Austerity abroad, profligacy at home?

I can't wait for the French's response.

President Obama's spokesman warned the new socialist president-elect of France not to implement his campaign agenda of ending austerity measures, indicating that such a reversal could damage the world economy.

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French President-Elect Francois Hollande called for an increase in government spending and taxes.

So France's new socialist President is looking for higher taxes and government spending -- which is Obama's plan for America. And he tells them they shouldn't do that, because it will damage the world economy?

I think Obama senses several interrelated dangers here.

If France crashes, it offers America a preview of where Obama's policies will take us, so he... doesn't want France to implement Obama's policies. He doesn't want that heads up. Not before the election.

In addition, of course, a second official recession would just about wrap things up for Romney.

Posted by: Ace at 11:14 AM | Comments (275)
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A woman said to Romney that Obama should be tried for treason, owing to his operating outside the limits of the Constitution, and Romney didn't comment except to say the Constitution isn't merely brilliant, but "inspired."

Now the media will start running "extremism" stories.

@exjon points out that if you google "Bush treason" you get over nine million hits.

Not to mention the five Occupy bombers the media doesn't want to report on.

But of course we need to slam this woman, and Romney, for not killing her on the spot.

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Posted by: Ace at 10:58 AM | Comments (82)
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We sometimes claim they're inconsistent, but they're not.

The Republicans must move left.

The Democrats, too, must move left.

Perfectly consistent, really.

Talking to Meet the Press host David Gregory on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry pushed for Mitt Romney to move away from conservatives: "...does he have to work really hard now to backtrack off of some of his positions in the past, as he was trying to win the primary...?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In a stunning double standard, in her very next question, Curry fretted about President Obama distancing himself from Vice President Biden's support of gay marriage: "There's been some backtracking, it seems, by the White House. Is it possible that the White House could cause itself some damage in backtracking too much off of this?"

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (155)
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Joe Biden announces he's "absolutely comfortable" with gay marriage, and lauds it as only being about "who do you love," while still refusing to actually endorse it.

His whole pitch here is that "people are beginning to understand" -- that is, he's almost straight-up admitting he's lying, and that he (and Obama) are in favor of gay marriage, but are waiting for the public to fully "understand."

And another Cabinet official comes out in favor of gay marriage.

So the dance here is "I'm in favor of gay marriage, but I can't say so until after the election."

As the man said, he needs some space, because after the election, he'll have more flexibility.

Posted by: Ace at 09:28 AM | Comments (132)
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Well, they've been tipping that that would be one of their big lines: GM is alive and Osama bin Ladin is dead.

Interestingly, one of the only two soundbites from Obama in the clip is "So help me God" from his presidential oath. The other is "Don't bet against the American worker"-- playing for "bitter clingers"?

Is it just me or is it a bit too late for Obama to begin posturing as a godly man? more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:07 AM | Comments (165)
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A man was arrested in South Carolina for dangling a pair of (Content warning for picture at site) "large, fleshy testicles," more specifically, “flesh colored, anatomically correct, approximately the size of a softball, and in clear view of the public.”

Okay. This was already obnoxious when they were chrome. The rubber flesh look is over the line.

Coming soon: Volt labia.

Unrelated: The Avengers did in fact break the all-time weekend opening (but not all-time opening night), scoring just over $200 million.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 AM | Comments (196)
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While the conservative New Democracy party won more votes than other parties,hey still don't have enough votes to put together a government, and other parties won't talk with them. Plus, they were actually "devastated" by the election (losing support, while still edging others).

They do not have enough parliamentary seats to form a coalition on their own and will struggle to woo a raft of parties who gained in the poll by opposing the bailout.

In an early setback for Samaras, Fotis Kouvelis, leader of the moderate Democratic Left party that had looked like a possibly malleable ally, told Reuters he would not cooperate with New Democracy and PASOK but only leftwing groups.

Another group, the conservative splinter party Independent Greeks, refused to even enter talks with Samaras.

The French and German markets are down 1%.

Germany's Dax and France's Cac-40 were more than 1% lower and the main stock exchange in Athens slumped 8% as markets worried that Greece's failure to form a government has placed further doubt over the country's rescue, increasing speculation over the eventual break-up of the single currency.

The election of socialist Francois Hollande as France's new president was widely expected but will add to growing expectations of a backlash against Europe's current austerity drive led by German chancellor Angela Merkel.

London markets were shut today but could resume on the back foot after slumping 2% on Friday on fears the US recovery is running out of steam.

Oh but did you hear? We got bin Ladin.

Obama's favored European Model is looking better and better.

Posted by: Ace at 07:24 AM | Comments (215)
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Happy Monday.

Markets are in full freak-out mode all over the world as a result of the French presidential election. The Frenchies have elected their first socialist leader in seventeen years. His signature quote: "my real enemy is the world of finance."

City dwellers may be aware of the relatively new car service, Uber, currently taking up the slack from dirty, abusive, over-regulated cabbies that never seem to want to get you where you want to go. Of course cabdrivers hate it and those with assets riding on the prevailing taxi system are trying to regulate Uber out of existence.

The Avengers made box-office history this weekend with a total domestic haul of about $200 million. As someone said on twitter (Jonah Goldberg, I think, but don't really know), now that Joss Whedon is king of Hollywood, can he bring Firefly back?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (346)
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Since Maetenloch is at a trade show, this will be ONT Lite. He'll be back at the end of the week, depending on how good the wine is, the sushi, the hot tubs, the clowns, and the magicians--you know, the perks, all the things you normally see at a convention.

My favorite Captain Nemo has always been the one from Mysterious Island, the 1961 movie with Ray Harryhausen special effects. I liked him even better than James Mason's Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

I was surprised to found out last night he's Herbert Lom, the hilarious Chief Inspector Dreyfus from several of the Pink Panther movies. I had no idea. They're so different, I never put the two together.

More Mysterious Island trivia: Notice the girl in the first picture? Her name is Beth Rogan. I couldn't believe a women would wear a miniskirt like that in 1961, so I had to double-check the date of the movie. Yep. It turns out that was very edgy for the time. According to Wikipedia, the first miniskirts in the movies were those worn by Anne Francis in Forbidden Planet, five years earlier. Wikipedia also mentions Devil Girl from Mars. As far as I can tell, this is the third appearance of a miniskirt in the movies--four years before the miniskirt became a worldwide fashion. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 06:02 PM | Comments (521)
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Hi, MoronsÂ…
So, in the news, weÂ’ve had the death of former San Diego Chargers LB Junior Seau by suicide. He is the eighth member of the 1994 San Diego Chargers football team (made a Super Bowl run) to die.

SeauÂ’s is the only death from this group by suicide- there were deaths by plane crash, lightning strike, and natural causes.

Especially given the press that concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE, or the atrophy of brain tissue as a result of concussions) has had lately in the press, there was an immediate rush to judgment by the media that Seau’s death was because of CTE, Slate is hosting a debate as to whether football should be banned, and ESPN is wringing its hands about “the tawdry culture of football” (links are below).

I apologize in advance for the length of this- there wasn't any good way to do this in a short version.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:37 PM | Comments (419)
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