I knew that something like Ellie Light was going to happen when Nancy Pelosi accused the tea-partiers of astroturfing. Whenever a liberal is preparing to do something underhanded, or is going to get caught having done it, the first thing that he does is accuse Republicans of having done it, even if there's utterly no truth to it. I learned this from the lovely Mrs. Clinton. Every single time that woman accused Republicans of skulduggery she had been doing it first.

Iowahawk has had some fun with Ms. Light, and these are first two paragraphs:

As a longtime reader of __Iowahawk Blog__ I must say that I am sick and tired of the constant negative griping and complaining you direct at ___elected Democratic official__ . Speaking for the vast silent majority of __Iowahawk Blog__ readers, it is finally time to set the record straight.

__elected Democratic official___ is working hard every ___time period_ to undo the damage done to our local economy by the misguided policies of __recent Republican President___. As the old adage goes, "__Iowahawk_ was not built in a day," and it will take time for _his/her__ sensible reforms to work. They must be allowed to take root, like our mighty __area cash crop___. Instead of grumbling and whining, we need to get behind __elected Democratic official___ just like we do with the __area sports team__ .

In March of 2008, the MDC doled out $275,000 to Natural Gas Services Group to lease a corporate headquarters in Downtown, employ some people for that office, buy a building in the County, employ some people there, and do a whole bunch of improvements to both locations. Their time limit for doing these things expires in 2011.

So, with a year to go how are they doing? Well, they have leased office space in Downtown Midland, but that may be all they are on track to comply with.

Employment:

- employ at least 10 new full-time employees for its corporate office before 2011 at $380,000 in annual salary and wages.

- employ at least 39 new full-time employees for its operational facility before 2011 at $1.5 million in annual salary and wages.

According to NGSG Investor Presentations there were 259 Employees as of September 30, 2006, 296 employees of NGSG as of December 31, 2008 and 217 employees as of June 30, 2009.

From their high in December 2008, they have cut 79 jobs. This doesn't look to good for a total employment increase of 49 over their March 2008 employment (which I suppose was somewhere between 259 and 296).

Improvements:

- invest at least $500,000 in purchases and improvements for the office and $4 million for the operational facility.

The only way I know to evaluate this metric is to look at the taxable values of these facilities and see if they have risen by the amounts required, because the increase in property values is always sold to the voters as a part of the return on the public investment.

According to the Midland Central Appraisal District, For the downtown office (ID P000205785), in 2009 it had a taxable value of $123,000. For the operational facility (ID R000008595), prior to purchase in 2008, it had a value of $520,560 and in 2009 it had a value of $1,129,370. Not exactly $500,000 and $4 Million.

So with a year to go to comply, employment at NGSG is down by about 40 employees company wide, they need to invest about $377,000 in their downtown office and about $3.5 million in their operational facility.

Any bets on them meeting the terms?

My Internet went down yesterday in the late morning; I thought it was the weather. Evidently though the Internet all across the world nearly crashed and it was owing to Jobs' iPad announcement.

Cover It Live is used by many companies to power live-blogging of major events, and it melted for 20 minutes. PCWorld uses it and was not impressed; perhaps this is the reason for its relatively spleenous views of the new product.

I don't need it. I have a Kindle and an iPhone and travel with a 17" MacBook Pro.

I really don't need it. I'd have to hide it in hotel rooms; it would suffer from Kindle-attention syndrome. If you're eating in a restaurant and need to go to the little room, a magazine is safe to leave at your table. But not a Kindle and certainly not this.

I really don't need it.

I was indulging in my dirty little secret this morning and listening to America Left and it was the Bill Press show. He's a thug like all the progressives. He said that eight progs were in the White House with an hour to dump on David Axelrod on why Obama hadn't gone to a full-court press for totalitarianism. Not their word. They were whining that the Public Option had been jettisoned and there were other progressive laments. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of progressive journalists beating up on one of the more odious Obama people.

Since I'm in a good mood after contemplating that, I offer a joke. I've heard one like it but this one is apropos:

A tourist walked into a Chinese curio shop in San Francisco. While looking around at the exotic merchandise, he noticed a very lifelike, life-sized, bronze statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but was so incredibly striking the tourist decided he must have it. He took it to the old shop owner and asked, "How much for the bronze rat?"

"Ahhh, you have chosen wisely! It is $12 for the rat, $100 for the story, " said the wise old Chinaman.

The tourist quickly pulled out twelve dollars. "I'll just take the rat, you can keep the story."

As he walked down the street carrying his bronze rat, the tourist noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys and sewers and had begun following him down the street. This was a bit disconcerting so he began walking faster.

