Stunning Scandal Involving Dominican Republic’s Miss Universe Contestant
I'm not one to countenance many conspiracy theories, but when I found out just how repulsively ugly the Dominican Republic's entrant into the Miss Universe pageant, Dalia Fernandez, was, I could not help but conclude that there must have been a payoff.
Protest Against Chipotle’s for Firing Undocumented Workers
Laws are often laws for some reason. As a general rule, businesses are required to follow them.
You know what? The lady in the green pea coat has a point.
Sure, Chipotle's should apologize to them for the way they were fired. They can do it on individualized letters that read something like,
Marisol was a good worker for us. Unfortunately, she is not eligible to be employed in the United States. Equally unfortunately, she lied to us on her application. Please don't hold it against her.
Heck, even pay them what they're owed, if it won't get you in legal trouble. But it's after that point that the whole thing becomes absurd, where these idiots claim that they're owed two weeks' severance because of human rights. Go over to Eyeblast, and read Steve's take on this.
All I really want to say about it is . . .
The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Treacher’s Knee
[Comments are closed]
In response to some kind of internet provocation, Dan Riehl and Sean Medlock (aka Jim Treacher) got into it on Twitter today, with Mary Katharine Ham providing the chorus. Had Dan known what Sean has gone through with his knee nightmare, I've no doubt he wouldn't have said what he did.
And goodness knows, Sean's gone through a lot.
In case you somehow missed it, Sean had just moved to DC a year and a few months ago to take the job offered him by Tucker Carlson at The Daily Caller when, as he was using a crosswalk to go grab some stuff at a drug store, he was hit by an SUV that was, he discovered later, driven by a State Department employee. This being in DC, he was presented with a ticket for jaywalking while at the hospital, though the ticket gave the wrong intersection.
The driver of the SUV attended to him while he lay in the street waiting for an ambulance, but didn't identify himself as such. As far as I'm aware, Sean has not received any sort of satisfaction for his injuries. The accident caused him, among other things, to lose an apartment that he intended to lease and have to begin his search over again, not to mention first confining him to a wheelchair and then causing him to have to use crutches. You can see his nasty scar over there at his blog.
Almost a year after the original surgery, it was determined that the knee wasn't healing properly, so they had to go in a second time, which meant more time off the knee and then virtually having to re-start the rehab process. A couple of days ago, he was told he could dispense with his crutches, and naturally he overdid it, so that's been the subject of a couple of his recent posts.
Now, there's been some complaining about his posts from some quarters, who feel that he's being whiny about it and that it's TMI regarding his personal situation and that he should get back to the funny stuff. "More little people hitting each other! That's what I like!" At some point, I recommended that he give the knee its own Facebook fan page, which he did.
Say what you will, it's been an enormous factor in his life. It's caused him a lot of pain and frustration and, I would imagine, anger. It's not for me to say whether or not I would have dealt with it any other way than the way that Sean has. In fact, I think that I may accidentally have offended him by being glib about it on a couple of occasions. We used to talk. So, I understand a bit where Dan's coming from.
I know from first-hand experience that this is so, because during my first week at college, I tore cartilage in both of my knees. The lack of mobility combined with the challenges of learning a new place was demanding, and helped to drive me into a depression.
Now, imagine that you're in a new place, trying to get your bearings, and you're struck by a car and handed a ticket. That's a little traumatizing. And you can't get the injustice resolved. And you are a humorist. I'd say it's a little bit daunting. And then people complain that you talk too much about your injury, even though, as a humorist, it's natural that you should share your daily observations, which might even include information about this persistent crap that you're going through. It could even make you a bit thin skinned.
So, I get it, I think. And I will tell you that I was happy to hear it when Sean took 10 days off last month, because I thought he needed a break. I thought so, because his posts were more bitter, and less suffused with the wonted sweetness that is a big part of his charm as a writer.
Someday, we'll have a laugh over this. Then someone will break a stool over my head. And I'll probably have deserved it.
I'm thinking now might be a really good time to change the subject, so . . . look over there! An awesome drug smuggling submarine!
Stacy McCain/Joy McCann Cage Match!
Da TechGuy will be officiating as these two internet behemoths square off to decide who's right about the history of feminism! Saturday! Be there!
Brought to you by Jell-O™
Note that both Joy and Stacy are fund-raising at the moment.
Joanne Kloppenburg: Liberal Self-Awareness on Display
UPDATE: Judge Sumi issues third version of TRO, claiming that law is not in effect. Boy, does she suck.
