Barney Frank's continued occupancy of a seat in congress is a disgrace.  Michelle tells of the latest revelation:

Frank was rather miffed about the recent disclosure that he helped former lover Herb Moses land a job with the behemoth lender while sitting on a House committee that regulates lenders a decade ago. The Boston Herald reported Thursday that Frank immediately invoked the Everybody Does It card: "It is a common thing in Washington for members of Congress to have spouses work for the federal government. There is no rule against it at all."

Frank then switched to the Everybody Knew defense: "It was widely known. It was out there in the public."

Next, he dismissed any controversy about his ethical judgment with the Nobody Cares shield: "It's nonsense."

No doubt he'll spring the Homophobia Card on critics at an opportune moment to ice his multitiered cake of excuses.

Fannie Mae ring a bell?  Remember sub-prime mortgages?  Banks forced to lend to those without a prayer of being able to pay?  Remember the little problem that brought down the housing market and almost destroyed the banking industry?  Remember gnashing your teeth because your home's worth a LOT less than it should be?  Yeah, THAT Fannie Mae and THAT Barnie Frank!

Really?  Yeah, really.  As the WSJ noted in 2009:

"I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing."

—Representative Barney Frank, September 25, 2003

It was six years ago that Mr. Frank announced his famous dice roll on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the name of affordable housing. Mr. Frank got his wish, and the losses keep rolling in, with no end in sight as Washington finds new ways for the companies to serve political purposes.

A corrupt-o-crat.  A well-known corrupt-o-crat, but just another corrupt-o-crat.

Here's the point:  The OTHER corrupt-o-crats suffer him and his ilk among them.  After all their power comes first, and rocking the boat would threaten that.  Power comes first!

One hopes that this is more than just empty rhetoric:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) hopes to axe a trillion dollars from the federal budget.

“We can accomplish well over a trillion dollars in cuts,” said Cantor, a leading Republican in debt-reduction talks, on Face the Nation.

We'll see.

So, the non-geeks ask:  What's a Trantor?  Answer:  In Isaac Asimov's hugely important sci-fi trilogy, The Foundation series, Trantor is the planet that's the seat of the galactic government.  "Oh, you mean like Coruscant in the Star Wars movies!"  Right.  But as James Lileks points out, Asimov was there first.  What do you want to bet that Lucas read Asimov...?

Anyway.

Lileks points out that Washington, D.C. (District of Corruption) is Trantor.  He got an old copy in paperback and...

I can’t believe I’m reading this. And as a real book, too. Not a Kindle ebook, but a bent and dog-eared paperback, too. I found it in the stack of cast-off items at the office, a shelf that usually contains flotsom and detritus generated by the company, or PR agencies, or a worker who dumped the unloved items out for all when he or she took to the wind. I took it intending to scan the cover, since that’s the version I had when I first read it years ago. Difficult to understate the impact on general geekery of a certain age; I remember a day years ago, talking to some middle-aged fellow in a bar in Pennsylvania, and he was discussing his conception of Washington DC as a place apart from the rest of the country, its culture specifically related to the maintenance of empire, and since we’d been talking about Star Trek a while before, I said “Trantor.” And he got it. That’s all you have to say. 

Self important.  The rules don't apply to us.  What matters to us is what matters, no matter what matters elsewhere.  Superior.  Above it all. Vain and petty rivalries.  Ignoring the real needs of the outsiders to play politics.

Yep, to those who know Asimov, the word "Trantor" pretty much sums up Washington.

Problem is--Trantor falls.  It falls BADLY.  Not quite like a visit from a Death Star, but wreckage planet wide and the few billions of "lucky" survivors starving.  Trantor does not end well, and it frags the whole galaxy into chaos with it.

What is your "Representative" and what are your "Senators" doing about it?

