When Political Correctness And Common Sense Collide

Dedicated to Bob Costas, who once again uses his position to jump into the political arena.
He is an extremely short Keith Olberman now. 

via Nod to the Gods

The DiploMad 2.0: Is it 1854, yet?

"It's hard to get optimistic about the future given what we have seen the last five years, and, in particular what we have seen the last few months, week, and days. On the international scene, the USA has become an irksome joke. 

The Nobel Prize committee, for example, has once again awarded its prize to an institution, the UN's OPCW, that has yet to do what it has been awarded the prize for doing--sound familiar? The prize, of course, is a rebuke to the US and our vague threats to bomb Syria for having CW. The Iranians are laughing at us; Moscow sees an opportunity created by Obama's ineptness for Russia in the Mideast that the Russians could never have dreamed of having; the Chinese, covering up their own impending economic crisis, are busily advocating an "American-free" world; the jihadis are gaining ground throughout the world; and Latin America drifts away. Allies such as Israel, Canada, and Australia must shake their heads, and wonder what has happened to America.

 At home, we have an executive branch run by people who are a lethal mix of incompetent; untruthful; disloyal to and ignorant of our culture, history, and political traditions; and followers of a progressive creed that sees only more and more government as the solution to the problems created by past expansions of government. More government: That's all that's on offer from this strain of progressivism that has taken over our political institutions, media, and schools..."

Lengthy, but well worth the read. Continue Here

 

Good Monday Morning

Obama Appoints Third Party Negotiator in Shutdown Standoff

MFNS - With Truckers invading the beltway, Veterans marching on the Mall and Americans impatient with the President, Barack Obama, fearful of falling poll numbers and the image of congressional Dems, put forth the idea of  a third party involvement in shut down negotiations.

B.J. Kesloski - Nation's Gatekeeper

Due to overwhelming concern over what might become of "the hill" in absence of anyone wanting to take responsibility, congressional leaders of both parties agreed to call a late night emergency vote on approval in the chambers of the Senate and House Saturday Night. 

Benjamin J. Kesloski, an unemployed step-son of a congressman who sincerely wished to remain anonymous, was voted “in charge” for the duration of the stalemate. 

His only condition was that everyone refer to him as "The Gatekeeper" for the rest of his life.

"Yeah, I know some people are worried about my work ethic," The Gatekeeper confessed. "But would a lazy person do this? (holds up unfinished diorama of Congress in the middle of the ocean) I think not. It’s a work in progress — like me. It’s also a metaphor."

With upwards of 800,000 federal workers out of jobs because of the government shutdown for the time being, public displeasure for public servants is at an all-time high. According to Mr. Kesloski, he is fully aware of the gravity of his situation and is doing whatever he can to end the stalemate and win back public support for democrats

"Today was intense. I held an impromptu session on the pros and cons of the president's health care system. I called it “Obamacare vs. Obama-idon’tcare”. I made a Harry Reid doll and a Boehner doll to represent the two sides, and somewhere in the middle Boehner doll jumped Harry Reid doll and ripped his arms off and started beating him with it. I was like, ‘Whoa Boehner doll. Whoa. That’s definitely not in Robert’s Rules of Order.’ And he just looked at me with his beady eyes and didn’t say anything, cuz he’s a doll you know…but talks will continue."

Image by Earl of Taint based on an idea from that leading American, stout Patriot

and fellow member of the Resistance, Bubba

How is the View from Your Ivory Tower, Mr. President??

No Shutdown for Government ‘Selfies’

MFNS - In turbulent times, a nation must look to those things that hold steady, remain true. Like the sailor’s northern star or the farmer’s spring rain or the DPRK’s Kim Jong Un, the American people–and its government–must find their constant.

But, if that doesn’t work, there’s always Twitter.

Like unemployment, the social phenomenon known as ‘selfies’–a candid picture of yourself sent across the virtual universe–is on the rise even in government circles.

“Hey! Reid just ‘liked’ my pic!” beamed the Vice President. “That old fart. I didn’t think he liked anything. You know, it’s amazing how quickly they’re responding to my posts–oh yeah, that’s right, the shutdown thing. Never mind.”

