We could sure use a lot less Jane Harmon out here on the westside . . . hmmmm, one never knows ’cause as Ace reminds us, “. . . the basic operating theory this election: Virtually no Democrat is safe.”

From his keyboard to . . .

Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license — Wow! That’s not anything we like to hear — hope it doesn’t become a trend. Wonder if it’s really for revenue generation or just a new means to control freedom of speech?

Mark Tapscott presents a quick list of facts to help us ward off the Democrat meme of how terrible the cost of the Iraq war has been and sure — it’s all Bush’s fault. Yawn.

* Obama’s stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War — more than $100 billion (15%) more.

* Just the first two years of Obama’s stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.

* Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.

Plenty more facts there so go and read it. In another piece, Mark highlights this little piece of financial terror:

* By 2020, half of all income tax revenues will go toward paying interest on a $23 trillion national debt.

Over at the Telegraph, they are discussing whether Obama believes that he’s bigger than the Presidency.

They might also be a glimpse of the future. For Obama, the crowning moment of his presidency have been speeches abroad – the statement in Strasbourg that America had been “dismissive and arrogant”, the address to the Muslim world from Cairo, the acceptance in Oslo of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In Berlin in 2008, Obama cast himself as a “citizen of the world”. He has dismissed the bedrock notion of American exceptionalism by describing it, also in Strasbourg, as little more than narrow patriotism. Elite opinion among liberal Ivy League types – of which Obama is the embodiment – holds that we are already living in a post-American world.

There are few Americans who see themselves as bigger than the presidency but Obama could well be one of them.

Uh . . . oh goody, another speech coming. Bated breath, not.

At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey drops this bomb:

Remember in December when the White House said it would make a “hard pivot” from health care to jobs? That “hard pivot” didn’t materialize until months later, and in a completely different form than one might have assumed. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf cost Americans 23,000 jobs — and that Barack Obama knew it when he ordered it:

Michelle Malkin has more on that, along with this quote from the Chamber of Commerce about another one of Obama’s pet projects:

U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist Martin Regalia on Monday said the tax increases advocated by President Obama would essentially kill any chance for an economic rebound.

“That’s what you’re suggesting, is a corporate bullet in the head,” Regalia said. “That is going to be a bullet in the head for an awful lot of people that are going to be laid off and an awful lot of people who are hoping to get their jobs back.”

Hang on tight kiddies . . . it’s a gonna be a wild one!

My dad was a Navy guy in WWII, and if he was still with us I’d ask him if he was in Honolulu on that day, Aug. 14, 1945. If I ever get through reading and transcribing my dad’s letters to my mom, maybe I’ll find out. Richard Sullivan put this together from film that was shot by his father. Touching . . .

It’s getting to the point that every time I check Drudge, or watch Fox News, or even open the LA Times, I start to see red. Today, it’s even redder!

Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site is the headline of a Friday NY Times article. No getting around that one with ever more befuddled backpedaling! At the sunset dinner on Friday, the iftar at the start of Ramadan, they quote him as saying this:

“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.

But, he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”

And, Obama’s aids told the NYT privately “he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque[.]”

Dudes and dudettes — ain’t very private now!

Why all the fuss? Why do it’s critics keep calling it the Ground Zero Mosque? Check this out and you won’t have any further questions about that. EternalVigilance remarks:

It should be mentioned that part of one of the hijacked planes went through the building in question. That makes it very much a part of Ground Zero.

Sarah Palin weighs in on her FaceBook page:

Legitimate Questions for the President

Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people? Please tell us your position. We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade. If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive “cross-cultural engagement” and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven’t they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite? Mr. President, why aren’t you encouraging the mosque developers to accept Governor Paterson’s generous offer of assistance in finding a new location for the mosque on state land if they move it away from Ground Zero? Why haven’t they jumped at this offer? Why are they apparently so set on building a mosque steps from what you have described, in agreement with me, as “hallowed ground”? I believe these are legitimate questions to ask.

- Sarah Palin

Newsweek’s Farid Zakaria proclaims: Build the Ground Zero Mosque. Along the way he issues some crafty Liberal drivel about this being an excellent way to promote the moderation of Islam in America. Zakaria even uses a partial quote from historian and radical-Islamist-watcher Daniel Pipes to intimate that Pipes supports this position. Hardly, Pipes understands the true meaning of placing a mosque and Islamic learning center so close to radical Islam’s greatest hit against Western Civilization:

• Moslems have habitually asserted the supremacy of Islam through architecture, building on top of the monuments of other faiths (as in Jerusalem and Ayodhya) or appropriating them (e.g. the Ka’ba in Mecca and the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople)
{…}
May 7, 2010 update: A zoning board in lower Manhattan has approved the application by the Cordoba Initiative to build a $100 million Cordoba House two blocks from Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Center. This smacks of the same triumphalism noted in the first bullet point above.

Obama’s support for building this monstrosity on clearly, and even recognized by him, hallowed ground isn’t playing very well. And, Independent voters are shedding Democrats like a dog scratchin’ fleas.

Over at Ace, Laura W. picks apart an especially egregious and totally disingenuous part of Obam’s iftar speech, where he makes the claim, “Islam has always been a part of America’s story”, which seems to be some kind of theme with this guy. She calls his comment “so deceitfull” as to be a “laughable fraud.”

First of all, the term ‘a part of America’ needs some thoughtful defining. I think we can mostly agree that the implication is that the mere act of feting the Tunisian envoy during his diplomatic mission to the US is some sort of general inclusion of Islam into the American experience at that early date.

How? Merely through his temporary presence in our country? Even though we were in conflict with his state at the time?
{…}
This particular piece of history cannot be rewritten to suit current PC needs. The reasons for the envoy’s visit cannot be recast into some pap about multicultural understanding.

And this earliest merging of Islam into ‘the American story’- where we invade and punish them for their banditry- is not the sort of event someone with half a brain uses as a bragging point about American inclusiveness.

If you’re not familiar with Treaty of Tripoli and the story of America’s conflict with Islamic pirates, she gives a capsulized version, but way-too-much-info can be found here.

And, to wrap up this screed, I urge you to go to Hot Air and vote for your favorite Obamateurism of the Week. Mine ended up being the one in the lead. Heh!

In case your feeling a bit taxed, and who isn’t? Here’s a little chuckle or two from Chris Muir’s Day by Day cartoon:

Double heh!

My dear friend Jack sent me the link to this one, thanks Jack!

On a related note:

CBO BOMB: 'Deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels'...

Cost of debt skyrocketing...

Defense Dept. can't account for $8.7 billion...

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College...

And, if that weren’t enough, the next time some lefty in your midst starts ranting about the GOP being the party of the rich and disconnected, remind them of these:

$11,000 cake for Chelsea's $5 million wedding...

Sen. Kerry to pay $500K tax on yacht.

Dogs are such perfect beings of unconditional love it’s hard to believe that heaven is not full of them. With no poop-scooping, because it’s heaven.

I am not at all anxious to find out about heaven or eternity or infinity; our lives are blink-brief in the scope of it all. But is it so bad to think about burping fish and romping dogs and cats on the periphery of all that infinite “gathering in” that Christ is about?

That got me thinking about June 25th, 2007 — six months before Christmas — the day that we finally had to let our beloved Annie go. Here’s a repeat of that post as it never hurts to remember and sometimes hard lessons need to be re-learned.

‘Life With An Old Dog’ — Hard Lessons Learned Hard

Originally Posted By: ‘Okie’ | 3:53 pm — 6/25/2007

There’s a lot to be learned in the tending of the needs of an old dog. But, to get to the end of a story, first there must be a beginning.

Fourteen years ago on Memorial Day, the SoCal wife and I went looking for a dog. I hadn’t had one since two disastrous tries at dog ownership with Okiewife #2, and the last time I had bonded with something canine was during my childhood, my boxer named Bosco, so this was going to be almost a new adventure. Actually, the first real conversation that the SoCal wife and I ever had was the morning that she had dropped her lab/poodle mix off at the vet to be put down — the dog had lost the use of its hind legs and was in constant pain and frustration. Tough way to start up a friendship — significant way to begin a two-decades and counting love affair.

