1 Thank you for answering that ... I always wondered. And ... first!

2 Damn you, CDR M! And ... prime number!

3

Obama Dodges Budget Cuts to Favorite Programs

A better headline is there were no cuts. It was all smoke and mirrors, and as Rand Paul said on Fox yesterday we will still spend more this year than last year.

A few more “wins” like this and we will be all set…..for Monty doom.

4 Was yesterday's big news about the judicial election out of Wisconsin that was touted for the 2 PM CDT presser nothing more than the 80-year-old Democrat poll watcher "confessing", "I'm confused!"?

5 Oh, supposedly we will find out what is in the 2011 budget today, probably after they sign it.

After all, you must first approve it before you read it.

6 For all the moronettes looking for a good exercise routine.....

The White Women's Workout:

http://tinyurl.com/3l8yxop

7 Posted by: CDR M at April 12, 2011 07:01 AM (5I8G0)

Most of the commentary about senior officers seems to be that they are as political as any hard-charging, camera-hogging congressman. Judging by what I have read about them, and their sometimes stunning statements, that seems to be accurate.

8 And everyone who hasn't read this post from Stevo needs to read it at the ONT.

http://tinyurl.com/5w9tkjw

9 Dear Fox News, Either move RedEye to an earlier timeslot or cancel it*. It is wrecking havoc on my sleep schedule. Notes: No, not really. ----- On a serious note, I caught a bit of G. Beck's show, with the Judge guy hosting, and they had a top guy from the Tea Party Nation group belly aching about the $39b compromise... That's ok, but he was already talking about primarying the Speaker. Really?! After three months? Made me fear that some of the TP leadership are not serious people.

10 Most of the commentary about senior officers seems to be that they are as political as any hard-charging, camera-hogging congressman.

My experience is that once they get above O-6 it is 90% political. And even some O-6 positions are political such as the Captain of the Enterprise, as he found out the hard way.

11 Really?! After three months? Made me fear that some of the TP leadership are not serious people.

Perhaps you should read my post at number 4. That deal was a sell-out.

12 ... Lindsey Graham is extraordinarily and relentlessly pliable, trading dignity and constituents for a GQ magazine profile that lets the world know that...hey, he's grown beyond South Carolina.  In fact, he joined the laughter as the magazine made fun of the boiled peanut roots that he's traded for endless rounds of Beltway insider flattery.  As the Washington Post's Salon.com pointed out, he's made "narcissism an art," the king of self-absorption in a town devoted to self-absorption.  When it all comes down to it, he's a southern-fried Chuck Schumer, joining with the Democrat senator from Manhattan to make the nation safe for expanded government, illegal immigrants, global warming bureaucracy, and pontificating senators.

13 Oh how I miss Jack Bauer.....

14 10
And everyone who hasn't read this post from Stevo needs to read it at the ONT.
Posted by: Vic at April 12, 2011 07:05 AM (M9Ie6)

Was it this posting about Trump?

15 No I guess I linked the wrong one. It was 793 about the Mexican trucks and the EPA.

16 Vic, I will wait for analysis from conservative publications. That AP piece reads like a tongue bathe for the President. It's all about how awesome Obama was at negotiating this deal. Not a single quote from conservative pov. I've heard it said that over ten years it will save several hundred billion from program cuts.

17 From a member of our objective press on Twitter:

jaketapper Jake Tapper Wading back into the swamp waters of birtherism this morning on @GMA as the president's half sister comments on the nonsense.

18 Posted by: Vic at April 12, 2011 07:16 AM (M9Ie6)

That's not news. Mexican trucks have been polluting our air for a long time. And the EPA wasting money? That's not new either. It's the combination that's new.

19 Posted by: Vic at April 12, 2011 07:08 AM (M9Ie6)

It's not unexpected that these people are political animals. But there is an attitude in America that general officers (I wrote senior by mistake) are above the fray, and that is usually not the case. For instance, Petraus' stupid comments about the koran burning showed me that while he may know Arab culture, he doesn't know anything about the Constitution, but is willing to shoot his mouth off anyway.

