Your Natural Truth For Today

“[Obama's meeting] turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls -- just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door -- just as they do for the actual president.

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, 'This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,' adding: 'I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.'” [emphasis added] ---Dana Milbank, the Washington Post.

It's Time To Play "SPOT THE RACISM!"

According to prominent leftwing blogger Josh Marshall, the new John McCain ad mocking Sen. Obama's celebrity status (as opposed to any actual qualifications to be president) is racist.

If you haven't seen the ad, please watch it here, and then see if you can SPOT THE RACISM!

(The Obama response ad, which doesn't mention race at all, can be viewed here.)

When you think you've spotted the racism, check your answer here! Good luck.

Oh, and one hint: the answer involves massive levels of stupidity and paranoia. Not much help when it comes to liberals in 2008, I know.

Obama's BFF

Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers

Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer

Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president

Hillary hated on you, so that b---- is irrelevant

So says Ludacris, who Barack Obama considers a "great talent" and a "great businessman," in his latest (for lack of a better word) song, called "Politics (Obama is Here)."

Last year, Sen. Obama took time from his presidential campaign to meet privately with the "talented" Mr. Cris (or should I call him "Luda," too?) to discuss "empowering America's youth" and to call for the firing of Don Imus over his comments re: "hos." Ludacris was, of course, shocked to hear such demeaning language towards women.

Will Ludacris make Obama's short list for veep? Well, he certainly appears to be ready to take on the GOP in a debate:

You can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history

the first black president is destined and it's meant to be

the threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes

so get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!

paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified

McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed

Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped.

Stay classy, Obama supporters...

Obama and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

Sen. Barack Obama, like his good friend Deval Patrick, supports reparations for slavery. If mainstream news outlets like the Boston Globe-Democrat had any integrity, this would be news. BIG news.

"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds," Obama told a race-based group of journalists.

Alas, none of the "journalists" noticed he was making news. The reason it's news, in my opinion, isn't the obvious "Jesse Jackson Shakedown" aspect of reparations that annoys America's already overburdened taxpayers. Reparations are far worse than that.

Giving money to one group of people based on race--money collected from everyone who is not in that group--would be far more divisive than the worst plot ever hatched in the fevered fantasies of the Aryan Nations. It strikes at the heart of the premise of America: e pluribus unum (which, interestingly, Obama dumped from his self-made presidential seal).

America's not perfect, and her people aren't perfect. Many people think the Great Society welfare programs were a disaster. Others think the same of the Reagan tax cuts and invading Iraq. But the premise of America is, because we all have our say, we're all in this together.

The fundamental premise of reparations is "What do you mean 'we?'"

If Sen. Obama truly wants to tear this nation apart, promote racial division and create the kind of America the Rev. Wright claims we already live in, there is no better strategy than race-based reparations.

Raynham Grocery Store Perv A "No Show" In Court

Remember when Market Basket janitor and alleged perv Valerio Rodriguez got punched in the nose by the father of the kid he was feeling up in the men's room? At the time, the police treated him and the dad equally--both were charged with felonies, neither was arrested.

Most rational people (a category that excludes members of the Massachusetts judiciary) were outraged. How can you set this guy loose? Why are you charging the father? Can't the courts even tell the good guys from the bad guys?

And there was one other question I asked on my show that the cops--and the Boston Globe-Democrat--ignored entirely: Is Rodriguez a crimmigrant? Or, as the Globe-Democrat would call him, an "undocumented janitor?"

We still don't know. But you will no doubt be shocked--SHOCKED!--to read this, courtesy of the Brockton Enterprise newspaper:

"An elderly man accused of groping a boy in a Raynham supermarket bathroom reportedly failed to show for his arraignment Tuesday.

Market Basket janitor Valerio Rodriguez, 71, of Providence faces a felony indecent assault charge after he allegedly reached under a bathroom stall partition and touched a 4-year-old boy’s calf June 1.

A judge at Taunton District Court issued a default warrant for his arrest and added a 'do not release' order to it, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County
District Attorney’s Office.

Gee, do you think that maybe Rodriguez didn't show because maybe, just maybe, he's afraid of being deported? And how dumb does it make Massachusetts look that the guy's been arrested for sexual assault, hasn't shown for his court appearance, and we STILL don't know his immigration status!

Oh, and here's the last little bit of good news:

"As of early Tuesday afternoon, Rodriguez had not been located, Miliote said."

John Kerry, Man Of The People

"John Kerry makes me SO thirsty!"

Slightly inebriated people, perhaps, but it's still nice to see our painfully-French junior senator hangin' with the peeps.

Given that he spends most of his time on the Cape bumping people like these off the wait lists at upscale restaurants, this is a step in the right direction for Sen. Liveshot.

Could McCain Really Win This Thing?

Americans by a 2-1 margin believe Obama has the prez race in the bag. But with Obama essentially tied in polls, and underperforming previous Democratic nominees, why is everyone assuming this race is over?

Bill Kristol has an interesting theory on how Sen. McCain might just pull this one out.

Let's Just Hope They Don't Blame Themselves

UPDATE: Welcome, fellow Michelle Malkin fans. Here's my Boston Herald column on the "Extreme Rake-Over: Taxpayer's Edition" story.

