Over Reaction

It can fairly be concluded that no response by Israel to the rocket attacks by the Hamas terrorists wouldn't be considered an overeaction by the loony left both here and in Europe.

The auto bailout

There could well be something wrong with this math, but here is what it looks like at BestView. GM has a market cap of $2.4 billion. That means you can buy all the shares in the company at the present stock price for this amount. The company has 96,000 employees. If we gave each employee a tax free $1,000,000 this would cost the government $9.6 billion. So, the total cost would be $12 billion and this is close to what Bush gave as a down payment to tide them over until Obama can come in and really bail the union out.
Once this is done, the government could sell the assets of the company and give the procedes to the existing retirees at GM. I suspect he UAW would take the deal if all the workers at other plants didn't kill the deal because they weren't included.

Automobile math doesn't add up

1.GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.

2. Honda and Nissan make a pretax operating profit per vehicle of around $1,600; Ford, Chrysler and GM make a loss of $500 to $1,500.

Given these numbers, who is surprised the federal government decided to invest our money in the Detroit mess?

Guess the party

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports.

You can read the entire article here, but you won't discover he is a democrat. Must not be important. It is amusing to remember what some journalists say when asked why they are so quick to identify the GOP affiliation and so hesitant to mention that dems are involved in scandals like this. The explanation is the Republicans are hypocrits on corruption and the dems seldom make it a moral issue.

Inaugural Poetry

In the preceding post I wondered what Obama's inaugural poet was saying about her contribution to the festivities. Since then, I ran across an example of her "poetry" and I think I now know just how much she can offer.

This is a segment from an Alexander poem titled “Neonatology.”

“Is

“funky, is

“leaky, is

“a soggy, bloody crotch, is

“sharp jets of breast milk shot straight across the room,

“is gaudy, mustard-colored poop, is

“postpartum tears that soak the baby’s lovely head.

Say What?

Obama is going to have a poet at his inauguration. Her name is Elizabeth Alexander and she was recently asked what poetry added to the inaugural. Here is her answer, but don't ask me to explain what the hell she said:

"Poetry, because it is language distilled and because it is also such intensely precise language, provides us with a moment of respite and meditation, moments where we have to stop and listen very carefully to every word. We aren't listening for a message but rather listening for we don't know what exactly, but we're allowing ourselves to be stirred in some kind of way."

A sad Bush farewell message

President Bush went on TV yesterday to explain why he was taking 17.4 billion of your money and giving it to 2 failed automobile companies in Michigan. About everything he said was BS, but the most irritating thing to BestView was his assurance that if by March 31, 2009 the companies didn't have a plan to survive, they would have to give us back our money. He will be on his ranch in Texas, but if anyone wanted their money back in 2009 they would have a better chance getting it from my dog Bailey than from GM. You can go out right now and buy the entire company for less than $3 billion. Sad to see Bush completely sell us out.

The Rick Warren kerfuffle

Nothing could expose the loony left mind-set better than their reaction to Obama's decision to allow Rick Warren to offer up a prayer at his inauguration. A good summary is given here.
This snippet really sums up the situation, in all likelihood.

"I've left aside that they shouldn't really even have a religious invocation at the inaugural because it's become a tradition now. But my friend Capt. Fogg left an excellent comment that I urge to read in full. The main point being, "Religious rituals have no place at all in government. It's the law. Belief in God or gods is not part of public policy: that's the law, and if no religious test may be imposed for office, which is the law, why then are we asking a president to demonstrate his private religiosity in public, as part of his inauguration?"

A new disaster to worry about using tax money

A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.

"We're looking for the killer asteroid,'' James Heasley, of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, last week told the committee that the National Academy of Sciences created at Congress' request.

Congress asked the academy to conduct the study after astronomers were unable to eliminate an extremely slight chance that an asteroid called Apophis will slam into Earth with devastating effect in 2036.

Apophis was discovered in 2004 about 17 million miles from Earth on a course that would overlap our planet's orbit in 2029 and return seven years later. Observers said that the asteroid — a massive boulder left over from the birth of the solar system — is about 1,000 feet wide and weighs at least 50 million tons.

After further observations, astronomers reported that the asteroid would skim by Earth harmlessly in 2029, but it has a one in 44,000 probability of slamming into our planet on Easter Sunday, April 13, 2036.

Just wondering

If the idiotic Bush outfit sees fit to defy the people, the people's representatives in Congress, and common sense to bail out the Detroit car makers, do competitive manufacturers like Toyota have the makings of a law suit for preferential use of the nation's assets? If they sue, BestView wants to be on the jury.

Liberal Solution Predictable

New York is facing a $15 billion budget deficit. Governor Paterson's solution is tax and fee increases. There is no thought of budget cuts, but there is much anguish about not being able to increase things. Other states like South Carolina are also facing budget deficits and are cutting spending rather than raising taxes in a recession. It is difficult to imagine why people in liberal states like New York, Michigan, and California don't take the fastest road out.

How did Blagojevich become Governor?

Michael Barone offers this explanation which BestView found enlightening.

How did he become Governor? Family connections: “Blagojevich is the son-in-law of 33rd Ward Democratic Committeeman Dick Mell. Ward committeemen are hugely important in Chicago politics: Dan Rostenkowski and his father had been the 32nd ward committeemen from 1935 to 1995; the ward committeemen from the 11th ward since some time in the 1940s have been Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and John Daley; the 13th ward committeeman Bill Lipinski, retiring suddenly from Congress in 2004, was able to get the Democratic nomination for his son Dan Lipinski from a group of ward committeemen despite the fact that Dan Lipinski was a political science professor at the University of Tennessee and hadn’t lived in Chicago for years.”

New way to pad a bra

Federal investigators say this photo shows a Massachusetts lawmaker stuffing bribe money into her bra. The picture came from the New York Times and if you read to the last part of the article you will see that this bribe and several other on-going political scandals in the home state of Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank are all involving democrats even though the article does state that when Republicans controlled the state 100 years ago, it too was corrupt. Pretty funny.

Bad year for unions so far

A nonprofit organization founded by California’s largest union local reported spending nothing on its charitable purpose — to develop housing for low-income workers — during at least two of the four years it has been operating, federal records show.

The charity, launched by a scandal-ridden Los Angeles chapter of the Service Employees International Union, had total expenses of about $165,000 for 2005 and 2006, and all of the money went to consulting fees, insurance costs and other overhead, according to its Internal Revenue Service filings. Charity watchdogs say that nonprofits should never have zero program expenses in two successive years and that well-performing charities direct at least 70% of their annual spending to their charitable purpose. “Of the 5,000-plus charities we’ve looked at, I don’t think we’ve ever seen one that didn’t spend anything on its charitable programs,” said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of Charity Navigator, an online rating service.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Blagojevich

O.K., here we are. We know how much Blagojevich valued the senate nomination. Today we learn that Jesse Jackson, Jr. spent 90 minutes in the office of the good governor on Monday of this week talking about his superb qualifications to be Obama's replacement and absolutely nothing, in all that time, came up about a quid pro quo. On Tuesday, Blagojevich was arrested. Raise your hand if you believe the story ends there.

The Obama factor in Illinois politics

BestView is doubtful that the arrest of the Illinois governor for attempting to raffle off Obama's senate seat could have occurred without our President-elect knowing anything about it. It is also tempting to speculate that the arrest was made early before the good governor had the chance to appoint someone who could have been further connected to Obama. We already know Obama was tight with Rezko and his criminal enterprise, so credulity would be sorely stretched in order to conclude the President-elect was not involved to some extent. The sad part is the character of our first black President is and forever will be called into question. There is no way a completely clean politician can come out of Chicago or Illinois.

Burn Baby Burn

Evidently the public is not supporting liberal made-up crap in the Big Apple and the New York Times is in deep doo-doo. Read it here. BestView considers them guilty of treason in some of their selective publications of classified material. Here's hoping they go belly up.

