High Gas Prices

From Doug Powers, "Obama: Gas Prices are High Because Climate Change Deniers Refuse to Tackle Global Warming." And Aaron Worthing, "Obama Cries Crocodile Tears Over High Gas Prices."

And at Wall Street Journal, "Oil-Price Fraud Targeted in Crackdown," and CNN, "High gasoline prices prompt Justice Department to eye energy industry."

Advertisers Flee Wonkette

From Steve Ertelt, at Life News, "More Companies Pull Ads From Wonkette After Trig Palin Post" (via Weasel Zippers).

Check that post. That's a beefy list of companies. Ouch.

Progressives Never Miss an Oportunity to Let the Mask of Hatred Slip

You gotta love this, from Michael Walsh, "The Tolerant Left" (via Memeorandum).

Just go read it.

Sarah Palin on Sean Hannity's Show, April 19, 2011

I'm going to have to catch up with all the Trig Palin news a little later.

Meanwhile, check Linkmaster Smith at The Other McCain, "Once In A Lifetime."

And Sarah Palin seems positively vibrant of late, and she's already the most politically vibrant woman in America!

More later.

Obama's 4/20 Facebook Fat Ones

Last time he hosted something like this the stoners came out in full force, putting the pressure on for marijuana legalization.

And apparently attempts the block the Bogarts didn't work out so well: "Obama's Facebook Forum Fails to Silence Marijuana Legalization Advocates." Which is like, duh. The Obamunist scheduled the event on April 20th, the date coinciding with 420 Magazine, apparently the main online journal for the drug decriminalization crowd.

Man, the White House planning office sho' be gettin' jiggy wit' it!

RELATED: At King Shamus, "4/20, Stoners, Legalization."

And actually, WaPo wants to ignore the pot promotions, "At Facebook, Obama seeks friends for deficit plan."

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

Added: At The Hill, "Obama gets warm reception from Facebook crowd" (via Memeorandum).

Stanley Ann Dunham's 'Naughty Mama' Pics Left Out of New York Times Report, 'Obama's Young Mother Abroad'

Here's this at the New York Times (via Memeorandum):

The president’s mother has served as any of a number of useful oversimplifications. In the capsule version of Obama’s life story, she is the white mother from Kansas coupled alliteratively to the black father from Kenya. She is corn-fed, white-bread, whatever Kenya is not. In “Dreams From My Father,” the memoir that helped power Obama’s political ascent, she is the shy, small-town girl who falls head over heels for the brilliant, charismatic African who steals the show. In the next chapter, she is the naïve idealist, the innocent abroad. In Obama’s presidential campaign, she was the struggling single mother, the food-stamp recipient, the victim of a health care system gone awry, pleading with her insurance company for cover­age as her life slipped away. And in the fevered imaginings of supermarket tabloids and the Internet, she is the atheist, the Marx­ist, the flower child, the mother who abandoned her son or duped the newspapers of Hawaii into printing a birth announcement for her Kenyan-born baby, on the off chance that he might want to be president someday.

Also, some perhaps not-so fevered Internet imaginings, at The Astute Bloggers, "Naughty Obama Mamma."

That said, Janny Scott wrote a commendable piece, drawn on her new book, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother.

Combat Photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros Killed by Mortar Strike in Libya

At LAT, "Libya blast kills photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros."

Hetherington directed "Restrepo," which I saw and wrote about last year.

More at ABC News, " 'Restrepo' Partner: War Photographer Tim Hetherington Never Thought Himself Brave: Colleague Sebastian Junger on Friend and Veteran War Photographer Killed in Libya Attack."

Lady Gaga 'Judas' Video Controversy

From Kurt Schlichter, at Big Hollywood, "Lady Gaga, Fearless Artistic Visionary, Risks It All By Taking on Christians."

Image Credit: NME, "Lady Gaga to release 'Judas' video over Easter?"

Advertisers Ditch 'Wonkette' After Diabolical Attack on Trig Palin

You have to check Robert Curlin's Twitter page, which is lighting up with tweets and re-tweets about major advertisers pulling their ads from the despicable left-wing blog, Wonkette.

See Weazel Zippers, "Über-Classy: Liberal Website Relentlessly Mocks Palin’s Son With Downs Syndrome – Update: Papa Johns, Huggies Pull Their Ads From Wonkette…"

And NewsBusters, "Liberal Website Wonkette Disgracefully Attacks Trig Palin On His Third Birthday" (via Memeorandum).

And for the record: This is not an aberration. This is not an anomaly. Try denial as they might, progressives simply can't get around this, for this is what they do.

God help them.

ADDED: From Glenn Reynolds, "EVEN TODAY, AND EVEN FOR WONKETTE, THERE ARE LINES. Wonkette crossed one. Now people are boycotting advertisers."

Soak the High Achieving Students

From each according to ability, to each according to need:

And don't miss William at Pirate's Cove, who has video from the petition drive at UC Merced to redistribute grades. Not going over too well, (un)surprisingly: "Libs Love Redistributing Everything But What Is Their Own."

Ban the Burka?

Perhaps.

See Licia Corbella, at Calgary Herald, "More evidence why the West should ban the burka" (via Blazing Cat Fur):

"Women who do not wear head scarves are being threatened with violence and even death by Islamic extremists . . .," states opening sentence of an April 18 story in the Daily Mail in Britain.

Sadly, nothing unusual there, except that these threats are being made to non-Muslim women. Again, this is not unusual, since that happens throughout much of the Islamic world that imposes rules about dress on all women, regardless of their religion.

What makes the above news so disturbing is the women who are being threatened with violence and even death by Islamic extremists for not wearing a hijab (the Muslim head covering) and a veil (the niqab) are non-Muslim women living in . . . wait for it . . . Great Britain. Yes, you read that correctly. Non-Muslim women in a free and democratic country are being threatened with violence or death in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of London, no less.

But hey, no need to worry about creeping sharia in the West.

RTWT.

President Obama's Addiction to Lies

"We Lost By a Few Percentage Points in Texas?" Sorry, Mr. President, it was by about 10 percentage points, as WFAA-TV's Brad Watson pointed out on Monday, to the scorn of the Thugger-in-Chief.

And yesterday we heard about "Millionaires and Billionaires" (yet again) and "Collapsing Bridges."

Here's the video from Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, Virginia:

The Wall Street Journal, in a Monday editorial, corrected the president on his "millionaires and billionaires" claim: "Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich."

And lots of folks are picking up on the failed bridge dishonesty, including Ed Morrissey: "Video: Obama uses false bridge-collapse argument to argue for more taxes," and CBS News --- CBS News!! --- "Obama invokes bridge collapse in criticizing GOP budget plan."

Progressives lie.

Lying is the basic foundation of the progressive model for the socialist political economy. But it's not just top conservative blogs taking exception. The local Texas news channel grabbed some glory on Monday, but hey, even the folks are CBS News are getting tired of the deception.

More at The Blog Prof, "Video of Obama's Madness: Raising Taxes On Rich Will Encourage Them To Keep Their Businesses In America or Something." And Memeorandum.

Los Angeles Times Wins Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

No begrudging this.

The Los Angeles Times did good. When I first blogged on this last year I had a hunch the paper would get a Pulitzer, and sure enough, what d'ya know? A throwback to old-school journalism. Good to see we still have some reporters keeping alive a tradition of excellence in investigative reporting. See: "The L.A. Times' coverage of the Bell scandal, which led to multiple felony charges against city officials, wins the Pulitzer for public service. Images that document the lives of crime victims win for feature photography."

California Teachers Union Plans 'State of Emergency Week'

It's embarrassing, but this is my union.

I just got the word that a mass protest is planned next month at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday the 13th, naturally. It's the culmination of the union's State of Emergency Week, May 9-13.

Allyshia Finley had a report earlier, at Wall Street Journal, "When Unions Get Desperate" (via The Last Refuge):

There haven't been any major earthquakes or wildfires in California recently, but teachers apparently think that the potential budget cuts to education merit a "State of Emergency Week."

The California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union, is planning a week of activities in May. The goal is to pressure Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the state legislature to raise taxes rather than cut education spending.

Earlier this week the union posted a 10-page list of potential activities on its website, CAstateofemergency.com. Ideas included stalking legislators for a day; boycotting corporations like Microsoft that advocate for education reform; attempting to close down major roads; dyeing their hair red; holding night-time vigils with coffins and black arm-bands; picketing companies; and withdrawing funds from banks that "are not paying their fair share of taxes." They also planned to work with Ben & Jerry's to create a "labor-union flavored ice cream."

Apparently, the union didn't realize that documents posted to the Internet are available for public consumption. Once the CTA heard that the list was bouncing around blogs, it was removed. Soon, a new three-page list appeared that omits many of their more ludicrous and heavy-handed ideas but still includes plans to use students as props. Instead of bullying and boycotting businesses, the union now intends to meet with local chambers of commerce and to "focus [their protests] on how much money has gone to bail out Wall Street and big corporations."

These people aren't too smart.

More at the link above.

