#IRS scandal: But, of course. They targeted Jewish groups, too.

Jewish groups that are favorable toward Israel. We all know how close the President is to Israel, now don’t we?

This just gets better and better.

Via Politico:

The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status.

The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the effort seems to have been equally ham-handed.

(…)

Z Street filed a lawsuit against the IRS in 2010 alleging that one of its attorneys were told its application for tax exemption was delayed and sent to a “special unit…to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.”

“Special unit” probably refers to the same group vetting 501(c)(3) applications that’s been at the center of controversy the last few days. Seems they’re “looking into” anyone critical of Obama, his policies, or the direction of the nation.

But, really, “special unit” and “investigating Jewish groups” are thoughts you never want associated with your administration.

Ever.

More from The Jewish Press.

via Cuffé and J Hammer

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

#IRS scandal: White House counsel knew last April

Via Rick Moran at PJM, Politico is reporting that the White House counsel, the president’s legal adviser, knew about the IRS targeting conservative groups three weeks ago:

The White House counsel’s office was informed in April of an inspector general’s review of the Internal Revenue Service, press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.

Carney told reporters that the counsel’s office was told of the examination into the targeting of conservative groups during the week of April 22, but not given details about the review’s findings. President Obama, Carney said, was not told about the review and learned of it only after news reports emerged Friday, just what Obama said earlier Monday.

Uh huh. Right. The Treasury IG hands the president’s lawyer bombshell revelations, and yet that lawyer never tells his client? “Uh… Hi, sir! Nice morning, isn’t it? Huh? Wha…? No, nothing going on today, sir! Nothing at all!”

Care to buy some swampland in Arizona?

I’m with Moran:

I do not believe that Barack Obama first learned of the IRS’s targeting of conservatives “from news reports” on Friday. That doesn’t pass the smell test, especially since a close aide was told of the program three weeks ago. Are we to believe that the president’s own counsel didn’t immediately go to the Oval Office after learning of this and tell Obama “We’ve got a big  problem, sir”? And the fact that the White House is now in full-blown circle-the wagons damage-control mode would suggest that their primary goal is to keep the president a thousand miles away from anything having to do with this scandal.

Good luck with that, guys. Just remember — it’s always the cover-up that gets ya.

Just ask any White House occupant circa 1974.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Boston Marathon bombing: terrorism on the cheap, financed by us?

I wrote yesterday about questions regarding the Tsarnaev brothers’ financial resources and how they could afford what at first glance appeared to be a comfortable lifestyle and prepare their atrocities without some outside support.

Well, it appears they had some help: the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.

State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.

In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.

The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money.

Gee, ya think?

Meanwhile, his younger brother financed his “lifestyle” not only through scholarships, but also, per The Globe, dealing drugs:

Tsarnaev’s younger brother never seemed strapped for cash, according to people who knew him at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where he was a sophomore. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a scholarship student who earned spending money by selling marijuana, say three people who bought drugs from the 19-year-old.

None of this was enough to finance the “lifestyles of the rich and terroristic,” but the globe goes on to point out just how little it would take to carry out the Marathon attacks:

If the brothers had outside financial or technical support for their deadly attack on the Marathon, it certainly isn’t reflected in their lifestyle or their weapons. The picture that is emerging is more like terrorism on a budget, consistent with reports that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his brother acted alone.

“There is no barrier here to two men doing this on their own,” said Brian Michael Jenkins, a Rand Corp. adviser who focuses on terrorism. “You could easily do this for under $100 per bomb. . . . This is an investment even someone with modest means can make.”

So, it looks more and more like these walking, talking pustules did this on their own… with help from the older brother’s exploited wife, sponging off family, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the potheads of Cambridge.

I hope the younger brother remembers to thank them at his execution.

To paraphrase what Lenin said about capitalists, “We’re going to give them the money to build the bombs to kill us.” And it reminds me of Britain, though they’re much further down the path of subsidizing their own destroyers.

Way back in 1838, Abraham Lincoln made a speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum in which he made an observation I think fitting for this situation:

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?– Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!–All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Only we seem to be paying for assisted suicide.

