengths to display their power. It's that no one takes responsibility and authority. Washington daily delivers to the people two stark and utterly conflicting messages: "We control everything" and "You're on your own."

All this contributes to a deep and growing alienation between the people of America and the government of America in Washington.

...

The establishments of the American political parties, and the media, are full of people who think concern about illegal immigration is a mark of racism. If you were Freud you might say, "How odd that's where their minds so quickly go, how strange they're so eager to point an accusing finger. Could they be projecting onto others their own, heavily defended-against inner emotions?" But let's not do Freud, he's too interesting. Maybe they're just smug and sanctimonious.

The American president has the power to control America's borders if he wants to, but George W. Bush and Barack Obama did not and do not want to, and for the same reason, and we all know what it is. The fastest-growing demographic in America is the Hispanic vote, and if either party cracks down on illegal immigration, it risks losing that vote for generations.

But while the Democrats worry about the prospects of the Democrats and the Republicans about the well-being of the Republicans, who worries about America?

No one. Which the American people have noticed, and which adds to the dangerous alienation—actually it's at the heart of the alienation—of the age.

In the past four years, I have argued in this space that nothing can or should be done, no new federal law passed, until the border itself is secure. That is the predicate, the common sense first step. Once existing laws are enforced and the border made peaceful, everyone in the country will be able to breathe easier and consider, without an air of clamor and crisis, what should be done next. What might that be? How about relax, see where we are, and absorb. Pass a small, clear law—say, one granting citizenship to all who serve two years in the armed forces—and then go have a Coke. Not everything has to be settled right away. Only controlling the border has to be settled right away.

Instead, our national establishments deliberately allow the crisis to grow and fester, ignoring public unrest and amusing themselves by damning anyone's attempt to deal with the problem they fear to address.

Why does the federal government do this? Because so many within it are stupid and unimaginative and don't trust the American people. Which of course the American people have noticed.

If the federal government and our political parties were imaginative, they would understand that it is actually in their interests to restore peace and order to the border. It would be a way of demonstrating that our government is still capable of functioning, that it is still to some degree connected to the people's will, that it has the broader interests of the country in mind.

The American people fear they are losing their place and authority in the daily, unwinding drama of American history. They feel increasingly alienated from their government. And alienation, again, is often followed by deep animosity, and animosity by the breaking up of things. If our leaders were farsighted not only for themselves but for the country, they would fix the border.

Good Point: Allah notes at the end of this post on Connie Mack calling the Arizona law "Gestapo-like" that would presumably make the shooting of the cop moral and justified -- you're supposed to resist the Gestapo with force, right?

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (241)
Post contains 940 words, total size 6 kb.

There is hopeful.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds that 66% believe cutting taxes is a better way to create new jobs than increasing government spending. ThatÂ’s up seven points from January.

Just 18% think increasing government spending is the better way to go. Another 16% are not sure.

Sixty-five percent (65%) say decisions made by U.S. business leaders to help their own businesses grow will do more to create jobs than decisions made by government officials. Twenty-five percent (25%) say decisions made by government officials to create jobs will do more.

For the cost of Obama's spendulus, the U.S. could have had an income tax moratorium for a year. That would have been economic stimulus. Instead, Obama and his cronies spent the money on butt lickers and pet projects that went unsubsidized by the taxpayer during the Bush years.

Oh, but read the next sentence:

Still, 69% of voters say it is at least somewhat important for the government to launch a new program designed to create jobs, with 50% who believe it is very important. Only 27% say such a program is not very or not at all important.

I take it back.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:33 AM | Comments (108)
Post contains 224 words, total size 2 kb.

Confession: when the Rielle Hunter story broke in the Enquirer (the first Rielle Hunter story to break in the Enquirer, I mean) I thought we should pass on it. It was the Enquirer; it was just the sort of salacious thing that sounds more true the more the accused denies it; it was hard for me to believe that someone who has 24-hour press coverage and a well-known coif could be that stupid. And I felt bad for the cancer-stricken wife and his confused kids.

Well, here we are again.

PRESIDENT OBAMA has been caught in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide, sources say.

And now, a hush-hush security video that shows everything could topple both ObamaÂ’s presidency and marriage to Michelle!

A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions. While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Click over and read the rest, I'll wait.

So notice. The story is based on: (1) a video tape that no one has seen; (2) money offered by "anti-Obama operatives" to find witnesses to this event that may not have happened; and (3) an old 2004 event, not a recent tryst.

It looks to me like the Enquirer just recycled the old Vera Baker story that made the rounds during the campaign. Also, note the Enquirer has sharply "updated" its article to remove many of the details of its original report. Joyner has the original version at the link.

But... [ace]: The story really didn't "make the rounds" during the campaign. It was shopped to ABC and the Enquirer, and ABC, I'm told, didn't bother with it but in turn shopped it to a British paper, which did run it. Blogs mentioned it (including this one) but no media in America touched it.

I doubt much will come of this, but just on a personal level, I'm happy the National Enquirer is running it, just because it makes me look like less of a nut for pushing it.

This old Confederate Yankee post has details about the allegations. It seems like the Enquirer has the same story with the same particulars, but are slow-rolling their release. Like, we know the hotel in question is the Hotel George, but the Enquirer just says "a hotel" for now.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:13 AM | Comments (110)
Post contains 450 words, total size 3 kb.