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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Palin for President!

I think Sarah Palin is the most under-rated political figure in America today. No, I’m serious. She was chosen as McCain’s VP and gave an acceptance speech at the Republican Convention that still resonates: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.” Can anyone come up with a line from McCain’s acceptance speech?

What followed was a political crime, with members of McCain’s team sabotaging her in a number of ways, including allowing her to be interviewed by MSM figures that hated her and were allowed to edit the interview with the result that even today many people think that Palin has not read a book. Isn’t that one of the reasons so many conservatives doubt her abilities or are on the fence? You are allowing Katie Couric – of all people – to influence your judgment!

He decision to resign as Governor of Alaska was supposed to end her political career. All the “smart” people, like George Will, agreed on this.  How’s that prediction working out for you? In what was one of the boldest and smartest moves made by any rookie politician she gave herself the tools to amass a personal fortune and the ability to become a figure on the national stage.  Anyone who’s stuck in Alaska simply can’t do that for logistical reasons.

And how about this “dumb broad” using Facebook as a way of bypassing the MSM? No other political figure has used the new media quite this way and this effectively.  Reagan’s success was built partly on his ability to speak directly to the American people, avoiding the gatekeepers in the media. He also had the ability to project the fact that he had so much in common with the average American; he was “real people” even though he had spent most of his life in Hollywood. Well, as the Gipper would say, Sarah Palin is the real deal. Didn’t graduate from Yale or Harvard, worked for a living at jobs to which ordinary people can relate, has a real family with all its quirks (sort of like the Reagan kids), has a good looking husband who has a job that – to repeat – to which real people can relate.

Palin is, from the very beginning, an unlikely elected leader. Conventional wisdom says you don’t rise in politics by bringing down your party’s leaders. She became governor of Alaska by bucking the corruption in her own party. Even now she is being dissed by the king-makers in the Republican establishment. I have read some comments by bloggers who wrote that they don’t want to be governed by people like themselves; they want to be governed by their betters. They’re finding out the hard way that their “betters” are simply better credentialed, not wiser. The fact is that most people like to vote for people just like themselves. In the last presidential election they voted for a blank slate that to this day is largely unknown. The next election will be for someone we know intimately. No more voting for ephemeral “HopeN’Change.” It’s time to elect someone who is firmly grounded. Sarah Palin.

Cornel West accuses the Obama administration of being "racist in effect!"

Via Legal Insurrection

What is “racist in effect?” The way West uses it, it means that if a policy leaves black people no better off – or even worse off - than they were before, it’s “racist in effect.” The Obama administration has seen black unemployment rise to 16.3% and black teen unemployment go over 45%.

By West’s definition, you don’t have to hate, dislike or even care about black people to be a racist. All that’s required is for blacks to be … what? I really don’t know what it would take to get off the West racist list, but I suspect that it involves lots of money and lots of racial bean-counting. 

Cornel West is Professor of Religion and African American studies at Princeton University. Why does this not surprise me?

Portland saved from terrorist attack by feds they rejected.

In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.


Byron York at the Washington Examiner

Sarah Palin ... Revolutionary!

Dr, Gina Loudon writes Fear Factor: Sarah Palin and 2012 at Andrew Breitbart's Big Government.

Dr. Dathan Paterno, noted psychologist and author says the reality is, that there WILL be a woman president in the near future—that it is in the American psyche. What happens if conservatives choose NOT to nominate Sarah Palin? Certainly the liberals will nominate a woman soon, and then they continue the whining about sexism that has worked for them for so long.

Liberals and establishment politicians of all parties seem to have a special venom for the former Governor of Alaska. If she is really so “unelectable” then why all the fuss? “Thou doth protest…”. If she is really so laughable, then why do the jokes about her keep falling flat? Could it be that they obsess about her for the psychological reason that they can’t stand the threat she poses to them? Could it be because they see her as the greatest threat in recent history to their personal goals, and the establishment media and messaging they have used to control politics in this country for a generation? Could it be that the nomination of Sarah Palin for President is a revolution? ....

The liberals have always underestimated Governor Palin and she has continued to shock them as she seamlessly wins elections like a political Houdini of sorts.

