“Since voters’ opinions are neither logical nor self-made, they should be altered, not obeyed. Politicians should “not follow polls but use them to see how they can change public opinion to their moral worldview.” And since persuasion is mechanical, progressives should rely less on facts and more on images and drama, “casting progressives as heroes, and by implication, conservatives as villains.” The key is to “say things not once, but over and over. Brains change when ideas are repeatedly activated.”

I don’t know whether Lakoff’s wrong in a technical sense. “Mass brainwashing” techniques seem to work pretty effectively for the world’s authoritarians (Kim Jong Il, the Soviets, modern Islamists). Not a particularly good argument, IMHO, for letting Lakoff or any of his left-wing acolytes anywhere near the levers of power.

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Every two weeks, Mark Nagurney, who lives in Laurel, Maryland, stops by his local chinese restaurant and picks up several 4.5 gallon plastic jugs filled with used VEGETABLE OIL.  He empties them into his 1996 Volkswagon Passat which he overhauled last year for $2,500 to make it run on the slimy stuff. 

But according to Tom Pelton who wrote about it in Sunday’s BALTIMORE SUN, this CHEAP fuel comes at a HEFTY COST.  Pelton says the state of Maryland requires drivers to get a “SPECIAL FUEL” license even if they are using old, discarded, vegetable oil to power their cars.  Maryland drivers also have to obtain a $1,000 BOND from an INSURANCE COMPANY, FILE MONTHLY FORMS and PAY THE SAME 24 CENTS PER GALLON TAX as DRIVERS GOING TO THE GAS STATION TO FILL UP ON DIESEL HAVE TO PAY. 

And that’s not all.  Catherine C. Milbourn, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told reporter Pelton that FEDERAL LAWS PROHIBIT RUNNING VEHICLES ON USED VEGETABLE OIL.  “VEGETABLE FUEL HAS NOT BEEN REGISTERED AS A MOTOR VEHICLE FUEL.” She says it has not been tested to determine whether burning it will harm the environment.  Milbourn also told the paper that “GARAGES or COMPANIES that CONVERT VEHICLES to run on VEGETABLE OIL CAN BE SUBJECT TO FEDERAL FINES of $32,500 PER VIOLATION, and the CUSTOMERS can face fines up to $2,750.”

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Obama has some foes in South Florida’s large Cuban-American community. And some of those detractors plan to protest Saturday outside the Intercontinental Hotel as Obama speaks to the mayors’ conference.

Protesters claim two of Obama’s advisers were responsible for putting 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez into the hands of federal agents.

Those advisers are Eric Holder and Gregg Craig.

Holder, now a member of Obama’s campaign team, worked for Attorney General Janet Reno during the controversy. Gregg Craig, an Obama advisor on Latin America, represented Elian’s father in the international custody case.

In April 2000, federal agents took the little boy, now 14, from his relatives in Miami after they lost their fight to keep him in the United States.

Elian had survived a boating accident off the Florida coast that killed his mother, who was attempting to get to the U.S.

Elian’s relatives in Cuba will be among the protesters outside the hotel Saturday.
The protesters may also be upset that Obama will not condemn the actions of Che Guevara.
That might have something to do with it.

UPDATE: It probably didn’t help Obama that his advisor Eric Holder played dumb about the whole Elian Gonzalez incident:


Eric Holder was unconvincing in his defense of the horrible incident that he took part in.

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Wasn’t she supposed to be 20 point ahead YESTERDAY?

full post

article here

The weak dollar is pummeling equities, disrupting the economy, distorting global trade and giving hundreds of billions of dollars in windfall revenues--through skyrocketing commodity prices--to our adversaries such as Iran and Venezuela. Not since Jimmy Carter has the U.S. had a President so oblivious to the damage done by an increasingly feeble greenback.

The Federal Reserve can rally the markets for a day or two by finding some new mechanism through which to lend more money to banks and other financial institutions. But this is the proverbial Band-Aid for a patient who is beginning to hemorrhage.

The Administration acts as if the dollar were like the sun, its rising and falling beyond any control. Countless times experience has shown that notion to be false. The U.S. Treasury Department could buy dollars in the currency exchange markets. Our allies would gladly cooperate with such an operation; their exports are being hurt more and more. The Fed could mop up some of the excess liquidity it has created since 2004, even as it makes targeted loans to beleaguered banks and financial houses.