And Byron York's Point Is...

Byron York notes a racial divide that is also pretty obviously a political divide.  From his new perch at the Washington Examiner:

The black-white divide in Obama's popularity

On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with white Americans than with black Americans, and his sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.

Asked whether their opinion of the president is favorable or unfavorable, 49 percent of whites in the Times poll say they have a favorable opinion of Obama. Among blacks the number is 80 percent. Twenty-one percent of whites say their view of the president is unfavorable, while the number of blacks with unfavorable opinions of Obama is too small to measure.

Get me Rewrite!

The Democrat-Republican divide in Obama's popularity

On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with Republicans than with Democrats, and his sky-high ratings among Democrats make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.

OK, does the "Rewrite" make any sense?  Of course Obama polls better among Dems.  Now yes, not all whites are Republicans.  But York (and the poll) is comparing blacks, who have been mostly Democratic for years, with a white pool that includes a mix of Democrats, Independents, and dead-enders (the Few, the Proud...).  It can't be a surprise that Obama polls better amongst the group that is weighted towards his own party.

If, I say IF Mr. York hoped to make a valid point, he would need to have the cross-tabs showing that Obama's position on some issue or set of issues was even more popular among black Democrats than among white Democrats (possible).  Then he would need to make the case that viewed objectively, the issue in question really does not and should not have a racial component.  He could then assert that blacks were supporting the man rather than the policy and suggest that if a white politician inherits that policy plank when Obama is no longer in office the support will be less than expected within his party.

A bad example would be the poll result showing that blacks think Obama should put more of a focus on education than whites do.  A good example would be,,, hmm, beats me.  Our policy towards North Korea maybe?  Offhand I don't see that as having a tilt where race, or some attribute where race might be a proxy (such as income) would make a difference.  And on p. 22, question 73 I note only a tiny black-white divide on the NoKo question, which might undernmine the York premise. 

DELIBERATELY OBTUSE?  Andrew Sullivan joins the crowd whose default position is "Must be racism!"  Here is the damning York excerpt:

Obama's sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.

And the astute analysis:

I'm with Benen. What can that last phrase possibly mean, except that African-American opinion does not count as much as everyone else's? Yglesias and Weigel pile one.

What could it possibly mean?  Gosh - how about, on some issue black voters support the man rather than the position, and if a white Democrat takes a similar position he will find less-than-expected support. 

Is any example involving blacks and Obama too fraught with emotion?  Well, suppose white evangelicals supported Bush's adventures in the Middle East because, although the issues were over their heads, they trusted a God-fearing Christian to do the right thing.  In such a scenario, neither McCain nor Romney could pick up Bush's banner, even if they backed the same policies.  One might say that Bush's position was less popular than it appeared.  [NPR said something very similar in Feb 2003, explaining that evangelicals support the war because of their trust in Bush].

On the other hand, evangelicals supported Bush's pro-life *policies*.  Any candidate who could demonstrate sincerity on the same issues would presumably get the same support. 

Not complicated.

[end of thread]

Comments

[bad]

Hey!! I ♥ Byron York.

He's not taken is he? If so, dibs on Charles Krauthammer....

[bad]

If you are posting things that don't show up after the initial message, delete all content from the URL box.

You'll need to do this every time you post or your message won't show up.

[Mickey]

Black or white, democrat or republican, young or old, he will destroy the country for all of them equally. He is the greatest threat presently facing this nation, and he is doing it with a smile.

[centralcal]

Bad, I do believe you have first dibs on both of those fine fellas. And, hey, they are both much classier than Dick Morris - and much more deserving of your admiration. (yeah, I know Dickie was a snarky joke - and a cleverly funny one, I thought).

[centralcal]

As to O's popularity (blacks compared to whites) I heard on talk radio driving home the other night that one of the polls intentionally included and sampled approximately 200 black voters. And, the results were exactly what one would expect.

Was it the NY Time's poll?

[matt]

when Kennedy was elected, he had overwhelming support from the Irish across the United States. Nothing surprising here...move along, nothing to see....

[bad]

CC, Dick and I just didn't work out. We intend to continue to be friends and wish nothing but the best for each other.

(We've destroyed all of the tapes and pictures so we won't be in Carla Bruni's position.)

Whatever that position was...

[Pofarmer]

HOOOLLLYYYYY CARP

From Dennenger again at Market ticker

LUN

Speaking of which....

I wrote a post about Ponta Negra – a hedge fund that I thought was more likely than not to be fraudulent. I did not name Ponta Negra in the post but I put two of their marketing documents on the web and some people found them.

