The President used his weekly address to continue to push for the Buffett Rule, and he gave a brand new spin for it. Remember, first it was for deficit reduction. The CBO put that little lie to rest. Then it was for "fairness," but swing independents weren't buying it. Now, the justification for raising taxes is to promote economic growth.

"As many Americans rush to file their taxes this weekend, itÂ’s worth pointing out that weÂ’ve got a tax system that doesnÂ’t always uphold the principle of everyone doing their part," Obama said in the address posted online Saturday.

"This is not just about fairness, this is also about growth,” he added. “It’s about being able to make the investments we need to strengthen our economy and create jobs. And it’s about whether we as a country are willing to pay for those investments.

Anyone who believes that the federal government is going to boost growth by taking money from successful people and giving it to Solyndra-like boondoggles is an utter fool. Democrats just eat this horsepoop up by the shovelful and it doesn't make any sense, whatsoever.

The whole foundation of the Buffett Rule is that the capital gains tax rate is less than the income tax rate that a mythical secretary pays. In other words, Obama intends to tax investors only to turn around and use the money to invest in his own pet projects. It's a classic Democratic wealth redistribution scheme and nothing to do with promoting economic growth.

The Senate is expected to vote on the Buffett Rule legislation on Monday.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:52 AM | Comments (91)
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Good morning, morons.

Incidentally, those of you in the east are going to have to get used to the book thread appearing later than it has when Monty was doing it. I'm 3 hours behind you guys.

I see lots of commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. All well and good.

But there's another anniversary in April, too, that all morons should remember:

It was on April 3, 2006, that ace attempted to link to the United 93 movie trailer, got confused, and instead posted, ahem, certain items of a suggestive nature that somehow had found their way onto his hard drive.

So for a couple of hours until the mistake was discovered and corrected, the AoSHQ front page looked like a Cinemax screen test.

It was a day that will live in infamy. Or hilarity.

Here is the original thread

Here's some fun facts about that thread:

1. The date was April 3rd, 2006. Holy crap, that was six years ago. I've been putzing around on this blog for that long?? I guess so.

2. The thread only has 91 comments, and little or no spam. No lace wigs, no ugg boots or reaming machines. If a thread like that went up today, the number of comments would probably go into the thousands. We'd be laughing about it for weeks. This is a testimony to the increase in audience that ace's unique brand of conservative rowdiness has managed to pick up over the years.

3. This is a great blog, even when it makes mistakes. And I am happy to be part of it.

Books? Oh yes, books. I don't have much this morning. I'm reading the first dragon tattoo book, and I guess it's ok. But there's just something about Scandi books or movies that just doesn't set right with me, and I've never been able to understand what it is, exactly. I don't know if it's because they're mostly depressing, or godless, or maybe something else, it's hard to say. If I were smarter, I'd be able to figure it out.

So what has everyone else been reading this week? Something good, I hope.

Book thread tips may be sent to aoshqbookthread@gmail.com

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:26 AM | Comments (118)
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Mark Steyn cracks wise at the Corner:

In the year 2525

If man is still alive

If woman should survive

TheyÂ’ll only be twelve months away from paying off ObamaÂ’s 2011 budget deficitÂ…

What's a mere 514 years among friends?

Posted by: andy at 03:32 AM | Comments (256)
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Update: Five confirmed dead in Woodward, Oklahoma, where a large tornado passed through the western part of town. Two were children. 20 in the hospital, 10 critical. One missing. They're saying the sirens might not have sounded--possibly because the fast-moving tornado disabled them.

The sirens are critical at night when TV's and radios are off and people are asleep. They're loud enough to wake most people.

Right now, there is a 1200 mile lone line of thunderstorms crossing the middle of the country. It runs from the Big Bend area of Texas (next to Mexico) all the way to Minnesota. These straight-on thunderstorm lines typically have high winds and a lot of rain, but they usually don't spawn tornadoes. But when a storm cell breaks off from the main line, that's when tornadoes are highly likely (under the atmospheric conditions we have right now). That's what happened in Woodward, Oklahoma. A super-cell broke off from the main line and spun up what they're calling a large tornado, although we can't know how truly bad it was until daylight.

