ANY WONDER WHY CALIFORNIA IS BROKE?

Chuck's Blog "We all know that the only places they can cut are Police and Firefighters.
"It doesn’t matter whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or Independent. This list has to shock you. Over the years, our politicians have created this enormous pork barrel of agencies that employ over 350,000 people directly and countless more via contracts with the State. All of these people get salaries, medical coverage and pensions at our expense and amost all are unionized. Take a good, close look. Unbelievable? No. Believe it!"
Hat tip to Tom Mills, Santa Maria, Ca.

San Fransisco has 8,000 city/county employees making $100,000 a year? A transit car cleaner making $108,000?

Obama Appoints Former SEIU Official to Investigate … Wait For It … Union Corruption

Weasel Zippers  "Fox, meet hen house."

Former SEIU Official Appointed by Obama to Investigate Union Corruption, Cuts Number of Investigators  "But, now that Lund is in charge of OLMS, the AFL-CIO’s exaggerations are taken seriously at DOL, despite their past record of demonstrably false expert calculations and comments.
"To borrow a phrase from Obama supporter and ACORN founder Wade Rathke regarding NLRB appointee Craig Becker, “Here’s a big win no matter how you shake and bake it,” John Lund being appointed to oversee internal union corruption

http://terrellaftermath.com/

GM to investigate after Chevy Volt hybrid catches fire for SECOND time in a week - even though it was unplugged

Daily Mail  "When his garage burned down last week, Storm Connors defended his beloved hybrid cars charging inside and said they couldn't have caused the fire.
"But the environmentally-friendly credentials of his Chevy Volt - and the green driver's carbon footprint - took another hit today when its battery caught fire again, even though the car was unplugged."

Mystery: Mr Connors's Chevy Volt was gutted in last week's blaze -
but this morning its battery reignited in a second fire

 

CNN Guest Calls Out Host’s Bias: How Can You Deny it With a ‘Straight Face?’

The Blaze  "Over the weekend, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) called out Christiane Amanpour and the media for going soft on Obama during the budget battle. It was an entertaining clip. But the one you’re about to see may top it."

From Drudge: REPORTER TURNS AGGRESSIVE WITH OBAMA

Obama to reporter: 'Let me finish my answers' next time  "After some jousting about the size of his loss in Texas in 2008 -- the president said it was "a few percentage points," but it was more like 11 -- Obama told his interviewer: "If what you're telling me is that Texas is a conservative state, you're absolutely right.""

News 8 goes one-on-one with President Obama  "After the interview, Obama pointed out that he doesn't like an interviewer challenging his comments.
""Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?" he said."

Obama spokesman: 'I'm not going to take your questions' "Reporters' questions often go unanswered. When replies are given, they frequently are more scripted than meaningful. Public employees generally are required to obtain permission to share their expertise, and when interviews are allowed, a media 'handler' is listening in to keep control over what is said. And when replies come via e-mail, it's unclear who has written them," they wrote. "

Mr. Obama and liberals in charge of Washington

Mr. Magoo Goes to Washington  "The bloom is gone, the magic dissipated (remember: “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow”?). And what’s left?
"My friend and I were pondering that. Arrogance. That’s one thing that’s continued unabated — a function, I suggested, of the Magoo myopia.
"And then the penny dropped. Obama’s arrogance is often remarked upon, even by his less starry-eyed supporters. Arrogance, a chilly disconnection with common reality. (Don’t like the price of gas? Buy a new, smaller, more fuel-efficient car. How many kids do you have, for God’s sake?) Some diagnose narcissism. Maybe so. But here’s the extraordinary thing:
"Obama actually believes he is doing a good job."
Does all this remind you of Maxwell Smart of the 1960's?

Obama Gimmick "As Barack Obama travels around the country on the campaign trail .. and yes, he is officially on the campaign trail .. make sure to keep your eye on this little gimmick that he is pulling."....
"This ignorance [of voters] is what has led us to this monumental moment in history and it is now time for the few informed voters to take the lead." Read about stealth tax hikes here.

Michael Barone: President Whatever  "As his partisan and petulant speech showed, Obama realizes things are not going his way." 
Remember this word as it is applied to Obama more than any other term: Petulant

–adjective;  moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, especially over some trifling annoyance: a petulant toss of the head.

http://zappatrust.deviantart.com/

From Dhimmi England: When will a Clergymans collar be deemed offensive to Muslims?

Up Pompeii  "...a man who drives a van, in said van was a leaf crucifix, a small palm cross, for this most haenous of crimes he now faces dissmissal from his job.
"This small palm cross has been deemed offensive "to others" this is clearly "newspeak" for Muslims.
"But his bosses at publicly funded Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) in West Yorkshire – the fifth-biggest housing organisation in England – have demanded he remove the cross on the grounds it may offend people or suggest the organisation is Christian. Mr Atkinson’s union representative said he faces a full disciplinary hearing next month for gross misconduct, which could result in dismissal."

More here, including pictures. "‘I have worked in the coal mines and served in the Army in Northern Ireland and I have never suffered such stress. The treatment of Christians in this country is becoming diabolical. It is political correctness taken to the extreme.’

"But he added: ‘I have never been so full of resolve. I am determined to stand up for my rights. If they sack me, so be it. But I am standing up for my faith.’"

The office where Colin Atkinson's boss has a poster
of [Cuban] revolutionary Che Guevara on the wall

That Obama deficit speech: "Patient Obama"

Clown Ministry

Victor Davis Hanson   "Last week the president gave a speech on the deficit, rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans’ attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Down’s Syndrome, while protecting the proverbial “rich” from commensurate sacrifice. Let us, then, look at Obama, and the context of his speech, as a doctor might a patient."

"Symptoms of the Illness:"....

Prognosis: "There is no real therapy to be recommended since the illness will have to run its course, with a prognosis that remains uncertain until it resolves one way or another in about two years — or in late 2012."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez

Holy Land Foundation prosecutions; Obama Empire Strikes Back : ‘We Blame Bush!’

Patrick Poole "That’s right. The excuse they are currently floating to their friends in the establishment media to explain the decision not to prosecute CAIR officials and the other Islamic leaders implicated in the Holy Land Foundation case (all of whom had been named unindicted co-conspirators) is that the Bush administration chose not to prosecute them in 2004 and they were just reaffirming what John Ashcroft had decided way back when."

The previous article Mr. Poole refers to that started all this.

Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media, and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.

This Day in the Civil War/ Uniforms of the North and South

Civil War Interactive 
April 18th, 1861:DAUNTLESS DEFENDERS DARE DISPLEASURE
1862: NEW ORLEANS NAVAL NASTINESS NOTED
1863: COMMODORE CONFISCATES CONFEDERATE CARGO
1864: RED RIVER RENDEZVOUS RUINED

Union Army Uniforms and Insignia of the Civil War

Confederate Uniforms for Officers, NCOs and Enlisted

How Not to “Lose” Iraq

Max Boot  "...a continuing American military presence in Iraq post-2011 would very much be in our interest—because it would enable us to influence not only Iraq’s future course but also the future course of the entire region. Yet time is running out to renegotiate the Status of Forces agreement which President Bush signed in 2008 and which mandates the departure of all 50,000 U.S. troops by the end of this year."