Global Warming Poll

Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying. However, a plurality (48%) of the Political Class believes humans are to blame.This is from a recent Rasmussen survey.

This indicates that the voters are smarter than the politicians, but BestView would still like to see some recognition of the fact that we are not in a period of global warming, haven't been for several years, and the global cooling we are experiencing is not caused by human activity either.

Save the Globe

It appears the Boston Globe, a liberal rag owned by the New York Times is in some financial difficulty and Senator John Kerry says the potential demise of this reliable leftist newspaper is unacceptable. He is going to save it. O.K. Does this mean he is going to ask his uber-wealthy wife Terresa to throw some of her money toward propping it up? Bake sales or car washes by school students? Of course not. He is going after tax payers to ante up to save the Boston Globe because there will be serious consequences for our democracy where diversity of opinion and strong debate are paramount if this paper is allowed to fail. Poppycock. Read the sad story here in a more conservative paper which is not in financial trouble.

Torture Politics

BestView knew Obama was a liberal and would appoint liberals to government positions and would, at certain times, be inclined to cater to his liberal loon supporters. This nonsense over the released CIA documents goes well beyond my worst fears. After 9/11 we capture some of the principals in the terror attack and want to know who else was involved and what other plans were in play to attack us. The CIA asks for guidance from the lawyers in the Attorney Generals office detailing what they could do and several opinions were forthcoming which green-lighted interrogation tactics which were used to gain information which even the Obama administration admits was valuable and saved lives of U.S. citizens.
Now that the loons have a pliable neophyte in the White House, they want to go back and not only second guess the legal opinions, they want to prosecute the lawyers who rendered the opinions and hopefully be able to reach up to Bush and Cheney so they can be frog-marched to prison. The only way they can do this is to call the tactics employed "torture". It is fair to say that Americans do not endorse torture, but BestView holds that what we did---waterboarding, sleep deprivation, head slapping, and talking harshly to those who killed Americans was not torture. Torture is what BestView would impose on an Al-qaeda leader with information which would prevent the death of a single U.S. citizen. Some might not agree with the tactics we would use, but at least my interrogation could, if need be, progress to a point where the loony leftists would be able to use the term "torture" appropriately.

This will go nowhere fast

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.

Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.

The Carbon Dioxide Threat

The EPA has now declared carbon dioxide to be a pollutant. Very few of those who aren't paying attention realize that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from numerous sources and man's activities are responsible for about 3% of this. No matter, the liberals in Washington want to control man's activities with laws and regulations so we can now look for the Obama administration to use their control of the automobile companies to impose fuel standards which can only be met with small cars which in a crash is more likely to kill more of us. When this occurs, our government will be addressing a non-problem by imposing a "solution" which will literally kill us.

Spending Cuts Obama Style

This is a great depiction of the budget cuts BO sternly demanded of his cabinet yesterday.

Generous Joe

Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill have given about 0.2% of their income to charity in each of the years between 2000 and 2008. Less than ½ of one percentage point given to persons in need, to ministries of their Catholic Church, to agencies that serve the poor and the hurting. In fact, this year they gave a total of $1885 to charity, marking the first time they had even given a sum larger than $1000 for the entire year. In every year of this decade, the Bidens' income has exceeded $200,000, and for the first time they gave away more than $1000 of their own money. The Bidens reported income of $253,866 and paid $46,952 in federal taxes in 2008.

The Tax Problem

There are many problems with the way our country taxes its citizens and spends the money raised, but none of them can really be solved when the least educated, least productive, least knowledgeable, and, yes, the least intelligent among us pay no federal income tax. Appropriate outrage will not be forthcoming and that is exactly what our craven politicians want as they continue to complicate our tax policies.

Where is the love?

The New York Times and the Washington Post have been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

Earlier this month, the Times threatened to shut down the Boston Globe which was purchased by the Times Co. for 1.1 billion dollars in 1993, unless unions at the daily agree to pay cuts and other cost-saving measures.

Is this any way for good liberals to be treating union members? Shocking.

My sentiments exactly

From a Texas Tea Party:

Mike Smart, a 51-year-old oil field worker from West Texas, held up a white handwritten sign that said, "I'll keep my freedom, my $ and my guns. You keep the change."

"I just want the government to stay out of my way. I won't get in their way if they don't get in mine," said Smart, who described himself as conservative but not a Republican.

