Only in America

Only in America could a success story like Michael Bennet's happen.  From privileged beginnings as the son of the CEO of National Public Radio, Michael Bennet was magically sucked into the Colorado political machine and was appointed to the post of Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, where Bennet pledged to serve for at least five years and turn the school district around.  He did such an amazing job of improving the school district around that he was promoted to US Senator - and accepted the position - a year and a half before his promised five years has passed. 

Here's a snapshot (PDF warning) of the tremendous job Senator Michael Bennet did for Denver Public Schools, as DPS is being called on to the carpet to answer for how...fantastic! its performance as a district is.  A few choice tidbits:

• "only about one-half of the city’s 9th graders finish high school in four years"
• "Success with such dramatic reform requires education leaders who can articulate and implement a vision, sustain the effort to achieve it, and build wide-spread support to protect their hardwon progress." (emphasis mine)
• "Most schools miss federal, state and local targets"
• "Current student results are unacceptable by all measures."

WhoRunsGov view Bennet as Obama's point man in the Senate for education reform.  With such evident success in Denver Public Schools, is it any wonder?

Posted by: Alice H at 04:21 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Some Insight Into Obama's Policy Wonks

Apparently, they are advocates of Behavioral Economics.

As an example, in Greensboro, NC, teenage mothers are paid $1 a day by the city if they don't get pregnant. That's not a lot of money, but the small incentive is enough to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy in the town. The cost of the program is, of course, much cheaper than assisting young mothers with new children. (This reward program reminds me of how people will reduce their home electricity bill if they are rewarded with a smiley face on their power bill.) Cass Sunstein, chosen by the President to run the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, approves of this program because of the way it uses psychology to help people make decisions that serve their best interests.

The piece also explores the origins of behavioral economics, which go back to 1955, when Daniel Kahneman was a psychologist in the Israeli army and learned that his test for choosing military officers (seeing which men in a group took charge of a task to lift a telephone pole over a 6-foot wall) didn't work. Data revealed that his test had no correlation at all with how the soldiers actually behaved on the battlefield. Nevertheless, Kahneman's faith in his own judgment was so great that he continued to put soldiers through the test, ignoring the data that showed his test was worthless. Eventually, Kahneman became fascinated by his own "cognitive error" and started studying and cataloging the different ways that people misjudge the world around them. Thus, behavioral economics was born.

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Sheriff Joe Biden Is Doing An Awesome Job Watching Over The Stimulus Spending

How long bfeore the MSM tells us it's a good thing that "only" $50 billion in stimulus fraud took place, and that Team Obama "saved" gajillions more from disappearing?

 

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Hope! Change! Cronyism!

Say this for Obama: he has mastered the Chicago style of politics.

The White House is going ahead with firing Walpin.  The firing apparently stems from Walpin's investigation of a non-profit group, St. HOPE Academy, run by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California (and a big Obama supporter).  "[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car," the AP reports.  In April, the U.S. attorney declined to file any criminal charges in the matter and criticized Walpin's investigation.  But at the same time Johnson and St. HOPE agreed to repay about half of the $850,000 it had received from AmeriCorps.

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Obama Shows Israel The Soles Of His Feet; Israel Set To Show Obama Its Pimp Hand

Good thing Bibi is in office.

Netanyahu's refusal to commit to a building freeze in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and to endorse the goal of establishing a Palestinian state -- both set out in a 2003 peace "road map" -- has opened a rare rift in U.S.-Israeli relations.

Signalling the direction Netanyahu could take when he delivers his policy speech on Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres raised in a meeting with a European envoy the possibility of an interim Palestinian state with provisional borders.

That option, which has been rejected by the Palestinians, is part of the road map, a plan backed by Washington.

Briefing their counterparts in the Quartet of Middle East mediators after talks with Netanyahu, U.S. officials voiced scepticism he would make the clear, far-reaching and tangible commitments on settlements or statehood that Obama has sought, participants said on condition of anonymity.

"The Americans are not satisfied with what they have been told," a senior Western diplomat said.

Netanyahu wants to negotiate a compromise whereby Washington would permit at least some "natural growth", or construction within existing settlements to accommodate growing families, but, so far, Obama has refused to back down, diplomats said.

Well, nice to see Reuters is blaming Israel again.

As an aside, I have no idea if Obama's "soles of my feet" photo was intentionally an insult to Israel. Personally, I think he is just trying to further that "cool cat" persona. But then again, any time Israel tells Western diplomats to pound sand, it's all good.

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Pluggy Joe Is Confused As To What Sonia Sotomayor's Occupation Is

I wonder if he thinks she's a cop or a janitor with this comment.

