Thursday, April 30, 2009

Industrial Policy

It appears that the Obama administration has failed to "save" Chrysler and it will today enter into bankruptcy.

It will emerge under new government and union management with an Italian manufacturer capital infusion.

The government already took over General Motors (GM) and it will be renamed Government Motors.

Chrysler will be renamed Government Fiat.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Diversity Lane

Diversity Lane by Zack Rawsthorne

100 Days of Mendacious Audacity

20-Jan-09
Barack Obama sworn in as President

21-Jan-09
Barack Obama sworn in again as President

22-Jan-09
- Obama announces his intention to close Guantanamo Bay prison camp
- Obama announces the US will not use torture, which is pretty easy to promise since the US has not used torture"

23-Jan-09
Obama yesterday lifts a ban on U.S. funding for international health groups that perform abortions, promote legalizing the procedure or provide counseling about terminating pregnancies

24-Jan-09
Obama runs his first radio and YouTube video address to the nation; nation yawns

25-Jan-09
Obama arranges his suits, shirts, ties and shoes in the Executive Closet

26-Jan-09
And on the seventh day, He rested.

27-Jan-09
- Obama gives first interview as president to Al Arabyia, saying that "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy;" that "all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues;" and that Islam has nothing to do with the extremist killing in its name.
- Nation heaves a huge sigh of relief as Dr. Jill Biden, wife of VP Biden, announces that she will continue to teach as adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College this semester, teaching two English courses"

28-Jan-09
After ignoring winter storm devastation in Kentucky and Arkansas for a week, Obama declares emergency in those states

29-Jan-09
- Obama signs his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which makes it easier for workers to sue over pay discrimination by removing a statute of limitations on claims and makes "discrimination" and difference sin experience the assumed problem in pay disputes.
- Obama calls payout of Wall Street bonuses "shameful."

30-Jan-09
- Obama announces formation of a White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, which will focus on ways to make the middle class more dependent on government largesse and keep them from moving up the socio-economic ladder in order to create a permanent democrat constituency of dependents

31-Jan-09
- Obama attends annual Alfalfa Club dinner and is shown to be a humorless punk next to the knock down funny John McCain

1-Feb-09
- Obama watches video of his performance at the Alfalfa Club while smoking half a pack of Benson and Hedges and laughs himself silly

2-Feb-09
- Obama and Matt Lauer have huge make out session on national morning television

3-Feb-09
- Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., withdraws as Obama's nominee for secretary of health and human services because he's "disappointed" that he failed to remember to pay his taxes

4-Feb-09
- Obama signs SCHIP Authorization adding 4 million middle-class children to the rolls of government wards and dependents and adding $23 billion a year to the federal and state budgets
- Obama institutes executive pay cap of $500,000 on firms receiving federal support"

5-Feb-09
- At National Prayer Breakfast, The One opines that "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know," thus seemingly contradicting his previous statements regarding similar issues that were above his pay grade
- At the House Democratic Issues Caucus in Williamsburg, VA, Obama states that Republicans are "for the false theories of the past," "phony arguments and petty politics," and he can't understand why they won't go along with his plans"

6-Feb-09
VP Joe Biden thinks "if we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, we stand up there and we make really tough decisions, there's still a 30-percent chance we're going to get it wrong."

7-Feb-09
Obama and family retire to Catoctin Mountains and Camp David

8-Feb-09
Obama spends better part of day working out the logistics of teleprompter use for press conference

9-Feb-09
Obama conducts first prime time press conference to promise the stars and the moon once again to Americans, as well as declaring that there is no pork in the stimulus bill

10-Feb-09
CATO Economist Arnold Kling states that “I think about the stimulus as an economist but I feel it as a father. Barack Obama is destroying my daughter's future. It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs. That’s how I feel, now back to how I think.”

Correction: Mr. Kling actually said this: "I think about what's going on, what's happening today, as an economist, but I feel it as a father. My wife and I have three daughters, aged between 19 and 25, and when I see what's being done to their future, I am really angry. Back in September, when they were talking about taking $700 billion to "unclog the financial system," I wanted to take Henry Paulson and *yank* him out of the TV screen and say, "You keep your hands off my daughters' future!" But he got away with it. And I had to -- for me it was like sitting there watching my house being ransacked by a gang of thugs. And now we've got a new gang of thugs, and they're going to do the same thing. So, anyway, that's how I feel, we'll go back to how I think." SBD apologizes to Mr. Kling for perpetuating a falsehood.

11-Feb-09
Obama signs DTV Act delaying digital television transition for six months because a small percentage of US population refuses to subscribe to cable or satellite service and have ignored years of advance notice that analog broadcasts were to end

12-Feb-09
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., withdraws as Obama's nominee for secretary of commerce because he realizes he will be administration tool and won't have any control over the running of the national census

13-Feb-09
House Conference passes $787 billion stimulus package, the contents of which they did not read nor fully address the long term impact on the country

14-Feb-09
Millions of women send "Be My Valentine" love notes to White House; Michelle not amused

15-Feb-09
Obama plays basketball with old friends and gets haircut at barber Zariff's. (h/t Telegraph)

16-Feb-09
Presidents Day – some Americans reminded what great leaders we once had

17-Feb-09
Obama signs $787 billion porkulus bill into law, designed to save 3.5 million jobs at a cost of $225,000 per job

18-Feb-09
- After electing the first black president, Attorney General Eric Holder insists that the United States was ""a nation of cowards"" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues
- Obama announces $75 billion mortgage relief plan to reward fraudsters and defaulters"

19-Feb-09
Obama takes first foreign trip to Canada, one of the 57 states, to thank Canadian volunteers who crossed the border to help his campaign

20-Feb-09
Obama's auto task force get together to figure out how to insulate the US auto industry and Big Unions from market forces

21-Feb-09
Four days after signing pork bill, Obama states "I will convene a fiscal summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar deficit that we’ve inherited. On Tuesday, I will speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities, and on Thursday, I’ll release a budget that’s sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and that lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline."

