First Lady on Fire!

Not the dress. Just a quote from the “reporter”. FLOTUS says it was a date night after all:

Barack and Michelle Obama wrapped up two days of New York fundraising tonight with a gala eventat Gotham Hall, where the First Couple got a little flirty.

“It is great to be in New York,” Michelle Obama said, according to White House pool reports. “And it is great to be here with my husband because the truth in, we rarely get to travel anymore. They separate us. It’s like our date night.”

Some commenters are less than impressed. This about sums it up, I’d say:

youarestupiderthaniam on Sep 21, 12:44 AM said:

Well, well, did O’bummer and Muchelle give the truly rich a lecture on how they are going to be paying a whole lot more if he has his way while fleecing them of up to $38k – the median income of the average American worker?

Of course, I am sure these big buck donors are aware of where O’bozo has spent our tax payer money.

For example, Solyndra – .5 billion down the drain

Fast and Furious – arms to drug dealers that then turn around and kill federal agents

Not two wars, but at least four and depending on how you count them six wars.

Billions to the PLO that has vowed to wipe Israel off the map and has vowed the same to the “great satan.”

Zero employed in the month of August

Inflation at 4% and 10 year treasury bill at less than 2%

In the Congressional Black Caucus wants to dump them.

On fire.

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Is the Atlanta Public School for Scandal Typical?

USA Today has a piece noting few states check for suspicious erasures on standardized tests, in the wake of systematic cheating by Atlanta teachers:

A survey by USA TODAY of state education agencies found that 20 states and Washington, D.C., did erasure analysis on all pencil-and-paper tests required during the 2010-11 school year under the federal No Child Left Behind education law.

That means nearly 45% of the annual reading and math exams this year were scored without analyzing erasures.

A D.C. check found problems with over half.

A better approach would of course be to let the tax dollars go to the parents and follow the child. Parents know how well their children are learning, and even if some parents don’t care there are enough who do to force improvement through school competition.

Can abortion make you suicidal?

Feminists played on the sympathies of earlier generations by raising the specter of the back-alley abortion with a hanger. Since then we’ve seen millions murdered in the womb, and the horror of the Philly clinic for mothers and babies alike.

But what of the social pathology associated with the act? Even Norma McCorvey/Jane Roe herself regretted her abortion, though it took years. Now women can see the baby develop in the womb early on. Preemies are born at younger ages than those aborted. How can this all be denied by a thinking person?

Now British researchers have concluded a major study, upending prevalent American ones:

An important meta-analysis published today in the prestigious British Journal of Psychiatry demonstrates that nearly 10% of mental health problems in women are directly attributable to abortion.  “Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995-2009,” by Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green University, shows that women with an abortion history have an 81% increased risk of mental health problems and 155% increased risk of suicide.  This meta-analysis combines 22 studies of 877,181 women, 163, 831 of whom have had abortions.  A meta-analysis is an especially powerful type of study because it includes a large number of subjects, and by combining studies is much more reliable than a single study.

This review, which is larger than any study to date, contradicts the recent and biased and less systematic review by the American Psychological Association, which fails to find a relationship between mental health problems and abortion.  The new meta-analysis also contradicts the stance of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which has been silent on the mental health impact of abortion in its official publications despite overwhelming evidence over the last two decades of abortion’s adverse effects.

Ignore the evidence at the risk of even women’s health, the gaping loophole of the abortion at all costs crowd.

P.S. And while giving the Black Panthers a pass at the polling place–where they were actually blocking access and brandishing billy clubs, the Obama Justice Dept. is aggressively going after pro-life protesters at abortion clinics.

Michelle’s not so private hell

Well, we may have wondered if Carla Bruni’s scoop were true but I think we can wonder no more.

Michelle Obama may like the perks of the presidency but she’s taken advantage of them–with a vengeance.

You’ll note she didn’t get any shopping in at the Vineyard, after the president publicly made a lame joke about it, prior to the trip.

And who in the White House is leaking this stuff about her travel expenses? I suppose the campaign wants to rein in her reign.