A couple blocks later he looked behind him and saw to his horror the herd of rats behind him had grown to hundreds, and they began squealing.

Sweating now, the tourist began to trot toward the Bay. Again, after a couple blocks, he looked around only to discover that the rats now numbered in the MILLIONS, and were squealing and coming toward him faster and faster.

Terrified, he ran to the edge of the Bay and threw the bronze rat as far as he could into the Bay.

Amazingly, the millions of rats all jumped into the Bay after the bronze rat, and were all drowned.

The man walked back to the curio shop in Chinatown .

"Ahhh," said the owner, "You have come back for story?"

"No sir," said the man, "I came back to see if you have a bronze Progressive."

As the City of Midland starts to investigate clawbacks for the Cingular/AT&T deal that has been out of compliance with their abatement and loan contracts for approximately 5 years, maybe it is time the MDC takes a look at their deals with Accutel, now called Semperian Administrative Services.

The deals with Accutel (a subsidiary of GMAC) for a call center in Midland were the first for the newly created MDC. Per the newspaper reports, in the first agreement, Accutel was to have 120 Employees by 2003, later add-ons to the original agreement provided more incentives for an additional 60 employees by 2004 and then an additional 240 employees by 2006 for 440 TOTAL.

So where is Accutel (now called Semperian)? According to the Community Profile on the MDC website, Semperian is shown to have 200 employees.

When I was researching the Cingular economic development deal in June of 2009, I did look at Semperian and at that time, their employment numbers were around 375.

A little more than a half a year later, 175 jobs have been trimmed and they are now employing less than half of the numbers reported in their development contracts.

So, again I ask, where's the due diligence from the MDC on their grantees meeting their jobs requirements of the contracts? Is the MDC not even looking at their own data posted on their website to check compliance?

I may be an Apple fanboi, but this is one Apple product that I wouldn't wish on, er, Nancy.

I hadn't been able to listen to Rush for a year, but today I did listen about an hour. He said that during the State of the Union address Obowma had been laughed at by Congress at least twice. And I just watched at Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi laughing behind Obowma after he talked about the settled science of climate change. I don't know if they were laughing at him or at the people in America who will have it put to them.

The clips that I saw had Obowma angry, which is what I anticipated from an arrogant man who has never before publicly failed and who has nothing but contempt for anyone but himself.

After just 12 months: Under water in the opinion polls, batting 0.000 on major legislation, and 0-3 in the last three notable elections, President Obama needed a home run speech.

This morning the only thing being talked about is Samuel Alito mouthing the truth and Hillary Clinton's absence.

The so-called "awsomeness" has worn completely off now and there is no experience anywhere in the President's background that he can call on to guide him through this.

Sadly, we have sunk to a point where, domestically, the country is now sort of protected by his total fecklessness. And for someone who would take a grid-locked Congress over almost any other kind this brings a perverse comfort.

In terms of national security, however, his flailing inexperience is no comfort whatsoever. It is very, very frightening.

Who would you rather have as your defense attorney?

Barack Obama or Samuel Alito?

From Politico:

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

Thirty-seven percent said they didn't trust Fox, also the lowest level of distrust that any of the networks recorded.

Ah, yes, but there is a catch, you see!

"A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news," said PPP President Dean Debnam in his analysis of the poll. "But the media landscape has really changed, and now they're turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear." [Emphasis Mine]

Or maybe....just maybe....that technology has given those seeking news multiple channels and sources to choose from and compare and that those news sources that Mr. Debnam annoints as the "most neutral and unbiased" in fact...aren't.

Naaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

And yes, I expect that President Obama will shortly showing signs of impatience in having to deal with mere proles who don't have his vision. Despite the fact that it's increasingly obvious that his vision is worth nothing.

Obama is 0 for 5, and when Clinton was handed his head in the 1994 elections, he knew that he had to make an accommodation with the Republicans instead of just rolling over them.

I be Obama's arrogance is such that he will never believe that he anyone could dare disagree with him. I bet he never sees the lights of the oncoming train.

This afternoon I made the acquaintance of Thom Hartman on America Left. A straight hour of bitter, sullen misery.

Explanation here.

A Second Entry:

Mr. Cresote in The Meaning of Life

I have written before about my fascination with the Mike Malloy show on XM Radio. He moans, and whines, and when he gets a rare caller, he's a thug if the caller doesn't agree with him in lockstep. He'll splutter out a series of left-wing platitudes as though he were reading Miranda rights to people, and the poor caller is left gasping. A complete thug but then he has no choice since he has no thoughts, only the attitudes of the resentful, religious left.