PS: Back to the question of outside assistance, the Tsarnaevs seemed to greatly admire a radical Lebanese-Australian imam, Sheik Feiz Mohammed, and the elder brother is reported to have met with another jihadist imam while visiting Dagestan. This makes me suspect their situation is similar to that of the traitorous Major Hassan and his al Qaeda imam, Anwar al-Awlaki: they received theological support and encouragement from these preachers, but were left to come up with their own attacks. Still, I’d like to know where they tested their bombs, if they did.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Union that backed Obama calls for repeal of Obamacare

Because they’re finally realizing that it’s a crappy idea horribly implemented and that, no, fairies riding unicorns won’t bring you free healthcare after all:

Organized labor was instrumental in getting the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, but more recently has voiced concerns that the law could lead members to lose their existing health plans. The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is believed to be the first union to initially support the law and later call for its repeal.

“After the law was passed, I had great hope … that maybe the rough spots would be worked out and we’d have a great law,” said Kinsey Robinson, international president of the union, which represents 22,000 commercial and industrial roofers.

Like many unions, the roofers insure members through a so-called multiemployer health insurance plan that’s jointly managed by employers and the union. Mr. Robinson says the union’s concerns about the law began to pile up in recent months after speaking with employers.

The roofers’ union’s current insurance plan caps lifetime medical bill payouts at $2 million for active members and $50,000 for retirees. Next year, the plan has to remove those caps in order to comply with the health law. Other aspects of the retiree plan must become more generous in order to meet the law’s minimum essential coverage requirements next year. All that will increase the cost of insuring members, Mr. Robinson said, and has prompted the union to weigh eliminating the retiree plan.

It also finally dawned on these geniuses that they’re going to take another big hit when the tax on “Cadillac plans” kicks in in 2018. (You might recall that this delay was something the unions asked for, figuring it would be fixed by then. Suckers.)

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry — maybe a bit of both. Unions such as Robinson’s helped elect the worst president of the modern era, then moved heaven and earth to help pass Obamacare, a measure the majority of the nation never wanted and which the Democrats had to pass by anti-constitutional means. And now that it’s turning out to be the fiasco we all predicted it would be, he wants to say “never mind.”

You know what? I’ll be happy to work with the Carpenters or any union that wants to repeal this constitutional and economic monstrosity and replace it with a sensible plan, one based on real-world economics and that respects the liberty of the individual. Hands across the aisle, and all that.

But, I reserve one right: I get to look them in the eye, laugh out loud, and, to borrow a phrase from my good friend ST,  say “Toldjah so!!”

PS: Be sure to read the linked article. The last paragraph really will leave you laughing.

via Brian Faughnan

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Britain’s Green chickens are coming home to roost, as will ours, soon

Christopher Booker in last Saturday’s Telegraph: “It’s payback time…”

As the snow of the coldest March since 1963 continues to fall, we learn that we have barely 48 hours’ worth of stored gas left to keep us warm, and that the head of our second-largest electricity company, SSE, has warned that our generating capacity has fallen so low that we can expect power cuts to begin at any time. It seems the perfect storm is upon us.

The grotesque mishandling of Britain’s energy policy by the politicians of all parties, as they chase their childish chimeras of CO2-induced global warming and windmills, has been arguably the greatest act of political irresponsibility in our history.

Three more events last week brought home again just what a mad bubble of make-believe these people are living in. Under the EU’s Large Combustion Plants Directive, we lost two more major coal-fired power stations, Didcot A and Cockenzie, capable of contributing no less than a tenth to our average electricity demands. We saw a French state-owned company, EDF, being given planning permission to spend £14?billion on two new nuclear reactors in Somerset, but which it says it will only build, for completion in 10 years’ time, if it is guaranteed a subsidy that will double the price of its electricity. Then, hidden in the small print of the Budget, were new figures for the fast-escalating tax the Government introduces next week on every ton of CO2 emitted by fossil-fuel-powered stations, which will soon be adding billions of pounds more to our electricity bills every year.

Be sure to read the rest. Not only is the government in London heavily subsidizing uneconomic wind farms and granting needless subsidies in tribute to get nuclear plants built, but they’re doing all they can to drive coal plants out of business, even though coal plants are necessary as backup for those times when the wind doesn’t blow. Hence the warnings about blackouts in the dead of winter. Britain is looking at a new Dark Ages, one wholly of its own doing.