I withdrew that post after threats from lawyers. I also removed the documents from the web.

Oh boy, here come the lawyers making threats!

There's only one small problem - the widdle blogger was right!

I have done this because Francesco Rusciano of Ponta Negra has formally had his assets frozen by a Federal Judge at the request of the SEC. Also see here for the formal charges.

Now this isn't particularly newsworthy. No, the newsworthy part is this:

Anyway I will save you the suspense. All of this would not be the biggest story on my blog except that Ponta Negra is marketed out of the office of Paradigm Global – a fund of hedge funds owned and controlled by Hunter Biden and James Biden. Hunter and James are the son and brother of Vice President Joe Biden respectively.

Whhhaaaaattttttt????????

Speechless.

[PaulL]

Hey now, TM, does Byron York rewrite you?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Hardly the first time Biden's family has been noticed in these thing. See my birthday present last year.

[PaulL]

W got 8% of the black vote in 2000 and 11% in 2004.

McCain got 4% of the black vote in 2008.

[Boatbuilder]

Hey, Po, there's nothing particularly newsworthy about the lives of the children of the Vice President--really, who cares? What does it have to do with the job the VP is doing? Move on.

I bet you didn't even know that Dick Cheney's daughter was gay. Or that Sarah Palin's daughter had a child out of wedlock? Or that her daughter's ex-boyfriend's mother was selling prescription medication.

You did? You must have a real hang-up about these things, because that's not the sort of thing our responsible media considers newsworthy.

[Cecil Turner]

On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult.

Bzzzt:

According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969. The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military and a federal raid in Waco, Texas, that killed 86.

Second-lowest in the honeymoon period is . . . not impressive. But at least he hasn't immolated a bunch of religio-nuts . . . yet. (H/T Instapundit)

[Fresh Air]

I'm sorry to say Byron York just isn't digging hard enough. Cecil's story is the correct one: Zero's popularity isn't "sky-high," it's actually abysmal--and it's going down, not up.

All of the NRO and Washington/New York conservative crowd suffers from George WIll syndrome: they actually read and sorta believe both the New York Slimes and the WaPo. I guess they have to read these things, but they really need to be deprogrammed before writing for publication.

[Extraneus]

Thank you for sticking up for the integrity of the American press, Bb. They're the one thing protecting us from the tyranny of government.

[matt]

Cecil;

You wouldn't know it from all of the sycophantic articles, would ya? Gee golly, he's going to bring us all together and have the most transparent administration in history and make up for all of that nasty GWB's mistakes and he's going to usher in new rules for goodness and niceness (as Maxwell Smart) used to say......

and all the while he's paring away our democracy....Change you can't believe in....

[MayBee]

Po-
Really? Cause they were working with Stanford, too.

[Extraneus]

I read that the 5-day-bill-posting-on-O's-website-before-signing thing isn't working out as well as we might have Hoped®, matt, with ten of eleven bills so far unfortuntatly too pressing to qualify.

[hit and run]

Cecil, I've been perplexed by that WaTimes article. From what I've seen, Gallup http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx>doesn't say what http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/Barack-Obama-Presidential-Approval-Ratings.aspx>they say http://www.gallup.com/poll/118054/100-Days-Obama-Approval-Broad-Deep.aspx>it says.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll>Rasmussen has Obama overall approval at 55, but I don't see where Gallup does.

[JM Hanes]

TM:
"OK, does the "Rewrite" make any sense?"

Only if you're working from a different survey than the one York had in hand. Would finding that Republican disapproval pulls down Obamas overall numbers come as news to virtually anyone?

The polling you propose in your second paragraph though, would certainly be a whole lot more interesting! York's comment that sky high black approval makes some of Obama's policies look a "bit" more popular than the really are, does strike me as a "bit" of weaseling on his part. The first write-up I saw of this survey juxtaposed it to the whole post-racial candidate/post racial America meme -- mostly in order to say we're not there yet, for what it's worth. Maybe York knew he couldn't just ignore a huge NY Times survey, but didn't want to go the we're-still-racists route.

I must admit, I could do without another Republicans-are-still-racists exercise. The "party of old white [racist] men", has begun cropping up again lately, presumably as pushback on the Tea Party phenom. Garafalo was just a little too crude about it, but it's the one thing you can count on lefties lapping up. Fortunately the furor over her sliminess and over the Homeland Security extremist memo produced some unexpected backfiring. It won't halt the assaults for long.