20 On the deal - hey, we "changed the conversation." Oh joy. And, PAWLENTY!

21 If for some reason you find that you will be in DC on the first Friday of a given month, you may want to add this to your schedule:

The First Principles on First Fridays monthly lecture series was launched in 2008 by the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. Speakers have included David Horowitz, Brian Kennedy, Paul Rahe, John Bolton, Thomas G. West and Larry P. Arnn. More information about upcoming First Fridays and previous programs (with media archives) is available.

22 Ya'll go and read that sidebar from Ben about how we are all Confederates now. Even all you smug Yankees. Look up the prof who wrote the book quoted by CNN.  A Euro raised in Canada teaching at a eastern  university. Then go and think. Then think about how the South has to have Ag approval of its elections. Hmmm. etc.

23

Via link at Hotair: Trump shows his true colors

24 Their top story (video only right now) talks about the rising influence of France in world affairs and wonders if France is pushing the US aside. 

Posted by: CDR M at April 12, 2011 07:26 AM (5I8G0)

LOL!!  The idea of France "pushing the US aside" is even more laughable than that usual flow of propaganda out of that so-called "news" outlet.  Of course, with the 2nd grade level education most Americans have when it comes to world affairs, I guess they can get away with it.

The thing about the Mexican trucks enrages me.  I can't think of another time in all human history when a nation paid companies in a different nation to comply with its laws while importing goods, and then ignored its own laws regarding safety and language issues in order to benefit those same companies.  

The government of the US becomes more illegitimate with each passing day. 

25 That AP piece reads like a tongue bathe for the President.

Still it says that the deal didn't really cut anything and when you combine that with the Rand Paul statement yesterday that we will still spend more this year than last it means we got shit on.

26 Posted by: ya2daup at April 12, 2011 07:29 AM (hsLUJ)

Anything Hillsdale College does is worth a look.

Their monthly magazine Imprimis is one of the best reads around. It's a single article, usually topical, and always thought provoking.

27 "the president's half sister comments on the nonsense"

Did she say Queens or Kapiolani this time?

28 Posted by: CDR M at April 12, 2011 07:26 AM (5I8G0)

They don't bother to hide their partisanship. Or maybe they think that they have a higher calling; to educate the ignorant masses about the evils of American exceptionalism.

29

Now there is proof that the sickout was a premeditated, union-authorized job action -- a phone tree of teachers calling other teachers to close down the schools. This kind of activity is prohibited by the unionÂ’s own contract and illegal in WI Statute Chapter 111.84(2)(e)

30 From stoatyweasel: chickens pecking stuff. (Find the stone cold kitteh for extra credit!)

31 Good lord.  Jersey Shore stars will now make over $100K per episode.  Surely this is a sign of the Mayan prophecy.

Building the next generation of Charlie Sheens.

WINNING!

32 Lindsey Graham was suppose to be a joke played on the rest of the country by South Carolina, but the joke got way out-of-hand......however Chuck Schumer is no joke, he is the spawn of the devil. 

33 We will be just like the Europeans faster than Obama or Soros ever imagined ...

It is a sentiment that appears to be spreading. Popular anger at bail-outs, austerity and general economic uncertainty has already toppled leaders on the eurozone’s periphery: first in Ireland, then Portugal and arguably Spain, where José Luis Zapatero has said he will not seek a third term as prime minister.Now, anger is beginning to infect Europe’s prosperous core, where mainstream parties are losing ground to populist outsiders playing on resentment and frustration triggered by austerity and falling living standards.

... but if this turns into only an angry mob, this could go any direction

34 Obama brings Apocalypse to the US in 2037

35 Torture is the only thing that helps Jack Bauer relax.
Killing Jack Bauer doesn't stop him, it only makes him more angry.

36 Trying to defend the Dems on the economy,

Ed Schultz Claimed: Democrats Took Over in January 2009

37 Afghanistan: US servicemen killed in first drone 'friendly fire' incident
Damn.  Just damn. And a lot of prayers for their loved ones and the guy(s) manning the drone.