Obama Passes Pirate Test

It is looking like Obama avoided his Jimmy Carter moment and let the snipers do their thing as suggested by BestView. Now the sanctuary sites in Somalia need to be visited from the sky and a sufficient number sent to awaiting virgins that piracy is not considered such a great enterprise.

Pretty good analysis by Neal Boortz

The United States tells them not to do it. The useless United Nations tells them not to do it. They do it. It has been five days since North Korea launched a missile capable of reaching Hawaii. What is America's response? What is the international response? The silence is deafening. What are we showing here? Weakness or strength?

The mad man that runs Iran is bragging that they now have 7000 centrifuges up and running making enriched nuclear weapons-grade fuel. He also brags that they have developed a technology that enhances the enrichment progress. At the same time the Iranian president continues to say that Israel's days are limited. In the meantime Vice President Joe Biden warns Israel that they had better not even think about attacking Iran. No strong warning to Iran. What are we projecting here, strength or weakness?

The Islamic pirates continue to hold an American hostage off the coast of Somalia. We're talking, not acting. So far I have not heard about any search for the pirate mother ship and there's no talk of blockading Somalian ports. The pirates may well end up with millions of dollars and safe passage to Somalia where they will release their American hostage. Strength or weakness?

The American the ragtag Islamic pirates are holding tried to escape. He dove out of the boat and into the water and tried to get away. Our Navy was standing off and not close enough to help him. The Islamic pirates overtook him and took him into custody again. This man tried to escape in full view of American forces. They were either unable or unwilling to help him. Perhaps the American Captain thought that when he was out of the pirate's boat the Navy would blow them away. Didn't happen. Strength or Weakness?

America - once strong, now cowering.

Read it here.

This guy needs a new sport

Worst boxer ever? View it here.

Surrender Monkey? Shocking!

Not everyone in Europe was struck mute in the aura of our new President's visit to their continent. This snippet from a column in the Telegraph from the U.K. makes that quite clear, but read it all here and then watch to see if there is any blow-back from using the word "monkey" in a reference to our black President.

President Pantywaist is hopping mad and he has a strategy to cut Kim down to size: he is going to slice $1.4bn off America's missile defence programme, presumably on the calculation that Kim would feel it unsporting to hit a sitting duck, so that will spoil his fun.

Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever. If you thought the world was a tad unsafe with Dubya around, just wait until President Pantywaist gets into his stride.

Bad Vibes

BestView has a pit of the gut feeling that Obama is not up to facing the challenge posed by 4 pirates in a small motor boat who have taken an American hostage. This is despite the world's greatest navy at his disposal. If we get a Jimmy Carter response from this new President, it will be a disaster for our country. Get your best snipers out there, take the thugs out in one volley, get the captain back, and put an end to this nonsense. Right now Obama is acting like the dog who catches the fire truck and no idea what to do with the actual presidency now that the campaign is over.

Too idiotic for words

The president’s new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

“It’s got to be looked at,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”

Don't worry your pretty head about the banks

"The U.S. Treasury Department is planning to delay the release of any completed bank stress test results until after the first-quarter earnings season to avoid complicating stock market reaction, a source familiar with Treasury's discussions said on Tuesday." Read it all here.

In other words, the government does not think you are ready to learn how healthy your bank may be.

Feckless squared

Obama says if North Korea launches a rocket it must be punished so they launched and by golly Obama went to the U.N. and they said ----"Let's talk about it". Feckless doesn't even begin to describe this debacle.

Bad Transmission?

Obama says he and his government workers will stand behind the automobile warranties issued by his new auto companies. Won't it be fun waiting in a Social Security style waiting room to see a GS-5 about replacing your bad transmission?

Do I really need this?

The following is part of a pitch for a product that few men would find especially necessary.

"It will be hard for women to resist the temptation not to sleep with you."

Inflation

We are attempting to print our way to prosperity. That can't be done, any more than we could speculate our way to prosperity during the stock bubble or borrow our way to prosperity in the real-estate/credit bubble. Got gold? Get some.

Obama Priorities

President Obama’s European visit this week has strained Air Force heavy-airlift capabilities and obliged the military to hire more foreign contractors to help resupply U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, according to military sources. The large delegation traveling with the president in Europe required moving several transports, including jumbo C-5s and C-17s, from sorties ferrying supplies to Afghanistan to European bases for the presidential visit, said two military officials familiar with the issue. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid any misunderstanding with White House officials.”