22-Feb-09
Obama smokes a pack of American Spirit cigarettes

23-Feb-09
- Announced Vice President Joe Biden will oversee the Administration’s implementation of the Recovery Act’s provisions
- Obama appoints Steve Rattner of Quadrangle Group, a firm that invests in media and communications companies, to be lead advisor to Treasury Dept on government takeover of the US auto industry. Rattner is best friends with NYT owners Pimp Sulzberger and his wife is former National Finance Committee chair of the Democrat Party. So, other than probably driving nice cars, he doesn't know dick about cars

24-Feb-09
Addresses joint session of Congress and in a brazen fear mongering, finger wagging, brow furrowing speech, promises to bankrupt America before the end of his first term in office; he also declares that "nobody messes with Joe," thus inviting everyone and his Mom to go to town on VP

25-Feb-09
After Bill Richardson removes himself from consideration because he may face indictment back in New Mexico for graft, Obama nominates former WA governor, Chinagate figure, and hide-the-marble campaign fund raiser Gary Locke for Secretary of Commerce

26-Feb-09
Obama announces that, because of the huge Bush budget deficit, he is forced to put forward "a budget sober in its assessments," "honest in its accounting," and "restoring fiscal discipline," that proposes the largest federal budget ever proposed at $3.6 trillion for 2010, but it's Bush's fault that the deficit is so big.

27-Feb-09
- The White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, led by Vice President Joe Biden, holds its inaugural meeting in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania; topic of the day - what impact will green jobs have on middle class families. Answer: it will drive up all of their energy costs and keep them from affording to send their kids to place like UPenn
- Obama announces all US troops will be out of Iraq by 2:16 pm August 26, 2010, with the exception of all the US troops needed to ensure a modicum of peace such that Obama is not accused of losing Iraq because he wanted to make a point about timetables"

28-Feb-09
Obama causes national narcoleptic episode with weekly radio/Youtube address

1-Mar-09
Secretary of State Clinton announces that the US is giving $300 million to the Hamas terrorist hunta in Gaza, as penance for Israel once again defending its citizens from unceasing rocket attacks

2-Mar-09
- USTR nominee Ron Kirk reveals he's a tax scofflaw
- Nominates Kansas Governor and extreme abortionist Katherine Sebelius to HHS
- Releases $155 million to create health care centers ""across the US"" that are expected to create 5,500 jobs"

3-Mar-09
- Sends letter to Russia looking to trade missle defence for some help with Iran
- Obama snubs UK PM Gordon Brown, denying him public press palm pressing and then sends him home with DVD collection of top 25 films, in a format that will nto play on European DVD players
- Released $28 billion of ARRA funds to create OR save 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010"

4-Mar-09
Obama nominates Craig Fulgate, a non-hack heading Florida's Dept. of Emergency Management, to head FEMA. Fugate was appointed to his Florida post by Gov. Jeb Bush.

5-Mar-09
Obama hosts daylong White House summit on health care; MSM fails to report "Let's Play Doctor" session in the Blue Room

6-Mar-09
The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 20 percent since Inauguration Day, the fastest drop under a newly elected president in at least 90 years; Obama owns the bear market

7-Mar-09
The nation is roused from its sleep by another radio/Youtube address chastising them for not taking Obama's economic program seriously

8-Mar-09
Obama salutes Senator Ted Kennedy at Kennedy Center

9-Mar-09
- Signs Executive Order completely lifting Bush's Executive Order that defined the parameters for federal funding of embryonic stem research on existing stem cell lines; establishes budget category for creating more lines for research, but sets no limits to the type of research that can be conducted
-Obama states that "I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system."

10-Mar-09
Obama commits to spending a $3.46 gazillion on education because "it's for the children"

11-Mar-09
- Obama signs $410 billion spending bill to keep the guvmint running. He complains that the bill is "imperfect" because it includes pork money for special projects set aside by members of Congress, including earmarks set by Senator Barack Obama, a practice Candidate Obama pledged to end during the 2008 campaign
- Obama signs Executive Order creating White House Counsel on Women and Girls "to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls and to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families." Translation: men and boys go fuck yourselves"

12-Mar-09
- Obama warns states and localities that he'll be watching where every penny of the porkulus is spent. "Seriously, guys. No, really, I'm serious about this."
- Obama administration announces that it will direct $8 billion to states to help citizens weatherize their windows

13-Mar-09
Obama announces that the terrorist scum residing at Gitmo will no longer be classified as "enemy combatants." They will now be known "Democrat voters."

14-Mar-09
Obama holds head of state meeting with Brazil's president

15-Mar-09
No clue

16-Mar-09
Obama expresses his deep disgust and contempt for all that is human upon hearing that AIG executives are to receive retention bonuses that his Treasury Secretary asked Congress to keep in the stimulus bill that Obama signed

17-Mar-09
Obama wears a green tie for St Patrick's Day as he receives Irish PM at White House. Michelle turned White House fountains green (with her envy); Obama misreads his teleprompter and thanks himself for inviting PM to White House

18-Mar-09
Obama stands in Oval Office and resolutely declares his picks for NCAA March Madness

19-Mar-09
In his historic first presidential visit to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Obama tells Leno that his bowling is on par with those retarded kids in the Special Olympics

20-Mar-09
- Obama sends a love YouTube video to Iranians in celebration of the Persian New Year
- Michelle Obama breaks ground on Victory Garden

21-Mar-09
In celebration of the Persian New Year, Iran's Supreme Leader tells Obama to go fuck himself

22-Mar-09
Obama appears on 60 Minutes, which refuses to pull in tightly on his face as he gamely supports his hack choice of Secretary Treasurer

23-Mar-09
Obama meets with clean energy entrepreneurs and leaders of the research community to discuss building a clean energy economy and bankrupting Americans in the process by playing favorites with industries and ideas that can't prove themselves in the marketplace without huge government subsidies and regulation of existing industries

24-Mar-09
Obama chastises Americans for causing Mexico narco-terrorist war and commits $700 million to beefing up the border

25-Mar-09
The president of the European Union on Wednesday ripped the Obama administration's economic policies, calling its deficit spending and bank bailouts "a road to hell."

