The Math Behind Obamanomics

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi explain the math behind Progressive economics to a skeptical Republican senator.

Help We Don't Need

You know, with the torrent of missteps and bad PR moves and general dumbassity from the Left, you really do not need to manufacture too much more. In fact, doing so is probably a bad move. Two examples.

First, you will remember James O’Keefe, the youth who helped expose ACORN as the aggressive fraud that it was (and is, under new names). He filmed what is basically a video sting of ACORN employees, and Andrew Breitbart gambled with the recordings and won. O’Keefe then tried to make magic happen twice and got arrested for trespassing later.

Now, he has gone totally off the deepend. With no apparent thought to obvious consequences, O’Keefe attempted to create a video that embarrassed CNN reporter Abbie Bourdreau. Aware that she was working on a documentary about college-age conservative filmmakers, he contacted her under a false name and attempted to schedule a meeting on a boat. The boat would feature a set including all sorts of “marital aids” of a rather exotic nature. Not surprisingly, Ms. Boudreau fell for the invite since it exactly met her needs. And, not surprisingly, she immediately sensed it was a trap of some kind and refused to go onto the boat.

The Czar is completely unclear as to what O’Keefe was trying to do. However, every plausible explanation makes O’Keefe look really bad. Even if it had worked, to what end? Rumor has it he wanted to pop CNN in the mouth; but CNN is already imploding. What good does this do?

Do us a favor O’Keefe: you’re done. Hang it up. You are hurting the cause of conservative journalism, now in a very fragile infancy. Make anime or something.

As a second story, which you may not have missed, involved the Is Obama A Muslim paranoia that the Left loves to exploit, since it shows how everyone on the Right is a bunch of delusional islamophobe racists. Not a day goes by that some MSM piece fails to remind America that 18% of us think the President is a Muslim.

This is the kind of noise and distraction that upsets everybody on both sides. For the Left, it makes the Right look petty and mean. For the Right, it drowns out the fact that the President is crashing the country into any obstacle he can find. Shut up on this minor stuff, already (like his birth certificate), and focus on the big issues.

So it was with great disappointment that someone asked him. Yes, she was a planted supporter, but clearly she was there to shut down the babbling on the Right when she asked the President “'Why are you a Christian?”

Pundits on the Right are trying to play up his response as another fumble; however, the reality is that he provided a detailed, beautifully phrased, and rich answer about his Christian faith (which is easy when you know in advance what the question will be). You can believe he screwed up the answer; the fact is, people are buying into it big time.

We can wonder if the next spontaneous question from the crowd is “Were you born in the United States,” so long as the so-called Birther crowd keeps deluding themselves about his birth certificate. And this will give him another opportunity to make the Right look petty and jealous, instead of giving him what he really needs: a demand to account for the sorry shape we are in right now.

Public-sector unions, spending your money to get more of your money.

Look for the union label on your state and local tax increase, writes Stephen Malanga:

The sight of rich people pleading to be taxed more has attracted attention to the November ballot initiative. But otherwise, support for the ballot measure, which would slap a tax of from 5 percent to 9 percent on the income of those earning more than $200,000 a year ($400,000 for those filing jointly), is entirely predictable. The chief force behind it is the state's unions, who've contributed some $2 million to the campaign for the initiative, led by the state employees' union, the teachers' union and the Service Employees International Union, the largest union in the state with 100,000 workers, many of them working in the heavily-regulated area of health care.

This is the nature of tax hike campaigns these days. When the union movement in America crossed a crucial threshold recently, as membership in public sector unions surpassed private sector union enrollment for the first time, the event signified deeper changes in labor in America. The new labor movement, dominated by government workers, is an increasingly white-collar interest group, culturally progressive and fiscally liberal, and it has become the chief organizer of efforts to raise taxes in America, especially at the state and local level, where these government worker unions wield their greatest influence. Their efforts have helped boost local taxes this year more than any year since 1979.

Run, Rahm, Run!

JS wrote the other day with a couple of simple questions regarding Chicago’s upcoming mayoral race. As you know by now, Rahm Emanuel will be leaving his position as White House Chief of Staff to run for mayor.

It was a matter of time before he was asked to leave, as many people seem to view him as a liability to the President’s popularity or whatever. The Czar is very happy to see him run for mayor: because he is certain to lose, and we no longer have to deal with him as Most Pernicious Chief of Staff.

You probably have not heard this, unless you live in the area: in order to run for mayor of Chicago, you need to be a legal resident. And Mr. Emanuel, technically, is not. So he has already lost valuable time making up his mind, because you need to reside within Chicago city limits for at least one year prior to the Chicago election. This hurts him, because he should have been visibly residing in Chicago back in February, 2010.

So he’s disqualified? Not quite. To be considered a resident, you only need to own Chicago property—which Mr. Emanual does. In fact, he still owns his old house in Chicago, which he quickly rented out to someone. But it helps your cause if you actually live in the City itself. Naturally, Mr. Emanuel went to his renter and asked him to vacate.

And the renter told him to screw off. Turns out, the renter read the lease agreement much better than Mr. Emanuel. Basically, as long as he remains a renter in good standing, Rahm cannot evict him. Whoops. As a result, Mr. Emanuel is looking for property to buy in the city. The Czar has some recommendations: there are plenty of boarded up properties all around the area south and west of US Cellular Field. Slight fixer upper. Should be no problem for him.

Okay, so Rahm Emanuel is going to really run for mayor of Chicago. This is where he finds out how distinctly unpopular he is. After all, he barely lived here at all—most people here see him completely as a Washingtonian. Even his brief employment here was viewed by many powerful people as unpleasant at best. Mayor Daley himself, for example, does not speak often of Rahm Emanuel, which is a powerful signal for those in the know.

Richard Roeper of the Sun-Times was refreshingly correct on one point when he mentioned that the good news for Rahm is that the vast majority of people who would vote against Rahm do not live in the city. The bad news, of course, is that the remainder are eligible to vote, and will still be enough to make him 2013’s top-selling Chevy salesperson in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

As you read many stories about Mr. Emanuel in the press in the next couple of weeks, and all his ties and links to Chicago, and what a Big Guy he is here, you should keep in mind that most Chicagoans think he’s a jackass. He is already polling well behind other candidates, and he is viewed very much an outsider with obvious ties to President Obama. And no doubt you remember that President Obama is not nearly as popular in Chicago as the media would have you believe? Thought so.

We're Number One

By now, regular readers have figured out that 'Puter lives somewhere in the Greater Rochester area of Upstate New York.

Some of 'Puter's frequent readers have queried as to why 'Puter, raging libertarian conservative, lives in deep blue New York. It's simple folks: Mrs. 'Puter insisted. And, all things considered, Upstate is a great place to live, except for the politics and the taxes. Heck, 'Puter's even gotten used to Rochester winter's "darkness at noon" theme, where the sun disappears in November, not to be seen through the slate gray clouds again until March.

But today may have changed 'Puter's mind about Upstate living. 'Puter's county is now officially number one in the country in the ratio of assessed house value to taxes paid. The average house value is $134,500, and the average property tax burden is 2.89% of that, or $3,891. 'Puter's actually got it worse. He lives in a village, and thus has the following real property taxes: county, school, town, village, library district and fire district. All told, 'Puter pays nearly $8,000 each year on a house assessed at $194,500.

And yet the national pundits wonder why New Yorkers are voting for Carl Paladino in droves? Could it be that his low tax/smaller government mantra is closer to the heart of the voter than Andrew Cuomo's "let's form another government committee to study the problem for five years" solution?

Nah, couldn't be.

'Puter Update

'Puter is in fact alive and reasonably well. 'Puter would like to thank each of you who wrote to him expressing get well wishes, and even those who wished he would die like the stinking right wing BUSHITLERBURTONCON he is. It's nice to be missed.