Social psychologists are noticing a correlation between government ineffectiveness and the rise in self-portraits.

“For many of these congressional leaders,” one psychologist offered, “It’s a real self-esteem boost. It’s also a way for them to keep their minds off of distracting things, like reality.”

Statistical tracking sites are recording a dramatic spike in social networking activity in the D.C. area and hosting websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are noting the highest numbers in ‘selfies’ since the Anthony Weiner era.

“Right now,” a spokesperson for Facebook confirmed, “ Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are gaining on Biden for the number one ‘selfie’ spot. Although, we do have one IP address that has definitely sent the most, but it’s mostly blured shots  and extreme close-up eye shots. We’re not sure, but it’s either the President or someone who has hacked his account.”

Times Gettin' Tough at the White House

White House Gift Shop Goes Tits Up

Washington Times

"In another sign of the tough times in Washington these days, the White House Gift Shop, long run by a nonprofit group that helps uniformed Secret Service officers and their families, has gone broke. The Secret Service Uniformed Division Benefit Fund, which traces its roots to the 1940s and for years did business as the official White House Gift Shop, lists more than $600,000 in liabilities in a pending bankruptcy petition in Washington....."

The fund disclosed tens of thousands of dollars in assets consisting mostly of Christmas decorations, as well as such trinkets as magnets, puzzles and paperweights, many valued at just a few dollars each. The price of more than 140 Democratic and Republican mouse pads is listed as “???” in court records, while 10 unsold copies of the book “Adams’ Alligator” go for $8.48.

The fund’s most recently available annual report to the Internal Revenue Service lists $10,550 in expenses in 2011 for golf, soccer and hockey tournaments for employees, $5,330 for luncheons for new graduates and their families and $1,108 for flowers and fruit baskets for hospitalized members and for funerals.

Although the fund placed the value of ornaments at more than $50,000, the trustee said the decorations ultimately could fetch a best offer price of a little more than $5,600...."

Little wonder a business that operates like the government, spending more than they take in, can stay solvent selling cheap Chinese made crap  like bobble head dolls of Barack and Michelle and mouse pads with Joe Bidens picture on them. And who the hell would want an over price ornament with  Michelle's ugly mug hanging from their Christmas Tree anyway. Guess they figured they'd eventually get  a taxpayer bailout slipped into some democrat's spending bill. 

 __________________

Fishnet Friday

Your Half a Billion Dollar Website

How do you spend over a half a billion dollars on a website, take over three years to build it, and still have a disastrous completely disastrous launch? You get the government to do it for you. The taxpayers, seem to have forked up well over $500 million of the federal purse to build the digital equivalent of a rock.

from Digital Trends

"The exact cost to build Healthcare.gov, according to U.S. government records, appears to have been $634,320,919, which we paid to a company you probably never heard of: CGI Federal. The company originally won the contract back in 2011, but at that time, the cost was expected to run “up to” $93.7 million – still a chunk of change, but nothing near where it apparently ended up.

Given the complicated nature of federal contracts, it’s difficult to make a direct comparison between the cost to develop Healthcare.gov and the amount of money spent building private online businesses. But for the sake of putting the monstrous amount of money into perspective, here are a few figures to chew on: Facebook, which received its first investment in June 2004, operated for a full six years before surpassing the $600 million mark in June 2010. Twitter, created in 2006, managed to get by with only $360.17 million in total funding until a $400 million boost in 2011. Instagram ginned up just $57.5 million in funding before Facebook bought it for (a staggering) $1 billion last year. And LinkedIn and Spotify, meanwhile, have only raised, respectively, $200 million and $288 million."

Read the Rest

You don’t have to be a programmer to understand that code like this is complete nonsense. The site is so poorly coded that it has essentially been attacking itself since its launch over a week ago.

And these people are supposed to provide us with “affordable healthcare”? They can’t even build a functioning website on budget. 

They expected 50,000 people to come to the site per day.  THAT is what these morons are trying to spin now.