38 Bipartisan Obama apologists have no problem fabricating whole cloth and marketing it like an "Egyptian Sale".*

Via link at Hotair: Trump shows his true colors

The story broadcast that Trump would run as an Independent if he didn't win the GOP ticket has no validity given that Trump hasn't decided whether or not to run. Whether or not Trump runs [disclaimer: at this point he's only my favorite within the neoconservative camp], Trump is at least performing the public service that the media refuses to fulfill, and that the GOP establishment won't touch. Trump is publicizing Obama's worst nightmares, singlehandedly taking on the PC elitist Republicans in the establishment, the MSM and Obama by the horns.

Since Trump endorsed McCain's '08 potus run, I was thinking that Trump would likely stump on McCain's agenda. And until Trump says otherwise, I will reference Trump's policies to be close to what McCain presumed to project in the '08 potus campaign. I expect that regarding amnesty for illegal aliens, Trump would push for McCain's comprehensive immigration reform package to pass. But unlike McCain, the fact that Trump confronts GWBush AND Obama head on proves the distinction that Americans were begging for, the ball that '08 VP Palin candidate has played making her own fan base of voters and supporters. Mannerisms matter, and Trump isn't the apologist "my friend" McCain who personally endorsed his own opponent during the '08 campaign in order to prove his "PC leadership style". Placing constraints on when compassion is appropriate, Trump will at least call a skunk a skunk instead of demanding that America bow down and compassionately kiss the skunk's ass.

Rather than cut any "good programs" sponsored by our taxes and "provided" by the federal government (campaign rhetoric), Trump's American economic "recovery" would depend entirely on his finesse as a "deal maker". And if Trump is threatening those derisively laughing at America while fucking America that they [China, Brazil, etc.] won't be laughing any more given POTUS Trump, until he clarifies otherwise, when tariffs fail to stabilize the US Dollar, Trump might well unleash US wars of military aggression so long as the victor enjoys all rights to oil and mineral resources of the vanquished.

The "Independent run" story is designed to remove Trump from the field of GOP candidates in direct response to his un-PC attacks on Obama's lack of integrity, to sabotage Trump before he really begins to fight as an official potus candidate because Trump dared confront Obama ("the only deal Obama ever made was with Rezko"), is to affirm that Politically Correct Revisionism is the only sovereign matter to be tolerated.

Trump claims that our national decisions are a matter of good-for-America deal making which is Donald Trump's career expertise, in contrast with Obama.

Trump is experienced making deals internationally as well as domestically. Buyer beware. Well, Wilson and FDR certainly made deals, too. Contrast Trump's deals with Romney's to note well whose deals actually constructed functioning and profitable businesses and whose deals for a quick profit at the expense of American industry deconstructed businesses through corporate raiding. 

*Egyptian Sale: promise any lie for a vote and ridicule those who actually believe the lie when reality strikes. (Speaking of which, Qadhafi's in the shit house having framed Obama's diplomatic context from the onset. And Egypt's gone to hell having hosted The Won's Cairo Speech.)

39 What this country needs is a good pack of $3.00 cigarettes.

40 Delayed planting.

41 35
Good lord.  Jersey Shore stars will now make over $100K per episode.  Surely this is a sign of the Mayan prophecy.
Posted by: CDR M at April 12, 2011 08:04 AM (5I8G0)

FWIW, Jersey Shore's Snooki received 2 votes, both write-ins, in the 2011 Presidential Race Straw Poll (.pdf) at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference this past weekend.

Herman Cain was first, followed by Michelle Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty (tied).

42 QURAN BURNED IN ... IRAN
Two anonymous young men in Iran, one Iranian and one Afghan, have burned a Koran in protest. This seven-and-a-half minute long video shows the two men, their faces obscured, holding the Muslim holy book and reading prepared statements. They say that Arabs have foisted this book and their homelands and because of it they have gone backwards for 1400 years. They say they dislike the Koran and want it to disappear, adding "Viva freedom!"

43 Do you know why we never see Jack Bauer go to the bathroom?

Dammit, Chloe, I don't have time!!!