To this point, the L4-L5 discectomy has been a success. 'Puter's motion is better and there is no more pain down the leg. However, 'Puter can't sit yet, and he is stoned out of his mind on Percoset and Flexeril. On the upside, the drug cocktail makes daytime TV's mindlessness mildly interesting. Especially The View. That show is a regular laugh riot when you're out of your mind on prescription meds. Every show involves talking about sex and/or boobs. Even the one today with Barbara Walters interviewing Bibi Netanyahu. (Side note: Bibi's moobs are nicer than Babs').

You'd think 'Puter would be enjoying the solitude. Not so. Yesterday, not a scant 24 hours after 'Puter went under the knife, 'Puter's office had delivered a parcel of work for him to get to this morning, which 'Puter dutifully did. 'Puter's thankful for the work, but it would be nice to have a break. 'Puter's in that awkward gray area of sort-of-kind-of disabled, but not really, because he has a non-physical desk job.

So 'Puter's spent today standing and typing (redrafting contracts), interspersed with a few rest breaks when he lays flat and rests. It's not so bad, and 'Puter is thankful for the relief from his disc pain, but he can't wait to get back to what passes for normal for him.

Book Review: Lies the Government Told You

The Czar has finished reading Judge Andrew Napolitano’s book Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History, on loan from the Mandarin. By the way, you can check out the book on our Amazon link to the left. Go ahead; it costs nothing for you to look in our libraries and see what we read!

Sigh. The Czar really wanted to like this book, because he was so much looking forward to reading it. And there is much to like in it: Napolitano writes with a straightforward, clear style for the most part. His breakdown of the 2008 housing collapse is the simplest account the Czar has seen, and it basically covers everything. And his explanation for the inexplicable Federal Reserve Board is thoroughly fascinating and possibly the best out there right now.

In spirit, the premise of the book is simple. There are certain truths we as Americans like to assume true: you are innocent unless proven guilty. The government cannot simply take your property from you. Police cannot enter your house without a warrant. And so on— he provides 17 major assumptions, and numerous other related beliefs, and exposes the many times the United States government has broken that promise. Within these stories, he covers everything from free market commerce to monetary policy to law enforcement to espionage. Certainly, it covers any Gormogon readers’s collective interests.

However, the book suffers on numerous levels.

First, while there is nothing wrong with his honor being a Libertarian, the book is a gushing love letter to Ron Paul. Okay, we get it: the judge believes Ron Paul should be President today. Pull quotes on the cover. A foreword by Paul. And comments in every other chapter about how Ron Paul sees it differently. What should be a fascinating and mind-opening look into history becomes too much campaign literature.

Second, Napolitano seems to hate everybody. He really comes off as a bit of a jerk. You know those guys that no matter what you say, they shoot it down? Yep. Washington? Hypocritical slave owner who brutalized his slaves by ripping out their teeth. Adams? A petty power grabber who started the Alien & Sedition Act to punish his detractors. Lincoln? Racist bastard who is undeserving of his attention. Roosevelt? Worst president ever. Bush? Worst president ever. Carter? Obama? Clinton? Worst presidents ever. And after page after page of that, it gets tedious.

Third, he is not as well read as he thinks he is. For example, he takes on FDR in a very damaging tone, accusing the FDR of setting up the attack on Pearl Harbor, hoping for an attack, simply so he could use the panic of war to enact his changes. The Czar has heard a lot of these theories and know they stem from one particular crackpot conspiracist. So, seeing Napolitano recite these theories, he flipped to the Notes in the back of the book. Aside from a few quotes here and there from FDR, all the material in this section came from one and only one source: the crackpot conspiracy theorist pseudo-historian. Bad move, because a lot of that stuff has been disproven as hindsight-driven confirmation bias. Where are the other sources? Where is the corroboration? This would be a weak case, indeed, for any attorney.

Fourth, and this is the big one...what of it? Napolitano offers sweeping condemnations on nearly every topic, but fails to provide any real counter solutions. The Czar can see many a presidential advisor reading this and saying “Okay, so what would you have us do?” For example, Napolitano excoriates FISA as a thoroughly unconstitutional concept: the government can, without a warrant beforehand, intercept phone calls on people inside the United States. Yes, that smells really bad—but there is little doubt FISA has captured monumental intelligence. Likewise, he trashes the Republicans for using war as a type of foreign policy management. No kidding! When we saw Iraq invade Kuwait, we wanted to get involved. But as a Libertarian, Napolitano might prefer the Kuwaitis suffer their fate while we sit by as strictly neutral non-interventionists. It becomes a fantasy notion given our position in the world.

By simply listing everything that pisses him off without providing real world recommendations, the book winds up being a collection of letters-to-the-editor written by a cranky old guy. And that is disappointing, because it drowns out the real message of his book: that the government acts in its own interests, not in yours, and as a result very real and very innocent people get hurt badly in the process. Great idea for a book; perhaps a little more work was in order in writing it.

Stuxnet Update

Apparently it is not going well in Tehran, Iran if you're a computer professional.  Iran has reportedly become desperate and is reaching out to computer experts across the globe, offering handsome rewards for assistance in clearing out the Stuxnet worm.  Iran has refused to provide details on locations and impact to these experts which has dampened the response.  Iran is claiming in a number of conflicting reports that 30-40,000 systems and networks have been affected/infected.  Sources at DEBKAfile put the number in the millions.  DEBKAfile also reports that Iran's own efforts to irradicate the worm has only "irritated" it and made matters worse.

Regardless of who initiated this attack, this could be the most impressive cyberattack to date.  It appears to be controlled, targeted and, given this response, effective.

Hopefully...

...this isn't the future of our Space Shuttles.

Rough translation for those who do't read Russian:

An unprecedented case. Seemingly abandoned spaceship on the streets of Moscow - it is something from the realm of fantasy. But alas, this is the true reality. Correspondent "MK" discovered the Soviet "Buran" orbiter laying like garbage on the outskirts of the capital. Nobody cares what was once a symbol of cosmic power of our country.

Natalia Muschinkina

More Well-Wishes For the Big Guy

DT writes in:

Yeah, sure, a "spinal" implant. We all know that ‘Puter’s been pining for pectoral implants ever since he lost the castle flex-off to the Mandy

This is pretty much the case, and sorry that DT was there to see it. Of course, ‘Puter lost because the judges went with quality over quantity of skin tissue.

And, yeah, ‘Puter is also looking at a collagen implant in his lip as well as pec implants on his made quest to be the first totally bald and muscular male Angelina Jolie. It is, we agree, a strange goal, but ‘Puter’s court-ordered psychiatrists agree he needs to have one. No matter what.

“’Puter” and “discharge” are words we normally hate to see in the same sentence.

But we’re happy to report that Dr. J has released ’Puter from the hospital and sent him back to Castle G with a rusty milkpail full of horse tranquilizers. O Volgi, sayest thou, how is this different from any Monday night? Good question. But this time, he’s under medical supervision. Thanks for all the kind words and concern. We’re your merciless overlords, but we’re not made of stone.

Obviously not a reader of the Gormogons

AFL-CIO President Trumka spoke as part of a panel entitled, "Which Way for the Working Class? Elections 2010 and Beyond" (h/t Jim Hoft over at Big Government) and had some jaw-dropping comments.  First, though, notice how these folks link a particular category of the population to elections.  And then they try to play like they represent the underprivileged in some sort of proletarian movement a la the French Revolution -- "Off with Chimpy McBushhitlerburton's head!".  The problem is that excessive taxation and a huge government debt were leading causes to the fiscal crisis leading up to the French Revolution.  Hmmm, sounds a bit familiar.

Anyway, Mr. Trumka said, "we need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government."  How should we interpret this?  I think simply put, he is advocating for the public (read: government) control of private corporations.  Let me think, I seem to remember a term for that kind of social and economic system.  I know it's here somewhere in my data banks.   Ah, right - Socialism.

If Mr. Trumka had been a reader, he would have come across a number of posts describing how the federal and state employees actually cost more than private sector jobs by no insignificant amount. This move would demolish the staggering economy now.