Playing politics and MAKING MONEY!  Jeff Carter points to an interesting little study:

Here is the abstract:

A previous study suggests that U.S. Senators trade common stock with a substantial informational advantage compared to ordinary investors and even corporate insiders. We apply precisely the same methods to test for abnormal returns from the common stock investments of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. We measure abnormal returns for more than 16,000 common stock transactions made by approximately 300 House delegates from 1985 to 2001. Consistent with the study of Senatorial trading activity, we find stocks purchased by Representatives also earn significant positive abnormal returns (albeit considerably smaller returns). A portfolio that mimics the purchases of House Members beats the market by 55 basis points per month (approximately 6% annually).

I now understand why campaigns have become so expensive. The net present value of beating the market by 6% annually, along with the net present value of a guaranteed government pension, cushy health benefits, and the opportunity to leverage your elected position into a lucrative full time lobbying job after “serving” your country makes the spending seem minimal.

Can you say "Insider Trading?"  I knew you could.  And by the way, it's the slimes with a "D" after their names that have done the best (despite the best efforts of the slimes with an "R" after theirs). Yeah, they've got YOUR best interest in mind (the best interest they can get from you, that is!)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has just taken over the leadership of the DNC from Donna Brazile.  Selecting her was ALMOST as bad as putting Vice-President Biden in charge. 

Foot, meet mouth, part I:  “If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars...."  Care to guess what kind of car she drives?  A rice-burner!  It's a 2010 Infiniti FX35.  Yeah, it was made in America, but in a right to work state.  OOPS.

Foot, meet mouth, part II:  She claims that Republicans want to make being an illegal alien illegal!  Oh, the horrors!  Hey, stupid?  Every job held by an illegal means an American out of work!  She thinks you're too stupid to get that simple fact.  Hell, she depends on it!  Or, maybe she really is that stupid....

Yeah, it'll be just gaffe after gaffe.  ANd yet it'll never become an issue with the media ignoring each one.

If you haven't heard about the shooting of Jose Guerena, a 26-year-old former Marine who had served in Iraq, it's about time you did.

He took 60 of the 71 rounds fired at him and then they refused medical treatment for over an hour:

A report by ABC News affiliate KGUN found that more than an hour had passed before the SWAT team let the paramedics work on Guerena. By then he was dead. 

The Arizona Republic reports:

TUCSON - It was a Thursday morning in a comfortable Tucson neighborhood. Vanessa Guerena was making breakfast. One of her young boys was at school. The other, age 4, was waking up. He wanted to watch "The Transformers" on television.

Outside, an armored car was rolling up Redwater Drive. SWAT team members in black helmets and armor poured out. A siren wailed. Thirty seconds later, officers bashed down the front door. Within seconds, the popping of gunfire rang out.

Jose Guerena, 26, a former Marine who had served in Iraq, was later found dead, lying face down in his blood on the floor.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which coordinated the raid, initially reported that Guerena had fired his rifle at officers. Authorities would say they shot him 60 times, with 71 rounds fired. That was on May 5.

Of course--THEY WERE LYING and it was easy to prove so it was easy to get caught in it:

Two weeks later, the department corrected its statement. Guerena had not fired at officers, it said. An assault rifle was found nearby but was unfired, its safety on.

So now they needed a new lie.  It was quick to come:

Even if the weapon was unfired, SWAT team members reported that Guerena raised it, pointed it at officers and yelled, "I've got something for you guys!" attorney Mike Storie said. "(It was) clearly a justified shooting."

Yeah.  Right.  Like I believe that!  Oh, and now they claim he had a PICTURE of a "drug lord saint" in the house, that Reason describes thus:

While both English and Spanish media associate the Jesús Malverde cult with narcotraficantes, Malverde’s powers of intercession extend far beyond the drug trade. With judicious use of Our Fathers and Hail Marys, the official prayer to the non-church-approved Malverde is said to be effective for immigrants and people who have been ripped off. There’s even a story of supernatural malfunctions of Caterpillar machinery during an attempt to knock down a chapel consecrated to the popular bandit, though Caterpillar equipment has performed up to specs against Malverde-fortified locations in Kelseyville, California and the lovely but gang-troubled Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Maria Alicia Pulido Sanchez, a Mexico City acolyte, told AP in 2007 that she built the capital's first public shrine to Malverde after her son recovered quickly from injuries sustained in a December 2005 car crash. That Guerena had a picture of Jesús Malverde tells us two things: He had a family to worry about and he shared the belief of most Americans that a supernatural being or beings can influence earthly circumstances.