Professor Jacobson has been covering the goings on in Wisconsin extensively, and you'll find his latest here, with instructions on how to help Prosser with a crucial ad buy.
You'll also discover why this is so important when you read the story of the warnings Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi gave attorneys arguing the legality of the Budget Repair Bill:
She advised lawyers to review state Supreme Court rules that say: "A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge...."She referred to public comments made by attorneys after a Tuesday hearing, but did not elaborate.
I have not seen any comments by attorneys in the case which rise to the level in the rule cited above. Attorneys are free to criticize the content of a ruling by a Judge, and as I have documented, there was plenty to criticize in the Judge Sumi's decision to interfere in the legislative process by attempting to prevent a bill from becoming law.
I find it disturbing that Judge Sumi issued this warning, which carries the threat of a Bar disciplinary referral. This is tantamount to the nuclear option, by putting attorney licenses to practice on the line.
Such a warning necessarily is one-sided, since only the attorneys unhappy with a court's rulings would comment negatively. Such a warning allows the winning side, so far the Democrats, to crow all day long about the court rulings, while muffling the ability of the Republicans to explain why such rulings were unjustified.
This is a highly political case which has been made even more political by the court's rulings. Absent comments which impugn Judge Sumi's integrity or make false statements about her, the attorneys in the case should be free to comment.
That would be tantamount to criticizing the Ministry of Magic!
Nationally, unions have poured more than $3 million into backing Kloppenburg, who had this to say about outside money in Wisconsin campaigns:
So, outside money fueling recalls is bad when it comes to judges in Iowa, but apparently just fine when it comes to Wisconsin representatives, or the Greater Wisconsin Committee running issue ads that paint Prosser as a pedophile priest coddler. I've mentioned before how crucial a component of the GWC's advocacy the protection of children from sex assailants is, but you can go get a look at their site. It's funny how little time journalists seem to spend analyzing the much greater incidence of sexual assault in and around public schools, where every case is a one-off and there's no pattern. Steve Gutowski:
Unfortunately for her there is a boat load of out of state special interest group involvement on her side of the upcoming supreme court election in Wisconsin. In fact, it seems the biggest spender in this race is the Greater Wisconsin Committee which National Review says is a group funded by the national union movement and wants to put $3 million into the race when all is said and done. Furthermore the Wisconsin Reporter tells us that when Kloppenburg was called out by her opponent for a misleading ad put out by that group Kloppenburg defended herself by pointing out that the ad was not done by her but, instead, an outside group.
On Kloppenburg's husband, a Professor at the UW-Madison:
According to Wispolitics.com, Kloppenburg said during a debate with incumbent David Prosser this week that “she also wouldn’t need to recuse herself from any cases on the collective bargaining bill because she has remained independent during the protests in Madison.”
But her husband hasn’t remained neutral.
Along with other professors from UW, Jack Kloppenburg signed an open letter this February that said in part, “We are concerned, therefore, about the governor’s proposal to deprive public employees of the right to bargain collectively in Wisconsin.” The letter ran in a campus newspaper and was disseminated as a press release by a group called Defend Wisconsin (its website contains the subhead “against Scott Walker’s attacks”). The press release bears the headline, “260 UW Madison Faculty Support Collective Bargaining Rights For all Workers.”
This revelation, on top of the news of Kloppenburg’s acceptance of a donation from the husband of Judge Maryann Sumi, raises serious questions about whether Kloppenburg, if she were to win a seat on the Supreme Court, would have to recuse herself from all matters relating to Scott Walker’s budget.
Including these Rate My Professor comments from his students:
“Conceited liberal. Cares about no one but himself. Wants to teach but only teaches his opinion. Most biased and unhelpful professor I have ever dealt with.”
“Professor Kloppenburg is a madman, and he takes pride in that fact. He presents introductory environmental issues with a clear bias, which he claims is so that we “stay awake” in his class.”
“Talks the talk, but absolutely does not walk the walk. If you take any of his classes, I hope you are comfortable with someone like this telling you how to live your life.”
“Jack is very opinionated and shares his opinion with everybody. Eventually you really get tired of him and just want to get out of there.”
“His teaching methods are awesome. All he wants is for you to really think about environmental issues. Two papers, no exams.”
But read the whole thing, as there's plenty more information about him, there. The open letter includes this line:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United States endorsed in 1948, states that all workers have the “right to form and to join trade unions for the protection” of their interests.