Cuz Barack sure has trouble doing that, he’s too busy demonizing the country.

Moral crimes in Afghanistan. Burka Babes

Worth reading about. These attitudes underlie every discussion of creeping sharia in this country.

 

Another ObamaCare Ruling from on High at HHS

There’s a form of opt out for religious entities, but it’s not enough. Insurers must cover birth control with no copays:

Generic versions of the pill are available for as little as $9 a month. Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Many are among women using some form of contraception, and forgetting to take the pill is a major reason.

Not even having to pay for it will presumably enable even more forgetfulness. And more systemic abuse.

This is not really healthcare either, it’s a lifestyle choice, though widely prevalent, but it’s not limited to what we most commonly think of as birth control:

The requirement applies to all forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That includes the pill, intrauterine devices, the so-called morning-after pill, and newer forms of long-acting implantable hormonal contraceptives that are becoming widely used in the rest of the industrialized world.

Coverage with no copays for the morning-after pill is likely to become the most controversial part of the change. The FDA classifies Plan B and Ella as birth control, but some religious conservatives see the morning-after drugs as abortion drugs. The rules HHS issued Monday do not require coverage of RU-486 and other drugs to chemically induce an abortion.

And what this ruling does as well is increase costs–eventually leading to rationing health care to less politically correct people and real diseases.

More. Catholic Vote: This Tryst Paid For By Taxpayers Like You

Infantilizing Kids

Happy Meals are already buckling, taking away consumer choice for fear of Big Gov. Now this:

New recommendations from government agencies would require that foods marketed directly to children between the ages of two and 17 contribute to healthy diets.

“We believe that food and beverage companies should market responsibly to kids,” said Susan Davison, director of corporate affairs for Kraft Foods Inc. “But we think the Interagency Working Group proposal is too restrictive. In fact, it’s so restrictive that foods like reduced fat peanut butter or two percent milk string cheese could not be advertised to children.”

Children are now defined as up to age 17, rather than the historic ad industry standard which considered teens differently.

Of course, if this goes through, it will cost jobs.

And undermine parents once again.

The takeaway for me on food is moderation. Children need to develop some of that on their own, or they never will. A treat from time to time is fine.

As was the story with playgrounds, meals can probably be too safe for common sense.

Rahm Chooses Private School, Where’s Choice in Chicago?

Uh, Rahm–Chicago Needs Vouchers

This is only the latest in a long line of prominent liberal hypocrites. President and Michelle Obama, President and Hillary Clinton. Then you have the DC leftie media glitterati who send their kids to Sidwell Friends–if they can get in.

40% of Chicago teachers send their kids to private or parochial schools. Fortunately for them they are paid well enough by the taxpayer to afford it.

More threats from the feminist left

Joan Walsh: “A Lot Is Not Known” About Bachmann’s Foster Children It’s predictable, but still shocking and sick when you see it.

So was Michelle Bachmann somehow a slut for caring for children not her own?

Top comment:

My God!  This filthy extreme left Obamamaniac is really going to go after the foster children of Rep Bachman? I had to listen to this clip 3x to believe she actually said that. Obama’s children are off limits, but the extreme left is already planning to go after Rep Bachman’s children, and openly saying it publicly? I have never seen or heard anything as filthy or sleazy, and I’ve heard and seen a lot. Ms Walsh has hit a new low for the extreme left. I don’t know how you get dirtier than this. Obama should publicly reprimand her and tell the extreme left that people’s children are off limits, that is unless this started out of the White House?

  Bachmann’s closing on Romney even in New Hampshire, so she’s getting the Palin treatment. Good luck with that. Obama poll numbers lately. And those other inconvenient numbers.

Can we have school choice already?

My kids are out, thank God, but every time I see a story like this I get so steamed.

Most parents are too cowed by the possibility there will be reprisals by teachers against their child so they stay silent–unless they can afford private school.

I thought W’s No Child Left Behind might be the best we could do to break the unions at the national level, but states circumvented it.

We are at the point now I think where the only thing is to follow the Walker lead, stop the collective bargaining, push for school choice, and vote REPUBLICAN whenever you can.

