Patriotic Chinese child doing his part to boost his nation's economy. If cigarettes are as bad as the government says, if they cause so much disease, so many deaths, so much pain, why doesn’t the government just outlaw them?
We all know the answer to that, don’t we? State and federal governments are addicted to the sales taxes that cigarettes generate. Without those tobacco taxes, they couldn’t keep building their house of cards.
At least the Chinese government is honest about it. Here’s how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports it:
Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports…
Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said.
“The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.
Light up another ciggie, Americans. President Obama needs the money for another bogus social scheme.
Charlie Rangel and Barack Obama. Two of the three taxing amigos.
This story hits the trifecta. It has liberal hypocrisy, media bias and remarkable stupidity all rolled into one.
The liberal hypocrisy? After being introduced by tax cheat Timothy Geithner, President Obama heaped praise on Harlem congressman Charlie Rangel for helping him close overseas corporate tax loopholes.
The remarkable stupidity? Rangel is being investigated for his own overseas tax scam.
The media bias? Have you seen it on the evening news?
Here’s how the New York Post editorialized about it:
Rangel, of course, knows a thing or two about offshore tax shelters: He’d been operating one for years.
The congressman had to fork over nearly $11,000 in back taxes last year after The Post reported that he failed to disclose more than $75,000 in rental income on his Dominican Republic villa.
Plus, he’s under investigation by a House committee for allegedly helping a company preserve its offshore tax loophole — in exchange for a million-dollar gift to a school named in his honor.
Though perhaps that’s not exactly what Obama meant when he gushed that the problems with tax havens “have been highlighted” by Rangel, among others.
This is perfect. We have tax vampire Barack Obama proposing the legislation, tax cheat Charlie Rangel writing the legislation, tax cheat Timothy Geithner enforcing the legislation.
Behold a few rare moments of candor from ABC’s Jake Tapper and the Examiner’s Julie Mason. They explain that Robert Gibbs is known as “The Gibnotist” for his ability to bore the hell out of people who are paid to listen to him speak.
“People have actually fallen asleep in his briefings,” Tapper says.
This may explain the increasingly contentious relationship between Gibbs and the press: They’re not fighting with him. They’re fighting to stay awake.
At first we thought it meant he was going to double the tax on law enforcement. We had to read the article to find out it actually meant “he wants to double the budget for the enforcement of tax laws.”
He’s raising taxes on everyone else, so our first interpretation seemed reasonable.
Where did MSNBC find a shot of angry Ed Schultz actually smiling?
“Just give Ed Schultz time,” they said at MSNBC. “We’re happy with the numbers for his premiere show. It will build over time.”
Now that the EdShow’s been on the air for a full month, let’s review how angry Eddie’s audience is building.
Uh-oh. Look at that. Schultz is sheddding viewers faster than a snake shedding its skin. And, yes, the comparison was intentional and apt.
The EdShow premiered amid great hype and hoopla on Monday, April 6. It drew a total audience of 725,000 viewers and 247,000 in the coveted Adults 25-54 demographic.
Four weeks later, Monday, May 4, the EdShow had a total audience of just 531,000 and the Adult 25-54 demo has shriveled to just 161,000.
Believe it or not, that’s an improvement. Ed’s audience has been as low as 365,000 per night and the Adults 25-54 demographic once fell to only 75,000.
To make matters even worse, Ed’s ratings are no better than David Schuster garnered on his last night in the same time slot. Shuster’s total audience was larger at 579,000 compared to the EdShow’s 531,000. Shuster’s Adults 25-54 demographic was 153,000 compared to the EdShow’s 161,000. This has to be a huge disappointment to MSNBC after all the time and money they invested in the EdShow.
Would someone please put a mirror under Big Eddie’s nose? Find out if he’s still breathing. Because his show is dead.
Source: Nielsen Media Research via MediaBistro.com
Sgt Schultz knew nothing, but Nancy Pelosi claims to know even less. Once again, Democrat Nancy Pelosi lies and the truth dies.
According to a report from the Director of National Intelligence, Democrat House Speaker Pelosi was fully-briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” way back in September of 2002.