Why the US, as a signatory, didn't immediately unionize its federal employees is left to the imagination of the reader.
As I mentioned yesterday, Kloppenburg complained during the debate about Prosser's referencing a specific case on which he'd written the majority opinion, in response to a direct question by one of the interrogators regarding whether or not preventing the raiding of a $200 million trust set aside for malpractice victims amounted to judicial activism. Her reasons for finding that a breach of decorum, if not ethics, were as inarticulate as her double standards regarding outside money.
In his discussion of another case in response to a direct question, Prosser talked about a time when he had to prevent the use of evidence obtained through the execution of a search warrant. The question was regarding any decisions in which his vote would surprise people. He stated that though the police had done nothing wrong, the warrant was so defective that the evidence obtained through it could not be used by the prosecution. Kloppenburg has never seen criminal search evidence that she hasn't wanted to suppress, I'd bet.
Three million bucks? Meh, it cost Wisconsin about $5 million to keep those peaceful pro-union protesters secure, not to mention whatever the actual costs of cleaning up the Capitol are. They sure do have some odd friends, though.
There's lots more, including the inevitable shenanigans regarding recall petitions, in Scott's recent post at Power Line.
Walmart Sex Discrimination Lawsuit 31Mar2011
A followup on the post from a few days ago -- the Supreme Court heard testimony on allowing some money-chasing lawyers to form a super-duper class action where the covered class would likely get only a few hundred or thousand dollars each, while the lawyers would be raking in millions [oh wait, is that biased reporting? I think it's a salient fact that isn't brought up too much when they trot out the women's sob stories.]
I'm going to pull out some telling quotes:
Because the plaintiffs' claims are based on statistical evidence of pay and promotions that favor men over women, Justice Samuel Alito asked if that meant "every single company" in the country could potentially be in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.
Possibly so, Mr. Sellers said.
....
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned whether the plaintiffs, seeking a procedural advantage, had cut thousands of alleged victims out of potential remedies. The suit was filed under a provision that makes it easier to certify a class action, but limits compensatory damages.
Justice Ginsburg said that for women who no longer work at Wal-Mart, those compensatory damages for past wrongs are more important than ensuring future opportunities at the company. "They're not interested in" an injunction against future discrimination, "but everyone's interested in money," she said.
....
Wal-Mart also claims that its statistical study done on a store-by-store basis shows no pay disparity between male and and female workers.
Let's start with the middle idea -- money. Ginsburg understands this. The lawyers are acting to maximize the expected take to themselves, while reducing the possible payout to the aggrieved class. All the justices know this, but there's nothing in the Constitution against lawyers trying to cash in big time, so that means nothing on the likely ruling as to whether this can be a super-duper class action suit.
But it does have something to do with the PR campaign. And I assume Walmart knows that it has to do something here ... there have been stories where they trot out women managers of stores, talking about their experiences working at Walmart. This is not just a matter of law, but also of their corporate image as an employer (though they have no problem finding workers, from what I can tell, especially in an age of high unemployment.)
But how about those two items sandwiching it? Those go back to my point: you can have a situation where there is absolutely no discrimination - no differential pay, promotions, etc. - and the stats skew heavily. Due to personal choices and due to how stores differ across the country, things can shake out that you get lots more women working in the Walmarts in rural areas with lower wages than in Walmarts in more upscale areas with higher wages.
There's nothing particularly nefarious about women dominating lower level jobs in retail. Many women like getting discounts from retail employers (the reason for a lot of mall employment - those are shit jobs, but if you're always buying shit at the Gap, why not work there and get the employee discount?) Many women like being able to work low hours during the day, as opposed to the nasty shift work at night - they like to be home for their kids. In a similar way, many women like being schoolteachers, because they're on the same schedule as their kids. They can work and have a home life, without worrying about "the juggle" that some of us 9-to-5ers [or, rather, 8-to-8ers] have. It's a choice.
When it comes time to pick managers, you're generally not picking from the people who have taken the easy route. Managers need to be a bit more flexible than the workers under them, and need to have experience with the cycle over the day. You do have to be more committed to your job, as you have more responsibilities. Some people, men and women alike, don't want that sort of responsibility.
Now, here is where I'm supposed to put some "of course, there's some sexism..." yadda yadda, but I'm tired of this shit. As per OUTLAW! philosophy, someone else can make the qualifications and hedging statements.