Sex and Genes

There have been articles lately that report on a study into the effect of one's genetic makeup on how early virginity is lost. See here, for example. Once you look at the data and attempt to understand what it actually revealed, you get to the following conclusion:

Some people probably have genes that make them extremely likely to lose their virginity at a young age. Some others probably have genes that make them delay sexual activity for many years. Still others have genes that leave them more malleable to the environment. We are not all equally genetically driven on each type of behavior we engage in.

In other words, the research is meaningless.

More Tax Coming In

Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors"—the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee. The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

Where does Obama find all these tax cheats?

Diminishing returns

So it turns out our neighbors at the United Nations participated in "Earth Hour," Saturday's silly demonstration in which people shut off their lights for an hour to show their concern about some cause or another. Fox News phoned the world body to ask how much it would be saving on its electric bill, and the answer came back $81,000.

But it turns out the estimate was in error: "After the story appeared on FOXNews.com, a spokeswoman called back to say their estimate was incorrect and the savings was $24,000, but then called back a third time to say it was really $102."

We are waiting for the next phone call and/or the next idiotic such stunt.

Daniel Hannan

We need a plain-speaker like this here in the U.S. Everything he says applies here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

A good letter to a newspaper

The following was submitted to the Odessa American by a fellow named David Johnson.

A friend of mine, a cowboy in the rancher-philosopher mold, once passed along some equine-related knowledge to me.

"The thing you have to remember about horses," he said, "is they aren't as smart as they think they are, but they're smarter than you think they are."

I reminded him I was much more city slicker than good ol' boy and didn't really run into horses that often. He assured me it was just as applicable to jackasses. I thanked him, and as with all of his advice, I've remembered it and done my best to keep it in mind through all my dealings and relations.

George Carlin, a far smarter man than I, and probably smarter even than I realize, pointed out that when you think about how dumb the average person is, the really scary thing is to realize that half the population is even dumber than that.

Lucky for us, almost everyone is smarter than average. Just ask them.

If I had a poll - heck, I will have a poll. Look over there. Compared to the average newspaper reader, how smart are you?

I can't predict how people are actually going to answer, especially after reading this, but I can practically guarantee how you want to answer: you're at least as smart as the average person and probably a little more intelligent. You know it. I feel the same way about myself, and there's no reason to have false humility about it. And we're right, all of us.

In a purely mathematical sense, we can't be. There must be a slow-witted underclass out there that some of you - not me, you people - are part of and don't realize it. Obviously, we overestimate our own intelligence relative to others. We do the same thing when asked about our sense of humor, ability to get along with people and really anything that can't be quantifiably disproved and shoved in our faces, though we'll deny it even then.

Mainly, we just make sure the criteria for our judgments about ourselves and others work in our favor.

The things we rank as important are the things we care about most.

I'm a smart guy because I will discount all the myriad areas of human understanding I have no part in and value on a weighted scale the few things I do understand. And anyone who doesn't know the same things as I do is a moron. If I don't know anything about music or cars or math, that's because they don't matter, and history or literature do. So I'm smarter than average.

Actually, I'm one of the handful of geniuses that refrains from calling myself such only because I don't want to sound rude.

Which is all tongue-in-cheek, but not much of an exaggeration, or atypical.

One of the reasons I'm terrified of government power is because I know most in government are typical people and full of themselves. They think that because they're smart enough to get elected that they're smart enough to run other people's lives better than those people. And they are gifted, in some area that they value greatly, but not in every area. And we people are dumb at running our lives, but not so dumb as they like to think.

This is what wakes me up in a cold sweat, dreaming of legislators and lobbyists and aides hem-hawing it up, convinced that they're much smarter than they actually are, solving all of our problems.

I only fall back asleep when I remember they aren't as dumb as I think they are.

They can't be.

We have a problem

The editorials from the last few issues of the New York Times have been as critical of the competence of this new administration as I am. Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, and others find this administration and its policies lacking. If all these liberals are coming to the same conclusion of BestView, Obama has a problem.

It is all a matter of semantics

Now that the idiots (of both parties) in the House of Representative have passed an unconstitutional bill of attainder aimed at the bonuses paid to some executives at AIG, the next move by this and other companies who in some cases have been forced to accept TARP funds and now are faced with confiscatory tax rates, is to simply change the name of the money. From now on, the money being paid will be called "commissions" instead of bonuses.

The AIG mess

The question that comes to BestView, as the news that the dems in the House, Senate, and White House rushed through a stimulus package that nobody had time to read actually dictitated the bonuses they now are so outraged by, is whether all those who voted for Obama and his glib campaign rhetoric are smart enough to see through the situation and conclude how terribly serious the situation is?