Sunstein: Constitution Not Worth Paper It's Printed On

Cass Sunstein:

Some conservative legal thinkers like Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas think that the Constitution means what it originally meant. That means we should understand the document by going into a kind of time machine and capturing the public understanding of the public that ratified the document a century or more than a century ago.

Well, that would be more than a couple of centuries ago, actually. You know, some conservative thinkers make the argument that Cass Sunstein is actually a pretty good guy in that role. Curious to know what they think of this quote.

And it goes to show that not a day goes by that this administration does not provide a massive reason why it must be voted out of office in two years.

’Puter update [Updated]

All goes well. He has finally been convinced that the hospital staff are not evil sorcerers trying to steal his mojo. He’s even let them puncture his flesh, a privilege he normally reserves for Dat Ho on boil-lancing night. See?

Also, his nurse’s kid needs a tutor in Mrs. ’Puter’s subject, so he’s set them up. Quoth he, “Always be closing, bitches!”

We will ensure his surgeons follow the same advice.

Update: “They’re adjusting the guy next to me’s catheter. Holy effing sh!t! He needs a bigger one because it’s clogged with blood. Sweet baby Jesus, drug me already!”

Pigford v. Reality

Okay, so you’ve been following Pigford v. Vilsack, right? Us neither.

Basically, this is a class-action suit filed against the Secretary of Agriculture by African-American farmers for past discrimination by USDA loan programs. Back in February, the two parties settled for $1.25 billion. This is on top of the $1 billion already paid out in 1999; only 16,000 people received money from that, so the new settlement is intended to take care of the rest. But remember, you need to register with the class action to get money from the program.

Funding for this, by the way, passed the House but stalled in the Senate. That is not the interesting bit.

No, the interesting bit is two-fold.

First, Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC) complained that “More than 4,000 African-American farmers in North Carolina and over 75,000 nationwide have been discriminated against and denied just compensation for decades.”

Second, those numbers are bit high. The National Black Farmers Association says, at most, there are only 18,000 African-American farmers in the US.

Got that? Okay, what got Representative Steve King (R-IA) interested in this settlement is that more than 94,000 people have registered for the second round of payments alone.

Okay, even if we agree that not everybody got their money in the 1999 settlement, there should only be about 2,000 people incorrectly compensated. So where did this additional 92,000 (and ticking!) come from? Of course, that assumes that of the 18,000 black farmers in the US, each and every one of them was unfairly treated in the USDA loan process, which is a bit of a stretch.

Rep. King has asked to meet with Secretary Vilsack to see if his math agrees. If so, we should expect to only compensate 2,000 people. And if that is the case, please explain why 2,000 people receive $1.25 billion, whereas ten years ago, 16,000 people managed to get by with $1 billion?

Could it be that President Obama made a promise of money to the plaintiffs that added $1.15 to the $100 million expected to be compensated?

On unrelated news, if the presidential election for 2012 were to be held in November, it appears that the President would receive only 33% of the vote.

Get Well Soon, 'Puter!

As regular readers know, our own dear Ghettoputer is getting a spinal implant today. With these new bionic parts, he will be able to stand up to union thugs, out-of-control local politicians, liberal Catholics, and sex-obsessed school teachers with even more authority.

We wish him the best of luck, hope his recovery time is short, and hope he will be writing for us again very soon. And please, we do not want the details.

Get well, Geep!

Sincerely,

The Inscrutable Mandarin
孔夫子, the Œcumenical Volgi (The Notorious ŒV)
GorTechie
The Czar of Muscovy
Sleestak
Dat Ho
and all the Tcho-Tchos!

Re: China's Navy

Volgi,

Your post on China’s naval buildup merely confirms what you predicted back in April. Once again, you were right.

What bothers the Czar about this story is the comment that a Chinese fishing vessel somehow collided with not one but two Japanese coast guard ships. Readers may remember that the old fishing vessel collision trick is a favorite ploy of the Chinese navy.

The Chinese military, you see, likes to provoke. Fire a rocket toward Taiwan once in a while. Seize an American naval aircraft and hold its crew. Drift ships close to Japanese waters. Have a naval sub collide with the USS John McCain. And quite often, have what the press continuously decribes as a “fishing vessel” collide with naval ships of other countries.

China is that kid on the grade school playground. Big, mean-looking, and sullen. He hangs out with only one or two other punks, but generally keeps to himself. And quite often, he shoves another kid down. Or he throws objects at the backs of other kids’s heads. And when one a kid has had enough and stands up to him, the bully laughs, says everything is cool, and then goes and picks on somebody else for a short while. He tries to see how much he can control by provoking a confrontation—and if there is resistence, he eases back a bit. If there is no resistence, he counts that as a victory and moves forward another step.

China must be watched. And not merely watched, but sharply reminded from time to time to settle down. And she will—she is still racked with internal struggles and a not-yet-powerful enough military to really stomach a showdown. But time, you see, is running out on that last one.

China conducting a massive naval buildup?

Well, it’s no surprise to you Gormogons operatives. Maybe others are starting to pay attention.

The greatest geopolitical development that has occurred largely beneath the radar of our Middle East-focused media over the past decade has been the rise of Chinese sea power. This is evinced by President Obama's meeting Friday about the South China Sea, where China has conducted live-fire drills and made territorial claims against various Southeast Asian countries, and the dispute over the Senkaku Islands between Japan and China in the East China Sea, the site of a recent collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese coast guard ships.

Read the rest at the Post.

“In truth, America spends too little on defense.”

“…Our Army and Marine Corps are significantly undersized; and military modernization remains a neglected requirement that has very few champions in Washington.”

Hell and yes. Read on.

A million more kids without insurance? Must be…ObamaCare®!

Heather Higgins writes:

Hey, what's the problem with real world consequences to your bad ideas when you're a smug, snarky, sanctimonious ideologue? Nothing! If you've just killed the kids-only insurance market, that must be the insurance companies' fault - because apparently their assets are a bottomless public good, meant to be dispersed with Santa-like abandon. Oh, wait a minute - if Santa were an insurer, Naughty would be an undeniable pre-existing condition.

Time to remember the wisdom of CS Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

What I loathe most about the left is how fundamentally immoral they are, and how willing to sacrifice real human beings on the altar of their pretentions.

Comment over at Ricochet.

Weekend Thought

President Obama says NO to the Pledge.

He also says NO to lower taxes across the board.

The President says NO to the return to conservatism.

Boy, he really became the one-man Party of No, didn’t he? And is anyone, seriously, listening at this point?

Probably not: even some of his most populist numbers put him at 41.something%. Lowest ever, and still sliding downward. And the GOP slash Tea Party slash Right slash Conservative candidates are either ticking upwards or shooting upwards like a rocket.

Mr. President, look... as you would say... let us be clear. You lost the confidence of the people. You cannot simply talk and have people believe you. You’re a Progressive, right? So look at the numbers and try to interpret the social math any other way. You are done. Write your memoirs (again), put your feet up, and enjoy the final two years of your aberration presidency.

Cheeky little essay by Peter Kreeft

The typically modern mind is 1) skeptical of absolute, unchanging standards and 2) in love with the idea of progress. But this is a logical impossibility, a self-contradiction. Without an unchanging standard, there can be no progress, only change. To such people, "progress" means no more than "change," and therefore "change" means the same as "progress."

Only a people both jaded and bored by the past and the present, and also skeptical of any "vertical dimension," any absolute and unchanging standard, could possibly be so moved by the single word "change" that a presidential candidate could win an election by using that single word as his campaign slogan. Why not instead "Rutabagas"?

The opposite of Progressivism is conservatism or traditionalism. A conservative, by definition, is a happy person, one who is happy with what is. It is only for that reason that he wants to conserve it. A progressivist, on the other hand, is by definition an unhappy person, one who is unhappy with what is. It is only for that reason that he wants to change it. A conservative is someone who thinks happiness consists first of all in enjoying the good things we already have. A progressive is one who sees happiness first of all in hoping to enjoy the things we do not yet have. Adam and Eve were conservatives until the Devil made them into progressives. For the Devil himself was the first progressivist. The other angels were happy with God and His will, but the Devil wanted to progress to something better.

In other words, progressivists try to tell truth with a clock instead of an argument. It is as silly as trying to tell time with a syllogism instead of a clock. Or a calendar, which is only a larger, longer clock. For to say that an idea is no longer believable simply because this is the 21st century, not the 13th, is no different from saying that an idea is no longer believable because it is now 11:00 p.m, not 10:00 a.m.

There’s a lot more where that came from.

Myrmidon Mail

DT writes in:

Bewitching, Bedazzling, and Bewildering Czar,

It is obvious to your minions lackeys myrmidons operatives that at some future point you will appoint a leader for our great country (assuming, of course, that you wouldn’t take the pay cut to do it yourself). Until that time, might I ask who you would like to see run for that position – who you think would make a good president?

Me, I’m torn between ‘Puter’s man-crush Christie, Paul Ryan, and Harrison Ford from Air Force One.

What are your thoughts, Great One?

Great question; the Czar assures you all that he has no intention of doing it himself. But whom should we appoint? Tough call. We understand there have been Official and Serious Calls from the GOP for Governor Christie to review his future plans...a very good sign. And although he makes a lot of people nervous, including John Boehner, the Czar really thinks Paul Ryan has his head on straight. Rarely do we say it, but that’s a guy who should be in politics.

But 2012 is a ways off; and doubtless candidates will sit quietly until we see how bad the damage is to the 111th Congress in another few weeks. But one thing is certain: we shall watch carefully and report dutifully.

P.S. Myrmidons? Freaking awesome. DT is now in charge of the First Gormogon Myrmidon Division. Start recruiting, DT!

Sigh. Port Hates Starboard.

The Czar has begun to make the point that the Right has begun to master modern media. And the horrors they find are arriving almost daily.

You might think there was an epidemic of violence breaking out among the Left:



But the reality is simpler. The Left has always been like this, but is getting themselves recorded doing it.

For years we wondered if the Right would ever figure out they need to do stuff just like this.

Now we wonder if the Left will catch on that if the dude has a camera, you’re busted.

It’s possible ’Puter hates unions because he doesn’t get invited to their parties.

How StuxNet Could Work - Updated!

Introduction

The Czar is impressed with the Volgi’s story regarding the StuxNet virus, although it sounds like StuxNet is more of a trojan horse.

(If readers want the best dope on high-end information security, as always your man is Borepatch himself, whom the Gormogons use for Castle data security, which is probably why ‘Puter’s unable to keep using his old password of p00p. Anyway, it will be interesting to read Borepatch’s take on this story.)

As always, the Czar is skeptical. Nowhere are there any reports that the Bûshehr facility has in fact been compromised in anyway. The comments in the article appear to agree that it is feasible that Bûshehr is or was the target, but the author seems to be pressing home the possibility while the experts quoted do not. Certainly we have detected nothing of the sort at the Castle.

Why It May Be False

But there are some questions lurking in the Czar’s brain. The article is presenting this as a form of cyber-security issue, as if the trojan horse is being spread through the internet like a common virus or a worm. And this is likely not the case: we are not talking about a computer in room 1211 being infected, and now, Hollywood-like, the computer is taking over the entire facility and self-destructing. This actually is not possible except perhaps in badly designed, and very small, facilities.

You see, home computers and business computers use common protocols, commands, software, and so on that are designed to make getting onto the internet as well as using applications on them quite easy. As a result, you have two weaknesses to exploit: the way people get onto the Web, and the fact that applications use common means to share information. So it is a comparative snap to upload a virus through an easy back door, and then have the virus run amok through a system designed for easy use.

How Control Systems Work

Not so much with industrial automation and control systems. Here is how these systems really work. You but a device, say a welding robot, from a manufacturer. It has manufacturer-specific and model-specific capabilities. What does the robot do? Nothing, out of the box. A programmer has to come in and write a lot of code that tells that particular robot what to do. But that isn’t enough: you need a control processor (which is a box-like computer) to store those codes.

So, at 9:00am Monday morning, the control processor tells your Yaskawa Motoman EA1400s to start up, run through their self-diagnostics, and report any problems back. No problems? Good: now check to see if there is a device on the conveyor belt in front of you. There is? Is it aligned? It is? Good: apply a fusion weld at the following coordinates.

And so on. Each set of instructions is unique. Oh, and if you have different Motomans doing different tasks, you have different commands to offer to each, meaning you need to assign a unique address to each robot. For example, EA1400 at address 23, execute instruction 5631. EA1400 at address 24, execute instruction 5644...and so on, for each unique robot you have.

One more thing: that only works for Yaskawa Motoman EA1400s. If you have a Motoman UP6, you have a different set of instructions, since no two models necessarily work exactly the same way. And on top of that, if you have a Panasonic VR-016Gii robot, you have a completely different set of instructions because no two manufacturers use exactly the same code protocols.

If you have ever tried to reprogram a universal remote control at home because you bought a new television—you have an idea. And televisions basically work the same. Imagine a factory full of robots, each of which can do about anything you want, with no idea of what you want to do! Naturally, you wind up with millions of lines of code, all being handled by a control processor.

The Czar, of course, does not mean to suggest that one control processor can work an entire factory. Typically, you have a series of control processors, each controlling different functions. Each assembly line probably has its own, and you have multiple assembly lines for all your products.

Okay, you get the idea. An industrial application has a lot of control processors executing a vast amount of code.

Why It Would Be Tough

But these are closed systems: they may communicate by an Ethernet network, but this only passes along encoded serial or SNMP information. They are not connected to the internet, and the only time you even look at the uncompiled code is when you are making updates or changes. To do this, you run a test code on a development computer (which is not necessarily hooked up to anything), compile code into machine language, save it to a memory stick, and then insert the memory stick into the USB port on the control processor. The processor uploads the code, checks its validity, and then reboots. The new system is up and running.

So your StuxNet trojan horse has a monumental task ahead of itself. It somehow has to be inserted into a control system, be accepted by the compiler software as legitimate code, save it into a format the processor understands, and then somehow know what manufacturer, model, and address the device has.

Okay, the first step is easy. If you can develop such a code, you simply store it onto a memory stick. An operative drops the memory stick on some developer’s desk, and he later grabs it thinking it’s there for his use. Done.

The second step is much harder. How do you know which control processor is going to be used? You really do not. You might say, if your intended target is a nuclear facility, that they are using one of seven different kinds. But then you have to know which software version each is using. That is not impossible, but the evidence shows that all sorts of industrial systems are being affected, not just nuclear facilities.

And even if you guess right, and figure that out, you still have to know which of the millions of different systems were purchased, what model numbers they were, and what software versions are loaded into the machine’s memory. That is a tough prediction.

So tough in fact, that it is improbable. Maybe impossible: you would need so much inside information that it becomes easier to bribe a contractor to upload very specific code into the system and have it self-destruct that way. Using a hit-and-run trojan horse is ridiculously complicated and expensive.

And How You Could Do It

Or is it? Indeed, there could be an easy way to do this. Indeed, the DoD and the industrial security business have anticipated such a possibility for many years.

You see, there is so much complexity in even a basic control system these days that no human understands all of it. Indeed, your cell phone probably contains more lines of code than a nuclear facility’s control systems combined.

This is so true that no individual programmer can understand it, let alone keep track of it. So decades ago, programmers began to switch toward modular programming. Instead of writing one massive program that contains all the instructions, you break it into smaller chunks that are easier to manage. If you were programming a cell phone, you might divide these modules up into big functions: one program to access the cell network. Another to access a switch. Another to receive a call. One to dial. One to hang up. One to redial a number. And so on. You identify all the major functions of any phone, and then divide and conquer.

This proves to be a smart idea: if you get the functions basically right, two things happen: you can identify and fix bugs faster (one bad chunk of code no longer crashes the whole system), and you can reuse code from model to model. Your new phone needs a better way to access the cell network? No problem: you change that chunk of code, but reuse all the old ones.

And what happened over the last decade or so was that certain people got really good at writing software code for these modules...to the point that a programmer might sell his code to other companies. If you are designing a new type of phone—to stick with this analogy—you have to use so-and-so’s getIPData() function because it works perfectly, it’s cheap, and it uses very little memory.

In any device made in the last few years, from phones to cars to thermostats to televisions, there are dozens to hundreds of these modules in the processor, all made by different people at different companies at different times.

And there is the risk. You can identify one particular function that everybody is using, and insert your trojan horse there. “Hey, how can we take down that reactor in Iran? We don’t know what systems they have, what turbines they have, or what protocols are in place.” And a programmer on your side could say, “Well, no matter what they have, if they have a turbine at all, they will be using OzKomSoft’s initOverheat() module. Everybody does. And they probaly are using RusPak’s SysOne module for temperature monitoring.”

So they tailor the code. If we are in or around Iran based on the IP addresses, and we are using initOverheat(), and SysOne protocols are on the network, we can bet we are in an Iranian nuclear facility. So override the initOverheat() module that causes the turbine to spin itself apart.

The problem is that other companies around the world are using the same modules for a variety of unrelated systems. If your company is in France and manufacturing heavy generators for export to Kurdistan, you could be running both modules on your control systems as well as have IP addresses from Iran passing through your network. And pow—you see some resulting weirdness.

So despite the seemingly incredible nature of such a trojan horse, needing to hide among literally hundreds of thousands of device protocols, it is possible to streamline this with three or four logical considerations. And while this concept is making news now, the underlying concepts have been known and feared for years.

The real question, which the Volgi asks, is whether or not such an event actually happened.

Updated: more information is being revealed, that begins to reveal how StuxNet gets around (through a Windows print spooler function) and that it lives as a module within a Siemens SCADA system. And yeah: looks like it might be intended to go after something related to Iranian nuclear work.

Stimulus Money at "Work"

The GOP is tracking where the stupid Stimulus Signs are being posted.  They've estimated that $192 Million has been spent on these signs to date.  Check out the site - if you see one that isn't listed, send it in.  The responses to the Congressional inquiries about the expenses are amusing to read as well.

Have the Israelis already destroyed Iran's nuclear-weapons program?

If this is true, this is an amazing, ninja move. The implications are fairly terrifying, especially if someone develops a less discriminating version.

Cyber security experts say they have identified the world's first known cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target – a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.
The cyber worm, called Stuxnet, has been the object of intense study since its detection in June. As more has become known about it, alarm about its capabilities and purpose have grown. Some top cyber security experts now say Stuxnet's arrival heralds something blindingly new: a cyber weapon created to cross from the digital realm to the physical world – to destroy something.
At least one expert who has extensively studied the malicious software, or malware, suggests Stuxnet may have already attacked its target – and that it may have been Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, which much of the world condemns as a nuclear weapons threat.
The appearance of Stuxnet created a ripple of amazement among computer security experts. Too large, too encrypted, too complex to be immediately understood, it employed amazing new tricks, like taking control of a computer system without the user taking any action or clicking any button other than inserting an infected memory stick. Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in industrial control software systems.
Unlike most malware, Stuxnet is not intended to help someone make money or steal proprietary data. Industrial control systems experts now have concluded, after nearly four months spent reverse engineering Stuxnet, that the world faces a new breed of malware that could become a template for attackers wishing to launch digital strikes at physical targets worldwide. Internet link not required.

This is the most compelling thing you'll read all day. Read the whole thing.

BREAKING NEWS

Speaker Pelosi announced the Congressional Democrat's Pledge, but you'll have to re-elect them to see what's in it.

Best,

Dr. J
Royal Surgeon to the Gormogons

Dr. J Tosses The Knowledge Ball

From Dr. J:

Dear Gort,


I completely echo your sentiments regarding President Obama's alleged poor choice of words.


There is a more insidious and ominous aspect to this statement. The use of the word absorb, regarding a terrorist attack, reveals the lack of regard for human life in the Progressive mindset. Progressives, throughout history have embraced philosophies antithetical to the notion of sanctity of life. It was clear in their writings on eugenics at the turn of the 20th century, and also clear in the works of Margaret Sanger regarding abortion. This mentality has persisted and evolved. It can be seen in the Obamacare bill and in the words of the government healthcare leadership.


In the words of recess appointed CMMS director Donald Berwick, "Here, you choose a harder path. You plan the supply; you aim a bit low; you prefer slightly too little of a technology or a service to too much; then you search for care bottlenecks and try to relieve them."


He finds the PERMISSIVE development of bottlenecks, and the injury caused by them to individuals, acceptable.


Taken out of context from Ezekiel (Rahm's Brother) Emanuel, and White House advisor, "Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."


The real rub in this statement is not whether or not absurdly heroic measures should or should not be extended to patients with dementia. The fact is that everyday, in my places of employ, the families, patients and the physicians sit down together and decide what measures are appropriate for that INDIVIDUAL patient. What is disturbing is that Dr. Emanuel feels comfortable with the idea that society's representatives will decide what is appropriate for all patients with dementia. That is where the true problem lies with him.


Indeed, even a primary care provider that I am well acquainted with, who is a self-styled Progressive waded into the debate with me during a swim meet. She asked me what I thought of Obamacare, single payor systems and the future of medicine. I compared the product seen with government run healthcare with what is seen in the private system. I explained that I don't think patients will be happy with not being able to see their doctor for acute issues, extended wait times, or potentially having to travel for resources otherwise not available in their locale, as centralization of specialty services might be done to cut costs. She said that, "Once those patients age out of the system [i.e. die off] the next generation won't have those expectations and things will be fine."


In summary, Progressives have little regard for individual human life, so long as everything looks like it should on their well thought out spreadsheets.


Or, in the words of the Galactic Republic's most notorious Progressive, then Senator Palpatine, "Wipe them out, all of them."


Best,
Dr. J

Spot on as usual - hardly could have said it better....unless I used the time machine.

Brings new meaning to the term "free market…"

One hesitates to enter ’Puter’s bailiwick of edumocation, but this takedown by Friend of the Gormogons Flava Last prompts the following thoughts off the top of one’s head, and what are blogs for if not making unconsidered comments publicly?

One doubts Lemann’s idea that the education market’s "success" is indicative of fundamental soundness. First, it's not really a market: the first ten years of education are mandated by law, and the first twelve are "free"—and literally free if you're not a property owner in most places. These are unusual product characteristics. Second, despite the fact it's "free" you have huge (and one bets increasing) numbers of people often willing to pay extra to get out of it—either from (relatively) cheap Catholic parochial schools to extremely expensive prep schools to home schooling where you not only bear expenses but provide most of the labor. (Homeschooled in U.S. in 1985: 50,000 kids. 1999: 850,000. 2007: 1,500,000.)

Next, you've got universities which, due to the collapse of the high-school diploma as certificate of basic literacy and numeracy, are now the gateway to many entry-level jobs. And they can (and do) charge ridiculously stupid amounts of money because the government makes sure kids can indebt themselves, thus destroying any demand-side pressure.

All this suggests a "market" highly rigged towards the producers—which you would expect with highly organized lobbies of unionized teachers and university associations acting as rent-seekers.

Also—"look, enrollment is rising everywhere!" Dude, that just means the school-age population is growing. Education is mandatory, chucklehead.

Barney Frank In Political Trouble

Well, now and again, the Czar gets surprised. But he did not see this one coming: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has dipped below 50% in the polls. The Czar cannot imagine a more “safe” Democratic seat, but a recent poll has Frank down to 48% and relative unknown challenger Sean Bielat climing up to 38%.

