The Presidential Laugh Track Is Doing Fine

After four years of being caricatured as a closet socialist who distrusts private enterprise and never met a government program he didn't like, President Obama finally steps out of the closet.

In trying to prod Congress to act on his jobs programs, Obama made the same point repeatedly in a press conference yesterday - the private sector is "doing fine" and it is job losses in the public sector that are holding back the recovery.

Here we go:

And the most important thing I think we can do is make sure that we continue to have a strong, robust recovery.  So the steps that I've outlined are the ones that are needed.  We've got a couple of sectors in our economy that are still weak.  Overall, the private sector has been doing a good job creating jobs.  We've seen record profits in the corporate sector. 

The big challenge we have in our economy right now is state and local government hiring has been going in the wrong direction.  You've seen teacher layoffs, police officers, cops, firefighters being laid off.  And the other sector that's still weak has been the construction industry.  Those two areas we've directly addressed with our jobs plan.  The problem is that it requires Congress to take action, and we're going to keep pushing them to see if they can move in that direction.

Let's note that the construction industry would be a mix of public and private building. And again:

The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone.  The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government -- oftentimes, cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.  And so, if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is, how do we help state and local governments and how do we help the construction industry.

And can we score a trifecta?

Keep in mind that the private sector has been hiring at a solid pace over the last 27 months.  But one of the biggest weaknesses has been state and local governments, which have laid off 450,000 Americans.  These are teachers and cops and firefighters.  Congress should pass a bill putting them back to work right now, giving help to the states so that those layoffs are not occurring.

In addition, since the housing bubble burst, we’ve got more than a million construction workers out of work.  There’s nothing fiscally responsible about waiting to fix your roof until it caves in.  We've got a lot of deferred maintenance in this country.  We could be putting a lot of people back to work rebuilding our roads, our bridges, some of our schools.  There's work to be done; there are workers to do it.  Let’s put them back to work right now.

Rebuilding bridges, roads and schools would be public sector employment.

Obama's meaning is clear. Three days after the voters of Wisconsin repudiated their public sector unions and affirmed Gov. Walker's attempts to rein them in, Obama is insistent that the real problem facing the American economy is a shrinking public sector. Good luck with that message.

The WSJ mentions some measure of health for the private sector and looks at the real problem in the public sector - rising pension and health bills.

CHANNELING MY INNER JPOD:

Let's cut to the real John Podhoretz:

Obama’s explanation for the slowdown in economic growth is that the public sector is hurting, and that’s where Washington must step in and act.

“Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Oftentimes, cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government,” he said. “And so, you know, if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments.”

The president seriously wants to go before the American people and argue in an election year that the wildly unpopular $860 billion stimulus of 2009 needs to be supplemented this year by more direct federal support of state and local government workers?

I’m trying very hard to think of a way this argument is not politically insane for Obama in his quest to win over independent voters who will make the difference in November.

WALKBACK OR WALK-AROUND? Ann Althouse does not think Obama walked back his remarks in a subsequent 'clarification'.

HE'S NOT USING THE WORD 'SOCIALIST', BUT... Mickey Kaus also worries that Obama wasn't gaffeing, he was telling us what he really thinks about the public sector.

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

Waterloo!

[bob]

The public union money is drying up. Without mandatory dues withholding, and mandatory union membership they have to have more public employees since only about 60% (or less in a lot of regions) will even join because they know it is a scam. They don't want their votes (which they won't count) they just want the money for ginormous union boss salaries and political kickbacks. Wisconsin clearly shows what happens when dues are not collected from paychecks by the employer, no sane person wants to pay tribute to union and Democrat bosses.

[dublindave]

"Obama' smeaning is clear. Three days after the voters of Wisconsin repudiated their public sector unions and affirmed Gov. Walker's attempts to rein them in,"
Obama is insistent that the real problem facing the American economy is a shrinking public sector. Good luck with that message."

And good luck with your job creating strategy of firing tens of thousands of cops,teachers and firefighters.

Sooner or later you're going to realize that people actually like the services that state workers supply.They like that there are good teachers who care about the quality of education.They like that there are firefighters who will walk into burning buildings and save lives.They like that there are cops who will protect the streets.

They like these services.

