The old North Dakota saying [*] “Hard Fall, Easy Spring” seems to be coming true – at least as far as the Midway is concerned.

We’re set to have the tapping of Flash’s kegerator – the great early indicator or spring – the earliest on record here in the Midway:

I was soooooo tempted to pick up a keg last Saturday, but knew the cold snap was coming. However, with the front moving in later in the week, and an optimistic extended forecast, this just may set up the earliest Spring in my history living in the Midway.

Break out the capris and the swim suits!

(more…)

From a local email politics “discussion” group that’s been locked in a DFL-upsucking stranglehold for a decade or so, writing about the “stimulus”:

Here we have a potential doubling of the national debt over a span of months to years and here is as much transparency as the run up to the Wars in both Vietnam and Iraq.  There is as much transparency as Medicare Part D.

That is a truly pathetic level of disclosure in a democracy and the direct product of partisans.

That’s a liberal writing.

One guy with enough brains to read past the hagiographic hype isn’t a trend, of course.

But it’s a sign that we fiscal conservatives aren’t the only voices in the wilderness.

…my true love gave to me:

Nine hot economies, eight imprisoned Cubans, seven Pershing missiles, six tired chimpanzees,

Five torn-down Berlin walls!

Four epic tax cuts, three cheesed-off commies, two times for choosing, and a shining city on a hill!

I don’t follow talk radio around the country quite as much as I used to; it’s not like I’m about to go move across the country to take a talk show gig or anything.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, when I still followed talk radio obsessively – almost like I was trying to make it a career or something – I’d have known that a DC-area station had christened itself “Obama 1260”.  The station was a liberal talk operation, featuring the likes of Bill Press, Stephanie Miller and Fast Eddie Schultz.

I said “was”:

President Obama may be riding high in Washington, but OBAMA 1260 is not.

The area’s only progressive talk station is changing formats…The move by Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who purchased the station, WWRC, and others in Washington last summer, leaves the city without a liberal radio outlet. Program Director Greg Tantum says he thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election.

“Of course, it’s because all talk radio is tanking”, you might hear someone say.

Er, no:

But ratings nearly doubled, he says, at Snyder’s conservative station, WTNT, which features Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett. Tantum said he will move Schultz to WTNT to give him another shot.

Which isn’t so much a nod to the efficacy of liberal talk radio as to the fact that Schultz – dumb as a bag of hammers as he is notwithstanding – understands the basics of making a talk show entertaining, unlike just about every other liberal host in the nation.

This brings up an interesting question, though; one of the purported justifications for the “Fairness” Doctrine is to make sure there’s “competition” between ideologies, and a variety of them, on the airwaves. And yet in Washington DC – the ultimate “buyer’s market” for political talk, and a place with the most favorable demographics for liberal talk anywhere this side of Berkeley, and in a perfectly free market, let me repeat, “ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured”.

The pattern holds true everywhere. After a poor start, Air America is barely clinging to existence.  Locally, AM950 – after making a play of it for a few ratings books back in 2006 – is well behind AM1280 in ratings, even though it has a vastly more powerful signal than The Patriot (disclosure for those who are new to this blog; I do a show on the weekends at AM1280) and revenue (where it’s not even close).
How exaggerated were rumors of conservative talk’s death?  Leaving aside Rush Limbaugh’s titanic eight year contract, conservative talk is the only format in radio that’s even making a pretense of holding its numbers and revenues during the current recession.

Locally?   Of the six commercial talk stations in the Twin Cities (WCCO, KSTP-AM, KTLK-FM, Chicktalk 107, Air America Minnesota 950 and the Patriot), the Patriot has by far the weakest signal – and yet the Patriot crushes AM950 in all time slots. On the vitally-important Saturday time slot, the Northern Alliance is not only demolishing AM950, but from 1-3PM is even beating KSTP and WCCO, to say nothing of KTLK and 107.

Conservative talk is not only alive; it’s moving silently through the woods and taking aim at the left’s packed masses of rhetorical redcoats marching in step down the road…

Damn, this is fun!

At any rate, best of luck to all you Obama 1260 people.  You might wanna think about leaving the ideology at home, swallowing your pride, and looking for a gig in a format that can survive…

(Via Ed)

Joel Rosenberg remembers things that I just don’t.

