Hi there, !
Today Fri 04/22/2011 Thu 04/21/2011 Wed 04/20/2011 Tue 04/19/2011 Mon 04/18/2011 Sun 04/17/2011 Sat 04/16/2011 Archives
Rantburg
531702 articles and 1855988 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 66 articles and 153 comments as of 14:38.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
Suicide Bomber Attacks Afghan Ministry of Defence
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
12 00:00 Bobby [] 
4 00:00 Old Patriot [1] 
3 00:00 Ebbang Uluque6305 [] 
0 [] 
7 00:00 Bobby [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [1]
2 00:00 Rambler in Virginia []
0 []
2 00:00 Angeretle Snore6772 []
6 00:00 Rambler in Virginia [1]
2 00:00 Cyber Sarge []
3 00:00 gromky []
0 []
2 00:00 JohnQC []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 [2]
0 []
0 []
11 00:00 trailing wife [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
0 []
0 [3]
2 00:00 DepotGuy []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
1 00:00 Besoeker []
1 00:00 Besoeker [1]
12 00:00 Besoeker [1]
1 00:00 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
4 00:00 Frank G []
0 []
1 00:00 Jiggs Joper3143 []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
0 []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 [1]
2 00:00 JohnQC []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 00:00 Besoeker []
5 00:00 Besoeker [1]
1 00:00 rjschwarz []
5 00:00 JosephMendiola []
5 00:00 Besoeker []
0 []
6 00:00 Zhang Fei []
0 []
2 00:00 Fred []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
2 00:00 Fred []
0 []
Page 4: Opinion
13 00:00 phil_b []
3 00:00 Hellfish []
14 00:00 Besoeker []
8 00:00 rjschwarz []
Economy
Obama speech prompts S&P downgrade
The ratings agencies are hardly the last word on U.S. economic health. But the S&P outlook is a warning to the White House that financial markets have noticed that this President seems to have decided that his path to re-election lies in demonizing his opponents rather than seeing to the nation's fiscal well-being.
Some day the rest of the electorate may notice that the nation's fiscal well-being has NEVER mattered to this President. Or maybe they'll 'get used to it', and go down the drain.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/19/2011 05:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obummer has left Carter far behind in the rear view mirror.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/19/2011 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Wow!
Boy was I a piker.
I left a budget surplus, thank you Newt and good luck.
The WSJ says that we have a 14.3 TRILLION dollar debt and a 4.3 TRILLION budget deficit this year.
The good old WSJ (I wonder if any other Dems read that) says that you could sieze the assetts and confiscate all earnings (taxing at 100% is what Nancy would say) of anyone making more than $90K a year and only come up with $4.3 Trillion. The total assetts of the "rich" and that definition changes everyday, okay let's say only people making over $1.0 million, if you taxed them at 100% and took all of their assetts, land, donkey, savings, stocks, girl friends, boat, dog and hot tub, you would only come up with $1.4 Trillion.
I think S&P actually read the WSJ article and did the math.
How on earth can we ever repay $14.3 Trillion dollars in debt?
We've had our economy guided by the democrats since George W's second term. They've been in control of spending for six years and they managed to undo in six years what it took the american people to accomplish in 65.
It's ghastly. The only solutions are draconian and we all have Nancy, Harry and the empty suit to thank.
So next time a lib friend of yours starts with the name calling when you quote facts, look him in the eye and say "calling names and making wild accusations is all your party has done for twenty years. When are you going to quit acting like spoiled children and help with a solution?"
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 04/19/2011 10:36 Comments || Top||

#3  How on earth can we ever repay $14.3 Trillion dollars in debt?

It's easy. Just fire up the printing presses.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/19/2011 11:43 Comments || Top||


Boondoggle in tax code: Subsidies for green energy
But supposedly this is all in the name of creating "green jobs," which Obama often calls "jobs that cannot be outsourced." On this score, the renewable energy grants fall far short, as revealed by the muckraking of Russ Choma of American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop.

Take the Meadow Lake Wind Farm in Indiana, which received the single largest 1603 grant, $276 million. Meadow Lake is owned and operated by Horizon Wind Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of EDP Renovaveis, a Portuguese company. Choma reported that the turbines at Meadow Lake are manufactured by Vestas, and thus "likely made in Denmark, where Vestas is from." The turbines sit atop 350-foot towers imported from Vietnam.

So U.S. taxpayers cut a $276 million check to a Portuguese company in order to create jobs in Denmark and Vietnam.

EDP's U.S. lobbyists include 2008 Democratic National Convention superdelegate Tonio Burgos and the K Street firm Capitol Tax Partners, which boasts a platoon of former GOP and Democratic tax writers from the Treasury Department and from Capitol Hill.