26-Mar-09
Obama holds first "Open for Questions" virtual town meeting at the White House, answering questions from Democrat activists and groupies from across the Intertubes, mostly about legalizing pot

27-Mar-09
Obama orders 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan, vowing to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” the terrorist al-Qaida network in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

28-Mar-09
The Nation sleeps through Obama's weekly radio/YouTube address

29-Mar-09
Obama appears on Face the Nation and spews lots of bullshit

30-Mar-09
- Il Duce fires GM chief Rick Wagoner and takes over control of GM and Chrysler, because he's scared shitless that both companies might enter into rule of law based bankruptcy which would hose his big union supporters
- Signs bill closing off vast tracks of public land to exploration and exploitation by energy firms

31-Mar-09
Obama heads to Europe to apologize for American exceptionalism

1-Apr-09
- Some Americans realize the jokes on them
- Michelle Obama touches the Queen of England; Obama gives the Queen an iPod loaded with his speeches and pictures of him walking on water during the campaign

2-Apr-09
Obama bows to Saudi King Abdullah and then denies it, suggesting that he was practicing his new low five technique

3-Apr-09
Obama tops himself off in Strasburg: "I think that it is important for Europe to understand that even though I’m now president and George Bush is no longer president, al-Qaeda is still a threat. We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be okay.”

4-Apr-09
Russian President Dorkof Medvedev states the Obama is his "new friend and comrade" and bestest buddy; they plan to meet in Moscow in July

5-Apr-09
North Korea launches "peaceful satellite" into the Pacific Ocean

6-Apr-09
Defense Secretary Gates announces drastic cuts in missile defense, including halting further deployment of Alaska-based interceptors designed precisely to shoot down North Korean ICBMs

7-Apr-09
Obama pays a surprise four hour trip to Iraq in order to get a photo with a bunch of soldiers hand picked to greet him because they voted for him and to tell Iraqis to get their shit together because he ain't gonna let them make him look bad

8-Apr-09
Obama lays low in White House playing Killzone on his PlayStation 3 and going through the Brooks Brothers Spring Collection catalog; he smokes half a pack of Marlboro Lights

9-Apr-09
Obama announces that he is directing the GSA to buy up to 20,000 new cars for the government fleet using porkulus money

10-Apr-09
Obama evidences taking acid when he opines the economy is showing "glimmers of hope"

11-Apr-09
Obama uses his weekly radio/YouTube address to make a play at being global president by calling for the globe to act globally during the global adversity; globe yawns

12-Apr-09
White House takes credit for the precision sniping of three Somali pirates, even though the rules of engagement set by the White House were to end the situation peacefully at all costs.

13-Apr-09
Obama removes some restrictions on US commerce with Cuba, after Cuba continues ignores standing US policy to ease up on its dissidents and political prisoners and talks to Russia about basing bombers on Cuba

14-Apr-09
Obama crushes the hope of rescue shelter manager across the country by bringing home a pure bred Portuguese water dog for his daughters

15-Apr-09
Obama pays $855,232 in taxes, mostly stemming from windfall profits associated with his two autobiographies

16-Apr-09
- DOJ releases Bush era OLC memos regarding interrogation techniques
- NSI Dennis Blair states that “High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the Al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country."
- Obama visits Mexico and takes blame for Mexican narco-terrorist war, funded and armed by gun-loving and drug -taking Americans"

17-Apr-09
At Summit of the Americas, Hugo Chavez presents Obama with a book that savages America's role in Central and South America; Obama says thanks and apologizes for not having any signed copies of his two autobiographies to give to Chavez

18-Apr-09
Obama later soul shakes Chavez’ hand and gives him a big "amigo" smile for special photo op that both can use to buttress support with their most rabid socialist supporters.

19-Apr-09
COS Rahm Emmanuel states that Obama is not interested in prosecuting those who devised interrogation policy

20-Apr-09
Obama holds his first (!) Cabinet meeting, during he pulls off a Dr. Evil routine, demanding the cabinet find $100 million in department cuts.

21-Apr-09
- Obama, deciding that the criminalization of policy differences is good for the country, states that he wouldn't mind investigating Bush administration officials on interrogation
- Obama signs the Edward M Kennedy Service America Act, which spends gobs of taxpayer money on training otherwise unemployable people on how to be community activists; 5% of the funds are to be devoted to training on extraction of young drunk women from submerged cars.
- Continuing his laser focus on high priority presidential appointments, Obama nominates What'shername to be Director for the Presidential Commission on White House Fellows"

22-Apr-09
Obama, showing his mastery of the hard issues, backtracks yet again, telling Pelosi and Reid he would not support an independent commission investigation of harsh interrogation techniques

23-Apr-09
Obama announced plan to get tough with credit card companies, because spendthrift American's should not just be bailed out of their giant mortgage liabilities.

24-Apr-09
President Barack Obama meets with a family struggling to afford the cost of college and underscored his commitment to cutting wasteful spending on federal student loans by ending taxpayer subsidies to banks. He announces the brave and difficult task of spending $200 billion of taxpayer money to send other people's kids to college.

25-Apr-09
Obama causes national outbreak of hysterical laughter when he states in his Weekly Address that "we must restore that sense of fiscal discipline. That’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass PAYGO legislation like a bill that will be introduced by Congressman Baron Hill, so that government acts the same way any responsible family does in setting its budget." Some Americans laugh at this.

26-Apr-09
Obama plays golf for five hours at Andrews Air Force Base Golf Course

27-Apr-09
- Obama pledges 3% of GDP to be spent on R&D in basic science without specifying where that huge amount of money is coming from
- VP Biden returns to Serious Materials Chicago window factory (Republic Windows and Doors) to beat that dead horse into dog patties
- GM announces that its doing away with the Pontiac brand
- White House orchestrates multiple low flyovers of NYC by one of the Air Force One jets for photo/video updates; shrugs at national outrage over obtuseness of the move and looks for someone named Bush to blame

28-Apr-09
- Obama, recently praised by conservative squish David Brooks as a "competent manager" who has "run a tremendously effective, efficient managerial administration," orders an internal review to determine how the decision was made to send of one of 747s on a low-flying photo op past the New York City skyline
- Obama praises turn-coat Arlen Specter for topping off his embarrassing turn as a Republican Senator by becoming a soon to be embarrassing Democrat Senator.
- Harry Reid writes in his book that after praising then Senator Obama for one of his speeches, Obama replied with “deep humility:" "I have a gift, Harry."