Of course, this flies in the face of Pelosi’s subsequent statement that she knew nothing about waterboarding or any other “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
What? How could this be? A Pelosi spokesman said Madame Speaker thought the techniques were legal and, my oh my, she never knew waterboarding was used.
“As this document shows, the speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002,” the spokesman said. “The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used.”
Pelosi wants to establish an independent commission to investigate anyone and everyone involved in the drafting the of interrogation methods. Everyone who has an (R) after their name, that is.
Question: How can you tell when Nancy Pelosi is lying? Answer: She moves her lips.
Miss Congeniality 2009, Farina al-Muqtar bin Akbar, shows her stuff during the swimsuit competition Call us blasphemous, but for Christ’s sake, how would they know?
The Saudi’s are putting on a little competition that may never rival the excitement of the Miss Universe pageant, but it does have a definite fervor about it. A religious fervor, that is.
Here’s how Associated Press described it:
Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she’s a little on the plump side. But at Saudi Arabia’s only beauty pageant, the judges don’t care about a perfect figure or face. What they’re looking for in the quest for “Miss Beautiful Morals” is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.
”The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants’ commitment to Islamic morals… It’s an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman’s body and looks,” said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.
“The winner won’t necessarily be pretty,” she added. “We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals.”
Too bad Perez Hilton wasn’t invited to judge the Saudi Miss Morality pageant. From what we hear, the Saudis are far less tolerant of gay marriage than Miss California is.
Turner appeared on Diane Rehm’s show and during a conversation on population control, Turner said the following, “We do have the example of China, and they’ve done it without, uh, draconian, as far as I can see, draconian steps.”
We would have said forced abortions fall into the “draconian” category, but it looks like we were wrong.
Turner quickly admitted that he didn’t know what he was talking about, which is something we’ve been waiting to hear for nearly 30 years.
Talk about wanting to be a fly on the wall. Wouldn’t you have loved to listen in on the dinner conversations Turner had with Jane Fonda when they were married?
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) comes right out and admits it. She wants to see the American insurance industry destroyed. Just like President Obama wants to see the coal industry destroyed.
This is actually an ingenious one-two punch and the cornerstone of President Obama’s economic program. When the coal industry and all its CO2 spewing plants are eliminated, Americans will live forever and there won’t be any need for healthcare.
Deserts will flower. The streets will flow with milk and honey. And beautiful people will throw themselves at your feet.
Wednesday’s show proved why Glenn Beck’s ratings are going through the roof. First he cornered a smarmy ACORN spokesman. Then he booted him from the studio during a commercial break.
Here’s how the Washington Examiner reported it:
ACORN National Spokesman Scott Levenson was ejected from a Fox News studio Wednesday following an off-camera altercation with host Glenn Beck that involved racially charged comments, as they were described by Beck.
“I threw him out of the studio, get the hell out of my studio,” Beck told viewers he said after Levenson accused him of being “afraid of black people.”
Beck told listeners after the break that Levenson was expelled from the studio after he accused the host of being racist. Levenson appeared on the “Glenn Beck” show to respond to criminal charges filed against ACORN employees in Nevada on Monday. The non-profit organization, formally known as the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now, is under investigation nationwide for voter fraud in at least 12 different states.
In his exchange with Beck, the ACORN spokesman insisted that individual employees were responsible for the violations but not the national organization. Beck was not persuaded by this defense and persisted in his questioning.
There seems to be a theme today here at IHateTheMedia.com. And that theme is, “If there’s no liberal media bias, why is Fox News the only network that exposes this kind of stuff?”
Scott Levenson looks like a fraud from the first moment on camera, which makes him the perfect spokesman for ACORN.
"Hey, Rahm, now that our attorneys are done threatening Wall Street, tell them to threaten that Rasmussen guy next."
What’s that? These polls come from the impartial, highly-respected Rasmussen Reports polling organization? Impossible. They must be right wing extremists, too.