EDP and Horizon also own and operate Blackstone Wind Farm in Illinois, which got a $171 million grant through Section 1603.

Many companies got grants for wind projects they had already completed before 2009, when the stimulus bill was written and passed. That means this money was no incentive, it was simply a giveaway.

The 1603 grant program was set to expire at the end of last year, but the wind and solar industry began a fierce lobbying campaign to keep open the spigot of free cash. Lobbying filings show industrial giants like Bechtel and Vestas pushed for the extension.
Posted by: Fred || 04/19/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where is MY 276 million dollar check?
Posted by: Water Modem || 04/19/2011 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  If you are an American water modem. Your shit-outta-luck!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/19/2011 0:35 Comments || Top||

#3  ION WMF > USDOD "CLIMATE CHANGE 2012-2020" REPORT: TWO US EXPERTS WARN THAT A SEVERE WINTER COULD OCCUR IN 2012 WHICH WILL INDUCE MASS DIASPORAS IN JAPAN, RUSSIA, + SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES. "CLIMATE REFUGEES" FROM CARIBBEAN ISLANDS MAY FLOCK TO THE MAINLAND US, MEXICO, OR OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE AMERICAN HEMISPHERE. WAVES OF EUROPEAN REFUGEES TO CONUS-NORAM DUE TO WATER, FOOD, + ENERGY CRISES, + DESIRE TO IMPROVE PERSONAL ECON WEALTH.

OTHER:
> RISING WORLD OIL PRICES = lead to mil or violence-led conflicts in the Persian Gulf + Caspian Sea Regions by Year 2020???
> FRANCE-VS-GERMANY Conflict over RHINE VALLEY RESOURCES in Year 2022???
> US-VS-CHINA CONFLICT in the Persian Gulf by circa Year 2025???
> ROUTINE ARCTIC ICE MELTS = will increasingly damage iff not destroy the WORLD'S SOURCES FOR FRESHWATER???

"PEAK WATER" = END OF "CHEAP WATER"???

["TANK GIRL" Movie here].

Ironically, "PEAK WATER" = only proves the need for OTC CHEAP CONSUMER-CENTRIC NUCLEAR POWER = FREE MARKETS, NOT THE ALTERNATIVE.

Again, IMO GREEN TECHS includ GREEN ENERGY = human survival in FAR-OFF/DISTANT [Earth-like]PLANETS IN DEEP SPACE, vee Space Travel + Colonization, nostsomuch back here in our TERRAN/GAIEAN HOMEWORLD although this is not to argue that there no implications or effects on the latter.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/19/2011 0:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Last night I saw the head of an Australian Solar Panel manufacturer whining about how the Labor government's proposed carbon tax would hurt his business. Making stuff is energy intensive.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/19/2011 0:49 Comments || Top||

#5  While Obama Hussein continues to try to crush the US Petrolium Industry, he handing over $3 Billion of US Taxpayer money to build a refinery in Columbia, a stimulus to another foreign economy. One that takes jobs and money away from Americans.
Posted by: Butch Chomoque1580 || 04/19/2011 1:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Yah, I suspect they've been wanting to push the refineries out of the country for a while now. Too many republicans work in them.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/19/2011 8:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Doncha know - they need jobs in Columbia, tho I thought our President preferred its' neighbor to the east.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/19/2011 22:38 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
WI Office Break-In: Fleebagger Recall Petitions Stolen
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/19/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Texas Reporter Gets Aggressive With Obama
Video at link. Very much worth watching. A rare look at a reporter doing his job, the old school way.
WASHINGTON -- News 8 sat down with President Barack Obama at the White House Monday afternoon to discuss the economy, immigration and his approval rating.

The president this week is talking up his deficit reduction plan with town hall meetings in Western states. He met with News 8 for a few minutes to explain why he thinks his plan is better than the deficit reduction plan pushed by Republicans in the House, and why he wants to pitch his plan hard in Texas.

The president said his mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy offer a balanced approach compared to the Republicans who want cuts in spending and taxes.

We met the president in the Map Room of the ground level of the White House, where he said his deficit reduction plan is better -- with its higher taxes on the rich coupled with cuts.

"We can take a more balanced approach, consistent with what my fiscal commission put forward, which says $2 trillion worth of cuts."

But in Texas, the president's plan is a tough sell.

"Texas has always been a pretty Republican state, for historic reasons," Obama said.

However, the president inferred that his election meant Texas politics was changing.