Channel 9 in Oklahoma City had an experienced storm chaser and ex-fireman, Marty Logan, "walking the storm through." He was tagging along behind, watching the storm move through town. His audio report was very well done, compelling, reminiscent of the Herbert Morrison's dramatic Hindenburg disaster reporting. It was thorough and descriptive, yes, but not emotional like Morrison's iconic report. Worth listening to if it's replayed somewhere.

He could see the tornado because of flashing light from arcing power lines.

_____________________

If you're keeping track at home, check out this map commenter "Wheatie" found. You can scroll around and go to other parts of the country. Zoom in and out. There are different display options. The coolest thing is the links to streaming storm chaser cams.

Here is the National Weather Service radar. You can click on it for a local map. There are regional maps down below. Up top, you can enter a specific location for conditions and a forecast.

Open thread.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 12:37 AM | Comments (435)
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Who says crime doesn't pay? Especially if you are a public servant in New Jersey. Here's How You Do It.

Antoinette Galluzzo embezzled $50,000 in funds earmarked for a kids summer camp. The city fired her, so she cashed in her public employee pension. Then she went on unemployment.

But the best part? Superior Court Judge Eugene Austin ruled that she doesn't have to go to jail, but yes, she has to pay back the $50,000. Well some of it anyway. At $10 per month. Only for the three years of her probation though. After that, if the kids who got screwed want to recoup the remaining money they'll have to sue her in civil court.

Posted by: CDR M at 05:30 PM | Comments (846)
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Good evening, all ye chess nerds. Welcome once again to the Saturday Nite AoSHQ Chess Thread

This week's famous chess game, sent to me by a moron whose name I forget and I'm too lazy to look up, is Edward Lasker vs. George Alan Thomas, London, 1912

Here is the game score:

1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 f5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e4 fxe4 7. Nxe4 b6 8. Ne5 O-O 9. Bd3 Bb7 10. Qh5 Qe7 11. Qxh7+ Kxh7 12. Nxf6+ Kh6 13. Neg4+ Kg5 14. h4+ Kf4 15. g3+ Kf3 16. Be2+ Kg2 17. Rh2+ Kg1 18. Kd2# 1-0

Non-chess players usually think that what makes chess grandmasters so superior to the rest of us is that they can see some ridiculous number of moves ahead (like 15-20), while we lesser mortals simply can't. But I don't think this is the case. When the position is real complicated, I don't think grandmasters can see that far ahead (of course what they see, compared to lesser players, is the more important question). But the difference is more apparent when the moves are forced and there are few, if any, variations to worry about. That's when the long distance vision kicks in. Like this game here. After Black's 10th move, it's pretty much a forced mate in 8, and I'd guess Lasker worked out the whole thing in advance. Which is truly impressive.

Thanks to those of you who have sent me tips for this thread. They may be sent to me at

OregonMuse
and then the at sign
followed by yahoo
and then dot
com

Oh, and one more thing, a question to ponder this evening, who do you think is the greatest chess player never to be world champion? Who wuz robbed? How about

3. Harry Nelson Pilsbury
2. Reuben Fine
1. Paul Keres

These are my candidates. Who are yours?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:47 PM | Comments (211)
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Hi there, folks. It's certainly been quite a news week, so let's do the palate cleanser with today's Stanley Cup Playoffs thread.

Today's games:

#7 Washington at #2 Boston, 3 PM EDT, NBC; Boston leads series 1-0

#8 Ottawa at #1 NY Rangers, 7 PM EDT, NBC Sports Network; NY leads series 1-0

#7 San Jose at #2 St. Louis, 7:30 PM EDT, CNBC; San Jose leads series 1-0

#6 Chicago at #3 Phoenix, 10:30 PM EDT, NBC Sports Network; Phoenix leads series 1-0 more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:12 AM | Comments (151)
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Something I missed from last week. Remember this guy? He is the author of Three Cups of Tea, and he was running a charity called the Central Asia Institute. There was a pretty damning 60 Minutes segment (below the fold) about him misusing funds meant to build schools. The report made him out to be a brazen liar and a slick, unempathetic, self-promoting opportunist. He also appeared to be using charity resources to promote his book, the proceeds of which he kept as personal income.

