On this day in 1865...

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment into law, forever abolishing slavery in the United States. Well, I guess that explains why Apple products are made in China.

Ask President Carter Obama

Barack Obama tried his hand at employment counseling during in the Google Plus live video chat room "Hangout." He answered questions submitted through Google owned YouTube as well as live questions like this from Jennifer Wedel -

WASHINGTON (The Associated Press) —

President Barack Obama is trying to rebuild the American economy, one job at a time — literally.

The president asked an online town hall questioner Monday to send him her husband's resume, insisting he wanted to look into why the man remained out of work despite his background as a semiconductor engineer.

"I meant what I said, if you send me your husband's resume, I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there," Obama told the questioner, Jennifer Wedel of Fort Worth, Texas.

He told Wedel that according to what he was hearing from industry, such high-tech fields are in great demand and her husband "should be able to find something right away."

Wedel told Obama that despite what he said, her husband had been out of work for three years. She wanted to know why foreign workers were getting visas for high-skilled work.
(...)

Wedel's insistence that the president's claims about the demand for high-skilled workers weren't being born out for her husband led to the president's offer to take a look at his resume.

"I'll have to take you up on that," she told him. And Obama came back to it after covering a range of issues in the 45-minute session, telling Wedel, "Remember to send me that information!"

Obama often channels Jimmy Carter, but this time he was channeling Dan Aykroyd impersonating Jimmy Carter in a 1977 SNL skit -

Michelle Obama Drops $50K on Luxury Drawers

First Lady Michelle Obama and her ME posse reportedly spent so much cash at the Madison Ave, NYC lady's lingerie purveyor, Agent Provocateur, that sales jumped more than 12% with Mickey O laying down $50,000 for underwear in one shopping spree.

The Telegraph is reporting:

The First Lady ... along with the Queen of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah, closed off part of Madison Avenue to spend time in the luxury lingerie shop. Their purchases contributed to a market-spanking 12.5pc lift in sales.
Agent Provocateur, which is styled on vintage Hollywood glamour, sells handmade Calais lace corsets that sell for up to £900, which could ruffle the feathers of more than just President Barack Obama in an election year.

Agent Provocateur's chief executive, Gary Hogarth, declined to identify anyone on the "secret client list," admitting, however, the AP brand has attracted many "unexpected famous names," especially in the US. Lacking any hard evidence Mrs. Obama was actually at the knickers emporium, we can only trust that eyewitnesses are being truthful.

If they are, then one could further speculate in this election year Mickey O was shopping from the Campaign Collection again showing a natural callous disregard for the the plight of scores of millions Americans who are unemployed, under-employed, and the more than 45 million Americans on food stamps as a result of Barack Obama's stimulus package. Apparently, Michelle has a different kind of stimulus in mind for the president's package.

Fact Check - 2012 SOTU & Obama

Not only was Obama's third SOTU a mockery of recycling, it was also short on actual facts, which in common usage means something that actually exists, reality, truth. But Obama, the lawyer probably intended "fact" as used in law - an actual or alleged event or circumstance, as distinguished from its legal effect or consequence - with an emphasis on alleged.