Crooked Politicians

The voters were able to get rid of "Deep Freeze" Jefferson, the New Orleans Congressman who took so much bribe money he had to store some of it in his freezer where the FBI found it. Unlike the Republicans who have had to expel several crooked Congressman in the past few years, the dems hold on to theirs until the voters do their job for them. The problem is we are left with Senator Dodd of Connecticut, Charlie Rangle of New York, and Senator Reid of Nevada. In the vernacular of the current fiscal situation, they are too big to fail, it seems.

Just wondering

If ten terrorists with hand-held weapons could kill hundreds at hotels in India, what could a like number do in the U.S. on New Year's Eve on Times Square? At a football game? A concert?

Jobs Plan

The unemployment problem in the country is real. The solution is obvious, but is not likely to be used by the Obama administration. We can look for the next Congress to throw money at make-work projects which will be addressed inefficiently and most of the money will be wasted. People will be hired into jobs for which they are not qualified and in which they are largely unhappy. Since most jobs in this country are created by small businesses, it would be highly desirable for the government to cut their taxes so they could hire more people into long-lasting position which are more desirable. It is not expected that will happen.

Fascinating Question

Victor Davis Hanson in IBD has posed a fascinating question as we watch the Obama administration slowly take shape. "Will Obama decide that Bush's anti-terrorism architecture shredded the constitution and should be largely repealed or did it help keep us safe from attack for seven years?"

A Financial Review

Well, let's see where we stand. Congress is going to bail out the union-infested car manufacturers based in Michigan and as a condition for this use of tax-payer money, the geniuses in Washington who have never done anything in the private sector are going to dictate how the companies must be restructured in order to survive. This should be fascinating to watch. Barney Frank the industrialist.

How science works

Here's a fascinating little story from the Wall Street Journal.

Scars on the surface of the Moon record a hail of impacts during what is called the Late Heavy Bombardment. The Earth would have received an even more intense bombardment, and the common thinking until recently was that life could not have emerged on Earth until the bombardment eased about 3.85 billion years ago.

Norman H. Sleep, a professor of geophysics at Stanford, recalled that in 1986 he submitted a paper that calculated the probability of life surviving one of the giant, early impacts. It was summarily rejected because a reviewer said that obviously nothing could have lived then.

That is no longer thought to be true.

"We thought we knew something we didn't," said T. Mark Harrison, a professor of geochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. In hindsight the evidence was just not there. And new evidence has suggested a new view of the early Earth.

This, of course, is how science actually works. All scientific knowledge is tentative, subject to constant challenge by new hypotheses and new evidence.

Keep this in mind every time a global warmist claims that the "scientific consensus" about "climate change" is unchallengeable.

Just wondering

There was one terrorist captured in Mumbai last week and the Indian government is "questioning" him. Wonder if the ACLU would approve of the methods used?

Politicians know best

A recent poll by CNN shows that 61% of Americans are against the bailout of the auto makers in Detroit, but the Congress is going to do so anyway. Look for a giant dose of obfuscation to accompany the political cave to the unions. The gut feel of the public is right in this instance.

Economic Basics

The current government bailout of various failing entities can be summed up as follows:

We are going to take the money from those of you who are competent and did not create these financial problems and we are going to give it to those who are incompetent and created problems for all of us and ask them to fix the mess that they are responsible for in the first place. If they find progress is not being made in their fixing efforts, more of your money will be printed, given to the same incompetents, and put on the debt your children and grandchildren will have to pay. It is all very simple.

Watch for liberal states to come begging

The big liberal states like New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and California which have the highest taxes and spending and the fattest union members will be the first to come squealing to Washington begging for the rest of us to bail them out. They will plead for our money like the automobile companies in the high tax, big union states in the upper Mid-west and expect those of us in the rest of the country with car plants but not unions to pay for the bailout.

It is enough to trigger another secessionist movement.

Early Obama Grade

So far, so good. At least relative to worst fears. About the best we can hope for is the liberals will be as disappointed in Obama as conservatives like BestView were in Bush.

Coming to our senses?

There is both growing public reluctance to make personal sacrifices and a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the major international efforts now underway to battle climate change, according to findings of a poll of 12,000 citizens in 11 countries, including Canada.

Less than half of those surveyed, or 47 per cent, said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, down from 58 per cent last year.

Only 37 per cent said they were willing to spend "extra time" on the effort, an eight-point drop.

And only one in five respondents - or 20 per cent - said they'd spend extra money to reduce climate change. That's down from 28 per cent a year ago.

Read it all here.

Silent, but the pen still works

Evidently Ann Coulter recently suffered a broken jaw and now has it wired shut. This hasn't kept her thoughts from reaching those of us who revel in her way with words. Here is her latest and a sample is given below.

After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Massoud would now be able to park his car bomb in a handicapped parking space!

Upon his release in March 2004, Massoud hippity-hopped back to Afghanistan and quickly resumed his war against the U.S. Aided by his new artificial leg, just months later, in October 2004, Massoud masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan working on the Gomal Zam Dam project.

China has a problem

In recent weeks, a series of riots across central and southern China have flowered as disgruntled employees aired their grievances at the downturn.

Today, around 500 protesters rioted at the Kai Da toy factory in Dongguan in the Pearl River delta, flipping over a police car and trashing computers in a dispute over payoffs to 80 fired workers. Tens of thousands of factories across the region have already shut their gates.

Yin Weimin, China's Social Security minister, has revealed that employment is the Communist Party's number one concern in the downturn and said the "situation is critical". Unemployment is expected to rise from 4pc to 4.5pc by the end of the year and anecdotal reports have suggested that 3m people have already been fired in the industrial province of Zhejiang alone.

Read the whole article here.

Economic Musings

1. If you liberals think the federal government has a handle on how to fix the economic mess the federal government got us into in the first place, disappointment awaits you. They don't have a clue.

2. GM makes a profit on cars made in China, but the United Auto Workers don't operate there. The dems in Congress won't impose any hardship on the unions when they give the automobile companies money later this month.

3. If you have a mortgage on your house, you should look into refinancing in the next few months because interest rates are going to drop like a stone for those who qualify with good credit and equity in the house. Look for 4.0 to 4.5% interest rates on 30 year mortgages.

4. Inflation problems in this country will hit in 4-5 years and your money will lose as much as 50% of its current value. We should all buy some gold coins with the "free" money the government sends out in the so-called stimulus package.

5. Passive stock investors (those who buy and hold) have a really sad future before value comes back to the holdings. I suggest CDs as replacements.

6. This is going to be really a rough decade for the economy.

I am going to Texas

A Russian analyst has predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.If this proves to be accurate, I am going back to Texas.

The Obama Choice

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Obamas are fortunate to have the means to send their daughters to private school, and no one begrudges them that choice given that Washington's public schools are among the worst in America.

Most D.C. parents would also love to be able to choose a better school for their child, but they lack the financial means to do so. The Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program each year offers up to $7,500 to some 1,900 kids to attend private schools, but Democrats in Congress want to kill it. Average family income for kids in the voucher program is about $22,000.

Mr. Obama says he opposes such vouchers, because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom." The example of his own children refutes that: The current system offers plenty of choice to kids "at the top" while abandoning those at the bottom.

Bill O'Reilly Strangely Silent

On July 11, oil was $147 a barrel. Now, a little more than four months later, it's roughly a third of that. An OPEC emergency meeting to cut production and raise the price has had little effect.

Oil increased dramatically as global demand increased — as is now apparent, driven by an economy resting too much on a highly-leveraged financial system. With financial leveraging unwinding, the economy has fallen and so too the demand and price for oil.

Bill O'Reilly pompously intoned on his program that it was the evil speculators who were responsible--despite booking knowledgeable guests who tried to explain the concept of supply and demand over his constant interruptions.

