Russia Introduces New Stealth Fighter

It looks kind of like a Raptor with a Mig cockpit.

The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi's production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.

Here is a pic:

Media Double Standard: RNC out of Touch Going to Hawaii for Retreat but Obama going to Hawaii Okay

Sometimes the media just lets the mask slip with their double standards. This has to be the most egregious version of it that I remember. Hawaii is fine for Obama to vacation in while the Republicans are "out of touch."

Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

This is the same Hawaii that Obama just got back from vacation last month. He was sipping drinks poolside at a million dollar villa, catching rays on the beach, and taking in rounds of golf. The media didn't jump all over him for going to an "island paradise" when so many are hurting. So in Politico's estimation Obama can come to Hawaii to relax in a million dollar mansion but the RNC has to meet at a Ramada in Sheboygan?

Oh, and has anyone mentioned to Politico that Hawaii is in a midst of an economic crisis and we have to cut teaching days and furlough state workers so we can balance our budget. We even had to take out a collection to keep our High School sports running. Our main industry, which is tourism, is on the ropes and is just barely starting to recover.

So every GOP functionary that brings money into our state and leaves it here is more than welcome. Hell, have the Democratic Committee meeting here at the same time since they will come here and spend money too.

Climate Change Unit Found Guilty of Breaching the Freedom of Information Act

But they can't be prosecuted because of a loophole in British law.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

Wow these climate change scientists might be in for some jail time (or most likely fines) for trying to cook the Climate Change books. This is why I winced when Obama mentioned "settled science" in his State of the Union. The science certainly isn't settled when you have crooks hiding information about it.

Obama Slams Supreme Court in State of the Union Speech

It sure is strange to see Obama disrespect the Supreme Court so openly in such an important speech. It is good that Alito silently stood up for the Court as well:

Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address Wednesday. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he began, the court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true."

I'm wondering if they will show up at all to the next State of the Union speech because technically they shouldn't be there. The Constitution doesn't mention them being there at all:

Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;

It says he needs to give this State of the Union speech to Congress and not to the Supreme Court. They actually shouldn't be there at all since you would figure that the drafters would have put "the entirety of the 3 branches" or something like that.

After this ham-handed disrespect the Supreme Court really should just stay home. The idea of a President slamming the Supreme Court, to their face, in a speech that he is constitutionally required to give each year is beyond the pale.

Here Comes the IPad

It sure looks pretty cool but $499 for a giant IPhone is not what I am willing to pay. However if it gets into the $299 range I will probably seriously look into it just so I can read books on it.

I hate reading books on the computer and this thing just looks like it would be easier on the eyes. I plan to go to the Apple store before too long so I can do some "market research" on the thing. I'm hoping that the touchscreen will be responsive and easy manipulate.

Wow Even the ObamaGirl wants Obama to Focus on Jobs

I think that it is official Obama it is time for you to find some people some jobs. You have just lost even the most generally in-the-tank of your supporters you have lost eveyone.

Now, the bikini-clad "Obama Girl" -- who famously cooed about her "crush" throughout the presidential campaign on YouTube videos -- admits the thrill is gone.

Amber Lee Ettinger -- the buxom sensation who lip-synched about her love for then-candidate Barack Obama -- said she wishes he spent his first year in office more fo cused on fixing the abysmal economy.

"I think he's doing an OK job," said Ettinger, whose original "Crush on Obama" video, first shown in 2007, has had more than 16.5 million views on YouTube.

"I know he's getting a lot of flak for things that he's not doing," she told The Post. "In my opinion, I feel like he should be focusing a lot more on jobs and the economy."

The so-called ObamaGirl:

SEIU Head calls Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson Terrorists

This guy has lost his mind. I wonder why he didn't just call them Nazis and be done with it.

Even with all that, you’ll probably still manage to be shocked that Stern has criticized Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson for halting disastrous health care legislation by saying, “There are a lot of terrorists in the Senate who think we are supposed to negotiate with them when they have their particular needs that they want met.”