[peter]

That press conference demonstrated how out of touch the President is. Never mind that he hid his socialist ties in the eighties and nineties. Never mind that his minions destroyed his State Department records. Never mind that he has a fake social security number. Never mind that he probably had terrible grades in college and law school. Never mind that he put a forged certificate of live birth up on the White House website. Never mind that a convicted felon bought his house. Never mind that his extravagant wife wasted half a million dollars of the taxpayers to go on an extravagant vacation in a five star Spanish resort. Never mind that he has never held a real job, and voted present throughout his brief and undistinguished job as a legislator. He is out of touch. More out of touch than George Bush, Sr. was when he saw a SKU scanner for the first time. He is incompetent and over his head, and that press conference showed it. Big time.

[Jane]

Sorry to go OT so soon but is anyone else concerned about: 1. Holder appointing people to investigate leaks that he does not want to be discovered? 2. Congress asking Justice to look into the swatting of conservative blogs which Holder would love to get rid of and the fact that the IRS denied 501(c)3 status to Emerge America?

The Congress may not know that Justice is corrupt, but it seems they are actually putting people at risk with their demands.

John Mitchell comes to mind.

[rse]

To the extent it is teachers it is because the Central Office admins have become active pushers of political ideology pretending to be pedagogy and learning theories and "new" mind/brain research, especially in the largest school districts. As such they must NOT be eliminated no matter what the shortfall.

The teachers also bear the brunt to put the fear of God and unemployment in them on implementing with fidelity these political theories in their classrooms.

Here's one example, even after the cheating scandal, the cost of the Central Office admin PER student in the Atlanta public school system is $3000. It's good and lucrative to be a Deputy Super or Area Super. In fact I have watched particularly aggressive implementers move from promotion to promotion more than doubling salaries in just a few years. And not from a low base.

Romney should take this message of the President who wants to represent those who would like to live permanently at our expense all the way home. People are mad about this and it plays into the necessary cutbacks in the public sector at all levels he will need to push. Whatever his instincts at heart.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I attribute it to Capitol Hill fog.

[centralcal]

Jane, how can Congress not know that the DOJ is corrupt? I am not buying that one. They know.

[peter]

Classic Mark Steyn:

"If you're wondering who Anna Wintour is, boy, what a schlub you are: She's renowned throughout the fashion world for her scary bangs. I'm referring to her hair, not to the last sound Osama bin Laden heard as the bullet headed toward his eye socket on the personal orders of the president, in case you've forgotten. But that's the kind of inside tidbit you'll be getting, as the Commander-in-Chief leaks highly classified national-security details to you over the zebra mussel in a Eurasian-milfoil coulis. For a donation of $35,800, he'll pose with you in a Seal Team Six uniform with one foot on Osama's corpse (played by Harry Reid). For a donation of $46,800, he'll send an unmanned drone to hover amusingly over your sister-in-law's house. For a donation of $77,800, he'll install you as the next president-for-life of Syria (liability waiver required). For a donation of $159,800, he'll take you into Sarah Jessica's guest bedroom and give you the full 007 while Carly Simon sings "Nobody Does It Better."

more at LUN

[narciso]

It's a proforma thing, Machen (who reminds me of the name of the character in the Kilimanjaro sketch,) won't come with a mile of Brennan, who was the chief leaker, Rush
was reading out the less objectionable, although Hagiographic elements of the kill list, the actually tricky bits about 'Olympic Games' are less well sourced, although we can make some surmises about who is involved,Recall how nearly three years ago, Panetta had a temper tantrum
about a suggested 'kill list' using contractors, that never went off the ground.

You can tell they are concerned by the way that Sargent tracks the oatmeal all over himself, whereas Cohn is a little more circumspect, When you're new net hires are 40% of where you should be, you have a problem.

[Clarice]

By occupying the state capitol, shutting down schools, (cops) looking the other way as their fellow union members trashed Madison, the public unions in Wisconsin forever changed their public image:The notion of the caring teachers, nurses and cops is now replaced by images of thugs and bullies, greedy for ever more of the taxpayers' money, refusing to take "no" for an answer. or to yield to the will of the voters.

[Jane]

Jane, how can Congress not know that the DOJ is corrupt? I am not buying that one. They know.

Nixon looks like an angel compared to this administration - and no one in Congress cares.

[narciso]

Maybe if they would hire less Ward Churchill and the likes of you, Red Squaw;

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/warren-knocks-academia-lack-diversity/588661

[henry]

The truly funny part about Duda's delusion is the Walker had two choices: Act 10 restricting collective bargaining or an immediate cut of 40,000 gov workers. The school districts which shed teachers (Milwaukee etc) rushed to extend union contracts to avoid Act 10. Even funnier is the clear implication that the key to avoiding public sector job losses is killing public sector unions. Obama and the feather passes are too stupid to figure this out -- math is involved (at least basic arithmetic, not the good stuff).