President of The Onion leaving:

The Onion, the humor newspaper and online mecca for satire lovers, is losing its president. “It’s been a great run, but the time has come for a new challenge,” Sean Mills told partners in an email message. Mills tells minonline he had been negotiating a departure from the company for a while, but did not offer any further explanation for the move. He says that he started at the brand in 2002, when there was a staff of 35, print distribution in four cities and 2 million unique visitors to the Web site each month. “Today we have newspapers in 10 cities, 8 million readers online and 150 employees, as well as a video network that gets over 2 million views each week,” he said in a statement. In fact, next week Onion launches another Web video program, the Onion Sports Network.

To bad one of those “new challenges” isn’t making The Onion funnier.  It’s been pretty feeble lately.

At least one company is expanding manufacturing in America:

Firearms maker Heckler & Koch announced today that it will manufacture two new rifle designs in a newly opened US factory in 2009. The new rifles, the MR556 and MR762, are inspired and influenced by the HK416 and HK417, two highly acclaimed models designed and produced by Heckler & Koch’s Oberndorf, Germany plant.The rifles will be produced at a new HK manufacturing facility in Newington, New Hampshire. The facility is co-located within an existing 70,000 square foot facility. HK began manufacturing pistols in the U.S. facility in late 2008.

“We’ve reached a major milestone in our objective to establish a production presence in the US,” said Wayne Weber, executive vice president of the US business unit of Heckler & Koch. “The new HK45 pistol is the first HK product officially ‘Made in the USA’. It is our goal to strategically transfer production of select HK products to the U.S., with the HK45 Compact being the next product to come off the U.S. production line and shortly thereafter, the MR series rifles.

I wonder if the Obama Administration is as proud of this expansion of manufacturing jobs as it should be?

Because he’s largely responsible for the demand.  He was, in fact, the “stimulus“.

An enema with a sandblaster or a foot massage by a Pittsburgh Steelers Cheerleader?

Coming home to a raging house fire or arriving at your cabana on the beach replete with a fully stocked mini-fridge?

A hijacked jetliner crashing into the ocean off the coast of East Africa or a skillful landing on the Hudson River?

Five minutes in the ring with a folding metal chair in the hands of a steroid-ridden Jesse Ventura, or a playful moment in a pile of fallen leaves with your little girls?

Last one…don’t let me influence your choice:

A bloated pork-ridden stimulus package of some eight hundred billion (soon to be worthless) dollars including billions for liberal pet projects and paybacks or

$430 billion dollars on tax cuts.

$114 billion for infrastructure projects.

$138 billion for extending unemployment insurance, food stamps and other provisions to help “Americans in need.”

$31 billion to address the housing crisis ($11 billion for a loan modification program, $20.4 billion in tax incentives for home purchases, $50 million to temporarily increase loan limits for Freddie, Fannie and FHA)

For those of you that can’t do math (sorry Mr. President, yes I am including you) that’s over one hundred billion dollars less than the current proposal.

…and

…it actually sounds like a real stimulus package – the lesser of two evils version at least.

Sadly, Barack Obama’s flavor of bipartisanship means we probably don’t have a choice.

Tiger Lily at Night Writer’s “Anerex(st)ics Inaneymous” is, along with Swiftee’s “Life In The Dumpster” and Joe Tucci’s “Fleen”, a member of the least exclusive club in the world, “Cartoons that are better than Kein Weiner can draw”.

It’s all stick figures.  It’s all in what’s left out, obviously.

And I loved this one:

Can’t hardly wait until the movie rights get optioned.

…and they can’t all be Republicans.

45.6% thought the [stimulus] plan was a bad idea. Meanwhile, 29.7% thought it was a good idea, and 24.7% were unsure.

“I think most of us are opposed to it because it’s a bailout in nature, and people are concerned about how it will be allocated,” said Eric Toya, vice president of Trovena LLC of Redondo Beach, Calif., which manages $400 million in assets. “It’s so anti-free-market-capitalism, which is what most financial advisers and the public believe in.”

…until they were told that they don’t believe in that any more by rockstars, the media and The Messiah.

“The fact that the size and price of the plan keeps growing should be a major concern,” said Greg Zandlo, president of The Zandlo Financial Group of Minneapolis, which has $50 million in assets under advisement.

What’s the difference between The New Deal and The New New Deal? Scale. Scope.

There’s only one thing worse than a liberal that doesn’t know what to do. A liberal that doesn’t know what to do and does it any way.

The survey also found that 36.4% of advisers did not have much confidence in Mr. Obama’s ability to fix the economy. Meanwhile, 31.5% said they had a “fair amount” of confidence, and 12.2% said they had a “great deal” of confidence.

About 15.5% of respondents said they had no confidence in Mr. Obama’s ability to fix the economy, the online survey found.