Generic Ballot: Republicans 40% Democrats 39%
Only 18% Say UAW, Government Will Do Good Job Running GM, Chrysler
42% Say Obama’s Supreme Court Pick Will Be Too Liberal, 41% Say About Right
75% Oppose Release of Guantanamo Inmates in the United States
Thank God for politicians like Joe Biden and Howard Dean. Sometimes, the truth just slips out of their mouths, and when we are lucky, their words are recorded for the liberal media to ignore and conservative alternate media to shout out. Today, former Vermont governor and former DNC Charmain, Dean obliged.
We had CNBC on in the background as we were writing our IHTM stories this morning and heard Howard Dean telling talk show host Jason Lewis to “stop using his talk radio voice.” Our ears perked up and then we heard one of the most honest lines ever to come out of the mouth of a liberal lawmaker yet. Here’s what he said (minute 5:00):
“I think we’ve had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years.”
Remember when the media jumped all over McCain and Palin during the election for suggesting the left and Obama were socialistic? Well…
Can you imagine how embarrassed the Queen of England must be every time her dullard son opens his mouth?
Now the King of Hypocrites has enlisted a bunch of celebrities – including Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, the Dalai Lama, and soccer legend Pele – for a YouTube commercial that promotes Prince Chuck’s campaign to save the rainforest.
They all get together in a 90-second celebratory circle jerk to raise awareness for the need to stop tropical deforestation.
Just as this campaign was being launched, Prince Chuck, the lovely Duchess of Cornwall and their 14-person entourage flew a chartered private jet on a 16,400 mile round trip to Chile, Brazil and Ecuador to check out the rainforest for themselves. The whole shebang cost more than $450,000.
Hypocritical? No, no, no, no, no. Prince Chuck says he’s buying carbon offsets.
Anybody know where we can buy $450,000 worth of bullsh*t offsets?
The trend is not the President's friend according to Rasmussen Reports' latest poll.Two separate polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports seem to indicate trouble for President Obama.
The first poll says, “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 33% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-two percent (32%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +1.”
The second poll says, “The number of people who consider themselves Republicans declined slightly in April while the number of Democrats held steady.”
A margin of +1 is the lowest approval margin Obama’s had in his 100+ days. That, in itself, is bad enough. But it gets worse.
If the percentage of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats is up, yet Obama’s approval margin is down, that’s a bad combination for the President.
We see a simple way for President Obama to reverse this trend. Now that the government already owns Chrysler and General Motors, all the President needs to do is nationalize Foster Farms. Then he can deliver on Herbert Hoover’s promise of “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.”
And it can all be done at the expense of the dozen people who still pay taxes.
Dirty. Sexy. Risque. Semi-nude. Harlot. (Yawn. Wake us up when the left digs up something worth talking about.) Miss California, Carrie Prejean, doesn’t deserve to live. She actually had the effrontery to express the opinion of the majority of people in her state and in the nation.
Now the left is out to do anything they can to destroy this young woman. She’s a stupid bitch. She’s had breast implants. And now, now, now the left thinks they’ve hit the scandal goldmine.
“Dirty” photos.
Sadly for the left, the photos are about as dirty as the Sears catalog. In fact, they may actually have been in a Sear’s catalog.
“I am a Christian, and I am a model,” Prejean said. “Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be.”
The best they can do so far is photo that shows Prejean wearing nothing but a pair of panties. Her breasts are completely covered by her arm.
Yet media bias reared its ugly head when NBC’s Today Show refused to air the photos because they were too racy.
Hah! They’re about as racy as Katie Couric. Ooh, we take that back. We don’t even want to think about that. God, we wish we could wipe that thought from our minds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sk1FoPJc0IWe’re living in historic times and there was another historic first for the Obama administration yesterday: an admitted tax cheat introduced a tax reform program.
Yes, the Obama administration announced a plan to reduce tax evasion by companies with overseas operations. And the plan was introduced by none other than Treasury Secretary “Turbo Tax” Timothy Geithner.
Media bias being what it is, we didn’t notice any of the mainstream media outlets actually reporting it this way. But the irony is so rich that you really have to wonder how they could have ignored it.