All of the accusations about her motives tend to leave the listening public with one logical conclusion: She must be in this because she believes in what she is doing, and genuinely cares about this Country. That is not a half bad motive by most peoples’ standards, and it is hard to argue otherwise and sound rational.

If Sarah Palin runs and wins, it will certainly be a political analyst’s dream to observe. Fear is not a factor for the Palins, and they seem to enjoy the challenge of overcoming all the predictions about their family. They might just shock us again in the weeks to come–and the ones after that.
Read the whole thing.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The "Poverty" Part of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Doesn't Apply to It's Leaders.



In fact, poverty does not seem enter into the SPLC's concerns. 

The Petrelis Files exposes the fabulous wealth of the poverty pimps running the SPLC. Not only does the SPLC have about $190 million in the bank, but that banks appears to be in a tax haven - the Cayman Islands (form 1099, part V, line 4b). Could it be in case Morris Dees, head of the SPLC, decides to leave the country with the SPLC treasury?

It looks like he's already helped himself to much of it.  Dees pays himself $350,000 per year, and travels on chartered planes (private jets for those of you in flyover country).

Poverty pays very well as evidenced by Dees home and wife:



The swimming pool, as seen from the pool house.




An area in the main house for relaxing conversations.



The studio building for Dees' wife Susan Starr.


A lounging jacket designed and modeled by Starr.


Played right, poverty a a very lucrative business.  After seeing these pictures we can better understand why Dees and the SPLC is such a go-to source for the media.  Dees is just like them.

"The Euro Game is up. Who the hell do you think you are?"

Sarah Palin on Barack Obama

One of the best things about Sarah Palin is her ability to puncture the puffed up posers like Obama.  Remember that line from her acceptance speech?
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.
Here's a response via Facebook to those Liberals who are busy faulting her for verbal gaffes, with a litany of gaffes that Obama has made - even though he reads most of his speeches from a Teleprompter:



My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – from the FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. And let’s face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for that…
Of course that won't shut the ankle-biters up, but it's great fun.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

I'm for any program that requires Nancy Pelosi and Janet Napolitano to either be felt up or videotaped nude every morning by Jose, the $20-an-hour security guard -- just as they do for the rest of us.

Ann Coulter realizes that the Capitol is a much better terrorist - sorry, "man caused disaster" - target than an airplane, so why are members of congress not groped ... uh, "screened?"

Strange Men Grope Nancy Pelosi or the Terrorists Have Won



Her best line:
Is there anyone in the government who can tell us why the pilot doesn't need a box-cutter to seize control of the airplane and kill everyone on it? You there, in the back -- the skinny guy with the big ears behind the teleprompter: Wanna take a guess? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

Next Tea Party Target: Corporate America



Modern Big business is not Conservative or Republican. Modern Big Business is often a partner with Big Government at the expense of the American people. It is comfortable joining with the government to shut down competition or to have the government subsidize projects that are not economically feasible on their own. Big Ethanol, which is actually a net energy loser for the American driver is a giant profit center for ag-giant Cargill. GE is another huge company whose CEO, Jeff Immelt, has been following Obama around like a puppy. He was one of Obama’s followers during his recent trip to Asia and specializes in getting business via tax breaks and government subsidies for wind turbines, ultra-expensive light bulbs and other “green” products that can’t survive without government mandates or subsidies. Of course Immelt needs all the help he can get for driving the price of GE from a high to 60 to a low of 6 while cutting its dividend by over 60% in over a decade of mismanagement. He exhibits all the skills of Obama, so perhaps it’s a good match.

Pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are also Big Progressive Government supporters, giving millions to promote Obamacare as well as Cap-&-Trade. Both represent Big Government joined at the hip with Big Business to screw the consumer while fattening their bottom lines and aiding the government in extending its reach into every aspect of our lives. JNJ stockholders have done better than GE’s shareholders, being essentially even for the last 5 years. Pfizer, on the other hand dropped from $44/share in the year 2000 to $12/share in 2009 while cutting its dividend in half.

So it struck me as a great idea for the Tea Party to educate its members about the way in which these big companies are using the dollars we are putting in their pockets. There are alternatives to Ge lighbulbs and other consumer products as well as the products that JNJ and PFE make. The Tea Party is a grass roots movement with literally millions of shoppers in its ranks. I will be very interested to see how these companies react to the changing buying decisions of millions of people.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Quantitative Easing Explained

An explanation of the Ben Bernank and the Goldman Sachs ... and much more.

