Question of the Day

Neal Boortz asks:  "If Bain Capital had taken a look at Solyndra, would they have invested $500 million in that mess?"


Bain Capital and the Little Steel Mill That Could  "Romney’s firm is behind one of American steel's few recent success stories."
"For every tragic story of a company that  fails at the expense of its workers and investors, there are stupendous successes such as that of Steel Dynamics, and they would not happen without the capital and expertise of firms such as Bain." 

Workers World Party on the Occupy Wall Street Movement

NoisyRoom.net  "The pro-North Korea/Cuba, Workers World Party is heavily involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
" “Defend Occupy Wall Street,” Larry Holmes, WWP First Secretary, speaking at the Workers World Forum in New York City, Nov. 18, 2011."

Marines show the Taliban who is number one. (Updated)

Michael Ledeen: Pissing on the Enemy  "To the media pack, the “pissing story” was a welcome present, because they can unleash their full primal scream of righteous indignation against the Marines, whom they resent because the Marines are so very good at what they do.  DIGRESSION:  As an institution, the military, at least temporarily, is the best we’ve got, and the Marines are the best of the lot, both because they’re relatively small, and because they are well led."
....
"If I were advising the secretaries of state and defense I’d say:

1.  Treat it as a routine matter.  “Boys will be boys.  Especially in war.  Stuff happens.  We enforce our rules.”
2.  Don’t pass judgment, even hypothetically.  Just say, it’s been referred to the investigators.  When we find out what happened, we’ll get back to you.
3.  If Karzai delivers more moral lectures, have the president of the United States give a speech about Afghan sexual culture, including the treatment of young boys by older men, and the treatment of women by all Afghan men.  And then suggest, ever so sweetly, that Karzai is not really in a strong position to lecture us.

 General Patton urinates into the Rhine river in Germany  ""I drove to the Rhine River and went across on the pontoon bridge. I stopped in the middle to take a piss and then picked up some dirt on the far side in emulation of William the Conqueror." General George S. Patton, March 1945"

Blackfive: THE NATURE OF WARRIORS.... "The nature of warriors is something that only warriors will ever know.  Those that have never experienced this will never know why these men felt the need to do what they did.  But if our military is going to be effective in the long run, our enemies must fear us.  They must believe that we are capable of unspeakable evil and every now and then, we have to pull back the curtain a little and let them see a smidgen of what we are holding the lid on while we bomb them further into the stone age.  That fear of what those warriors are capable of will save lives."


Update from Hot Air:  Rep. Allen West on the reaction to the Marines incident: “Shut your mouth; war is hell” "Words of support for the troops are needed now as always, but they’re hardly forthcoming. The Republican presidential candidates, for example, have made no statements of support for the predominantly well-behaved troops as a buttress against the effects on public opinion of the administration’s eager denouncement of the few. William Kristol highlights their silence:"


Taliban atrocities show what real war crimes are  "If the photos of the U.S. troops become an issue, the United States should show pictures of Taliban members standing around, while masked, watching their leader behead a helpless captive."


Maybe this guy in black is one of those our Marines were doing the number one over. Picture from a video at BareNakedIslam; find it yourself; the sight is too disturbing to link to. 
Sorry if this photo is offensive, but I wanted you to remember just who the bad guys were in that photo of the Marines. TD

Life-Changing Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Heritage  "The greatest tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., is not to name a street in his honor or celebrate a national holiday. It is to recognize and support those who are working to carry out his vision, those who empower those facing the greatest obstacles through personal relationships that restore the fabric of civil society—without the need for federal government intervention.
....
"Among those ranks of individuals who are carrying out Dr. King’s vision are three young men—Curtis Monroe, Michael Toland, and Roger Marshall—who give their time, talents, and earnings from their day jobs serving as coaches and mentors of at-risk youths in the Benning Terrace public housing development in Washington, D.C.....
"Their investment is truly a powerful, living, and longlasting tribute to the vision and sacrifice of Dr. King."