OBAMA: "We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising."
THE FACTS: This is at least Obama's third run at stripping subsidies from the oil industry. Back when fellow Democrats formed the House and Senate majorities, he sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request. He called again to end such tax breaks in last year's State of the Union speech. And he's now doing it again, despite facing a wall of opposition from Republicans who want to spur domestic oil and gas production and oppose tax increases generally.
---
OBAMA: "Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program."
THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.
The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.
Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.
---
OBAMA, asking Congress to pay for construction projects: "Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."
THE FACTS: The idea of taking war "savings" to pay for other programs is budgetary sleight of hand. For one thing, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been largely financed through borrowing, so stopping the wars doesn't create a pool of ready cash, just less debt. And the savings appear to be based at least in part on inflated war spending estimates for future years.
---
OBAMA: "Through the power of our diplomacy a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one."
THE FACTS: The world is still divided over how to deal with Iran's disputed nuclear program, and even over whether the nuclear program is a problem at all.
It is true that the U.S., Europe and other nations have agreed to apply the strictest economic sanctions yet on Iran later this year. But the global sanctions net has holes, because some of Iran's large oil trading partners won't go along. China, a major purchaser of Iran's crude, isn't part of the new sanctions and, together with Russia, stopped the United Nations from applying similarly tough penalties.
---
OBAMA: "Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values."
THE FACTS: Economists do see manufacturing growth as a necessary component of any U.S. recovery. U.S. manufacturing output climbed 0.9 percent in December, the biggest gain since December 2010. Yet Obama's apparent vision of a nation once again propelled by manufacturing - a vision shared by many Republicans - may already have slipped into the past.
Over generations, the economy has become ever more driven by services; not since 1975 has the U.S. had a surplus in merchandise trade, which covers trade in goods, including manufactured and farm goods. About 90 percent of American workers are employed in the service sector, a profound shift in the nature of the workforce over many decades.
The overall trade deficit through the first 11 months of 2011 ran at an annual rate of nearly $600 billion, up almost 12 percent from the year before.
---
OBAMA: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."
THE FACTS: Obama is more sanguine about progress in Afghanistan than his own intelligence apparatus. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan warns that the Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory. The classified assessment, described to The Associated Press by officials who have seen it, says the Afghan government hasn't been able to establish credibility with its people, and predicts the Taliban and warlords will largely control the countryside.
---
OBAMA: "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories."
THE FACTS: He left out some key details. The bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama picked up the ball, earmarked more money, and finished the job. But Ford never asked for a federal bailout and never got one.
---
OBAMA: "We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."
THE FACTS: With this statement, Obama was renewing a call he made last year to require 80 percent of the nation's electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2035, including nuclear, natural gas and so-called clean coal. He did not put that percentage in his speech but White House background papers show that it remains his goal.
But this Congress has yet to introduce a bill to make that goal a reality, and while legislation may be introduced this year, it is unlikely to become law with a Republican-controlled House that loathes mandates.
---
OBAMA: "Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households."
THE FACTS: It's true that a minority of millionaires pay a lower tax rate than some lower-income people. On average, though, wealthy people pay taxes at a much higher rate than middle-income taxpayers.
Obama's claim comes from a Congressional Research Service report that compared federal taxes paid by people making less than $100,000 with those paid by people making more than $1 million. About 10 percent of families with incomes under $100,000 paid more than 26.5 percent in federal income, payroll and corporate taxes. And about a quarter of millionaire taxpayers paid a rate lower than that.
---
OBAMA: "We can't bring back every job that's left our shores.... Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."
FACT CHECK: Many of the jobs U.S. companies have created overseas won't return because they were never in the United States in the first place.
As Obama said in his speech, U.S. workers have become more productive and labor costs have fallen.
But there are powerful forces pushing the other way: Many of the overseas jobs in U.S. companies weren't transferred from the U.S. They were created in fast-growing markets in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere to serve customers in those markets. Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index now earn more than half of their revenue from overseas.
That has fueled more job creation abroad. U.S. multinationals cut more than 800,000 jobs in the United States from 2000 to 2009, according the Commerce Department. They added 2.9 million overseas in the same period.
---
OBAMA: "Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn't know what they're talking about ... That's not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they've been in years."
THE FACTS: Obama left out Arab and Muslim nations, where popular opinion of the U.S. appears to have gone downhill or remained unchanged after the spring 2011 reformist uprisings in the Middle East. A Pew Research Center survey in May found that in predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan, views of the U.S. were worse than a year earlier. In Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. foreign aid that went unmentioned in Obama's speech, just 11 percent of respondents said they held a positive view of the United States.
---
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Anne Gearan, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Martin Crutsinger, Jim Drinkard, Dina Cappiello, Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor, Christopher S. Rugaber and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

2012 SOTU - One More Time, With Feeling

Obama, the great orator, repeats himself ad nauseam.