[Clarice]

A mysterious incident took place in DC yesterday. I wonder if it was an attempted terrorist attack. A car with a gasoline tank inside it and with gas poured all over it smashed into the lobby of an office building near a major subway stop.Luckily it didn't explode on contact but if it had, there would have been a big loss of life and considerable transport problems here. The driver was caught.

Worth watching.

[AliceH]

Jane - I'm no more, and no less, concerned by either of those events. Neither will change what actions are actually taken by DOJ to obscure facts, delay investigation, destroy evidence, etc. In effect, they've just slapped a label on a crisp new file folder, but what they will put in it is unaffected.

[Clarice]

http://news.investors.com/article/614107/201206071830/walker-recall-tells-us-voters-are-tired-of-big-government.htm?p=full

An excellent article on why the Wisconsin vote signals the jig is up for public unions and the Dems

[AliceH]

Mickey Kaus isn't buying it either:

"The problem is that many voters (myself included) don’t think government jobs are just another sector. We want the number of housing and manufacturing jobs to keep growing–the more the merrier, all things being equal. We don’t want the number government jobs to keep growing, in part because we pay for them without the assurances, offered in a competitive private economy, that we’re getting our moneys worth or that the jobs are necessary at all."

[henry]

Clarice, living proof of that article at the WI Dem Convention. This link is DWS doubling down on stupid, but it was the theme for all the Ds yesterday.

[Extraneus]

That business with GHW Bush and the supermarket scanner was all b.s., peter.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.asp

...unlike the accurately stupid quotes from yesterday's "press conference."

[narciso]

That is disconcerting, Clarice, could be one of the Occupy folks, or the sort of thing, Wuhayshi would suggest. I differ with Lee Smith on the 'Olympic Games' blame shifting, in so far as it sounds much like what Dagan
and Yadlin have been boasting to check Bibi.

[narciso]

They haven't spent all theARRA cash, so why is he asking for more, I know rhetorical question, they 'found' 34 billion, in a account for mortgage refinancing, then they blame the Congress for oversight, well excuse
me, wouldn't that be Treasury's purview.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 15 at Raz today.

Trails Romney by 1.

[narciso]

Spanish has a much wider range of invective, that even Captain could imagine, all of which are suggested by this piece,

http://babalublog.com/2012/06/mariela-castro-launches-attack-against-cuban-american-lawmakers/

[narciso]

And of course, the Times highlights Dr. Evil and his new pad in Lake Tahoe, did he get a cut of 'Game Change' revenue, the only consulting gig he got, Dudle, flamed out, of course, Brian Jones made it all possible

[GMax]

And good luck

Base on the Walker recall results, Scott Brown, Virginia and NJ Governor races, the House in 2010 and most of the special elections in the House since 2010, I dont think we need your luck wishes.

You might want to look into emigrating to Canada, as America as you know, not to mention how you would like to change it, is not going to exist much longer.

The @ssbeating to end all @ssbeating, or shellacking to end all shellacking is about to be visited upon your sorry liberal tush.

[MarkO]

Clarice, it was just another lone wolf, a silly notion mouthed only by those who do not realize that wolves travel and hunt in packs. daddy can weigh in on that.

Scary. Be careful.

[Clarice]

Ut looked to be a brand new SUV he was driving,Mark O. Didn't appear to be a penniless drifter.

[narciso]

No look, Harper. who's practically a Texan coming from Alberta, has made the place redder by a country mile, they are even phasing out the Human Rights 'two minute'
hate, that bedeviled Steyn and Levant, he could try British Columbia, though,

[Ignatz]

Be kind. Wee Davey hasn't got much to work with here.
Either Barry is a clueless fool, completely out of touch with the pain in the teetering economy or he acknowledges that after three and a half years of his bonehead policies, the economy is teetering.
And since he got Barrycare and porkulus passed and the Republicans went along with the worse than useless payroll tax cut and not a single Dem would vote for either of his budgets the last two years or come up with their own he can hardly blame the Republicans, try as he might.

[Clarice]

**It looked to be*

[Clarice]

narciso, I'm at a total loss in figuring out your last post, I'm afraid.