There's a helmet-cam video of the raid from a guy in the back.  Captain's Journal rolls the tape and reports:

Bon Owen noticed the same thing I did.  One of the team members fell in the doorway upon breaching and entering the home.  The video speaks for itself, but by way of summary, let’s observe the following.

First, Mr. Guerena’s weapon, contrary to initial accounts by the SWAT team, was never taken off of safety.  The team took no shots from him.  Second, the team mills around for a while before breaching the home.  Third, they don’t form into a stack.  Fourth, absurdly, they knock and allow only four second for a response.  Fifth, one of the members falls in the doorway.  Sixth, upon shots being fired (by the SWAT team), more than one team member begins backing away from the incident.  Seventh, one of the team members who initially backed away moves forward to fire shots over the heads of other team members who are in the home (it’s a wonder that SWAT team members didn’t get shot by their own team).  All the while, several team members are standing aimlessly outside the home, doing nothing.  Then to top it all off, even though medical responders arrived within minutes, they weren’t allowed into the home for one hour and fourteen minutes.

The Sheriff may as well have sent the Keystone Cops to raid the home.  These clowns shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near weapons.

Indeed!  Why everyone in the front of such raids doesn't have one running isn't a crime is still a wonder to me.  Unless those in power want it that way, so they can have plausible deniability....

Remember:  You are a subject, not a free citizen.

President Obama should face impeachment, but he won't.

Why won't he?  We all know the answer:  Those in power place their being in power far above their duty to the country.  The Democrats will fight tooth and nail to protect him, no matter what.  The Republicans are afraid that the Democrats will fight tooth and nail to defend him and believe they would lose political power.

Their power comes first.  Always remember that.  Put not your faith in princes (or princesses).

Why should he be impeached?  For one, Libya.  The War Powers Act gave him 60 days.  Many believe even that is unconstitutional.  But now that time is passed and we are still involved in the war "O-Bomb-Ya" lead us into.  No declaration of war.  No authorization.  No credible threat to the US or US citizens.  We just keep bombing K-daffy.  It's entirely unconstitutional--only congress can declare war.  But they are all just gutless wonders, more concerned with their own power than with their country.

George Will asks:  Is Obama Above the Law? 

Enacted in 1973 over President Nixon’s veto, the WPR may or may not be wise. It is, however, unquestionably a law, and Barack Obama certainly is violating it. It stipulates that a president must terminate military action 60 days after initiating it (or 90, if the president “certifies” in writing an “unavoidable military necessity” respecting the safety of U.S. forces), unless Congress approves it. Congress has been supine and silent about this war, which began more than 70 days ago. 

Sill man -- OF COURSE he's above the law!  The law is for the little people, not the rulers.

Heck, their even letting laws take effect that the president has not actually signed.  Some are raising a stink.  They will be silenced by the corrupt and powerful who rule over us.  They don't give a syphilitic rat's ass about you, me, or the US Constitution.  All they care about is their own power and how to expand it.

Once we were free citizens.  Now, we are all just subjects of an Imperial Oligarchy.  God help us all.

Via Instapundit (who labels it "PRIVACY IN THE OBAMA ERA") comes this at Wired:  Automotive Black Boxes, Minus the Gray Area

Update 5:30 p.m. May 24: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require that all new vehicles have an event data recorder. The agency is at this point only considering such a requirement.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will later this year propose a requirement that all new vehicles contain an event data recorder, known more commonly as a “black box.” The device, similar to those found in aircraft, records vehicle inputs and, in the event of a crash, provides a snapshot of the final moments before impact.

That snapshot could be viewed by law enforcement, insurance companies and automakers. The device cannot be turned off, and you’ll probably know little more about it than the legal disclosure you’ll find in the owner’s manual.

