Brain Shavings

Obama supporters left adrift

2008-11-10T02:45:00Z

Heh.

H/T: Bearing Drift Ohio

Alfonzo Rachel reacts to Obama's election

2008-11-07T03:30:00Z

Amen, brother.

Congratulations, Obama supporters

2008-11-05T22:30:00Z

The reins are in your hands now. Kindest regards, et cetera.

Election Day Twitter timeline [STICKY]

2008-11-05T04:59:59Z

If you see no JavaScript text, just click here.

The "Closing Argument" against Barack Obama

2008-11-04T04:30:00Z

It's all here, fully documented.

H/T: Connect The Dots 2006

Balky computer returns to functioning (sorta)

2008-11-04T00:55:00Z

My laptop's been crashing repeatedly over the last several days. Rather than fight it, I'll publish my Twitter timeline in a sticky post dated 11:59 PM tomorrow. I'll be very busy as an observer at the polls, so the updates may be infrequent if turnout is heavy, but I'll do my best.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner caught in bed with ... ACORN

2008-10-31T08:00:00Z

Watching the fraudulent activities of ACORN here in Ohio has left me wondering how they've been getting away with it. It sure seemed plain to me that our Secretary of State, the über-partisan Jennifer Brunner, has a soft spot in her heart for this merry band of fraudsters. I couldn't point to any blatantly obvious connection between Brunner and ACORN (other than shameless Obama-worship), but I had a hunch there was more than meets the eye.

Thank God for Maggie Thurber:

Gillette is identified on Jennifer Brunner's 2006 campaign website as a consultant. A blog entry by Brunner's husband Rick talks about that relationship, saying: "our candidate had gone earlier in the day to have some meetings and work out of Karyn Gillette's office." He also describes Gillette as "very helpful to the campaign."

According to campaign finance reports that were filed, Gillette was paid $21,250 by Brunner's campaign. She has a longtime history of serving as a fundraising consultant to Ohio Democrats.

...

But that's not all. Gillette is not Brunner's only tie to ACORN. Members of the group's voter registration arm, Project Vote, regularly advise Brunner on election strategy, previously serving on her Voter Rights Institute and even recently issuing a news release claiming credit for Brunner's directive banning challenges to suspected fraudulent voter registrations.

So our Secretary of State shares a campaign advisor with ACORN, takes direction from ACORN's voter registration arm, and refuses to verify over 200,000 mismatched registrations while claiming there is no voter fraud going on in Ohio...and that attention to such frivolous issues distracts her from doing her job.

Let's see Brunner try to wriggle out of this.

NYU psychological study on voting behavior

2008-10-30T00:20:00Z

A research team from the Psychology Department at New York University, headed by Professor Yaacov Trope and supported by the National Science Foundation, is investigating the cognitive causes of voting behavior, political preferences, and candidate evaluations throughout the course of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. This stage of the study focuses on the information people use to inform evaluations during the last few weeks before the election. They seek respondents of all political leanings from all over the country (and from the rest of the world) to complete a 15-minute questionnaire, the responses to which will be completely anonymous.

If you're interested, participate here.

Video: Coast Guard crewman identifies body

2008-10-28T23:55:00Z

I suspect the stench was pretty pungent afterward.

A great quote from this past Friday

2008-10-28T02:00:00Z

Rather than pursue the American Dream, [Barack Obama] insists that the American Dream has arbitrary limits, limits Obama would set for the rest of us -- today it's $250,000 for businesses and even less for individuals. If the individual dares to succeed beyond the limits set by Obama, he is punished for he's now officially "rich." The value of his physical and intellectual labor must be confiscated in greater amounts for the good of the proletariat (the middle class). And so it is that the middle class, the birth-child of capitalism, is both celebrated and enslaved -- for its own good and the greater good. The "hope" Obama represents, therefore, is not hope at all. It is the misery of his utopianism imposed on the individual.

Unlike past Democrat presidential candidates, Obama is a hardened ideologue. He's not interested in playing around the edges. He seeks "fundamental change," i.e., to remake society. And if the Democrats control Congress with super-majorities led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will get much of what he demands.

The question is whether enough Americans understand what's at stake in this election and, if they do, whether they care. Is the allure of a charismatic demagogue so strong that the usually sober American people are willing to risk an Obama presidency? After all, it ensnared Adelman, Kmiec, Powell, Fried, and numerous others. And while America will certainly survive, it will do so, in many respects, as a different place.

-- Mark Levin

Barack Obama: taking your money for people who haven't earned it

2008-10-27T13:30:00Z

Joe the Plumber wasn't the first to catch Barack Obama talking about spreading the wealth:

Here's the transcript:

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I'd be o.k.

But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical.

It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the Federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn't shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.

...

I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. You know, the institution just isn't structured that way.

State Senator Obama didn't think it was feasible to change the federal courts to a Marxism-friendly system, but a President Obama can easily make it happen, especially with a liberal Democratic supermajority in the U.S. Senate. Don't take my word for it; listen to him say it. Here's the entire interview.

