[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgqXGu_gTQ[/youtube]

h/t: Edward Lucas

We find that, around here, Atlantic Frank has the same effect.

Napolitano: Talibans Smuggling Swine Flu Through Canada on Stolen Cruise Ships

Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano urged that we take action in order to stop “Talibans from smuggling swine-flu tainted bunnies through Canada on stolen cruise ships.”

The announcement came at a press conference Napolitano called for 8:00 am this morning and began promptly at 12:30. The first five minutes of her remarks were only heard by the front row until a reporter from WABC pointed out that Napolitano was speaking into the wrong side of the microphone.

“We have lots of problems here in the United Skates of America,” said Napolitano, “The most biggest of which is those Talibans. They’ve got the swine flu and they’ve been trying to steal cruise ships off the coast of Sumatra. It’s a good thing our Coast Guard was there with their elite sniping teams to shoot at them.”

Added Napolitano, “We need to take action.”

Free universal health care will solve everything.

Read the whole thing.

h/t: PA Pundits

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAspEPVQECE[/youtube]

One wonders if this tomfoolery is an attempt to distract viewers from his “urgent” proposals. Anne Treneman of The Times:

The cinéma vérité got more vérité as he got mixed up with the autocue but, basically, he is scrapping the second-home allowance. Instead, MPs will receive extra money for coming to Parliament. He called this an “attendance” allowance. I think that is code for “showing up for work”. Wow. Extra money for actually coming to work. This is a draconian crackdown.

If I were a Brit, I would not find this video the least bit reassuring.

The Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts likens the PM to Chief Inspector George Dreyfus of Pink Panther fame.

h/t: Daniel Finkelstein at Comment Central

Cartoon by Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner.

h/t: Darcey at Dust My Broom

Rich’s legislation would target only those who derived or helped others derive ”sexual gratification” from an animal, specifying that conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are permissible.

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

”People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?” she asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican, explained that husbandry is raising and caring for animals. Bullard didn’t get it.

Isn’t Larcenia an ideal name for a politician?

h/t: Popehat and Overlawyered

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKLXCHgOiA[/youtube]

h/t: Clayton Cramer

Source: BBC Day in Pictures

Joe Walker has another odd BBC photo.

Apple research gets $218,000 from Ottawa — Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 21 Feb.

Dow-Jones Industrial Average, as at 12:53 PM EST 20 Feb.

Cartoon: Michael Ramirez

Dow-Jones chart: Google finance

One of the most important skills for political success is the ability to make confident assertions of absurdities or lies.

And here is today’s editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez:

Source: Shortpacked! by David Willis

h/t: Christian Adams at Telegraph Blogs

Cartoon by Steve Nease, Oakville Beaver

This has been around for years in one form or another but I always enjoy it. Here’s a version that was in the Spectator recently:

Socialism – You have two cows. The State nationalises one and gives it to your neighbour.

Communism – You have two cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

Fascism – You have two cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

Traditional capitalism – You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You sell your heard [sic] and retire on the income.

Lehman Brothers Venture capitalism – You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at Bear Stearns, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new President of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buy your bull!

And here are a few of my own additions;

French system – You have two cows. They go on strike for greener grass.

British system – You have two cows. One goes binge drinking and stabs the other to death with a screwdriver. The Heath & Safety Executive have the other cow put down because one of its toenails is getting a bit long.

He has a few more, but none as funny as the British system.

h/t: Global Voices

Rapt eyes shone as Obama spoke with stunning eloquence of re-building America. When the president delivered perhaps his most impressive rhetorical offering, telling the world’s tyrants, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” many in the audience gasped audibly at the sheer power of his language.

I haven’t seen a group of people wearing their fervour so completely, and so uniformly, since a guy I used to work with brought me to visit his weird sex cult in California.

But maybe Obama, unlike the cult leader in the purple house, really deserves this worship.

Where’s my barf bag?

Cartoon by Cam (Cameron Cardow), Ottawa Citizen.

h/t: small dead animals