29-Apr-09
Obama gains absolute control over the executive and legislative arms of the government; conservatives change their underwear, again

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Most Successful Flyover

Sydney Brillo Duodenum is a fan and generator of conspiracy theories. He has a theory about the errant “Air Force One” flight over New York City. It is Sydney Brillo Duodenum’s rabidly held belief that this flight is solely the work of a frustrated element of the American military. Of course, one could argue that "the frustrated element" of the American military is the entire American military, so this particular conspiracy comes courtesy of the 89th Airlift Wing.

For the past month, we have witnessed a President abroad apologizing for America’s 8 year resolve to defend itself. We have seen a US President bow before a Saudi king. We have seen him exchange a soul-brother grasp with a prominent South American fascist dictator. We have seen him sit silently for 45 minutes while another two-bit commie thug excoriates America and we have seen the President respond that he was only three years old when it committed the crimes lectured upon. We have seen a Pentagon announce ill-considered, politicized cuts in aspects of our military profile, such as missile defense. At home, we have heard the President suggest that former Bush administration personnel should be considered for prosecution for their legal analysis of harsh interrogation of terrorists directly responsible for the September 11 murders. Several days after that, the administration agreed to release photos of said so-called interrogations.

We are to believe the context for all of this is that, for eight years, these United States have acted without reason, have reacted irresponsibly to murder of its civilians, have unleashed professional soldiers on misunderstood brown peoples, have serially and unreasonably tortured innocent teenagers, and have abridged the world’s US Constitutional rights. Nothing that happened on that bright sunny September day warranted the past 8 years. Or so we are told.

After a month of Obama misdirection, sickening apologies, and messiah mirroring, a good many Americans have been infused with shameful doubt about their country and themselves.

Which brings us back to our allegedly scheduled PR flight of one of the 747s used for the Air Force One fleet. Certainly, a modicum of warning was delivered by the White House to the appropriate bureaucratic moles in New York City, indicating a million mile removal from reality such that it did not see the effect such a flight would have on New Yorkers and the nation. Why? Because that hole in the ground is just a PR opportunity for them. It has no meaning beyond its political usefulness, either as a tool to chastise Americans for their overreactions or as a tool to remind Americans who’s in the Executive seat. There is no amount of "heads up" that could be given to prepare the city for the flyover that took place. It's an affront at all altitudes.

But certainly those responsible for actually managing the use of the aircraft, the 89th Airlift Wing, knew this flight would be sensitive and provocative. “Oh, you want to buzz New York City for some photos. Um, certainly, sir. And you want F-16s trailing it as well, while photos are being taken? No sir, not a problem at all, sir. The Air Force always likes to be in the air, even for public relations photo ops designed to create an image of President Obama as the Great Protector. Yes, sir, sorry, sir. No, sir we will not make a big deal out of it, sir. Yes, sir, we will keep it quiet, sir. Last minute notice? Oh, certainly, sir. Yes, sir, makes perfect sense. How about a Monday morning, sir, just after everyone gets to work in the city? Agreed sir, not before lunch. And you want that 5,000 off the ground? May I recommend a 1000, sir? That will make for some very nice photos, sir.” Later, to men and women of the 89th: “Ladies and Gentlemen – the White House wants to buzz New York City next week to get some promotional photos and videos that the White House can use to hand out to big time contributors and use for campaign spots for the coming 2012 election. Let’s help them be very successful at this flyover and get a really accurate picture of the Obama administration, er rather, for the Obama administration (snicker, snicker).”

And it was indeed a very successful flyover. As some say, Mission Accomplished!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Scene 5 - Witch Hunt Week

Scene 5:


The Witch: I'm not a witch I'm not a witch!

Sir Bedevere: But you are dressed as one

The Witch: *They* dressed me up like this!

Crowd: We didn't! We didn't...

The Witch: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one.

Sir Bedevere: [lifts up her false nose] Well?

Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose.

Sir Bedevere: The nose?

Peasant 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!

Crowd: Yeah! Burn her! Burn her!

Sir Bedevere: Did you dress her up like this?

Peasant 1: No!

Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!

Peasant 3: No!

Peasant 1: No!

Peasant 3,Peasant 2: No!

Peasant 1: Yes!

Peasant 2: Yes!

Peasant 1: Yeah a bit.

Peasant 3: A bit!

Peasant 1,Peasant 2: A bit!

Peasant 2: a bit

Peasant 1: But she has got a wart!

First, it was the outing of Miss California as a “typical American,” as most polls see it, because she shockingly believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. The media can’t have fantastically beautiful people spouting non-sanctioned hate speech (otherwise known as conventional wisdom), so they must be ambushed during the most kitschy, stale anti-Feminist televised dog and pony show by a young crass fat gay gossip whore, whose entire corpus of work is the epitome of cultural and moral decrepitude. We're to believe that Miss California is a hideous foul witch worthy of the stake.

Second, it was the release of interrogation authorization memos by the Obama administration in order reveal the most heinous government sanctioned crime since Herod slew the Innocents one night a couple thousand years ago. The purpose was simple: to suss out, pillory and lock in a holding pattern former Bush administration officials so as to give the press a reason to forever and always ignore the incompetence, mismanagement and hackery of The Man Child’s administration on the economy, foreign relations, national security, and the choice of accessory dogs.

Third, it was Earth Day, “celebrated” across the apparently raped and bleeding landscape by multitudes of elementary school kids. If your kid didn’t show the proper prostration before Fury Gaia; if they did not pack a “trash free” lunch; if they did not walk to school; if they did not submit “Cool the Earth” coupons promising to limit their tiny little Croc-clad carbon footprints on the scorched globe; if they did not spend five minutes lecturing their parents on the merits of recycling plastic tampon applicators; if they did not attach an aluminum water bottle to their environmentally sustainable backpacks; if they did not wear green clothes to show their solidarity with the enviro-fascists – then their names went on a list being maintained by Al Gore’s Climate Project.