I update the blog every day, and you can listen to the "Natural Truth" radio show every day from 9am-noon at http://www.wtkk.com/!


Meet Patricia and Milton Harper, the latest "victims" of the evil Bush economy, greedy banks and (as yet to be confirmed) a controlled demolition set off by the Israeli secret service.

Their beautiful, 5,500 sq. ft. home in Georgia scheduled to be put on the auction block in early August. They owe $450,000 in mortgages that they are not paying. Poor dears. Then again, they're lucky to be alive.

Regular readers of the Boston Globe-Democrat know that some responsible borrowers are being driven to suicide due to their guilt over not paying their bills. The Globe-Democrat ran a huge story last week when "Taunton mother Carlene Balderrama killed herself an hour and a half before her home had been scheduled to go up for foreclosure auction," as the Globe reported.

In their story, "The Anguish of Foreclosure," the Globe-Democrat reported that Ms. Balderrama was so ashamed of her plight that she hadn't told her husband the bank was foreclosing. The price of call for personal responsibility, according to the Globe-Democrat, is death:

"Bruce Marks, chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said it is not uncommon for homeowners to contemplate suicide when they cannot keep up their mortgage payments. 'What gets us so angry is that people blame themselves,' Marks said. 'They can't see past their sense of responsibility to see the responsibility and the predatory nature of these lenders. The fact of the matter is, unless something dramatic happens, there's going to be more and more people like her taking their lives.'" [emphasis added]

In other words, the subprime crisis is a crisis of hard-working, responsible Americans being driven to suicide by their over-inflated sense of responsibility. If only they'd let someone in government--oh, I dunno, maybe a very junior senator for Illinois, for example--give them billions of other people's money before these excessively-responsible folks to something rash.

The Boston-Globe Democrat followed up that story with an editorial making it clear who is at fault:

"After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the only thing President Bush asked of most Americans was to keep on shopping.

In this context, it's harder to attribute the financial troubles of a family in Taunton or a free-spending mother in Pennsylvania solely to bad decisions or bad luck. Consumers are learning the hard way. What's still needed is a change in the culture of the financial-services industry, and recognition from Congress that there's more to financial regulation than letting the borrower beware."

Got it? Good borrowers, but bad banks, bad Congress and--of course--bad ol' Bush.

One thing that the Globe-Democrat editorial doesn't mention even once (and that the original story dedicated a single sentence to) is that "Court filings show that John Balderrama had a history of financial problems. Three times since 2004, he sought protection from his creditors by filing for bankruptcy, according to court records. When the court dismissed his third bankruptcy filing in 2006, Balderrama was still $45,000 in debt." (thank you, Boston Herald).

Ms. Balderrama's decision to commit suicide is tragic. But to present her as part of a middle-class family who, having never faced financial troubles before the current "crisis," chose to kill herself in shame or desperation is simply not true. Every decent person feels great sympathy for the loved ones she left behind. But does anyone really believe the problem here--or in America in general--is that people feel TOO responsible for their own actions?

Which brings us back to Patricia and Milton Harper (pictured above). They're losing their home--and after working so hard to earn it, too. Well, not quite:

Things couldn't look better three years ago for Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, who giddily accepted the keys to a small castle, plus enough money to pay taxes on it for 25 years. Now, the Clayton County house that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" built is a two-story, turreted example of how things can go wrong. It's in foreclosure.

The Harpers used the house at 5489 Ahyoka Drive as collateral for a $450,000 loan, Clayton County mortgage records show. Records at the law firm handling foreclosures for the lender, JPMorgan Chase Bank, say it is in foreclosure. The four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage is scheduled for auction on the Clayton County Courthouse steps Aug. 5.

It gets worse (or better, if you share Bruce Mark's world view):

"Beazer Homes' employees and company partners raised a quarter-million dollars in contributions million dollars in contributions for the family. The sum included scholarships for the three Harper children and a home maintenance fund.

The Harpers, whom ABC chose from among 15,000 'Extreme Makeover' applicants, spent the week in Disneyland while 1,800 people swarmed about the site. The family returned to a new home, plus contributions worth about $200,000."

Then they borrowed $450,000 in even more money against the house and are telling their creditors to pound sand. You know--just like so many responsible Americans do.

Here's my question: Who victimized these fine folks? Who's responsible for this outrage?

And if you find out who did--could you try to get them to do the same to me, too?

You Say "Heroes of WWII." Liberals Say "Mass Murderers"

So says uber-liberal and Obama sycophant James Carroll in the Boston Globe-Democrat today.

Even among the die-hard Lefties of the Globe-Democrat, Carroll stands out for his strident anti-Americanism and lingering fondness for the good old days of Stalinism. Intellectually, Carroll is the Michael Savage of the Massachusetts Left: If someone property adjusted his meds, he'd no longer have anything interesting to say.

Which is why I usually treat his Globe-Democrat columns the same way I treat the guy outside the T stop ranting about the coming revenge of the giant lizard people. I avert my eyes and keep walking.