Here’s how Geithner introduced his Fearless Leader:
Mr. President, when you took office, you promised to reform our tax code so that it would be more simple and more fair for hard-working Americans. And you promised to ensure that our tax dollars would be used to strengthen the American economy, and American competitiveness. Today, we are taking another important step towards those goals by ending indefensible tax-breaks and loopholes which allow some companies and some well-off citizens to evade the rules that the rest of America lives by. We believe in a level playing field…the Internal Revenue Service, under the strong and able leadership of Commissioner Doug Schulman, are making an unprecedented effort to upgrade and strengthen enforcement capacity. The President’s budget will add up to 800 full-time IRS employees devoted to detecting and bringing to justice those who unlawfully hide assets and income.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Geithner.
Why pick on companies with overseas operations? Hell, Obama could probably balance this bloated pig of a budget if he merely got all the Democrats to pay their back taxes.
Swine Flu, the greatest threat to the future of mankind since the birth of the evil George Bush. When Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” we had no idea how far they’d dumb down the definition of the word crisis.
Apparently a crisis is now defined as anything important enough to wake Larry King up in the middle of his program.
Here’s how CNSNews.com describes the reality of the croup du jour:
So far this year, only one person–a baby visiting from Mexico–has died of swine flu in the United States, but more than 56,000 people died from the flu in the United States in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the CDC. In 2005, the flu killed 63,001 people here. But the deaths did not merit presidential statements or admonishments on hand-washing.
But it’s a crisis, damn it. The World Health Organization is already predicting a second wave of scratchy throats and we’re already predicting a second wave of governmental crisis mongering.
Just to prove he’s a man of the people, President Obama took Joe Biden to a burger joint called Ray’s Hell Burgers yesterday. Unfortunately, the President wasn’t quite up to the task of acting ordinary.
Obama seemed lost. Didn’t know what to order. Didn’t know how to order. He did his best shuck and jive with the kid behind the counter, but was lost when it came to ordering.
Joe Biden, the Cheap Veep, quickly realized the lunch was a freebie, so he jumped right in front of Obama and ordered. “Swiss cheese burger, jalapeno peppers. Will you put ketchup on it or do we do that ourselves? And a root beer.”
When Obama finally ordered, he looked like he should have taken his teleprompter to lunch instead of Biden. “Alright…(PAUSE)…I’m gonna have a basic cheddar cheese burger…(PAUSE)…medium well…(PAUSE)…uh…(PAUSE)…I just want mustard. No ketchup…(PAUSE)…You got a spicy mustard or something like that? A Dijon mustard or something like that?”
Who the hell goes into a place called Ray’s Hell Burgers in a limousine and asks for Dijon mustard? It was very reminiscent of the intentionally elitist Grey Poupon commercials.
And guess what. When MSNBC and CNN showed tape of the President’s day at Ray’s Hell Burgers, they both snipped out the Dijon question. After all, neither network could allow the President’s elitist reality to conflict with his man-of-the-people image.
Here’s CNN’s version of the Elitist’s trip to Ray’s Hell Burgers. Hold the Dijon.
“Obama seems terribly uncomfortable hanging out with the little people. Maybe he should have invited his teleprompter instead of Joe Biden.
Monkey-bitin’ snakes? That’s not quite how we remember it in the theater.
Apparently, the new theory in Hollywood is that G-rated versions don’t even have to make sense. “Let’s just combine random words and use them in place of the original obscene phrases.”
Entering the British House of Commons is like jumping into a shark tank. If you bleed, you die.
This video clip shows British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s final moments before the House of Commons back on November 22, 1990. You can’t help but feel pride as she defends her brand of conservatism against the attacks of British socialists.
My god, she was a tough old dame. And we say that in the best sense of the word.
When will some young conservative to step up and become the next Ronald Reagan or Maggie Thatcher?
C’mon, we’ve never needed you like we need you now.
Damn, we feel a little guilty making fun of Tony Bennett. We want to forgive the guy for these stupid comments based on the fact that he’s 82 and possibly senile. But he’s never shown any evidence of senility until this video clip. So what the hell – he’s fair game.
