Thanks to someone and the cobloggers for putting that bleg up.

And thanks to everyone who donated.

It was the biggest donation drive I've ever had, and not just by a little. By more than double. And given that I'm in a sort of tough period here with PJM gone and ads coming in slowly, it's incredibly helpful.

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Posted by: Ace at 08:45 AM | Add Comment
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A new era of openness.

Norman Eisen, the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with investigators on the staff of Republican Sen. Charles Grassley at Grassley's offices Wednesday morning. The investigators wanted to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. According to Grassley, Eisen revealed very, very little, refusing to answer many questions of fact put to him. And now Grassley has written a letter to the White House counsel asking for answers.

The questions relate to a letter Eisen sent to some senators Tuesday night attributing Walpin's dismissal, in significant part, to Walpin's behavior at a May 20, 2009 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps. Eisen wrote that at the meeting, "Mr. Walpin was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the board to question his capacity to serve." After the meeting, Eisen wrote, Walpin lost the confidence of the Corporation Board. The White House conducted a review of the matter, and Walpin was fired. (For a detailed account of Walpin's reaction to the White House charges, see here.)

At Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Grassley's staffers wanted to know more about the White House review. "Unfortunately," Grassley writes in a letter sent late Wednesday afternoon to White House counsel Gregory Craig, "Mr. Eisen refused to answer several direct questions posed to him about the representations made in his letter."

It seems Obama's behavior is something of a pattern. Turns out he's fired two IGs and leashed a third. You can take the politician out of Chicago...

(h/t: Instapundit)

Posted by: Slublog at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)
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How small minded, petty and egotistical is Democrat Barbara Boxer? Pretty damn it turns out.

Now the general in questions didn't call her, hag, bitch or asshole, appropriate though they might have been. No, the general had the temerity to call her, wait for it, "ma'am". Naturally the general respected her 'request' and referred to her as Senator, the title she says she's worked so hard for and just loves to hear.

Me? I'm not a general, I'm a citizen. That means I get to call her whatever the hell I want (with the exception of one word because Ace has a rule about it but you know I'm thinking it). Babs? Granny Boxer? Maybe I'll just go with Obama's favorite term for women...Sweetie.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:06 AM | Comments (6)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:10 AM | Comments (1)
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In whatÂ’s likely to mushroom into a major international crisis overshadowing the situations in both Iran and North Korea, President Obama carried out a public execution during an interview at the White House yesterday as members of his staff and the media looked on in horror. Moreover, the President did so without even granting the condemned a trial or even access to legal counsel.

The shocking incident was caught on tape during an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood. Reaction has been somewhat muted so far but is expected to escalate as the incident garners more publicity. Some so-called “law and order” groups are hailing the President’s actions and praising him for swift and decisive leadership. They believe that this will send a strong message to those who flout the law domestically as well as ne’er-do-wells and other miscreants who would disrupt peace around the globe. Already videos have appeared on the Web lauding his actions and comparing him to a ninja.

Others, however, are voicing outrage at what they consider to be a senseless and unjust execution. Chief among these are groups such as PETA. In a statement yesterday, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk proclaimed "He isn't the Buddha, he's a human being, and human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act."
In additional remarks according to the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House. PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside."We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."

However, the President appears to be standing by his decision and the White House has declined to issue any additional statement at this time.

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:45 AM | Add Comment
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Points out what has been pointed out in previous posts, there are certain principles over which we've been willing to "meddle".

"People are being killed and beaten in the streets of Tehran and all over Iran, and we should stand up for them," he told FOX News. "The way we stood up for the Polish workers in Gdansk, the way we stood up for the people of then Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring and we have stood up for freedom in every part of the world. We're not doing that."

Credit where it's due, he's restating the obvious historical point about this nation. We didn't invade Eastern Europe over the Prague Spring, but neither did we roll over and fan ourselves about how we'd be perceived by Soviet satellite countries and meddling with their friggin sovereignty.