Personal opinion posted at http://olbroad.com/:   "If Dr King saw the poverty pimps (examples: Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Charles Rangel, and yes, even Barack Obama), making their living off of keeping others from success, I honestly believe he would be appalled!"  One of the Tunnel Wall's all-time favorite posts is this Martin Luther King, Jr. post from Jan 17, 2011. That post also sends you to this reflection of Dr. King and his political descendants. 

 MARTIN LUTHER KING, ECONOMIC EQUALITY AND THE 2012 ELECTION  "The Obama administration could help ameliorate some of the pain minorities are feeling in the jobs sector, but its focus on white-collar information jobs, academia and the green economy has done little to help this already underserved community.

"But will these failures have political consequences in 2012? It’s hard to say."  Trust me, this is no pro-Republican article.

Open Thread: Martin Luther King Jr.  "Black conservatives of national stature, such as Clarence Thomas, Ward Connerly, Michael Steele, Jesse Lee Peterson, Alan Keyes, Don Scoggins, Alvin Williams, Ken Blackwell, Thomas Sowell, Star Parker and Walter Williams are routinely castigated by the Black Supremacists, as "Uncle Toms" and "puppets." Yet these are the men and women who really understand King's central message about character."

Barack's Toy Box

When he isn't out playing with Air Force One, that is.

http://terrellaftermath.com/ 

Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix

Insideronline  "Despite the constant deferment of pay cuts, many physicians still find it challenging to see people covered by Medicare. They receive substantially less from the government to treat Medicare patients — just 81 percent of the private insurance rate.

"As a result, some physicians have abandoned the program altogether. A 2010 Houston Chronicle report revealed that more than 300 doctors in Texas stopped participating in Medicare between 2008 and 2010.

"The American Medical Association states that nearly a third of primary care docs limit the number of Medicare patients they’ll see. And the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) reports that the number of doctors refusing to take part in Medicare has doubled since 2004."

Alan Caruba: Obama Weakens the Military

Warning Signs  

"President Obama’s claim that “the tide of war is receding” is likely to rank with British PM Neville Chamberlains claim of “peace in our time” after a visit with Hitler.....

What is not in doubt is that this is the wrong time to reduce our military strength and capabilities. We did that after World War One and paid a price for it. President Obama’s policies put us in the same peril."

http://www.claybennett.com/pages2/war.html

The Price of Obama's Peace Dividend Is an Increased Risk of War (Quoted in the above article)  "You can be sure that the foreign offices of such nations are already drafting the diplomatic communiqués that will advise these smaller nations to remember that Uncle Sam will no longer be able to protect them.  Strip away all the diplomatic verbal gymnastics, and the message would be in about the same tone as one delivered by Tony Soprano to a small neighbor store: "Nice little country you have here.  Be a shame if anything happened to it, now wouldn't it?" "  Jim Yardley

Max Boot: Slashing America's Defense: A Suicidal Trajectory  "Some might argue (and have argued, and will continue to argue) that there is nothing wrong or damaging to the United States in this, that we always downsize our military after the conclusion of hostilities. But it is beyond bizarre that we are rushing to spend the peace dividend at a time when we are not actually at peace. Hostilities have not yet ended, as our troops are still in combat every day in Afghanistan and continue to conduct military operations against Somali pirates and al-Qaeda terrorists that put them in harm's way on a regular basis. But leave that aside, and simply consider the consequences of past drawdowns."  ....
"...[1950] was the year that Kim Il-sung chose to launch an invasion of South Korea, confident that the American armed forces would not stand in his way. He was almost right."     More...


Don't worry, be happy in the knowledge that our national security is being guaranteed by the likes of the Occupy Movement-endorsed national leaders, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters and disciples of  Bill Ayres.
Sleep well.

SC Republicans Boo Newt Gingrich Over Romney Attacks

ABC News  "The booing came when Gingrich mentioned Romney’s name. I am told Gingrich was gently reprimanded by Huckabee who reminded him that the ground rules for the forum stipulated that the candidate were not allowed to attack each other.