We don't hear much from him these days. If speculation was a problem then, why is it not a problem now? If speculators were responsible for the price rise, why are they not liable for the price decline? The blowhard has fallen silent on the speculator theme.

A Blue State Problem

States have collectively racked up some $731 billion in unfunded liabilities for pensions and other retirement benefits, according to a study published last December by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States. In particular, the states have been promising their employees rich nonpension benefits -- such as retirement health and dental care -- and paying for virtually none of it. According to Pew estimates, states have put aside a mere $11 billion to fund $381 billion in future nonpension benefits. Illinois, which has the largest percentage of unfunded pension liabilities among the states, actually cut its contributions to pension funds by $2.3 billion in the flush years of 2006 and 2007 as stock market returns were rising.

Taxpayers are often erroneously told that there's plenty of money to finance new perks. In the late 1990s, to take one example, California's legislature approved a series of pension enhancements which the California Public Employees' Retirement System predicted could be funded almost entirely out of stock market gains. Today, of course, major stock market indices are lower than they were in 1999. California state and local governments are paying some $12.8 billion a year to finance public employee pensions, up from $4.8 billion in 1999, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's survey of government expenditures.

Who is going to be asking the federal government for a bailout next? The cities and states.

When will we learn?

All it takes is a little history lesson. Consider the steel industry, the airline industry, and now the automobile industry. Unions killed them all. The teachers have also used unionization to kill our education system and our federal workers have crippled our government agencies. Most of the damage is not as obvious as the industrial corpses, but the havoc is there nonetheless. Liberals still insist the unions prosper at the expense of the workers they presume to represent and an all the rest of us as well. When will we learn?

Bailout for whom?

When a GM car comes off the assembly line, the workers who drive that car to the inventory lot have an annual salary of $100,000 per year. We just must save those jobs and those who work at harder jobs for less must pay for them.

Godforsaken?

The fires in California seem to be a given at some point every year with mud slides soon to follow and then there is the occasional earthquake. This string of natural disasters is just a background for the consequences of the liberal fallout from idiotic environmental policies, excessive taxation, even more excessive spending, riots by gays, demonstrations by illegals from the South, and so on. About the only place on earth that compares with this combination of disasters is Bangladesh.

MLK family disgrace

Zealous guardians of his words and his likeness, the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is demanding a share of the proceeds from the sudden wave of T-shirts, posters and other merchandise depicting the civil rights leader alongside Barack Obama.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King's nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees - maybe even millions.

"Some of this is probably putting food on people's plates. We're not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves," he said, "but we cannot allow our brand to be abused."

Charitable Liberals

Larry King Cardiac Foundation

The CNN talk-show host and heart-attack survivor raises funds for heart operations for poor patients. But the charity spent $2.3 million on salaries, supplies, advertising, program expenses and gala dinners in LA and Washington, DC, in 2006, much more than the industry standard of 10% for fund-raising. Meanwhile, King employs his son, Larry King Jr., as the organization's CEO at a $200,000 salary - a hefty raise from the $66,667 he was paid when first appointed in 2004. Junior's current salary blows away the standard 3% of total expenses recommended as the ceiling for a CEO salary. Family members on charity boards are also a red flag. "I'm afraid that this just doesn't pass the smell test," said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator, a leading charity watchdog group. King Jr., 46, said that the charity has only three employees and that he wears many hats. "I am not your typical CEO or president," he said. "I do everything, and I agreed to take this on because I really wanted to help my father." The group didn't respond to requests for financial information from the charity division of the Better Business Bureau, which asked for it after receiving calls from potential donors who wanted more details on the organization.

New York, New York

Let's tax the rich. That is the liberal solution to all budgetary matters and certainly one espoused in New York. Here in this "progressive" state, the credit crisis will be a particular problem since the state relies on such a high proportion of its income from wall street. The financial services industry employs between 2 and 3 % of the non-government workers in the state---the same as in the 1970s. The problem, however, is this is 212,000 people making $80 billion in wages last year. The taxes paid by these workers is progressive so there is a great dependence of the state on relatively few people. One estimate has 45,000 taxpayers in New York providing 20 to 30% of total income tax receipts.
So, here we have a year when these workers are being fired, the ones working are getting no bonuses, others are leaving for lower tax states, and attempts to meet the budget shortfall through budget cuts is being resisted by public employee unions, teachers unions, etc.
One thing to look for in the coming reaction to the recession is the howls from cities and states with powerful labor unions and progressive tax codes, e.g., California, Michigan, New York, New Jersey and others.

Good Cartoon Chuck Asay

The Obama Bubble

They always end badly. Think of the dot.com bubble in the 90s when anything remotely connected to the internet went to the stock market heavens regardless of earnings or even revenue. Then there was the housing bubble when your house went up in value 10% between the time you closed and moved your furniture in. All you had to do was go see your friendly mortgage broker and he would refinance your note and even though you had no equity in the house, he would write you a big check. Now we have the Obama bubble where all of our hopes and aspirations are heaped onto his magical promise and prose. When this one breaks, it is not going to be fun and we must all pray that we survive as a nation.

Favorite Quote from Election post-mortems

"John McCain wanted to be nice and Obama wanted to be President."

Electoral Mystery

BestView has long been puzzled by the fact that our two biggest states, California and New York, continue to be miserably in debt despite rising taxes, continue to have net loss of businesses and poor and failing schools and yet, in large numbers vote for the democrats who keep doing this to them. The two most viable theories are the voters would rather pay for failing government than vote for Republicans who are anti-abortion or they are stupid. Presumably, both theories can hold at the same time.

Random Thoughts

1. If we wind up bailing out GM and other auto companies in Michigan without restructuring the auto workers union contracts, the consequences will be profound since everyone will come for their handout and high tax cities and states will lead the parade. Our dollars will soon be worth less than pesos.

2. The big election winner this month is George Bush. He gets to go home and leave the mess to others.

3. The message for Republicans in Congress and especially those whose term in Congress is coming to an end is they should leave liberal legislation to the Democrats and don't try to out spend them, for example. Think playing golf against Tiger Woods.

4. A compassionate conservative isn't one.

5. The liberals in Congress are going to be the source of great amusement in the coming months as they overreact to the election and fight amongst themselves.

Poor Palin

The Palin's released their tax returns for 2007 this past week and their income was the lowest of the four candidates for national office by a good bit. Their income was $166,000 compared with $320,000 for Joe Biden and his wife. McCain reported $852,000 in household income and Obama made $4.2 million...mostly from book sales.

It is interesting that the Palin's made about one-half as much as the Biden's and yet they managed to donate 3-times as much to charity. The Palins donated $3,325 vs. $995 which the Biden's managed to give. The phenomenon continues to play itself out when liberals charity seems to begin and mostly end with using someone else's money to help those "less fortunate".

Just the Facts

When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate back in January of 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at an all-time high of 12,400 and gas prices hovered around $2.15 per gallon. The Republican-led Congress of the previous 4-years had left a strong-economy in the hands of Socialist Democrats.

Fast-forward two years, under Democrat-controlled Congress. Just last week the Dow Jones hit a 5-year low of 10,485 and gas prices loomed near $4 dollars a gallon.

Of course, it is all Bush's fault.

Chinese Toxicity

Fifteen more Chinese dairy companies were identified Wednesday as producing milk products contaminated with an industrial chemical (melamine), further broadening a scandal affecting products ranging from baby formula to chocolate, authorities said.

The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.

This confirms a long held belief by BestView that the U.S. should avoid anything from China which is meant to be ingested. My favorite example is talapia, a farm-grown fish which is likely contaminated by whatever is in the water where it is farmed. The label should have the country of origin on the package and Chinese talapia is easily avoided. Unless you are convinced that all the water in China is pure, don't take the risk.