"We lost by a few percentage points in Texas," Obama said. That was followed by a gentle reminder that the figure was closer to 10 percent.
Well, lets be truthfull for once.
"If what you're telling me is Texas is a conservative state, you're absolutely right," he said.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry harshly and frequently criticizes the president over the health care law, EPA regulation on oil and gas industries in Texas and the budget. But the president hinted at hypocrisy by the Texas governor.

"Gov. Perry helped balance his budget with about $6 billion worth of federal help -- which he happily took -- and then started blaming the members of Congress who had offered that help," Obama said.

Houston Republicans and Democrats suspect the Obama administration skipped Houston to award retired space shuttle orbiters to states that would help in the president's reelection.

"That's wrong," the president stated. "That had nothing to do with it; the White House had nothing to do with it. There was a whole commission, a whole process; that's how the decision was made."
Anyone can commission a commission to carry out a specific mission. And that is what you did.
Posted by: Unairt Hupising1829 || 04/19/2011 10:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now it looks like the reporter is going to be banned from the White House.

Now we know that the President of the United States is no more than a measley little man-child.
Posted by: Uneregum Bumble6751 || 04/19/2011 16:42 Comments || Top||

#2  coward and petulant child. He needs a spanking and returned to his room - in Chicago
Posted by: Frank G || 04/19/2011 18:04 Comments || Top||

#3  How would he cope if a shoe was thrown at him?
Posted by: Grunter || 04/19/2011 20:00 Comments || Top||

#4  In other news... White House secretary returns bust of Jim Bowie to Austin.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/19/2011 21:14 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL ;] Our Prevaricator-in-Chief is a little thin-skinned, eh? He doesn't do too well without TOTUS. He's accustomed to getting thrown softball questions by the lame stream media--probably is given the questions in advance.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/19/2011 21:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Obama is not cut from the cloth of American President's past. He is in the image of the weak, pitiful tyrants who saw free speach, free press, any thing they can not control, as a frightening enemy. Obama is a cold, hateful little runt.
Posted by: Lionel Flinenter3278 || 04/19/2011 21:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Runt. He. Pedigree info: "Worst in show" Obama is a intellectual lightweight who buckles under the slightest criticism. He would probably cry at Basic Training, if he'd ever had the occasion to enlist, which he would never.
Posted by: Fi || 04/19/2011 22:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Obama is a cold, hateful little runt


Yes, he is. He silently memorializes perceived slights or anyone who crossed out of his "serves his purpose" bubble. Years later, he'll get the better of them in the most passive aggressive manner at his disposal. Wasn't there even a "jilted lover" of his, Mr. Jeremiah Wright who got the cold shoulder after years of friendship?
Posted by: Fi || 04/19/2011 22:14 Comments || Top||

#9  He would probably cry at Basic Training, if he'd ever had the occasion to enlist, which he would never. Posted by Fi 2011-04-19 22:06||

Whimpering and sniveling is permissible in Taliban training camps. No problems.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/19/2011 22:17 Comments || Top||

#10  Obama is a cold, hateful little runt.
Posted by Lionel Flinenter3278 2011-04-19 21:57||


Enough of your sycophatic embellishments Lionel.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/19/2011 22:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Whimpering and sniveling is permissible typical in Taliban training camps after the Spring "Courting Rituals" among the Elders and Talibs.

Explains the desire to kill oneself
Posted by: Frank G || 04/19/2011 22:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Lived in Texas for 14 years, grew to like it. Want to go back, if I can sell my upside-down home in northern Virginia, and retire.

Hmmmm... I can't remember... Did W. ever take tough questions? Does a cat got an a$$?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/19/2011 22:34 Comments || Top||


Polls Hurt The One - Economy Blamed
Now we'll see some action!
Deepening economic pessimism has pushed down President Obama's approval rating to a near record low, but he holds an early advantage over prospective 2012 rivals in part because of widespread dissatisfaction with Republican candidates, according to a new poll.
Good news - the incumbent faces a weak field - I'm sure that's the way the WaPo reported it in 2007, when the Dims were lining up to take a swing at W.
If the election were held now, Romney and Huckabee would mount the stiffest challenges, trailing Obama by four and six percentage points respectively, among all Americans as well as among registered voters.
If frogs had wings, they'd be pigeons.
Obama has double-digit leads over the other five tested -- a dozen points against the latest celebrity Trump and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), 15 against long-ago dethroned has-been Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and 17 points over the much-feared, grizzly-slaying, gun-toting, daughter's-boyfriend's-mother's bad habits, is it hers or is it Bristol's kid Palin.