. . .

General Motors has been a leader in event data recorder technology, installing them in nearly all vehicles with airbags since the early 1990s. It currently installs Bosch EDRs in all vehicles sold in North America. The technology has evolved and now collects as many as 30 data points, said Brian Everest, GM’s senior manager of field incidents.

“In the early ’90s we could get diagnostic data, seatbelt use and crash severity,” Everest said. “Currently, we can get crash severity, buckle status, precrash data related to how many events the vehicle may have been in and brake application.”

(Bolding Emphasis Added)

With USAA insurance, those not buckled in are not covered.  Gonna save them some money.  Then, in ANY case where hte police have a reason to get to the black box (like a simple fender bender?) they can find out if you've been driving with an unbuckled passenger.  "Click it or ticket!"

Note:  I ALWAYS buckle up and insist my passengers do so.  But I HATE the government telling us we must do so.

In the guestbook, Ronald Rosales says this:

It seems to me that more people were interest in the S.A tea party (like 1000s) when it was focus on big goverment big spending and protecting the constitution, now we talk about american indians getting taxpayers money, which they been getting since late 1800s, we are talking about BinLaden which no tea party member could do anything about, except not to focus on what we started to do.

Well said!  This is a problem we've struggled with since the beginning:  What is our mission?  Should it include border security, "immigration reform" (amnesty), national defense issues, prayer in the schools...?  There is no end to the forces trying to get the Tea Parties interested in supporting their cause.

And every cause we take up makes us lose some supporters.

Most of the "Ron Paul" and "Debra Medina" folks have left SATP.  That was a loss. If they'd had their way, we'd have spent a lot effort on the "End the Fed" campaign, and many of the older traditional conservatives would have left.  Either way, we're weaker.

We have to rebuild.  We have to stay focused.  There is one thing thast unites us all...As the sign says:  It's the DEBT, Stupid!

Check out the birthday card she gave me...

The mighty Jon Kaplan points out a great letter in our local paper:

Hello all,

 

In the Your Turn comments in the  Editorial section of the Express this morning was the following:

Answer in the Bible

I have often wondered why it is that the conservatives are called the “right” and the liberals are called the “left.” Then I found this verse in the Bible:

“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.” (Ecclesiastes 10:2). And now you know.

George Redding

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/our-Turn-May-21-2011-1388943.php#ixzz1MzYnS6jg

 

Redding sounds like a tea party guy.  Maybe we should post this on our website.

No kidding

Judy Holloway was a friend before we met.  She organized the Austin Tea Party.  we met when she accompanied "Joe the Plumber" down here for our Independence Day 2009 celebration.  She's just announced that she's stepping down:

Austin TeaParty Patriots' end of the road ...
by Judy Holloway on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 9:49am

We are focusing on our family.

We encourage others to continue the tea party grassroots message. We know that tea parties have found it tough sledding on their own and they have often chosen to align themselves with large state-wide or national organizations to buttress their resources and help guide their message. We caution against too much reliance on such organizations, many of whom seem very GOP-centric to us. We suggest you keep your organization non-partisan, small, underfunded and passionate than to give up control and direction to folks who do not necessarily share the same agenda as your local community.

We should take her warning to heart as we hope she's even more of a blessing to her family than she's been to us.  Fare Thee Well!

Is ANYONE stupid enough to believe this is anything but cronyism?  Nearly 20 percent of new Obamacare waivers are gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, fancy hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district:

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Guess we now know Nancy's favorite hots spots?  Well, at least her favorite campaign supporters!

We talked about this at today's Tea Party Meeting.  The news is not good.  BIG BROTHER LIVES!

The cameras take snapshots of children's trays before they sit down and again after they've eaten; using sophisticated food-recognition software, the computer program analyzes the color, shape, volume, density and texture of every single piece of food on a child's tray and compares them to a database of 7,500 foods. That allows researchers to monitor the calories, fat, fiber, sugar and protein — a total of 128 nutrients — kids eat in each meal.