The Montana Attorney General, Steve Bullock, had elected to pursue a civil investigation and lawsuit, as he explained in this letter of clarification to Here & Now, a radio show that had originally reported Bullock was "considering possible criminal fraud charges."

“Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock’s office is conducting a civil investigation into nonprofit governance issues concerning the board and management of CAI. This includes reviewing allegations of improper financial benefit to Greg Mortenson through the royalties, speaking fees, and travel reimbursements associated with the books Mr. Mortenson wrote, as well as financial oversight of the nonprofit by Mortenson and its board of directors.

The investigation is not focused on determining the truth of information included in Mr. MortensonÂ’s books or whether that amounted to fraud.

The investigation of CAI and Mr. Mortenson is a high priority for this office, and we expect to make public the results of our investigation sometime in mid-March.”

(Emphasis added.) One would think that the part of the statement in bold would indicate there was a possibility of a criminal action at a later time, but the case was settled, and I assume the settlement precludes the filing of criminal charges. Indeed, the AP story below, the AG essentially admits he cannot prove criminal intent.

According to the Montana Attorney General, "since 2006 the charity spent $4.9 million advertising Mortenson's two books and $4 million buying copies of them to give away to schools and libraries." How creepy is that?

From the Associated Press:

Greg Mortenson will remain the face of the charity he co-founded, despite his having to repay $1 million after an investigative report released Thursday concluded he mismanaged the organization and misspent its money.

Central Asia Institute Interim Executive Director Anne Beyersdorfer said Mortenson will continue to draw a salary from the charity. But it won't be as executive director and he is barred from being a voting member of the board of directors as long as he is still employed by the organization.

A new title has not been created for the mountaineer and humanitarian, but he will continue to represent the organization in speaking engagements and work to build relationships in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the charity builds schools and promotes education, she said.

. . .

"Mr. Mortenson may not have intentionally deceived the board or his employees, but his disregard for and attitude about basic record keeping and accounting for his activities essentially had the same effect," Attorney General Steve Bullock said.

So it appears there were enough problems proving intent that the AG didn't want to gamble on criminal charges and restitution. Too bad. Mortenson strikes me as nothing more than a clever flimflam man--an especially pernicious variety, one who takes advantage of peoples' desire to help others.

You can see a complete copy of the Montana Attorney General's office investigative report here. CBS updated its story here.

Added: Steve Bullock is a Democrat, and he's running for governor. Thanks to commenter "free tibet-with purchase of - aww- you know the rest" for that information. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 07:56 AM | Comments (124)
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100 years ago today, RMS Titanic struck the iceberg that would end her maiden voyage and forever disassociate the words "unsinkable" and "ship".

The exact number of passengers and crew aboard remains in dispute to this day, but in round numbers approximately 1,500 of the 2,200 people aboard the ship were lost.

There have been a couple of good new documentaries on NatGeo this week if you're interested in this sort of thing. Even the James Cameron one is good, despite the fact that his most notable association with Titanic is through that godawful movie he made.

If you watch the Cameron one, the last five minutes or so are truly remarkable, as he segues from Titanic to global warming by taking the exact wrong message from the disaster. Man can no more control the temperature of the planet than he can build an unsinkable ship. more...

Posted by: andy at 07:19 AM | Comments (192)
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Why won't the Greatest Basketball-Playing President Evar!!!11!™ play a game with Scott Brown? Because losing would poke a huge hole in his gigantic but paper-thin ego, perhaps? Just spitballin' here.

Also, ICYMI it looks like the Secret Service had a little too much extra time on its hands down in Colombia. The whole detail had to be swapped out after it was discovered they mistook Colombian whores for their normal clientele of politicians. Seems understandable, and I'm sure it's bush's fault anyway.

Posted by: andy at 03:29 AM | Comments (352)
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