Today, however, my eye fell on a comment about the Americans who fought WWII that was so shocking I couldn't pass by. "Mass murder." And Carroll wasn't talking about the Nazis or imperial Japan.

The premise of Carroll's anti-American screed today is that American military power is a force for evil. Using Sen. Obama's appearance in Berlin as a launching point, Carroll dismisses the "fall of the Berlin Wall" propaganda this way:

Unlike other American politicians who routinely claim that the United States "won" the Cold War, Obama credited the crowd to whom he was speaking near the former site of the Berlin Wall. "When you, the German people, tore down that wall . . . walls came tumbling down around the world." At last, an American leader was crediting the world-historic outbreak of non-violence in 1989 as the political force it was.

This is out-and-out idiocy. The German pacifist movement that marched in the streets protesting Reagan's military challenge to the Soviet Union did nothing to bring down the wall. If Carroll and these "nuke kooks" had gotten their way, 100 million people would be living under Communist tyranny today. The gulags would still be open, advocates of freedom would still be dying at the hands of the Soviet police, and Communism would still be threatening free people around the world.

OK, that's a Globe-Democrat writer being stupid. Big deal. Where Carroll crosses the line into outrageous insult is his declaration that the real story of Berlin isn't the airlift or the defeat of Communism, but rather the alleged war crime America committed by bombing Berlin during WWII. This mass bombing (which helped defeat the Nazis and end the war) made Hiroshima possible. Here's how Carroll puts it:

The strongest rationale for use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima was that America had already crossed the threshold into mass murder from the air. We crossed it in
Berlin.

America's military in WWII--heroes who defeated fascism? No way! They're "mass murderers" who should have put down their guns and picked up their "Hell, No--We Won't Go!" posters instead. If you want heroes, Carroll believes, you should look to war protesters, not the blood-thirsty savages of the US military.

Carroll is a pacifist, so he has to be this stupid and uninformed in order to maintain his ideology. But the Boston Globe-Democrat is under no obligation to print the slur "mass murder" against men like my grandfather, who fought in Europe and the Pacific against the great evils that cowards like Carroll are too gutless to confront even today.

Your Absolute MUST-READ Of The Day

“A nd it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.”

Read the rest here.

Obama Uber Alles!

Obama's fellow supporters of socialized medicine, nationalized industries, government gun confiscation, "hate speech" laws, government regulations on food/diet, and smoking bans--all policies of the Third Reich--should feel right at home in Berlin.

Remember, my MoveOn.org friends: "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Obama!"

Feelin' The Love?

Or maybe just a leg tingle?

Cast your vote for the best love song to celebrate the media's man-crush on Barack Obama at John McCain's website here.

My choice: Close To You by The Carpenters. "Just like me, they long to be...close to you."

UPDATE: I asked you, the listeners, to suggest what the media and Obama should declare as "Our Song." Here are your top five, based on my emails (michaelgraham@969wtkk.com)

**HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU: Olivia Newton-John is Katie Couric. John Travolta is The Chosen One. Just add Grease.

**L-O-V-E: "L is for the liberal wonks you are, O is for Obama, our rock star..."

**CLOSE TO YOU: "On the day you went to Iraq, the anchors got together, for a chance to interview their dream come true!"

**HOW GREAT THOU ART: A church classic. "Then sings my soul, my savior, God, to thee...."

Hate To Say I Told You So...

..unless we're talking about an insufferable, self-important walking haircut like John Edwards.

In October, I got a lot of flak for talking about the National Enquirer story revealing John Edwards relationship with another woman (other than his wife and himself, I mean) and their love child. I pointed out that this is exactly the kind of selfish, self-serving behavior to expect from an ambulance-chasing politician who insisted on dragging his cancer-stricken wife on the campaign trail.

Well, now the whole story is out, and it isn't pretty:

Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back to her room, where he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST). But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.

Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.

Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom...

I almost feel sorry for this fool. ALMOST.

Oh, and where is the mainstream media coverage of this story?

Don't hold your breath. John Edwards may not be able to carry his home state for the national ticket...but he's still a liberal Democrat.

"Because Of The Terrible George Bush Economy, We're Nothin' But Skin And Bones!"

A recent NPR broadcast slamming the current state of the US economy (which, by the way, isn't much different from their coverage during the great economy from 2003-2007) focused on struggling families in Ohio's Rust Belt.

Families like Angelica Hernandez (above left) and her mother, Gloria Nunez. According to NPR, they are on the brink of starvation:

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore.

Yeah, President Bush--they can't even afford ice cream! I hope you and your rich pals at Big Oil and the Carlysle Group are happy! It's their fault these poor ladies are going hungry.

Or maybe not:

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job...

Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job...

Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job. Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps.

Every decent person wishes these two ladies the best, but one can't help thinking that maybe--just maybe--they've made one or two lifestyle decisions that have contributed to their predicament. It could be that case that they would be in these circumstances if mom hadn't dropped out of school, or if her daughter had gotten some additional education or job training. Maybe--just maybe--it's unreasonable to blame the economy when low-skill workers can't find higher-skill (and higher-paying) jobs. Maybe?

So how will our starving Ohioans keep from wasting away to nothing?