Driving the downward movement in Obama's standing are renewed concerns about the economy and fresh worry about rising prices, particularly for gasoline. Despite reports the recession was over two years ago and oft-reported signs of economic growth, 44 percent of Americans see the economy as getting worse, the highest percentage to say so in more than two years.
When the last recession was reported to have ended. Wish we were still drilling in the Gulf, Mr. President?
Not to worry, WaPo faithful, because If Obama is running into headwinds, however, his potential Republican opponents face serious problems, as well. Less than half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they are satisfied with the field of GOP candidates.
I'd hafta include myself in that category, because I don't want a field of candidates, I'd like to see a patriotic leader for a candidate.
The latest findings come after the compromise agreement between Obama and Republicans to cut spending in the current fiscal year. It also comes less than a week after the president outlined his proposals for dealing with the country's debt and deficit problems in a speech that included a withering attack on a Republican proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
Just the facts please. Try not to let your obvious bias for the incumbent be so ... obvious.
Buck up, dear readers; don't forget that Then-President Ronald Reagan was also below 50 percent at this point in 1983, but April of that year marked the last time before his 1984 landslide that he did not have majority approval in Post-ABC polling.
We could still have another landslide for our favorite candidate ever!
On the other hand...
Obama trails all seven Republicans among those who see the economy as getting worse -- Republicans are more apt than Democrats to perceive weakening -- and the president runs about evenly with potential competitors among those who report being the hardest hit by skyrocketing prices at the pump.
Keep dragging out that little war in Libya, Mr. President.
Economic anxiety also amplifies the president's challenges among core voter groups: For the first time in available data, more than half of whites without college degrees see the economy as deteriorating.
Even the unemployed, disadvantaged-with-no-minority-crutch-to-help-them, redneck core-voters think the economy is in the tank!
The telephone poll was conducted April 14-17 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults interviewed on old-people's conventional or cellular telephone. The margin of sampling error for the full poll is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; it is five points for the sample of self-identified Republicans and GOP-leaning independents.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/19/2011 06:02 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  His polls would be lower if the MSM were an honest broker of the news. How about a headline which says: The ONE has caused the economy and our credit rating to tank and he does nothing about it? Gas prices have increased more than 200% since he took office.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/19/2011 10:11 Comments || Top||

#2  note the WaPo had to give a fake 10% edge to Dems to get that 47% approval (33-D/23-R/38-I). Can you imagine the approval rating if they honestly sampled? Dem/Rep is actually around 50%/50% for non-Independents
Posted by: Frank G || 04/19/2011 11:12 Comments || Top||

#3 
Then there is this question. How many "independents" are conservative and how many are liberal? No one ever seems to have THAT breakout.
Posted by: tipover || 04/19/2011 11:32 Comments || Top||

#4  The only way to really cut the deficit and the budget is to take an axe to the CAUSE of the deficit - the explosion of government. If we cut the government workforce by 25%, the amount of government regulation by 30%, and the amount of duplication by 50%, the budget would be slashed in half, revenue would increase by about 35%, and we'd have a revenue surplus that could be applied to the debt. It would be far better if Congress would make these cuts, rather than the American people. The People might be a tad over-zealous in their use of tar, feathers, and pitchforks, but I'm not really sure that would be bad. It might give "government" the idea that explosive growth at this time is bad, and they'll wait a few decades before trying it again. Tar and feathers would then be up to our grandchildren. I'll be sure to train mine right.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/19/2011 12:21 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
52[untagged]
5Taliban
2Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Hizb-ut-Tahrir
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Iran

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2011-04-19
  Suicide Bomber Attacks Afghan Ministry of Defence
Mon 2011-04-18
  Five Hurt as Regime Agents Disperse Rallies in South Syria
Sun 2011-04-17
  Egypt: Justice orders the dissolution of the former ruling party
Sat 2011-04-16
  Qaddafi bombards Misrata
Fri 2011-04-15
  Pro-Hamas Italian activist hanged in Gaza
Thu 2011-04-14
  Pro-Hamas Italian Kidnapped By Salafists In Gaza
Wed 2011-04-13
  AU Libya Peace Plan Flops
Tue 2011-04-12
  Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters
Mon 2011-04-11
  Metro blast in Minsk kills several
Sun 2011-04-10
  Shooting erupts in seaport of Baniyas, Syria
Sat 2011-04-09
  22 Syrian protesters killed, hundreds wounded
Fri 2011-04-08
  Gulf states expect Yemen's Saleh to quit: Qatari PM
Thu 2011-04-07
  Rebels push back toward Brega
Wed 2011-04-06
  Gaddafi troops force retreat towards Ajdabiya
Tue 2011-04-05
  Suicide kabooms kill 30 at Pakistani shrine

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.218.247.159
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (29)    WoT Background (14)    Non-WoT (14)    Opinion (4)    (0)