The point is that there are always trade-offs in life, and no, you can't get everything you want on a platter. People are paid more, not out of the goodness of the corporations' hearts, but because that's what it's going to take to get that particular person to agree to do the work. And they expect something in return. And if they know they can get people to do the job right for less money, they will pay less.
So I am tired of hearing that elementary school teachers, or whatever female-dominated profession, should be paid more. Women created those "problems" for themselves. If they cared all that much about money, they'd be pursuing it more like men -- going into the higher-paying, nastier jobs. Idly whining that you'd like more money is as meaningful as a child trying to get a higher allowance -- pure rent-seeking behavior. If you aren't willing to change jobs, take on more responsibilities, take on more unpleasantness, take on more uncertainty, in exchange for the money, then you're not being serious.
I think most people, while being happy with the thought of being paid more, do understand the trade-offs. I have been having lots of conversations with older Boomers lately who have stepped down the responsibility levels of the jobs they take on, which also means they've been taking lower salaries than in the past. But these people have lower debts to cover, and don't have the health or energy that they once had. They understand that, and don't have a problem that they are no longer at their earning peak. I see nothing wrong with choosing more leisure or less responsibility over more money, but people need to realize these are the choices being made.
So I hope the Supreme Court does knock down the attempt at putting this into super-duper class action status. The cockroaches will then scatter, as the money won't be worth it. How much was this case about "justice" then?
The Fond du Lac Shootings
Welcome to the many people who've come here to read about and comment about the terrible shootings in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In chronological order, the pieces that we've done about them are:
More on that Fond du Lac, WI cop-shooting story
More on the Fond du Lac Shooting and James Cruckson
Looking for the Truth: James Cruckson and the FDL Shootings
In the last one mentioned, guest poster mm22 distills out most of the questions that have arisen as a result of the confusing articles written on the subject by the Fond du Lac Reporter, and the variety of rumors posted on the internet and in the comments to our blog about the events of that day and what led up to them.
In comments, Tonya Sullivan linked to the latest FdL Reporter story, an odd one talking about how little is known about many of the rumors that have surrounded and dogged the case.
mm22 added a link in comments to this long (almost 100 minute) video post about the incident and its coverage:
If you have the time and the interest, I recommend that you watch the first 10 minutes or so, then just listen to the audio. The citizen journalist (or journalistic critic) in this case makes some valid points. The coverage provided by the local paper has been sloppy, inconsistent, incurious and redundant. On the other hand, I don't agree with him that it's been deliberately repetitious in order to frustrate people and make them disinclined to follow the story. Instead, I think that the repetition, particularly where they've reposted the same articles under multiple titles, has been an attempt at what's called link-whoring, to get more bloggers and other media outlets to connect to them and to drive more traffic to their site, which pleases the advertisers.
Apart from that ascription of motive and his unequivocal determination at the end of his presentation that Josie Warner, the ex-girlfriend mentioned in some of the newspaper articles is certainly talking about slain (or murdered, take your choice) Officer Craig Birkholz, many of his criticisms of the story as told and retold by the Reporter are right on the mark. The Reporter has made a hopeless mess of its coverage. Depending on which piece you read, officers went to Cruckson's residence, which he shared with Warner and their two children, his son and her daughter, from previous relationships, to investigate Warner's allegation of a sexual assault, which she'd showed up at the Police Department to report some unspecified time over the weekend, or they were responding to gunfire reported by a woman over the phone, apparently the one who was walking nearby early on Sunday morning of March 20, and who thought she was being fired upon. Either way, the remarks on Josie Warner's now-defunct Facebook page (nuked, according to some, because she was receiving threats) [I stand corrected by mm22: it's apparently still there] on which he bases this positive identification seem insufficient. In today's Reporter article about rumors swirling around the events, rumors they've helped propagate through their incompetence, there's a user comment that she was carrying on with a married cop from the North Fond du Lac Police department with whom Cruckson's ex-wife had cheated on him, and that's why he blew his top. Another comment on this site says that the fellow that Warner was carrying on with is in fact an EMT, something that Cruckson was studying to become, having just returned from completing some Army Reserve training in California as a medic.