"Every candidate except for Ron Paul took part in the forum, each of them appearing separately."

Illustration from donkeyhotey

David Axelrod Tries to Re-Wright History; Jeremiah Wright spewed for 1,000 weeks, not "ninety seconds," and Obama knew.

PJ Media  "President Barack Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, wants America to take the two-decade relationship between Obama, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity United Church of Christ ... on Chicago’s south side off the electoral issues table in the 2012 presidential election campaign.

"Axelrod said as much in a speech delivered on January 10 as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California. There is apparently no evidence that he expressed a similar desire relative to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, Newt Gingrich’s and Rick Santorum’s Catholicism, or Rick Perry’s evangelical Christianity. What a surprise."

....

Click on this below to see a page from the Trinity United "Pastor's Pages" of 2007 when this space was given to a known Hamas terrorist:

Click here.  

"Getting to the details is a column for another time, but the fact is that despite his departure from TUCC, Barack Obama took much of Jeremiah Wright’s mindset into the Oval Office, where it has contributed in both overt and subtle ways to the horrible havoc his administration has wrought.

"Sorry David Axelrod. There is no way you should get your way on this one — and hopefully you won’t."

Must watch: “Daily Show” destroys liberal columnist over “civility” hypocrisy

Hot Air   "An instant classic, possibly even superior to their interview with that imbecile in San Francisco who wants to ban Happy Meals. Let me tweak the headline, though, since it’s not quite accurate. Better version: “Liberal columnist destroys herself as ‘Daily Show’ cameras roll.” It’s Froma Harrop, whom you’ll remember from her column in August comparing tea partiers — unfavorably — to terrorists who want to blow up the power grid. How they managed to pull off this goof without her wising up, I simply can’t imagine. She must have wised up but, for reasons known only to her, decided to play along with the humiliation. (Being a “good sport,” maybe?) Either that or what we’re seeing here is actually a tour de force of editing that turned what was a routine interview into a surreal expose of oblivious hypocrisy. No one be this clueless for real. Can they?"

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Froma says she was in on it.  But why would she help this guy make such a point?


Ace of Spades has this.


Wikipedia mentions this here:   "Harrop is the President of the National Conference of Editorial Writers.^[9] One project of the NCEW is the Civility Project, aimed at restoring civility to America's public discourse.^[10] Her position was criticized by the Wall Street Journal, which noted the contrast between this role and her comparison of the Tea Party to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida.^[11] In her response to the criticism, Harrop stated, "I see incivility as not letting other people speak their piece." ^[12] She subsequently deleted all the comments from the post and shut down the commenting feature of her blog.^[13]

Her blog subsequently addressed the decision to delete the posted comments, saying that she was unwilling to spend time monitoring the large number of comments, while noting that a website is private property and that commenters could post their opinions elsewhere.Other bloggers, she said, have shut down their forums for similar reasons.^[14]"

But whether she was in on it or not, a true picture of leftist civility was shown to us in all its glory.

Obama Jets Off To His $4 Million Christmas Vacation, Contrast That With Reagan & G.W. Bush Staying In DC

MaroonedinMarin  "Now that the petulant child got his way (thanks to the spineless GOP leadership in Congress) on the payroll tax holiday, ...Obama has jetted off to Hawaii for his $4 million Christmas vacation, which you and I are paying for.
"But there is an interesting tidbit to how two President's(sp) whom liberals detest spent their Christmas."
....

Twenty-eight days before they will make it their permanent address, President and Mrs. Reagan moved into their $2.5-million Bel-Air home Friday.

They are spending their first Christmas out of the White House since they moved into it on Jan. 20, 1981.

Similarly, George W. Bush spent Christmas Day in DC, and then went to his Crawford, TX ranch afterwards. Both Reagan and Bush did this so that Secret Service agents could spend Christmas with their families.
Emphasis added. TD

Good Guys vs Bad Guys