[GMax]

Did Dan Riehl find ol' double douche Davie blowing off some steam? LOL Read this one and laugh at the libtard, its sounds just like him:

I'm f*cking pissed, and I'm not going to take it anymore. I have just sat down and shut up my whole life until I'm backed into a corner, and I feel like I am being backed into a corner now. I feel like I've sat back and watched the Tea Party just freaking take over state after state. States like Wisconsin, where there are so many Democrats are being taken over by freaking tea baggers. I sit back and watch people like Moe Lane from the tea party website, RedState, say this:

I would like to offer these words of comfort. When you progressive/liberal/Democratic activists look back on your quest to begin the Wisconsin recall movement, I want you to appreciate the amazing amount of work that you spent on it. You called. You networked. You wrote letters and blog posts. You contributed to opposition groups. You reached out, and found people just like you, and you banded together to fight. You marched, and you stormed the state capital, and you were arrested. And you kept going, and calling, and struggling, and you put your time, your money, and every atom of your being on the line. For some of you, this was your finest moment. You fought for this. You fought so hard for this. Oddly enough, I didn’t do any of that, but I won anyway. That’s because you suck, and I don’t. Well, I didn’t say that they were words of comfort for you.

Well you know what Moe? YOU F*CKING SUCK. You are the exact epitome of the Republican mindset in this country today. You want yours at the expense of everybody else's. Oh, and when you get yours you f*cking laugh in our faces. You haven't won sh*t without pouring millions of dollars into it first. Mitt Romney is a fine example of a Republican. He can't win without millions upon millions of dollars to tear down people. Well I am going to f*cking stand up right now and say NO MORE.

NO MORE OF THIS SH*T. Tomorrow morning, I am going to call/visit/stalk/whatever I have to do to volunteer for President Obama and other Democrats in North Carolina. I felt demoralized until I read that comment from Moe Lane. Not anymore. Instead, I say f*ck it. If I lose every damn fight for the rest of my life, at least I will die trying.

You can take my rights away. You can make sure I will never marry the person I love. You can spend millions of dollars to smear the candidates I believe in. You can demoralize me. You can do whatever the f*ck you want to do, but you can't stop me from fighting.

And fight I f*cking will.

This guy might be funnier in an unintended way that Dennis Miller!

[Clarice]

narciso, it was the 9;49 post I was referring t.

[Captain Hate]

They like that there are good teachers who care about the quality of education.

They produced dumbasses like you and the rest of the ignorant trolls. Eff them.

[narciso]

Yeah, Zazi was a lone wolf, who happened to be coached by our own local boy, 'Hamad' same
for Shahzad and co, of course, they matched to force Silber out, who had a clue about these sorts of things, at NYPD,

[Rick Ballard]

I'd like to know when Trumka finally accepted the call from President Kardashian. If it were known, we could determine the amount of time required for the titanic minds of the Pinhead Troika, brain trust of the President's unsinkable campaign, to come up with a gesture of proof that the President is less inhibited than Michelle when union money is on the line.

For those who keep journals - now would be the right time to make an entry for future reference in formulating a reply to the question; "When did you know it was over?

[centralcal]

Clarice: you said the driver was caught. Any info on him yet?

[Captain Hate]

Spanish has a much wider range of invective, that even Captain could imagine

For the first time in my life, I want to learn Spanish.

DoT, on the last thread I left a question for you: When you were on the cruise down the river of your nom de cyberplume, did you go as far as the Black Sea? If so did they indicate where the battle of Ismail was and is the fort still there?

[narciso]

'When the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor' Rick, so Trumka probably feels like those project
residents in Algeld Gardens right about now, I wouldn't get near him, without rabies shots.

[GMax]

It actually been over since the Democrats in Congress ignored the clear will of their constituents reflected in calls, letters, e-mails and every single poll, and passed Zerocare. Remember Scott Brown had been elected to the "Ted Kennedy" seat if they actually needed to be hit by the cluebat. They did it anyway.

It did not sink in to many then, and even a smaller number even now. But the die was cast.

[GMax]

Oddly enough, I didn’t do any of that, but I won anyway. That’s because you suck, and I don’t.

Doesn't that have a nice ring to it, Double Douchie?

[jwest]

I also apologize for going off topic, but here is something I can’t understand…

According to a full frontal fluffing by the NY Times, Steve Schmidt has a “career resurrected” after his disastrous stint in the 2008 campaign. Since no one on either side of the aisle would consider him to work run a campaign for county clerk, he has found a home as Vice Chairman for Public Relations at Edelman – a (perhaps formerly) respected public relations firm.

