"Is Obama Dumb?"

Heh.

but Russ Smith sure is. In an article entitled, “Is Barack Obama Dumb?” he writes [emphasis mine]:

There are [the] usual caveats: Of course Obama isn’t illiterate or Bush-dumb because as Jesse Louis Jackson once said, “God doesn’t make junk,” and the intelligence-challenged just aren’t allowed near Harvard, much less become editor of that university’s Law Review.

But George W. Bush—the very model of “Bush-dumb”—was not only allowed near Harvard, he graduated from its Business School. What’s more, unlike Barack Obama, Bush is a graduate of both Harvard and Yale, having gotten his undergraduate degree from Harvard’s traditional rival Ivy.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:09 PM | Comments (974)
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I actually didn't think this would go anywhere when a coblogger -- Slu, I think, tipped me.

But it did. He pulled the ad.

Just hours after releasing it, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pulled a TV ad set to air for next weekÂ’s New York special election.

The problem was an image of a plane flying over the Manhattan skyline — meant to be a corporate jet to represent Republican Bob Turner’s support for corporate tax loopholes — that evoked anger in some corners for the echoes it brought up just days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The ad was removed from YouTube and replaced with a new edition that omitted the New York City skyline after several media outlets questioned the sensitivity of the ad.

This was a DCCC ad for Weprin, not a Weprin ad per se, but still, he's just a hapless wimp of quivering failure.

"Panicking:

"The DCCC is definitely panicking,” said one New York Democratic operative. “Even Nancy Pelosi is raising money to avoid the embarrassment of Weprin losing.”

Posted by: Ace at 04:44 PM | Comments (137)
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Thank God the SCOAMF is done.

Update [Slublog] - Are you ready for some SCOAMF? more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:50 PM | Comments (389)
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I really can't stand the sound of the SCOAMF's voice anymore. But what the hell, let's liveblog this POS.

Tonight's drinking game keywords will create or save approximately 3,000 Green Jobs™ since they're based on recycling. Specifically, old plans repackaged as the new hotness like a crappy label maker:

• Payroll tax holiday


• Unemployment extension


• Infrastructure (Infrastructure+bank=shotgun a beer)


• Immediate expensing


• Job training


• Aid to states


• Patent reform *yawn*


• Trade agreement


• Country above party

If he uses "stimulus" or "recovery" from the old version of the Newspeak dictionary, just go ahead and down everything you have.

Liveblog thingy below the fold.

Standard reminder: Your comments do not automatically display. So don't ask "Why aren't my comments displaying?" They don't display.

They're not posted comments a la chat room. Instead they go to queue, which the producers (cobloggers) read, and we post them, by hand, if we think they make a good point. more...

Posted by: andy at 02:45 PM | Comments (681)
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Bret Baier just had sketchy details. The FBI is working on a bulletin for law enforcement. The threat concerns NYC and/or DC.

When asked if the threat was "specific," a source responded "Specific enough."

This is unrelated, but that small bit of news doesn't feel like a post, so here's something else: Harry Reid is forcing Republicans to attend Obama's vanity speech, by scheduling a vote immediately after, a threat to un-cut $500 billion that was already cut.

Republicans can't leave for the night with that vote scheduled for immediately after the speech. I guess they could still not attend the speech, though.

And you know Richard Trumka will be seated next to Michelle Obama, right?

Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (199)
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Audio.

Key line:

"I am for Social Security. I want to save Social Security. It is an essential safety net for the American people. And number two, it is terrible politics. If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we will be obliterated as a party," Mitt Romney said on Sean Hannity's radio show.

And Perry's not done with the debate, either.

ast night, Romney said, “Under no circumstances would I ever say, by any measure, it’s a failure. It is working for millions of Americans.”

However, in his book “No Apology: The Case For American Greatness”, which was published just last year, Romney compared those managing Social Security to criminals, saying:

“Let’s look at what would happen if someone in the private sector did a similar thing. Suppose two grandparents created a trust fund, appointed a bank as trustee, and instructed the bank to invest the proceeds of the trust fund so as to provide for their grandchildren’s education. Suppose further that the bank used the proceeds for its own purposes, so that when the grandchildren turned eighteen, there was no money for them to go to college. What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years.”

Well, Romney seems to have turned the primary into a contest of which candidate scares the most crap out of seniors.

Wonderful.

...

He just repeated his claim that Perry would abolish SS. Hit Listen Live.

Although I don't think much of the Democrat-like attack on Perry, he continues to be a smooth operator. On Social Security, he endorses progressive indexing for higher-income recipients, which means benefit cuts.

Which, frankly, I support. The case for it is that the rate of increase in Social Security for upper income voters should be pegged to the CPI, not the much-more-generous (inflation-outstripping) wage index.

But still, benefit cuts, though I like calling it "progressive indexing."

Updates via DrewM & Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM | Comments (350)
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Geraghty notes that the DCCC has withdrawn most of its troops from Nevada-2, voting on Tuesday, in an apparent sign that they don't think the Democrat can beat Amodei.

On the other hand, they're pouring a lot of money into NY-9, meaning they think they can win, but need to get those Democrats red hot to vote.

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (75)
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Created some jobs for House investigators, at least.

The House Energy and Commerce CommitteeÂ’s investigative panel announced it will hold hearings next Wednesday on the governmentÂ’s Solyndra loan. ABC News and iWatch News have also learned that Senate investigators have begun seeking answers from the administration about the deal.

“How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?” said committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R.-Michigan, in an ABC News interview last week. “We want to know who made this decision . . . and we’re not going to stop until we get those answers.”

How did they jump to the head of the line? Oh, who could possibly answer such a question.

According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged.

George Kaiser, who has in the past been labeled a major Solyndra investor as well as a Obama donor, made three visits to the White House on March 12, 2009, and one on March 13. Kaiser has denied any direct involvement in the Solyndra deal and through a statement from his foundation said he “did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan.”

But the countless meetings at the White House seem hardly coincidental. Kaiser, in fact, is responsible for 16 of the 20 meetings that showed up on the White House logs.

Posted by: Ace at 12:24 PM | Comments (148)
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There were two ObamaCare decisions today out of the Fourth Circuit. In both majority decisions, the judges disposed of the lawsuits without reaching the merits of the law.

This is not a double-post, by the way. Just my usual sum-up of legal issues and response to other posts. I talk about the issue that Ace raised about nullification waaaaay down there below the fold. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:57 AM | Comments (42)
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Hoffa's call to arms doesn't appear to have fallen on deaf ears, as Longshoremen in Seattle chose to take a decidedly militant approach towards negotiations today:

Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/localnews2016144615/6.html
Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows...

There is a Federal restraining order on the union after death threats were made last week. This activity violates that restraining order, so it will interesting to see if Holder's justice department pursues what appears to be a slam-dunk case.

[N]obody has been arrested.

Yeah. Foreshadowing much?

The story includes a slideshow that manages to put the police in the worst light possible for the very first pic. Funny that.

courtesy of "G"

(Published out of draft by Ace.)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:48 AM | Comments (103)
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