God and History Will Judge

Via Theo Spark:

The Face of Progressivism

Yeah, you know, because radical progressives are just so much more intelligent than everyone else:

BONUS: Progressive anti-school choice thugs show their true colors in D.C., at Washington Times (via Memeorandum):

Sixteen Years After the Oklahoma City Bombing

From Garrett Graff, at Fox News, "How the Attacks Led to the FBI's Counterterrorism Focus":

Also, at Time, "Oklahoma City Remembers Terrorist Attack, 16 Years Later."

Jerry Brown's Sweetheart Deal For Corrections Union Members Could Lead to Massive Payouts, in $100s of Millions, When Prison Guards Retire

This is extraordinary.

No other interest group in California politics is getting this kind of deal. See LAT, "New contra for California prison guards lifts cap on saved vacation":

Deep in the 200-page contract that Gov. Jerry Brown recently approved for state prison guards is a provision that could generate a cash windfall to the officers when they retire.

The guards, who are among Brown's largest political benefactors, would be able to save an unlimited number of vacation days under their new deal. When they leave state service, those days could be exchanged for cash at their final pay rate, which would probably be higher than when they earned the time off.

The governor is extending this benefit only to members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., a union that spent nearly $2 million to help him win election last year.

Removing the decades-old limit on accrued vacation — now 80 days for most state employees — would be a "huge liability" for taxpayers, said Nick Schroeder of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Schroeder said he had not determined the cost of lifting the cap, but his analysis of the deal showed the average corrections union member has accumulated nearly 19 weeks of leave time to date. All of that time off has "a current cash value of over $600 million," he said.

The deal also would give the members 18 more days off over the life of the two-year contract, according to Schroeder, bringing the typical prison guard's time off to more than eight weeks in the first year.

Also in the proposed contract is a change in a provision that encouraged corrections officers to remain physically fit. In the past, they could get up to $130 extra each month if they met certain fitness standards. In the new contract, they would be eligible for the money if they simply go to the doctor for an annual physical, Schroeder said.

Hmm ...

No exercise recommendations. Prison guards as fat cats, literally.

More at the link.

California's going down, and I thought Schwarzenegger was bad. This is ridiculous. People in the private sector just don't get sweetheart deals like this. Brown campaigned on reform and reinventing government, but this might as well be news from today's Party Congress in Cuba. Propping up the old guard and delaying any meaningful Perestroika.

Trumka-Obama-Moonbeam Democrats.

Lord have mercy.

Fidel Castro Resigns as Head of Cuba's Communist Party

Actually, Los Angeles Times says he was removed as leader: "Fidel Castro officially removed as head of Cuban Communist Party." And noted there, Castro received a "sustained standing ovation" as he walked to the dais with the help of an aide. Also, at Wall Street Journal, "Cuba's New Guard Borrows From the Old Guard":

Cuba's ruling Communist Party named President Raúl Castro as its new leader and chose an aging former guerrilla as second-in-command Tuesday, dashing hopes the party might choose younger politicians to implement key reforms to the island's economy and introduce fresh ideas.

At the end of the first Communist Party assembly in 14 years, Mr. Castro, 79 years old, was ratified as first secretary, succeeding his brother Fidel, who last month said he had vacated the position. The party also tapped José Ramón Machado, 80, a hard-liner, as Mr. Castro's second-in-line.

While the choice of Mr. Castro was expected, the appointment of Mr. Machado, a vice president and former guerrilla fighter during the 1959 revolution, disappointed those who thought the party might introduce new faces to help manage major economic reforms that are planned.

The Cuban economy grew just 1.9% last year and the country's top leaders, including Fidel Castro, are old men. The party summit had been seen as a key chance for party leaders to manage change before it is thrust upon them by events, be it death or demands for change by the Cuban people.

"They're keeping to the hard-line, ideological old guard," said Uva de Aragón, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. "The problem is you can't have Stalin and Lenin trying to be Gorbachev at the same time."

Andrew Breitbart on Sean Hannity's Show, April 18, 2011

I watched this last night. Breitbart has come into his own. He timed his talk with Hannity very carefully, stressing the history of his personal life transformation. He notes at 6:00 minutes that "people come out of the woodworks and thank you for doing what is right." So true. But he continues --- and I love this --- with his discussion of folks from Hollywood wanting to come out of the ideological closet, including "punk rockers, people with mohawks" who are conservative.

A great interview. Buy the book here.

EXTRA: Folks will have noticed the Ann Coulter banners at the sidebar. She announced her forthcoming book last night during Hannity's broadcast: Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America. And right on cue, progressives have attacked her (as racist?) because --- get this --- the book's cover is black. Of course the slam's from Demon TBogg, so no doubt Coulter's hit the bullseye at the heart of progressive evil. Expect far more diabolical assualts and who knows what else from these genuinely demonic freaks. Coulter's got 'em down cold, and the book's not even out yet.