American success vs. Obama

One of the things that impressed Gov. Jindal's parents about America was the grocery stores:

The Republican governor said as he grew up, his mom and dad (who both emigrated from Delhi) taught him the values that attracted them to this country. ‘’As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad.. As we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me, ‘Bobby, Americans can do anything’”, Jindal said.

I have walked through the empty "grocery stores" in USSR-era Russia. The contrast with American grocery stores which not only have everything but offer multiples brands of everything is amazing. The liberals who want to destroy our economic system seem to have no comprehension of how much worse other economic system are.

The inmates are running the asylum

Pres. Obama "projects [deficit] will hit $1.75 trillion."

Scientists v. Al Gore

The (UK) Register has an exclusive story:

Japanese scientists have made a dramatic break with the UN and Western-backed hypothesis of climate change in a new report from its Energy Commission.

Three of the five researchers disagree with the UN's IPCC view that recent warming is primarily the consequence of man-made industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. Remarkably, the subtle and nuanced language typical in such reports has been set aside. ....

The report by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) is astonishing rebuke to international pressure, and a vote of confidence in Japan's native marine and astronomical research. ....

JSER is the academic society representing scientists from the energy and resource fields, and acts as a government advisory panel. The report appeared last month but has received curiously little attention. So The Register commissioned a translation of the document - the first to appear in the West in any form. 

That scientists disagree with the UN's IPCC should not be surprising:  the UN admits that a only 20% of their panel have had "some dealing with climate."  The IPCC president, for example, is an economist.

Hat tip: WUWT.

Thanks to Obama, the NY Times is now slightly more honest

When Bush was the enemy, it was important to claim that Iraq was a 'wrong turn' in the war on terror. For the New York Times, this meant that they had to deny the obvious fact that we were fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. This led to some bizarre circumlocutions, such as when they wrote: "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, sometimes called Al Qaeda in Iraq, the homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is foreign-led, is not part of the Qaeda network...."

Contrast that with this recent article in which they write: "[Anbar] was once the most dangerous province in Iraq, consumed by a bloody insurgency and terrorism, until tribal leaders joined the Americans and turned on Al Qaeda and other extremists in late 2006." Thanks to Pres. Obama's election, the NY Times can now admit the obvious presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq without circumlocution.

Related: The UPI goes further and discusses how Al Qaeda's leaders in Iraq appear to be meeting with headquarters in Pakistan.

Obama/Geithner speak, stocks plunge

Lawrence Kudlow writes:

The day after President Obama's big news conference, and on the day Treasury-man Tim Geithner unveiled his Bank Bailout Nation TARP III Plan, stock markets plunged in a vote of no-confidence, with the Dow dropping nearly 400 points.

Obama got the ball rolling by painting a dismal picture of the U.S. economy, saying recovery won't arrive until 2010 at the earliest. He then said only big-government spending can jolt our economy back to life. He also bitterly attacked supply-siders and the Bush tax cuts, ....

Pres. Obama claimed that the only person competent enough to be secretary of Treasury was a tax cheat.  Many of his selected advisers were found to be tax cheats. It seems surreal then when Obama lecture us on the evils of cutting the taxes of people who actually pay their taxes.

Hat tip: PrairiePundit.

What is he hiding?

Carrie Brown at Politico writes:

Obama appears poised to break his campaign pledge to give the public five days to review a bill before he signs it.

Obama scheduled a bill signing for 4:35 p.m. Wednesday, even though the House has yet to vote on the legislation expanding a children’s health insurance program. The legislation is expected to win final approval only hours before the president will make it law.

The quick turnaround breaches Obama’s promise to offer “sunlight before signing,” a concept he detailed on the campaign trail and on his website.

This is not a partisan problem: Congressmen of both parties seem to know that most of their proposed laws, like the trillion dollar 'stimulus' boondoggle currently being negotiated, would never withstand public scrutiny.

Another Grammy for Best Politics

Broadway world provides an "unbiased" report:

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore has won the 2009 GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album. ....

With wit, smarts and hope, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization.

GatewayPundit notes that: "Previous winners in the Best Spoken Word category include Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama."

PREVIOUSLY in this series:
"The Emmy for best politics goes to"
"The Nobel prize for best politics"
"The Oscar for best politics goes to"
"And, the Grammy for best politics"

Foreign leaders take advantage of the weak

Like Iran, Russia has decided to test Pres. Obama's mettle.  The Financial Times reports:

The double-act of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has come up with a series of security initiatives that seem designed to provoke, or at least irritate, the new administration in Washington. Without even waiting to hear how President Barack Obama intends to conduct his relations with Moscow – something that Joe Biden, his vice-president, may well address on Saturday at the annual Munich Security Conference – the Russian leaders have thrown down the gauntlet.

First, they leaked details of naval and air bases to be established on the shores of the Black Sea in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, whose independence is recognised by Moscow alone. Then they signed an air defence treaty with the former Soviet republic of Belarus, apparently paving the way for an anti-missile defence system to counter one planned by the previous US administration across the border in Poland. Moscow appears to have persuaded the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to oust the US from its air base at Manas, outside Bishkek, in exchange for $2bn (€1.6bn, £1.4bn) in loans, and $150m in financial aid.

Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the so-called Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) – have agreed to form a “rapid reaction force” which is intended to be just as good as the equivalent force operated by the Nato alliance, according to President Medvedev.

Outside analysts are sceptical whether any of these moves amounts to a particularly effective military gesture but they are certainly intended to suggest that Russia is not rushing to embrace the new US administration.

John Hinderaker adds:

Foreign policy setbacks continue to multiply. Kyrgystan has ordered
the U.S. to close its air base at Manas, "a vital link in the supply
chain to NATO forces in nearby Afghanistan," reportedly under Russian
pressure. Yemen has released 170 suspected members of al Qaeda from custody. In Pakistan, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of nuclear proliferation, has been released from house arrest and freed to re-enter the world of international nuclear intrigue.

It's too early to conclude that the world views Barack Obama as a
weakling, so that the time is right to shift allegiances to stronger
and more reliable (or more threatening) allies. But the trend is
disquieting.

The Fierce Urgency of Pork

Charles Krauthammer explains hope and fear:

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."

-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

Democrats and taxes

Jake Tapper summarizes ex-Sen. Daschle's tax issues:

With the unreported income from the use of a car service in the amounts of $73,031 in 2005, $89,129 in 2006 and $93,096 in 2007; the unreported consulting income of $83,333 in 2007; and the adjusted reductions in charitable contributions, Daschle adds a total of $353,552 in additional income and reduced donations, meaning an additional tax payment of $128,203, in addition to $11,964 in interest.

On January 2 of this year, Daschle filed amended tax returns to pay the $140,167 in unpaid taxes.