44 Delayed planting.

Posted by: maddogg at April 12, 2011 08:35 AM (OlN4e)

The last three years I've had my garden in (pot. and seeds of all kinds) in on April 1. 

Yesterday I finally was able to work the ground enough to get my pot. in.  It snowed last week, it is supposed to snow this weekend, and we have only had a few days without rain in a month (by rain I mean inches a day).

45 What this country needs is a good pack tank of $3.00 cigarettes. $5.00 gas.

46

Summary of final 2011 budget bill

They give total discretionary spending at $1.049T. They do not list mandatory spending but it is $2.44T for a total of $3.489T. The 2010 budget was $3.552T so on paper there was a very slight reduction. However, per the article this morning, almost all of this was simply accounting gimmicks.

But all the baby boomers are bankrupting the system.

47 Marxists and Muslim “Peaceniks” Unite Against America’s Military

48 We should aspire to be more like multicultural Europe. Donchathink?

49 (Find the stone cold kitteh for extra credit!)

That kitteh was a lot easier to find than the one on the ONT last night!

50 Pakistan demands U.S. slash CIA activities there, halt drone strikes

51 What this country needs is a good pack tank power steering drone automobile hybrid and $3.00 cigarettes. $5.00 gas   Mandate trade-in trade-up, because as tax paying American citizens it's your responsibility and obligation to buy government flops that consume bail-outs and pay no taxes.
Posted by: Once upon a time Barack Hussein Obama

52

Find the kitteh

53 Faux job numbers could lead to real trouble

54 This seven-and-a-half minute long video shows the two men, their faces obscured, holding the Muslim holy book and reading prepared statements. They say that Arabs have foisted this book and their homelands and because of it they have gone backwards for 1400 years. They say they dislike the Koran and want it to disappear, adding "Viva freedom!"

How very impolite.  Fortunately Iran has laws against such behavior.  Oh how I envy them...

55 Trump: IÂ’m ObamaÂ’s Worst Nightmare

56 Terrifying New Tsunami Footage Surfaces

57 Posted by: Vic at April 12, 2011 08:52 AM (M9Ie6)

Found him! First try, too. LOL.

58 Pigford Blues: The Curious Case of Dr. John Boyd & The John Boyd Institute

59
Guess BO will be stopping by......
Iceland's penis museum finally gets human specimen

60 Good morning, morons. 

Splashed all over Yahoo this morning:

TOKYO – Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 — the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency — after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

61 Corporate Tax Crackdown Faces Big Obstacles From Lobbyists

62 Is it O'golf 30 yet?  I love to play with little white balls.

63 So I guess Beck's mighty 40 must have seen what I saw on Saturday.  so they are covering it here and here.

The dems are taking advantage of the fact that the language is misleading and the issue is very confusing.  We really need to know our stuff on this and there isn't much out there, mostly court cases and scholarly papers.  This is not something we want to leave for the dems in the courts.  How can the dems vilify the republicans while doing exactly what they are accusing the republicans of doing, themselves.  It's becoming a bizarro world.

64 Posted by: momma at April 12, 2011 08:50 AM

US Military Commanders particularly in Afghanistan realize that the greatest offender preventing Middle Eastern Peace by training Jihadi terrorists using US tax funds is PAKISTAN.

On that, if Palin were trained beyond providing the neoconservative establishment dupe used to usurp the Tea Party movement, at her Mumbai India public speech, when asked of America's role identifying Pakistan as an ally while Pakistan has declared enmity against India, she may have avoided her epiphany of ignorance as if "can't we all just get along" would ever suffice. Pakistan's only sufficient offensive defense against India is maintaining the dominant Jihadist terrorism throughout Afghanistan (the US tax dollar black hole). Pakistani-Afghan jihad terrorism destabilizes India's effective defensive border security with Pakistan.

65

he is willing to work with the Obama's in order to support military families.

Why do my eyes glaze over every time I read about this?

The goal is to enlist all sectors of society in ensuring "military families have the support they have earned," the first lady's office said.