He also doesn't buy into the argument that asserting the right of people to self-determination, the same one we recognize in our founding documents, gives an oppressive regime some sort of excuse to murder its citizens to protect their f'n' status quo.

UPDATE via commenter eman: W won't criticize his successor, but is perfectly willing to criticize his retarded policies.

Among my favorites:

We tried to reform mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but couldn't get it through the vested interests on Capitol Hill.

Mostly because this point needs to be hammered home.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:45 PM | Comments (7)
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Stay tuned for a special ONT Guest Host. Meanwhile, if you haven't read that post over in the Top Headlines about Baghdad Jim McDermott's office manager, "Liz," it's beyond funny.

luv, genghis

Well howdy folks. My years of whining and threats have finally paid off and I managed to get genghis to hand over the password to the blog. So tonight *I* can be the one to rule with an iron fist, tossing out warnings and listening to the lamentations of the overnight morons.

Unfortunately this thing comes with a manual, and reading manuals is for losers. So I'm just going to toss things out here and see what happens....

Item 1: The Top 10 Greatest Explosions Ever.

boom.

Item 2: The Luckiest Man in Thailand
Not only did he marry a beautiful 22 year old Thai lady, but he also married her twin sister. He's only 24 years old, makes his living selling junk, and he only had to pay a dowry of 80,000 baht for each which is like $23.50 in US dollars.
Sometimes I think I'm living in the wrong country.

Mætenloch

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Posted by: Open Blog at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)
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Link at the Rhetorican.

Some findings. Bear in mind, this is a mixed bag, and I'm not highlighting the good news for Obama, which includes general support for his health care takeover (albeit with caveats). I sort of assume that crap, as the public is, what's the word, stupid.

After a fairly smooth opening, President Barack Obama faces new concerns among the American public about the budget deficit and government intervention in the economy as he works to enact ambitious health and energy legislation, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

These rising doubts threaten to overshadow the president's personal popularity and his agenda, in what may be a new phase of the Obama presidency.

"The public is really moving from evaluating him as a charismatic and charming leader to his specific handling of the challenges facing the country," says Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the survey with Republican Bill McInturff. Going forward, he says, Mr. Obama and his allies "are going to have to navigate in pretty choppy waters."

...

[T]he poll suggests Mr. Obama faces challenges on multiple fronts, including growing concerns about government spending and the bailout of auto companies. A majority of people also disapprove of his decision to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Omitted there: The public is a bit more optimistic now than they were in past weeks.

I think this whole stat is flawed, or at least misinterpreted. When people are losing money or their jobs, their anxiety is high and so is their pessimism. When people have lost money or their jobs, their anxiety recedes and so too does their pessimism, as they come to grips with "the New Normal."

When people have lost money and their jobs and realize there's no likely way it's coming back, they can actually become more optimistic: Because, seriously, how much further can they fall? It's almost all upside from that point, innit it?

It depends on what one's starting assumptions are. Diminish people's positions and expectations enough and they will begin to become "optimistic" about regaining, say, 85% of what they formerly believed was "normal."

So, anyway, I think that a rise in "optimism" of this sort is both completely predictable -- it's programmed into the human Denial-Rage-Bargaining-Depression-Acceptance stages of dealing with grief -- and it doesn't really say much about Obama per se.

And, on top of that, the economy is going to double-dip so to the extent people become more optimistic, that's actually bad for Obama. The deep recession was a bloody wound, but the second dip will be the heartbreaker, the morale-killer.

I don't say that in a gloating way. I don't want the economy to tank. But Obama acts as if he wants it to, and so it will.

Nearly seven in 10 survey respondents said they had concerns about federal interventions into the economy, including Mr. Obama's decision to take an ownership stake in General Motors Corp., limits on executive compensation and the prospect of more government involvement in health care. The negative feeling toward the GM rescue was reflected elsewhere in the survey as well.

A solid majority -- 58% -- said that the president and Congress should focus on keeping the budget deficit down, even if takes longer for the economy to recover.