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child. "A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"

They both reject that as a plan.

Somewhere in Ohio, a lonely man cries into his beer.

And I'm Hopeful That Someone In Boston Government Will Grow A Set

"Totally and permanently disabled Boston Firefighter Albert Arroyo, at a bodybuilding competition earlier this year.

So, what would happen to you if you defrauded your boss out of your salary by faking an injury, skipping work and collecting your paycheck? You'd get fired, right?

OK, so what would happen if you also took some of this scam money tax free--a violation of state and federal tax law? You might need a lawyer, I assume.

Now, what if you do all this-- including getting yourself caught by posting video of your "totally and permanently disabled" self travelling and appearing in body building competitions--as a taxpayer-employed firefighter?

Your boss will politely ask you to come back to work.

[Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick] Fraser declined to say what disciplinary action he plans to take if Arroyo does not show up for work Monday. Under current guidelines, if he does not come to work for 14 days, the department can begin termination proceedings on the basis he has abandoned his post.

Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said yesterday that he hopes that does not happen. "We're hopeful that he will show up for work," he said.

Hopeful? HOPEFUL? If he weren't a union-protected hack in one of the most corrupt unions in Boston, he'd be hoping his cellmate didn't think he's "got a purty mouth." I would be fired. You would be fired. But because this loser works for us, the taxpayers--he CAN'T be fired. Amazing.

Meanwhile, his doctor--who has helped put 25 other "injured" firefighters on the fast track to free money for life--says it's not his fault if his diagnosis was wrong.

[Arroyo] paid 13 visits to Dr. John F. Mahoney, including five examinations in the 13 months before Mahoney concluded in April that Arroyo was "totally and permanently" disabled from a back injury.

Although Mahoney said Arroyo doffed his shirt during appointments, the neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital insisted he never noticed Arroyo's near Hulk-like physique - until he saw Arroyo's photo in the Globe a week ago.

"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?"

Remind me not to let this doctor do my next exam for testicular cancer. In fact, based on how he's treating the taxpayers, he should probably shift his practice to proctology.

"We're From The Government, And We're Here To Screw You Over"

How, how, HOW can the lefty establishment of Massachusetts continue to urge us to give more money and power to the 4th-rate government incompetents who run this state? And why do Bay State voters continue to put up with it?

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe-Democrat--the bright spot of the BG-D columnist crew--offers this unanswerable indictment of the corrupt political culture of our state. He makes the point that every rational observer knows how badly Massachusetts is run, but few people appear to be bothered by it, even when the corruption is as blatant as this:

Then there are all the other public employees milking the Massachusetts pension system. Dozens collect payouts of more than $100,000 a year - former state Senate president William Bulger, for example, rakes in more than $197,000, a fitting cap to a long career spent gorging at the public trough. Scores of "double-dippers" retire early on full pensions, then get themselves hired back on the public payroll at full salaries.

When ex-Big Dig director Michael Lewis retired last year, his pension was tripled and became immediately payable under a nutty state law that rewards government employees whose positions are eliminated. For the rest of his life, Lewis will receive more than $72,500 annually, despite the fact that he is only 46, and is making $130,000 a year as Rhode Island's secretary of transportation.

Everybody knows but, apparently, nobody cares. And that's the apathy that Gov. Patrick, Sal DiMasi and the gang are counting on. You keep saying "whatever," and they'll keep throwing your money at their pals.

I Finally Have A Reason To Vote FOR McCain!

As most listeners know, I will never willingly cast a vote for John McCain, a man who has led assaults on free speech, border security and drilling in ANWR. This year, I'm a "W. C. Fields" American, that sage observer of the human condition who said "I never vote for anyone. I always vote against."

But today I a have a reason to vote for Juan McAmnesty. Two, actually.

The first is that he will kick terrorist butt (even though he's wrong on waterboarding and refuses to acknowledge the difference between illegal combatants and our honorable soldiers).

The second? He has a sense of humor.

Read this unintentionally hilarious piece from Politico.com. I love the sense of awed outrage over the fact that McCain tells jokes that make fun of people. The writer is just sentences away from suggesting McCain should be institutionalized for his own verbal safety. "He keeps telling these jokes," the writer implicitly complains. "Doesn't he know that's not allowed?"

Now read this column from Maureen Dowd. MoDo will never win the "sharpest knife in the drawer" award, but I think she may be onto something here about how voters are responding to the self-absorbed, thin-skinned pomposity of the One True Obama.

In American politics, the most likeable candidate almost always wins. One would assume the "likeability" race would be an Obama landslide, particularly against Sen. Cranky Old Guy. Now I'm starting to wonder.

Do we really want a president who can't take a joke...or tell one, either?

Emails Of The Day

ON THE BIG DIG:


Michael,

@ 7 miles long and 21 Billion dollars that comes out to:

Each mile cost $3 thousand million,

Each Foot cost $1.7 Million

Each Inch cost $150,000

It’s mind boggling


--Oscar in concord

I was actually at the very 1st meeting about the big dig presented to the downtown business association was very impressive. At that meeting the state/feds said they werent sure of the hard number but expected the cost to be " a little more than a billion"

I missed the 2nd meeting and by the 3rd meeting the " projected cost " was over the 3 billion mark and the gold shovel hadn't been purchased !!