The Smart Diplomacy of Our Brilliant New Leader: Negotiating the End of the Afghan War with an Imposter!

Is this an example of the Smart Diplomacy™ that The Ones We Have Been Waiting For have brought us after that dummy cowboy Bush fouled things up?

You can’t make this stuff up: Obama and his minions run around the world apologizing for America and vowing to negotiate the end of all wars. It turns out the “leader" that we have been negotiating with in Afghanistan is an imposter.

From the NY Times, the paper that brought you this brilliant leader:


KABUL, Afghanistan — For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor...


How and why? Well, it turns out that we did not know exactly what Mansour looked like and the why is also explained:

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

American officials confirmed Monday that they had given up hope that the Afghan was Mr. Mansour, or even a member of the Taliban leadership.



It turns out that those face masks that the Taliban wear have a use after all: it allows the occasional imposter to collect "lots of money" (millions?) by claiming to be a "leader" willing to negotiate.

When things like this happen, you know the whole world is playing you for a fool. The North Koreans are playing with us, so are the Chinese and the Russians; but when some swindler from the hills of Pakistan can waltz in and scam you for “a lot of money” you know that no one, literally no one respect you any longer. All it took was two years and the US loses whatever respect it had in the world.

Right now I suspect that the Taliban is deliberately using telephones that they know are being monitored, chattering about hiding explosives in women’s breasts and men’s testicles just to watch Team Obama go into an orgy of poking and groping of old women and young children. They are laughing their asses off while Americans shun the airlines for the roads this Holiday season.

Monday, November 22, 2010

How the Crisis Happened

Having Failed to Convince People that Man Made Global Warming is Real, Warmists Now Turn to Psychological Tricks.

From where else but UC Berkley:

Dire messages about global warming can backfire, new study shows

Results showed that those who read the positive messages were more open to believing in the existence of global warming and had more faith in science’s ability to solve the problem. Moreover, those who scored high on the just world scale were less skeptical about global warming when exposed to the positive message. By contrast, those exposed to doomsday messages became more skeptical about global warming, particularly those who scored high on the just world scale.
Prepare to see messages that show how you can prevent global warming if you just give up ...... etc., etc, etc.  Oh wait, you already are,

Sunday, November 21, 2010

TSA Unveils New Genital Visualizers

TSA stays ahead of the curve by preventing penises from being used to smuggle guns, grenades or Jihadist.

Getting past the obvious.



A retired writer for the Virginian Pilot wrote another one of those columns about bias in the media. You know the kind I mean: the one that says that newspaper reporters stifle their biases when they write. Somewhere in every one of these articles there is a reference to a colleague who did not live up to the standard by wearing a campaign button or making a campaign contribution, and how that was a violation of the code.

Can we please stop missing the point? Wearing a Kennedy button does not make a reporter a Democrat. Making a campaign contribution to a Democrat or a Republican does not make the reporter a partisan. He or she is a partisan way before the button is displayed or the contribution is made. These are simply the outward manifestation of internalized beliefs.

No one had any question about the political orientation of Keith Olbermann before he was suspended for giving campaign contributions to three Democrats running for congress. I read nothing on the Internet or the MSM that expressed surprise at his political bent; just that he was suspended for giving cash in addition to in-kind contributions to these candidates on his TV show. Seeing an Obama sticker on a reporter’s bumper is not an “aha” moment, it simply another confirmation of something that’s already apparent.

The retired reporter acknowledged that the use of loaded words in a story can show bias and he gave an example. And he’s right; it’s a common way for a reporter or editor’s bias to frame the issue. But the most common way the MSM shows its bias never appears in print or shows up on the air. It’s the story that is not covered, the issues that are not discussed that, more than any other technique allows the media to shape public perception.

To use the most glaring example, what did we know of Barack Obama when we voted for him? What do we even know today; not about his governing style but about him? Who shaped his beliefs in his youth and early adulthood? What were his accomplishments? How did he attend Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years without once hearing the racism, anti-Semitism or hatred of America? Why was Michelle not proud of her country before Barack was nominated? Was Bill Ayers really just a guy that lived in his neighborhood? What did he do to get the support of the Chicago political machine? Barack Obama was a rock star candidate; and he was treated as a rock star with the MSM acting as the distribution medium for his press handouts.