The Joining Forces campaign aims to involve individuals, communities, businesses, nonprofits, faith-based groups, charities and the government.

66 Gang of Six closes in on deficit deal
There is no deal yet, however, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has made clear that he will not be held to an arbitrary timeline. 

Coburn has also insisted that a broad deficit reduction package include Social Security reform, something that Democratic negotiators such as Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) argue should be handled separately. 

The six principals, who also include Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), held marathon talks last week and came very close to finishing a deal, according to Senate sources.

67 Trump is at least performing the public service that the media refuses to fulfill, and that the GOP establishment won't touch. Trump is publicizing Obama's worst nightmares, singlehandedly taking on the PC elitist Republicans in the establishment, the MSM and Obama by the horns.

Trump: IÂ’m ObamaÂ’s Worst Nightmare

Exactly.

68 The Oldie:
Jack Bauer don't give a crap.
Jack Bauer don't take any crap.
Jack Bauer ain't in the crap business.

69 Beck just played this on the radio show

He loves Beck!  He really loves him!

lol, Beck must feel like moms feel when they are constantly saying soemthing to their kid and can't tell whether the kid is getting it or not and then there is a moment where the light bulb goes off, for o'really, the light bulb went off and for the American people, look at the poll he shows.

70

Meanwhile, in the world of actions, not words, let's hear it for Lowe's and their 10% military discount. Muscle building through gardening con't. here, with new goodies from Lowe's.

/end commercial

71 Wing bender at JFK

72 Retired Gen. McChrystal is working with FLOTUS

Sick, when it comes to the Brass, it's all about their own personal career.

Why do my eyes glaze over every time I read about this?

Obama's DHS Napolitano initiated her official specific domestic enemy target on veterans to be under federal surveillance as radicals.

Given that, whatever "help" Obama has in mind is for his own corrupt benefit at the expense of our troops, veterans and military families.

73 don't know if anyone brought this up but I read about the deaths of the two troops yesterday and I cried and then I thought the same thing.

74

Enough spin to make me dizzy:

Budget tricks helped Obama save programs from cuts (AP)

75 Why here's some uncomfortable with your breakfast.

76 the fact that o'really's talking point reflected what Beck has been saying on his show may show that o'really is showing the fox brass that he has moved to a "side".

He's an original on fox, you can probably assume he is an owner on some level.

77

11- they had a top guy from the Tea Party Nation group belly aching about the $39b compromise... That's ok, but he was already talking about primarying the Speaker. Really?! After three months? Made me fear that some of the TP leadership are not serious people.

Uh, they're dead serious. The country is headed off the financial cliff,  the deficit for this year alone is $1.4 tillion and the debt about 10x that, and Speaker Boned is sitting there with his dick in one hand and his $39billion "win" in the other. Speaker Boned and the $39billion Republicans are profoundly unserious.

We don't have time for Speaker Boned to figure it out. We can send all of the Rand Pauls and Allen Wests to Congress we want, but if we are stuck with Cryin John and Mush McConnell in leadership roles, its all for naught and the country crashes. So I'm glad they are primarying his ass, I hope they primary Mush McConnell too.

That's serious. No more GOP jerking off.

78 51 Summary of final 2011 budget bill

They give total discretionary spending at $1.049T. They do not list mandatory spending but it is $2.44T for a total of $3.489T. The 2010 budget was $3.552T so on paper there was a very slight reduction. However, per the article this morning, almost all of this was simply accounting gimmicks.

But all the baby boomers are bankrupting the system

What I saw at Politico last night is that Obama didn't take all the hits under H.R. 1--which he wouldn't because the Dems didn't accept it-- but he did take some of them. As of last night, the House and Senate were still wrangling over the details and lawmakers from both sides were upset because they hadn't seen the details. But I do know the Republican Conference was promised no book-keeping cuts.

Here's the PDF as to the reductions. The text of the unnamed bill appears to be here.

79 "But all the baby boomers are bankrupting the system
Posted by: Miss'80sBaby at April 12, 2011 09:32 AM (uVLrI) "

sure, if they keep saying this it will make it that much easier for their progeny to accept the death panels.