The Bailout

As of this morning the world and the markets are waiting to see if the politicians in Washington are going to adopt the Bush bailout plan. The problem seems to be that the dems have bought into the plan and conservatives (mostly Republicans) have not. So, the President with a low approval rating and the dem Congress with a lower one are in bed together and the people who vote are not willing to jump in that bed. Since there is a possibility for economic chaos if it is not passed, the dems who control Congress could pass it immediately, but they are afraid to do this unless the Republicans are in that shaky bed with them. So, we have a situation where political courage on the part of the dems is necessary to avoid a hypothetical meltdown which they have spent weeks hyping in the press. Someone will blink today or tomorrow and it will be interesting to see who it is.

This should worry you

Bloomberg.com reports FDIC insures all accounts up to $100,000 at its member banks, and it has never failed to honor a claim. The IndyMac debacle is taking a large bite out of FDIC reserves, and if scores of other banks fail in the year ahead, the fund will be depleted. Taxpayers will have to step in. The FDIC knows which banks are at risk; it has a watch list with 117 institutions. The agency won't disclose their names because doing so could cause depositors to panic and pull out all of their funds. It won't take many more failures before the FDIC itself runs out of money. The agency had $45.2 bln in its coffers as of June 30, far short of the $200 bln Whalen says it will need to pay claims by the end of next year. The U.S. Treasury will almost certainly come to the rescue. Emergency federal funding of the FDIC could swell the cost of government rescues of failed financial institutions to more than $400 bln -- not including the $700 bln general Wall Street bailout now under discussion in Congress. That number would be even higher if the government were on the hook for uninsured deposits -- which amount to $2.6 trillion, 37% of the total of $7 trillion held in the U.S. branches of all FDIC member banks... As recently as March, an internal FDIC memo estimated the cost to cover bank collapses in 2008 would be just $1 bln, dropping to $450 mln in 2009. It wasn't even close. The IndyMac failure alone, which happened four months after that memo was circulated, will cost the FDIC $8.9 bln -- and the bill for all 12 collapses will be about $11 bln, the FDIC says.

President Who?

Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.

He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

You would have needed an experimental TV set in 1929 to see some unknown named Roosevelt instead of President Hoover.

I just love Joe Biden as a counterpoint to that inexperienced Sarah Palin who liberals say is not ready to be in an office she is not running for.

Taxes versus charity, Biden style

Senator Biden says it is patriotic to step up and pay more taxes. He says the bible supports his view even though the bible usually mentions 10% in taxes and not the 39.6% that Biden favors for the "rich". His Catholic training also mentions charity as a moral virtue and this also is generally held to be around 10%. Mr. Biden and his wife recently released their tax returns, and they reported an average of $380, or 0.2% of their income, in annual charitable contributions over a 10-year period. The national average was about 2% of income. Even the phony Al Gore gave nearly $900 a year to charity.

Dubious Science

Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

This is probably not a valid study, but even if it is, I think I'll risk it and continue to savor my steak and pork ribs.

Democrat Ethics

For most of the past few years, most of the ethical lapses amongst our politicians seemed to be focused on the GOP. Now we have the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangle, with problems involving the use of rent controlled apartments in NY and an inability to figure out a way to pay his taxes even though Ways and Means writes our tax policy. He bought a condo in the Dominican several years ago and somewhere along the way the 10.5% interest rate on the purchase was "forgiven" and the rental income for when he wasn't using the condo was disregarded for tax purposes.

Since Charlie is a black politician from Harlem, BestView expected this to be largely overlooked even though Republicans in the House of Representatives have called for an ethics investigation and for him to step aside from his chairmanship. The surprise here is the call today by the New York Times for his stepping aside from the chairmanship while the ethics investigation proceeds. Amazing.

The Palin Factor

Sarah Palin must still be having a positive effect on the campaign. Both the New York Times and Washington Post have hit pieces on their front pages this Sunday morning. As has been the case in many of these, the headline sounds much more damning than the text which follows. It must be admitted that when a governor appoints someone he or she knows and likes to a position instead of someone who is a political enemy, the warning signs should be raised to full mast. In the Washington Post Palin was criticized for hiring an assistant to handle some of the administrative work. I am sure after learning this, the populace will arise and demand she be burned at the stake.

Grading Palin

I stole this assessment from someone named Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist. Whatever that is.

On a one to ten scale, with ten being perfect, I’d rate her a 6 on this interview (based on what we saw Thursday night), a 9 as a VP pick, and an 11 on driving the Democrats nuts.

Computer Deficiency

The Obama campaign is denigrating McCain's lack of computer use. The ad mocking him on this score is aimed at his age and ignorance of technology. It may not have been smart to make this an issue if it is made public that McCain's war injuries keep him from being able to comb his hair, tie his shoes, salute our military, or even use a keyboard. Combined with Biden's call for a man in a wheel chair to "stand up and take a bow" the expected sensitivity of these liberals seems to be lacking.

Bridge to Nowhere Facts

From National Review.

The earmark for the Bridge to Nowhere originally appeared in the now-infamous highway bill of 2005. That bill included $24 billion in pork-barrel earmarks and will end up costing taxpayers a reckless $286.5 billion over six years. It passed on a 91-4 vote in the U.S. Senate on July 29, 2005, with Sen. John McCain standing in opposition along with three other lonely voices for fiscal responsibility. Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden both voted for the bill and its bridge of ill repute.

The Senate got another chance to stop the bridge on October 20, 2005, when it voted on an amendment offered by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that would have redirected the funds from the bridge to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina relief. By then the grassroots outrage against the bridge was beginning to take hold and there was a good amount of pressure on the Senate to adopt the amendment. That pressure came from both the right and the left, with liberal Markos Moulitsas at the DailyKos stoking the flames. “Honestly,” he wrote, “there’s no reason for any Democrat to vote against this amendment.”

But Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (presently under indictment on corruption charges) played hardball, ominously stating:

I come to warn the Senate, if you want a wounded bull on the floor of the Senate, pass this amendment. I stood here and watched Senator Allen teach the Senate lesson after lesson after something was done to Alabama that he didn’t like. I don’t threaten people; I promise people.

Unfortunately, most senators chose Ted Stevens over the taxpayers. The result was shameful: Coburn’s amendment got only 15 votes. John McCain missed that vote, although Obama and Biden both buckled to Stevens and voted against the amendment. Moulitsas commented afterward that “Those who voted against these amendments have zero credibility on issues of fiscal responsibility. Zero.”

Terror Targets

The following gives what it considers probable and possible modes of terror attacks which are certain to come. Since they predicted the use of planes on 9/11, I guess it is instructive to at least read them. Here is one of the scariest.

Attack on U.S. oil refineries

Probability: High

Impact: High

Four terrorists driving minivans approach four oil refineries: The Royal Dutch Shell installation at Port Arthur, Texas; the Valero Energy refinery at Corpus Christi, Texas; the Chalmette refinery east of New Orleans; and the Chevron refinery at Pascagoula, Miss. They crash through the gates and aim for the key catalytic units used to refine petroleum. The crashes set off more than 500 pounds of dynamite in each van. Eleven workers die in the initial attacks and six more perish in the infernos that send plumes of dark smoke miles into the sky. Even before the flames can be extinguished, the price of oil skyrockets to more than $200 a barrel. The president declares a state of emergency and dispatches National Guard units to protect key infrastructure.

Casualties: 17 dead, 34 wounded.

Consequences: In a single day, America loses 15 percent of its crude-oil processing capability for more than a year. The Federal Reserve slashes the prime rate by a full point in a desperate attempt to avert a recession, as gas prices balloon. Critics bemoan the fact that, for decades, the United States neglected development of its “dirty” oil-processing infrastructure -- and now it's too late. Total economic cost: $1.2 trillion.

