Goldrush

Bruised
George Zimmerman, who is charged with murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, had a fracture in his nose, two black eyes and cuts on the back of his head, according to a medical report compiled at the request of Zimmerman’s family. (Newsfeed.time.com, 5/16/2012)


Reverend Al Sharpton could not be reached for comment....so, of course, he did not apologize.


Careen
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced Wednesday he will not run for Congress in Washington state, a decision that brings an end to his career on Capitol Hill. (POLITICO.com, 5/16/20120)


Bloggers everywhere mourned the loss of great material.


Avoidance
President Obama's spokesman today indicated his budget as the only way to avoid a debt-ceiling showdown this year, but the Senate unanimously voted against the budget today....Obama's budget failed, 99 votes to 0. The U.S. House of Representatives already voted against the president's budget, 414-0. (Washington Examiner, 5/16/2012)


Undoubtedly this stunning defeat will be the lead story on ABC, CBS, NBC, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the New York Times, MSNBC, Hardball, etc. Or maybe not.

Publish Or Perish

Means Test
On Monday, Mr. Brown announced that the shortfall had shot up again, from $9.2 billion in January, blaming a drop in revenue caused by a bad economy and court rulings barring spending cuts the state had approved. He proposed $8.3 billion in cuts, slashing welfare, social services and health care for the elderly, and a 5 percent cut in hours for state employees.... “The fact is, California has been living beyond its means,” Mr. Brown said. “The United States of America and its federal government has been living beyond its means. This is a day of reckoning, and we have to take the medicine.” (NYT, 5/14/2012)


Recall Brown? The fact is that even Liberal politicians know that the spending party is over. With the exception of tax increases - which Republicans reject - the remedies are the same. How come the California state house is not under siege?


Loathing on Wall Street
On Monday night Mr. Obama spoke at a fund-raiser at the Manhattan home of Tony James, the president of the private-equity giant, the Blackstone Group. Attendees, many from the private-equity world, paid $35,800 a head for the privilege of dining with the President who purports to loathe Wall Street when he isn't asking its greedy denizens to redistribute their wealth to his campaign. Mr. James donated the legal maximum of $35,800 to the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee in November 2011. (WSJ, 5/14/2012)

We have never thought that the inhabitants of Wall Street were really any smarter than the rest of us, despite what they think. Arguably they are less intelligent.  Our current thinking is, well....evolving.  If they are dumb enough to stick with Obama then we say: Regulate away!  You geniuses deserve what you get.

Wiggle Room

Comfort Level
While hailed by liberals and gay-rights leaders for making a historic breakthrough, Mr. Obama recognized that much of the country is uncomfortable with or opposed to same-sex marriage, including many in his own political coalition. (NYT, 5/13/2012)


In a shocking revelation, the New York Times concedes that gay marriage is not supported by "much of the country." By all previous accounts, it was only bigoted conservatives and religious zealots who were in opposition.


Walled in
And now one of the largest banks in the United States, headed by a Democrat and operating with government guarantees, has turned in the kind of headline-grabbing, casino-style loss that drives voters crazy and that Obama’s financial reform bill was supposed to stop. (POLITICO.com, 5/14/2012)


First we learn that Goldman Sachs was Obama's biggest backer. Then we learn that MF Global - headed by Democrat and ex-Goldman CEO Jon Corzine - goes bankrupt and no one knows where customer money went. And now, Democrat-run JP Morgan screws up losing a couple of billion dollars. Remind us again, which party is in bed with Wall Street?


Rope-a-Dope
Charles Rangel is on the ropes. Hobbled by health issues, saddled with past ethics troubles and forced by redistricting onto unfriendly political terrain, the iconic 81-year-old Harlem congressman is campaigning desperately to extend his four-decade run in Washington. (POLITICO.com, 5/13/2012)


Yes, you read that correctly. Four decades! Rangel is the poster boy for term limits. 