I don't end up wondering what York had in mind nearly as much as I wonder where the Times was going with the b/w breakdown in the first place. It would be interesting to read the Times own coverage, if anyone has a link. I was suprised that York didn't even offer a link to the PDF as TM did. I really hate that.

[MayBee]

Hey guys- Obama is saying Britain didn't torture during WWII because of Churchill.

[PD]

Yeah, he's invoking Churchill, whose bust he returned to the UK.

[PD]

And as far as I can tell, he didn't get anywhere near answering the question (Tapper: Do you think the previous admin condoned torture?)

[Extraneus]

I wouldn't be opposed to a Mount Rushmore of people Obama thinks he's reincarnated from.

[PD]

Hey, FOX (broadcast) carried through on not showing the presser.

Good for them!

[Dave]

Hey Barry, who was really on the effing plane?

[Sue]

I really, really, dislike the president. I have suddenly understood the left's manic hatred of Bush.

[PD]

But Sue, surely you must have been impressed by his answer to the question about what has been most humbling since he's been in office.

I know I sure was. Or might be if I could figure out what he actually said in that incoherent ramble.

[Boatbuilder]

Ex--Just doing my part. I am certain that we are in complete agreement about the integrity of the American press.

[Thomas Collins]

OK, bad, send me the tapes, or I LUN the UNCENSORED version of Kardinall Offishall's song about you (assuming TM, now aware of my intentions, doesn't ban me from JOM). :-))

As to the O-Approval/O-Disapproval polls, it would be interesting to see AA approval/disapproval for Bill Clinton and compare it to Obama's AA numbers.

[jdp]

So wait, if someone notes that whites (supposedly) don't like Obama that's evidence of racism. But if someone notes that blacks really, really, like Obama it's - what? Frivolous commentary?

[Sue]

PD,

I can't understand what he is saying. I have to read the transcripts. The uhs throw me off.

[Sue]

The first person that calls me a racist because I dislike Obama, I'm gonna sucker punch them. I dislike Kobe Bryant too, for different reasons (I'm a Mavs fan) but I love, love, love, Jason Terry. The color of his skin matters not to me. I am a true believer of MLK. I judge by the content of his character not the color of his skin.

[centralcal]

What you said, Sue!

Tell me again, why this press conference was newsworthy or why anybody needed to see it?

[bad]

I judge by the content of his character...

You are judging zero...

[Sue]

C-cal,

Well, I sort of lied. I judge Kobe Bryant not by the content of his character (not sure he has any and don't care) but by his skills on the basketball court and how they will hamper my beloved Mavs in the run to the championship.

So sue me. ::grin::

[centralcal]

Suing Sue. Don't think I'm gonna go there. Wouldn't be prudent.

Just remember, I am third in line, behind, Lynne, and you for Dick's affections.

[Sue]

I'm sort of afraid of Mrs. Cheney. She seems the sort that would and could take me out. I'm willing to chance it though.

[narciso]

No one bothers to point the difference between a conventional war and a counter
insurgency campaign which Malaya and
Kenya were, the closest parallels to Iraq and Afghanistan. Or if one we really has a long memory, John Glubb's work in Southern Iraq in the 20s, against the Wahhabi raiders. But who am I kidding, these press conferences are about dictation, not investigation.

[bad]

TC, I SWEAR it wasn't me. And if it was, it was only for purposes of scientific research....

[ROA]

Apparently Obama was incorrect about Churchill and the Brits. Gateway Pundit has a link to photos of Germans who had been tortured at Bad Nenndorf after the war was over.

[bad]

O/T, Ft Worth just closed ALL of its schools until May 8 due to the flu that is not swine.

[JM Hanes]

Are everybody's irony meters broken or something? I can't believe there hasn't been snark #1 about Fox broadcast choosing to air "Lie to Me" instead of the Obama presser. They probably figured what's the diff?

[pagar]

JMH, I think they were trying to broadcast something that meant something to people. Obviously, that is not going to be a Obama propaganda show.

[Extraneus]

Johnny Lang?

Lie to me and tell me everything is all right
Lie to me and tell me that you'll stay here tonight
Tell me that you'll never leave
Oh, and I'll just try to make believe
That everything, everything your telling me is true
Come on baby won't you just

Lie to me, go ahead and lie to me

Lie to me, it doesn't matter anymore
It could never be, the way it was before
If I can't hold on to you
Leave me somethin' I can hold onto
For just a little while won't you, won't you let me be

Oh, anyone can see
That you love him more than me
But right now baby let me pretend
That our love will never end

Lie to me, go ahead and lie to me

Good one.