Fourth, again orchestrated by the Obama administration, where Obama called his cabinet to order and demanded they seek out and destroy $100 million in unnecessary spending. Burn it! No stack of surplus copy paper is safe anywhere in Federal DC.

Fifth, last week’s outing of average, pissed off Americans as right wing extremist crazy people who surfaced in a surprise assault on the Constitution on that most revered of national community days otherwise known as Tax Day continued in the MSM. Only the devil could inspire those people.

Sixth, apparently because the government does not pull all the strings on the Bank of America puppet, early this week rumors were lofted that BofA CEO Ken Lewis had to go, but Mr. Lewis, being a witch (really a Warlock) and using his dark arts, was able to put into the hands of the WSJ his testimony in February before the Grand Inquisitor and Master Witch Hunter, New York’s attorney general, that he was pressured by the Fed not to reveal what a massive black hole of losses Merrill Lynch represented to shareholders and to go ahead anyway with the government sanctioned bailout of ML. So now, because Ken Lewis did not stand up for shareholders because he was strongly advised by the government to do something against their interests, he should get the hell out of the way, with the likely result that the government will name who replaces him.

Seventh, President Obama, the Mexican government, and America's major media outlets and pussies, did all they could to pin a great deal of Mexico’s problems on America’s drug and gun habit, in the latter case by rolling out all types of weaponry, allegedly seized from narco-badasses and traced back to a sporting goods store in Ottumwa, Idaho (Iowa?). The message: America’s law abiding gun worshipers are an evil minority cult responsible for Mexico’s narco-terrorism and chaos, not the mainstream secular culture that bathes daily in fountain of gangsterism, drug use, libertine-ism, feelings, and Jeff “Dude, whatever!” Spicoli worship.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Celebrating Earth Day




So far today, Sydney Brillo Duodenum has celebrated the Earth's riches by:

- enjoying an extra three minutes in a near scalding hot shower

- washing a single towel (befouled by Sydney Brillo Dog) in the washing machine set to full load and hot water - twice

- replacing his childrens' "trash free lunches" with two Oscar Meyer/Kraft Lunchables boxes

- driving his children the one-quarter mile between his home and their school

- picking up Sydney Brillo Dog's morning elimination with a thick, 1,000 year life span plastic newspaper bag.

- drinking premium non-Fair Trade coffee for breakfast

- running in idle for ten minutes his second car - a Jeep! - to circulate the vehicles vital juices

- farting outside

- increasing rate of respirations to enjoy more bounteous, free air

- congratulating neighbor on her decision to buy her high school aged daughter a new Jeep instead of a Honda Civic

- eating two chocolate chip cookies that will keep him in the near obese category

- shopping online for a 46 inch LCD television

And it's not even lunch time yet!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Who's Torturing Who?

SBD was out of sorts when he discovered that the Obama administration had released DOJ memorandums detailing the efforts of our intelligence agencies to prevent another Al Qaeda attack on the United States and the murder of American men, women, and children. He was even more disgusted to find that one of the memos entailed a detailed discussion of the use of insects – yes insects - against a particularly tough nut named Abu Zubaydah, who has a fear of insects. Now, SBD thought at first that CIA interrogators wanted to tie Mr. Zubaydah down to stakes in the desert near a fire ant colony. No such luck. Instead, the debate centered on the introduction of a single insect into a small holding cell, with the CIA interrogators telling Mr. Zubaydah that it was a stinging insect. The DOJ made it clear to the CIA that it could not use an actual stinging insect and they intimated they may have had trouble with the idea of lying to Mr. Zubaydah to make him believe that the insect was of a stinging type. The insect torture was never employed.

We now learn that we waterboarded Mr. Zubaydah 83 times in one month, although it’s not clear if that was before or after the failed insect consideration. The media has us believing that people “break” after one round of the bucket because several intrepid asshats, er reporters, have volunteered during sweeps week to be waterboarded and after doing so have declared that, if they were terrorist masterminds, they would fold like a Connecticut hedge fund in 2008. Perhaps.

We also learn that Khalid Sheik Mohammad, aka Fat Fuck, the confessed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 crime against humanity, was waterboarded 183 times during March 2003. Fat Fuck was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, so apparently we wasted no time. 183 is a big number, and of course our innumerate society has difficulty with big numbers, as they shock and titillate. We are supposed to believe that “the law” was broken 182 times or even half that many times. But the lawyers had carefully prescribed the use of waterboarding to a certain number of minutes in a 24 hour period. Even Fat Fuck has stated that he was waterboarded five times. Whatever, SBD is not going to do the math himself to figure out how the interrogators used their allotted waterboarding time and how 183 “times” makes sense. He doesn’t fucking care. The point is the Fat Fuck broke and revealed a great deal of information that confirmed known knowns, revealed known unknowns and helped frame some unknown unknowns, as one crank once put it. Mission accomplished. But ongoing.

SBD does care that our enemies now know what our limits are. It’s no longer a scary rumor about those blood-crazed, revenge-driven crusader Americans with secret prisons, but about those legalistic, lily-livered, flop sweating mother-may-I pansy Americans discussing whether or not the use of a non-poisonous bug against an entomophobic islamo-fascist terrorist makes us all Nazi storm troopers.

SBD also cares that Americans are not getting the complete picture of how the Bush administration may have saved some of their butts with the information obtained from Fat Fuck. Even former Vice President Dick Cheney is asking for declassification of some memos that provide that type of information. It’s called context. If Mr. Obama is such a believer in full disclosure, than let’s have full disclosure. Let’s hear about what was at stake. But it’s all a sideshow and distraction, as if we are still not hunted day and night by the worst sorts of America haters. We are still at war.

SBD would prefer if no damn memos saw the light of day. Intelligence is a dark art that should stay dark. SBD would prefer that the information be revealed in a some summertime beach reading when he is well into retirement 30 years hence. Releasing this information makes it easier for some dickwad to ruin SBD’s retirement.