Stern has flown the cuckoo nest. We wonder if the rest of the labor movement really wants to tie their wagon to this guy.

I wonder if Leiberman is upset by this crazy person lumping him in with guys that would stop at nothing in order to kill as many Jews that they could?

Now Specter is Down by 14 Points in Pennsylvania?

The defection to the Democrats is going to cost Arlen Specter his job. Mark my words.

That’s an 8-point swing for Toomey in just five months, showing that Pennsylvania voters have had enough of Specter and the Democrats. After all, Specter is the incumbent — and if he can’t get above 30%, he’s not going to be the incumbent for much longer. Thirty-five percent is a high number for undecided, too, even at this stage, which means that most aren’t sold on their current Senator.

The more I read this stuff the more I think there is going to be a GOP landslide in 2010. All GOP candidates have to do is push an agenda of small government, spending cuts, and giving working people their money back. Obama might actually save the Dems bacon by pushing a jobs program with a middle class tax cut that amounts to more than $33 a month.

CNN Poll Has ObamaCare down by 20 points

You would think that a CNN poll would be mostly liberals so this has to be some seriously scary news for Dems.

This is the obvious reason that Democrats “slam[med] the brakes” on health-care reform. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that their own internal polling on this issue took a dive over the last four weeks, starting with the slimy deals cut by Harry Reid in getting to cloture and continuing with the closed-door conferences at the White House, with the President and union lobbyists fighting with House and Senate Democrats to cut any kind of deal they could to let unions off the hook for the Senate’s Cadillac tax. The orgy of special-interest horse-trading has not only turned off the general populace on ObamaCare, but made Democrats into the kind of caricature they like to accuse Republicans of being.

Yup the sausage making part of the Bill had to turn off nearly everyone even if they wanted Health Care reform last year. That Union exemption from the Cadillac tax should have rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. The middle class may have looked at it as everyone is cutting a deal while they get stuck with the bill.

Now Evan Bayh at Risk in Indiana?

I guess the throw the bums out mantra will be repeated all over the Nation even toward moderate Democrats.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen has taken the first poll on the 2010 Senate race in Indiana—a race that until the last couple of weeks no one thought would be seriously contested. Rasmussen shows Democratic incumbent Evan Bayh trailing Republican Congressman Mike Pence 47%-44% and leading former Congressman John Hostettler 44%-41% and state Senator Martin Stutzman 45%-33%.

He is barely leading a Democratic State Senator. Bayh has been a Senator since 1999 and his dad had the seat since 1963. So the idea that a couple of nearly unknown people are within the margin of error of him is pretty shocking.

He seems to be running scared as well because he quickly jumped in against reconciliation on the Obamacare bill. He should be because reconciliation is the same thing as a resignation letter from the Democrats.

Obama Needed a Teleprompter to Talk to 6th Graders?

I'm sure that the children enjoyed the big black boxes and presidential podium as well. I wonder what was wrong with Obama just sitting in one of those tiny grade school chairs or just standing in front of the kids?

Here is an imagined excerpt from Obama's speech that day: *look left* Today children *look right* I am going to speak to you *look left* about "socialism." *look at 6th graders*



Here is what he really said:

Obama Plans Mealy-Mouthed Middle Class Relief

It seems that Obama is finally getting around to offering something to the middle class. Too bad it sounds like so very little.

Among the president's economic ideas:

• Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

This seems like a laudable credit if you have children under 12. If not then you can pretty much ignore this increase.

• Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

I guess you can afford the payments but it will be over a longer period of time. $300 a month for 20 years and $600 a month for 10 years amounts to the same thing. Too bad this government cap will probably just extend the life of your loan. Also I wonder what happens if your discretionary income drops does your loan go out to even more years?

• Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

This seems like a good enough goal. Hopefully the $6808 per child will not be a big waste of money.

• Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.