--Dennis

ON DOGS AT WORK:

Michael, I'm surrounded by dog loving whackos! I have a relative from down south who shows up with her two lap dogs in dog carriers. We told her because we have two cats that we can't have the dogs running around the house. Insulted, she now stays in a motel. My mother, God rest her soul, was another demented ldog lover. Whenever, I visited her I was attacked by her miniature long haired dachsund, an animal that bore a strange resemblance to a large tootsie roll. In any event, one of the attacks resulted in my slacks being torn to shreds. I looked like a refugee from the The Pirates Penzance. My mothers response? "Oh, he's just showing you how much he loves you!

--HGH

I will agree not to bring in my dog if you promise not to foist $5 fund raising candy bars on me or leave 2 hours early for youth soccer or school plays, forcing the rest of us to cover for you or do your work. The fact that dogs are not children doesn't make self-absorbed behavior by parents any less obnoxious.

--Skip in Duxbury

Too Much, Too Good, Today

Today is one of those days when I wish I had a six hour show. There's just so much hilarious, humiliating and outrageous stuff to talk about.

I could do an entire hour, for example on Lefty lunatic icon Howard Zinn's op-ed in the Boston Globe-Democrat today. Written for (and possibly by) someone with a college-freshman level command of both history and English, Zinn tries to make the case that all war is bad:

Have our political leaders gone mad? Have they learned nothing from recent history? Have they not learned that no one "wins" in a war....We should be asking the presidential candidates: Is our war in Afghanistan ending terrorism, or provoking it? And is not war itself terrorism?

This is a remarkably stupid comment from someone who actually served in WWII. Gee, I guess the folks who got out of Auschwitz alive thanks to our war against Nazi Germany are just losers, right Howard? Not to mention the--thanks to war--free people of Western Europe, large chunks of Asia and (thanks to the COLD war that Howard Zinn also opposed) the former Soviet Union.

It's pretty embarrassing when one of the intellectual leaders of the American liberal movement is dumber than your average bumper sticker.

Speaking of dumb, the WSJ today nails the stupidity of the easy-money, give away the farm policies of this Congress and, sadly, the Bush administration. Everything you need to know about the current economic mess is covered here, along with a reminder of the difficult (in the short term) solution: tighten the money supply, let the housing market hit its natural bottom, then stand back and watch our economy take off as it did under Reagan.

And there's plenty to say about the latest reporting on the Big Dig. Sean P. Murphy is the best reporter on this story, period, and he nails the real numbers on just how badly we in Massachusetts are getting screwed by the Big Dig boondoggle. Remember when the Big Dig was going to cost $3.1 billion? Try $22 billion...and that assumes it doesn't kill anyone else or turn into another flood plain. A forlorn hope if ever there was one.

As bad as that is, what Murphy leaves unsaid (and as a reporter probably should) is that we got the Big Dig we deserve. Massachusetts political hacks and their union stooges saw a chance to dive into a bucket full of money. They knew the numbers were lies. They knew the contract was a taxpayer ripoff. But because some cousin got a job leaning on a shovel, many Bostonians laughed up their sleeves and let it go. As long as we were shaking down Uncle Sugar for the money, who cares?

Oooops. Turns out we're paying 78% of the tab out of our own Bay State pockets. The state is so broke, we're borrowing money to cover paychecks for current workers. When you have to put payroll on the Visa card, you know you're in trouble.

Who will pay the price? Will anyone even be punished? Nobody but us taxpayers.

Oh, and one last thing:

Care to guess which Massachusetts congressmen are sending a letter today demanding federal tax dollars to help locals pay the high price of heating oil? The same ones who will be voting today against allowing more drilling for more oil in America.

Phil Gramm Was Right, Part XXXVIII

Local protesters take to the streets on behalf of a Roxbury woman who bought a condo she couldn't afford and hasn't paid her mortgage in more than a year.

She's a victim, they claim, of those "greedy banks." How greedy?

Well, according to The Boston Globe-Democrat, Countrywide loaned Taylor $260,000 to buy a condo, and now they actually want her to...pay it back!

Heartless bastards.

Excellent video of the protesters--including a guy who chains his wheelchair to her porch--can be found here.

Deval "Slasher" Patrick?

Gov. Deval Patrick says he wants "extraordinary budget-slashing power" to deal with the state budget. And as I point out in my column today, if Patrick did use his power to do any real budget slashing, it would certainly be extraordinary.

Every day we taxpayers get yet another reminder of how badly we're being ripped off by the state of Hacks-a-chusetts. Today's also comes from the Herald, where Charles Chieppo of the Pioneer Institute takes on the pension/benefits screwjob we're getting from state agencies:

MBTA employees can retire after 23 years - regardless of age - and immediately receive health benefits and collect a pension. State retirees can’t get health insurance or collect a pension until age 55 - still not a bad deal.

T pensions are arguably the nation’s most generous public sector pension benefits and undoubtedly the best in the transit industry. They’re a major reason MBTA fringe benefit costs are projected to consume 94 percent of estimated fare revenue by 2026... MBTA bus drivers are already the highest paid in the nation and other members of the Carmen’s Union are among the highest paid in the industry.