Freud talked about the narcissism of small differences: this bon mot never applied as much as it applies to progressives. When I was a kid the Baptists and the Church of Christ fought over the smallest of things for in the big things they were essentially identical. The left now is subsumed in holier-than-thou, or perhaps prolier-than-thou, wars over who's the purest progressive. And we benefit from it.

(Bear in mind that conservatives have been subject to this same fault in the past, tearing each other apart over say gay marriage while letting the socialists steal the store and the transnational progressives give away the country.)

My friend S. introduced me to the delight of the raging and imploding left and he has joked that he has created a monster. Perhaps so. I find it more amusing than Reno 911!

A true progressive named David Michael Green has a a screed on CommonDreams.org and it's delightful. He's wrong about a lot, of course; he's economically illiterate. But when you find a progressive saying things like

Barack Obama has now, in just a year's time, become the single most inept president perhaps in all of American history, and certainly in my lifetime.

Obama and his colleagues have now managed to bring the future of the Democratic Party into question, just a year after it won two smashing victories in a row.

Personally, I'm not real bothered by that. Today's Democrats are, almost without exception, embarrassing hacks who deserved to get stomped a long time ago.

What really upsets me, however, is what these fools have allowed to be done to the name of progressivism, and to the country.

And by "Sarah Palin", I mean "Barack Obama".

Any of you Bush-Deranged Moonbats out there want to make another "My Pet Goat" joke now?

Barack Obama....Lightworker!

(Hat Tip: Jammie Wearing Fool)

UPDATE (From the comments on this topic over at Riehl World View):

What is even more disturbing than the need to whip TOTUS out to talk to school kids is the purpose of Obama's visit to that school. He was announcing his desire to put billions more into his program "Race to the Top" (RttT in Obamaland cutespeak) and also create a means for school districts to bypass the authority of their State Boards of Education in order to apply for federal RttT funds. What is so disturbing about this? One of the requirements of winning this federal grant money is that local school districts must contractually agree to adopt federal curriculum guidelines, even those that have not yet been defined by the Obama Administration. Yup....the federal core curriculum issue rears its ugly head again.

Obama created the local school district bypass to these federal dollars in response to Rick Perry's decision for Texas to opt out. Obama can't stand Perry and the State of Texas....and was not about yield the chess board.

I wonder if these particular grade-schoolers were forced into learning and performing another one of those "Dear Leader" type songs in honor of the President's visit.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Is a new professional basketball league announced this week for real, or is it all just some sort of joke or publicity stunt by former pro wrestling promoter Don "Moose" Lewis?

A publicity stunt by a former pro wrestling promoter? What are the chances?

This reminds me of one of my favorite Jeff Foxworthy jokes. He said he got home so late one night....."how late was it?.......it was so late, when he got home he said the TV was on and turned to ESPN and there were two white guys boxing.

We know Chris Matthews of the tinging leg. He interviewed Evan Thomas of Newsweek, a left-wing periodical, and in the interview Thomas said

"I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God.

But Matthews is coming back to reality, just as he did in his contempt of Bill Clinton's mythomania. Tuesday night Matthews talked with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC as the dreadful, to Madcow, news that the Kennedy flunky had lost became undeniable. Matthews performed decent analysis. Madcow was, well Madcow.

This is worth the 3 minutes or so to watch how yet another icon of leftist journalism runs, screaming into the night, away from reality.

The earthquakes in Haiti are to be sure great tragedies; they damage is always worst in poor countries without building standards, or the money to build well. Earthquakes in India are worse than in North America for the same intensity of the quake.

But that doesn't keep people from making good jokes. Here's one that I received:

I saw on the internet that Haiti is without a government. To help out, I am donating one Obama, one Pelosi, one Reid, one Frank, one Coakley and two Clintons! They may keep them permanently! I'll give them a constitution, too, since we're not using ours right now."

Who needs enemies with General George Casey is the top soldier? When the most frequent visitor to the White House is Andy Stern, head of SEIU?

When, oh hell, I'll say it, Barack Hussein Obama is president?

Hillary! Bill! Come back! All is forgiven!

From the comments of a post on this subject over at DailyKos:

Now the question is what is to become of the important voices who need work NOW?

Ron Reagan JR.
Mike Malloy.
Stephanie Miller.
And Randi ... where the eff are you anyway?

Yowza. Those are the Four Horsemen of Air America Radio? It is no wonder that nobody knew Air America folded until it was reported elsewhere.

From NRO:

The real takeaway in the BLS report is the transformation of the labor movement. A majority of union members in America (52 percent) now work for the government. This is up sharply from 49 percent in 2008. Put another way, Sherk finds, three times more union members now work in the Post Office than in the auto industry.

It gets even better...

The average worker for a state or local government earns $39.83 an hour in wages and benefits. His counterpart in the private sector earns considerably less -- $27.49 an hour. Over 80 percent of state and local workers have pensions; just 50 percent of private sector workers do. These differences remain, Sherk notes, even after controlling for education, skills, and demographics. The bottom line: Taxpayers now underwrite unionized government jobs that pay considerably more -- over $430 per week more -- than comparable jobs in the private sector.

The connection is obvious. Labor leaders can only grow their unions by growing government. This is why they overwhelmingly support Democrat candidates.

And this is exactly why so much of the so-called "Stimulus" money went into public sector spending. It was (and continues to be) a political payoff to allies of the Democrat party.

Hope and Change, baaaaaaayyyyybeeeeee!

Why so unexpected?

In other news, Lucy Van Pelt unexpectedly yanks football away from Charlie Brown during kick attempt, Hollywood's hottest couple unexpectedly splits after three months, and President Barack Obama unexpectedly blames previous administration for nation's difficulties.

UPDATE: Liberal Radio network Air America unexpectedly runs out of money, closes. What was the final straw I wonder? Did they bring in Barack Obama to do a Telethon for them?

To our minds, it is not remotely a verdict on Mr. Obama's presidency, nor does it amount to a national referendum on health care reform -- even though it has upended the effort to pass a reform bill, which Mr. Obama made the centerpiece of his first year.

So sayeth the editorial board of the New York Times.

Note the the Times: Losing your monopoly isn't necessarily a death sentence for your business model. But losing your monopoly in tandem with your product being crap kind of is. Hence, your bottom line of late.

I didn't know that Scott Brown, soon to be Senator Scott Brown, was in the military. in fact he holds the position of lieutenant colonel in the National Guard. In college he joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard, and served as an enlisted soldier. He earned his commission. He has military experience.

Such a contrast to that Kennedy hack Martha, er, Marcia, as HRH Patrick Kennedy called her, Coakley. Who said that she had foreign-policy experience by visiting her sister in London and vacationing out of the country. This is even funnier than Bill Clinton being the nation's first black president. I'm beginning to wonder if arrogance and stupidity aren't opposite sides of the same, and very thin, coin.

A good article here, in a Brit paper and of course not anything that you would learn from the Legacy Media.

An idea for Scott Brown: Auction off your truck on eBay and donate the money to Haitian relief.

That is all.

"And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us: I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation. They do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them."

Update: Thread-winning comment from over at YouTube: "Hitler was able to bring the Olympics to his country."

Related: Scott Brown wins Senate seat in Massachusetts. Or as the Right side of the Blogosphere is calling it, "Massa-freakin-chussets".

I am one that hates "reality TV" but I have to say that watching Rachel Maddow, Chris (Kris Tingle) Matthews, and Keith Olbermann having to cover Scott Brown's victory last night was some pretty good viewing.

I was wakened from a nap this evening by my brother, who I knew on seeing his caller ID had called to tell me that Scott Brown had won. We gloated over the delicious fact that socialized medicine, or this version of it, was very probably going to die, and that from the very seat that the loathsome Teddy Kennedy had filled for nearly a half a century, when he wasn't killing women or making waitress sandwiches, and socialized medicine was Teddy's pet project. I don't think that Shakespeare could have written it better.

Of course we both turned to MSNBC, to see the quivering lips. I haven't had so much fun since 1994 when I recorded six hours of Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer, and I don't care how I spelled his name, talking. "Bob, do you think that there's any way that the Democrats can retain control of the Senate?"

"Well, Dan, if Sakhalin Island joins the U.S., divides into five states and all elect Democrat Senators, it might happen. All this before 8 PM PST."

I kept that tape for years and played bits of it for laughs when I was feeling down.

Wanting to drink a cup of the delicious salty tears of Keith Olbermann, I stayed for his show. Olbermann said that he was going to offer an apology for a comment he made last night:

In Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees...The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States.

Olbermann then went onto to say that he apologized because he didn't add in "sexist."

He went on to repeat his charge, with a few embellishments, and then added, "...and if he, or you, don't like that characterization, then my answer is simple. Disprove it."

Well, Keith, the bluest of all states threw your sort out of office. Other Democrats are putting on the breaks on socialized medicine--they know they might be next. Your freight train into socialism is getting derailed. People of your ilk are being rejected, Keith, even in Massachusetts. No matter how you scream, you lost, Keith. Your lies didn't work; your character assassination didn't work. Your solipsism isn't convincing. Your kind lost.

I've often thought Olbermann delusional and it is true. I'll add to this charge megalomaniacal. And of course the nastiest jerk on the air, even worse than the thug Ed Schultz. I have maintained for years that the left is nothing but infantile rage against reality and I don't know a better proof of my claim than that jumped-up sportscaster and communications major Keith Olbermann.

Who is crying delicious salty tears right now.

Perhaps Teddy's not dead after all.

I admit that the title is wishful thinking.

Tomorrow people in Massachusetts, or Massachusettes, as Martha Coakley's campaign would have it, go to the polls to see who will fill the seat vacated by Teddy Kennedy, who, if there is any justice, is spending an eternity suffocating in an air bubble in an Oldsmobile Cutlass.

President Obowma flew to Massachusetts to rally the troops. I didn't know that Obowma would go, because if Brown won, it would further show that Obowma has no coattails. He didn't in New Jersey, and he flopped in Copenhagen. One of the meaner jokes I've heard is that Hitler isn't like Obama because Hitler wrote his own book and got the Olympics to come to Berlin. But Obowma did fly to Massachusetts, perhaps in a Hail Mary play, because if Martha Coakley doesn't win it will make him a lame duck in his second year of office.

During his speech he was heckled. This is unusual to have happen to a man of the left--the right is much better mannered than the left.

Everyone knows that the M in MSNBC stands for Moonbat. One of their people is Ed Schultz, a first-class thug, who gives us

I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts I'd try to vote 10 times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right. I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are.

CNN's Ed Henry, who doesn't seem to be a thug, although I'd have to watch CNN to make sure and that won't happen, says that he has reliable information that the White House expects Martha Coakley to lose. Or perhaps we ought to call her Marcia, which is what Patrick Kennedy called her repeatedly. It seems that the Kennedys can't even get the names of their flunkies right.

Even Chris Matthews, he of the tingling leg, predicts a Scott Brown win.

My brother, quite the cynic, remarks that if a race is close then the Democrats will count until they get the results that they want. Let's hope that the result is a strong enough win for Brown that even Chicago-style corruption won't be able to steal the election.

I have XM radio, which gives me Blue Collar Comedy. It's generally a lot of fun; there are other comedy channels but they're filled with aggressive and nasty people--in other words, hippies and PC types.

Larry the Cable Guy is, from what I can tell, the highest-paid comic in America. He's worth listening to although I prefer the master of timing Ron White. Larry had an excellent joke and I quote from memory; I trust that I won't damage the sense of it.

I heard about two babies who weren't allowed on an airplane because their names were on the no-fly list. They're babies.

Here's how to tell a terrorist from a baby. With the terrorist the diaper is on his head.

And in both cases, it's filled with crap.

From Paul Krugman today in the New York Times:

Mr. Obama didn't do what Ronald Reagan, who also faced a poor economy early in his administration, did -- namely, shelter himself from criticism with a narrative that placed the blame on previous administrations.

I have yet to see a speech from President Obama that didn't blame the previous administration for something. Krugman borders on insanity here.

Insanity for which the New York Times is about to begin charging.

Good luck with that, Pinch.

h/t IMAO.us

StickeeNotes of Stickee Notes presents: "Hooker Was A Democrat"

CAUTION: Contains adult themes and words you haven't heard since Bill Clinton was President. Shoo the kiddies out of the room before viewing

[xtranormal direct link]

A woman in a balloon flies within 50 feet of the ground and sees a man.

"Hello! Where am I?" she asked.

"You're in a balloon. You're 50 feet above the ground, 2580 feet above sea level, 31 degrees 25 minutes latitude north, 102 degrees 52 minutes longitude west."

"You're a Republican, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Everything you told me is right but you didn't help me at all."

He asked, "You're a Progressive, aren't you?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"You don't know where you are, you don't know how you got there, you don't know what you're doing, and it's my fault."

As I watched the employment numbers for AT&T/Cingular fall in the Economic Development "Largest Employer Listings" over the last couple of years, I did a little research on the AT&T/Cingular deal and blogged about it on June 1, 2009. I even took the occasion to update the blog posting on January 3, 2010 after this deal was positively cited as one of the top 10 stories of the decade, all while AT&T had been dropping down, and then finally fell off the list of largest employers in Midland.

Well, now it is official.

The deal required the call center to have 750 employees by October 2003 and keep that level, but its failure to do so since 2005 has started negotiations that will apparently make AT&T return part of the loan and pay some of the taxes from which it has been excused.

Noting the center only had 303 people working two months ago, City Manager Courtney Sharp said Thursday that it "had a hard time when unemployment was so low and we're working with them to see what we can do to get them back into compliance.

"The contract has some clawback provisions we have to visit about. They may owe the city some money, but they had put in a $7 million tangible property investment and when you factor in all the employees they've had, it has been a win-win for AT&T and the city."

I'm still trying to figure out how this turned out to be a win-win for the City and AT&T.

I personally think that the new emblem for the Democrat party ought to be the crab louse--it infests the body politic, lays eggs, sucks blood and is damned near impossible to get rid of.

What has happened to this country? What happened to self-reliance? America is being run by people who are stealing as much money as possible to pander to constituent groups. They're making people dependent and helpless, which is evil not only to the people they're making servile but also the people whom they penalize for not being helpless. They are eroding our rights to property and liberty as fast as possible. They are making us a nation of slaves bleating about entitlements instead of a proud and independent people. Instead of Americans having a can-do attitude we have a can-get attitude.

JFK would not be allowed to run on a Democrat ticket. Hell, he wouldn't be allowed to run on a Republican ticket.

Update: a friend with more Photoshopping skills than I have, which is no compliment, gave me this:

About two years ago, I find, Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, said that the British government would no longer talk about Islamic terrorism. Instead they would call it "anti-Islamic activity." It seems that they are believing the rubbish that some Muslims have said, that Islam does not countenance terror and murder, and therefore anyone who does it is not Islamic, but merely a cold-blooded killer, acting without any religious purpose.

I have not heard any of them saying, "Dahmeru Akbar!" as they blow themselves up. They instead say their prayers, shave their bodies, pray some more, and shout, "Allahu Akbar!" as they blow themselves, and as many infidels as possible, up.

But since Muslims have assured the British Home Secretary that it's not Islamic--even though it's obvious that these murders are being done in the name of Islam and despite the fact that the Koran specifically requires Muslims to convert people with the sword as necessary--the Home Secretary chooses to believe that it is not Islamic terrorism.

President Obowma has decided that the global war on terror is no longer to be called such: it is "global contingency operations." Notice how this removes the very idea that there are malefactors in the world, that there are people who want to kill us for religious reasons and that they are organized. Contingencies are what we buy insurance for. Tornadoes don't want to take off the roof of our house; they merely do and that's why we buy insurance. Islamists on the other hand do want to kill us and it is entirely fitting to carry out a war on them, to keep them from it. But calling a suicide bombing a contingency is a good first step to America doing what the Brits have done, which is to deny that there are religious fanatics who want to kill us. It's a good second and third step too.

Acknowledging that we are in a fight to the death with people who want to kill us would mean having a real purpose and the government being held accountable for its actions. You'll never find a Democrat anxious to be accountable for his actions; that's completely un-Democrat. Responsibility is someone else's, er, responsibility. Calling it the war on terror would mean that the government would have to be seen to be trying to do something to stop it, which would require dedication and competence, and not just posturing. As it is, calling an act of war a contingency reduces the demands made on the government and eliminates their need to be accountable. It replaces accountable generals with insurance adjusters.

I have maintained for years that the left's idea of freedom is freedom from consequences. This is of a part with their desire for single-payer health insurance, quotas, opposition to tort reform, and "affirmative action."

The so-called "Doomsday Clock" has been moved one minute farther away from the dreaded midnight hour.

Just as the world is on the cusp of a nuclear-capable Iran.

One has to figure that it is because of just how awesomely awesome Barack Obama's awesomeness is.

Quoth Obowma:

It captures what I love about my wife, which is that there is a reverence about her and a sense that for all the hoopla that I'm her husband and sometimes we'll do silly things.

I wonder if the fist bump blocked the TelePrompTer.

I consider fist bumping to be with high-fiving--an overgrown frat-boy sort of exuberance that ought to be left behind with the Clearasil. It goes with fist pumping, spiking the ball in the end zone, shaking your spear and clanking your shield with the shields other barbarians dressed in bear skins.

I would consider that I'm just being bitchy today but then the President, or when this picture was taken, the candidate for President, ought to be more dignified than to engage in fist bumping.

Wikipedia defines the "Doomsday Clock" as "a symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, that uses the analogy of the human species being at a time that is "minutes to midnight", wherein midnight represents "catastrophic destruction".

What the Doomsday Clock really shows us is that the biggest brains in science are just as easily blown around by political fashion as everyone else.

Walsingham beat me to it, but I have to use Maksim's graphic. Would that I had his Photoshop skills.

As everyone knows, Sarah Palin has signed on with Fox News as a contributor. There are no plans for her to have a regularly scheduled show; evidently she'll be popping up as requested, or as she desires.

I wonder how long until we have truly massive Palin Derangement Syndrome, as we had Bush Derangement Syndrome. I have conservative friends who voted for Obowma because of some of Palin's answers during her run for vice president, in particular her inability to name some Supreme Court cases which informed her. But that you might expect from lawyers.

This new gig might be a wonderful thing. If she's going to comment, or host, a program, she'll have to do the nerdy boning up on the various issues of the day, and the things that get the inside-the-beltway people all excited. She's no idiot and speaking their language would pull their teeth. I recall how people thought that Reagan was an idiot until it was found that he'd written some essays and speeches himself, which were lucid and informed. They never apologized of course, but their criticisms sound a good deal more hollow now.

Palin resigned as governor of Alaska after the most hideous attacks that I've ever seen on a public official, from the legacy media to the suiplenitudinous David Letterman. Her family was out $750,000 in lawyers' fees just to defend her from baseless attacks from the left. News bureaux detailed scores of reporters to go through her book with a fine-toothed comb, while these same news organs completely ignored the biggest internal assault on our freedom: socialized medicine.

Palin shares the honor of being one of the four most reviled conservatives: Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush (insofar as he is a conservative; he is perceived as one by the left), and Sarah Palin. Notice the common thread: none of these four people gives a damn what the left thinks.

And their egos can't stand that.

Once I knew a young man named Steven who in college would run afoul of campus liberals. They'd caw at him, "You're insensitive."

He'd reply, "I don't care what you think," which inflamed them even more.

That's my opinion of the legacy media too and I have the luxury of never watching or reading it. I also have the luxury of reading about its descent into irrelevance.

A spot of bother in Tucson; I can say that perhaps the best hospital I've been in is St. Joseph's in Tucson, and when I walked by the crucifix in the room I wasn't struck by lightning either. A very kind group of people, and competent too. I'll live to bitch another day.

Rasmussen reports that Obama's strongly approve, strongly disapprove is 14% to his disfavor.

75% of Republicans think that the Republicans in Congress are too liberal. I've been calling them all RINOs for years. Put one of these people in power and the drug goes to his head. It's worst than meth. He decides that he has a unique perspective on the world and will use it to make beneficial changes, as defined by him. And even if he entered with a pledge to leave after x terms, he never remembers that pledge. "I have too much experience for my district to throw away." In reality he's succumbed to the perks and the flattery and the sheer orgiastic joy of spending other people's money and telling them what to do.

If I could wave a hand and change one thing about the world, it would be term limits for everyone in government. Every single one. Contract out all clerical and janitorial and other duties; let everyone know that in say 12 years he has to earn a living in the real world and so he'd better be nice to real people. The view of reality on the horizon clarifies the mind.

This does not apply to the military. Except to the head soldier, who mooed after the Ft. Hood massacre that if diversity were lost it would be a greater tragedy. That jerk ought to have been cashiered as a private.

Most Democrats think that the Democrats in Congress represent them well. This indicates to me that many Democrats are reflexively Democrat instead of paying attention to what the Democrats in Congress are doing. Surely America is not as far left as this lot in Congress, at least not outside a few spots of noted lunacy, such as San Francisco and New York.

Most delicious of all though is that 45% of people think that a random group of people from the telephone book would do a better job than Congress. This reminds me of Bill Buckley's famous statement that he'd rather be governed by the first 200 names in the phone book than the Harvard faculty.

And as always, self-proclaimed Democrats still outnumber Republicans and Independents, but in the generic ballot Republicans are ahead 9%.

Unlike some people I do not necessarily think that the November election will be a tectonic event. There is still a lot of time for the Republicans to screw things up.

The Council got an update:

An architect representing Basic Energy Services told the Midland City Council on Tuesday the company will have its downtown 440 space parking garage, including 75 public spaces, open by late December or the first quarter of next year.

Though this quote from a "Chamber Official" was telling:

Basic's contract with MDC also requires the company to retain at least 50 jobs, although a Chamber of Commerce official said the provision of permanent infrastructure was the more important aspect.

This story did tell me one thing I suspected, Basic really didn't start doing detailed plans and specifications until they had the MDC check in the bank. If they had design professionals working on the project from the moment the project was announced in February 2008, and the $2 million in May 2009 was truly to bridge the difference between a "smaller [parking garage that] would not have included public parking" they would have had a contractor and broken ground before the end of 2009.

My money is still on MMH to have their much larger parking garage open before Basic.

We can start with money, anyway.

I just made a contribution to Scott Brown for U.S. Senate and I'm hoping you will do the same. You can donate by going to https://www.icontribute.us/scottbrown. Thank you for your support!

More here.

"Now, I know that the Democrats, if Scott Brown wins, are going to delay his swearing in until after the health care vote. They'll delay it a couple of months if they have to, an emergency change to the law, but everybody's going to see this. The Democrats are now running naked through the streets. There's no cover. Everybody sees them for who they are: Job destroyers, private sector destroyers." - R. Limbaugh

Brown for Senate. Just do it. I did. It felt good. We can send the lawyers and guns later.

Barking moonbats hardest hit.

I was reading some political analysis from the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal and I've decided "Austin Watchers" and "Political Analysts" are ignorant, or they are intentionally trying to cast doubts about the Republican's abilities to clean up in State and Federal races this next year, because their political logic prior to the primaries is faulty:

For Austin watchers the unusual number of Republican incumbents facing intra-party challengers is puzzling because the goal of the Republican Party of Texas is to gain more seats, especially in the House. But how can the party increase its narrow majority when Republicans fight one another?

"The way things are going for (President Barack) Obama you would think that the Republicans would want to take on the Democrats but instead a good number of them are fighting one another," said Harvey Kronberg, editor of the political newsletter Quorum Report.

So what if Republicans have drawn primary opponents? As they say, the only way for Republicans to gain seats is to defeat incumbent Democrats. Well, exactly how does a contested primary prevent that from happening? In most cases, after the primary, it is going to be one Republican vs. one Democrat, and given the current conservative climate, those who survive a primary challenge that seeks to reveal a candidate's true level of conservatism might not be a bad thing.

Besides, the State and Federal parties typically don't spend on primaries, except in broad issue ads that weaken the other party in general. They wait for the horses to be selected -before- they hitch their money wagons.

I'm sure some of these Republican Primary challengers would love to run in an unopposed primary for the right to take on an incumbent Democrat, but Republicans typically follow rules such as "living in the district", not everyone can be like Senators from New York.

Update: Over at the Quorum Report they have the list of primary candidates across the state. From my count, in the Texas House, 33 incumbent D seats have at least one R challenger, 18 incumbent R seats have at least one D challenger and 6 seats show no incumbent.

From the look of all the R's running in primaries, conservatives are fed up enough to actually step up and run for office, even against their own, but especially against Democrat incumbents by almost 2 to one. If the R's who win the primaries can harness even a fraction of the fervor that sparked people to run for office who typically wouldn't the D's should be very afraid.

With this being one of the MRT's Top Ten Stories of the Decade, I couldn't resist:

The third time was the charm in 2001 as Midland voters, who turned down similar propositions before, made the economic development sales tax a reality. However, it was an economic development agreement preceding the tax that has been the standard for others as the council approved a $1.25 million deal with Cingular Wireless that brought a call center to Midland's west side inside the former Builders Square building.

How's this for a $1.25 million deal PLUS 10 years of tax abatements, Economic Development "standard":

According to page xxxiv of the City of Midland 2009-2010 Annual Budget, AT&T Wireless no longer makes the list of Major Employers in the City of Midland. The bottom of this list is inhabited by Schlumberger with 400 employees. For AT&T Wireless to enjoy the last two years of their tax abatement, they are required by contract to keep 562.5 persons in full-time employment with benefits.

It's the story of the decade, but not for the reasons the MRT editors put it in their list.

Tax Abatements and other Economic Development "tools" used by states, cities and counties have been a favorite topic here at Jessica's Well. We have been told over and over and over again that these "tools" are necessary to create or retain jobs.

Basically, we are led to believe that "incentive" payments offset some of the risk of locating in a community, or that the "incentive" is the "final push to get over the hump." Then deals are struck, everybody smiles, money changes hands, people are hired, and those incentives go straight to the bottom line of the recipient company. Nobody has really worried about the clawbacks, that was until the nation entered into this pitiful economy of the last year and local budgets started shrinking.

According to this AP Story on MSN, things are changing:

As the economy sputters along, municipalities struggling to fix roads, fund schools and pay bills increasingly are rescinding tax abatements to companies that don't hire enough workers, that lay them off or that close up shop. At the same time, they're sharpening new incentive deals, leaving no doubt what is expected of companies and what will happen if they don't deliver.

Even in Texas, where the economic climate is better than many other parts of the Country, the State is getting tough:

In Texas, where companies can get money from the Texas Enterprise Fund if they promise to create a specific number of jobs, the number of clawbacks rose to nine in 2008, compared to a total of seven for the previous three years combined, the governor's office said.

You know the City of Midland is looking at a shortfall this year (look at the sales tax numbers), I wonder if they are having the MDC do the due diligence on all their employment deals, or if they have looked into to the status of their own deal with Cingular? Looking at the parking lot I'm not so sure there are 562.5 full time employees out there.

UPDATE: The MSN Story borrows heavily from a blog posting on December 15 over at clawback.org. In looking at their link regarding the Texas Clawbacks, as of October 31, 2009, TRACE Engines has received $250,000 of a $465,000 grant, and has repaid the State of Texas $17,930 in clawbacks. The MDC just amended the financing agreement.