Well, this is a good idea from an investors perspective because you have suddenly signed up everyone working for a small business for mutual funds. This should be great for the Vanguard, T.Rowe Price, Fidelity and any other mutual funds companies out there.

It would be bad for small businesses who can't afford to hire new workers due to the added cost of offering 401Ks. I do however see Fidelity or whomever jump into the small business 401K administrator role and offer low cost, hands-off plans. This is a lucrative new field that has just opened up a ton of new investment capital for mutual fund operators.

Also maybe the more entrants into the investment classes will curb some of Obama's propencity for shooting off his mouth about taxing fat cat bankers which tanks the market. The idea that he will be hurting millions of 401K owners will make him think twice.

• Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

$100 million sounds like almost nothing and probably amounts to like $1.50 per person or something minuscule like that. It smacks of the call to cut a few million from his cabinet that amounted to reducing the deficit by like .0003% or something like that.

Somehow I was expecting more sweeping plans for the middle class like tax relief or maybe a cut in payroll taxes or something. Instead this stuff sounds like some picking on the surface when what the middle class needs is jobs, jobs, and more jobs.

Uh oh, the White House Retreats into "It's the Message, Not the Policies"

I think Obama needs to understand it is not the delivery and framing of the message but the substance of the thing.

Well, with one caveat: "One thing I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people. . . . I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, you know, this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here, that people will get it."

Um, it seems you have "spoken to the American people" and they just don't like what you are currently saying. He sure has spoken to them as well:

In his first year as president, Obama has broken all records for talking directly to the American people. According to CBS News, he has delivered 411 public "speeches, comments, and remarks" and 158 interviews - more than one public statement per day and roughly an interview every other day.

Just start saying different things that people agree with (and govern from the center) and independents will start to listen again. If you tell people "I purpose across the board tax cuts" and it is something more significant then $400 people will cheer. If you say "here is my job bill" and point out how much the payroll tax will be cut businesses can begin planning. It's not how you say it; it is what is said.

I Thought I would never see the day but I agree with Barney Frank: Abolish Freddie and Fannie

It is about time that this guy gets something right when it comes to financial matters.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Friday he supports replacing the two companies entirely.

"I believe this committee will be recommending abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form and coming up with a whole new system of housing finance," Frank said at a hearing on executive compensation issues. "That's the approach, rather than the piecemeal one."

They are a giant hungry maw that eats nothing but tax payer money and will probably do it in perpetuity. They should never have been allowed to grow into a 5.5 trillion dollar colossus in the first place. But guys like Barney Frank kept the money train going and they became sort of a mini-Democratic retirement home.

Now at long last the Dr. Franken-Frank wants to kill off his own monster. Too bad they couldn't have done this a few trillion dollars ago. In any case course corrections need to be put into place and this thing needs to get unwound.

Obama Suddenly Finds His Populism

I guess it is about damn time.

He said a jobs bill emerging in Congress must include tax breaks for small business hiring and for people trying to make their homes more energy efficient — two proposals he wasn't able to get into a bill the House passed last month. And he used the word "fight" or some variation of it well over a dozen times. The House-passed $174 billion stimulus package faces a stern test in the Senate, in part because it is financed with deficit spending.

I like thing one but that energy efficient thing sounds like a waste of money that will probably not generate many extra jobs. He should think bigger by adding a one year payroll tax holiday or even a permanent cut in payroll taxes. True economic populism comes from from people being able to keep the money they work for instead of having some Washington bureaucrat waste it.

Could Sean Duffy be the Next Scott Brown? It Might be Time to Coakley, Obey?

He seems to think so from his David vs. Goliath run against 40 year Congressman David Obey.

Q: What does Senator-elect Brown mean for your race?

A: If Scott Brown can win in a state that President Obama won by 26 points, I can win in a district that Obey won by just 20 points against an unknown, underfunded challenger in the Democratic landslide of 2008. It means there is not a single Democrat in the country who is safe. And, as the author of the failed stimulus bill, David Obey will be at the forefront of the debate about jobs, the economy, and wasteful government spending. If he continues to tax and spend our country into bankruptcy, he’s going to get Coakley’d.