[Ann]

JMH, I'll give you an irony meter:

Timothy Geithner, Rahm Emanuel Make People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful Issue...Yes, Really....and of course, Michelle.

Ok ladies, who wants Geithner? LOL

[Sue]

JMH,

I think it was Hit yesterday that said Fox was going to go ahead and air "Lie to Me" instead of "Lie to You" starring Obama.

[bad]

Ann, thanks but I'll stick with Dick Morris...

[Extraneus]

I imagine Rush will post the Rahm ballerina pic again tomorrow.

[JM Hanes]

Nope. I'm not going to say it, bad. Wouldn't be prudent.

[Sue]

I said this over at Hot Air. If I were Michelle, I'd be leary of it being a serious honor if they named me beautiful along with Timothy Geithner and Rahm Emanuel.

[Extraneus]

Apparently there are more than one.

[pagar]

In the interest of irony--American Thinker has a report that the House just added an amendment:

Protecting pedophiles

The debate is over: for liberals, child molesters should be given the same rights as homosexuals. Moreover, they should be given more rights than pregnant women and veterans; the latter two categories were explicitly denied coverage under the hate crimes bill.

[bad]

pagar, are democrats equating gays and pedophiles?

[Ann]

Bravo Extraneus! He looks like he is ready to jump in the air and twirl around.

Pagar, did they forget to add PETA Q to that list?

[JM Hanes]

Love the crossed ankles, Extraneus. Rahm must have gotten his 6th grade dancing class signals mixed. Too bad it looks like the photographer is just doing a head shot.

Hit linked to the White House Photostream, earlier today. I feel certain someone could get a lot of photoshop mileage out of this one, although there are plenty of digital accidents just waiting to happen over there. The President is second from the left. I'm thinking something along the lines of Hear No Evil... or a not-so-full monty. I say smoke 'em while you've got 'em.

[JM Hanes]

I think with a little cropping and a caption, this one is almost good to go without further ado. Might be fun to morph the football though, and do away with the need for separate snark..

[Extraneus]

Here's the original.

[centralcal]

Pagar: O.M.G.

I can't take this torture. Where do I go for reparations and who do I sue?

[Extraneus]

I imagine he had his pick of the female dancers in those days, from the looks of it.

[centralcal]

HA! Ya think, Extraneus?

[Dave]

jmh: Best I can do in a few minutes with ms-paint. (Photoshop is above my pay grade)

Obama, dealing with the Swine Flew crisis.

[lurking]

Does he bite his nails?

[centralcal]

Dave - Hello - why limit that visual to jus the pig flu crises? You can use it for any "when pigs fly . . ." moments that are bound to come up with this BozO.

[Dave]

lurking, I think he has people to do that for him.

[hit and run]

JMH:
I can't believe there hasn't been snark #1 about Fox broadcast choosing to air "Lie to Me" instead of the Obama presser.

Let there be snark...

(http://www.fox.com/lietome/>Actual Fox show here)

[bad]

Swine Flew... hilarious, Dave!

[Sue]

Swine Flew!

[Ann]

Will some designer please step forward and help Michelle?

I will be nice and just say I don't like the shoes.

[clarice]

Hit, another fantastic one...

Ann, I certainly wouldn't be photographed on purpose in my gardening garb..

[Porchlight]

Gosh, Ann, she is so absolutely average looking. Even wearing expensive clothes.

She does have lovely forearms and hands, though. I won't even touch the subject of the upper arms because I don't care about "guns." (Besides, whatever guns she has are far outweighed by her pins.)

[pagar]

, are democrats equating gays and pedophiles?

From the LUN:

"The House of Representatives will vote this week, possibly tomorrow, on a hate crimes bill championed by gay groups that includes pedophiles under the rubric of sexual orientation. This is the ultimate confession: liberal Democrats think of pedophiles as indistinguishable from homosexuals.

"When this subject came up last week in the House Judiciary Committee, an amendment to the hate crimes bill that would have excluded pedophilia from the definition of sexual orientation was defeated by Democrats along party lines, 13-10. This was considered good news by gay organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, left-wing groups like the ACLU and various Jewish groups like the ADL.

[Porchlight]

This was considered good news by gay organizations

Wow, pagar. I'm speechless. And yet the same people hit the roof when it is suggested that perhaps it might be unwise to allow gay men to escort Boy Scout troops on overnight camping trips w/o a chaperone.

[Ann]

Hit, that was really TERRIFIC!!! I can just see the JOM 9/12 ladies carrying it around on pitchforks in the march on D.C. You know you must go to that event and report back to all of us on their activities. It is your JOM duty. We will sign a petition for your wife if it helps. :)

With all the news today, don't miss this:
Obama To Aid Spanish Inquisition Of Bush

[RichatUF]

Whoa-I thought the job of the Administration was to protect and defend the US Constitution not allow Spanish judges to indulge their fantasies of "universal jursdiction". Clever that Holder would go to Europe to announce it.

[narciso]

"No one expects the Obama Inquisition,their chief weapons are aurprise. . ."

[JM Hanes]

WOW x WOW! Fantastic! The flying porker is inspired -- what a perfect little piglet. It really is laugh out loud funny, Dave. Every time I scroll back up to it I guffaw. Yeah, really, guffaw -- and that may be one of the first times I've ever used the word myself. You clearly don't need photoshop!

And Hit too! -- I did hear that the Obama folks thought it was time for a new iconic photo(sh)op, so your timing is perfect, as usual. Mama told me that it really pays to read the fine print, and she was right. I love the white fuzzies -- I'm suddenly thinking about an ever morphing halo over time.

Two thumbs up, you guys. Faster than the speed of light too.

I didn't know you were so handy with photoshop too, Ann. Don't change the shoes, they go so well with the stretchies! I know, I know, but the whole thing is so bad Michelle should claim somebody shopped her around. I think we're looking at the Imelda Marcos of Argyle IYKWIMAITYD.

[JM Hanes]

Ann:

The Holder business is stunning! Just stunning. The AP article at Forbes that Sweetness & Light links to doesn't actually mention the Spanish question, but I found it at Yahoo: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking with reporters in Berlin before the investigation was announced, did not rule out cooperating with such an investigation.

"Obviously, we would look at any request that would come from a court in any country and see how and whether we should comply with it," Holder said.

"This is an administration that is determined to conduct itself by the rule of law and to the extent that we receive lawful requests from an appropriately-created court, we would obviously respond to it," he said.

Asked if that meant the U.S. would cooperate with a foreign court prosecuting Bush administration officials, Holder said he was talking about evidentiary requests, and would review any such request to see if the United States would comply.

Apparently Garzon has gone rogue. Garzon's move is separate from a complaint by human rights lawyers that seeks charges against six specific Bush administration officials they accuse of creating a legal framework to permit torture of suspects at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. detention facilities.

Spanish prosecutors said on April 17 that any such probe should be carried out by the U.S. and recommended against it being launched in Spain. Their opinion has been endorsed by Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido. Garzon originally had that case, but ultimately it was transferred to another judge, who has yet to decide whether to investigate.

Now, Garzon is opening a separate, broader probe that does not name any specific suspects but targets "possible material authors" of torture, accomplices and those who gave torture orders.
Garzon is acting on his own, rather than in response to a complaint filed with the National Court, which is the usual procedure for universal justice probes in Spain.
Hopefully Holder's comments were just parse-ready political weaseling, but I still can't get over how cavalier Obama and crew are about the ramifications of their public statements abroad. American exceptionalism is clearly dead as a doornail in this supposedly visionary institution.

[JM Hanes]

Oh shoot, the formatting disappeared. The first and last paragraphs are mine, and two long blockquotes are separated by my comment that "Apparently Garzon has gone rogue."

[Q]

In such a scenario, neither McCain nor Romney could pick up Bush's banner, even if they backed the same policies. One might say that Bush's position was less popular than it appeared.

One might say, but the difference is, none did! Bush was wildly popular with evangelicals, yes, but in the entire eight years of his presidency, I never saw a single mainstreamish journalist allege that his policies were "more popular overall than they actually are" due to all the super-religious types voting for him. And yet suddenly a conservative pundit is writing that a black president is getting too much black support, which is inflating his popularity artificially. I don't know if it makes York a racist, but it makes him pretty repellant.

[Dave]

WOW x WOW! Fantastic! The flying porker is inspired -- what a perfect little piglet. It really is laugh out loud funny, Dave. Every time I scroll back up to it I guffaw. Yeah, really, guffaw -- and that may be one of the first times I've ever used the word myself. You clearly don't need photoshop!

JMH - aw shucks; thanks. 'LUN' is another one that I did that received a good reaction here one night.

[Jane]

Gee, I leave the room for a little sleep and look what you guys are up to.

Absolutely spectacular!

[Porchlight]

And yet suddenly a conservative pundit is writing that a black president is getting too much black support, which is inflating his popularity artificially.

