The world according to Nancy...

At a recent Democratic Party get-together, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), shared her views about members of the opposing party, the Republicans.

In what some have called another example of her party's "class warfare" tactics, Rep. Pelosi discusses her "theories" regarding wealthy folks' aversion to taxes saying one of the reasons is that they want to be "immortal."

Okaaaaaaaaay...

Watch/listen to the video below...

You stay classy, Maxine...

This must be the new "civility" they were talking about...

“While the media plays up the Los Angeles congresswoman’s ‘the Tea Party can go straight to hell’ comments from this weekend, they are ignoring what she said right after that. When the wild cheers of the audience calmed down, Rep. Waters then said: ‘And I intend to help them get there.’ Is there any doubt that if a Tea Party representative had said that ‘the Congressional Black Caucus can go straight to hell and we intend to help them get there,’ we would be hearing loud condemnations about the hateful rhetoric from the extremists in the Republican Party?”

No...no doubt at all.

Video bonus: Remember the calls for "civility?"

King of No Media...

The Rev. Al Sharpton's greatest moment on television...ever.

(h/t: D. Goodman)

Follow the green...

"Obama's Green Jobs Failures"

Peter Suderman (Reason.com) takes a look at Investor's Business Daily's examination of "President Obama's promise to create five million "green jobs" over the next decade. So far, quite a lot of stimulus money has been spent attempting to encourage enviro-work. But there hasn't been a lot of progress, and in a number of cases, the money appears to have been blown on projects that are clearly wasteful or doomed to failure."

Some lowlights:

• "Last week Obama toured to much fanfare a Johnson Controls plant in Michigan where $300 million in conservation grants produced 150 jobs — at a cost of $2 million per position."
• Evergreen Solar Inc is a "Massachusetts company that the White House once said 'is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people' thanks to stimulus money has $485.6 million in debt. Evergreen closed a factory in March, reports the Boston Herald, and cut 800 jobs. A Michigan plant is to be shut down, as well, causing the loss of even more jobs."
• "Green Vehicles of Salinas, Calif., which has burned through more than $500,000 in money 'invested' by the city, folded last month without having produced anything of significance. The company promised it would employ about 70 and pay back Salinas taxpayers with $700,000 a year in city taxes."
• In Seattle, "a $20 million federal grant for home weatherization has, according to KOMO news, retrofitted only three houses and created 14 jobs in more than a year."

(Read the whole thing here.)

Suderman adds, "As the job-creation rhetorical wars reach threat level five in Washington, it's worth remembering that the problem with jobs initiatives, green and otherwise, is that creating sustainable, productive jobs—the kind of employment that lasts and adds to the nation's productivity—is a hard thing to do. And there's no reason to think government bureaucrats, torn by a mob of competing political interests, are going to be somehow better at it than private sector operators. If creating productive employment were straightforward, wouldn't the private sector already be doing it? After all, you don't see most companies turning down opportunities to profit. Which is one of the many reasons why these fantasy jobs initiatives dreamed up in Washington frequently don't hit near the jobs numbers they promise, and why, when it comes to stimulus spending, the administration ends up leaning on totally unverifiable job-creation estimates to justify its spending. Lots more from Reason on green jobs here, here, and here. "

(h/t: Peter Suderman/Reason.com)

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

John Belushi (as Jake Blues from "The Blues Brothers") translates President Obama's speech on America's credit downgrade...

(h/t: Viral Footage)

Experience matters...

It really, really does.

This ad from former Minnesota Gov. and current GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is spot-on. (On the downside, Pawlenty's ad team doesn't really sell him...and the ad is far more exciting than anything he has presented so far.)

If the president continues to be the no-show that he has been, this will be a common theme during the campaign for the general election.

Jobs in Job No. 1...

Jobs, jobs, jobs.

That's all we hear from the president these days.

We hear it, but don't see much improvement. (I wonder why?)

The Washington Examiner has an interesting pick-up, via the Huffington Post (video below):

“If it seems President Obama has made a ‘hard pivot’ about every six weeks or so to focus on his ‘top priority’ of job creation, you are correct, he has. The folks at Huffington Post have compiled a striking video of the repeated declarations by Obama and his political allies that his top priority is ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ since his inauguration in January 2009. Which raises an interesting question: He's been telling us for two years that job creation is his most important goal, but the unemployment rate remains stuck above nine percent, with millions of Americans having given up on finding a job more than a year ago. Doesn't this suggest that Obama doesn't know what he's doing?”

Gee, ya think?

Looks like someone else has a Teleprompter "problem"...

Rev. Al goes down mumbling...

From the web site, Mediaite: "It was the perfect fledgling anchor moment: at some point earlier today, controversial MSNBC hire Al Sharpton tried to read an impassioned plea to protesters to “resist,” but his point was lost amidst the wrath of the Teleprompter gods, snatching the words away. It was also a perfect moment for those arguing that that the Sharpton hire was at best unwise; at worst disrespectful and the product of quid pro quo." (Video clip below...)

Mediaite continues..."Sharpton was covering the Wisconsin recall election fueled by a struggle between Gov. Scott Walker and the state’s labor unions, and was imploring union workers to resist the crackdown. What was meant to be a rousing battle cry came out something like this: 'but resist we much… we must… and we will much… about… that… be committed.' It didn’t take long for the clip to appear on Breitbart.tv with the title 'Greatest Al Sharpton Clip Ever' (we beg to differ) and make the rounds on the Twittersphere with a cornucopia of giggly commentary attached. And they do have a point– it’s a pretty funny clip, and not just for the reasons those who find Sharpton reprehensible would think so."

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy...

Another sign of the times...

Today's news: Dow tumbles 634 points on recession fears -- the sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's...

(LA Times): "President Obama tried to reassure the world that U.S. leaders could put aside the political disputes that put the country on the brink of default before a last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling. 'Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,'" Obama said in a midday speech from the White House. 'And no matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country.' But his comments failed to stop the market slide, which came on the heels of the Dow's 512-point shellacking on Thursday."

Someone let us know when "The Recovery" is over. Let us up -- we've had enough...

"Debt man, talking" -- Obama at today's news conference...

(h/t: Instapundit, bumpersticker; R. Limbaugh, caption)

Who really pays?

More like -- we know who will really pay our debts.

Related item: What's Wrong with Making Future Generations Pay for our Debt?

Foot -- meet mouth

The Gaffenator strikes...again!

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat shot in the head by a gunman in January, made a dramatic entrance onto the House floor yesterday to cast her vote for the debt ceiling deal.

Predictably, her appearance brought the entire chamber to its feet and temporarily united the both sides of the aisle, which had been at odds over the debt vote for several weeks.

The moment was a tribute not only to the courageous Congresswoman who has beaten all odds to merely survive the assassination attempt against her, but also to her colleagues who were able to recognize what her presence meant.

But leave it to Vice President Joe Biden to put his special touch on the evening.

According to numerous sources, "Biden, never one to miss an opportunity to say something out of the ordinary told media, 'I told her she’s now a member of the cracked head club, like me, with two craniotomies. It was just so good to see.'”

Really, Joe? Really?

The courageous Rep. Gabrielle Giffords makes her triumphant return to Congress...