One of the adults who used to be in a position of responsibility, former CIA director Michael Hayden, stated it plainly and without profanity on Fox News with Chris Wallace:

I think that teaching our enemies our outer limits, by taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine, more difficult for CIA officers to defend the nation.

There's another point, too, that I have to make. And it's just not the tactical effect of this technique or that. It's the broader effect on CIA officers.

I mean, if you're a current CIA officer today — in fact, I know this has happened at the agency after the release of these documents. Officers are saying, "The things I'm doing now — will this happen to me in five year because of the things I am doing now?"

And the answer they've been given by senior leadership is the only answer possible, which is, "I can't guarantee you that won't happen, but I do know it won't happen under this president." Now, think what that means.

The basic foundation of the legitimacy of the agency's action has shifted from some durability of law to a product of the American political process. That puts agency officers in a horrible position.

So I think the really dangerous effect of this, Chris, is that you will have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do. I mean, if you were to go to an agency officer today and say, "Go do this," and, "Why am I authorized to do this?"

And I say, "Well, it's authorized by the president. The attorney general says it's lawful. And it's been briefed to Congress." That agency officer's going to say, "Yeah, I know, but I see what's going on here now. Have you run it by the ACLU? What's the New York Times editorial board think? Have you discussed this with any potential presidential candidates?"

You're going to have this agency on the front line of defending you in this current war playing back from the line.

In addition to making an ass of himself and the United States during his little jaunt to the Southern hemisphere this past week, which is so beautifully treated here by Heritage's Ray Walser, Mr. Obama has damaged this country’s intelligence gathering capabilities by allowing the release of this information. It’s all part of the grand plan, though. It’s part of Mr. Obama’s Great Moral Washing of the corrupted American soul; Act I in Mr. Obama’s Making Amends Musical Tour of the world. This performance will be a protracted affair with no intermission and no water breaks. Absolute torture.

Fresh from that trip, and after throwing the Agency under the bus, the Man Child running the country had the gall to visit the CIA today and stand before the Wall of Stars and tell the assembled CIA employees to not let his predations on their work distract them. "I know the last few days have been difficult," he said. "You need to know you've got my full support."

Uh, huh.

This man receives a daily briefing of the terrors arrayed against this country. He does not do what he does and does not say what he says in ignorance. It's all in foolishness and arrogance. As with every other action of his, he seeks to damage this country, to declare it's sins (they're not his!), to bring it low, and when he is ready and it is deserving, he will raise it up and save it.

The kid's a punk. A dangerous punk.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Goldberg Variations

National Review's Jonah Goldberg on the scandalous DHS report on an alleged resurgence of right wing extremism in this country; a report conveniently released just days before a wildly successful string of Tea Party protests were held across the country:

I wrote a book on fascism which tried to show that what everybody knows isn’t necessarily true. The idea that soldiers will return from war and become right-wing militants? Well, that has its roots in Fascist Italy, where veterans returned as black-shirted shock troops of “Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini. The only problem with this theory is that what they clamored for was socialism — the socialism of the trenches! — and their leader had earned the title “Il Duce” as the leader of the Socialist Party.

The idea that American “hate groups” are right-wing and bristling with vets got new life with JFK’s assassination at the hands of a disgruntled vet named Lee Harvey Oswald. Everybody knew right away that Oswald was an agent of “hate” — and hate was code for right-wing and racist. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren summed up the instantaneous conventional wisdom when he blamed the “climate of hatred” for Kennedy’s death. Everybody knew that the Right was involved.

There was just one inconvenient truth: Oswald was a Communist who, according to the Warren report, had “an extreme dislike of the rightwing” and had actually tried to murder a right-wing former Army general.

When Hollywood filmed the Tom Clancy novel The Sum of All Fears, it changed the real villains from jihadi terrorists to a bunch of European CEOs who were secret Nazis. Because “everybody knows” that’s where the real threat lies.

Sen. John Kerry belonged to an organization of vets that considered assassinating American politicians. (Kerry denied participating in those meetings.) Barack Obama was friends with, and a colleague of, a terrorist whose organization plotted to murder soldiers and their wives at a social at Fort Dix. A young Hillary Clinton sympathized with the Black Panthers, a paramilitary gang of racist murderers and cop killers.

Bring that up and you’re a paranoid nutcase out of Dr. Strangelove.

Zero Hour

In his To The Point News newsletter, man of the world, high adventurer, and paranoid arch capitalist Dr. Jack Wheeler offers this overview [subscription only] of the U.S. Navy-Pirate Siege of 2009. The Zero he refers to is President Obama.

All of us want to raise our glass the highest this week to the Navy SEALs who popped those three Somali pirates. And I'm sure you want to hear the real story of what happened. Especially because there is a revoltingly opportunistic and cowardly side to it. Guess which side Zero is on.

Why, for example, did it take SEAL Team Six (aka DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare Development Group, the Navy's equivalent of Delta Force) over 36 hours to get to the scene?

Because Zero refused to authorize the SEAL deployment for those 36 hours, during which the OSC - the on scene commander, Cmdr. Frank Castellano of the USS Bainbridge - repeatedly requested them.

Once the SEALs arrived - parachuting from a C-17 into the ocean near the ship - Zero then imposed Rules of Engagement (ROE) specifying the SEALs could not do anything unless the life of the hostage, Captain Richard Phillips, was in "imminent"
danger.

Thus, when Capt. Phillips attempted to escape by jumping off the lifeboat into the ocean, the SEAL snipers had all four pirates (one later surrendered) sighted in and could have taken them out then and there - but they could not fire due to Zero's ROE restrictions.

When the SEALs approached the lifeboat in a RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat) carrying supplies for Capt. Phillips and the pirates, the pirates fired upon them. Not only was no fire returned due to the ROE, but as the pirates were shooting at the RIB, SEAL snipers on the Bainbridge had them all dialed in. No triggers were pulled due to the ROE.

Two specific rescue plans were developed by Cmdr. Castellano and the SEAL teams. Zero personally refused to authorize them.

After the second refusal and days of dithering, Cmdr. Castellano decided he had the Operational Area and OSC authority to "solely determine risk to hostage" and did not require any further approval of the president.