Nonsense. York is not assigning value to the approval ratings of one group over another's. He is merely pointing out that the super-high ratings of one segment of the population skew the average. Anyone writing about the same figures responsibly would be bound to point out the same thing. It's called analysis.

To look at it another way, if you were a teacher and gave a test to your class, and 10% of the class scored 90 on the test but the remaining 90% scored between 50 and 60, would you consider the class to have aced the test as a group? And wouldn't the breakdown of the scores be more useful to you than the mean in figuring out how to improve the scores of the majority of the class?

Or maybe you only care about the average because that's what gets reported from your class to the principal and the testing agencies.

[fdcol63]

Some claim they want an "honest" discussion about race in America, but whenever inconvenient facts are pointed out about how race impacts politics and policy, these same people immediately try to deflect attention away from these facts with charges of racism.

[hit and run]

Ann:
You know you must go to that event and report back to all of us on their activities. It is your JOM duty.

I have every intention! I just haven't said anything because I have no idea where we'll be living by then, so I can't really commit.

[Old Lurker]

OK, how the heck did you post those pics? Some are in the posts, and Dave had one in his LUN. Had I known how to do that, I would have posted a sword arch pic from the wedding that would make you cry...

That skill is going to make JOM even better, Typepad notwithstanding.

And the flying pig using MS Paint is really impressive.

[Old Lurker]

GM Bondholders finally wake up.

Bloomberg LUN.

[pagar]

I'd be real surprised if Obama would let GM slip away like that.

[hit and run]

OL:
Had I known how to do that, I would have posted a sword arch pic from the wedding that would make you cry...

Is the pic already stored online?

I could always, always use a good cry...

This...

< img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3305/3487072127_b8c4893cd9_o.jpg">

...produced the image I posted in the comments above.

Or simplified:

< img src="[image url]">

If you know the url of the actual pic, that's all it takes.

[narciso]

Supergenius Biden, just told everyone not to ride the subways or do air travel, what is he trying to shut down the US economy completely, boy "we really did dodge a bullet last November" Well it's Biden, one of SNL's laughlines along with Blago. BTW
the person who should have held that office
and will likely hold a higher one will be on "American Chopper" on TLC, at 9 tonight.

[Old Lurker]

Thanks, Hit!

How's the job search going, BTW?

[Old Lurker]

PUK, when you wake up, see the Bloomberg story LUN re exodus of finance from London to Switzerland per our exchange yesterday. I believe a similar move is underway from NYC, now that we have relocated the center of gravity of finance from NYC to DC, now that NY is going after the rich even more, and now we have added the fickle politics of condemnation to the mix.

[Extraneus]

Sweet!

State Department recognizes Republic of Texas

[Rick Ballard]

"and now we have added the fickle politics of condemnation to the mix."

The Buffoon did it again with the Chrysler bankruptcy:

"While the administration was willing to give the holdout creditors a final opportunity to do the right thing, the agreement of all other key stakeholders ensured that no hedge fund could have a veto over Chrysler's future success," an administration official said this morning. "Their failure to act in either their own economic interest or the national interest does not diminish the accomplishments made by Chrysler, Fiat and its stakeholders nor will it impede the new opportunity Chrysler now has to restructure and emerge stronger going forward."

White man's greed grounded the Flying Unicorn once again.

I note that todays unemployment reporting by the Mediacrat business propagandists focuses on the 'green shoot' initial number which is 14K less than the previous week while ignoring the snarling behemoth of the 131K increase in continuing claims.

I do consider the fact that things are getting much worse at a decelerating pace to be a consolation, just not much of one for the 6,271,000 still unemployed in the Oconomy.

[Extraneus]

From Instapundit:

STRATFOR: A Chilling Effect on U.S. Counterterrorism

Real logic.

[centralcal]

< img src="http://www.people.com/people/package/gallery/0,,20267544_20274176_20614677,00.html">

Test - Most beautiful?

[centralcal]

Well, that didn't work!!

Anyway, I waded in to see the sneak preview of the most beautiful in People Magazine.

Oddly, Michelle was photo'd in black and white instead of color, like the others. And the picture is not a very flattering one.

LUN

[Rick Ballard]

I dunno CC, I think they masked the overbite and unmatched eye size pretty well. The dainty ET hand is a particularly nice touch.

[bad]

Geez, CC, her mother lives with them and does heavy lifting in raising the Obama daughters and Michelle talks about her father and brother instead?

I grandma rates a mention somewhere in that fluff.

[bad]

I HOPE grandma