I like the idea of a so-called "Army of Davids" Coakleying incumbents. I'll provide a definition of:

"Coakley'd:"

1. To lose a campaign against an unknown after being 30 points ahead in the polls. eg: "Did you hear that David Obey just got Coakley'd by some guy that used to be on the Real World?"

2. To take a vacation during a campaign either literally or figuratively. eg: "We are so kicking that GOP candidates butt that we need to Coakley down to Barbados for a few weeks."

3. To claim that a Red Sox great is a Yankees fan. eg: "I hear Carlton Fisk is all Coakley'd about the Yankees winning the World Series."

4. To misspell the name of your state in your campaign literature. eg: "We need to reprint the mass mailing. We Coakley'd Hawaii to read Hewai'iid."

5. To piss off Catholics during a campaign ie: "What do you mean David Obey just Coakley'd that the Pope listens to Wagner Operas while wearing his old Hitler Youth outfit?"

6. To not react when one of your goons pushes a reporter. "Did you see what happened to Shepard Smith? He got kneed in the groin by an Obey homunculus and the Congressman just stood there and Coakley'd."

Dems Cut Back Health Care Plan

I guess the "alarm went off" that a sweeping change of a huge swath of the nations economy is not going to fly with the American people. Their pared down bill actually sounds palatable if they can find money to pay for it.

No decisions have been made, lawmakers said, but they laid out a new approach that could still include these provisions: limiting the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage to people with medical problems, allowing young adults to stay on their parents' policies, helping small businesses and low-income people pay premiums and changing Medicare to encourage payment for quality care instead of sheer volume of services.

"The helping businesses and low-income people" doesn't sound cheap but maybe taxing Cadillac plans could make up the difference. If you add tort reform to this mix and maybe allow people to stash away more tax-free money in their health savings account you might get some Republicans to come across the aisle.

The Recession Ended at 10 p.m. Eastern Time?

I have to agree with this blogger when he says that Brown winning in Massachusetts may have finally created certainty with businesses.

Businesses, investors and individuals require a level of confidence before they will make certain economic decisions. A corporation is merely a collection of humans and humans, when confronted a gigantic unknown--like how health care reform will affect them--lack the confidence to move forward.

The election of Mr. Brown is a signal that gridlock on major legislation affecting massive swaths of the economy will return within a year. Gridlock is good, because it removes the uncertainty of government action.

Now they don't need to have a reserve for possible health care losses or a cash hoard to pay for higher electric bills due to cap-and-trade. Now they can start to open up hiring and using their capital to grow again. Now a bipartisan jobs bill with a payroll tax holiday and corporate tax cut should be next on the agenda.

Brown Wins Massachusetts!!!

I am convinced that my $100 put him over the top.

In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in a U.S. Senate election Tuesday that left President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in doubt and marred the end of his first year in office.

I am usually the vulture when it comes to this kind of thing but I was proven wrong this time. Actually in many ways I thought of it as an investment against Cap & Trade which I am convinced would have put us in a second recession. Now Cap & Trade is as dead as dirt.

In any case, I think Obama is the true vulture in all this. He waits until the last minute, swoops in and then immediately loses the election for the person he is supporting. He lost the Olympics, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts. He is the perpetual "vulture circling the dying candidate."

Seas of Liquid Diamond? Could be Possible on Neptune and Uranus

Now that sounds like a cool sight. I just got a "vision from the future" of massive diamond trawlers scooping up liquid diamond from the surface of Neptune. You can picture the thing firing off specialized diamond- filled rocket pods to a waiting De Beers orbiting collection station. The cost of harvesting and returning the diamond pods back to earth still makes them a very valuable commodity.

Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs, could be floating on Neptune and Uranus, according to a recent article in the journal Nature Physics.

This also reminds me of Diamond Valley from Magic the Gathering: