now that's what i'm talkin' bout!

Now, that's called getting it right!

medicare: straight talk from paul ryan

I came across these vids today, and thought I would share (because I care). Seems to be some great, simplified straight talk about Medicare and the budget deficit, from Paul Ryan.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Path to Prosperity (Episode 2): Saving Medicare, Visualized



The Path to Prosperity (Episode 1): America's two futures, visualized



Charles Krauthammer: Media Are Supporting Democrat Lies About Medicare and Ryan Plan





From Newsbusters: Chris Matthews Called Conservative Political Talk 'Ugly,' But Laughs at Murdering Grandma

Read more.

it's been a tough trip in the uk for the obama's

From windy hair disasters to fashion disasters, protocol blunders to tricky travels, things have not been to smooth for the Obama's on their latest trip to the UK.

We didn't realise you were such a big Jedward fan, Michelle. First Lady looks the part as she arrives in a windswept Ireland

The tanned Duchess of Cambridge blew Michelle Obama out of the water

So, the softly tanned new Duchess of Cambridge met Michelle Obama and, nuclear submarine cutbacks or no, she blew her American rival out of the water.

For their first meeting yesterday, Kate wore a simple but stylish £175 bandage dress in fashionable ‘nude’ from Reiss, one of the few truly British fashion brands left on the planet.

She looked every inch the modern and fashionable style icon she has become. As soon as Kate’s dress was identified, it promptly sold out, crashing the Reiss website into the bargain, which just shows how powerful she is.

Michelle Obama, on the other hand, looked like a little girl in a too short pink bolero (I hate boleros – and only six-year-olds should wear pink!) that my fashion spies tell me is not even vintage, it’s just old. Ouch.

The pale blue floral Fifties gown by Barbara Tfank, a Los Angeles-based designer who dresses everyone from singer Adele to Vanessa Redgrave, is just too prom and girly for the wife of the President.

Tfank’s dresses retail at around £1,400 – almost ten times what Kate’s dress cost.

But does the First Lady not realise that volume (ie, a puffed-out skirt) has become as unfashionable as snow-washed denim, while teaming a print with a bright colour has been a little overdone of late.

On the grooming front, I like Michelle’s sleek new bob, but it is getting a little too helmet like.

Another windy moment: Michelle Obama must have been remembering her Jedward moment yesterday as the Queen's outfit fares better in a gale

*ouch*

President Obama’s Limo Gets Stuck Exiting US Embassy



Awkward Moment During Obama Toast to Queen

The president and the orchestra at Buckingham Palace this evening were a bit out of synch.

When the president toasted the Queen the orchestra misunderstood a pause and what seemed to be a cue from the president for “God Save the Queen” to begin playing.

“Ladies and gentlemen please stand with me and raise your glasses as I propose a toast,” the president said, putting down his note cards and grabbing his glass. “To her majesty the Queen.”

The president paused, the guests stood, and the orchestra prepared to play.

But the president wasn’t done speaking.

“The vitality –“ the president said before the orchestra began.

Then the familiar tune – you might know it better as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” – started up.

The president kept going: “ -- of the special relationship between our peoples and for the words of Shakespeare to this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,” the president said as the awkward moment played out.

The Queen looked ahead as the UK anthem played.

“To the Queen,” the president finally said.

He lifted his glass to her, she smiled a bit uncomfortably.

But because the song was playing, no one drank from his or her glass, including the president, who put his glass down on the table.

Then once the song was over, everyone raised a glass.

It almost felt like one of those moments at the Academy Awards when the speech from the recipient for Best Original Screenplay goes on too long and the orchestra tries to hustle him or her off the stage.

Kind of weird.

Protocol, apparently, requires the toastmaster to wait until after “God Save the Queen” plays and then begin the toast.

*awkward*

He never did actually drink to the Queen, either. He just put the glass down.

At least it isn’t just our National Anthem that he has issues with.

Is it any wonder he's dreaming of a happier time, back in 2008?

President Obama Has No Idea What Year It Is

"This is how President Obama signed the guestbook at Westminster Abbey earlier today, where he got a tour from the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall and laid a wreath on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior."

It is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage, and common sacrifice.

Barack Obama

24 May 2008

"It was really nice until he got the date wrong by three years. Granted, 2008 was a great year for him, and we might try to live it for as long as possible, too, if we were him. Also, though, he may have had a stroke."

Or maybe it was just all that Guinness...



According to Obama, the Guinness in Ireland is much better than the stuff they sell in the U.S.

Monday it's what happened inside the Moneygall pub that may not go down too smoothly with the American distributors of Ireland's world-famous Guinness.

The president got to reminiscing good-naturedly about a previous encounter with the tasty liquid.

"The first time I had Guinness," Obama said, "is when I came to the Shannon airport. We were flying into Afghanistan and so stopped in Shannon. It was the middle of the night. And I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the States."

Oops.

"rise of the obamabots"

Stifling Liberal Dissent Under Obama

A sample of recent rejections, each from editors at different left-of-center media outlets:

"I am familiar with and enjoy your cartoons. However the readers of our site would not be comfortable with your (admittedly on point) criticism of Obama."

"Don't be such a hater on O and we could use your stuff. Can't you focus more on the GOP?"

"Our first African-American president deserves a chance to clean up Bush's mess without being attacked by us."

