Archive for March 19, 2009

This column is just written for the I wish I said that tag.

How right they were to insist that she was unfit for high office. Let’s just imagine what she might have done:

As president, she might have caused the stock market to plunge over 2,000 points in the six weeks after she assumed office, left important posts in the Treasury unfilled for two months, been described by insiders as ‘overwhelmed’ by the office, and then gone on to diss the British Prime Minister on his first state visit, giving him, as one head of state to another, a set of DVDs plucked from the aisles of Wal Mart, a tasteful gift, even if they can’t be played on a TV in Britain. (Note, the Prime Minister, who is losing his eyesight, may even be blind in one eye).

As vice president, she might have told Katie Couric that when the stock market crashed in 1929, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on TV to reassure a terrified nation. Or on her first trip abroad as Secretary of State, she might have, as the AP reported, “raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe…when she mispronounced her “EU counterparts names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe’s,” then gave the Russian minister a gag “reset” button, on which the word “reset” was translated incorrectly.

What a good thing that Palin, whom Christopher Buckley called “an embarrassment, and a dangerous one,” wasn’t in office to cause such debacles, and that we have Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton instead.

In case you don’t know these are all things done by the three people above. The Closing line was hot air’s quote of the day.

Call the Palinphobes lacking in logic and they will have tantrums, but this time the sandal might fit. This is the Audacity of Type, a faith-based illusion if ever there was one, the belief that qualities shared by and appealing to pundits and writers – glibness, a worldly patina, and a superficial verbal facility – are those needed to run a great nation in a troubled and dangerous era.

But which is more rational, to place limited trust in a proven reformer, who can learn certain facts she does not know already, or to breathe fictional traits into an unknown quantity, who has never run anything, or ever done much besides talk?

The left still has fits over her but she still sell magazines and brings viewers to any show she is on.

I would trade her for Obama right now in a heartbeat.

Well I feel safer

Posted: March 19, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
Tags: , ,

What will happen when Gitmo closes? Where will the terrorists go? Where will we find them? Apparently all we have to do is look out the window:

Holder told reporters at the Justice Department that the administration’s review, made on a case-by-case basis, would determine whether the prisoners need to be put on trial or whether they can be released.

“For those who are in that second category, who can be released, there are a variety of options that we have. Among them is the possibility that we could release them into this country,” he said.

After Gateway pundit’s jaw is picked up from the ground he reminds us:

Honestly, what could possibly go wrong?

Stop the ACLU has video with apologies to Mr. Rogers.

Hey I hear there is one house in Bill Ayers neighborhood that isn’t getting much use now.

Update: The WSJ weighs in, along with Hotair.

Update 2: Captain Ed:

I find myself growing nostalgic for the days when American government kept Americans safe, instead of the terrorists.

Morning Joe VERY RELEVENT!

Posted: March 19, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

These guys are loaded for bear today

6:05 a.m. They are already hitting Dodd, Frank and the administration and congress.

6:10 a.m. Joe points out that yesterday the US spent more money than the entire amount of the ENTIRE Iraq war.

6:12 a.m. Your eyes are not deceiving you this is MSNBC!

6:27 a.m. The Easter egg e-mail was priceless

6:39 a.m. OMG they are quoting Barney Frank from 2003. Lawrence O’Donnell is spinning furiously.

6:41 a.m. Barney Frank WILL NOT come on Morning Joe. This must be the only MSNBC show that he won’t come on.

6:43 a.m. They bring up that AIG was one of Senator Obama’s biggest contributes.

6:45 a.m. “Barney Frank has gotten away with murder.” no wonder he won’t come on. O’Donnell is still spinning.

7:02 a.m. Sports gave time to get the dishes washed and other stuff done. Back to the show.

7:08 a.m. They are going to have to get up at 1:30 a.m. EST to do the show on the west coast.

7:10 a.m. Well he is going to go to be on Leno during a crisis it’s not like he was going to play golf or something.

7:12 a.m. Apparently from now on we do have to pay taxes to be in treasury.

7:13 a.m. Tucker asks the forbidden question: “Would a Clinton administration have been this disorganized?”

7:15 a.m. O’Donnell should get combat pay for this appearance. He is spinning again, Mika backs him up.

7:28 a.m. Myers complements the president on keeping Gates.

7:30 a.m. O’Donnell hits Myers on Cheney, Myers defends. O’Donnell asks if he thinks Cheney thinks only he could have defended the country, Myers answer he should be proud of their record.

7:32 a.m. He points out that in theater the troops were full of confidence, while in the beltway it was all doom and gloom.

7:38 a.m. They didn’t quote a republican on that series of quotes.

7:39 a.m. This was in the bill that nobody could read. Cantor is putting the nail in the coffin.

7:44 a.m. O’Donnell is on full attack mode on Cantor it’s his only chance to fight back.

7:45 a.m. O’Donnell is still attacking but is looking very bad.

7:57 a.m. That was a low blow, her ancestry is polish.

8:00 a.m. Time is now spinning.

8:02 a.m. The 3d glasses make them all look like characters out of the doctor who episode The War Games.

8:07 a.m. How do you call saying I didn’t do something and then saying the opposite a “change in position”. Under oath that would be called perjury.

8:11 a.m. If Dodd has lost Tina Brown he’s lost the left.

8:19 a.m. Does Eric Idle get a buck for the Rutles reference?

8:28 a.m. Just to remind the president; Hamilton became sec of treasury 6 years after the Revolutionary war ended.

8:29 a.m. Oh and we can start the Geitner resignation watch now. When a president says he has “complete confidence” that means his days are numbered.

8:35 a.m. Elizabeth Warren is making a lot of friends on this show.

8:37 a.m. She makes the best case for regulation that I’ve heard yet.

8:45 a.m. James Mann on Reagan will it be an attack or a celebration?

8:52 a.m. Colin Powell didn’t want Reagan to say “Tear down this wall.” I’m so shocked.

Libby 1 Congress 0

Posted: March 19, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

The head of AIG who came out of retirement for $1 to try to clean up the mess there tangled with congress yesterday and the result wasn’t pretty…for congress:

He also proved himself a cut above those who aimed to make cheap headlines at his expense. I’d pay to see him question Congress on its role in the economic mess.

Most important, he revealed the dirty little secret that much of Washington knew and approved of AIG’s promises to pay retention bonuses to members of its financial products unit. That revelation came early in Liddy’s testimony and punctured the hot air balloon.

Liddy’s matter-of-fact claim directly implicates the Federal Reserve, which he called the “gatekeeper” for the 80% of AIG owned by the taxpayers. He also said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner knew of the bonus plan nearly two weeks before it became public.

Over to you, President Obama

Between this and the Dodd yes I did no I didn’t twist, the Fannie Mae Bonius’ and the questions about the actual congressional votes this is turning into a debacle and a half for the administration.

My economic plan is looking better and better.