Other neighbors reported that they heard gunfire beginning either at around 6:00 or 6:30 AM on that day, both from the house and from elsewhere into the house. It's unclear from most of the accounts whether Officer Ryan Williams, who was shot and critically injured, apparently inside the house, was shot before or after Officer Birkholz, who died (though I don't place quite as much emphasis on the issue of how an officer could be fatally shot in the upper chest while wearing a life vest as this young man does). It appears that Williams may have been shot first, trying to go up the stairs inside of the house to the bedroom from which Jim Cruckson was firing, and then Birkholz responded to the radio call of shots fired and officer down. Equally confusing in these narratives is the reason the Police Dog, Grendel, was along for the ride. One account claims that the dog was shot while in the squad driven to the scene, I believe, by Officer Williams. This analyst ascribes to deliberate hiding of the information that Birkholz was married, because the paper was quick to mention that wounded Officer Williams was married with two children, only noting Birkholz's marital status a couple of days later. Once again, I think this is much likelier related to incompetence and the generally haphazard coverage the incident has received from the Reporter.
In the dramatic, though somewhat Keystone Koppy video of the armored vehicle arriving in front of Cruckson's home, you can see the rescue of Cruckson's sister, dragged out in what is apparently her underwear [mm22 names her as LaShonda, and says she's in shorts] by police as shots can be heard on the video, and dumped into the armored vehicle with some difficulty, before the doors are closed, with some difficulty, and the vehicle speeds away as one cowboy fires shots from the back. This person is later identified as one particularly skilled in Special Weapons and Tactics, who apparently returned to be on hand when SWAT finally took the house at about noon, and there found Cruckson already dead of a self-inflicted handgun wound to the head.
What's not clarified in any of this is exactly why Cruckson's sister is there. According to a comment in one of our posts from a putative cousin, the sister, a brother and Cruckson's ex-wife were all sent over there to try to talk him into giving up, and after the first shots were fired, the brother and ex-wife left the residence, but the sister stayed until she was dragged out of the house. Another version of the story from comments here says that Cruckson himself had called them to the place to talk him down. In any event, Cruckson's sister is placed on the first floor of the house with two cops pinned down by the fire from within and without until the armored vehicle, who elsewhere are said to have been pinned down in the basement of the house. It's mentioned on a couple of occasions that they were under the impression that Jim Cruckson was aware they were in the house. So, were they there before he began firing on police, or did they arrive while that was going on? Once again, there's no reliable time-line of events available from the Reporter.
Craig Birkholz was slain in the parking lot of a bar apparently beside Cruckson's house. An armored vehicle was used to retrieve the downed officer. Once again, the time-line is unclear, but it would seem that he was collected before the armored vehicle, assuming it's the same one, was used to get Cruckson's sister out of there. Once again, our video analyst takes this further than I would, criticizing the Department for saying that getting to Birkholz was their first priority, before transferring him into an ambulance. The next-door bar also features prominently in those versions of the story that have Cruckson unaccountably stating in the bar on the night of March 19 that he's going to be shooting people the next morning. His best friend states that, though he can't guarantee that Cruckson didn't go to the bar after he and another friend helped him get some work done on the house, which he was refurbishing, it seems unlikely that he would have said anything there that he wouldn't have shared with them. A neighbor also mentioned that when he heard shots in the morning, he looked outside to see a cop crouching behind the door of his patrol car, who told him to get back inside.
That friend, and Cruckson's mother, who was in Arizona at the time, were the people police chose to try to talk Cruckson into surrendering and coming out of the house after at least one of the officers was shot. The friend said that he felt that they were doing a good job talking Cruckson down, until the police cut off phone contact. Why the police decided to do so will, it is to be hoped, be a facet of the investigation.
Cruckson's past record, which Deputy Chief Lemke mentioned in his initial press conference on the shootings, has also not been much clarified by the Reporter. They state that the ex-girlfriend accused Cruckson of having pulled her hair while driving, her response being to stab him in the forearm with a pen knife. Their relationship has been described as volatile by family and friends, and in this case, according to her testimony, they fought because she was jealous that he was cozying up with another woman as they were out bar-hopping. According to Cruckson's family, the ex-girlfriend later recanted that testimony, but it's the only piece of Cruckson's record that's been discussed at any length. There's a charge from awhile back for leading a squad on a high-speed chase, and there are mentions that police were called to the Cruckson-Warner residence on a number of occasions over their quarrels.
How the police could have thought that Warner's daughter might be in the house with Cruckson when she'd apparently dropped her off at a neighbor's house, is another of the mysteries of this case that defies explanation in the absence of better information.