     Annie, aka Annie girl, aka Lil’ Orphan Annie — Spring ‘07“Annie”, aka “Annie Girl”, aka “Lil’ Orphan Annie”, was a Wheaton/Chow Chow mix [we've since figured out that she was actually a Tibetan Terrior/Chow mix] , a little blond puff of a 4-1/2 month-old pup with a curled-over-pompom of a tail, the chow part that she got along with plenty of attitude as well as a hatred of other dogs when she was on leash. She had been an Amanda Foundation rescue, an animal saved from euthanasia after it has failed to be adopted at the animal shelter. Why this dog got to that point I could never figure out. There was quite a crowd at the vets where Amanda had set up to show the available adoptees on that Memorial Day, and the little thing that was soon to be named Annie was drawing a lot of interest. The wife took her out on leash and we both thought that the girl would make a great companion, however the wife wanted to also take a miniature border collie out for a quick spin, an older dog that might have been lower maintenance as Annie did seem a bit high strung. I held onto the lil’ blondie just in case, as I was convinced that if we took her back to the cage someone else would grab her up in an eye blink. I heard several inquiries as to “where is that cute little dog?” I felt like saying to them the words from The Princess Bride’s Man in Black, “Get used to disappointment.”

Annie came home with us that day, and has been a wonderful canine companion ever since. As a pup, she only chewed up two things. A wee-wee pad that we had left for her the first time we went out for an evening — obviously she was letting me know that, “Hey bud, I’m house trained, I don’t need no stinking pee pee pads!” Second thing was the wife’s address book — another schooling from the dog for our having the temerity to go out in the evening without her. But, that was it. No mangled shoes, no munched couches or chairs, no-nada anything else.

Another thing that impressed us about Annie, and everyone that spent any time around her, was how smart she appeared to be. Dogs supposedly have an understanding-vocabulary of a little over 200 words, but this dog for all the world understood context — and, she held grudges for days, even weeks! The first time we went on vacation and boarded her, on our return she treated us like pariahs for over ten days. Little snubs would get you ignored for hours. Crazy little dog, this one. But, like I said above, she was a smartie.

If you told her to go and get her red-devil baby, she did. Get the “new” baby, and she’d get the last one brought into the house, even if she had to dig into her toy basket to find it. Same with “dino” baby, hedgehog baby, duck baby. One day I decided to see if I could teach her some parlor tricks, and literally ten minutes later she was hopping across the room on her hind legs, rolling over on command, sitting up, begging, giving her left paw on “Left” and right one when you called out “Right” and falling on her side and laying her head flat if you pointed your finger and yelled “Bang”! She would do this, that is, as long as you had a treat handy. Without a treat — fugitaboutit! “No treats, no tricks!” There’s a life lesson for ya.

For a little dog, 35 lbs. or so, she had a huge bark. If you came to our door and knocked, you thought there was a German Shepard or larger animal on the other side just waiting to make you its next meal. We also had a little game that we played to freak out our friends the first time they would meet Annie. If you got on your knees and told her to “Give kisses”, the dog would jump at you, barking and snarling, for all the world looking like she was going to tear out your neck — with that pompom tail wagging all the way through the performance — then she’d give up the kisses. Well, it was funny to us. Annie never bit anyone, ever. She loved everyone, except for those among us we would meet on her walks that were obviously-not-quite right. Those she would growl at. Come to think of it, there’s way too many of them on this block!

But, getting back to the gist of this post, experiencing life with an old dog. Pups grow up, young energetic, frenetic younger dogs turn into mellower middle-aged ones, which, if lucky and cared for, become “old dogs”. At 98 in dog years, Annie is one of the canine ancients. The difficult part has been that she doesn’t look old — eyes are clear, no gray on the muzzle, still a full-healthy coat, although her hearing has become ever more selective and her deteriorating spinal condition has kept her from running for over a year, and from not being able to get on or off the bed or couch for longer than that. As long as she had a good appetite, could walk around the block to get her business taken care of, enjoyed being around company and wasn’t in pain, I was good to go with the extra time and care necessary to maintain a pet this aged. However . . .