Highest pay, amazing benefits, and then retire at 43 and have the commuters and taxpayers pay you a pension and medical benefits for the rest of your life. Sounds like a great place for a "no more politics as usual" governor who says "miracles can happen here" to get started reforming the system.

So how about it, Governor "Extraordinary Budget-Slashing Powers?" Oh, I forgot: You can't even take on the police details.

The New Yorker Outs Obama!

Finally, the liberal media reveal the truth about Barack Obama! And they do it right on the front cover of one of their own magazine, the New Yorker! Now every American knows that:

*He's a closet Muslim allied with Osama bin Laden.

*His wife is a dangerous, flag-burning militant.

*Elect Obama and the White House will be Ground Zero for radical Muslims and their left-wing terrorist allies!

Kudos to the New Yorker for having the courage to tell it like it is. The magazine has come under attack from the Left, who say they are outraged and offended by the magazine's cover. And no wonder: They know it's all true! That's why liberals are denouncing it!

Huh? What's that you say? "Satire?" "Lampooning a caricature of Sen. Obama?"

Don't be silly. Are you telling me that Barack Obama supporters are so stupid and/or thin-skinned that they would denounce a magazine cover that's actually a pro-Obama parody? Do you really think Obama voters are that dumb?

Emails Of The Day!

DC writes:

You are so right about whining and hysteria. My satirical neighbor suggests that instead of getting all hysterical, we should have a measured response to a shark sighting. He proposes that we should send a short person in to swim every morning for a few days within a few miles of any shark sighting. If the short person is OK, everyone can go in. If the short person is attacked, well it was just a short person. I think my neighbor is a Randy Newman fan.

I countered to my neighbor that we should send a radical leftist in instead. If the radical leftist survives, fine. If not, well the radical leftist was probably miserable in this world, this country, and this era in any event and so some misery is ended by the experiment.

We have compromised: we agree that Robert Reich should be sent in swimming after a shark sighting.

Cynthia says:

Michael,

I cannot tell you how much I am not surprised by what has happened with the housing market. My husband and I bought a home in 2002 and bought what we could afford not what a mortgage lender said we could afford.

I explained (actually argued for a very long time with my husband house hunting). He (American) and I (Canadian) argued about this American Dream he went on about. Well in the end we got a beautiful home that we can afford, and we live the way we can afford to live.

My husband learned a lot about the Real American dream and it is not keeping up with the Jones’.
We do not have granite counters but we have an energy efficient home that we take a lot a pride in. Mortgaged our home with a fix rate for 30 years. I do not have fancy jewelry and our son wears second hand clothes. We hardly eat out, once a month (eating out for us is fattening).

We live a good life and believe we are the American dream.

You Don't Have To Be A Clueless Hypocrite To Be A Judge In Massachusetts...

...but it doesn't hurt.

In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judiciary Court And Most High Over Lords re-defined marriage to include same-sex couples, ruling that despite 200 years of having marriage mean "a man and a woman," John Adams actually meant "any two people who want to hook up." He just didn't know it, and neither did any of our elected representatives.

So four members of the Massachusetts judiciary ruled that the people had to change the definition of marriage, whether they wanted to or not. (Every poll continues to show that the people of Massachusetts still don't, by the way.)

Imagine my "spit-out-your-coffee" astonishment, then, when I read today about the SJC's ruling on a malpractice case brought by a woman whose partner died of cancer and wanted marital benefits extending back to before the 2004 creation of same-sex marriage. Chief Lunat...er "Chief Justice" Margaret Marshall actual wrote:

Granting such relief would create in effect a common-law or de facto quasi marital status that would promote litigation, permit judges to select from among marital benefits to which quasi marital couples might or might not be entitled, create uncertainty in the private as well as the public sphere about who is (or was) quasi married and for what purpose, and undercut the Legislature's role in defining the qualifications and characteristics of civil marriage.

You read that right. She says the court shouldn't "undercut the Legislature's role in defining...civil marriage."

Oh, you mean like, say, when the legislature passes laws defining marriage as one man and one woman, and when it repeatedly refuses to change those laws, and when the people keep elected representatives who oppose re-defining marriage--you mean THAT role, Judge Marshall?

Gee, why didn't you think of that in 2003?

"And Don't Mention 'Red Dwarves' To Native American Midgets, Either!"

Not long ago, the loonies at Media Matters attacked me for commenting on television that, in the p.c. paranoia swirling around the Obama presidency, "you'll be too scared to order blackened redfish, because an African-American or Native American will beat the crap out of you."

What an outrageous comment, right? Cue the Dallas County Commission.

When a county commissioner in Texas complained about how a county office was a "black hole" for tickets, two of his fellow commissioners--both black--complained about his offensive remarks and demanded an apology. (The must-see video of this story is here.)

Seriously. I'm not making that up.

OK, actually, I did make it up. When I did stand up, I had a bit about stupid people being offended by phrases like "black hole," "nip in the air," "spic and span" and "red alert," which could be offensive to both American Indians or Chinese communists.

The most frightening part of this story is that, even after confronted with the fact that "black hole" has nothing to do with race and everything to do with cosmology, the county commissioners STILL demanded an apology. Why? "It doesn't matter if what he said was racist. What matters is that I'm offended."

No, what really matters is that you're an idiot--the kind of idiot who is only taken seriously because you're a member of a special-interest minority group.

No Habla "I Hate America"

As I admit in my Boston Herald column today, I'm not the least bit ashamed of my lame French or non-existent German. No habla Espanol either, Sen. Obama, and it doesn't bother me a bit.

In fact, if a Frenchman ever asked me why Americans aren't embarrassed about not speaking French, I would ask him if he as grateful that he doesn't speak German.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson should consider giving all his future interviews in Esperanto--a language nobody understands.

The Embarrassed Obamas Strike Again!

First it was Michelle, telling us she was never been proud of American democracy before her husband was nominted.

Now it's Barack Obama, revealing his "embarrassment" over the fact that more Americans don't speak French. (hinting, perhaps, at an Obama/Kerry ticket?) Watch the video of Obama's remarks for yourself.

Not surprising--it's becoming a pattern with Sen. Obama--he's wrong on the facts. He tells Americans to "stop worrying about immigrants learning English. They'll learn English. Instead, you need to teach your children to speak Spanish!"

But the modern generation of Hispanic immigrants are not assimilating the same way previous generations of immigrants have done. Most immigrant families are speaking English in and out of the home by the time the first generation of native-born Americans are adults. But a significant percentage of immigrants from Mexico are still speaking Spanish at home in their third generation. In fact, almost half of Hispanic immigrants now live in communities in America where Spanish is the primary language.

And Sen. Obama's response? The rest of us should learn Spanish, too.

Hello, Haters!

What--you didn't know that listening to my radio show makes you a "hater?" You didn't know that talk radio is "hate speech" that is destroying democracy? You thought it was free citizens having a conversation about important issues of the day?

You haven't read Rory O'Connor's book, have you? Read it, and weep...for the current state of America's anti-free-speech, anti-free-market "liberals."

Pretty Horrible

When I heard that the folks at the Beverly Farms "Horribles" parade were making fun of the Gloucester High School pregnancy pact story, I cheered. After all, I am an advocate of the power of shame--something the administration in Gloucester rejects.

Then I saw the video of the parade. Yikes.

Sorry, Beverly Farms, but I can't get your back. Floats featuring condom tossing and, ahem, "greasy poles" goes a bit too far for me. If I'd been there with my 8 and 5 year olds, I would have been looking for someone to have a word with.

Great idea, lousy execution.

(h/t Boston Herald for the photo)

Good News For Normal People!

All of the following stories are good news...unless you're a lefty ideologue. You will notice that the Boston MSM have largely ignored all of these reports.

You're shocked, I know.

** Final Purge of Al Qaeda In Iraq Underway. Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, said: “I think we’re at the irreversible point.”

** Second-Hand Smoke Will NOT Give You Lung Cancer! This is good news for normal people, even those who hate the smell of cigarettes, because less cancer is a good thing. So why does it make so many lefties mad when the research shows that "In 2003 a definitive paper on SHS and lung cancer mortality was published in the British Medical Journal. It is the largest and most detailed study ever reported. The authors studied more than 35,000 California never-smokers over a 39-year period and found no statistically significant association between exposure to SHS and lung cancer mortality."

** Big Wigs Who Hired Illegals (Finally!) Being Punished. "Two supervisors at an Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided by federal immigration agents in May were arrested and charged with encouraging people to live in the United States illegally.

Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, were also charged Thursday with and aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification. Guerrero-Espinoza was charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft."

But wait a minute--If it's a federal crime to "encourage people to live in the US illegally" (and it is, by the way), then why is Massachusetts giving taxfunded medical care, welfare benefits and housing to crimmigrants? Is that, like, illegal and stuff?

That's why we've got to celebrate the good news when we get it.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

"Governor Patrick, What's Your Excuse?"

From my column in the Boston Herald today:

Poor people. High school dropouts. Minorities. If a mortgage company marketed subprime loans the way Deval Patrick targets for taxes, Attorney General Martha Coakley would bust them for predatory lending practices...

I am a self-confessed, small government, “pay your own way” heartless conservative bastard. Shaking down suckers without regard for race, creed or income is part of my fundamental political philosophy.

Gov. Patrick, what’s your excuse?

"I Realized I Don't Feel Like An American"

nlv

That's why, when Rene Marie was asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner, she instead sang the "Black National Anthem," a.k.a. "Lift Every Voice."

Ms. Marie was asked to sing the National Anthem for the Denver, CO "State of the City" address by their Democratic mayor John Hickenlooper. Denver is hosting the Democratic National Convention in August and, as City Councilor Charlie Brown put it "This is not the way to start the convention."

You can listen to Ms. Marie's performance for yourself, and you can read the lyrics of the "Black National Anthem" here.

Your Must-Read Oil Story Of The Day

As part of my ongoing efforts to understand why I'm paying four-freakin'-dollars(!) for a gallon of gasoline, I've been reading less and less of the Boston Globe-Democrat, and more analysis by actual economists.