Although Josephine Warner's name never appears in the Reporter's "reporting" on the incident as the ex-girlfriend, probably due to a policy of protecting the identities of alleged victims of sexual assault, everyone in Fond du Lac knows who she is, if the internet is any index. Police have stated that there's nothing to indicate that she was lying about the sexual assault, they haven't adduced any evidence yet, either, to prove that it's true. So the nature of Cruckson's alleged assault has protected her from being named by the local media, but that doesn't necessarily excuse their not exploring her colorful background (for a 24 year old). She's a model, who has posed for Playboy, among others, and who indicated on her MySpace page that she wanted to become famous, that she's very sexual, etc. She divorced her ex-husband, apparently, in 2007. Some rumors have her accusing him of having assaulted her as well, and possibly getting him thrown in the slammer, though I can't confirm that. From her comments there and on Facebook, she's quite the party girl. She's also apparently a college student, and one comment at today's Reporter article suggests she's a dancer at a local dive. She had just returned from Florida, where she had some Spring Break themed photo shoots, apparently. According to Cruckson's aunt, Hlee (yes, that's her name), she admitted to a member of the family down there that she'd been carrying on with someone else. Other rumors state that Cruckson found an image of her with her new squeeze on her phone, or that friends started telling him that she was dating someone else after he got back from medic training in California.
For whatever reason, that phone was seized as evidence, the video analyst tells us, and she's had to get a new one, and so has been hard for the Reporter to contact. Perhaps police have asked her not to comment on what she knows while there's an ongoing investigation, but I share the analyst's frustration that the local paper hasn't been more aggressive in trying to gather information. Given the amount of time that has passed since March 20, it's really inexplicable that they haven't at least attempted to construct a reasonably coherent time-line of the events.
So, yes, people will talk. They find it as incredible as I do that the paper's managed to make such a hash of their coverage. Here's a good example of how it's done. As far as sheer apathy goes, compare this with the Bembenek matter and how it was reported. There are many similar elements between that story and this.
I've been criticized here for sticking my nose into matters that don't concern me. My position is that the people of Fond du Lac and of Wisconsin, since Staties ended up pulled into this affair, deserve better answers than they have been given. There's a dead officer and a wounded one, and a shooter who killed himself. It's fine for the Fond du Lac Police to put a brave face on the incidents of that day, but it seems to me to have gone almost as badly wrong as the coverage.
My understanding is that some comments are being removed at the FdL Reporter. If those are the comments where Josie Warner is mentioned by name, that's understandable. Here, we are free to comment about anything regarding the case, but please, don't resort to wild speculation, please indicate how you know what you claim to know, please show respect for one another. We're interested in the facts, not a turf war or blame game.
Tax Exempt GE Invests Heavily in Oil Extraction Manufacturing
GE's other big recent energy deals include the $3 billion takeover of Dresser Inc, which makes gas engines used in oil production and mining, and the $1.3 billion takeover of British oil equipment company Wellstream Holdings.
It has also been a seller, closing in January its sale of a 51 percent stake in the NBC Universal media business to No. 1 U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp
. GE shares were up 6 cents at $19.81 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Converteam's products, electric motors that can replace gas-fired engines in oil and gas production, also give GE a chance to build its presence in supplying equipment to the fast-growing mining and metal sectors, Krenicki said.
If people think Obumble's numbers are low now, wait till this summer with $5/gallon gas.
I half expect him to dump the strategic reserve over Labor Day.
Obama Hits New Polling Lows, or Hillary Clinton’s Revenge
Half of the registered voters surveyed for the poll think that the president does not deserve a second term in office, while 41 percent say he does. In another Quinnipiac poll released just four weeks ago, 45 percent said the president did not deserve reelection, while 47 percent said he did.
The decline in support for a second Obama term comes as his approval rating has dropped 4 percentage points since early March, landing at 42 percent – a record low – in the poll released Wednesday. His disapproval rating has risen from 46 percent to 48 percent.
With all of the instability in the Middle East, Obama was convinced that he needed to do something to appear out in front of the curve. What he did was authorize bombing Libya, then head to Brazil, come back and give a speech explaining his objectives that had about as much deeper meaning as Steve Miller's "Abra Cadabra."
The administration's coming around to the understanding that some of the rebels in Libya might be associated with Al-Qaeda, but that's not stopping Hillary from considering supplying weapons to them. Well, they've gotten their hands on some of Gaddafi's stockpiles, anyway.
In related news, Obama has asked Admiral Ackbar to head up the NATO No-Fly Zone over Libya, in order to boost Arab self-esteem.
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