Election Criteria

After a 2 month hiatus for various reasons, BestView is back in time to guide your selection in the presidential election. If you know nothing else about the nominees, keep in mind that both Obama and Biden are lawyers and neither McCain nor Palin are. Makes the choice fairly obvious in my opinion.

Missile Defense

This is so absurd you should not even be able to make it up. The U.S. has developed an anti-missile system that has tested out fairly well over the past few years and Obama says he will cut funding for it because it doesn't work. At the same time the Russians are threatening military action if we install this in former countries associated with the old Soviet Union because they pose a threat to their perceived interests in that part of the world and is not necessary even though Iran just shot off missiles that proved that the system is almost assuredly necessary. Amazing.

Language Lesson

Obama says we need to learn Spanish just as the illegal immigrants need to learn English. He said nothing about the need for the black students who graduate from our high schools each year to learn to speak English.

Hate Speech?

Our favorite black "leader", Jesse Jackson, says he would like to cut Obama's nuts off. Is that hate speech?

Confusion in the ranks

With Obama lurching to the center he is now courting conservatives more than McCain who still thinks he can out-liberal the real thing. This is all really hard to watch.

Get those profits

Liberals want to grab those nasty profits from oil companies. Great idea. Who cares if those greedy Bush friends get leprosy and rot? Well, maybe nearly everyone. Here is a brief lesson on stocks. The value and hence the price of a stock goes up with earnings. Idiotic politicians should consider the following:

• Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds. Mutual funds manage accounts for 55 million U.S. households with a median income of $68,700.
• Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds. In 2004, more than 2,600 pension funds run by federal, state and local governments held almost $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and natural gas companies. These funds represent the major retirement security for the nation's current and retired soldiers, teachers, and police and fire personnel at every level of government.
• Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. Forty five million U.S. households have IRA and other personal retirement accounts, with an average account value of just over $22,000.

Crowd Control

I had never heard of this, and it may be as effective as a threat as it would be in reality, but I can't wait for it to be used at the Dems convention this year. Read more about it here.

Political activists planning protest rallies at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver have their stomachs in knots over a rumor about a crowd control weapon - known as the “crap cannon” - that might be unleashed against them.

Also called “Brown Note,” it is believed to be an infrasound frequency that debilitates a person by making them defecate involuntarily.

Good Veep Choice for McCain

Here is a very complete analysis and introduction to the Governor of Alaska whom many suggest McCain should choose as his running mate. The more sense it makes, the less likely it is he will choose her.

Good Question

Obama recently uttered in his acceptance speech the following:

"I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people … . I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal … . This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation."

Mark Steyn asks the obvious question in the following way:

As for coming together "to remake this great nation," if it's so great, why do we have to remake it?

We will miss her

Hillary gets analyzed

The media all seem driven to examine the failed campaign of Hillary since it was once assumed by these same analyzers that she was a shoo-in. Here is a snippet of one of the best---from Britain. Read it all here.

Obama ran a good campaign but he was helped by the fact that he was pitched against an opponent who had nothing whatsoever to commend her except for her gender – that, and the fact that she was one of the fairly large number of women who very occasionally had sexual intercourse with a popular president, Bill Clinton. None of Bill’s magic washed off on her; she appeared shrill, stiff, disingenuous and even vicious.

Confusing Math

BestView is perplexed by the liberals in Congress who claim that drilling in ANWR and adding 10 billion gallons of oil would not give us enough supply to affect prices at the pump. However, these same geniuses now claim that if we tap into the 700 million barrels of oil in our strategic reserves, gas prices will come down meaningfully. What utter nonsense.

Get me away from the sexist Democrats

Hillary is now widely complaining that she has been the victim of misogynists in her bid for the nomination in the dem primary contest. Large numbers of the democrat voters are sexist, she claims. At the same time, she claims that she is better able than Obama to defeat McCain next Fall. This seems to suggest that the contest in November would favor her because the voters who are Republican or who may be independent with no party affiliation would overlook her sex and vote on the issues she feels favor her.

I am not sure she would agree with the BestView conclusion, but it seems that Hillary should consider joining the Republican party since it is apparently not as populated with sexists.

Religion of Peace

Just wondering

When will the liberal media and pundits start using the word "gravitas" in the same sentence with BHO?

Obama Nonsense

Here is a direct quote of BHO's most recent nonsense. This is tired liberal drivel from academia that most of the electorate will accept without thinking.... mostly because they can't. Who is going to ask the electorate to consider whether a robust industrialized economy is going to consume more energy than a backward country in Africa whose population is still living in grass huts? Boy, this is depressing.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in a desert, or living in the tundra, and then just expect that every other country’s going to say okay, you guys just go ahead and keep on using 25% of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3% of the population.

The Abortion Effect

The BestView theory of this election holds that many, if not most, of the liberals who are giving Obama the nomination are not comfortable with him. As his inexperience and lack of thought about international circumstances become painfully evident, they will in the end stick with him for one reason. They will risk the possibility of catastrophic international consequences from Obama's pursuit of Jimmy Carter's second term in order to preserve a woman's right to kill her babies.

Kennedy vs. Khrushchev

Obama,who is either "history-challenged" or even more devious and naive than most believe, has cited the Kennedy and Khrushchev meeting as something that ratifies his suggested meeting with all despots "without preconditions". The following account in the New York Times, of all places, puts the record straight for Obama and other Kool-Aide sippers in his camp.
Historical evidence suggests Kennedy knew immediately that he had made a mistake and the erection of the Berlin Wall two months later and the installation of missiles in Cuba within a year confirmed how big a mistake it was to send an inexperienced idealistic liberal to the White House. Read the whole article.

Good thing he is a liberal

Obama on Sunday:

“I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, ‘We’re going to wipe you off the planet.’ ”

Obama on this past Tuesday after McCain and others challenged him:

Iran is a grave threat. It has an illicit nuclear program. It supports terrorism across the region and militias in Iraq. It threatens Israel's existence. It denies the Holocaust," he said. "The reason Iran is so much more powerful than it was a few years ago is because of the Bush-McCain policy of fighting in Iraq and refusing to pursue direct diplomacy with Iran. They're the ones who have not dealt with Iran wisely.

Another bullseye from Coulter

Calling the fight against terrorism "the defining challenge of our time" -- which already confused liberals who think the defining struggle of our time is against Wal-Mart -- Bush said:

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The way liberals squealed, you'd think someone had mentioned Obama's ears.

Read the whole thing here.

Georgia Breaks New Ground

There has been a major development in the State of Georgia yet the so-called mainstream media has completely ignored it and even the alternative media hardly has covered it. This past week Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the most expansive school-choice program in the nation.

Unlike similar programs in other States, this program has no demographic restriction. All students are eligible for private school scholarships. The State Legislature set the cost of the school choice budget at $50 million. If the demand is similar in other States that amount likely will rise considerably. All pupils K-12 are eligible.

Read the whole thing here.

Dream Dinner Party

If I were to give a dinner party for 10 people, who would I invite? Assuming the guests were not family or politicians, the following 10, in no particular order, would be my choice. Anyone wanting to offer a competing list is welcome to post a comment here on BestView.

Stephen Hawking--I am sure he could get me to understand the universe by the time dessert is served.
Boone Pickens--A Texan who has given millions to Oklahoma State and has a continuous stream of investment ideas for how to make more. Surely he would share some with me.
Camille Paglia--What other woman could better represent all womanhood at this dinner party?
Tom Wolfe--He would need to be seated by Camille with a hidden recorder needed to preserve their conversation.
Tiger Woods--Maybe he could help with my game, but if not, he would probably be the most widely respected person in the room.
John Bolton--the former U.N. Ambassador has a world view that I admire and more common sense than anyone observing the world scene.
Billy Graham--someone needs to bless this meal and he probably has a better line of communication to God than anyone else.
Terry Fator--Another Texan. Any dinner party needs an entertainer and he is the most talented one I have ever seen or heard.
Antonin Scalia--a brilliant man I would have sitting to my right so I could readily get his take on whatever came up in the various conversations.
Doyle Brunson--a Texan who has been playing poker successfully for 50 years. It would be fun to watch him correctly size up the dinner participants in the first 10 minutes.