Certain professions rely on discretion and loyalty. You need to be confident in your priest that your confessions will be kept private. Your relationship with your lawyer is dependent on the belief that he or she will maintain the confidences and act loyally on your behalf. The other profession that requires absolute dedication to a client, free of the fear that someone in the firm will leak mischaracterizations and lies for his own personal aggrandizement, is the public relations business.

My question is: Why would a company that is built on the fundamentals of loyalty to the client hire someone like Steve Schmidt? Even if the principals were sympathetic to what he did, why would they risk associating the firm with a person who has demonstrated a complete lack of the qualities people look for in their PR choice?

I would love to see a number of bloggers ask this same question.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/fashion/steve-schmidt-a-career-resurrected-after-mccain-and-palin.html

[centralcal]

Captain, thanks for the reply on the other thread. Any idea when Ace will move to the "new" site?

[Jane]

The driver was caught.

He was also covered with gas ala suicide bomber. I wonder if he has a funny name?

[Captain Hate]

Rick, I didn't really *know* it was over until the Pinhead Troika decided to attack Ann Romney in a particularly offensively ham-fisted way. And the responses made it clear that we didn't have the McCain vermin running things any more. There were markers all along the way that suggested that it was over, starting with Scotty Centerfold's election, followed by the "damn the will of the people" Deathcare vote, and the JEF's inability to pivot a la Clenis after November 2010. But McCain, Schmidt and Wallace, along with the slough of Duke and Duke allstars, still kept me in doubt. After all, as bad as Carter was, could an earlier version of McRINO have defeated him?

[maryrose]

When we lokk back on Nov.7th we will highlight the month of June as the beginning of the end. All they have is a smear campaign which no one is getting on board with at this juncture. To be so dependent on Europe for your future prosperity is frightening. No wonder inane press conferences are the order of the day.

[GMax]

Couple this :

Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican in their district’s congressional race if the election were held today, while 37% would choose the Democrat instead.

With this:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters think it’s better for the country with one political party in charge of both the White House and Congress. Thirty-four percent (34%) disagree and feel the country is better off with each branch of government being run by a different party. One-in-four voters (25%) are undecided.

And then realize that if the undecideds stay home, its a blowout and if only 1/3 of the undecided pull the Republican lever its fait accompli.

QED

[narciso]

Why because Halperin and Heileman, went to down, based on the underling who wrote the CYA, because the Romney campaign and Santorum campaign, sent emissaries to that wretched piece of trash, which I've dubbed 'Julianne's Bender' That same aide was subsequently hired
by Romney,

Izmail, specially the battle in 1790, seemed to have been a particulatly nasty piece of work, which I've gotten from the accounts of Madariaga and co,

[centralcal]

Excellent, question, jwest. Schmidt (the NYT story you reference) is getting quite the skewering on Twitter right now. Not sure how "resurrected" his career is or ever will be.

[Captain Hate]

Dunno cc. Even if he has a planned date, as a veteran of software installs (using much more robust packages than that Pixy garbage, assuming he's sticking with them) things almost never go according to plan.

[Jane]

For those who keep journals - now would be the right time to make an entry for future reference in formulating a reply to the question; "When did you know it was over?

Last week, altho GMAX makes a very good point. We had Obamacare and then Soctt Brown, an 87 seat pick-up in the house (I forget the real number) Wisconsin and here we are. And we are fighting the entire mainstream media as well as the administration - not to mention Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

People need to realize that the public sector unions are stealing from us, not the other way around.

[Clarice]

I don't know more about the driver, CC and Jane. But, yeah--that thought occurred to me but not apparently the crack writers of the WaPo.

It is amazing that anyone would hire Schmidt for more than law work, isn't it. Scum rises.

[narciso]

They are still feeding the muddle, although HBO is a higher end piece of trash, in the LUN.

[GMax]

For the record it was Scott Brown then Obamacare, as in "We dont give a flying flip what you say".

Debbie Does America is one of the best things that ever happened to the prospects for America, all totally and cluelessly unintended. Liberal inanity on display has that effect on folks.

[Captain Hate]

jwest, companies make dumbass hires all the time. As much as an untrustworthy quisling as Schmidt is, he's obviously part of a network that still has some people that he knows some dark secrets about. He's probably called in all his markers to land this gig with the understanding that he will be kept on a tight leash and dealt with like Fredo if he screws this one up. Also they probably have some clients that like what he did to Palin.