In the End, He Went Left

Obama asked after the 2012 State of the Union Address, "Which way am I going? This way or that way?"



h/t Ann Althouse

Gingrich Wins South Carolina Women, Independents, Religious

Newt Gingrich won a majority of the Republican women's vote in South Carolina's Saturday Republican Presidential Primary. Gingrich was supposed to have an overwhelming problem with southern women who saw him as a Yankee because of his much publicized infidelities. Despite this, Gingrich garnered 36% of the female vote to Romney's 29%, 20% for Santorum, and 12% for Paul.

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit writes,

A female reader writes that Gingrich may not have been so hurt by ex-wife Marianne’s TV interview:

Hate to say this and don’t use my name, but I watched the interview and thought
“You bitch, he cheated on his first wife with you. What the heck did you expect?”

That may explain it.

STILL MORE: Another female reader writes: “Check the dates. Marianne, the supposed women scorned, married Newt when his star was rising (1981-his second term in Congress) and divorced him at his political nadir in 2000. If Callista is the real golddigger she’s also the one who stood by her man in his politically lean decade.”

Gingrich was also said to be to far right and too radical for Independent voters. Again, the experts were wrong. Romney was the expected to be the Independent's favored candidate, but those calling themselves Very Conservative in exit polling turned out only 19% of the vote vs 48% for Gingrich. Those claiming to be Somewhat Conservative voted 41% for Gingrich and 30% for Romney. Mitt Romney only beat Gingrich among the Moderate-Liberal Independents, 34% to 31%.

The religious voters were supposed to run from Gingrich because of his serial marital peccadillo's and faith switching in favor of the religious and stable family man, Mitt Romney. For a third time, the pundits were wrong. Among the Born Again crowd, Gingrich won 44% to 22%; however, Romney got the non born-again vote 38% to 33%, but just barely.

Both the college degreed and non-college group went for Gingrich 37% to 31% and  43% to 24%. Interestingly, all income groups went for Gingrich from less than $50,000 to over $100,000.

Voters overwhelmingly believe Newt Gingrich can beat Barack Obama, is the true conservative, has the right experience although only 6% think he's of strong moral character.

The primaries and caucuses so far represent slightly less than 2% of the total Republican nominating vote. There is a statistical observation that when a subject reaches 2% approval or acceptance, the remaining 98% will fall in line. Newt Gingrich is on the slippery cusp of winning the nomination; he's proven he can win big, but he's also shown an ability to lose big.

Urinating Marines Piss Off US Officials

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was on the phone to Afghan President Karzai apologizing for the videotaped “utterly deplorable” act of four US Marines before the video had even been authenticated.

Karzai had already said the videoed event was “completely inhumane and condemnable in the strongest possible terms” and advised the U.S. military to “apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime” before Panetta had called him.

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, expressed “total dismay” over the recorded behavior, saying the “vast, vast” majority of American military personnel would not engage in such actions.

In a statement, the Marine Corps said, "While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our corps," adding that a full investigation will be conducted.

The Taliban, the purported victimized group declared the video "shameful" and "not a human action," according to BBC News. Zabihullah Mujahid, Talib mouthpiece, told Reuters, "This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage." On Thursday, Talib officials told The Associated Press, the goal of "peace and stability" in Afghanistan has not been derailed and they have increased their "political efforts to come to mutual understanding with the world in order to solve the current ongoing situation."

That's all very well and good - America is overboard on apologies and the Taliban is all fugettaboutit. But what really happened in the 1:25 recording that all the news outlets say is "less than a minute?" As they say, let's go to the videotape. In this case, the full, uncensored videotape.



Now that we've seen what we were supposed to see, what didn't we see? Well, we didn't see penises, we didn't see urine streams, we didn't see splashing, we didn't see dust kicked up by liquid hitting dry dirt, we didn't see the last drop shake, we didn't see difficulty in extricating penises from buttoned fly pants with gloved hands while holding weapons; we didn't see any of the normal actions of men taking a leak. There is a near universal behavior of boys and men when urinating and none of that happened here. And, I don't think it's remotely possible that any man would expose himself to global ridicule with dicks so small they cannot even be seen on the recording, especially US Marines.

Quite frankly, I don't think these guys even unbuttoned their pants, nevermind pissed on anyone or anything. They were faking the act, which is dumb enough to be discipline worthy as symbolic disrespect, but nothing actually was peed on.