Take your choice

A few weeks ago Obama's Press Secretary was being questioned about the latest 30 billion for AIG and Jake Tapper of ABC asked if the administration knew where the money was going and he was given firm assurance that Geithner did in fact know. Now Obama is jujst outraged that the money is going to pay bonuses to failed executives. There are two possibilities here:

1. The administration did know about the millions in bonuses when he doled out the latest billions to AIG, but didn’t bother to raise the matter until it became a matter of public outrage this weekend.
2. Gibbs protestations of two weeks ago notwithstanding, the administration handed out $30 billion without knowing where the money was going.

Where did the money go?

The public is rightly outraged that the bailout money at AIG went to pay for bonuses for employees who got them into the situation in the first place, but the real crime is that the money largely went to rescue politically connected investment companies like Goldman Sachs (former company of Paulsen) European banks such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and France's Societe Generale. We are rapidly reaching the point where everything can be blamed on Bush.

BestView says we should void the contracts of these "indispensible" employees and let them sue. The trials would be interesting.

Up in arms?

Apparently we have a dust-up in the the fashion arena. Michelle Obama's decision to go sleeveless again is stirring up a debate. For the second time in as many days the first lady bared her arms: She wore a plum Narciso Rodriguez dress when her husband addressed Congress on Tuesday night. She appears on the latest issue of People magazine in a sleeveless magenta Tracy Reese frock and also went sans sleeves on her recent Vogue cover.

BestView finds it refreshing that there are no bigger problems in Washington for some folks.

Recession not all bad

In a vivid illustration of how the global recession is battering the legal profession, Latham & Watkins, one of the largest law firms in the nation, announced yesterday that it will let go 190 lawyers and 250 paralegal and support staff.

Quote of the Day

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of people to tax".

Margret Thatcher

Do the math

O.K., as BestView understands it, Obama wants to cut the deficit by raising taxes on all of us who earn more than $250,000. He ran on that and he won, so passing such a tax increase seems fair--assuming the voters are smart enough to understand what is going on. That assumption is not warranted, but we can save that for later. For now, lets do the math as the Wall Street Journal did today. In 2006 if we had confiscated all of the income from everyone over $500,000 Congress would have an extra $1.3 trillion dollars which would smaller in the coming years if the recession continues, but it would pale severely to the $4 trillion Congress expects to spend in 2010 when Obama says he will have cut the budget deficit in half.
So, even if we take it all, the deficit will be gigantic and the government will come after your money if you make a lot less than $250,000. Count on it.

Economic Darkness

Most of the average adults in the U.S. are only aware that the economy is not good and assume the government is focused on trying to fix the problems which are not being well described or even understood. The thing most of us who do not follow these things all day should know is the Bush and now the Obama administration's is using the same people who were involved in causing our problems (and did not see the consequences of their action) have been given the job of fixing the situation. That is not smart and will not get us where we need to be any time soon.

As Moms Mabley once said, "If you keep on doing what you did, you will keep on gittin' what you got".

Obama's View from the Podium last night

Is everybody happy?

Don't Fall For It

In a recent speech marking Black History Month, Eric Holder, the new Attorney General, said, "Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial."

Here is some good advice for whites: Don't fall for it. If you think you can all of a sudden express your views about blacks when that view is not sufficiently "correct", you are sadly mistaken. Try sitting down with a room full of blacks and express the opinion that too many of them have babies that they can't afford without husbands. After that, come out with the suggestion that the reason blacks represent so much of our prison population is because they commit so much of our crime. If you still have any hide on your bones, hint that affirmative action in college admissions is detrimental to the black student since it places him or her in an inferior, dependent position academically.

Don't fall for it.

WSJ solution to Illinois "problem"

In the previous post BestView wondered if Obama was the only honest politician in Illinois and today the Wall Street Journal seems to have found a solution to the problem:

By now it's clear enough that the problem is less Mr. Burris or Mr. Blagojevich than the entire rotten Illinois political culture. So here's a modest proposal: Every elected state official should resign at once, giving voters a chance to start over with special elections for everyone. State government couldn't get any more dysfunctional than it is now, and maybe Diogenes could find an honest man.

Just wondering

The calls--even from dems--for newly appointed Senator Burris to resign has BestView wondering whether or not we should believe Obama is the only clean and honest politician from Illinois?