We can’t afford our kids to be so ill-served as to think Big Gov is the way the truth and the life, especially when it won’t be there for them. They’ll be there for it.

 

 

Michelle O meets with Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, one of President Jacob Zuma’s three wives

…at his official residence. Zuma was scheduled to be out of the country. That’s South Africa. Three wives. According to Wiki he’s been married quite a lot, including a “fiancee” by another name he was supposedly to marry last December.

Charges of 3 rapes

A sex scandal:

South Africa has an unemployment rate upwards of 30 percent. In some communities the percentage is even higher. The idea that a president would spend more time dealing with sex scandals instead of fixing the country’s economic woes does not sit well with many people, says Spio-Garbrah.

“Zuma has always presented himself as the common man. The problem for many South Africans is ‘if half of us are unemployed and the rest are barely surviving, how come you can afford to have 19 children, three wives and one girlfriend?'” he says. “For someone who doesn’t have job, who can’t even afford to feed his family, for Zuma to be going around and fathering children left, right and center would irk such a person.”

Former member of the communist party. Living large.

Then there are the corruption charges, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary in most countries, not to mention Chicago.

No wonder he’s out of the country, the State Dept. probably insisted on it.

But why go there in the first place and give recognition in any way to this disgusting president? Before they had apartheid, now polygamy is honored in their leading family. (I guess cuz it’s “anti-colonial” it’s OK) The official line:

“She’s coming on this trip to talk about women’s development and youth development, and South Africa’s a leader in that, not only on the continent but globally,” said Elizabeth Trudeau, spokesman for the US embassy in Pretoria.

Quite the role model.

  –crossposted at BackyardConservative

Wreckovery Summer in the City TWO. Michelle

Buy one get one free. Not so much.

Yessiree, Michelle O is going to be the president’s secret weapon this year. One of his best assets. Will she hold another beer summit in the White House?

More Chicago flash mob reaction. It wasn’t just a suburban biker–two doctors in town for a convention were attacked–on or near what we call here the Magnificent Mile. You know, near the lake. Near the Gold Coast where Oprah has her perch. A comment from the Tribune story:

  Sick-of-the-Chicago-Way at 8:02 AM June 07, 2011 We have a president and Congress that wants to redistribute wealth.  These kids simply chose to remove the middle man from the deal.  Perhaps the solution is a government program that directly gives “disadvantaged” youth Ipads and Iphones

Yes we can. Let’s Move.

P.S. Why does Chicago have one of the highest crime rates in the country? Why is Chicago’s population back to 1920’s levels? In other news, Dems overturn the 2010 midterms in Illinois. …Maybe these women will wise up this time and be immune to Michelle’s message. Especially if they can’t move.

Related post: Women take the long view, drop O in droves

  –crossposted at BackyardConservative

Michelle O. My Plate!

The further adventures of Michelle O.

Can’t you just wait ’til she campaigns in a neighborhood near you?

Let’s Move!

 

 

Is Michelle Barack’s Secret Weapon?

You decide, I’m only partly joking, but already we are bracing for the full-blown campaign. She’s still more popular than he is so why wouldn’t they put her in play. And the press around here will cover for her.

We know it’s going to be nasty because Barack has nothing good to run on. The generic GOP candidate narrowly edges the Barackstar this time round but will competence be enough to cut it?

Will Michelle cultivate the Jackie O look again or will the gloves come off.

Our no more thin mints culture war

This has come up on Potluck before. The battle intensifies, given the ObamaCare forced funding of abortion, and the more we know about Planned Parenthood. They are part of the PC in-crowd. Kathryn Jean Lopez, NRO, on Girl Scouts going rogue from their leftist-run organization:

Sydney tells me: “Many Girl Scouts are good, wholesome girls. The problem lies within the national organization’s leadership and its lack of adherence to its promise of neutrality.” She adds that girls often need and “should get help, but Planned Parenthood and abortion — what GSUSA is directing them to — are not help. Abortion has serious risks for women, including breast cancer, infertility, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Does this sound like help?”