Four hours later, the White House is informed that three pirates are dead and Capt. Phillips has been rescued unharmed. A WH press release is immediately issued, giving credit to the president for his "daring and decisive" behavior that resulted in such success.

Zero has absolutely no military knowledge or experience whatsoever. He demanded decisional control over the entire hostage drama to the last detail. All actions required his personal approval. He dithered like a coward while the world laughed at our warships flummoxed by four illiterate teenagers with AKs in a lifeboat.

Only when the Navy Commander decided to ignore his Pantywaist-in Chief and take action and responsibility himself, were the incredible skills of the SEALs put into play.

That Zero could cynically and opportunistically claim that his "bold" "calm" "tough" leadership was responsible should remind everyone that not a single action, not a single word of this man can be trusted. He is bereft of honesty and moral character. That's why he's Zero.



Update 04/22/09:

The Washington Times reports that National Security Advisor James Jones is contradicting reports of dithering by the Obama administration. According to Jones:

-- "I can tell you from a White House and presidential standpoint, there was no conflict, no gnashing of teeth, or excessive influence in trying to manage this thing.

-- "It took awhile to get facts and then to get the military on scene," said one senior military official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing special forces operations. "As the picture got more clear and commanders' requests went back down the chain, the guidance was: 'We would like a peaceful resolution. However, if Captain Phillips' life is in danger you can take appropriate action.' "

-- "This was, from my perspective, a textbook operation," Mr. Jones said in the interview. "There were two things [the president] was asked to approve and he did. And the military executed flawlessly."

-- Any delays in moving the forces that ultimately took action were not the result of obtaining authorization from the White House or Pentagon but the time it took to move SEALs, their vessels and other equipment from the East Coast to the Horn of Africa, a flight distance of about 7,800 miles, the senior official said.

-- The military official said the commander had authority to take action at all times because Mr. Phillips was being held at gunpoint, but that he was balancing his authority with Washington's request to seek a peaceful outcome.

Crosswords

Mother Brillo Duodenum just called asking about a clue in crossword puzzle she's puzzling.

Mom: I need your help with this puzzle. Ready?
SBD: OK.
Mom: It's a name; the clue is Bond Girl Xenia in Goldeneye.
SBD: Um, do you mean the actresses' name or the characters full name?
Mom: I don't know. It's seven letters.
SBD: [clack away on keyboard googlnating "Xenia Bond Goldeneye"; it occurs to SBD that this may be an uncomfortable call]
Mom: Seven letters
SBD: Right. Ok, I got it. Ready?
Mom: Yes.
SBD: The actress is Famke Jannsen.
Mom: No, that's not it, because the fourth letter is a "t".
SBD: Alright, then it must be the character's name.
Mom: Seven letters.
SBD: Yep. Ready.
Mom: Go ahead.
SBD: Xenia Zirgavna Onatopp.
Mom: What?
SBD: It's the last name. Onatopp.
Mom: Oh no tot?
SBD: No. On [a] top.
Mom. Spell it.
SBD: O - N- A - T- O- P - P
Mom: O - N - A - P- O - T - T?.
SBD: No. O - N - A - T - O - P -P
Mom: O - N - A - T -O - T- T
SBD: Jesus, LISTEN! It's ONTOP. ON TOP. Get it? Bond girls always have a suggestive name.
Mom: [Quiet]
Mom: Spell it again.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

On The Monster Susan Boyle

Given unkind statements made by Saul Menowitz, regarding “fifteen minutes of fame” and “returning to the farm,” over on Rod Dreher’s absurd, self-reverential and prissy-serious Crunchy Con blog (comments that may have resulted in his being banned), Sydney Brillo Duodenum is forced to pass judgment on the musical idiot savant that is Susan Boyle.

Ms. Boyle, a Scottish lady in her late forties, who adheres strictly to a 1940s wartime manner of dress and personal hygiene, stormed the stage on “Britain’s Got Talent” television show, where she was loudly mocked by an audience of Britain’s Least Talented. Before an incredulous Simon Cowell and two other people (whose celebritude matters not to SBD and thus is undeserving of googlation and notation here), who eyerolled her presence, smirked to each other, queefed some quiet gas, and got ready to bang the big gong to have the obviously disturbed eccentric hauled from the stage and nationally humiliated, Ms. Boyle presented herself and promised to sing, in the fashion of her heroine Elaine Page, the grand dame of British musical theatre (not theater), one of those laborious angst songs from Les Miserables. Admittedly, SBD at first thought the person on stage was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in drag as a result of a bet lost to the Hasty Pudding crowd. Laughs and guffaws from the weakchinned, loose toothed crowd of social welfare recipients came from all around. From the reaction of the crowd, you would think they had wheeled the Frankenstein Monster onto the stage. As the soaring taped violins commenced I Dreamed A Dream (ain’t we all, sister?) and The Monster squinted below gargantuan hemp woven eyebrows into the kliegs and opened her unkissed lips, she revealed a gift of nature that the over educated pricks and princesses in New York City pay $500 a ticket to hear at the Metropolitan Opera. That is not an overstatement.

Ms. Boyle’s first 15 seconds of singing earned her easily her fifteen minutes of fame, but she deserves more and should at least claim a full year of notoriety and touring, before returning to the farm that Saul Menowitz soils his pj bottoms about every night. Perhaps she can join up on tour with those fat Irish chicks who bang away on violins and fiddles. Anyhow, Ms. Boyle brought down the house like a guillotine on some over-powdered French aristo’s neck. The English say “gob smacked,” and so indeed they were. For a fleeting second, SBD saw lecherous desire on Simon Cowell’s face. And now we – the world – sit transfixed in our cubes and gray fabric windowless offices, tears streaming down our faces as we watch secretly Ms. Boyle’s performance over and over again on Youtube. Gosh darnit, I have a dream, too. Some day, some how. Maybe after I eat this Twinkie I can do something about it.