Flying Around In The Rain

This Just In
The actress Betty White is endorsing President Obama for reelection, the AP reports. (POLITICO.com, 5/12/2012)


The stunning announcement today that a prominent Hollywood actress was endorsing Barack Obama for president sent shock waves through the presidential campaign. A spokesman for Mitt Romney issued a terse "no comment" when asked for a reaction. Meanwhile Obama press secretary Jay Carney smiled broadly when questioned and said: "obviously we are surprised and delighted by the news." An endorsement from the Hollywood community - known for its political acumen and its historical impartiality has the power to change the political calculus in what had been seen as a close battle. Speculation is rampant that other Hollywood actors - emboldened by the news that one of their own had publicly come out for Obama - would now do likewise. 


Quick Fix
California's budget deficit has swelled to a projected $16 billion – much larger than had been predicted just months ago – and will force severe cuts to schools and public safety if voters fail to approve tax increases in November, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday. (Huffington Post, 5/12/2012)


It is not entirely clear why the news of California's growing budget deficit is news at all, particularly when the problem could be solved almost instantaneously. All Governor Brown has to do is make a quick trip to Hollywood and hold out the collection basket. Hollywood's Liberals have assured us repeatedly that they want to pay more in taxes. Problem solved.


Like
“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it,” said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.” (NYT, 5/13/2012)


Another wasted education! The Times profiles a college grad who apparently did not read the fine print on her student loan applications. You mean I have to pay it back? 

Restless

Hollywood Swingers
The buddy act that President Obama and George Clooney have developed was on full display on Thursday night at the actor’s home here, where they entertained a Hollywood crowd that paid $40,000 a person to support the president’s re-election. (NYT, 5/11/2012)


"You're the man!" Obama shouted to Clooney. "No, you're the man!" Clooney shouted back. Whoever the man is, there is no denying it was a mutual love fest in Hollywood last night. The stars of screen and stage feted a man they have come to see as one of their own. Star-power does not begin to describe the dazzling combination of Hollywood royalty combined with the aura of the free world's leading man. The charismatic president proved that he is equally at home rubbing elbows with silver screen stars as with world leaders. Obama seemed to glide through the Clooney manse, stopping at each table to share a joke, a wink or an anecdote. He filled the room in a way that his guests could only aspire to. At the end of the evening, it was clear that Obama had won the best performance award.


Meanwhile average Americans fretted over jobs and gas prices.


Running With Scissors
Mr. Romney, brandishing a pair of scissors, led other boys on a hunt for Mr. Lauber, teasing him and holding him down while Mr. Romney snipped off his long locks. (NYT, 5/11/2012)


Meanwhile, by all accounts, Obama spent his high school years stoned. OK?

These Things

Looped
Obama doesn't have the power to make same-sex marriage legal. But by taking a stand, he closed the loop with gay-rights activists who are important financiers and supporters of his re-election campaign while putting himself on a potentially perilous path with voters in states such as North Carolina. (Burlington Free Press, 5/10/2012)


As is now becoming increasingly obvious, Obama's gay big money supporters essentially forced his hand. (Or is it "big money gay supporters?" Or "big gay money supporters?" Oh, never mind.)


Clear Day
It's never quite clear whether a politician's high school years are fair game for political attacks. (Huffington Post, 5/10/2012)


Actually, it is entirely clear that a politician's high school years are fair game for political attacks...if that politician is a Republican.


So - in the interest of fairness, RedStateVT excerpts the following:


Obama, by all accounts, was a habitual drug user in high school. He tried cocaine, he admits in Dreams From My Father; he “tried drugs enthusiastically.” The Chicago Tribune reported back in 2007 that Obama thanked the “Choom Gang” in his high school yearbook; “chooming” was Hawaiian slang for smoking pot. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Obama’s senior portrait “prominently displayed … A package of ‘Zig-Zag’ rolling papers and a matchbook.” One of Obama’s close friends was arrested for drug possession during high school. (Breitbart.com, 5/10/2012)


We cannot talk about Obama's drug past enough; not because it matters, but because - like so much of the Obama biography - it is ignored by the media. 