The last two weeks have been kinda rough here at Okie Manor, and this last weekend was an absolute disaster. (Why do these things always happen on a weekend?) The most difficult problems that she has been having reappeared, and this time the meds given to us by the vet, which had worked within hours the last two times, were not helping after three days. Also, sometime Saturday morning her back legs decided that they’d finally had enough.

Making the decision to let Annie go is a hard one, but drugging her down to the point of living this way for what, a few more days or maybe a week, would be a supremely selfish act. I don’t believe in assisted death for humans, as my Terri Shiavo blogging and my posts about the Groningen Protocol illustrate. In a previous Okie post, Life — Death — Pets — Misunderstanding the Meaning of it All, I made my thoughts on this matter crystal clear in my reaction to a signed Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times in favor of assisted suicide.

I don’t believe that any animal has “rights”, for that is something that the Creator has given to us humans as intellectual beings, or at least according to our Constitution. I don’t remember reading that a dog, cat, sheep or cow has an inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But we as self-aware humans do have “responsibilities” to our pets and food animals to treat them humanely, as opposed to humanly, and not letting an animal suffer is one of those responsibilities. It’s not an easy decision, either. I realize in hindsight that I let our 14 year old kittyboy, Gallagher, live about 18 hours too long. Up to that point, although he was weak and frail and needed a lot of care, he wasn’t in apparent pain and still loved to sit in your lap and give you loves. I would have done better for him to have spared him that last day and a half before having him “put down”.

My Mother, on the other hand, was trying to die, by refusing medication, from December 26th until she finally passed on the following January 10th, a couple of years ago. The night of the 26th I spent at her bedside, not-quite sleeping across two chairs, listening to her constant prayers to God to take her. I cannot imagine doing anything active to help end her life earlier than what the good Lord decided it to be. But Kenneth Swift certainly doesn’t see it that way.

“Life is a precious gift. Yet when a life turns tragic through disease or injury and the joy of living yields to the pain of interminable suffering, surely an enlightened society such as ours can accept that from death there can be peace.”

“Life is a precious gift”, but if it gets a bit ugly, “an enlightened society such as ours” should just stick a sock in the mouth, put a pillow over the face, or just plug a nine-millimeter into the brain, so that “from death there can be peace”. I keep writing that this generation of ours, the Boomers is going to take its infantilism to the grave, and if the good Kenneth and his ilk have anything to say about it, probably sooner rather then later!

I am constantly amazed at how politicized life has become for me of late. I’m not sure if its because with getting older I’m getting wiser, or if it’s just that as the personal hourglass has less and less sand in the top section I have less and less attention span to waste on the insignificant flotsam and jetsam of life in the modern world. As the wife and I try to decide just how many MRIs and CAT scans to have, when to have life-saving surgery that could also be a life-threatening procedure in and of itself and how to learn to accept ever increasing losses as a part of being one of the ones still on this side of the great divide — if it don’t affect life, love and Western Civilization in profound ways, it just don’t seem to matter much anymore.

Now, I’ve got to go and try to make a doggie-diaper, so that I can give Annie one last ride to the vet. It could turn out different, and she might make the trip back home — I want to have a consult with him first. However, as much as I want to deny what needs to be, in my mind, and heart, I know . . .

Our appointment is at 4:30. I have about 1/2 hour to spend with my little dog before we need to go. Those that prattle on about quality time mostly haven’t got a clue. This half hour is going to be quality time to the max. Not much else to write . . .

[Addendum]

Walking back into the house I heard, “How’d it go?” The empty collar I held in my hand said it all. We pretty much had a liquid dinner last night, with stories told about and toasts given to the ol’ girl. When I checked-in I had an IM from a client/friend that I deleted but can paraphrase here.

“Sorry brother, but she certainly knew how much you guys loved and cared for her. Sometimes dogs just hang in there because they don’t want to let you down.”

