The Wandering Minstrel

A former colleague sent this in an email today:

Clickable image (to read the fine print).

When we were in Wickenburg, AZ, a couple of weeks ago, we passed this billboard on US Hwy. 60 just at the edge of town. The local Ford dealer, Jones Auto Centers, praised Ford Motors for not taking the government bailout, unlike GM and Chrysler. The bottom line is that Ford seems to be a healthy, free-enterprise company.

Clickable image courtesy The Better Half.

From Fox Business News:

Ford Posts Better-than-Expected Quarterly Profit

Ford Motor Co (F: 12.40 ,+0.30 ,+2.44%) posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings and said it was on track to be profitable in 2010 with second half profits lower than the first half.

Ford, whose shares were up 2.6% in premarket trading, lowered the top end of its range for U.S. auto industry sales for 2010, while saying it expects to move from a net automotive debt position to a net cash position by the end of 2011.

Its second-quarter net profit rose to $2.6 billion from $2.26 billion in the year earlier quarter when the automaker had gains from debt reduction efforts. Earnings per share fell to 61 cents from 69 cents due to a higher outstanding share count.

Ford posted earnings of 68 cents per share from operations excluding one-time items. Analysts on average expected Ford to post a profit of 40 cents per share on that basis, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Its shares were up 31 cents, or 2.6%, to $12.40 in premarket trading.

America should be teed off at this charlatan . . . and the vice-charlatan.

Regarding the BP Gulf oil spill: Placing blame where blame is due. Ramirez’ cartoon is spot on. Hat tip Scott on Powerline.

I haven’t been blogging about the gulf oil spill, but I wonder why the Obamination is able to visit the second largest gushing disaster (several times for photo ops) and not the greatest gushing disaster - you know, illegal aliens gushing into the U.S. at alarming rates. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer invited him to see for himself last week and he declined. The Governor now has a campaign in place to send the Obamination a “come visit Arizona” postcard.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s meeting yesterday with the Obamination failed to get him to commit to anything. Brewer invited the President to “visit Arizona and see our open borders for yourself.” He declined. Brewer Asked him to increase the National Guard deployment to Arizona. He declined. She asked him for federal funds to offset the over 750 million dollars for incarceration expenses. He refused. She asked him to commit to build and extend the fence on the border. He made no such commitment.

The President refuses to enforce Federal Law. Shouldn’t that make him a lawbreaker for not living up to the oath of office he took?

Charles Krauthammer thinks so . . .

Excerpt from The Corner on Krauthammer’s Take:

On Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wanting first to secure the border and President Obama wanting first comprehensive immigration reform:

There is something very odd about this. The executive is required under the constitution to execute the laws. We have laws about immigration. The government, by its own acknowledgment, has failed 10 million times to enforce it. (Since there are that many illegals in the United States.)

And now it says: We’ll only enforce it if we get comprehensive reform, i.e., we are not going to enforce existing law until we get a change in the law or new law.

[But] you can’t hold an existing law hostage — [hold up] enforcement of it — to a legislative agenda you have. You have to enforce the law.

I do not understand how they can say this with a straight face in a constitutional democracy. You have to enforce the law.

The Obamination is clearly breaking the law by not enforcing it. I won’t hold my breath waiting to see any indictments, though.

I just read the entire Arizona Immigration Bill. It took me less than 10 minutes to read. There is no excuse for the band of low-lifes in the administration, specifically Holder, Napolitano and Crowley, not to have read it before criticizing it. You can download the SB 1070 PDF file here. Read it first or STFU.

From SecuretheBorder.org:

While broken borders are not a laughing matter, Washington’s
failure to read Arizona’s immigration law is laughable

 

PHOENIX –– Two weeks ago, Governor Jan Brewer took President Obama to task for making Arizona’s unsecured borders and illegal immigration crisis a laughing matter. However, since then, Washington’s comedy of errors has grown far worse, with top cabinet officials admitting that they haven’t even read Arizona’s new immigration law. Broken borders are not a laughing matter, but the failure by Obama’s trusted officials to read Arizona’s law before commenting and condemning it is laughable. As a result, SecuretheBorder.org is using a little bit of humor to remind everyone in Washington of the importance of reading. Watch the latest video below:

“Our message is simple: reading helps you know what you’re talking about. That’s why we put Arizona’s immigration law up on www.SecuretheBorder.org,” said campaign spokesman Doug Cole. “Arizona is trying to do the job that the federal government has failed to do, and members of the president’s cabinet condemn it without even reading it. They have time to apologize to China and give President Calderon a standing ovation, but they don’t have the time to read Arizona’s law. Just more examples of how Washington is broken.”

The video features Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Assistant Secretary of State PJ Crowley admitting that they have not read Arizona’s immigration law.

Billboard seen along U.S. Hwy. 93, in Wickenburg, AZ. Clickable image taken by The Better Half.

As President, Dubya wasn’t exactly the conservative I thought he should have been (i.e. Harriett Myers SCOTUS nomination, Shamnesty immigration bill) but he was several orders of magnitude better for Country and Constitution than the Obamination will ever be.

Despite his shortcomings, I do miss the Bush Administration, but not as much as the Reagan days.

From the weird shit files: I dug out this photo I took a couple of years ago of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but today - Tax Day - you could say it symbolizes the treatment of the American Taxpayers by this Congress and the Obamination - giving us the big weenie . . .

Paraphrasing the great Ronald Reagan: Conservatives think every day is the Fourth of July and liberals think it is April 15th.