Landslide Bring It Down
If the election were held today, Mitt Romney would win by a landslide...(Published polls) poll only registered voters, not likely voters. Rasmussen is the only pollster who tests likely voters, and his latest tracking poll has Romney ahead by 48-43. (DickMorris.com, 5/9/2012)


RedStateVT Cheney Award winner Morris is doing his usual great work getting inside the details of the various presidential polls. 


High Times
We can say with high confidence that the recent heat waves in Texas and Russia, and the one in Europe in 2003, which killed tens of thousands, were not natural events — they were caused by human-induced climate change. (James Hansen, NYT, 5/9/2012)


Gore, McKibben and Hansen have all stepped up the climate change rhetoric, quite obviously because they are losing the public on the issue. Meanwhile, ClimateDepot.com presents instantaneous rebuttals including the one below:


Hansen tells us that global warming will cause a semi-permanent drought in the west and in Texas. He also tells us that global warming may cause a semi-permanent El Nino.

One minor problem – El Nino normally causes unusually wet conditions in the west and in Texas.

He appears to have mutually exclusive apocalyptic visions running around inside his head. This is normally called paranoid schizophrenia.

If the Pacific is cold, the west is dry. If the Pacific is warm, the west is wet. Both at the same time isn’t an option. (stevegoddard.wordpress.com)

RedStateVT Returns

RedStateVT returns from a short research trip to the Euro-zone. Our findings will inform our commentary on this part of the world and its effects on America.


Friends, Romans
Democratic fundraisers, activists, supporters, and even politicians alike have somehow collectively lapsed into the sentiment that the president is going to be reelected and that we have a good shot to take the House back while holding the Senate.

I ask: What are you smoking? What are you drinking? What are you snorting or just what in the hell are you thinking? (James Carville, CNN.com, 5/8/2012)


A couple of thoughts on Democrat partisan Carville's comments. Recall first that he coined the phrase: It's the economy, stupid. This drove the Clinton defeat of Bush I. Carville is smart enough to know that the same dynamic could easily lead to Obama's defeat. Hence, his war cry to rally the troops.


Carville goes on to describe Romney as a weak candidate which you will hear a lot from Liberals. Of course, reasonable people everywhere know that the weakest candidate ever was a junior senator from Illinois with little experience at anything who rarely voted on legislation. Curiously, the second weakest candidate ever was that same candidate (now the President) with an abysmal job performance. Hence, the Democrat deflection. Given that Romney had a successful business career, is credited with saving the Salt Lake City Olympics, and balanced the budget as governor of a Liberal state, it is hard to see the "weak candidate" label getting much traction.


Carville and the Dems are scared of Romney and rightly so.


Same Old
President Obama declared for the first time on Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage, putting the moral power of his presidency behind a social issue that continues to divide the country.


“At a certain point,” Mr. Obama said in an interview in the Cabinet Room at the White House with ABC’s Robin Roberts, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” (NYT, 5/9/2012)


We will admit that we were surprised that Obama made this announcement now. The best comment that we have heard so far is from Doug Powers on Michelle Malkin's website who advised us to view Obama's new position not as a "flip-flop", but as an "evolution."


Others have noted that Obama continues to carve away voting blocks, now adding traditional church-goers to the list that already includes white males and Jews. We can only guess that his advisers felt that it was vital to lock up the gay vote which was.....what, drifting over to Romney?


Tribal
The senate race in Massachusetts between incumbent Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren is turning out to be a real hoot. On one side you have Scott Brown who is the kind of bi-partisan Republican like Dick Lugar that Liberals claim to love. Until they run against them and then use every dirty trick in their playbook. On the other side you have Warren who has hilariously declared herself the progenitor of the Occupy movement (although it is later reported that she is a multi-millionaire) and also apparently as a Native American (only to find out she is not - and her ancestors may have even participated in forcible relocation of Native Americans from ancestral lands!)


Notwithstanding, Warren is considered a strong and credible candidate....by Liberals anyway.