And before we cluck our tongues at our cousins’ folly, this is just the future Obama and the environmentalist movement would lead us to:

Booker is right that Britain’s energy policy is insanity. But what can we say about a nation –us– that sits atop almost unimaginably immense energy resources, enough to restore the cheap energy needed for prosperity and make us nearly energy independent, and yet fights tooth and nail  against developing it in the name of battling a problem that does not exist?

Madness!

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

At least the President knows his priorities

National debt approaching $17 trillion? North Korean nukes and the threat of war on the peninsula? America’s credit rating?

Nah, it’s March Madness, baby! And Barack Obama, President of the United States, tweeted this morning to remind everyone to get in on the fun:

Finish your bracket: It’s time for #MarchMadness. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 21, 2013

Now, as others have pointed out, the @BarackObama account has been transferred to OFA, his former campaign group, now turned into a national community organization, but, hey, it still has his name on it and it’s still “verified” by Twitter, so why not assume this represents what he truly values?

You can read the reactions at Twitchy telling him to finish his danged budget, first, but here’s one that best reflected my feelings:

For once in your miserable Presidency be a leader; not a pop culture figure MT @barackobama Finish your bracket: It’s time for #MarchMadness

— LilMissHoosier (@LilMissRightie) March 21, 2013

Yup.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

The greatest issue facing America: a cruise-ship passengers’ bill of rights

And Chuck Schumer is on the case:

Sen. Charles Schumer is calling on the cruise ship industry to adopt a “bill of rights” to guarantee passengers certain protections while aboard their ships.

The New York Democrat says Sunday he’ll be asking industry leaders to voluntarily adopt the guidelines which include guarantees that ships have sanitary conditions, back-up power, medical staff and other standard procedures.

Schumer’s plan would also include the right to a full refund if a trip is abruptly canceled due to mechanical problems.

And thus we see the modern Democratic Party’s priorities in action: no budget from the Senate in more than 1,400 days? Bah! The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran or North Korea? Don’t waste my time! Food-stamp usage at an all-time high while labor force participation is at a record low? Small potatoes, friend.

No, as we see from the senior senator from New York’s example, what really matters is grandstanding whenever possible and wherever cameras and mics are available, so that you can pretend you’re fighting for the little guy and convince enough saps to vote for you again.

This also shows the different mindset of the limited government advocates on the one hand, and the statists on the other.

Limited Government Advocate:

“A company that provides poor service will eventually put itself out of business, and those who feel harmed by it have access to the civil courts. Annoying as these incidents are, it’s really none of the federal government’s business, and we should get back to tending to what properly is.”

Statist:

“This is an outrage! People need our protection against evil corporations; the government must do something! What? They already have redress under the law? They can take their business elsewhere? Insufficient! We must pass new laws, because that’s what we’re here for — to pass laws! Not in our purview? Nonsense! We’ll pass a law to make it our business! Call a press conference!”

Is it any wonder people are disenchanted with our political class, when so many of them ignore the real problems we face and instead go chasing butterflies?

via Liberty Unyielding

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Good news! First Lady, State Dept. to honor “woman of courage” who admires Hitler – Updated

My God, don’t these supposed geniuses know how to use Google?

Tomorrow, Friday, Secretary of State Kerry and Michelle Obama will pay tribute at the State Department to nine women, awarding them the “International Women of Courage Award” for standing up to repressive governments on behalf of women’s rights. Nice, right? On its own, it’s a good thing to do; the US should stand for political liberty worldwide. And we shouldn’t be surprised to find Arab Islamic women among the recipients, given the crappy treatment of women in societies based on Islam’s totalitarian, misogynistic sharia law.

But one of the recipients, Samira Ibrahim, is… er… “problematic.” Samuel Tadros at The Weekly Standard explains:

On Twitter, Ibrahim is quite blunt regarding her views. On July 18 of last year, after five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed a suicide bombing attack, Ibrahim jubilantly tweeted: “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”

Ibrahim frequently uses Twitter to air her anti-Semitic views. Last August 4, commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, she described the ruling Al Saud family as “dirtier than the Jews.” Seventeen days later she tweeted in reference to Adolf Hitler: “I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.”