“If we had a say,” Sydney continues, “we would make it so they were truly neutral about a girl’s health and sexuality, abortion and birth control, and political affiliations, as they promise to be. We would put the focus where it should be, on character-building and leadership activities.”

Character building for girls. What a concept.

Thankfully, there’s an alternative now. The American Heritage Girls. Faith Service Fun

Is a 7th grader a threat to the president?

At what point does this become ridiculous and scary intrusive? I know the Secret Service has to check out just about every threat but really?

Maybe the mom was the real concern.

What do we think about this. Obviously anything the kid said wasn’t admissible in court, as I understand it, since she wasn’t present and he’s a minor.

Michelle’s Glistening Biceps Score One for the Team

Action figure.

When we got OBL I was inclined to be kind to the Prez, but no more. Too much inconsistency at home and abroad. The Muslim Brotherhood and his old Chicago neighborhood loom large. Threats continue and are dealt with despite Obama’s sometime presidency.

All he knows how to do is campaign in the most shallow and cynical way. And he’s not alone.

Major hypocrisy and brain crampery on the left.

Oh, and Michelle is soooo cool.

P.S. ABC. Barack Obama’s Grandmother Threatened By Al Qaeda:

Al Shabaab, which has been involved in fierce fighting in Somalia for years against the Western-backed government, counts among its members Alabama-raised Omar Hammami, also known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki or The American. Hammami, who is known to produce pro-jihadist hip hop songs, was thought to have been killed in fighting earlier this year, but reappeared by releasing a new rap song in April.

Perhaps the White House poetry showcase will inspire…a new jihadist.

–crossposted at Backyard Conservative

A matter of degree

Women surpassed men over a decade ago in getting bachelor’s degrees. Now it’s post-graduate.

On the face of it, fine.

But the story touts the wonderful opportunity for men to be Mr. Mom. This is a feminist leftie take on the stats.

If you’re going to take that tack, given men’s underemployment in the mancession, shouldn’t this be a cause for concern? I mean, men might want choice too.

The other issue is just what kind of learning is going on in some of our schools anyway? (See previous post for just one example. Here’s another. Here’s another and another.)

We’re paying a lot, or our kids are. Some call it a higher education bubble.

With this economy, what kind of jobs do we especially need for the future, to be able to compete in the world economy?

Women still trail men in professional subcategories such as business, science and engineering.

It’s a matter of degree.

What Kills A Skunk, Part Two

We heard the president’s speech. One of the most dismaying things about it, that makes most people recoil–aside from the pure demagoguery on the debt and spending tsunami we face–was that he invited Paul Ryan to come hear it. Paul Ryan, the GOP Budget Committee Chairman, and author of a brave and substantive plan to tackle our fiscal nightmare and wrestle it to the ground.

Why would President Obama do this? Is he clueless of civil behavior?

I think this comment has hit on it, in part:

Why on earth would The One invite him to attend a speech that was designed to demagogue Ryan for electoral purposes?

Because he’s a petty, thin-skinned girlie man who thinks he’s tough. He was trying to intimidate Ryan into backing off. Epic FAIL.

Was that some sort of “if I’m going to kneecap this guy, I ought to at least look him in the eye” concession on Obama’s part?

It’s what kills a skunk:

Part Two.

More to come.

P.S. Schock statement on president’s debt reduction plan. Illinois Review.

And I encourage Paul Ryan to run for president.

More. Jim Geraghty, NRO, Obama’s Habit of Trashing His Invited Guests. HT Legal Insurrection.

–crossposted at BackyardConservative

Nearing $5 gas in Chicago. Obama Approval Plunges. Hold your Horses

Chicago Breaking News, with mitigating greenie and mass transit plugs for The One. Of course much of the country can’t get to work using mass transit and greenie cars are expensive, impractical in the cold and over distance, not to mention having to charge up with electricity probably powered by coal plants.

What’s the approval around the country look like, hmm?

…For most of us a horse is not an option. And even in Chicago where some view them romantically other picky urbanites protest.

More here.