Author’s foreword.

My dear old friend Bronwyn wrote today and asked me what I’ve been up to and what I think of the prospects for 2012. My short reply got me a suggestion to cross post something I wrote at Partizane back in July.

First, let me assure you that I no longer hate to visit my site. It is much less active since I wrote the following but it is also slowly but surely coming back to be my blog, my place to vent or pontificate. What you are about to read, or not, was written specifically for and about my blog Partizane.com. It is not in any way meant to reflect on NoQuarter as I don’t rule here. That line sort of sounds like “any resemblance of characters in this book to others living or imaginary is purely coincidence.”

For those who care, here is my reply to Bronwyn’s query.

My honest opinion of 2012 is that whoever wins we’ll have a Republican in the White House, just like we’ve had since 2009.

If it comes down to it though, I may have to vote for His Oliness as the lesser of two evils. The Republican party gave us endless wars to feed the war machine, a lost decade for any in my boomer generation who planned on retiring someday, an endless recession and absolutely nothing of value other than redefining the use of the word NO.

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This article is the first No Quarter article about the Ulsterman blogs.  Any opinions expressed here are strictly my own.  No Quarter is not endorsing or advocating the Ulsterman blogs.  References to, or citations from, the “White House Insider” do not indicate that there is such a person, or that quotes attributed to him have any basis in reality.

By now, I’m sure that many of you have read at least some portion of the blog series known as “White House Insider,” by a blogger who goes by the name of Ulsterman.

The White House Insider, whose gender is not revealed (although I’ve come across at least two “slips” that indicate decisively that he’s a male), claims to be part of a group of high level traditional Democrats who became disillusioned of Obama within a year of his taking office. Disillusioned of Obama?  How can this be?  I’m shocked!

Even if you haven’t read any of this material directly, I’m sure you’ve heard references to it from comments on this blog.  If not comments directly referencing it, you’ve almost certainly heard others repeating things they read there and believed.

The White House Insider interviews  reek of hoax.  But are they?

I don’t approach this subject lightly, because it’s controversial as hell.  I just want to make clear that “officially” No Quarter does not accept these blogs as true.

Personally, I want to believe.  I find the Insider interviews interesting and provocative, but I haven’t bought into them. I haven’t ruled out their authenticity yet either. This article is only about my perceptions of the Ulsterman blogs. Read the rest

The Washington Examiner noted that Obama used two teleprompters to make a short (3 minute) speech nominating Alan Krueger to the Council of Economic Advisers.

WHY does Obama need TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) for a three-minute introduction to his nominee? Did Obama never learn to speak extemporaneously at university or law school? Does he not know Krueger enough to say a few basic sentences?

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How’s that for an alarmist heading? But it is true. Alan B. Krueger, nominated yesterday to replace Austan Goolsbee, has a terrorist past. But it was not what you may think (no, he’s not a closet muslim or financier of Al Qaeda). In April 2004 the U.S. Department of State published its annual report, Patterns of Global Terrorism. While perusing Appendix A of that report, which lists the “significant” terrorist attacks during 2003, I noticed that the incidents stopped on November 11. “Odd,” I thought.

So I called Joe Reap, the superb press guy in the Counter Terrorism shop at State and asked him about this. He replied, “oh, shit!” Turns out that a month and a half of data had been left out of the report. This was important from a policy standpoint because Secretary of State Colin Powell was making the rounds touting the success of the Bush Administration’s counter terrorism policy. He specifically cited the decline in terrorist incidents during 2003 as proof positive of the policy’s effectiveness. Whoops!

Enter Alan B. Krueger. He co-authored a May 17, 2004 op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, “Are we winning the war on terrorism?“:

Although keeping score is difficult, the State Department’s annual report on international terrorism, released last month, provides the best government data to answer this question. The short answer is “No,” but that’s not the spin the administration is putting on it. . . .

Yet, a careful review of the report and underlying data supports the opposite conclusion: The number of significant terrorist acts increased from 124 in 2001 to 169 in 2003 — 36 percent — even using the State Department’s official standards. The data that the report highlights are ill-defined and subject to manipulation — and give disproportionate weight to the least important terrorist acts. The only verifiable information in the annual reports indicates that the number of terrorist events has risen each year since 2001, and in 2003 reached its highest level in more than 20 years. . . . Read the rest

This should rouse your soul:

Personally, I think he gives the bed bugs too much credit. Read the rest

Editor’s Note: Larry Johnson joins Sunday’s experts panel on John Batchelor’s Show @ 9:30 or 10:30 p.m. ET. Listen via iTunes or NYC anchor WABC (scroll to “Listen Live“). The show airs nightly, 9 p.m.-1:00 a.m. ET.