80

"That's serious. No more GOP jerking off.

Posted by: snort! at April 12, 2011 09:31 AM (K/USr)"

I have to say I'm very thankful for Miss 80's baby and her educating me in political theater 10 and her patience with me, I think recognizing that I am sort of behaving like your average American.   The whole way they do things makes sure that the budgeteers are neutered.  If all that matters in the end are two or three or four guys in a room then of course the budgeteers aren't being heard.  So I don't blame the tea party for wanting to primary boner, he's following the dems' requests to neuter the tea party which is in essence doing exactly what the dems did during the obamacare debacle, ignoring the wishes of the American people.

81 Thank God that Beck is realizing that the PIMCO move was not a positive move.

82 Chairman Ryan changed the 2012 budget bill as amended by Budget Committee mark-up.

Previous
Amended

The "levels of new budget authority" have gone down, as did the outlays. But it also changed the deficit and debt numbers, perhaps in-part because Heritage revised their report.

83 85 sure, if they keep saying this it will make it that much easier for their progeny to accept the death panels.

That was a statement Vic; italics fail from me.

84 budget authority - Authority provided by law to enter into obligations that will result in outlays of Federal funds. Budget authority may be classified by the period of availability (one-year, multiyear, no-year), by the timing of congressional action (current or permanent), or by the manner of determining the amount available (definite or indefinite).

85 89 85 That should read, "That was a statement made by Vic....".

86 this is too funny.

87 The AP seems to be saying (in part) that Obama is some-kind of savior because he prevented the passage of H.R. 1. But what I'm seeing elsewhere also says there were cuts in multiple areas with only an increase in defense versus his 2011 budget request. As for the rest, I'd have to see the bill. All I know is that there was a negotiation into last night and appropriators like to save money, and I'd have to compare bills.

88 House liberal DeFazio: Obama should start acting like a Democrat

...because Obama caved on taxes last year. Well Peter, you'll get your wish soon.

89 The Hill also has this from the budget deal debate:

"In total, the bill sets final 2011 spending levels at $1.049 trillion. This is a $78.5 billion decrease from Obama's 2011 budget request and a $39.9 billion decrease from the $1.089 trillion 2010 spending bills, as enacted."

Both sides are spinning RE what they won and lost.

90 Everything old is new again! Ross Perot 2: Electoral Boogaloo! And...it's Educational! Sorta. Feed the Monkey and Watch Him S**t or Why Progressives Keep Losing - Part One

91

Li Meijin piano murder, said only minor injuries. Vilification buy NFL jersey is that more than expert opinion, the reports are constantly stressed the pair of NFL custom jerseys hands playing the piano, "the children learn the piano is not the devil, "the string, sound, in contrast, it is easy to mislead public opinion, and even interfere with judicial decisions, for possible Lenient sentence open. If is not true of non-sensational reports of judicial decisions, has overstepped buy NFL jersey its course, even a complete failure of justice.

92 Damn you early risers!

Google seems to have a serious hard-on for cosmonauts. I don't recall and American-themed celebrations that went on for more than one day on Google's page.

93 Easterbrook's law of doomsaying holds: Predict dreadful events whose arrival impends no sooner than 5 years hence, no later than 10. That time window is near enough to cause worry, far enough off that when it actually rolls around everyone will have forgotten what you predicted.

In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.The UNEP even provided a handy map. The map shows us the places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean....However, a very cursory look at the first available evidence seems to show that the places identified by the UNEP as most at risk of having climate refugees are not only not losing people, they are actually among the fastest growing regions in the world.

94 A new study by Evan Mills of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that indoor Cannabis production has a very large carbon footprint.

Pot growers inhale 1% of U.S. electricity, exhale GHGs of 3M cars

95 New York and LA get a shuttle for display but not fucking Houston?

96 Nowadays our burberry outlet offer Burberry Handbags Burberry Wallets Burberry Cashmere Scarf for our customers, they are very hot selling online now.