Antics Road Show

Fleebaggers under the Dean Dome

02-21-11grahamsteyn  Michael Graham during an interview of Mark Steyn today came up with a term that I hadn't heard before "Fleebaggers"......describing the vacationing Wisconsin Senators "fleeing" the state to reside in "Fleabag Motels" in Rockford IL.  Meanwhile Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC apparently funneling money illegally in violation of Wisconsin law to the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee.

Heresy, and the new Inquisition

 Apparently, nonsense is the new norm in European society, and pedophilia is ok as long as you maintain the relationship past the age of majority, uh well, uh, that is if your a Muslim.  All others are subject to common decency, and that means follow the example of the three monkeys.   Mark Steyn at SteynOnline again points out the insanity of "semantic cleansing" or "purification of intent" (my terms) to mollify the outrage of a religion nearly devoid of any sense of gender equality or individual liberty. 

Athens redux in Madison, Wisconsin

From WSJ: 

"For Americans who don't think the welfare state riots of France or Greece can happen here, we recommend a look at the union and Democratic Party spectacle now unfolding in Wisconsin"

 

What happens when the "Gravy Train" runs out of gravy. Democrats again refuse to face the reality of having promised more than they can deliver and have gone AWOL. Even Barack Obama had the somewhat, though limited sense of decency to vote "present" 100 times when he was a state Senator in Illinois. For that matter, Obama is still voting present, as he as abdicated all responsibility for fiscal sanity to the Republicans in the House.  

Unanimous Slapdown of Durbin in Michigan

From AmSpect:

"On Tuesday, the first salvo was fired against another command-and control scheme of the last Congress -- from the newly purple state of Michigan. There, the state Senate, following the state House last Friday, passed the first resolution against a provision of the 2400-page Dodd-Frank financial "reform" of 2010.

In an amazingly unanimous vote, the Republican and Democrat state senators condemned a specific amendment from U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and the corresponding proposed rule from the Federal Reserve implementing a debit price control scheme that benefits Walgreens, Home Depot, and some of the nation's biggest retailers and shifts costs to consumers in terms of loss of free checking, higher bank fees, and reduced card rewards." (Bold mine)

further:

"The big retailers claim that if they pay less in fees, they'll pass on the savings to consumers. But if Australia's experience in capping interchange fees for credit cards in 2003 is any guide, this just ain't so.

George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicki noted in the Wall Street Journal, "Annual fees increased an average of 22% on standard credit cards and annual fees for rewards cards increased by 47%-77%. Card issuers also reduced the generosity of their reward programs by 23%." But Aussie consumers experienced no corresponding decline in retail prices. A study by the Government Accountability Office of the U.S. Congress found no "conclusive evidence" that any of the Aussie retailers' $1.1 billion in savings had been passed on to consumers."

 

Hurricane Hugo

From the Hudson Institute: 

"In Venezuela, a popular Colombian-produced soap opera, Chepe Fortuna, has been taken off the air: its script allegedly contains derogatory material against President Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan government intimidated the local TV broadcaster Televen into not showing the series."

"The script of that soap opera used these names to create sentences with double meanings: in one episode, the character "Venezuela" loses her dog "Little Hugo" and, while crying on the phone, she asks a friend what will become of her without "Little Hugo." His response was: "You will be free, Venezuela...Hugo is messing up everything in the house...he is making you look bad."

How small is a leader that whines "They talk about me like a dog!"

 

Eyes Wide Shut

Another incompetent Obama socialist appointee resigns.  Carol Browner's actions, statements, and subsequent cover-up of the same were among the worst behaviors of this crop of left wing idealogs. 

The NYT reports:  "An aide to Ms. Browner said she was proud of her White House accomplishments, including helping to coordinate response to the BP oil spill"

The Obama Administration's Gulf Oil Spill Response was an unmitigated failure to any with their eyes open, This is laughable.

The Adulterous Fannie Mae, or Sleeping with the Money

No, not John Edwards, Franklin Raines. 