The spectacle of Mayor Mike Bloomberg (video below) pitching repeatedly the ordinary Hurricane Irene as a cataclysm from Hades makes this correspondent crabby. What foolishness. Eighty mile per hour winds from North Carolina to New Jersey. Lots of wind-blown rain.

For this, NYC is shut down from noon Saturday; the airports are closed; the subway and buses are off-line; and the only cabs are cruising with “Off-Duty” so you get to pay a cash fare of the driver’s choosing if you are lucky to find one.

Spoke Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, of the loss of confidence in the nation that makes us hesitant, fidgety, brittle, risk averse, gloomy. We speculated that it was the financial rot (including a rumored fail of Bank of America); we guessed it was the ten-year long war against trite shadows called Al Q; we supposed it was cynical pols who claw for TV time by announcing disaster management 101. Read the rest

Jesus! Who does he think he is? Moses or Jesus? I refer to Mr. Crisis himself, Barack Obama. Doing another press conference today to take credit for bold, decisive leadership. And for what? Making sure that FEMA was awake to deal with a piddling Category 1 hurricane. Oh the humanity. How did we survive?

What a bizarre case of hype and unjustified hysteria. Lots of rain, some flooding, some downed trees. But nothing approaching the catastrophe of a bona fide Category 3 hurricane, a la Katrina.

We really have no clue whether or not Barack Obama could have found his ass with both hands if a real disaster had occurred. Why? Well, the first challenge was to pry the putter from his golf glove and amateur grip. The test for competence in crisis management comes in the aftermath of the disaster, not in the overture. Unfortunately for Barack there are no New Yorkers stranded on the roof of the Empire State Building pleading for rescue. Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden are not filled with soggy, half-drowned New Yorkers pleading for water and a clean toilette.

But let’s not blame Barack. He ain’t Jesus nor Moses. Read the rest

No. Not so. But some seasoned veterans and respected pundits are touting the chaos unfolding in Libya as a success. My old friend, Pat Lang, offers this take:

The hysterics who pass for “experts’ on shows like “Morning joe” should be ignored. Their performance over the last day or so with regard to Libya is pathetic. They know nothing of military affairs of any kind, and even less of a sophisticated business like the support of an indigenous revolt by guerrilla forces. They bleat continuously of one “terrible” event or another. Most of their “correspondents” are hiding in a Tripoli hotel where their largest concern appears to be the availability of air conditioning and the possibility that the hotel might “catch” a stray bomb. Richard Engel is a notable exception to this criticism as well as at least one woman reporter who moved into the capital with the French advised guerilla forces coming from the west.

I have “news.” Wars are messy, uncertain things. They “move” in fits and starts.

Qathafy’s government is finished. This has been a very successful effort. What sort of government will the Libyans make? It is not our business. The only demand we should have on the new Libyan government is that they do not harbor enemies of the NATO alliance. That includes us.

I share some of Pat’s frustration with the hysterics displayed on cable news. But I’m not sure there is much to celebrate. Read the rest

This is too delicious to ignore. Remember billionaire Warren whining about how few taxes he paid and that it is the patriotic duty of all wealthy Americans to pay more. Really?

Well, looks like Warren is good at talking bullshit. Bill Wilson at Netright Daily has a dandy piece exposing Buffett’s hypocrisy:

To wit, he wrote of the so-called “super-rich,” which he apparently defines as households earning $1 million or more a year: “Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.” Isn’t that nice of Mr. Buffett?

But if he were truly sincere, perhaps he might simply try paying the taxes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says his company owes? According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.” Read the rest

1) Please remember, during the dog days of summer, not to patronize any cherubic youngsters hawking lemonade or other drinks. It’s dangerous, don’t you know, and those youngsters haven’t got the proper permits. Forbes kindly has an article detailing authorities’ efforts to curtail this beverage menace.

I’m beginning to think that there’s a nation-wide government conspiracy against either lemonade or children, because these lemonade stand shutdowns seem to be getting more and more common. If you set up a stand for your kids, just be prepared for a visit from the cops.

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My wife and I are fans of horse racing, although we never watch anything besides the Triple Crown races most of the time.  She’s excellent at picking winners based on factors I miss entirely.  I’m not as in tune with the subtleties of horse racing as she is, so most of my picks are based on the odds given by the experts and my own hunches, which rarely pay off.

I bring this up for analogy to make a small point about early favorites and long-shot winners.  It only takes one stumble, or one surge, to change the race completely.  A horse race is a simple metaphor for politics, and I’m not the first to use it, of course.  I’m just musing.