Do you think it's the federal government's job to decide how much success is too much for you to achieve? Is it up to the federal courts to pick winners and losers based on the philosophy of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" ... that is, Marxism? Does Barack Obama know better than you when it comes to deciding who deserves your hard-earned money? If this is what you want, then vote for Barack Obama.

If you don't like that Barack Obama intends to radically change America for the worse, then do something about it.

Perhaps the funniest Amazon.com review ever

2008-10-26T14:00:00Z

While searching through Amazon.com for a better litter box for my pair of furballs, I came across a review of the Cat Genie. After I stopped laughing, I realized I'd found a challenger to Tuscan Whole Milk for the title of Funniest Review Ever.

Here's the entire Cat Genie review, verbatim:

An expensive way to smell poo

Cat Genie takes the small unpleasantness of daily cleaning the litter and it saves it up and releases that unpleasantness as one big unscheduled, unpleasant inconvenience every week or two. Advanced monitors will ensure that the device failure will occur during the workday, as you prepare for your important meeting with your prospective client. Nothing like cleaning out wet cat poo in your nicest suit. Or, you may be pleasantly awoken in the middle of the night by the repeating three beeps of "there's poo and hair in the hopper." You will become more familiar with your cat's feces every day as the cat genie gently fills your home with the aroma of baking excrement. Plus, you get to pay over $300 for technology that was "designed" and built for less than $2. The "processor" unit was designed in 1967 and allows all the functionality of the most advanced microchip devices of its era. It has both on and off modes. (Note: off mode available only while unplugged.)

Actually, the real reason for the high cost of the device is to cover the costs of all the customer support that they must provide and to cover the costs of all of the returned units. The question is not IF, but WHEN you will find yourself hunched over your cat's feces floating in a pool of fetid water, picking small plastic pellets out of the opaque, pungent water with your fingers so that you can get the device put back together.

And your cats will thank you by depositing their love bundles beside the machine that's half filled with water and beeping away forlornly if you happen to be away when it fails.

We have three cats, they had no trouble adjusting to the machine over about a week. The small plastic pellets getting everywhere in the house is not really any big deal. Roomba takes care of most of them well. We've now had the machine for three months. We received a replacement base last week for a leaky drain hose. We've called their customer service line enough times that we now know the "secret" diagnostic techniques of their experts. We don't know if we're going to keep it or return it. If we keep it, we're definitely going to install an exhaust fan in the laundry room, and set it to a timer to go when the unit is on. For some reason there are little bits of poo that fall between the tines of the hopper, and they get slow baked every time the unit dries itself. The stench is really outstanding. It's hard to describe. I'm a doctor, and I've rarely ever smelled anything so bad.

My recommendation is to wait for the next generation cat sanitation solution. That device will need to be a complete redesign to solve the myriad of problems with this unfortunate device. To say something positive, the customer support line is manned by kind, well-meaning kids who really do feel badly that you're having a hard time with your mechanical poo soup maker.

If you do buy this device, get some thick rubber gloves and a couple of towels that you won't use for anything else.

BLACKFIVE interview RE: Obama's alleged mistress

2008-10-26T03:05:00Z

The basic allegation is that Barack Obama had an affair with a staffer from his 2004 campaign named Vera Baker, Michelle Obama found out, and she had Baker shipped off to Martinique. I'm not clear when the alleged affair was supposed to have happened. I offer the interview between two contributors at BLACKFIVE for your consideration:

Background at BLACKFIVE, JammieWearingFool, Ace of Spades, Confederate Yankee, and HillBuzz.

October 27th, 2008 Update: Pictures of Vera Baker, plus a follow up interview with the tipster.

Does McCain actually want my vote?

2008-10-24T11:12:00Z

I have my doubts, and so does John Hawkins.

Focus, John! You've got to defeat this slick, socialist Chicago punk!

Obama's other genocidal friend

2008-10-24T10:35:00Z

No, not Raila Odinga. That's old news to the mainstream media. I'm talking about William Ayers, genocidal thug.

If you don't believe Larry Grathwohl's statements above, and you don't believe he foiled two of Ayers' attempts at mass murder, then believe Ayers' own words. He laid out his darkest goals in his 1974 book Prairie Fire, a manifesto of violent communist revolution.

But of course Barack Obama was innocently unaware of this deviant swine's beliefs. Riiiiight.

To quote the blogger who goes by "Zombie":

Ayers and Obama worked together for years on a school reform program called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

Ayers and Obama also served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a separate charity organization.

Obama had his political coming-out party in William Ayers' home.

Ayers mentions Obama by name in a book he wrote in 1997, and mentions that the two are very close neighbors.

Obama gave a short glowing review of that same Ayers book for the Chicago Tribune.

Obama and Ayers were both presenters together on a panel about juvenile justice (organized by Michelle Obama).

Both Obama and Ayers were close friends with the same person, Rashid Kalidi.