That sounds about right. Today, the cats are totally wiggy and it sure is quiet and empty around here. About those “lessons”, they are the same each time you suffer a loss, be it the loss of a family member, a friend or a beloved pet — still, they always bear repeating. You get a stiff dose of realization that life is much too short, that every minute of every day is precious, that we are not really in control.

I love the old adage, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.”

[Arresto Addendum]

Life — it certainly does go round & round . . .

“Same as it ever was . . .”

(CNSNews.com) – If you want proof that President Obama’s Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

He’s lied about almost everything except for his promise to fundamentally change America, so why not about his EO on abortion? The article continues with some quotes from “Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council’s political action arm.”

“For our efforts to remove the bill’s abortion funding, we were called ‘deceivers’ by President Obama and ‘liars’ by his allies. Now we know who the true deceivers and liars really are,’ McClusky said.

“This action by the Obama Administration also exposes the worthlessness of President Obama’s Executive Order that supposedly would prevent federal funding of abortion, but which both sides, including Planned Parenthood, agreed was unenforceable.

{…}

McClusky noted that the new health care law also includes $12.5 billion for community health centers, and $6 billion for co-ops, both of which can fund abortions. And some people will use tax credits to help them pay for plans that cover abortion.

In November, vote like innocent lives depend on it — ’cause they do!

What do they put in the water over at Liberal-Land? Geez! Allahpundit at Hot Air called this exchange Nuclear War! And Megyn’s not the only conservative woman with teeth bared and on the move. Michele Bachmann is up by “up by 9″ in her re-election campaign, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman are both leading in the polls — OUT HERE IN CALI!!!! — and Allahpundit again asks of Sarah Palin’s current fund-raising & spending, “What kind of ex-governor-turned-commentator spends several hundred thousand dollars developing a direct mailing list?”

Uh . . . the kind that has some big plans, maybe? I ask, you decide. Now to ice this cake, get all funky wit’ yo’ groove with Zoe and his croonin’ to his Right Wingin’ Women.

Peace. Out.

According to Bryon York’s article in today’s Washington Examiner, we are going to suffer through some more rounds of lowered expectations in regards to our space program, which by the way, will no longer be focused on “space”. Don’t ya just love these Orwellian Dems?

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.

I like Ed Morrissey’s take on the Muslim self-esteem directive part of this mess:

Hey, maybe that’s why Obama hasn’t taken the Iranian effort to build a nuclear bomb all that seriously until now. He just wanted Iran to make the Muslim world feel good about their achievements in science! And it’s hard to do to that unless you talk a lot about outstretched open hands — and ignore a freedom movement that wants to depose the brutal tyrants who are trying to give the Muslim world a new “historic contribution.”

When I was a kid, we were going to the moon, and dreaming about colonizing Mars and the asteroid belt. Now, what can we expect? Bolden had something to say about that too:

We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can’t do it, China can’t do it — no single nation is going to go to a place like Mars alone.

We’re now so pathetic that we can’t even begin to dream about it, let alone have the courage to try? To rub more salt in this wound, Bolden made these statements to al-Jazeera during a recent trip to the Middle East.

Let’s recap — Secretary of State makes domestic announcements in Ecuador before they are announced here, and NASA administrator Charles Bolden tells the Muslim world our “space” plans before we are informed?

Guess it doesn’t really matter all that much — ’cause NASA isn’t interested in “space” anymore, as Bolden puts it, ““NASA is not only a space exploration agency, but also an earth improvement agency.”

Gotta stop all that pesky Global Warming don’t ya know — and make those poor, misdirected Middle Eastern Muslims feel good about themselves. That otta keep them from flyin’ anymore jumbo jets into American skyscrapers, or keep Iran from nuking Israel, or keep the Taliban and al Qaeda from trying to use a WMD over here.

What a stellar Pres we got ourselves — Oh, ya betcha!