Although each child's meals will be tracked by a bar code on his or her tray, the cameras will not capture images of the kids themselves. But the school will be able to send individual dining data to the parents who agreed to allow their kids to participate in the study. The researchers hope the information will help improve home food environments as well. (Emphasis added by Robin Juhl)

Oh, boy:  More social engineering.  We all know how well THAT has turned out!

Pass this idea to every kid you know:   Bar codes cannot be read through things like chocolate pudding or other gloppy, stick messes, spoiling Big Brother's vision (both literally and figuratively).

Michelle Malkin wonders if Newt is running for the Democratic nomination:

Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press this morning in his first Sunday show appearance since announcing his intention to… challenge President Obama for the Democrat nomination, apparently.

Well...she has a point.  He supports an "Individual Mandate!"  That's most egregious part of Obama-Care! As Michelle puts it:

Somebody sat on the love-seat with Nancy way too long.

First up is a very short demonstration of how a FAKE "Tea Party" candidate (i.e., a Democrat in disguise) reacts to a question (via Hot Air)...

The last time we updated you on the special election in Western New York’s 26th congressional district, things were heating up. The race is close according to the latest polls and GOP nominee Jane Corwin is fending off not only the declared Democratic candidate, but a so-called “Tea Party” candidate with no visible support of any active Tea Party groups in the area. That man is Jack Davis, previously the Democrats’ nominee for the seat in multiple elections. Well, if things were heating up before, they seem to be coming to a full boil now. Pressed with questions about why he is refusing to participate in tonight’s debate, Davis came out swinging. Errr… literally.

Note this lesson well:  Bring multiple cameras!

Next up is a scream-at-your monitor item from a Tucson school board meeting (via Moonbattery)...

{{ Aww, CRUD!  The Vulgar Public School Text Denounces Capitalism and "Gringos," Calls for Socialist Revolution video has been removed after a complaint by "Three Sonorans."  After looking at their web site:  It Figures. }}

For those who missed it:  The lady read from a text book used in the third grade.  The language was so bad that a board member stopped her, saying there were children present.  I am amazed that didn't result in a riot.  Grrrr!

Finally, another one from Moonbattery, a Crash Course on Islamic Culture:

Here's what happened when French journalists got curious about what goes on inside "Islamic cultural centers" like the one our liberal rulers want built at Ground Zero:

Here's a question:  Would American "journalists" have the guts to persist like these French guys did?  I doubt it.  What does it tell you when a French crew is braver than their American counterparts...?

Our culture is in trouble.  Those who hate America are out in the open, declaring their hatred.  How long until we wake up like these Frenchman?  Will it take so many burning cars in the daily riots that it no longer gets reported?  Will it be when we have "no go" zones, where only moslems or hispanics or blacks or Mormons (OK, that's unlikely; it's just a joking jab at my office mate) or a "whatever" can enter? Let's not let that happen.

THE SAN ANTONIO TEA PARTY MEETING IS COMING!  BE THERE!

Inflation is BAD.  Yeah, everyone remembers the picture of pre-Nazi Germany, using wheel-barrels to carry the money needed for a loaf of bread.  But it has also happened much more recently.

Remember Rhodesia?  A country just north of South Africa?  It renamed itself Zimbabwe.  Then its racist, quasi-Marxist dictator took over the farms and gave them to his cronies.  They used to feed Africa, now they have famine.  Then, they couldn't pay their bills, so they started printing money.  Eventually, they printed the One-Hundred-Trillion-Dollar Bills.  After that, their currency collapsed and is no long used.

(Image via Economics One)

This all happened withing the last few years.  Read the Wall Street Journal article: How to Turn 100 Trillion Dollars Into Five and Feel Good About It.  It's your future!

What happens if the interest on our borrowing goes up? Short answer:  We're screwed, but good!

There's an interesting (if long) article (via Instapundit) in the Weekly Standard entitled The Coming Euro Crack-Up.  Page two has our future:

The yield on Greek two-year bonds is 24 percent and on both Irish and Portuguese bonds of similar maturity around 12 percent.