Life is good down on the farm

The farm bill going through Congress is such a boondoggle, it would take much of the day to document all of the obscenities included therein. Let's start with this. The bill continues the practice instituted after Katrina whereby farmers are allowed to lock in price support payments at the lowest possible price, sell at the highest possible price and then pocket the difference. This means you and I are paying twice for the same bushel of wheat.
Bush wanted to cap these benefits at an annual income of $200,000, but Congress will have none of that and went instead for $750,000. This in itself is a mirage since it doesn't include loan programs or disaster payments and it allows spouses to qualify for payments too. With clever accountants, it has been calculated that a farmer can have an income of up to $2.5 million and still get a handout.
BestView can't go on. It is too depressing.

Don't test me!

The New York teachers unions have successfully managed to prevent student performance from being considered in tenure decisions. This, like most aspects of modern education, violates common sense. As with all other liberals, teachers feel we should be content to assume their good intentions are sufficient to keep them in failing positions for life.

Obscene Profits

Liberals like those running for President think it would just be a dandy idea to impose an additional tax on oil companies since their profits are obscene and the cause of high gas prices--even though neither is the case. However, if their profits are indeed so extravagant, maybe we should also consider those of the grain farmers who are beneficiaries of the increased price of corn and other grains from the idiotic conversion of our food into fuel for automobiles instead of people.

Beware of racists

This article in the Washington Post is like the first robin of spring. We can now look forward to steady efforts by the main stream media to promptly brand anyone who is not voting for BHO a racist and a bigot.

Prediction

Before this is over, Michelle Obama is going to make the dems wish for Teresa Heinz Kerry back.

Here is a recent quote of hers:

Well see, his mother had a lot of nerve on her own, right? She thought that she could be something special, even though she grew up in a little town in Kansas.

No recession here

We have spent the past 2 days at a casino in Mississippi and from what I see, there is no recession here. The poor and the blacks which the liberals seem to worry so much about seem to have plenty of gambling money. Surely they are only risking money which is well beyond that which is needed for daily expenses, I assume.

These three will undoubtedly fix things

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that he may try to force undecided superdelegates to make their decisions in the Democratic presidential race if it stretches into June.

Reid said he would consider writing a joint letter with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding that superdelegates make their endorsements public.

Sunspots

BestView is convinced that liberals usually find themselves taking actions which produce the exact opposite of intended, or stated, objectives. Many examples offer themselves, like the Great Society which was going to help poor people and instead gave us several generations of decadent dependents. Then there is the claim that if we just raise the tax on capital gains we can take money from the filthy rich and do more good things with the government spigot. Of course, the fact is a lowered capital gains tax increases revenue--and vice versa.

This brings us to global warming which the liberals (some of which are Republicans) claim is anthropogenic and can be corrected by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Ignored in all the current blather about man's pitiful contribution to climate change is the sun. Sunspot activity has been at minimal levels now for over a year and this has always produced climate cooling--often of remarkable magnitude. Napolean's winter in Moscow has been associated with low sunspot activity, for example. Now the snow in Baghdad last winter for the first time in centuries and the extent of Antarctic ice development, which is greater than any time since the place was discovered in 1770, plus other observations suggest that we could once again be faced with the opposite result of liberal contentions. With Al Gore calling for global warming, we should instead prepare for the big chill.

McCain's Pension

The liberals are out early in their attacks on McCain. The Los Angeles Times is questioning the disability pension McCain got for injuries received while imprisoned in North Viet Nam. Their thesis seems to be that the permanent damage to his arms and legs which qualified him for a pension somehow disqualifies him to be President. Aside from the fact that these same liberals would swoon if anyone suggested Roosevelt was too disabled to serve or if there was no government pension system for our veterans with service-related health problems, their decision to play this card now against McCain shows how concerned they must be at the alternative this country will have.

Can't we just get along?

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden's chief deputy in an audiotape Tuesday accused Shiite Iran of trying to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida terror network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11 attacks...

One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor.

"The purpose of this lie is clear—(to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

Probably a bookkeeping error

From Power Line.


The Los Angeles Times' campaign finance expert Dan Morain has found Obama campaign records reporting a $50 donation by Roy Scheider, who lists his occupation as actor and his home as Sag Harbor, N.Y. Remember him from many great movies including "The French Connection" and "Jaws" and the immortal line: "You're gonna need a bigger boat"?

According to the campaign records, Scheider made the donation on March 10 last month.

Trouble is, Scheider died exactly one month before that, on Feb. 10 at the age of 75.

Malcolm adds: "Scheider was unavailable for comment. "

The good ship is listing left

The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

Beware of Obama Gun Control

When Obama says he "supports" the 2nd Amendment, warning lights should flash. There are several examples of actions which belie his statements. In 1996 Obama said he favored a complete ban on all handguns. In this campaign, he says an aide filled out the questionnaire and he had no knowledge of it despite his hand writing on the document.

In 1999 Obama urged enactment of a federal law prohibiting the operation of a gun store within 5 miles of a school or park. This would eliminate gun sales in any urban area in the U.S.

Obama voted against legislation to stop mayors from suing gun manufacturers and gun store owners because of gun crime--even when they had complied with all laws regarding manufacture and sale of guns.

Don't think Hillary would be better. She has repeatedly voter for anti-gun proposals and co-sponsored many of them.

Pig to Man Infectious Process?

BestView is often skeptical about science article in the press, but this one seems to have some basis for concern. There are known animal prions which can affect the nervous system of man and none of them are something you want to contract.

Hillary Explains Bosnia

This is great. In the debate Hillary had last night with Obama, she was asked about why she lied about her landing in Bosnia. After a lot of hooey, she apologized and said she "was not as accurate as she has been in the past". She didn't add that neither was she more inaccurate than she has been in the past, but maybe her time was up.

Obama's lapel decisions

After 9/11/2001, Barack Obama, like most politicians wore an American flag in his lapel as a symbol of patriotism and sympathy for the victims. When he stopped wearing it, a reporter asked him about it. Here is his reply:

"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.

Well, arrogant dismissal of regular folks in the dems electorate seems to have Obama in sufficient angst to bring it back. He once said that his patriotism speaks for itself, but now, he must figure he needs flags to bolster that.

I wonder how long it is going to take for the poor ignorant voters to discover that Obama is as big a phony as most other politicians?

The Bush Legacy

In the previous offering, BestView chided historians for declaring the Bush presidency a failure. Now it is fair to suggest they may not be wrong in two important aspects. First, the administration seems to be shrinking from what was once a commendable insistence that North Korea permit verification of its nuclear activities. The stance now seems to be we will take the word of a country which has lied to everyone about everything. Utter nonsense.
A second problem seems to be one where Bush continues to utter cluck-clucks about the activities of Iran in Iraq, but nothing gets done to see that this stop. Lord help us if Bush passes this problem off to someone like Obama or Clinton.
Ironically, the liberals like the aforementioned historians will not see these two major deficiencies as part of the problem with the Bush legacy.

History in Reverse

I was reading this morning that 98% of 109 history professors surveyed by the History News Network adjudged the Bush presidency to be a failure. This seems a trifle early for such a pronouncement, but they are a liberal lot and probably can't resist. A survey in 2003 found the Democrat to Republican ratio of history professors to be about 9.5:1.0. As a scientist, I have never really been convinced historians differed greatly from modern-day property assessors. The work product of both depends largely on what they start out to look for.