Hillary was the odds-on favorite to succeed Bush as President until she stumbled at the Iowa caucuses and placed a disappointing third, losing to a virtual unknown with a name that was almost indistinguishable from two of America’s most recent enemies.  My hunch?  Hillary would win easily, and Obama had no chance in hell with that name and no experience.  “Iraq Hussein Osama will be our next president?  Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.”

Back to the metaphor…

In the Belmont Stakes this year, the third race of the Triple Crown, the favorite was the winner of the Kentucky Derby, at 2-1 odds.  He  nearly took a spill coming out of the gate.  A very minor misstep threw off his rhythm, he spooked himself for a split second and nearly threw his jockey off.  Read the rest

Ben Bernanke at Jackson Hole

Once upon a time, we called this lot of Populist beggars the “Free Silver” rascals, and the GOP under McKinley fought for hard money and the gold standard. But that was 1897, the last time an earthquake rocked Virginia at the magnitude of 5.8.

Now, with no prospect of strength anywhere in the Fed regions, with many states slipping back into the Red (see below, from the Philly Fed; and not long ago, all the states were Green), with J P Morgan’s estimate of 1% GDP for Christmas, a feeble 1.5% for Q1 of 2012, and a crushing 9.5 jobless rate for Q3 2012, the Fed’s printing press is the only source of feel-good energy for the markets. We are all condemned to be Free Silver rascals now. Read the rest

I’m sharing with you some more of the earthquake funnies I’ve run across in the past couple days, just because they make me giggle, and i hope they give you a chuckle too! Besides!!! YOU ALL CAME UP WITH YOUR OWN FUNNIES that were better than the ones I’d posted, so I’m looking forward to more from you, you naughty ones.

LEST I FORGET: I learned something about Disqus’s comments software that I didn’t know and that, worst of all, I didn’t know that I didn’t know about it but sure needed to! (My apologies to ALL of you!) Fast-forward to now: I’ve been slogging through the comments and restoring all of your comments that somehow got trapped in the SPAM filter. It is tedious and slow-going. I’ve gotten back through the last six days, but must keep going because it was explained to me that once you’re labeled as spam, it takes the system a while to get you freed of that label. (ALSO: Please be “light” about flagging comments — unless the comment is really, really bad (obscene, etc.), please don’t flag it (for reasons I won’t bother to get into but which affect the person’s standing with the spam filter and which also take me extra time to handle. It’s no problem if you did because how would you know it caused issues? So don’t worry about it.) (NOTE THE P.S. below the fold, at the end.)

EARTHQUAKE SILLINESS BELOW: Read the rest

Forget the Tea Party Satan sandwich. The real culinary delight tickling the palate of the Obama Administration is the festering turd of its policy towards Libya. Obama has the worst of all worlds. We are spending money on a military effort we do not control. We have no clear idea of who or what will replace the reign of crazy Gaddafi. And we can’t publicize the role of intelligence officers and special forces soldiers who are laboring behind the scenes trying to cobble together something that approximates a genuine, legitimate ruler or ruling coalition.

A ruler or strongman will ultimately emerge. People do not like living in mayhem and chaos and will turn to the person or group that promises to bring law and order. We can’t rule out the possibility that Gaddafi or one of his progeny will resurface and take charge. Alternatively we should not be surprised if (or when) a group the West perceives as jihadist gets control.

The least likely outcome is a group of secular, Western leaning technocrats who are committed to creating a democracy. I continue to scratch my head in puzzlement over the position of some very knowledgeable US military and intel analysts who believe that NATO air power is the best solution. Read the rest

This was EXCRUCIATING to watch. Uh, isn’t ABSTINENCE one of Perry’s pet causes? And he’s utterly ignorant about — not only the topic — but its effectiveness? As well as salient facts like what Texas spends, how it is taught in Texas versus other states, the ages of students, how much time is spent, what materials are used — those are just a few, off the top of my head, of the myriad aspects of this topic that he should have had at his fingertips to voluntarily demonstrate his comprehension. He was obliged to know enough about a topic important to so many conservatives to answer a straightforward, serious question that was in no way a “gotcha” question.

Then there’s that he is so utterly inarticulate that he couldn’t even fake his way through an answer! No wonder he’s known for his lack of intellect! God save us all if this dumb-as-a-rock guy gets nominated.

While I’m not a Tea Party member or an adherent of some of its views, I DO respect Tea Party members who — when I’ve heard them speak, nearly all — to be informed and well-read, to have coherent views, and to make the effort to represent themselves and the Tea Party in the best-reasoned, educated language that they can. They cannot possibly wish to support this man.

The above video was posted today on Facebook. Below are some of the best comments on Perry’s pathetic performance: Read the rest