[Ignatz]

I didn't know it was over until this spring when the economy did that Norwegian Blue thing narciso's always referring to.
Were the economy humming, able to overcome the many obstacles Barry and co have put in its path, Barrycare and all the rest of his idiocies would be overlooked and he'd be cruising.
Unfortunately, Dems never know their own strength when it comes to effing things up.

[AliceH]

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

And with that tired wisdom, suddenly the war on obesity makes some (narciso-style) sense.

[narciso]

It doesn't seem you get to Izmail upriver, only by train or bus. our contentious former G-man, always had a soft spot for the Bear, I guess it runs in the family,

[GMax]

Schmidt was most likely hired because of his rolodex of cell phone numbers. PR businesses need to sell services to folks that can pay for them. Its most likely not more complicated than that, he has 1/2 of the Senate or more on speed dial. He can get to Lieberman and maybe even a few more of the Democrats ( gang of ten ?). He probably works cheap these days too...

[Clarice]

HEH *"law work" should be"lawn work"*(Probably my greatest typo of the day. I really wish we had an edit feature.. preview is for sissies.)

[GMax]

You had it right the first time ( ducks, covers and rolls into the fetal position ). Grin

[narciso]

You're surmise was correct, Captain, note just two of the names on the 'Kevin Bacon';

http://www.muckety.com/Steve-Schmidt/9955.muckety

[Captain Hate]

Izmail, specially the battle in 1790, seemed to have been a particulatly nasty piece of work, which I've gotten from the accounts of Madariaga and co

Potemkin was very doubtful about the outcome because of how difficult it was to attack until Catherine sent Suvorov, who seemed to relish the challenge.

[Danube of Thought]

No, CH. we started at Budapest and went upriver to Passau (near Munich). The same line (Viking) offers a cruise going the opposite way, from Budapest down to the Black Sea. Would love to do it some day.

[narciso]

I don't think it was an accident, that they named the Putin manque on '24 after him,

http://wikitravel.org/en/Izmail

[Captain Hate]

Ah, thanks Dot; I'm sure it was outstanding that way too.

narc, I love the graphic you linked to. Yes there are at least two extremely sketchy relationships that explain a lot.

[narciso]

I found a third, Denebian slime devil, who's been relatively quite of late, Ken Adelman,
at the firm,

[Porchlight]

They like that there are good teachers who care about the quality of education.

Tens of thousands of teachers in Wisconsin have their jobs today solely due to Walker's reforms. The unions were bankrupting the state and layoffs were inevitable - until Walker came along.

Voters in Wisconsin can do math, unlike you.

[MarkO]

Sharapova wins the French and a career Grand Slam. She’s only 25.

[narciso]

Just for comparison's sake, I did this match up, ha ha, (although they have some odd standard)

http://www.muckety.com/Sarah-Palin/5170.muckety

[Clarice]

The last time I saw Ken Adelman it was at a seder in 2008 where I sliced and diced him before the defilte fish course was over on Obama..Pheh.

[narciso]

Having read Bely, and some Tolstoy, in translation, one gets a certain feel for the place,

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Obama/Holder murder trial in Mexico]

I'm not at all sure Steve Schmidt was disloyal.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/06/the_producers_theory_of_sarah_palin.html

[centralcal]

With whatever is going on at Ace's, and the Kimberlin swatting finally gaining media and congressional attention, I am a bit confused.

On June 6th Dylan Byers of Politico had a story on the Breitbart Awards that included this:

The Washington Examiner's Phillip Klein will take home the Professional Journalist award; Ace of Spades HQ will receive the award for best blog; and Andrew Marcus will receive the Citizen Journalist award. John Fund, the senior editor of The American Spectator, and Sonnie Johnson, of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, will speak.

Yet, today, Gateway Pundit has a blog up about the Award ceremony (which he attended) and he reports this:

The Washington Examiner’s Phillip Klein took home the Professional Journalist award; Duane Lester from All American Blogger received the award for best blog, and Andrew Marcus won the Citizen Journalist award for his work with Hating Breitbart – a movie celebrating the work and life of Andrew Breitbart.

I have never ever heard of All American Blogger. What happened to Ace?

[Clarice]

*gefilte*--Going to get more coffee.

[Porchlight]

That is very weird, centralcal. I wonder if Ace didn't want to attend the awards ceremony for Kimberlin-related reasons.

Is Ace still anonymous? For some reason I thought he revealed his real name when he was given another blogging award a couple of years ago, but I could be wrong. If he is, then he and Allah are the only major bloggers on the right to still be anonymous IIRC.

[Captain Hate]

On to basketball for a second: Tonight's game should answer if LeBron has taken the next step forward. Thursday's game marked a significant change for him imo because I don't think he'd ever won a game previously when his team was looking to be closed out and the other team wasn't facing elimination. I've had discussions elsewhere that he has so far lacked the almost psychopathic ability to go into the destroy mode that characterized MJ and, to a lesser extent, Kobe. I think things have come too easily for LeBron all his career previously that he doesn't know how to operate in the dark recesses of the soul. When Jordan was growing up he was often *not* the best player on the court; I used to work with somebody who attended a summer camp when he was in high school and said MJ wasn't the best player there by far. MJ used that to fuel his desire to show up everyone else; unfortunately he never outgrew that which ultimately led to him torpedoing Doug Collins one last time with the Wizards and then with his extremely resentful entrance speech into the basketball HOF that was the antithesis of graciousness.

The last game was the first time other than game 3 against the Celtics in LeBron's last season with the Cavs, that he's gone into the beast mode both on offense and shutting Pierce down (previously Pierce would have good games also). He followed that with games where he was inexcusably passive.

If LeBron doesn't figure it out soon, and it may already be too late, he runs the risk of being the nonexistent placemarker between the Duncan/Kobe championships and the Durant era.

[narciso]

That's probably true, considering what Patterico and Erickson and now Al Akbar have gone through.

[jwest]

Narciso, It certainly seems that there are far more people on Sarah Palin’s list that would actually take a call from her than those left on Schmidt’s list who would admit to knowing him.

What could Edelman’s strategy be? Maybe they are planning to offer PR customers their own “Game Change” where the CEO or personality gets the same treatment as Palin. Public relations is getting the word out to as many people as possible. Let’s hope bloggers help Edelman let everyone know they can get the same service from their firm that McCain received in 2008.

[Captain Hate]

I dunno. Ace is pretty strange. I'd say there's a better than 50/50 chance if I knew him in "real life" I wouldn't like him.

[Justin Alexander]

So, to sum up: You think that anyone supporting public education, police forces, fire departments, and the national highway system is a socialist?

There's definitely a laugh track here. But I'm pretty sure everyone is laughing at you.

[MarkO]

LeBron is 27.

Bill Russell, at age 27 had won 2 NCAA championships and 4 NBA titles

Magic Johnson, at 27, had won an NCAA championship and 3 NBA titles. He was 32 when he had to stop playing.

When Jordan was 27 he had 1 NCAA Championship and no NBA titles.

[centralcal]

For some reason I thought he revealed his real name when he was given another blogging award a couple of years ago..

No, you are right, there was even a photo of him published receiving the award, and I vaguely recall a video clip of him speaking when receiving the award. I remember thinking he wasn't at all as I had pictured him. Maybe, it was decided for this award, it might be better to keep him under wraps, so to speak.

I was just fearful that maybe he was being "shunned" because of the Kimberlin scare.

[narciso]

I should have added the heh, I think Schmidt is going the way of Kevin Phillips, who stunk up the place for far too long, because he traded on very simple truism, that the Dems had thrown out the cultural bathwater, in their mad race apart from anything Southern,
(a notion he just as quickly 'refudiated'

[Steven W.]

re George H. W. Bush #41 comment above - there is a misnomer out there that the supermarket scanner episode was Bush never seeing a supermarket scanner before - what he was (RIGHTLY!) amazed by - at the time - was how well the scanner he was seeing worked (at a campaign stop in a grocery one day as I remember) - at the time scanners were flaky and you'd have to keep running barcodes, etc., to get them to take & there would be misreads and things (people were always checking their receipts in great detail). The checker whipped right through the items and Bush was saying "wow! that's working great! I've not seen one work that well before!" - and it was all taken out of context by a complicit media seeking to paint GHWB as out of touch when, in fact, the recession at that time was indeed under control and - in reality - months over by the time Clinton took office.

[MarkO]

This "Kimberlin" suppression is what happens when speech codes spill out of college and into the streets. It is beyond me how the judge in that case failed on the First Amendment issue. But, free speech is out of favor with this Administration and a great many of our "educated" betters.

[centralcal]

Well, mystery solved:

In a moving moment during the awards, Franklin Center Director of New Media Tabitha Hale read aloud a statement from Ace of Spades, who could not make the awards, announcing he did not feel he was worthy of the award and was instead giving it to Duane Lester of All American Blogger (@bodhi1), who graciously accepted.