Finally, historical evaluations such as this remind me of meteorological predictions of our climate decades into the future when we have little to no idea what the weather will be like next week. Liberal historians do it in reverse.

Thomas Sowell gets it right again

"Senator John McCain could never get me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain."

"The same people who have gone ballistic when some prominent figure is found to belong to some all-male social club are full of excuses for why Barack Obama remained a member of a racist and anti-American church for 20 years."

Senatorial Disgrace

Sen. Jay Rockefeller who was born to wealth and has spent his adulthood being a politician without ever finding military service to be part of his plan has issued a slur on John McCain's service. He said McCain dropped laser-guided bombs on innocent people in Viet Nam and gave no thought to the consequences. Ergo, McCain cares nothing about the lives of people.

This is such a despicable case of slander that even some liberals who also hate the military are taking notice. Aside from being untrue (laser guided missiles were not available before McCain got shot down) it is also idiotic. Does Rockefeller also feel this way about those thousands of pilots in World War II who flew missions over places like Guadalcanal?

Rockefeller came forth with an "apology" for "an inaccurate and wrong analogy". What he said was not an analogy. It was a specific reference to actual acts --McCain's service to his country.

It is really disturbing that this man is the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Vagina Warriors?

The existence of this group is news to BestView. Where do I get one of those lollipops? Read the whole thing here.

Watch out, New Orleans: “Vagina Warriors” are headed your way. This weekend V-Day will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a two-day festival in New Orleans, or “the vagina of America,” as V-Day board member and actress Rosario Dawson called it at the luncheon announcing the festivities. Why New Orleans? V-Day’s website says, “We need to celebrate New Orleans, cherish it, protect it, just as we do our vaginas, and make sure it goes on and on.”

Celebrities, including mega-stars Katie Holmes and Oprah Winfrey, have signed on in droves to attend the vagina festival, but one wonders if they know what they are really supporting. V-Day’s mission is to end violence against women, surely a noble cause. But when you look at the activities done in the name of V-Day, it’s clear that this about more than just ending violence. On campus, V-Day groups sell vagina-shaped lollipops, chocolates, and t-shirts with slogans like “I love Vagina” and “A vagina by any other name would smell just as sweet.” They parade around campus in vagina costumes, or in the case of the George Washington University, have a four-foot-tall “living vagina” named Joan on display.

Crooked Porkster, Rare Reporter

Congressman Jack Murtha is one of the most influential powerbrokers in Washington.

According to an estimate by Taxpayers for Common Sense, he's steered more than $600 million in earmarks to his Pennsylvania district in the past four years and $2 billion since 1992. But what's been good for Murtha and his district is not always good for taxpayers.

The fact that Congress is full of crooked appropriators using ear marks is not really news. Neither is the fact that John Murtha is one of the bigger abusers of ear marks. The bigger story here is that CBS is reporting the scandal by one of their liberal kin-folks. That is amazing.

My favorite Hillary Picture

BestView has published some very unflattering pictures of Hillary and it is time to offer balance. So here is my favorite picture of her which is not entirely fair since Natalie Portman is also in there, but ....

Scientific Frontiers

The Hadron Collider is the largest collaborative scientific effort in history. It involves more than 2000 scientists from 34 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. It has taken 14 years to build at a cost of $8 billion and is scheduled to begin serious research work later this year.

And that work is mindboggling. The Collider seeks to accomplish nothing less than giving us a view of what the universe was like about one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang when the 4 fundamental forces in the universe – electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces, and gravitation – first split apart. By sending particle beams in opposite directions along a 17 mile underground circular track and accelerating them to near light speed while directing the particles with superconducting magnets to points where they are likely to collide, scientists hope to unravel some of the basic mysteries of the universe. Dark matter, extra dimensions, the nature of gravity, perhaps the fate of the universe itself could be revealed by these collisions and the subatomic particles they leave behind.

That is all good, right? Well, some aren't 100% convinced that we know what will happen. The whole story is given here, but this is a sample of what some worry about. The risk is probably small that the earth will be consumed, but......

" the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Although it sounds bizarre, the case touches on a serious issue that has bothered scholars and scientists in recent years — namely how to estimate the risk of new groundbreaking experiments and who gets to decide whether or not to go ahead.

Dubious Science

BestView has tried to point out scientific malfeasance when it is featured in the media and there is an article I ran across this weekend which deserves our skepticism. It comes out of Europe, but our press will pick it up because it is so sensational. Cell phones cause brain tumors is the claim, but the evidence is not there and the evidence which has been gathered leads to the opposite conclusion. Rather than simply claiming that the small amount of radiation associated with cell phone usage could theoretically produce cancer, the author claims the danger exceeds that of asbestos and smoking. That is almost surely patent nonsense. The greater problem is our school systems have failed us so completely that few will be educated to the point where the claim can be even questioned correctly.

Sir Hillary reprise

Mark Steyn remembers the naming of Hillary.

Hmm. Edmund Hillary reached the top of Everest in 1953. Hillary Rodham was born in 1947, when Sir Edmund was an obscure New Zealand beekeeper and a somewhat unlikely inspiration for two young parents in the Chicago suburbs. If any of the bigshot U.S. newspaper correspondents on the trip noticed this inconsistency, they kept it to themselves. I mentioned it in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph at the time, but like so many other improbabilities in the Clinton record it sailed on indestructibly for years. By 2004 it was preserved for the ages in Bill Clinton’s autobiography, on page (gulp) 870: “Sir Edmund Hillary, who had explored the South Pole in the 1950s, was the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest and, most important, was the man Chelsea’s mother had been named for.”

Eventually, when it was noticed that Hillary was born six years before the ascent of Everest, Clinton aides tried assuring skeptics that her parents had seen a press interview with Sir Edmund in his beekeeping days, Mr. and Mrs. Rodham apparently being the only Illinois subscribers to The New Zealand Apiarist. Then, in the early days of her presidential campaign, Senator Clinton quietly withdrew the story, by which time the damage was done. Edmund Hillary passed away a couple of months back, and, as I recall, the New York Times headline read: “New Zealander For Whom Senator Clinton Named Dies; Also First Man To Climb Everest. Senator Clinton Was At The Summit To Greet Him, After Landing Under Heavy Sniper Fire From The Abominable Snowman.”

More on charity

As a follow-up to the BestView comment on Obama's charity contributions, Betsy uses George Will's commentary today to highlight the liberals giving of their own money, blood, and time. Read it here.

Liberal Charity

A few years ago some note was made of the fact that Al Gore gave a total of some $275 to charity as reported on his income of several hundred thousand dollars. This did not surprise those of us who hold the view that liberals are much more generous with the money they take from us than their own. Those who are constantly wanting to raise taxes to give to someone else are notably reluctant to just write a check to the IRS to increase their contribution to the effort. At any rate, the Obama tax returns were just made public and Hillary is once again promising hers will be released one of these days. I am sure we can take her at her word.

Obama is a pretty typical liberal in his giving. Last year he was most generous and gave 6.1% of his income to charity and in 2001 and 2002, the level of giving was about 0.4-0.5%. Evidently, the anti-American sermons of his friend the Reverend Wright did not cover tithing.

Hillary challenges the English language

BestView enjoys few things more than watching the dem candidates wallow in the muck during this extended campaign. The latest is Hillary's claim that Bill found Bosnia too dangerous for him to visit so he sent his wife and only child. As the plane landed there was such heavy sniper fire that nobody could recollect it except Hillary and the CBS cameras failed to confirm her ducking and bobbing for cover upon landing. So, we have a problem. How does the campaign control the damage of this revelation? First, they said she "misspoke". This claim has the unfortunate problem of ignoring that the tale was not just spoken, but also included in a book someone wrote for Hillary. Oops. We need other language to replace the fact that she lied about something other than sex. Others with greater facility in the English language have come forth with suggestions. Some have been used before like she "confused her facts". She "misremembered". Some one said her account of the Bosnian trip simply lacked the virtue of being true. Whatever.