Let’s just make this short and sweet. He wants you to support President Obama in anything he wants to do. Period.
President Obama wants to destroy capitalism? Tony Bennett’s behind him all the way.
President Obama wants to take over the banks? Tony Bennett says, “Right on.”
President Obama wants the government to warranty your new car? Tony Bennett says, “Gobama!”
President Obama wants to make Michelle Queen of New Jersey? Tony Bennett says, “When do I curtsy?”
Kent Brockman, apparent role model for most of the empty-headed reporters in America.
Oh, how we wish reporters would just do their jobs and report actual news. We’d much rather blog about surfing or Miss California or something more fun than the mendacious misadventures of Barney Frank.
Why do Americans have to go to other countries to find any serious reporting about the Obama administration?
In this case, it’s an obscure paper in Nova Scotia, Canada that had the gumption to print the 12 thought-provoking points below. Points ignored by the U.S. lamestream media amidst the fawning over Obama’s First 100 Days.
So while CNN blathers on about the First Family’s Portugese Waterdog and the Puffington Host analyzes The One’s table manners, we herewith reprint this “news on the most powerful man on Earth which has been deemed unfit to print” as found in Andrew Smith’s column “The Things You Don’t Read About Barack Obama.
Obama’s first two major bills alone, the “stimulus” and “omnibus,” cost nearly twice as much as was spent on Iraq over six years – $1.2 trillion vs. $650 billion.
Obama abandoned his campaign promise of “a net spending cut,” his first annual deficit – not counting bailouts – being three times the worst deficit under President George W. Bush.
Obama’s objective in his first G20 summit – commitments to spend our way to prosperity with massive stimulus boondoggles across the G20 – was rejected out of hand.
Obama’s objective in his first NATO summit – commitments to combat troops for Afghanistan from “our European allies,” which Obama and his party imagined were ready and willing to fight if only someone “enlightened” like him were running things – was predictably refused, with some more European non-combat contingents offered as a token.
Obama’s Defense Department announced cuts of $1.4 billion to missile defense, the day after North Korea test-fired its long-range, multi-stage ballistic missile.
Obama’s economics were criticized by Warren Buffet, whose endorsement had been candidate Obama’s highest economic credential.
Obama reversed the free trade Bush policy that had allowed about 100 Mexican tractor-trailers into the United States, which the Mexican government immediately used as an excuse to levy tariffs on 90 American goods amounting to $2.4 billion in U.S. exports.
Obama’s “tax cuts for 95 per cent” turned out to mean $13 a week from June to December, to be clawed back to $8 a week in January – as compared with President Bush’s 2008 tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 plus $300 per child, which were notably scoffed at during the election campaign by Michelle Obama.
Obama’s campaign promise of a $3,000-per-employee tax credit for businesses that hired new workers – repeated ad nauseam for weeks before the election – was discreetly retired even before inauguration day.
Obama abandoned his campaign promise that “lobbyists won’t work in my White House,” waiving his no-lobbyist executive order or conveniently re-defining his appointees’ past lobbying work to allow 30 lobbyists into his administration.
Obama abandoned his campaign promise to reform earmarks, signing the omnibus bill which contained 8,816 of them.
Obama took more money from AIG than any other politician in 2008 – over $100,000 – and signed into law the provision guaranteeing the AIG bonuses which later had him in front of the cameras “shaking with outrage” and siccing the pitchfork crowd on law-abiding citizens who had fulfilled their end of a contract and had their payment upheld by Obama’s own legislation.
The Chronicle Herald concludes with this thought: “The people need a Fourth Estate, not yet another adulator of Barack Obama, yet another smearer of Sarah Palin, yet another patrician editor to keep out anything disagreeable to progressive sensibilities, yet another laptop-and-latte journalism-schooler to spit on everything pre-dating 1968. And they wonder why the news business has come on hard times.”
You heard the man, all you ink-stained wretches. Inquiring minds want to know what the President’s really up to. Because what he says is not matching up with what he’s actually doing.
Source: ChronicleHerald.com via BluegrassPundit.com