Yes, this is still a huge gap to overcome—but the fact this has happened at all in the last couple weeks is shocking. When undecided voters are asked for whom they will more likely vote, Bielat’s numbers stay the same but Frank’s numbers drop to 44%.

Maybe with good reason. While no one individual is responsible for the collapse of the housing market and subsequent crash of the economy, Frank would be the Czar’s choice as the Chief Architect and Project Manager. His behavior, always erratic, could be summed up like this: police burst into a home under reports that a serial killer is at work within. There, they find Frank standing nude in his kitchen, body parts all over the floor, and everything sopping in blood as he models a scarf made of human intestine; to the police, he exclaims “Damn those Republicans! Look what they did!”

The Czar suspects Rep. Frank will win, but this could be his last victory. It certainly will not be his easiest.

Maybe he can borrow...

..some of 'Puter's Brawny paper towels.

According to Greg Gutfield, in Bob Woodward's new book, "Obama's Wars" our President upon being warned of possible future terrorist attacks on U.S. soil said that the country can "absorb" it.

Right.  Ok.  Absorb it?  Look, I'd rather not absorb it.  Here's the supposed quote:  “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.”

Ok, I appreciate the sentiment that we can overcome an event like this, but I think I would have chosen my words differently. 

Well, it’s a start.

Congressional GOP’s “Pledge to America.”

And Now: Humor. As a Diversion

From the upcoming Gormogon Book of Riddles, in which we each try to compile our favorite riddles and share them with the readers.

Yes, you know you will be telling these to your co-minions at the water cooler tomorrow, even if the water cooler at the Castle mines is kept empty as a warning.

	The Volgi: There is a country whose first three letters will make you relax, and whose last four will make you tense. Who am I? Spain.
	Ghettoputer: There is an activity that two people can do at the same time and go to the same place to do it, but they cannot actually do it together at the same time in the same place. What is it? Poop.
	GorTechie: If I have 100 apples, and take away 10, how many do I have left? 10! (01001100 01001111 01001100!)
	The Mandarin: Imagine I am at polar coordinates (r =2 and θ = π/6). Where might I be in rectangular coordinates? 2 cosπ/6 and 2 sinπ/6, so I would be at √3, 1! Such hilarity!
	The Czar: I have an eye, a face, a cheek, a belly, and a back, a lip, a butt, and shoulder. What am I? The axe that I put in Cousin Здравск’s neck from across the room when he attempted to depose me in 1311.
	Dat Ho: I not bad! I not bad! Why I get punished anyway? Mr. Czar say I steal food in kitchen.
	Sleestak: Sssszzzzz zzssss hisszzzisszz. Ssszzzizz? Poop.

Friedman and Randian SKYSCRAPERS!

Here's the thing about this—we used to be able to build some impressive stuff quickly as well.

• Empire State Building: 410 days.
  
• Rockefeller Center (14 buildings): nine years—of which Radio City Music Hall was done in the first two years and 30 Rock in three.
  
• Golden Gate Bridge: four years.
  
• Hoover Dam: five years.
  
• North American P-51 Mustang fighter: 119 days.
  
• The Pentagon: two years.
  
• Manhattan Project: three years.
  
• Gateway Arch: two years.
  
• Apollo Program: eight years.

Note, some of these are private, some are government-built, some are private contractors building for the government. So that's not the key vector, is it? So, Friedman, what's the key factor here? Might it be regulation and the ability of small groups to tie up large projects through politics? If so, how do you square that with your advocacy of an increasingly large, progressive state? Or do you think our already large state just needs more power and will? If that's the case, how do you disentangle yourself from association with the Continental, particularly German political-philosophical schools who followed that to some very troubling ends in Germany, Russia, Italy, etc.?

Or is the answer to explicitly clear out the political/bureaucratic obstacles in the way of ambitious projects, or some other Classical-Liberal solution? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yeti season?! [Updated]

Pictured: Inside Mandy’s Dreams

Hey, Dr. J., you’d better cease and desist on that orbital ultrasonic death ray post-haste. I don’t give a crap what the hell Mandy tells you about hunting Yeti, but the entire species of homo vertex is under a strict no-kill 詔書, under the Volgi‘s chop. You can kill one in self-defense, so Mandy’s always saying that Dgapo scares him when he comes down for breakfast before his morning opium and sees a nine-foot, horned, tusked biped at the table—Dgapo is just trying to eat his butter tea and yak tartar—and therefore it’s “self-defense” for him to blast other yeti from space to keep the nightmares away. Please.

N.B. Even aiding or abetting yeti killers is a sentence of death, delivered by a group of Tcho-Tchos who arrive while you’re sleeping with a variety of dull, rusty implements.

’Scuse me while I go have a little talk with il Mandarino.

Update: These guys have already been taken care of. They’re in a very large number mason jars.

Photo credit: “Smokebelch” operating Mandy’s Dream-O-Vision® (Patents Pending).

Road to Hell, Good Intentions, Etc.

'Puter was confronted with three stark examples of how liberal Democrats are unable to even contemplate that their legislation may have unexpected deleterious consequences.

Exhibit 1, Dodd-Frank Financial Reform. A Democrat controlled Congress unites to pass sweeping financial services regulation. The legislation limits the ability of lenders to hike rates on credit cards, and for banks to charge for overdraft protection. Credit card companies predictably respond by (1) tightening eligibility standards, stemming credit availability to the middle class and (2) increasing interest rates for everyone to cover unforeseen bad risks. Banks can't recover adequate fees to compensate them for the risk of offering overdraft protect, which fees also subsidized free checking for most. Banks then predictably (1) stop offering overdraft protection and (2) eliminate free checking accounts.

And what happens when the predictable consequences of Congress' ill-advised, poorly thought out legislation become apparent to the voters? Congress screams bloody murder about the insatiable thirst of the corporate banking demons for the hard won "rights" of the middle class to free everything. You see, it's never Congress' fault. It's those greedy bankers!

Exhibit 2, Chuck Schumer demagogueing utility price increases. To be fair to Sen. Schumer, there is a modicum of sense to his position. In its latest rate filing, National Grid (an Upstate New York utility company) attempted to flow through to consumers ridiculous personal expenses of its relocating British executives. National Grid quickly rectified its "error," removing $4 million in such expenses from its filing. Sen. Every Problem Can Be Solved With Federal Legislation Sponsored By Me And Hey Is That A Camera Get Out Of My Way (D-NY) wrote to the New York Public Service Commission asking that it completely halt its rate proceeding pending a thorough investigation of the entire filing. Sen. Pothole stated in a letter "it is inappropriate to consider imposing a $400 million rate increase on Upstate consumers when there are legitimate questions about the costs National Grid is seeking to have consumers cover."

Oh. So let's hold up a rate increase for an already heavily regulated utility when the utility has already pulled out of its request the questionable (alright, shady) costs which you've complained about. Gosh, the other 99% of the filed rate increase couldn't possibly have anything to do with (1) paying workers, (2) improving service, (3) replacing aging lines, (4) [insert other obvious taxpayer/consumer/ratepayer benefits here]. This will certainly encourage utilities to modernize and hire almost as much as the mandated 10 year rate freeze the Public Service Commission imposed on National Grid's competitor. One does not have to be omniscient to accurately predict that consumers will ultimately suffer for Sen. Schumer's shortsighted demagoguery. Whether it's future astronomical rate increases, or layoffs, or crappy service, Sen. Schumer's current actions will be responsible.

Exhibit 3, Health Care Reform. Everyone's getting free health care, free gas, and free housing! 'Puter remembers the halcyon days of America's PCP-induced infatuation with The One. Health care will be better. Health care will be free. Doctors will work more for less money out of the goodness of their hearts. Medical innovations won't be halted if we remove the profit motive. Congress knows better than you stupid voters. Sign the bill to find out what's in it. No need to read it. Why, health care reform will pay for itself, no matter what those trogolodytic teabaggers say!