I have many more like that.

snip

Barack Obama and the Democrats have made it perfectly clear that they don't care about the issues and concerns that I care about. Unlike Kevin Drum, I think--I know--I'm smarter than Barack Obama. I wouldn't have made half the mistakes he has.

So I don't care about Obama. Or the Democrats. I care about America and the world and the people who live in them.

Hey, Obamabots: when the man you support betrays your principles, he has to go--not your principles.

Read the entire piece here.

mmmmmmm pie

I just finished taking an apple pie out of the oven, and the house smells so delicious. I saw the recipe on Skip to my Lou, and had everything on hand. I love when that happens.

I *pulsed* the butter just a little too much (eager to use my new immersion blender feature) so my topping came out a little like cinnamon butter instead of crumbly, but oh well. I just kind of spread it over the top.

I haven't tasted it yet, but seriously, it's apples, sugar, cinnamon, and butter... how can it not be delicious?

Check out Skip to my Lou for the recipe and more photos.

(I used a spring form pan, instead of just placing it on a tray. And I used pasta sfoglia for the crust, not traditional pie crust, since we don't have that here...)

UPDATE: pie is yummmmmmy!

then why would you support him for a second term??

"The eminences grises at MSNBC see a serious problem ahead for Barack Obama in 2012. Why, some voters might just judge him on his ... performance! Quelle horreur! Howard Fineman tells Chris Matthews on Hardball that Obama made a strategic error when he said that voters could judge him on how well he did his job."



"Obama Must Run on 'Values' Since He Can’t Run on 'Performance'"

And then we have this (bizarro) opinion piece...
The appeal of a Mitch Daniels’s presidential run

I hope Mitch Daniels runs for president. Let me go further: I hope he wins the Republican nomination.

I can’t imagine voting for him.

But Daniels’s presence would improve the 2012 campaign. He’d make Barack Obama a better candidate.

And any husband who makes it clear that his wife has a, maybe the, deciding voice in whether to launch a presidential campaign gets even more Marcus points.

I have a soft spot for OMB directors. The job offers a broad perspective on the operations of the federal government and departments’ competing claims for funding. The OMB director knows where the fat is — and the political forces that prevent it from being cut.

I have an even softer spot for governors. Executive experience isn’t essential to being chief executive, but it helps. Dealing with recalcitrant state legislatures or sluggish state bureaucracies is good seasoning for the national stage. In addition, any president has to grapple with issues of federalism; the current fiscal pressures on states make having occupied the governor’s mansion an even more valuable perspective.

But the real appeal of a Daniels candidacy is that I believe he is serious about reducing the debt and realistic about what it will take to achieve that, as a matter of both substance and politics.

Yes, Daniels as OMB director from 2001 to 2003 oversaw the federal budget’s stomach-churning plunge from surplus to deficit. But in Indiana, where he was actually in charge, Daniels’s performance reflected the reverse: The state went from a $200 million deficit to a $1.3 billion surplus and earned its first AAA bond rating.

In a rigid GOP world of no-new-taxes ideologues, Daniels actually proposed a temporary tax increase to help close the state’s budget gap. He created a health-care plan for uninsured residents not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid — and paid for it in part with higher tobacco taxes. He believes in limited government but implemented all-day kindergarten and pressed for new spending on infrastructure.

Most fundamentally, Daniels understands that compromise is a sign of wisdom, not weakness. “Purity in martyrdom,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, “is for suicide bombers.” snip

But candidate Daniels would press President Obama to sharpen his focus on getting the debt under control, and to spell out more clearly how that will be accomplished. He would be an especially worthy opponent — even if I flinch at the thought that he might succeed.

So, Obama is such a failure, she wants Daniels in the race, despite ALL of the positives she highlighted that Daniel's has actually accomplished, only to force Obama to actually step up and ACCOMPLISH something?

Ummm…doesn’t that kind of hint at the fact that Obama doesn’t deserve a second term?

She spends the entire article highlighting all of the great things Daniel's (not Obama)has accomplished, then criticizes Obama for not having a focus, or a plan for accomplishing anything on our debt crisis, yet she still supports Obama for a second term...? Baffling.

a true storybook wedding

I laughed so hard when I saw this on Facebook. I said to Franco, while watching the royal wedding, that the two princesses looked like the step sisters from Cinderella.

Gawd, did they ever!

gutfeld: white house declining to release photos demonstrates islamophobia

H/T Daily Caller

Five Mistakes the Obama Administration Has Made in the Aftermath of Bin Laden Killing

Aftermath can be heck.

The White House's brilliant conceptualization and execution of the plan to bring Osama bin Laden to justice has, in the last 48 hours, been complicated by mistakes.

No one can question the heroism of the US military, the doggedness of the intelligence community, or the cajones of the President in making the call. But the administration has since made real errors, some with political costs, some with substantive costs, and some with both.

The major errors so far:

1. Not getting its story straight

2. Not giving George W. Bush enough credit for helping bring bin Laden to justice

3. Letting the photo debate get out of control

4. Letting the debate about the war in Afghanistan get out of control

5. Letting the debate about Pakistan get out of control

Click here for the rest of the article.

hasta la vista...

URGENT: BIN LADEN KILLED IN FIREFIGHT 

BURIED AT SEA BY U.S.