Right Wing Criticism

We simply must shut down those right wing radio and television programs which are critical of the Obama administration. Control the internet sites as well. We simply can't tolerate these contrary opinions threatening the liberal, socialist government we hope to create via the massive spending and control of all economic activity. The strategy for this must be concealed. Let's call it the "Fairness Doctrine" and package it with a change in the secret ballot for organizing labor unions by calling the change "Card Check". Surely the American voter who elected Obama is too stupid to oppose something as sensible as a "Fairness Doctrine".

Comparison of lies

This story in the Chicago Tribune details the various versions of Senator Burris's memory of the events just last year about the contacts with Governor Blagojevich prior to his appointment to the U.S. Senate. Keeping in mind that much of this was given while under oath, contrast the legal outcome of his truth-telling with that of Scooter Libby who did not give an accurate account of a non-crime some 3 years previous to his conviction by a renegade special prosecutor.

More liberal nonsense revealed

Farmers across the tropics might raze forests to plant biofuel crops, according to new research by Holly Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.

"If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks," she warned.

Policies favoring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said. Such an environmental disaster could be "just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests," she added.

Gibbs' predictions are based on her new study, in which she analyzed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000. The study is the first to do such a detailed characterization of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region. Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies.

"If biofuels are grown in place of forests, we're actually going to end up emitting a huge amount of carbon. When trees are cut down to make room for new farmland, they are usually burned, sending their stored carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. That creates what's called a carbon debt," Gibbs said. "This is because the carbon lost from deforestation is much greater than the carbon saved from using the current-generation biofuels."

Indeed, tropical forests are the world's most efficient storehouses for carbon, harboring more than 340 billion tons, according to Gibbs' research. This is equivalent to more than 40 years worth of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Gibbs' previous findings asserted that the carbon debt incurred from cutting down a tropical forest could take several centuries or even millennia to repay through carbon savings produced from the resultant biofuels.

The Obama housing solution

Today Obama will tell us that if you took out a loan you could not afford and are now facing foreclosure on a house, the Obama administration will bail you out using tax money to be extracted from those who were responsible and did not try to get something for nothing in the past few years. It looks like this reaffirmation of the formerly discredited welfare state is a reality. This will not end well.

Obama Fearmongering

From IBD:
In his first month, President Obama has talked down the economy and engineered a huge surge in federal spending. Now the bills will come due. The pain may be just beginning.

Long ago, there was a president who said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Now the message from the White House can be boiled down to something like, "Be afraid. Be very afraid. And give this president what he wants."

Do we overstate the case? We'll just say this: Franklin D. Roosevelt made his share of missteps but understood the need to calm a frightened nation and restore confidence. If that meant closing the banks, so be it. Anything to stop the panic.

Barack Obama, inheriting a situation not even close to what FDR beheld, talks as if the nation isn't scared enough. He pushed a vast peacetime spending bill through Congress by warning of "catastrophe" if it failed to pass. But where boldness had been needed — with the banks — only vague work-in-progress is on offer.

With a performance like this, and Obama only a month in office, the markets are noticing. We see the Dow industrials down about 8% from the pre-inaugural close and off more than 20% from Election Day. Wall Street — and Main Street — had hoped for strong, reassuring leadership. Instead, we have a presidency "spinning the bad news story," as Cato Institute economist Steve Hanke puts it.

As details of the "stimulus" bill signed Tuesday emerge, it's also become clear that little is there to jump-start the economy. It's more like a herd of Trojan horses designed to re-institute the costly welfare state that Ronald Reagan and even Bill Clinton dismantled.

Meanwhile, the nation waits to see what the administration has in mind for ending the balance-sheet crisis at the root of the pain.

This brief track record shows the power of the politics of fear. It's the same term the Left threw at George W. Bush, as it accused him of exploiting terrorism fears to expand the security state.

Obama is now doing on the economic front what his allies have accused Bush of doing on the war front: Stoking fear to amass power. In his case, he's not trying to listen in on more phone calls. What he's seeking, and so far achieving, is bigger government with greater influence over Americans' lives and livelihoods. Fear is working.

The problem is, if you talk down the economy you get a down economy, and stocks down, too. It's worse yet when your talk is not countered by credible action to ward off the threats you claim.

The actual dollar cost of the legislation is trouble, too. Bills won't come due all at once, but new taxes and government debt that could hobble the economy for decades is looming.

People look ahead at this and don't like what they see. Their gloomy view of the future further saps their confidence in the present. More than ever, they need what candidate Obama promised: hope. It's not what they're hearing from Obama as president.