Hillary Not Happy?

Mark Steyn's Grandma Analysis

Asked about the sin of racism beating within Gran’ma’s breast, Obama said on TV that “she’s a typical white person.”

Which doesn’t sound like the sort of thing the supposed “post-racial” candidate ought to be saying, but let that pass. How “typically white” is Obama’s grandmother? She is the woman who raised him — that’s to say, she brought up a black grandchild and loved him unconditionally. Burning deep down inside, she may nurse a secret desire to be Simon Legree or Bull Connor, but it doesn’t seem very likely. She does then, in her own flawed way, represent a post-racial America. But what of her equivalent (as Obama’s speech had it)? Is Jeremiah Wright a “typical black person”? One would hope not. A century and a half after the Civil War, two generations after the Civil Rights Act, the Reverend Wright promotes victimization theses more insane than anything promulgated at the height of slavery or the Jim Crow era. You can understand why Obama is so anxious to meet with President Ahmadinejad, a man who denies the last Holocaust even as he plans the next one. Such a summit would be easy listening after the more robust sermons of Jeremiah Wright.

It doesn't get any better than Mark Steyn. Read his entire column here.

Liberal Euphemisms

This comes from Reason Magazine.

To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure.

Instead of calling these schools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale.

Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one."

The board has spent parts of more than three meetings in recent months debating the linguistic merits and tone set by the terms after a handful of superintendents from across the state complained that the label underperforming unfairly casts blame on educators, hinders the recruitment of talented teachers, and erodes students' self-esteem.

At a December meeting on how to improve struggling schools in Holyoke, Lawrence, and Springfield, superintendents implored members not to stick them with a label of "chronically underperforming."

"For our teachers, it's a blow," said Wilfredo Laboy, Lawrence superintendent. "It demoralizes staff completely."

Joseph Burke, Springfield superintendent, said that while he is not crazy about any label, he would prefer "priority one," because "It sounds nicer."

Facts are stubborn things

Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril.

Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"

She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

Read it all here.

Divisive Gun Laws

Consider this lead paragraph in the USA Today:


WASHINGTON — Guns, and questions about how much power the government has to keep people from owning them, are at the core of one of the most divisive topics in American politics.

How divisive is the gun question? Here is the 3rd paragraph from this story:

Nearly three out of four Americans — 73% — believe the Second Amendment spells out an individual right to own a firearm, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,016 adults taken Feb. 8-10.

Maybe gun laws are divisive when liberal newspapers disagree with the people.

Spelling

One of my sisters sometimes finds it necessary to correct my punctuation in this blog, but I got all of these spelling questions right. See how you do. Just click on the link below to take the test.

Your Spelling is Perfect

You got 10/10 correct. Your spelling is excellent. You also have a great memory and eye for detail.

How's Your Spelling?

How sweet it is!!

Obama says his Grandmother is a "typical white person", leery of blacks and Bill Clinton says the country needs an election between two candidates who love America---like Hillary and McCain. The DNC imposes penalties on Florida and Michigan it can't afford to stick with or back off from. Conservatives will lose in the Fall, but right now all is well.

Hillary tossed off cliff by leftist loonies

The following is from the kooky leftist blogger Markos Moulitsas. Read the whole thing here.
I wonder what he has in mind when he says she must be "dealt with appropriately"?

It is Clinton, with no reasonable chance of victory, who is fomenting civil war in order to overturn the will of the Democratic electorate. As such, as far as I’m concerned, she doesn’t deserve “fairness” on this site. All sexist attacks will be dealt with — those will never be acceptable. But otherwise, Clinton has set an inevitably divisive course and must be dealt with appropriately.

Obama is lucky??

Geraldine Ferraro, one of Hillary's fundraisers and the 1984 vice presidential candidate, told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

There was no mention of the likelihood that Hillary would be in her position if she weren't the wronged wife of Bubba.

Getting pretty predictable

In lead stories Monday night about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer being linked to a prostitution ring, neither ABC's World News nor the NBC Nightly News verbally identified Spitzer's political party. Must mean he's a liberal Democrat -- and he is.

Musings

There are several amusing items which have found their way onto the internet related to recent news events. Here are three of them:In re the Eliot Spitzer "matter", this one is pretty good.

“Prostitute Admits Link to Elliott Spitzer; Resigns From Escort Service in Disgrace”


In another case, there was disappointment after the Spitzer appearance with his wife yesterday that some reporter didn't ask Silda Spitzer if this meant she would be running for Senator from New York.

In the new item where Obama's advisor said Hillary was a monster and had to resign, there is this:

Sen. Obama, fighting for the Democrat nomination, said, “I categorically reject Ms. Powers’ use of the term ‘monster’ to describe my opponent.”

Holding aloft a dictionary, the presidential front runner said, “A monster is an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly and frightening. But I assure you that Sen. Clinton is no imaginary creature.”

Sushi Anyone??

Ali Howell is a massage therapist and a college student. But on Saturday night, the 26-year-old brunette was a human sushi platter.

Naked under two roses and a large daisy placed you-know-where, she lay still for more than an hour as people plucked raw fish off her body at Temple, the downtown Minneapolis restaurant that held its inaugural naked sushi party this weekend. Read it all here.

How sweet it is

One of my favorite things in life is real-time confirmation of my long held beliefs about liberals in general and dems in particular. This election season is giving me lots of examples. For example, the state democrat parties of Florida and Michigan thought that moving their primaries up would give them a greater voice than if they waited. The national party geniuses could not abide such free-lancing, so they imposed penalties on the states which the candidates all rushed to endorse and now they have a mess which one could have predicted simply because liberals usually find that their results are opposite stated intentions. Late primaries are now having more influence than early ones, the party punishment of Florida and Michigan is far worse than the transgression demanded, and there is no pain-free remedy of the situation. Just delicious.

Equal opportunity baby killing

There were nebulous accounts out there that Obama had opposed a bill which would have protected a baby which survived an abortion attempt. There is a federal law which bans the practice of simply throwing the baby in a trash can to die or actively killing it. The logic of opposing this law by Obama has finally been explained. So, if the following is accurate, Barack Obama thinks that if it is legal to kill one child it is legal to kill them all and vice versa.

In March 2001, Obama was the sole speaker in opposition to the bill on the floor of the Illinois Senate. He said: "We're saying they are persons entitled to the kinds of protections provided to a child, a 9-month child delivered to term. I mean, it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal-protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child." So according to Obama, "they," babies who survive abortions or any other preterm newborns, should be permitted to be killed because giving legal protection to preterm newborns would have the effect of banning all abortions.

Oops!!!

Who uttered the following sage voter advice? Senator Obama? No. It was Bill Clinton in 2004.

“… if one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to make you think, if one candidate’s appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes. You better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.”

Another Quiz

Here is an article reporting that the former Mayor of Newark, NJ is going on trial for fraud and stuff like that.

This is an open book quiz. Read the article very carefully and then decide which political party Mayor James belongs to.

Bad Science, Worse Politics

At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there’s strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. -- a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment.

McCain said, per ABC News' Bret Hovell, that "It’s indisputable that (autism) is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines."

Overwhelmingly the "credible scientists," at least as the government and the medical establishment so ordain them, side against McCain's view.

Moreover, those scientists and organizations fear that powerful people lending credence to the thimerosal theory could dissuade parents from getting their children immunized -- which in their view would lead to a very real health crisis.

By 2001, thimerosal had been removed from all childhood vaccinations. If thimerosal in vaccines had been a significant cause of autism, the effects of the removal in the form of diminished diagnoses would have been evident by now. There is no such diminution.

You have to remember that McCain has also bought into anthropogenic influence on global warming. Really sad.