One of them, Harvard's Martin Feldstein, has today's must-read insights into why "evil speculators" are not part of a secret cabal to force oil prices up on behalf of Halliburton...or whatever the conspiracy theory of the day happens to be.

Instead, Feldstein makes some common-sense economic observations about the real world:

Unlike perishable agricultural products, oil can be stored in the ground. So when will an owner of oil reduce production or increase inventories instead of selling his oil and converting the proceeds into investible cash? A simplified answer is that he will keep the oil in the ground if its price is expected to rise faster than the interest rate that could be earned on the money obtained from selling the oil. The actual price of oil may rise faster or slower than is expected, but the decision to sell (or hold) the oil depends on the expected price rise.

There are of course considerations of risk, and of the impact of price changes on long-term consumer behavior, that complicate the oil owner's decision – and therefore the behavior of prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (the OPEC cartel), with its strong pricing power, still plays a role. But the fundamental insight is that owners of oil will adjust their production and inventories until the price of oil is expected to rise at the rate of interest, appropriately adjusted for risk. If the price of oil is expected to rise faster, they'll keep the oil in the ground. In contrast, if the price of oil is not expected to rise as fast as the rate of interest, the owners will extract more and invest the proceeds.

The relationship between future and current oil prices implies that an expected change in the future price of oil will have an immediate impact on the current price of oil. [emphasis added]

In other words, if oil producers expect their oil to be worth less in the future--because of, oh, like more drilling and stuff?--they will get it onto the market today and prices will drop.

Unfortunately, American liberals like Sen. Obama, Gov. Patrick and Sen. Harry Reid don't WANT lower prices. They want lower demand, and that comes with higher prices.

So if you support $5 a gallon (or higher!) heating oil for granny this winter and next, you can have it. Just vote Democrat.

The Lunatics Are Running The Law School

Thanks to my buddy Seth Gitell, I can now confidently report that the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law is a kook.

OK, OK, that's not particularly newsworthy. After all, Massachusetts law schools are overrun with professors who (for lack of a better word) "think" that there is no constitutional right to own guns or execute criminals (both of which are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution); but there is a constitutional right to partial-birth abortion.

Like I said, "kooks."

But even in the pantheon of Massachusetts kookery, the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence Velvel, stands out among the Tin Foil Hat Brigades.

As Seth reports, Velvel wants George W. Bush hanged by the neck until dead. Why? As punishment for his war crimes. And Mr. Velvel claims to be serious about it. He's counting on The Hague or some other tribunal to bring W. up on charges and, Velvel hopes, give him the ol' Nazi treatment--right around the neck.

Now, there's nothing knew about conspir-insanity on the left. Visit Gov. Deval Patrick's personal webpage right now, and you can get a heapin' helping of 9/11 kookery on Deval's dime. It's gotten so obvious, even some writers at the Boston Globe-Democrat are starting to notice.

But the head of our state's law school, hoping to see George W. Bush hang? I think the guy has some issues.

Gee, I wonder if Mr. Velvel would support the death penalty for repeat child rapists? Or mass murderers? How about Osama bin Laden?

Or does he, as a good Lefty, only support capital punishment for the worst of the worse: Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Obama: "I Won't Attack McCain's Military Service...Anymore."

Is that what Sen. Obama really said in his speech yesterday? If so, his campaign couldn't keep that promise for even 24 hours.

As I said in my Boston Herald column today:

Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech about patriotism yesterday entitled “The America We Love.” After listening to the rhetoric coming from his campaign, I assume the big question at Obama HQ was “Who you calling ‘we?’ ”

As ABC reports, an Obama advisor is now claiming that McCain's military service and time as a POW make him LESS qualified to be president:

Obama adviser Rand Beers said yesterday that "because [McCain] was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war," that "to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how U.S. forces might be committed to conflicts around the world."

OK, if John McCain's national security experience is "sadly limited," could someone please tell me what the heck Barack Obama's is?

"Shoot The Speculators!"

Robert Samuelson at the Washington Post gives a total beatdown to the dopes like Obama and McCain blaming the price of oil on evil speculators. If you want to understand the "speculators" issue, this is a great read.

Here's the money 'graph:

From 2002 to 2007, oil rose 177 percent, corn 70 percent, copper 360 percent and aluminum 95 percent. But that's just the point. Did "speculators" really cause all those increases? If so, why did some prices go up more than others? And what about steel? It rose 117 percent -- and has increased further in 2008 -- even though it isn't traded on commodities futures markets.

A better explanation is basic supply and demand. Despite the U.S. slowdown, the world economy has boomed. Since 2002, annual growth has averaged 4.6 percent, the highest sustained rate since the 1960s, says economist Michael Mussa of the Peterson Institute. By their nature, raw materials (food, energy, minerals) sustain the broader economy. They're not just frills. When unexpectedly high demand strains existing production, prices rise sharply as buyers scramble for scarce supplies. That's what happened.

Of course, if Samuelson is right--and he obviously is--then the only solution to "not enough oil" is "make more oil," and that's the one option that the idiots running Washington won't allow.