So, what's the interest on $14 Trillion at 12%?  $1.68 Trillion PER YEAR!

What's the interest on $14 Trillion at 24%?   $3.36Trillion PER YEAR.

That's just the interest.  That's where we're headed.  And how fast can this happen?

Of interest to the White House and Congress might be the speed with which the markets move: Interest rates charged on Greek debt increased by 10 percentage points in the past month. 

Boehner and the other Republican "leaders" had better keep that in mind.  They'd better find a way to get it through the skulls of the Democratic "leaders," too.  We cannot keep spending like there's no tomorrow because tomorrow is here, guys!

Is there a trail of dots that goes from Obama through the SEIU to the Communist Party, USA?  Hell, it's more like one big pile of dots, all bunched up.

Obama supports the SEIU?  Check.   Double Check.

SEIU Support Communist Party USA? Well, when they march together and carry each others signs and flags, I call Super-Duper Check:   SEIU drops mask, goes full commie.  Here's just ONE of the many pictures: 

Well, duh....

According to the Frank Luntz focus group it was Herman Cain!

Who is Herman Cain you ask?  Start HERE!

We can only hope, Professor Reynolds:

FACEBOOK CONSPIRACY THEORY OF THE WEEK: “What would you say if someone credible told you that Osama Bin Laden is providing valuable information during his interrogation this week? He knows the world believes he is dead, and that there is no hope of rescue. Brilliant strategy by US to create a Schroedinger terrorist mastermind who is both dead and alive at the same time, as long as the box stays closed.”

Yeah, if I were to find out that was true I'd just be quiet and rejoice silently.

Another aspect of bin Laden's capture is that it's the definitive vindication of Bush & his policies:

President Bush was reviled and hated at an almost unbelievable level while in office, with almost no accusation or conspiracy theory untried or unbelieved by the left. Every single action the man took was considered evil and horrible, every single event was an excuse to shower bitterness and spite toward the man and all he did. President Obama's career and political campaign for eight years was largely shaped by how he acted toward President George W. Bush. Now all that has changed.

In one event, on May Day, the entire case against President Bush was demolished by one of his greatest critics: President Obama.

Read it in detail--step by step, how even the war in Iraq was a part of it.  ALL the liberal anti-war rhetoric  of the last nine years was just flat wrong.

But now we have the computer systems and we demand answers!

I was pleased to receive the SATP's "REVERE REPORT" email today:

Congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief, the CIA and our Navy Seals, for their tireless efforts in the search for Osama bin Laden.

The death of bin Laden at American hands is a major victory. It tells those who would harm us that we are relentless in seeking justice for our citizens. As stated by George W. Bush in his speech following 9/11, "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."

This is a time for all Americans to be proud. Thank you to all and we urge you to continue in your vigilance on our behalf.

Indeed!

Credit where it's due:  President Obama is Commander in Chief, and troops under his command killed Osama bin Laden.

Some may grind their teeth -- "Why now?  This will help Obama!  Anything that helps Obama is not good!"

Wrong!  This is a great day for America.  That Obama gets help from it is secondary, by a wide margin.  THE GOOD OF AMERICAN COMES FIRST! 

(But I do have to wonder what the man who was President Obama's pastor on September 11th, 2001 thinks of this news.)

Via Instapundit, we find The Other McCain's report:

Of course, that’s not the headline you’ll see in the biased liberal media reports about the Americans for Prosperity forum last night. No, no – they’re all about Mitt Romneycare and Tim Cap-and-Trade Pawlenty. But make no mistake about it: Herman Cain won.

Steve Foley at Citizens for Cain passes along this item from a major New Hampshire political blog: An AFP poll taken after Friday’s event found that 62% of 975 respondents rated Cain the most effective speaker at the Manchester forum. Pawlenty was a distant second, with 17%.

Then he says "Watch the video."  OK, lets:

There's lots more in The Other McCain's report.  Go give it a look!

Don't forget the title of Herman Cain's book:   They Think You're Stupid!