There are also several unverified rumors swirling around that have not been documented: That Ayers may have helped to write part (or all) of Obama's autobiography; that Obama and Ayers shared an office space together for three years, on the same floor of the same building in Chicago; and that Ayers and Obama may have known each other as far back as 1981.

Nope. Nothing to see here.

Keep Your Care Packages and Your Ballots

2008-10-24T03:04:57Z

Good thing big brother's looking out for us, especially if we're deployed with the military right now.

A group of half-wits in Fairfax County, VA decided to invent a new rule applied to Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots that stretches beyond the related state and military guidelines. To make matters worse, these requirements only apply to those ballots most widely used by members of the U.S. military and their families -- this rule does not apply to any other type of absentee ballot.

We better make sure that civilians and those not currently deployed (also known as 'folk who don't see the most pressing military needs') decide who will be the next Commander in Chief.

Just imagine the bumper sticker often touted : "I support the troops not the war."

Ace form of support in this grand piece of legislation.

My new sticker: "Keep the care packages and the ballots. -- Fairfax County Registrar"

An Obama victory will cause a depression

2008-10-24T02:30:00Z

An unknown wit once said: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury." When it comes to voting ourselves goodies from the treasury, we Americans stand near the point of no return.

I've addressed this lopsided situation before in a post on war funding, but this is a much more general discussion.

The federal government levies taxes on some of us, and it sends handouts to some of us. Some Americans pay more in taxes than they receive in handouts. I'll call them "givers." Others receive more in handouts than they pay in taxes. I'll call them "takers."

The Tax Foundation studied taxes and handouts from 1994-2004 (see the FAQ), and came to some startling conclusions. Below you'll see a diagram of their 2004 breakdown of dollars received in handouts per dollar taken in taxes. Pay special attention to the blue bars (the total handouts per dollar of taxes). Look at the bottom 3/5ths of our population. Those groups get more in handouts than they pay in taxes; they're the takers. The top 2/5ths are paying more in taxes than they get in handouts; they're the givers.

Since the American form of government (thankfully a representative republic, not a democracy) responds fairly quickly to the will of American voters, we have the ability to force our elected representatives to give us tax dollars as handouts. If our representatives refuse our demands for goodies, a majority of us can replace them with more pliable politicians.

So what happens when the takers outnumber the givers at the polls on Election Day? We hit the "tax tipping point." Since everyone gets one vote (unless ACORN is involved) regardless of their tax-to-handout ratio, the takers force the government to soak the givers. Eventually, the givers get tired of being punished for their success. The result is predictable:

Calculating how far society's top earners can be pushed before they stop (or cut back on) producing is difficult. But the incentives are easy to see. Voters who benefit from government programs will push for higher tax rates on higher earners -- at least until those who power the economy and create jobs and wealth stop working, stop investing, or move out of the country.

...

The sequence is always the same. High-tax, big-spending policies force the economy to lose momentum. Then growth in government spending outstrips revenues. Fiscal and trade deficits soar. Public debt, excessive taxation and unemployment follow. The central bank tries to solve the problem by printing money. International competitiveness is lost and the currency depreciates. The system stagnates. And then a frightened electorate returns conservatives to power.

Barack Obama claims he'll give a "tax cut" to 95% of Americans (for the sake of argument, let's ignore the impossibility of doing that while also paying for his massive expansion in government spending). His magic "tax cut" for those who pay no income taxes is really a tax credit. That's a handout to the takers, funded by higher taxes on the givers. The chart above will get more lopsided, with the blue bars on the right shrinking and the blue bars on the left growing.

America cannot keep confiscating more and more money from the givers and sending it to the takers. There's no such thing as a free lunch. If you're one of the givers creating jobs and capital, you'll only tolerate punishment for so long before you take rational steps to reduce your vulnerability. You'll start shifting your capital away from productive uses and into tax shelters dictated by loopholes in the law. You'll cut costs by hiring fewer employees or getting rid of current employees. You might even decide to escape the punishment of the takers by closing down your business or moving it overseas to a country with friendlier tax policies.

Now multiply this scenario to include all of America's private sector, and you'll start to understand the inevitable result of a tax-and-spend policy like Barack Obama's. He believes he can tax and spend his way to prosperity, but he can't (or won't) see that he'll push our economy over the tax tipping point and into either a severe recession or an actual depression. Our current economic downturn is already worsening as Obama's victory grows more probable, and one hundred top economists recently warned of the impending disaster of Obamanomics.

Barack Obama is more than Jimmy Carter on steroids. He's about to repeat Herbert Hoover's tragically foolish response to an economic downturn. If Obama wins this election, he will drive us into a Second Great Depression.

Barack Obama's web site caught engaging in fraud

2008-10-23T22:38:38Z

Obama's campaign removed the safeguards that prevent fraudulent online campaign donations that exceed federal limits, come from overseas, or come from false addresses ... and they've just been caught red-handed. I wonder how much of Obama's war chest consists of illegal donations?

ACORN must be proud.

By the way, the McCain web site has these security features enabled, so it rejects fraudulent donations.