The Obama Market

The Dow is now down over 2,000 since the messiah was elected. Is this Bush's fault, too?

Another Obama Lie

During the campaign where most Americans became convinced that the Messiah had re- joined us, Obama pledged to post any new legislation on the internet and let everyone read it over a 5 day period before he would sign it. Reality? Hasn't happened. Now with the biggest spending bill in the nation's history, the dems in the House at 7 P.M. last night still had not printed and distributed the 1,400 plus pages to the Republicans in the House, but Steny Hoyer says the debate on the measure will begin today at 9:00 A.M and the President will sign it on Monday.

Imagine the cries about another Bush lie if this had occurred under his administration.

Employment

Everyday we read of job cuts at companies in every corner of the U.S. economy. This is even occurring in some states as the recession impacts budgets. BestView has an assignment for you. Watch carefully and see if you can spot a reduction of workers in any federal government program or department. Evidently every single one of our government workers is absolutely essential to our very existence.

Senator Specter Nonsense

Jonah Goldberg has a great essay on the nonsensical position of Senator Specter on the so-called stimulus boondoggle being passed with his concurrence this week. Here is a sample, but the whole thing should be read here.

“I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason,” Specter wrote in the Post. “The country cannot afford not to take action.” Such thinking is the purest nonsense. Sure, if your house is burning down, you can’t afford not to take action. That doesn’t mean any action is better than no action. Grabbing a fire hose is good. Grabbing a jerrycan of gasoline and dancing the “Macarena,” not so much.

Daschle gone and good riddance

Tom Daschle is the biggest, phoniest hypocrit in politics who has now withdrawn from consideration as Secretary of Health and Human Services even though Obama supported him as of yesterday. Now if the equally crooked Charlie Rangle will do the right thing.....

This is getting funny

Nancy Killefer says she is withdrawing her candidacy for chief performance officer because she doesn't want her tax issue to become a "distraction."

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Killefer said she understands that the duties of chief performance officer are urgent and any delays must be avoided.

She said she was reluctantly withdrawing her name from consideration.

Killefer failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help. She was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after Obama announced their selection.

An example of when the same can be "change"

During the Bush administration liberals argued that rendition - whether for the purpose of torture or otherwise - violated human rights and constitutional norms. Accordingly, they demanded that the U.S. abandon the rendition program altogether and that other countries refrain from helping enforce it (e.g., by allowing CIA flights over their airspace).

Obama has announced he will continue the renditions policy and many liberals have come forward to defend the new boss. The typical liberal defense of Obama argues that rendition is not wrong in and of itself, but that removal of persons for the purpose of torturing or indefinitely detaining them violates human rights norms. Because Obama has banned the use of torture (which pre-existing statutes and treaties already prohibited) and ordered the CIA to close its long-term detention centers, all is now just swell with rendition of terrorists.

BestView is running non-stop keeping up with liberal phonies.

Reasonable Exceptions

On Jan. 21, the day after his inauguration, Obama issued an executive order barring any former lobbyists who join his administration from dealing with matters or agencies related to their lobbying work. Nor could they join agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years.

However, William J. Lynn III, his choice to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. And William Corr, tapped as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate. Corr says he will take no part in tobacco matters in the new administration.

Daschle, a former senator tapped to head Health and Human Services, is not technically a lobbyist. But he was paid more than $5.2 million over the past two years as he advised health insurers and hospitals and worked in other industries such as energy and telecommunications.

"Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Smart Republicans

This title might sound like the worst oxymoron, but the Republicans in congress may be temporarily brilliant in their proposal to lower the tax rates for the lowest earning workers from 10 to 5% and for those in the next highest bracket from 15 to 10%. The dems hate the idea and can be expected to avoid this because they know that at some time in the next couple of years they will still be in the majority and in order for them to continue spending madly on their interest groups, it will be necessary to raise these rates and there is no way they can portray such a move as taxing the rich as is their usual mantra. Will be fun to watch them squirm as they shoot this idea down.

Quote of the Day

Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. ” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

Senator Dodd Update

While Dodd has demanded that regulators get to the bottom of any crimes by Bernard Madoff, he has played a cat and mouse game in keeping the documents about his dealing with Countrywide Financial under wraps. What is known is that he got favored treatment from the subprime mortgage company in 2003 while at the head of the Banking Committee that regulates the industry.