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Why Do I Get The Feeling This Is An Empty Gesture By The Messiah?

Seriously, do you believe The One wants to enforce tighter rules on spending?

Obama added: "Paying for what you spend is basic common sense. Perhaps that's why, here in Washington, it's been so elusive." He recalled that two years ago during the presidency of George W. Bush, the new Democratic-controlled Congress adopted rules to restore the pay-as-you-go principle, also known as PAYGO, but could not pass it into law without support from the administration.

"I want you all to know, you now have that support," Obama said to applause from the gathering.

Calling pay-as-you-go "essential," Obama said, "The reckless fiscal policies of the past have left us in a very deep hole. Digging our way out will take time, and patience, and tough choices." He said Americans are "not wrong" to be skeptical, but he expressed confidence that political leaders can seize "an extraordinary moment" and summon the resolve to "restore fiscal responsibility."

Obama has said since taking office that he would support a push to enact budget rules similar to those that were in effect during the Clinton administration, when big deficits were briefly transformed into surpluses.

If approved by Congress, the rules would forbid lawmakers from expanding entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, creating new entitlement programs or cutting taxes unless the cost is covered by spending cuts or tax increases. If lawmakers fail to pay for their initiatives, Obama's rules would subject some entitlement programs to automatic cuts, according to details of the plan released by the White House.

Deficit hawks applauded the move, saying the automatic trigger, known as sequestration, would mark a return to more serious budget restraint, though they expressed concern about the administration's plan to exempt some programs from automatic cuts, particularly the massive and popular Social Security program.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I hate to be too glib about this...

...but, well...

North Korea's sentencing of two American TV journalists to 12 years of hard labor Monday could imperil the Obama administration's already difficult goal of curtailing the authoritarian nation's nuclear weapons ambitions.

Um, what? Are they going to have to send the Norks an even more sternly worded letter? Is Barack maybe gonna squint and wag a finger at them if he finds time to bother to actually offer a statement about this situation?

Because, yeah, I wish I was fucking kidding. Really, I do.

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:20 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The Sarkozys dodged a bullet

Seriously, who'd want to have dinner with this staring at you the whole time?

(h/t)

Posted by: Alice H at 12:08 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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He'll sit down with terrorists, but not with allies

I'm starting to feel sorry for our next president - he's going to have a lot of bridges to repair.

America’s First Family will not be dining with President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, even though they are staying at the residence of the US Ambassador, yards from the Elysée apartments where the Sarkozys spend their weekends.

I can't think of a good justification for this snub, assuming the president is truly trying to be non-partisan and reach out to the world.

Update: apparently Obama refused dinner with Sarkozy because he wanted gold-dusted desserts.  Or maybe it was just because he can't stand being in the same room as someone who's not fawning with adoration.

Another update: While the US economy is struggling, while our unemployment rate is moving up, while the US needs to be strengthening our ties with our allies, the Obamas are out sightseeing, having date night in a Paris bistro, following dinner up with a boat ride.  France is paying for elevated security for a visitor who disrespects their leader.

Posted by: Alice H at 10:16 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Tiller's murder was an inside job!

No, I don't really believe that. But if the troofers can blame 9/11 on Bush, then surely we can blame the murder of George Tiller on Obama.

Roeder was seen twice in the week before the Tiller shooting trying to glue shut the clinic's doors. Pederson reported both incidents to the FBI. And Roeder served jail time after being convicted in 1997 of having bomb-making parts in his car.

My personal moratorium on not saying bad things about Tiller is over now, by the way.  So if you're not mad enough already, watch the vid below the fold.  Content warning.
more...

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May's unemployment numbers are not good

Geoff's got a new chart for you...things aren't good.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Promises, promises

I'm pretty sure you can tell where this is going...

The president adamantly opposed health benefit taxes during the campaign, arguing they would undermine job-based coverage, and he criticized Republican presidential rival John McCain for proposing a sweeping version of the same basic idea.

Of course, this will only apply to people making more than $250K per year. Yeah.

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:40 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Distributed Moron Knowledge Powers Activate!

Help me Moronia, you're my only hope.  So I'm trying to think through the GM disaster and my current question is this - if the US Govt. is a shareholder, who casts the proxy vote?  Secretary of Treasury?  Seriously, I'm trying to sort this out.  Does Congress direct it?  The Supremes?  Seriously, who?

Come through for me Morons, I know you can do it!

Bipartisan encouragement (Terminator: Hotass Edition) for answering beneath the fold.
more...

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Time For A Nucrear Confrict

Before I start, does anyone else get momentarily giddy when they read this headline?