Well, it turns out voters weren't so stupid after all. Mandated coverages have started kicking in, and, predictably, insurers have begun dropping entire categories of affected policies because they are too expensive/risky to continue. Enter Ms. Sebelius. First, she threatened insurers with increased regulatory scrutiny for stating the truth: the mandates will cost more. Then, she blamed insurers and the market for the rate increases. It had absolutely nothing to do with the health care reform legislation passed. It's those greedy, soul-sucking insurers! Blame them!

All of this is a long-winded way of saying all government actions, whether you agree with the act or not, necessarily distort free(ish) markets. Some distortions are for the better, some for the worse. We can disagree about which distortions are good and which are bad. But to pretend that negative consequences do not/will not happen is legislative malpractice. And for a politician to deny certain obvious bad outcomes were a direct result of his legislative acts indicates the politician is (1) stupid, (2) lying or (3) both.

Sorry for the rambling discourse, but there's so much Congressional economic malpractice going on these days, 'Puter simply needed to vent.

DADT Repeal Voted Down? Blame Harry Reid, Not GOP

‘Puter just sent Sleestak over to the Czar’s library to tell him that preparations for his upcoming back surgery are taking up too much of his drinking time, and would the Czar be able to write up an official Gormogon response to DADT?

Of course, the Czar had to walk over to Ghettoputer’s playroom to figure this out, because all Sleestak did was stand in the doorway and make these raspy sibilant sounds for about two minutes before the Czar, staring at him with one raised eyebrow, stood up from his chair and shoulder-shoved his way past him to find out whiskey the foxtrot was going on.

Anyway, we are all unsurprised by the media’s coverage of the 2010 Failure of the DADT Repeal! Read! how the GOP voted this down! See! how they backstabbed the military servicemen and servicewomen, who would have received a badly needed pay raise from this bill! Learn! how the GOP are a bunch of homophobic hypocrites who care nothing for our armed forces!

Know why it was voted down? Because at the 11th Hour, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) figured out he might be able to edge out his opponent, Sharron Angle, by winning some Hispanic votes.

How? It occurred to him to stuff the DREAM Act into the DADT bill as a rider. Good luck finding that piece of the story: few news agencies are providing this aspect in their coverage. Some are, but they are barely explaining it.

So here it is. You have a bill that will repeal DADT, and even increase compensation for our armed forces. And there, at the end of the bill, is a rider that would qualify otherwise illegal aliens the ability to receive citizenship-like status if they get a college degree or serve in our military here.

What? This has nothing whatsoever to do with DADT, and the Republican lawmakers—evidently aware that the American public has no further interest in bizarre riders being attached without a clear explanation, thanks to ObamaCare and Cap-and-Trade. And the GOP has been quite loud that the DREAM Act is what caused them—and numerous Democrats unhappy with being associated with another Harry Reid boondoggle—to vote down the entire bill.

First, immigrants to this country are not prevented from becoming US citizens unless there is something horrific in their past that would make them liabilities. What the DREAM Act fails to identify is that this act intends to find a way to legalize illegals who would otherwise be deported. Call it what you will, the whole thing is a stunt to help Harry Reid, who has long since demonstrated he needs to be removed from office.

Second, it shows a profound inability of Reid to learn that American voters are not the stupid cud-chewing bovines he thinks we are. Senate members have used riders for years to get pet legislation passed; however, this one is not some highway repaving project or funding for mineral research. This is a major piece of immigration amnesty that underscores how badly the Democrats understand immigration reform, and highlights the Obama administration’s lack of skill in reviewing this.

Third, the press does not seem to understand that bad-mouthing the GOP is not going to help. The Democrats are so far behind in most polls that whatever they say at this point is not going to swing the election. Sure, you might sway a toss-up here and there, particularly with a Republican candidate who is tied to something specific, but guys—give it up.

DADT’s repeal was voted down not because of homophobia, but because Harry Reid is a political fool in real trouble. Please—blame him.

Reagan v Obama v Carter... v Reagan?

The Czar was dining on chipotle chicken sandwiches yesterday back at the Castle, and the Mandarin, dining on what we charitably call the biggest pork tenderloin sandwich we have ever seen, joined him at the table. The Czar mentioned he has been watching the television commercials by Illinois’ democratic candidate for the US Senate, Alexi Giannoulias, in which Alexi says, basically, that his opponent “Mark Kirk misunderstood or even lied about his military record. What else is he lying about?” The Czar suggested a very simple commercial for candidate Kirk: zoom in on Kirk sitting at his desk, signing some piece of paper. Have Kirk look up at the camera and say, “Okay, I screwed up when I exaggerated my military record. Alexi Giannoulias knowingly loaned money to organized crime. Who do you want in office?” And then cut away.

Because people get that simple stuff. Call it like it is.

And on a related note, Dr. J. writes in with a status report (which we urge you to ignore on a you-don’t-need-to-know-basis) and a commercial he found over at the Corner:

Dread and etc...

I am sitting in a plane on the Midway Tarmac on a stopover from an undisclosed location, returning to New Atlantis. Related to that trip we will have Mandarin's ultrasound death ray satellite ready for yeti season.

Checking the Corner at NRO, this caught my eye.

Click here to see the video.

I have to keep this pithy. We take off soon.

Beyond the 80s nostalgia that will resonate with conservative boomers and gen-xers, it highlights how President Obama, instinctively and reflexively is Reagan's mirror. It also clearly contrasts the current statist policies with the last true small government president we've had.

Your D&A thoughts are welcome.

Best,
Dr. J.

P.S. Your Jupiter post rocked.

Go ahead and click on Dr. J's link. The new video is very much worthwhile. The Czar thinks it is a particularly effective spot that is proving the GOP is starting to get this new media stuff...like television. It hammers home the facts of the situation: look, here is the reality. Now what do you want to do?

Sure, a lot of people are going to declare this 80s nostalgia kitsch, but it works. If you remember the original, you will agree. If you do not remember the original, it still works perfectly. Some thoughts though.

The Czar would not say that Reagan was true small government president. Although he clearly favored smaller government, the Federal government was still a massively bloated, unwieldy mess throughout his Presidency. And this began pretty much with Andrew Jackson, whom the Czar remembers well. Unfortunately, quite a few liberal pundits are mocking the Tea Party on this point: for all the return-to-Reagan talk, you cannot reduce the size of the government; it is too far gone. So live with it. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, however, has a pretty solid model showing some amazing first steps to get there. We won’t get small overnight, but we can still do a heck of a lot better than this. (Dr. J. was being brief, and the Czar criticizes him not for his brevity.)

Second, is Obama a mirror image, or should we perhaps say the antithesis of Reagan? Another way to think about this: how close to Carter is Obama? The Wall Street Journal has some interesting comparisons about this today.

However, the problem with the WSJ piece is simple: these are broad generalizations that could be coincidence. What these comparisons fail to respect is how considerably different Obama is from Carter.

Carter came off, rightly, as a sanctimonious jerk who fooled no one. He always coughed up his gentle Southern grandpa from poor, humble beginnings act, although everybody knew that in private he was a cold, calculating bastard with a real mean streak. When you learned that he used to tote empty luggage on camera—to show he was a do-it-yourself guy who needed no expensive help—you knew it was staged for our benefit. And he was way out of his depth on foreign policy. We just did not remotely expect the horrific consequences of his incomeptence that has resulted in millions of deaths in the Middle East from Israel to Pakistan. In short, we knew it was a two-bit act for our benefit.

But Obama is cut more from a Wilsonian cloth: a snobbish and snotty intellectual who assumes that something that can be measured can be performed; that if you can sketch it on a white board, it ipso facto becomes reality. Obama neither wants nor needs your help: he has his cadre of academic consiglieri who can bark statistics and cite theories from the original textbooks. Carter wanted us to pity him; Obama wants us to admire. On the domestic front, Carter wanted us to imagine he was suffering with us, eating cold food out of a can, and turning the heat down at night on the Secret Service. Obama wants us to see him in control, inspiring us, and reminding us that our pain and suffering is caused by a lack of belief in him.