Which can only mean another “Fairness Doctrine” aimed at financial advisers is on it’s way.

I wasn’t paying all that much attention to the Republican National Committee chair race – life pretty much got in the way.

However, I was overjoyed to see that Michael Steele won the seat after a zillion ballots.

Steele’s unobtrusive but reliable bass work and solid low-end background vocals were a key part of the Bangles’ success back in the ’80s; she also helped launch The Runaways back in the late ’70s, giving us Joan Jett and Lita Ford as well.

Hopefully she’ll do at least as well for the GOP!

UPDATE:  Oh, sorry – they meant this guy:

My bad.

…my true love gave to me:

Eight imprisoned Cubans, seven Pershing missiles, six tired chimpanzees,

Five torn-down Berlin walls!

Four epic tax cuts, three cheesed-off commies, two times for choosing, and a shining city on a hill!

…unless it’s ours.

Glenn Beck explains the folly that is our Stimulus habit…using the Al Gore method.

To:  Ted Nugent

From:  Mitch Berg

Re:  NRA

Mr. Nugent:

Re the word that you are discussing Trunning for the presidency of the National Rifle Association…:

We hear that the Nuge is being urged to get into the race, and a key NRA insider tells us: “He does have a grass-roots following.” That’s for sure. The singer of “Cat Scratch Fever” fame and 23 albums is being promoted on Facebook. While Nugent is an NRA board member, he doesn’t have the type of top slot in the organization normally needed to springboard somebody into the presidency. Even Charlton Heston, who played Moses in Hollywood, worked his way up to the presidency.

Whatever your chops as a guitar player (formidable), talk show host (adequate) or grassroots advocate for shooters (stellar)…:

But Nugent tells Whispers he stands ready to battle the antigunners in Washington. “Clearly, the NRA is the ultimate ‘we the people,’ family, grass-roots organization for what is clearly Job 1 for free men everywhere: to guarantee our God-given right to keep and bear arms and defend ourselves,” he tells our Suzi Parker. “To be so honored to participate in any way, as an NRA board member or the ultimate honor of serving as president, would surely be a duty I would put my heart and soul into. I am genuinely moved that it is even being discussed. I am ready, willing, and able to serve if the good NRA members call upon me.”

…I gotta ask – can we really see you addressing Congress, the Supreme Court or anyone that isn’t already a gun-totin’ true believer?

I’m gonna need convincing

That is all.

(Via AP)

Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci at KAR despatches the latest leftyblog blood libel group seizure – in this case, last week’s Eva-Young-like outburst on MNPublius over Norm Coleman’s recount site crashing:

Landry’s lying (or, alternatively he’s just another dumbass political hack) (or both, actually). Here’s why:

Crashing tends to happen to websites not designed to handle 100,000 visitors at once, when Drudge sends 100,000 visitors at them.

Aaron Landry: lying liar telling lies. Liar.

And when one leftyblog writes something?  They all do, natch:

UPDATE: Well of course SorosNet would copy and paste the Franken version of the story without asking questions. That’s what they get paid for. Because, you know, crashing has never ever happened to a website before now.

Leftyblogs:  Distrust but verify.  And then distrust some more.

Because heaven only knows what’d happen if mainstream media didn’t have layers of oversight.

{Shudder}

Obama parties like it’s ten years ago…:

After pushing his $1.1 trillion Generational Theft Act of 2009 through the House last night, the White House apparently decided to throw itself a swank cocktail party. According to ABC’s Jake Tapper, the menu included alcoholic beverages (vodka martinis are an Obama favorite, reportedly) and wagyu steak.Yeah, “wagyu steak.” $100 per serving delicacy. I had to look it up, too.

…while FEMA (which, as we learned during the Katrina fiasco, is the President’s responsibility to run effectively) can’t power on to hundreds of thousands of freezing Kentuckians.

What’s the problem

I called my friend Kanye West. He says:

“Barack Obama hates white people“.

Ooh. Harsh stuff.

In the realm of politics, favorably comparing Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan is like comparing God to Satan.

But NPR done gone and done it any way.

The rise of Barack Obama and the historic challenges facing his presidency have prompted comparisons to past presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. But in these very early days, there are also parallels to be drawn between Obama and a more recent occupant of the Oval Office: Ronald Reagan.

…actually Jimmy Carter comes more to mind for those of us that actually understand basic economics.

That’s not to say that there aren’t elements that Obama and Reagan have in common.For instance, they both wear neckties around their necks.