Dodd had promised a number of times that he would provide the necessary documents and details of the loans. As of February 1, 2009, the documents are still not forthcoming. What is known is that Dodd and his wife financed two properties through Countrywide and got preferential rates and had fees waived on the loans. It was part of a VIP program that the company had for "friends of the company."
Read it all here

Good Question

Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, says that he would be willing to consider an improvement in relations with the U.S. if Obama will apologize for America's many offenses against Iran. Actually, this demand is quite reasonable: how can Obama refuse after his own public condemnation of his country's past policies?

Change at last

Obama promised change if we elected him and by golly we are getting it. First we got the nomination of Gov. Bill Richardson for Commerce secretary but he is facing indictment for doing favors for a contributor so he withdrew his name. Next we have the new Treasury secretary who will be in charge of the IRS even though he couldn't find a way to pay his own taxes. Now we have the biggest, phoniest crook of them all nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Senator Tom Daschle just discovered he did not pay his taxes either, but once he was nominated, he corrected that small matter to the tune of some $130,000. All of this is terribly embarassing to the dems, of course, but they are responding as one might predict. The following is from the New York Times which has yet to become upset by Obama's nominees.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats rallied around Mr. Daschle, a former senator from South Dakota who lost his seat in 2004 while serving as the minority leader. Mr. Daschle is a close ally of the president’s — he marshaled his staff on behalf of the Obama campaign, and at least five former Daschle aides now have top White House jobs — and Democrats vowed to go to bat for him.

A warning from an Israelii

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ' Munich ' was based. He was Golda Meir's bodyguard -- she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City a few weeks ago, he shared information that EVERY American needs to know -- but that our government has not yet shared with us.

He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O'Reilly laughed and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. But, unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East ) to the Bush Administration about 9/11 a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke -- that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

For example:

1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.

2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can't bring liquids on board. He says he's waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked! Every strategy we have is 'reactionary.'

3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel , security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i. e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as rural America this time (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas.

Aviv says terrorists won't need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas , they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. government does not want to 'alarm American citizens' with the facts.

The world is quickly going to become 'a different place', and issues like 'global warming' and political correctness will become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don't have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It's cheap, it's easy, it's effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to 'meet their destiny'.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad. But will be, instead, 'homegrown' -- having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U. S. He says to look for 'students' who frequently travel back and forth to the Middle East . These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won't know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terroristic threats we will, inevitably, face. America still has only have a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.

So, what can America do to protect itself?

From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel 's, Ireland 's and England 's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we 'can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago , someone tried to steal the briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But, unfortunately, America hasn't been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were 'lost' without parents being able to pick them up, and about ours schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City , this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that's agreed upon within your family, to respond to in the event of a terroristic emergency. He urges parents to contact their children's schools and demand that the schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel .

Does your family know what to do if you can't contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan that, in the event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off EVERYONE's ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak? You need to have a plan.

Bailout the Bailout---A Prediction

Congress is rushing to spend $1 trillion more of our money on a stimulus package that is supposed to put folks to work and at the same time improve our infrastructure by building roads, repairing bridges, etc. The congressional budget office has already determined that such projects will have very little immediate effect on unemployment and Best View predicts another very likely consequence of this approach. The money will be voted out, projects will be designated for funding, and there will be no repeal of the Davis-Bacon act which stipulates that federal money must be spent on workers as if they were unionized. This will greatly reduce the number of new hires since the wages will be so high. Next, the projects which are chosen will, as they always do, go over budget and experience "unexpected" delays. This means that the time will come when the money is spent, the project is incomplete, and the sponsors will need to come to you for more billions to finish the jobs. This request for more money will come at a time when the economy has largely recovered and the massive increase in the money supply has triggered the inevitable inflation which occurs when too much cash is chasing too few goods. As a result, the added financing will simply exacerbate the inflation and our economic problems will be just as bad as now---only different.

Start buying gold now.

Good Question about Obama

From Reason

Will Obama's erudition and elegance finally eclipse the corrosive, often deadly scourge of hip-hop culture and the ghetto mentality that gnaw away like termites beneath black America's floorboards?

U.S. wising up on global warming nonsense

Forty-four percent (44%) of U.S. voters now say long-term planetary trends are the cause of global warming, compared to 41% who blame it on human activity.

Seven percent (7%) attribute global warming to some other reason, and nine percent (9%) are unsure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats blame global warming on human activity, compared to 21% percent of Republicans. Two-thirds of GOP voters (67%) see long-term planetary trends as the cause versus 23% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party by eight points put the blame on planetary trends.