This is the type of “talent” that people enjoy. It’s not that she can sing. It’s that she has absolutely nothing else going for her. Her talent is improbability. We enjoy when a talent has been housed in some poor lost soul and obscured from public view by some bizarre family tragedy or personal mismanagement. Ms. Boyle has been holed up in a cottage most of her life attending to the needs of her mother following her stern father’s death. Her mother passed two years ago, but not before cajoling her daughter to make a go of it on Britain’s Got Talent. Wonderful drama. That this woman went 40 some years before being discovered is either a travesty or the typical rough justice of life. By Sydney Brillo Duodenum’s analysis, it’s a good thing that she went undiscovered all those years, otherwise we would have no reminders of the human condition and how some people's lives really are worse than our own. But make no mistake, she found the fortitude and spirit to leave the cottage and walk onto a national stage and belt out a big Fuck You to the rest of us. We all yearn for that day when we can sing Fuck You on a national stage. Few ever get it.

Much of what passes these days as accomplishment and talent is stage managed, industry manufactured, and strikes at our visual cortex. Hideous, computer aided fantasies. No surprise there; we all know robots will wipe us out in the end. The acceleration of the shallow talent happens all across the spectrum of human endeavor. Americans just elected such an individual. American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent are designed to suss out that "talent," but most of the clowns who show up have already been corrupted by the industry and by our terribly shallow and cynical public culture, which makes Western civilization such a joy to live in. Very little raw talent ever shows up. The multitude of obese flapping crows that flock to major metropolises every year for American Idol tryouts rightly elicits our mockery and virtual torrential downpours of rotten tomatoes and lettuce.

Now this New World that is Ms. Boyle remains to be fully discovered. Right now, she is the quintessential circus freak. In fact, the words "quintessential," "circus" and "freak" were invented for just this occasion. “You mean ugly people can sing?! Mommy I want to see The Monster. Take me to see The Monster NOW!!” And they will turn out. They turn out for that other British freak of nature Paul Potts, who won the 2007 Britain’s Got Talent for his opera chops. Mr. Potts is a bit different, as he had a history of amateur effort and performance cut short by a bike accident and the necessity to work in retail. Now, he’s huge in Germany. Ask David Hasselhoff what that means. The unemployed (unemployable?) Ms. Boyle comes to us straight from the shower she apparently uses once a fortnight. Who knows, it may be only a few years from now that Ms. Boyle is shopping for Malawi children to adopt. Then we can hate her. Now, it's all love and celebration.

There Will Be Blood


It's hard to look at this CBO budget projection and not see it as a massive bloodletting.


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ten Gallon Hat Amendment

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.”


Texas Governor Rick Perry does something we don't hear much of these days. In support of a Texas legislature resolution (HCR 50) in support of states' rights set forth under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution, he discusses returning to the letter and spirit of the US Constitution. Only rubes, unsophisticates, and potential domestic man-causers of illiberal acts discuss that old, faded unmodern and nonprogressive document.

Perry dons his ten gallon hat and speaks plainly, thusly:

Here in Texas, here in the capitol, we typically spend more time talking about the Texas constitution, but it is definitely time to talk about the U.S. Constitution and the protections it guarantees.

I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country, but, most of all, here in Texas, to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed through the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Tenth Amendment was enacted by folks who remembered what it was like to be under the thumb of a distant, all-powerful government. Unfortunately, the protections it guarantees have melted away over time.

Since the U.S. Constitution was first ratified, the federal government has slowly, steadily and successfully eroded the notion of state’s rights. The Founding Fathers understood that a one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work, especially in a country the size of America, and it certainly doesn’t work for Texas.

Our economic strength, compared to the federal budget mess and other states’ troubles, is evidence that Texans know what’s best for Texas. We’re proof that good things happen when governments lower taxes, reduce spending and encourage private sector growth.

When Washington interferes with our proven approaches, experience tells us what the outcome will be, and it isn’t pretty.

Like the Constitution and the other 26 amendments, the 10th Amendment has been the subject of extended debate, by scholars and lawyers of every sort, but I come down on the side that favors state’s rights over unrestrained federal power.

I believe the Constitution does not empower the federal to override state laws without restraint. I agree with Texas’ 7th governor, Sam Houston, who once said, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”

We didn’t like oppression then and we certainly don’t like it now.

I believe the federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state.

Texans need to ask themselves a question: do they side with those in Washington who are pursuing this unprecedented expansion of power? Or do they believe in the individual rights and responsibilities laid out in our foundational documents?

Texans need to stand up and be heard, because this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely.

Returning to the letter and the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, and its essential Tenth Amendment, will free our state and, ultimately, strengthen our Union.

Granted, Governor Perry is up for reelection in 2010, and in some quarters (specifically the cube of an SBD Texan co-worker) he is perceived as an effeminate pussy, but as a consummate pol, he would not stand behind this type of provocative action unless he knew that most of fair majority of Texas voters stood with him. This is good to see because it is healthy for our republic and the elected leaders of these United States to stand up and proclaim on the founding principles and their architecture against Leviathan.

This week, in honor of Texas, SBD will purchase a six pack of Shiner Black Lager (because these are dark times and we need to make use of every little symbol we can).

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Empty Tomb

Many of us filled pews to celebrate the empty tomb today. SBD was there as he is a two time man. Generally he attends on Christmas and he attends on Easter. Beginning and end. Really beginning and beginning of the unend. Anyway, he's typical that way. His shame and distance from the Church is typical that way. He has no real excuse other than a continuing lack of faith. He is neither aspiritual nor atheist. Faith does not occupy him.

Still, faith occupies the empty tomb. A multitude dwells in the empty tomb. There is no hope without the empty tomb. There is no life without the empty tomb. The empty tomb can hold all. SBD supposes there is a spot for him but he's not ready to enter. SBD is probably already in the empty tomb but just won't admit it. The Lord abides.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Today's Wild Ass Conspiracy Theory


Is this formula the work of a Chicom agent sent to the US years ago to bring down capitalism?

You decide.

Length of US Recessions


While the stock market has rallied nicely since bottoming on March 9th, the economy continues to struggle. For some perspective on the current economic recession, today's chart illustrates the duration of all US recessions since 1900. As today's chart illustrates, the five longest recessions all began prior to 1930. The length of the current recession (now entering its 16th month) is above average and equal to the longest recessions (1973 & 1981) since the Great Depression.