I don't put a lot of stock in the first point -- everyone has "concerns;" concerns don't necessarily translate to votes -- but that second thing seems important.

Mr. Obama's overall job approval and personal ratings have slipped, particularly among independent voters. His job approval rating now stands at 56%, down from 61% in April. Among independents, it dropped from nearly two-to-one approval to closely divided.

!

...

When asked what the most important economic issue facing the country is, 24% cited the deficit, vs. just 11% who named health care.

Mr. Obama has some breathing room. Nearly three in four respondents said that the president inherited the current economic conditions, versus just 14% who said he is responsible for them. Only 6% said the Obama administration is most responsible for the budget deficit. Nearly half blame the Bush administration.

Oh: Actually, all that crap I wrote about "optimism"? It's kind of acknowledged as crap.

On the economy, the poll had some bright spots, with a rising expectation of recovery. The portion of people who think the economy will improve over the next 12 months rose to 46% from 38% in April. And 20% predicted the recession would end in six months to a year, nearly double the comparable figure from April.

Still, overall, the public finds the economy in dreadful shape today, and people living in the Midwest were much less likely to express optimism about the future than those on the coasts.

I can't keep quoting, but I'll pass on the tidbit that while the public supports, they think, Obama's public plan health care proposal, their support drops to almost (but not quite) evenly divided when informed about the arguments against it.

Posted by: Ace at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)
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Update: As predicted, Claire McCaskill just wanted a reason that "sounded legal," even though the law is not satisfied by the executive's reason for termination. Whatever the reason, the law requires informing Congress for comment thirty days before the actual termination.

But Claire McCaskill got her hastily-written made-up legal-sounding reason. She now says "the termination appears well-founded."

...

Sorry, just saw the tip. Seems to be ending.

Only quote I got:

"People who know me, people who have heard me on the radio, know that this is the most incredible smear that has ever occurred to someone only because he's standing up to the most powerful machine on earth."

That quote is kinda funky because I caught it mid-sentence. I have filled in a guestimate of the first few words ("people who know me") because there seemed to be a list starting before I actually caught it (from "people who have heard me on the radio").

Video from Monday: Walpin was on Beck Monday. The clip is below the fold.
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Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Add Comment
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Note: Had to delete the old post. It got balky when I was editing it and adding new stuff. A few comments were lost, unfortunately.

Another Update: Robert Fisk -- yeah, I know -- reports that the security forces seem to be siding with the resisters, or at least aren't willing to go full-on bullyboy for the mullahs.

It was interesting that the special forces - who normally take the side of Ahmadinejad's Basij militia - were there with clubs and sticks in their camouflage trousers and their purity white shirts and on this occasion the Iranian military kept [the Basij milita thugs] away from Mousavi's men and women.

In fact at one point, Mousavi's supporters were shouting 'thank you, thank you' to the soldiers.

One woman went up to the special forces men, who normally are very brutal with Mr Mousavi's supporters, and said 'can you protect us from the Basij?' He said 'with God's help'.

It was quite extraordinary because it looked as if the military authorities in Tehran have either taken a decision not to go on supporting the very brutal militia - which is always associated with the presidency here - or individual soldiers have made up their own mind that they're tired of being associated with the kind of brutality that left seven dead yesterday - buried, by the way secretly by the police - and indeed the seven or eight students who were killed on the university campus 24 hours earlier.

People don't want to be "on the wrong side" of this, perhaps. Which is greatly encouraging. The moment people doubt a tyrant has the power to control them, he stops controlling them.

Update: Great post by Allah; video of a Basij headquarters being stormed by unarmed resisters braving gunfire; suggestions that the Revolutionary Guard might just decide it's time for an autogulpe and formally put the country under martial law, like Pakistan.

Still More: Drew already linked this, but worth another mention: the regime is engaging in fautxtography, cloning segments of their own crowds to make them appear bigger.

Pathetic. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Add Comment
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