[dublindave]

"The truly funny part about Duda's delusion is the Walker had two choices: Act 10 restricting collective bargaining or an immediate cut of 40,000 gov workers. The school districts which shed teachers (Milwaukee etc) rushed to extend union contracts to avoid Act 10. Even funnier is the clear implication that the key to avoiding public sector job losses is killing public sector unions. Obama and the feather passes are too stupid to figure this out -- math is involved"

It was TM who attempted to view Walkers recent victory as a mandate to shed even more public sector jobs.I merely pointed out the idiocy of such a notion and you very kindly backed me up.

Tank you,Sir.

[Captain Hate]

Yes Steven W, the MFM were somewhat more surreptitious in their selective outrage/ridicule against Poppy Bush. He didn't help matters by almost always making his own message about as clear as mud; see Eastern Europe in 89 after they'd been given a green light by Reagan to cast off their yokes.

[dublindave]

sorry...thank you....

[narciso]

That's one way of reading it, the other way is all those folks who invested in Kimberlin,
Tides, Soros, Fidelity et al, let the judge know how he 'was the kindest, bravest, more generous' person they had ever come in contact
with, this is about money and reputation as well as ideology

[Danube of Thought]

You think that anyone supporting public education, police forces, fire departments, and the national highway system is a socialist?

Of course not, and only a moron would draw that inference. The fundamental question is why government employees should be empowered to bargain with politicians over taxpayer money (no prog has yet answered). In the private sector, employees bargain with ownership over how to divide revenues, with the understanding that if they overreach the employer will go under. No such discipline is present in the case of government unions, whose relationship with the politicians is inherently corrupt.

It's not about socialism. It's about corruption. And it's going to end.

[narciso]

It's funny, in light of the way, they are painting Obama as Rambo, well not really,
'Poppy' who enlisted at 18 was a hero, who
barely escaped a horrid fate over Chichijima,
and CIA Director subsequently, Dole lost most of control of his arm, in Italy, yet they managed to ridicule him for that, the kind of valor, they subsequently recognized two years later in 'Saving Private Ryan'

[Rob Crawford]

Captain, I think the odds we wouldn't like Ace in real life are pretty high. His "help me Congress, you're my only hope" screed was pathetic, his attitude towards conservative women is insulting, and his willingness to kiss establishment ass in the hopes of a consulting gig is just sad.

(He's said repeatedly that his anonymity is about protecting his job prospects, so I wouldn't put much weight behind the idea he's hiding from Kimberlin.)

[Stephanie]

"I suspect that many in the Obama administration really don't believe in private enterprise. At best they see business as something to be endured so that that it can provide tax money for government programs," said Jindal.

Responding to Obama's statement that the private sector was doing fine, he added: "Mr. President, I've got a message for you: The private sector is not doing well when 23 million Americans are unemployed and underemployed in this great country. This president, the private sector is so foreign to him he might need a passport to actually go visit and he might need a translator to help him talk to folks in the private sector."

profit to earnings ratios anyone? Jindal's got him pegged.

LUN

[fdcol63]

Clarice @ 09:14 AM

Exactly.

[centralcal]

Not too long ago, the public unions (SEIU, et al) called for county wide protest where union members were to call in sick or just not show up for work.

Some county agencies had modest employee outages, others almost none.

Not one single employee of the Sheriff's department missed work that day.

[narciso]

Take a look at this track record,

in 1995, Steve Schmidt managed the unsuccessful campaign for Kentucky Attorney General of Will T. Scott, who is now Deputy Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. This Kentucky campaign's advertising strategy was featured in the second edition of George Magazine. In 1998, Schmidt ran California State Senator Tim Leslie's unsuccessful race for Lt. Governor of California.[7] Also that year, he was the Communications Director for California State Treasurer Matt Fong's unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.[8] In 1999, he was the Communications Director for Lamar Alexander's presidential run, leaving in June when the campaign reduced its senior staff.[9]

[Clarice]

From Townhall:

"That won't last much longer. Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe will soon force a vote on S. J. Res. 37, which would overturn one of the most costly anti-coal regulations, Utility MACT. It's a key test vote for each United States Senator to signal to voters whether they are for or against Obama's War on Coal. And therefore whether they are for or against making electricity prices "necessarily skyrocket," destroying tens of thousands of jobs, and telling coal communities to just go away.

With few meaningful Senate votes expected this year in a Senate that hasn't bothered to even pass a budget in over three years, this is a vote citizens should watch closely - and keep in mind in November"