Probably not many of you readers left — haven’t written in I can’t remember how long now. A stream of mostly steady work will do that to someone like me . . . after 8 hours or so looking at this monitor, doing another couple to blog is something these old eyes aren’t liking. Will try to be more consistent though, as I do miss it.

Another big part of it is that I feel that every time I hit Drudge, or Ace, or Google News — the hits they just keep on a comin’! Is Glenn Beck right . . . that we should be preparing for the financial apocalypse? Is Obama going to pack the SCOTUS with hard-lefties that will over time finish the dismantling of the Constitution that he seems so bent to accomplish? Can we take back the House and maybe even the Senate in Nov.? Will the BP oil well ever stop vomiting oil into the gulf? Are we as a society going to let this one disaster force us to abandon the use of fossil fuels and suffer the higher cost of alternate energy sources? Will the Taliban win in Afghanistan and then take over a nuclear-armed Pakistan? Will India nuke Pakistan if that happens? Will Iran finally get nukes, and use them on Israel, or will the Israelis take out the Iranian facilities? Will that begin Armageddon?

Criminy!!! I actually think about these things — worry about these things? Usually about the time I get this worked up I turn to The Anchoress for some comforting words about everything is going to God’s plan, but today she has some thoughts on the past, current and future states of our educational system and a great list of July 4th linkage.

Crazy! Obama’s approval and disapproval numbers are now statistically the same. He started his term with about 63% approval and only 20% disapproval, and in less than 18 months has lost half the country. Maybe we will take the House and Senate this fall after all.

Over at The Kitchen Cabinet, my home-away-from-home, Sonja Eddings Brown presents a detailed look at the original July 4, 1776. And I know we’ve showcased this video before, but today it’s totally relevant . . . and still totally awesome! Enjoy.

Hey, stay safe out there — don’t be this idiot!

Have yourselves a great Independence Day!!!!!

Keep one thing in mind if you are not feeling the current zeitgeist of our Obama/Pelosi/Reid-controlled federal government:

VOTE REPUBLICAN!

Every race. And, if there are multiple candidates in the primary, vote for the Republican that is most likely to win — even if he/she isn’t ideologically “pure”. Putting up a weak candidate against the Democrat opponent is a vote for that Democrat — and also a vote to keep Pelosi in control of the House and Reid in control of the Senate (should he survive, and his chances of that are greater if the Tea Party candidate is elected to run against him!)

House cleaning can come later — this time it’s gotta be in it, to win it!

Failing that, get ready for more bowing and scraping to our enemies, dissing of our allies, a nuclear armed Iran, Cap & Tax, more federal takeovers of private enterprise, illegal immigrant amnesty, and ever-more-expanding government employment instead of increases in private-sector employment — along with an entitlement express train run amok!

VOTE! The futures of your children and their children depend upon it!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to the teachers’ union, “You punch them, I’ll punch you!”

Someone to take on Obama in 2012?

Today we pause to remember all those who gave up everything they would ever be so that we could . . . just be. Our eternal gratitude is owed to the fallen.

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. {…}

Wonderful . . . no wonder the Dow is tanking today, or that World stocks continue to sink on renewed European fears. What to do, what to do?

Well, out here in good ol’ La La Land, our state legislature’s Democrats are proposing “raising California’s vehicle registration fee, suspending corporate tax breaks scheduled to begin next year and boosting the state’s tax on alcoholic beverages.” The Governator is opposed, the Republicans, too. Maybe we’ll duck that bullet.

Meanwhile, our Vacationer-in-Chief has decided to . . . go on vacation!

Again — The 2nd time since the BP oil spill.

Guess that first little weekend getaway worked out so well he decided that another would fit the bill just fine . . . thank you very much!

Probably needs to take the edge off that 42% approval rating — tough bein’ a Lightworker an’ all, don’t ya know?

As an ol’ Okie woman used to tell us, “Kwitch yer bitchen” — time to get back to work!

Ain’t nobody given’ this ol’ Okie nothin’ — we’re part of the private pay sector here, not that o’ the gimme, gimme, gimme Obama’s entitlements’ recipients!

Shoulda been a rock star . . .