Ann Coulter: "In 2003, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee wrote a bill to tighten the lending regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Every single Democrat on the committee voted against it."

 

Just who was guarding the bedroom door?  While critics were warning of the insanity of no money down loans with no visible collateral, Chuck Shumer, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and Christpher Dodd played the Alfred E Neuman "What me worry?" card.  So which is the party of Banksters?

The Big "D" , the largest recipients of campaign donations, end of story.

Geometrically Challenged Democrats

Continuing on a theme from earlier this week, Triadwatch links to the Hickory Daily record regarding redistricting.

 It's interesting to note how Democrats call for toning down rhetoric and bi-partisanship when out of power, but when in power they use every tactic possible to ignore constructive debate.

           Our illustrious governor decided in December that a bi-partisan redistricting commission was a good idea.  In actuality it has been a good idea for several years, and after the shameful lack of integrity and honesty that the North Carolina Democratic Party showed after the last census, Bev Perdue should just button it up and take the back seat she is constitutionally relegated to sit in regarding the redistricting process.

            Unwilling in the past to ever consider that the electorate would wake up and kick them out of legislative power, the Democrats have paraded a line of officials to court on improprieties too numerous to mention here. They have continually blocked Republican efforts to reform the legislative rules, or even consider floor votes on Republican amendments. Now they must wear the "right" shoe on the left foot.
 
            The proof of the sleaze of the Democratic Party is not in their PC verbiage, but in their actions, and the following images demonstrate a basic lack understanding of the concept of "compact contiguous geometry", and the concept of constitutionally keeping legislative districts within county borders a much as possible.

Starting with the infamous 12th Congressional district, we have a district that does not encompass the entirety of a single county, one of two CD's in the state to bear that distinction. It winds like a piece of spaghetti through Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Rowan, Davidson, Forsyth, and Guilford Counties. It includes portions of 3 of the largest 5 cities in the state, but not one of them in there entirety. The map of the 12th is below, the dark red lines indicate county borders.

Next up we show the 9th CD, the only other CD in NC that does not contain in whole at least one county. The ninth has a "point contiguity" as indicated by the circle, that doesn't come close meeting the intent of the state constitution. This is a result of the excessive gerrymandering of the 12th CD.

The 6th CD is also a result of the obscene intent of both the 12th CD and 13th CD.  As shown by the circle on the map it appears that there is "point contiguity" here which would be bad enough, but on a higher resolution map it becomes clear that the intrusion of the 12th and 13th CD's create the absolute separation of the 6th CD, with the northwest portion of Guilford County an island.

 

I posted the 13th CD map earlier this week here.

Now for the 1st CD.  Notice the legs this district sprouted on its southern edge.

The 2nd CD looks like a three pronged pinwheel.

 

And the 3rd CD a manifestation of the 1st and 2nd CDs also displays another of those bottlenecks so loved by the Democrats, as well as a complete geometry difficult to describe.

 

Why are North Carolina Democrats so afraid to draw geometrically compact districts? Why are they afraid to let voters in the same local governmental units vote for the same representatives?

Just for comparison, the state district maps of Iowa and Michigan below are pretty straightforward.

 

Is the inability of Democrats to draw honest, compact districts a manifestation of the failure to understand simple geometry, and straightforward laws?  Or is it just a manifestation of dishonesty?

 

All Maps above are modified maps of www.GovTrack.us. Streetdata from OpenStreetMap.org. Reused with attribution under CC-BY-SA 2.0 Markups are mine.

 

Ahead of the Meltdown Curve

Teacher Unions are never about the students, and Detroit is the harbinger for the Blue State Meltdown.

Al Gore Escapes

That is Al Gore escapes as bogus Chicago Climate Exchange collapses.    Al got out while the getting was good. In another era Gore would either be tarred and feathered or placed in the stocks. Al Gore is a premier shill, confidence man, and pathetic liar rolled into one, and the Global Warming believers are ammong the the most gullible people on the planet.  The Carbon Credit schemes that had already been shown to be rife with fraud in Europe, would have eventually been shown to be snake oil.