N. Korea Defiantly Fires 6th Missile, Slams U.N.

Turns out the missile didn't hit the U.N. but landed in the ocean or something.  Lame.

Anyway, I just wanted to touch on how the Chamberlain Administration is responding to this rapidly deteriorating situation:

With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, Chinese fishing boats left the region, possibly to avoid any maritime skirmishes between the two Koreas. But U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the situation was not a crisis and no additional U.S. troops would be sent to the region.

Oh, well never fucking mind then.  For some reason I was under the absurd impression that North Korea was consistently threatening war with the South while simultaneously making aggressive military moves and detonating nuclear weapons.  Where would a moron like me get that stupid idea?

"If the U.N. Security Council makes a further provocation, it will be inevitable for us to take further self-defense measures," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Oh yeah.  Well, in my infinite stupidity I must be misreading that.  Certainly the North Koreans would never defy their 60 year armistice with South Korea:

On Wednesday, South Korean media reported that North Korea may be starting up its nuclear plant at Yongbyon, a site that was in the plutonium production business before the country agreed to shut down operations during the Bush administration.

In response, officials in Seoul, South Korea, announced they are joining the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) organized under U.N. Resolution 1718. 

North Korea called that move a declaration of war, and the country's Central News Agency reported the regime no longer considers itself bound by the 1953 armistice. It also accused the United States, a signatory of the armistice, of "dragging" the South into the program through its "hostile policy" toward the North.

:-|

What was it that Teddy Roosevelt famously said about diplomacy?  I believe it was, "Speak Softly and Shove A Stick Up Your Ass," or something to that effect.  Well, Obama is the living end when it comes to speaking softly and Hillary definitely has something in her colon so I think we're in good shape.

...   Or fucked.  Yeah, that's it.  We're totally fucked.

See, if I were North Korea I'd invade South Korea in the next few weeks.  I'd do it because I'm pretty sure I'd get away with it.  The United States would do literally nothing because we have the most useless executive to ever lead this country.  Also, the mere act of invasion would destroy the global economy in one day.  China would either do nothing or attempt to control the situation but either way I figure they'd start putting their money somewhere other than our debt. 

Sure, 35,000 American troops would be in the way of 1,000,000 Nork soldiers but does anyone really think the One would commit the necessary military assets to the peninsula to actually defeat them?  Would Japan?  Would China?  With the threat of having one or more of their cities annihilated by nuclear fire?  I don't know. 

I do know that the objective North Korea seeks would be accomplished.  They'd prove that they had the power to control events.  The world would be forced to give in to their demands. 

But, of course, they aren't going to do anything.  They're just bluffing.  Ask Bob Gates. 

I think Gates is wrong.  Like Japan after the Rape of Nanking and America's subsequent oil embargo, they have very little to lose by an aggressive posture.  If the U.N. installs a strict sanction regime against them (which seems more likely than it usually is) they will literally be starving and out of fuel.  The scary thing is they had to know this would be the global response to their actions and they did it anyway. 

So, either they are using all this crazy shit as a bargaining chip to get what they already have* or they seriously intend to extract ransom in exchange for the survival of South Korea and the global economy. 

And North Korea invading the South under the umbrella of nuclear protection isn't even the worst part!  The worst part is that as soon as North Korea crosses the line all the other little assholes in the world are going to cross their lines too because it will be impossible for the U.S. to deal with something of that scale and put out fires all over the rest of the planet. 

This is what we get when we put a 4 year old girl in charge.  We get fucked.  

: - | 

* - Free oil and food from the rest of the world.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 08:47 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Let's hurry up and wreck the economy (some more)

Never waste a good crisis, indeed:

President Barack Obama warned Thursday that if Congress doesn't deliver health care legislation by the end of the year, the opportunity will be lost, a plea to political supporters to pressure lawmakers to act. "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," Obama told supporters by phone as he flew home on Air Force One from a West Coast fundraising trip.

You heard the man. We've got to do everything we can to obstruct this clusterfuck from getting passed this year.

Of course, this is all part of the permanent campaign, since that's all he's really good at (with my emphasis):

Obama's political organization, Organizing for America, invited campaign volunteers to a midday conference call to describe a nationwide June 6 kickoff for its health care campaign. The president's message to his re-election campaign-in-waiting was simple: If volunteers don't pressure lawmakers to support the White House's goal on health care, Washington would drag its feet and nothing would change.

"The election in November — that did not bring about change, it just gave us an opportunity for change," Obama said. "So now, we are really going to have to remobilize, we have all had a chance to catch our breath after election and we have gotten a lot of things done during our first four months."

I'd say you've gotten a little too much done during the first four months, but then again, I'm just a hateful right-wing extremist. And a RACIST!!! too.