While both Presidents inherited trying economic times to say the least, it is abundantly clear that they have polar opposite remedies in mind.

It’s clear that Obama and Reagan are very different ideologically, Obama being a Democrat on the liberal side and Reagan a Republican and an iconic conservative.

One accurately saw government as the cause, not the solution and acted accordingly.

Leave it to NPR to compare these two statements and find similarity:

Most people who remember Reagan’s speech remember him saying government is not the solution. But Edwards recalls that Reagan also said this: “Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it.”

Compare that to Obama’s inaugural address, in which he said the question is not whether the government is too big or too small, “but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account.”

Barack Obama, despite empty rhetoric to the contrary (watch what he does folks, not what he says), sees government as the solution, despite it being the cause.

Despite the fact that government stimulus programs don’t work (because they weren’t big enough?!) and despite TARP monies actually freezing credit even further, Obama proposes nearly a trillion dollars of government spending including money for the arts, and sod for the mall, among other disgustingly obvious liberal pet projects.

All in the face of the fact that Reagan’s actions set forth the largest and longest run of economic growth and prosperity in American history.

A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from others’.

Obama and his book-learned elite cronies put our futures in great peril by electing to consider what Reagan did and do the opposite.

And why not? Look where it got us…and Jimmy Carter.

[former Rep. Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma] is one of a number of prominent Republicans who say they voted for Obama. The list includes several of Reagan’s top advisers, such as Gen. Colin Powell and former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein. Edwards goes so far as to wonder whether the former president himself, if he were still alive, might have thought about voting Democratic in 2008.

Not a chance.

Republicans of today couldn’t touch the garment of Ronald Reagan. Prominent conservatives that voted for Obama, the slim and now meaningless minority that they represent, did so for a lack of top-down conservative leadership on the part of the Republican party. Some even did so to send a message to the party.

Ronald Reagan was a man of action and leadership. Action that gave gravity to his words. Leadership borne in true change in our government, not Obama’s brand of more of the same sold as Change^©.

Barack Obama is a man of words; a lack of corresponding action and experience rendering his words even more useless to all but those Americans deliberately marginalized by he and his ilk.

…at least be thankful you’re not stuck at this Super Bown “party”

The invite of the year (so far): Barack Obama’s Super Bowl watching party. . .elected officials break out 11 Ds, 4Rs

Senators: Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Arlen Specter (R-PA)

House members: Elijah Cummings (D-MD); Artur Davis (D-AL); Rosa DeLauro (D-CT); Charlie Dent (R-PA); Mike Doyle (D-PA); Trent Franks (R-AZ); Raul Grijalva (D-AZ); Paul Hodes (D-NH); Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC); Patrick Murphy (D-PA); Fred Upton (R-MI)

It’d be a matter not merely of eating the muzzle of a handgun, but of making sure it’s a big-enough one.  At least .40S&W.

Although it certainly makes some peoples’ legs all tingly.

…my true love gave to me:

Seven Pershing missiles, six tired chimpanzees,

Five torn-down Berlin walls!

Four epic tax cuts, three cheesed-off commies, two times for choosing, and a shining city on a hill!

TARP money is being distributed to banks as we speak, and more is on the way.

Sounds like a plan, right?

Anyone want to borrow money at 10-12%?

…when Treasuries are in the tank?

Didn’t think so.

But  Obama wants to force banks to lend these dollars.

The $350 billion second half of the federal government bank bailout—aka TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program)—funding was released by the Senate. According to the Wall Street Journal, President-elect Barack Obama intends to “spend $50 billion to $100 billion on a ‘sweeping’ foreclosure-prevention effort” as well as “impose tougher restrictions on banks that receive government aid, including requirements on banks to lend money, increased restrictions on executive compensation and curtailed dividend payments for some firms.”

The spankings will continue until moral improves.

Forcing banks to lend money…hmmm. Sound familiar?

C.R.A. anyone? That worked well for the economy didn’t it Mr. Jimmy?

TARP money costs banks 8-9%; it’s debt that shows up on their books as an “asset.”

Huh?

To make money, banks need to lend it out somewhere north of what it costs them, to make what we here in the real world call a profit.

As such, the good banks want nothing to do with TARP money and are simply waiting for the banks that took it or are otherwise soon to be insolvent, and then take advantage.

As they say, assets return to their rightful owners. Capitalism will prevail until liberals extinguish it’s last breath.

Now you know why TARP has done nothing to free up credit and get banks lending again.

…and why government intervention in a free market is almost always a bad idea.