In July 2006, 46% of voters said global warming is caused primarily by human activities, while 35% said it is due to long-term planetary trends.

Good News from Obama's War

Missiles fired from a suspected U.S. spy plane killed seven people Friday on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region where al-Qaida militants are known to hide out, officials said.

The strike was the first on Pakistani territory since the inauguration of President Barrack Obama.

Taxes

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Treasury Department, after public revelations he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes several years ago, joins Charlie Rangle, the Chairman of the Ways and Means committee in the House of Representatives with tax problems. So, the man in charge of writing tax laws and the man heading the agency with the IRS (enforcing our tax laws) find our laws too difficult to obey. That will be no excuse if you are caught, however.

Times Change

Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy today and the stock which was at $0.31/share yesterday is essentially worthless today. In 2000, this stock was selling for $900/share.

No Surprise Here

President-elect Barack Obama’s no-earmark mandate for the stimulus package has leading Democrats scrambling to find subtler ways to direct funding to their districts.

They may not be called earmarks, but lawmakers are looking to write legislative formulas into the package to ensure that their districts share in the wealth and won’t simply be at the mercy of Washington’s bureaucracy or the nation’s governors.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is leading the effort, personally lobbying Obama, top Obama adviser David Axelrod and committee chairmen on the issue last week. Clyburn said numerous Members, particularly freshmen, are concerned that they could sign on to a massive package with nothing to show for their districts.

Clyburn said the package can be written in such a way that governors have relatively little control over the money, and the funds can flow directly to local communities.

“The pro or con on earmarks I think missed the point,” Clyburn said. “Members are very concerned about going out in their Congressional districts and trying to get elected. ... They want to be sure their votes will respond to their constituents.”

“If you’re going to go out to take the flak to significantly expand the deficit and the debt, you’ve got to be able to say ... ‘This is what happened in our community.’”

Free enterprise government style

Let's peek at what the government just did with the bailout of the automobile companies operating out of Detroit. GM and Chrysler wanted money and Ford said it didn't need any. So, we gave billions to GMAC, the finance arm of GM and they promptly used the money to finance the purchase of GM's cars at zero interest rates which, of course, put them at a competitive advantage vis a vis Ford and Chrysler. This idiocy, by the way, is a farewell present from Bush.

Climate Change

There is a definite shift in the way the loony left and other brain-washed victims of our failed school system talk about the way in which man has impacted the earth. Not long ago the word from Al Gore and his ilk held that man was causing the global warming that will doom us all with floods, hunger and all manner of devastating calamities. Furthermore the "science was in" and nobody but right wing fools could dispute it. Well, now it has become clear that for the past ten years the globe has gotten cooler so the new concern is not global warming, but"climate change" brought on by man's activities. Now the socialists who want us to cripple our economy based on a hoax must explain how previous climate changes were affected by man and when in the history of earth there was not "climate change".

Christmas will continue in Congress

Watch the upcoming stimulus bill being rushed through Congress which will obligate about 1 trillion of your kids money to our growing debt load. It will be larded with all manner of ridiculous items by the politicians constructing this Christmas tree of spending items. There will be all manner of grim warnings about how important it is to pass this quickly, but the real factor behind the call for speedy passage will be the liberals desire to keep us from learning what is in there.

About Time

There is at least some indication that Israel might at last be willing to actually enter a battle with an intention to win or at least achieve some semblance of reaching an objective before cease fires are imposed internally or from external pressures. About time.

Happy New Year in Congress

This year promises to be just delightful as we watch the dems exercise their large majoritity powers. The first act in this play is the seating of Roland Burris as the replacement for Barrack. The governor of Illinois has the full backing of the state's laws to appoint a successor and as far as anyone can tell, Mr. Burris is just as qualified to be a senator as Chris Dodd, for example, who took sweetheart mortgage deals from Country Wide while serving as Chairman of the Banking Committee. However, the dems painted themselves into this corner because they didn't want to risk an election that the Republicans might win--even though they all called for one after Blagojevich was accused of corruption. Senator Reid, who is a complete idiot, doesn't want to seat Burris, but there is only one way to legally proceed and that is to seat him and then expel the only black in the senate. That would really be fun. The law as expressed in the nation's constitution does not allow Senator Reid to block his legal acceptance of the seat. The only crime Burris is guilty of is accepting a legal appointment to serve his country. This should be fun and we can expect many more examples of dem problems with near monopoly power in Congress.

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.