Oh, and I guess I also hate families and businesses...

The president said the costs of the nation's $2.5 trillion health care system are crushing families and businesses and pose the largest threat to the economy.

That's funny. I thought Obama posed the largest threat to our economy. Again, RACIST!!!

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:14 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Every part of him is bigger

So this is unsurprising.

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More change that's not change

President Obama will be announcing Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was a Clinton nominee to the Court of Appeals in 1997.

The Judicial Confirmation Network had some choice words about Obama's selection.

Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, on nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court:

“Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one’s sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.

“She reads racial preferences and quotas into the Constitution, even to the point of dishonoring those who preserve our public safety. On September 11, America saw firsthand the vital role of America’s firefighters in protecting our citizens. They put their lives on the line for her and the other citizens of New York and the nation. But Judge Sotomayor would sacrifice their claims to fair treatment in employment promotions to racial preferences and quotas. The Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.
“She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court.”

Keep in mind, the JCN is a Republican-based organization.

Sotomayor was originally nominated to the US District Court by Bush 41 as part of a deal to allow the confirmation of conservative judges. Race and gender cards were heavily played, with Patrick Leahy calling the delay of the nomination of a Hispanic woman disturbing, petty, and shameful. The live announcement should be happening any minute - I'm sure we'll hear talk of how proud we should be that she comes from immigrant parents and that we've once again broken racial barriers by nominating a Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court.

EDIT: Gabe reminds us that Sotomayor holds some beliefs about judicial activism that we might not share.  Yeah, she's that one.


Scotusblog has a list of some of her decisions, some not so bad, some disgusting, including an opinion that "the government “is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position” with public funds".

Gabe also dug up this damning analysis of one of her speeches, sponsored by the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal (no, I'm not kidding).  Is it racist to scream "RACIST!!!!!1!!eleventyone!"?  Go read it, it's scary.

Posted by: Alice H at 08:41 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Elections have consequences

Oh yeah. You can bank on the fact that we're definitely going to be getting a liberal activist justice on the Supreme Court:

"I said earlier that I thought empathy was an important quality, and I continue to believe that. You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you, but you have to be able to stand in somebody's else shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living," he said.

As an example, he cited the Lilly Ledbetter case, in which the court ruled in 2007 that a woman who had suffered pay discrimination, but discovered it after the window for filing suit had passed, could not sue her employer. "I think anybody who has ever worked in a job like that understands that they might not know that they were being discriminated against," Obama said. "It doesn't make sense for their rights to be foreclosed. That's the kind of case where I want a judge not only to be applying the law in front of them but also to understand that as a practical matter."

And this guy is supposed to be some kind of super-scary Constitutional scholar? Really? Supreme Court justices are only supposed to apply the law in front of them, especially as how it relates to the Constitution. Not how something makes you feel, or whether or not you think something is unfair.

Oh, silly me. That's a strict-constructionist view of the role of the courts. Which is also probably RACIST, SEXIST, and HOMOPHOBIC somehow. Code words, you know.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Are you ready for the Obamobile?

Something tells me that the WSJ is less than optimistic about the future of the American auto industry under Obama's new fuel economy standards:

At the end of his Rose Garden explanation yesterday of the new U.S. fuel-efficiency standards, President Obama remarked on the good that can be accomplished when we are "working together." The President may be getting ahead of himself. Watching the unlikely coalition arrayed behind him as Mr. Obama committed the U.S. to an astonishing passenger-car mileage average of 39 miles per gallon by 2016, it looks truer to say we are merely standing together in this adventure, for better or worse.

Mr. Obama's fleet-mileage partners yesterday included the two auto companies that have fallen into his arms, Chrysler and GM, still-independent Ford, the major foreign manufacturers, United Auto Workers chief Ron Gettelfinger, and beaming representatives from the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

All that's left to arrive at the President's new destination for the American way of driving are huge, unanswered questions about technology, financing and the marketability of cars that will be small and expensive.

Picky, picky.

They go on to point out that the new fleet of American cars will likely be made up of small hybrids and electric cars and then ask an extremely silly question:

Once Detroit is forced to build these cars, will free Americans want to buy them, at any price?

Um, like we're gonna have a choice? That's pretty much the entire point. Oh, and isn't that "free Americans" thing quaint?

We wish these folks luck "working together" with the Obama auto-design team. One thing seems certain by 2016: Taxpayers will be paying Detroit to make the cars Americans don't want, and then they will pay again either through (trust us) a gas tax or with a purchase subsidy. Even the French must think we're nuts.

We. Are. So. Fucking. Screwed.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:22 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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