Carter saw foreign policy as a nightmare, with the US needing to play the lead role but having no idea what script to read from. Obama sees foreign policy as an extension of his childhood travels: a lot of neat places that do interesting things we could borrow. Obama does not want to play a leading role; he just wants to join the Greek chorus, pointing out flaws and warnings to the audience.

So this is why the advertisement works. It spells out that people are effing miserable, and things are not getting better. And not only does it point out where the blame lies, but tells you what you can do about it: vote this November.

Militant Gay Agenda

Many have commented on this previously, yet it bears repeating. The Obama Administration is chock-full of left wing ideologues, bent on cramming their unpalatable agenda down America's craw.

Kevin Jennings, Obama's "Safe Schools Czar" is one such nut job. 'Puter does not use such language lightly. But how else can one explain a man who supported handing out to teenagers 'how to troll public parks for anonymous buggery while keeping dung off Mr. Winkie' literature? Not to be outdone, Mr. Jennings followed up with a safe fisting guide for teenagers. Read the entire link.

On second thought, perhaps we should encourage the Administration to spend more time on promoting deviant sexual practices to minors and less time on "fixing" the economy. At least 'Puter can protect his kids from the former.

More Hope and Change

Maybe you voted for Obama enticed by his campaign message of "Hope and Change".  Well, how about this hope and change moment:  his Department of Justice under Eric Holder has failed again.  First we had the case of voter intimidation in Philadelphia by the New Black Panther party (new reports show that two of the people involved have records of violent behavior in the past - this case is not over and done with, in my opinion).  Now, we have a case where multiple states are failing on the recent MOVE act.

MOVE is the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment act which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2009.  It requires states to prepare and send ballots for elections to overseas and military voters 45 days before the election.  Five states, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington, have received waivers extending their time to deliver the ballots to Americans overseas risking having the ballots be tossed out for late return.  Another four states (Alaska, Colorado, Maryland and Hawaii) along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands have indicated that they will fail to meet this deadline as well.  Wisconsin negotiated with the Justice Department to a 32 day advance mailing after pushing for a 29 day deadline.

While I'm not one for conspiracy theories and I generally attribute these issues to poor planning and laziness or stupidity on the parts of the states, there is the fact that while on a national level the "generic ballot" is essentially tied at 46% but according to polls of American GIs, they are 41% GOP, 32% Independent and 29% Democrat.  If we discount the lazy enforcement of the bipartisan bill by the Obama Justice Department and Eric Holder and return to my theory, let's look at who is running these states:

Alaska: Republican governor, mixed, leaning Republican
Colorado: Democrat governor, Democrat legislature
Delaware: Democrat governor, Democrat legislature
District of Columbia: Democrat mayor, Democrat council
Hawaii: Republican governor, Democrat legislature
Maryland: Democrat governor, Democrat legislature
Massachusetts: Democrat governor, Democrat legislature
New York: Democrat governor, Democrat legislature
Rhode Island: Republican governor, Democrat legislature
U.S. Virgin Islands: Democrat governor

This is pretty simple - these folks, primarily the deployed servicemen and women should be the FIRST in line to vote.  We should do all we can to ensure their right and ability to vote and not let it be susceptible to party bickering along technicalities due to the inabilities of others to execute against a plan and deadline that has been in place for months.

Gays in the Military

'Puter will have more on this later. However, this post from Fred Lapides at GoodShit* may be the last word on the topic. You must read it. Now.

'Puter bows before the master.

*This link is SFW. The rest of the site, not so much.

That Which Hath Been Mailed

GD writes in regarding the Czar’s piece on Rep. Halvorson:

Er... waitaminute. Is that her tax-payer funded office they were organized at? I would think that is a pretty serious violation of something...

And the Czar is confident Andrew Breitbart is looking into it. Must be nice to be her Republican challenger, since Breitbart is like 12-0 on taking liberals down.

And JAB writes in with an attaboy.

You're a Czar of your word, Your Czarness. "Jupiter at Opposition" did make my freaking day, just as you promised in "Mail Mosh Pit."

Today has not been the best at the trailer-park, so my day needed to be made.

Odd observation—didn't know who Rep. Halvorson was until now. Can't wait for the promised update. What a tool! Makes me think my own Rep. "Tool" may not be quite as bad as I had thought.

Thanks to all ye Castle-Dwellers!

Thank you. And you are most welcome.

Iowahawk is leaked pages from the president’s stump-speech book.

The Car, the Ditch & the Slurpee. Yeah, you probably better get over there and read that now. Just empty your bladder first. Better safe than sorry.

Jupiter at Opposition

The Czar has been spending time at his home in Muscovy, away from the Castle. Yesterday, he spent the evening with Царевич, the 5-year-old Grand Duke of Muscovy. We went for a nice walk after sunset, watching the moths come out, and seeing the lights of our hamlet come on.

After our walk, we looked at the near-full moon, and the Czar told him about some of the many things we have hidden up there. Inspired, the Czar took him to the Royal Observatory and we looked through the lens of the scope at the mountains and craters of the Moon. He was very impressed.

But the Czar recalled that the Jupiter is quite prominent in the heavens being at opposition to the Sun. In fact, after sunset, if your skies are clear, you should look East-Southeast over the horizon and see a brilliant white star in the sky, left of the Moon to you Northern Hemispherites. That is Jupiter.

We turned the scope to look at it, and we were rewarded with a view not unlike the one you see here. Jupter and the four Galilean moons. And the beautiful stripes. The Great Red Spot was not visible, as it was on the nighttime side of Jupiter. This is not a photo from our viewing last night, as the moons were in a different arrangement at the time, but Царевич understood that he was looking at another world, millions of miles away, live—not on a video, not in a photograph, but the way it looked about 35 minutes ago. Царевич stared at the massive world so far away, yet so close. The Czar asked him what he thought about seeing such a sight for himself.

“I love you, Dad,” he answered, and inside we went for juice and cookies.

Clearly it was a night we might remember for a long time. Each for a different reason.

The Face Behind the Protest

Wow. This is another landmine for the Left. Read this whole bit.

All right, so readers outside of Chicago know that Glenn Beck and friends did a private show in the Chicago area as a fundraiser for local GOP candidates. Sold out. And that protestors showed up, screaming out various epithets.

They also held up the same types of posters that they blasted the Tea Partiers for, even though the most notorious poster was done by a Democrat plant.

And so, rather than let them have their say, Andrew Breitbart showed up and walked directly to the front line of the protest. And he asked them what their signs meant.

The video on this link has to be seen to be believed. The protestors figure out who it is, and immediately begin walking away. Not just one or two, but dozens simply put down their signs and begin to hurry away. One manages to call out a “homophobic word” at Breitbart, of course, so careful how loud you play the video. But you must watch it, especially toward the end.

Amazing, no? They effectively fled the scene when Breitbart began asking them what their signs were in reference to. Why? Well, it turns out the story—already incredible—gets more astonishing.

Because the protestors climbed onto some buses, and they were followed. Right to the Chicago-area offices of Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL). Weekend staffers there let them inside to hide.

And already some of the protestors have been positively identified as various campaign workers of Rep. Halvorson, Speaker Pelosi, and even a former campaign worker for President Obama himself. Halvorson denies any involvement, and her website is full of press releases claiming no responsibility—but fails to account for why they were housed at her offices, even temporarily.

Rotasubteriation ensues as Rep. Halvorson blames one unaffiliated individual for masterminding the whole operation. Yes, Rep. Halvorson is losing in the polls to her Republican challenger.

This story is pretty remarkable. God help you if Andrew Breitbart decides he doesn’t like you. The guy is thorough and fearless. The Czar assures you that more on this story will come out over the next week or two. Keep an eye on it.