Ibrahim holds other repellent views as well. As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, Ibrahim wrote on twitter: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.” Possibly fearing the consequences of her tweet, she deleted it a couple of hours later, but not before a screen shot was saved by an Egyptian activist.

Because nothing says “America” like cheering on someone who hates Jews and approvingly quotes the guy who tried to wipe them out. Oh, and who hates our guts, too.

And, since anti-Semitism is rife in the Arab-Islamic world, this award is bound to be seen by many as our winking approval of Ms. Ibrahim’s views toward Jews.

Our administration’s “smart diplomacy” in action.

RELATED: More from Roger Kimball and Mark Steyn.

UPDATE: State, wiping a dozen eggs off its face, is “postponing” Ibrahim’s award. (h/t Patrick Poole)

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Hope and less change: Americans cringe at first paychecks of 2013; Stunned lib asks, 'What happened?'

Reblogged from Twitchy:

Happy New Year and happy payday! Thank goodness our "lord and savior" Obama signed the fiscal cliff bill into law after proudly proclaiming, "Under this law, more than 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses will not see their income taxes go up."

Promises, promises.

While PolitiFact will likely rate Obama's statement "Mostly Swoon," around 70 percent of Americans are going to pay more taxes in 2013…

Read more… 1,269 more words

Your host saw this same phenomenon at The Day Job: person after person who voted for Obama and the Democrats upset that they were taxed more... just as Obama and the Democrats promised, if you were paying attention. Trouble is, they weren't. God love the low-information voter.

California’s high-speed train wreck potentially not a metaphor. Update: about those profitable EU rails

Boondoggle

Or, “Science kills another liberal dream.”

California voters were sold a worthless bill of goods when the voted for Prop 1A, authorizing the construction of a high-speed rail to run (eventually) from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The project is already far above projected costs: the initial 65-mile stretch from Madera to Corcoran (1) is estimated to cost $4.15 billion – so far. And there are serious doubts about the ridership projections, meaning the system would face even greater difficulty recovering its costs and paying the debt incurred to build it. Just what a cash-strapped, economically wheezing state needs.

Now, on top of all that comes news that the system may be unsafe at the speeds promised in 1A:

Professor Peter Woodward, one of the world’s leading experts on the geo-engineering of railways, said that high-speed running created “new problems” in track which “may threaten the stability and safety of the train”.

In papers lodged with the Government’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Prof Woodward warned that speeds as high as those proposed by HS2 could trigger “significant amplification of train-track vibrations” causing “rapid deterioration of the track, ballast and sub-ballast, including possible derailment and ground failure”.

High-speed rail in the West has a fairly good safety record, but experts are worried that HS2 plans to run trains faster than any other line in the world. Trains will travel at 225mph, rising to 250mph within a few years.

Most high-speed lines, including Britain’s existing Eurostar, run no faster than 186mph and the world’s current fastest rail-based trains, France’s TGV Est, travel at 200mph.

Some trains on the new Chinese high-speed network used to run at 220mph, but were reduced to 186mph last year on safety grounds.

Now, the professor’s estimate for the danger zone is 225mph, but that’s a not a firm limit. Much depends on the ground over which the track runs: trains in Sweden running as “slow” as 110mph were observe to create a dangerous increase in track vibrations that could amplify suddenly as the train crossed a speed barrier, with an effect similar to a sonic boom.

Of course, the problem can be mitigated by running the trains slower, as the Chinese did, but that then means fewer trains running, which lowers ridership, which lowers revenue, which means more money spent on debt interest and maintenance on a system that can’t pay for itself…

Such is Jerry Brown’s great legacy to California.

Gomez Addams, eat your heart out.

via Cal Watchdog

Footnote:
(1) And from whom do they expect to draw their riders on this route? Prisoners and their guards?

UPDATE: One of the questions surrounding HSR is its economic viability: Can it support itself without subsidies from the taxpayer? Backers claim that, with enough riders and fast enough trains (enabling more trips), HSR can support itself. They often point to Europe, especially France’s TGV, as proof of this.

Not so fast. In 2008, Amtrak’s Inspector General looked into this and found that HSRs in the EU were profitable thanks mainly to creative bookkeeping (PDF).

Overall Conclusions

After examining a representative sample of European Passenger Train
Operations over a multi-year period, we found that:

a) When all revenues and expenses for the entire passenger train system are
taken into consideration, European Passenger Train Operations operate at a
financial loss and consequently require significant Public Subsidies, and

b) The average annual subsidies for European Passenger Train Operations are
much higher than those for comparable Amtrak services.

Individual Findings

The review of Public Funding for European Passenger Train Operations
provided the following findings.

1. European Passenger Train Operations are typically organized into two separate
business entities (operating companies and infrastructure managers) whose financial
performance and public funding are closely intertwined with each other.

2. In addition to direct funding, some of the Passenger Train Operations receive public
funding that did not show up on the company’s balance sheet and therefore does not
show up in the company’s financial statements.

3. Although some Train Operating Companies may report a “profit”, this profit is
generated through a large amount of public funding provide by the European
countries.

I suspect similar financial shenanigans will be necessary to make Governor Brown’s High-Speed White Elephant appear profitable, too.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

#FastAndFurious Get people killed, get a reward!

When confronted with monumental stupidity, one’s options are usually a) get outraged; b) do a Homer Simpson impression and shout “D’oh!”; or c) bang your head on the nearest hard surface.

I’ll take d) all of the above:

Double-dipping: ATF ‘rewarding’ man who ran Operation Fast and Furious

One of the federal law enforcement officials that Congress regards as most responsible for Operation Fast and Furious received extended paid leave from his government job, which allows him to draw a second salary working at JP Morgan.

The paid leave also allows [Bill] McMahon to get a larger pension when he finally, officially, leaves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

“Given McMahon’s outsized role in the Fast and Furious scandal, the decision to approve an extended annual leave arrangement in order to attain pension eligibility and facilitate full-time, outside employment while still collecting a full-time salary at ATF raises a host of questions about both the propriety of the arrangement and the judgment of ATF management,” wrote Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in a letter to ATF.

Gee, ya think? McMahon knew there were no real safeguards on Fast and Furious’ gunwalking operation, yet he –by his own admission– did nothing to stop it. Two federal agents and more than 300 Mexicans are dead, killed by weapons this numbskull let into the hands murderous Mexican drug cartels. And what happens to Mr. McMahon? Censure? Demotion? Dismissal? Criminal charges?

Don’t be silly, silly! For his sterling efforts, Bill McMahon gets leave with pay that will pad his federal pension, while working another cushy full-time job.

Jackpot!

Cynical Question: What if this isn’t just a spectacular, albeit all too common, example of bureaucratic idiocy? Doesn’t it seem a bit convenient that the man who knows an awful lot about the most explosive scandal facing the administration gets a boatload of money tossed at him? Maybe in return for taking the fall? Hmmm…

RELATED: Earlier posts about Operation Fast and Furious.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Santorum: I’m running for a job we don’t need

Perhaps the EEOC’s next crusade should be to protect the rights of those who don’t even know what job they’re applying for:

Rick Santorum took several shots at Mitt Romney during his first Monday campaign event here, seeking to neutralize the appeal of the former Massachusetts governor’s business background, and implying that he lacks principle.

Referring to Romney’s argument that his business career makes him well-suited to the presidency, Santorum said, “We’re not looking for a chief executive officer. We’re looking for a commander in chief.”

(Emphasis added)

Have another look at the job description, Rick. From Article II, section 1 of the Constitution:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Well, well. Turns out we do want a chief executive, as well as a commander in chief. How odd.

Not surprising, I guess, coming from the guy whose bright idea to endorse Arlen Specter in 2004 gave us ObamaCare.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Live in the UK and forget to get someone a Christmas gift?

No problem! Waterstone’s has the solution for you, a book it proclaimed to be the “perfect present.”

Mein Kampf:

Staff at Waterstone’s in Huddersfield used a festive point-of-sale sticker to promote the book as “the perfect present” with an accompanying personal recommendation message by a staff member trumpeting the book as “an essential read for anyone”.

Town-centre stores in Manchester, Liverpool and Cheshire have been displaying front covers of multiple copies of the book, a sales technique designed to attract the attention of shoppers.

The trend was first spotted by Jewish travelling salesman Jonathan Levine, 44, from north Manchester. He has now received an apology from Waterstone’s, after he complained.

Mr Levine said: “I would be most obliged if Waterstone’s would explain what lies behind the apparent zeal on their part to promote this disgusting work. When challenging one of the staff in Manchester’s Deansgate branch, I was told that it was ‘a Christmas bestseller which sold really well’. A dubious justification indeed for selling this hateful work.”

I can imagine it sold well during the holidays, given Britain’s large and growing jihadist population and popularity of the book and its author around the Muslim world, for example in Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, and Bangladesh. I suppose we should be grateful Waterstone’s didn’t market it for Hanukkah.

What genius thought this was a bright idea, and didn’t any of the store personnel question it?

via Philip Klein

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

The Chevy Volt is a technological marvel!

For 1896, that is:

Meet the Roberts electric car. Built in 1896, it gets a solid 40 miles to the charge — exactly the mileage Chevrolet advertises for the Volt, the highly touted $31,645 electric car General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.”

The executives at Chevrolet can rest easy for now. Since the Roberts was constructed in an age before Henry Ford’s mass production, the 115-year-old electric car is one of a kind.

…and…

As the New York Times reported September 5, “For General Motors and the Obama administration, the new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid represents the automotive future, the culmination of decades of high-tech research financed partly with federal dollars.”

So, in return for trampling the rights of bondholders and investing $50 billion taxpayer dollars (1) in order to protect the UAW, President Obama (2)  has shown us the “automotive future” — a car that would have impressed… President Grover Cleveland.

Oh, why the heck not? His economic policies are right out of the 1930s; why not go back another 40 years?

Forward… into the past!

via JustOneMinute and QandO

Footnotes:
(1) Of which you can assume a significant portion was borrowed from China.
(2) Oh, and you’ll be happy to know the administration ordered the purchase of 110 of the marvels of Green tech.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Smart Power in Action: US and Iran on same side in Libya

Well, Obama did promise to offer an “open hand” to Iran to achieve a new era of more cooperation and less confrontation. But, somehow, I don’t think even the striped-pants set at the State Department thought that meant cooperating to overthrow another government:

Iran “discreetly” provided humanitarian aid to Libyan rebels before the fall of Tripoli, Jam-e-Jam newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday as saying.

“We were in touch with many of the rebel groups in Libya before the fall of (Moamer) Kadhafi, and discreetly dispatched three or four food and medical consignments to Benghazi,” Salehi told the daily.

“The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, sent a letter of thanks to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for having been on their side and helping,” he added.

And so, for the price of some food and medicine (1), we and NATO did Iran a favor by removing a rival for influence in the Middle East and giving them easy access to eastern Libya and the Benghazi area, a region well-known as a fertile recruiting ground for Al Qaeda and other Islamic radical groups. (2)

That’s “Smart Power” for you. Real smart.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying Daffy Qaddafi wasn’t a bad man — far from it, and I hope the Libyans catch him and string him up. But, from the point of view of American interests, there was no point to this war. Qaddafi had given up his nuclear program in the wake of our liberation of Iraq, there was intelligence cooperation against Al Qaeda, and he had largely stopped sponsoring terrorism. In other words, he had been tamed, and there was no pressing reason to go after him.

On the other hand, in Syria, where we have a great opportunity to weaken or even overthrow one of the key clients of our avowed enemy, Iran, an event that would greatly weaken the Mullah’s power in the region and genuinely serve our strategic interests, for weeks we did… effectively nothing. We clucked our tongues and wagged our fingers, even called the dictator a “reformer,” while the Assad regime, with the assistance and advice of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, slaughters thousands.

If that’s “smart power,” I’d hate to see what their idea of “dumb” is.

via Bryan Preston

LINKS: More from my friend Michael Ledeen, who argues that this is a big regional war with Iran at the center (which the Obama administration may be finally and belatedly starting to grasp), and then draws some lessons from Libya.

Footnotes:
(1) And if you believe the “humanitarian aid” was nothing but rice and bandages and the Iranians accompanying it weren’t Iranian Revolutionary Guards, I have just the bridge to sell you.
(2) Don’t fall for the “Sunnis and Shiites won’t cooperate” myth. Yes, they have a bloody internecine history, but Iran and Sunni radical groups are more than happy to cooperate to strike at us.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Proof that spam can be deadly

No, not the (supposedly edible) stuff that comes in a can, but the kind you get in unwanted text messages. The kind that makes the suicide belt you’re working on go boom early:

The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year’s Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.

Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her but nobody else.

She was at her Moscow safe house at the time getting ready with two accomplices, both of whom survived and were seen fleeing the scene.

Kind of makes the jihad meaningless if the only person you take out is your own stupid self, doesn’t it?

Darn.

via Legal Insurrection

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Russians make RINO, squish, aisle-crossers look like chumps

Because they ARE chumps. For weeks during this recent lame-duck session of Congress, the White House, Democratic senators, and the liberal media were telling us that the latest START arms-reduction treaty with the Russians had to be  approved now, in spite of serious, legitimate concerns. It absolutely could not wait until the new Senate was seated with new members who would actually reflect the will of the voters as expressed in the recent election. Nope, it had to be done now, or the universe would implode… or something.

So they finally found some “bipartisan” Republicans and ratified it.

And now the Russians say that, gosh, they won’t be able to get it done on their end until next year:

Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval on Christmas Eve to the so-called New START treaty with a vote in the lower house of parliament. But Konstantin Kosachev, head of the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, said it would take until next month “at the earliest” for the treaty to receive its three required readings and get a final vote. Lawmakers’ vacation lasts until Jan. 11.

The assessment seems to put the brakes on the document President Obama called a top priority as he whipped up the Republican votes needed to pass it before the end of the lame-duck session. Vice Adm. Jerry Miller said the Russians appear to be having some fun at U.S. expense.

So, explain to me again, Senators Lugar, Alexander, Bennett, Brown, Cochran, Collins, Corker, Isakson, Johanns, Murkowski, Snowe, and Voinovich: what was the big rush? Couldn’t you have waited for a Senate that had an actual mandate from the people to do more than minimal government business? And do you hear the chuckles coming from Moscow? How does it feel knowing you’ve been played — again?

Idiots.

LINKS: Power Line calls the Republicans listed above Obama’s useful idiots. Jennifer Rubin, who’s been critical of the treaty, points out that, inter alia, we did get something to protect missile defense. The Russian press respectfully disagrees. Legal Insurrection wonders if Republicans will ever learn. Ace of Spades thinks Putin “Pwned” Obama, again.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Senator Charles Schumer: poster-child of the Nanny State

Via Jammie-Wearing Fool, the senior senator from New York is focused like a laser on the nation’s true priorities. National debt? The deficit? Terrorism? Presidents who wish they could quit?

Don’t be silly, Silly! Chuck Schumer is on the case of something far more important: retail restocking fees.

No, I’m not kidding:

Plan on returning some gifts this holiday? It may cost you up to 25 percent of the price of the item and, if it was purchased online, you may not have a clue about that “restocking fee.”

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer wants the Federal Trade Commission to end that. He wants the FTC to determine if failing to disclose the restocking fee is a deceptive practice and to require retailers to prominently display that the fee will be charged.

Several states including New York, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California require restocking fees to be prominent at retail stores.

“While an ever increasing number of retailers are starting to charge restocking fees, the disclosure of these fees has hardly kept pace,” said Schumer (D-N.Y.). “Customers have a right to know that when they make a purchase they could be held responsible for up to 25 percent of the original cost of the product if they choose to return it.

Schumer said a restocking fee is an important element for consumers to consider when choosing where to buy.

These kinds of things typically fall under a state’s policing powers, and that’s where they rightfully belong. If the people of a state want to change how restocking fees are displayed (or charged at all), that’s their business. It’s what they have state legislatures and referenda for, to deal with internal matters like this. And if shoppers are concerned about a store’s restocking policy, they can ask. See, Chuck? We can take care of ourselves! (I know. You guys hate that idea.)

Okay, sure. The Commerce Clause of the Constitution give Congress authority here for interstate sales, but, um… Senator? Don’t you think you have better things to do?

No, I guess you don’t. And there lies the problem.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)