Dishonest former-Navy Admiral Sestak or do we have a Liar-in-Chief?

You make the call . . .

That speech was in reaction to this — Mexico President Felipe Calderon speaking before the US Congress, lecturing US about the immorality and wrongness of our immigration laws, and castigating the state of Arizona for actually trying to enforce those same laws — all with the beaming, standing-ovation approval of the Democrats. As DrewM over at Ace puts it,

“The Vice President and the Speaker of the House joined in? Just when you think Democrats can’t sink any lower in their contempt for America, they find a way to surprise you.”

Rush asks, “Is this guy not just a full-fledged idiot?” Sounds like it to me!

Hmmm, what would our feckless leader do? Why, be the bestest of buddies, that’s what! With a splashy state dinner, all lovey-doveyness to the max!

Kinda reminds me of this: Obama & Hugo Sittin’ In A Tree . . . Can I Puke Yet?

Can the Lefties go any lower? Actually, the answer to that is yes, and they just can’t wait to get there . . .

Forcing all of us here on the Right to link to content on the Left — All in the name of “fairness” and encouraging “keeping an open mind” don’t ya know.

Oh, ya betcha! That’s all it is . . .

Fall 2008 — The Most Important Election Cycle Of Our Lifetimes!

Great Ad Spoof!

The cars are really getting nice . . . ’bout damn time . . . Might be way too late!

The LA Times writes today, GM earns $865 million in first quarter for its first profit in nearly three years.

Sustained profits are seen as crucial for GM’s ability to float a stock offering to repay some of the $52 billion the federal government has poured into the company over the last year. The bailout made the government GM’s biggest shareholder, owning 61% of the automaker’s stock. The company exited from a bankruptcy reorganization July 10.

“There is a political aspect that the government wants to get out of its GM stake as quick as it can, especially if it can recoup somewhere near the dollars invested,” said Kenneth Elias, an auto industry analyst and partner at Maryann Keller & Associates.

But GM’s still-recovering finances and tenuous capital markets could still leave taxpayers far from a way out.

Will our government ever get itself disentangled from GM and Chrysler? Probably not as long as Obama is the Auto-CEO-in-Chief . . . dude LOVES runnin’ the big show! Of course, true Progressives HATE the automobile — provides far too much autonomy of movement to the clattering masses don’t ya know. Here is the solution to that from David Lazarus, one o’ the LAT’s Lefty Business-Opinion writer: Punish those of us that drive and reward those that take the bus.

Yeah, like that works out here in “45,000 square miles” of La La Land.

Dude — Subway this!

Miss Oklahoma gets a hard, provocative question about the Arizona Illegal Immigrant law but the Arab-American winner, Miss Michigan USA Rima Fakih, is not asked whether she would denounce Hezbollah — the major terrorist organization from her family’s native country, Lebanon.

Ace is all over the fact that the winner of the Miss USA pagent is a Muslim woman — nothing wrong with that. But,

But I don’t have to believe this woman to be a terrorist or terrorist-supporter to believe that if we’re going to be asking difficult questions of beauty pageant contests, we can and should be asking them if they support murder or not.

Well — maybe it won’t matter so much after all? The NY Daily News has this:

Miss Michigan, who made history Sunday night as the first Arab-American to win the Miss USA beauty pageant, won a pole dancing contest in 2007 hosted by local Detroit radio morning show Mojo in the Morning.

In a series of photos posted on the radio show’s Web site, Fakih is seen provocatively working her way up and down a stripper pole while wearing a blue tank top, bottom-grazing red shorts and a pair of high heels. Another photo shows her wearing a bra stuffed with dollar bills.

I agree with Ace that it’s probably a good thing to “sexualize” Muslim women — maybe that can empower them to fight back against the heinous treatment of the fairer sex in Islamic cultures. However, I’m getting tired of the double standards of these pageant producers that feel like it’s their duty to sabotage and denigrate contestants that don’t tow the “Progressive” political line!

Oh well, if for any reason the winner can’t fulfill the duties of being Miss USA, the crown will go to the first runner up.

You never know . . .