None of the reporters during the last election wore an Obama pin on their lapel. I heard of none that gave to his campaign. It was not necessary for the American people to know that they were on his side; wanted him elected and were not interested in pursuing stories that questioned his qualifications, his background or his political orientation.

I think that it may even be healthy for people in the MSM to wear pins and stickers, to openly make contributions. Maybe then we can get past the obvious and discuss the less obvious.

CHRIS CHRISTIE shows how it’s done.



Via Instapundit.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Evidence at F-22 Crash Site Indicates Pilot Died

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Evidence found at the remote, rugged Alaska site where an F-22 Raptor crashed indicates the pilot died, an Air Force official said Friday evening.

Part of the jet's ejection seat was found at the site, which means Capt. Jeffrey Haney of Clarklake, Mich., could not have survived the Tuesday night crash, Col. Jack McMullen said. Also found were pieces of the flight suit Haney had been wearing.

Picture of crash site


F-22 Raptor


Video of F-22

Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs giver fewer press briefings.

As this administration's actions become more erratic and unhinged, it's becoming tougher for Robert Gibbs to face the press.

At the beginning the questions were on the order of: "Bob, given the godlike aura surrounding the throne of The One, what wonderful thing has the President done today?"

Then the questions became: “Bob, we know that the President is the smartest person in the history of the universe, why do you thing that the American people don’t appreciate him more?”

It’s now: “Since the election, will our wise president focus even more on reducing unemployment?”

The MSM is still not giving the press secretary a daily beating, but there is some hint, a faint whiff of less than slavish adulation, and that has to be rough on Robert Gibbs.

"I think they may just want to lay low with him," says Pulitzer Prize winner and media critic Dorothy Rabinowitz, who is also is a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

"Gibbs has been a huge problem for the administration," referring to a series of comments that Gibbs' made recently in various media venues and had to back track. His statements included slamming the what he called the "professional left" and angering Speaker Pelosi with a summer prediction that Democrats were likely to lose the House.

Why is Kathleen Parker so ignorant about American history?

Via Newsbusters.  

Kathleen Parker is the kind of conservative that Liberals would build from spare body parts if they could construct conservatives: stupid people who espouse "Liberal Lite."


On Thursday's Parker-Spitzer, CNN's Kathleen Parker bizarrely and inaccurately claimed that Alexander Hamilton came to the United States illegally and drafted the Constitution: "Let's remember...a lot of Americans did come through the back door such as Alexander Hamilton. He got off the boat from the West Indies, and all he did was write the Constitution and become the first Secretary of the Treasury."

The real Hamilton had a somewhat different history. He did not come to the United States because when he arrived here from the British West Indies this country was still a British colony. And he did not write the Constitution, that was largely the work of James Madison.

And of course, Spitzer (otherwise known as Client number 9) agreed with Parker, making him complicit in her ignorance.

Boxer, Citing Don't Ask Don't Tell, Compares U.S. to Iran, N. Korea and Pakistan

Sen. Barbara Boxer, no stranger to controversy, compared the United States to Iran, North Korea and Pakistan this week, saying America's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy puts it on a par with those three countries.
Via Fox News.  Read the whole thing.

Duncan Hunter responds:
California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was stunned when he was told about Boxer's comments.


"Wow," he told FoxNews.com. "I can probably think of few people less qualified to comment on our military than Ms. Boxer."


He said Boxer's comments perform an "extreme disservice to our men and women" in the armed forces and "our military tradition, which I don't think Ms. Boxer understands."

Don't you dare question her patriotism ... or her sanity.  This is the kind of person that the people of California send to Washington to represent them.

Michelle Malkin Interviews Mark Steyn

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Roy Green Interviews Mark Steyn

Part 1.


Part 2

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Race and Failed Leadership

The “American Race Problem” has created a new and interesting challenge. Until the last decade, black leaders were - in the political world – leaders of blacks. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, members of the congressional Black Caucus, were leaders in a world where the followers were black, or elected from districts that were created for them for the purpose of racial homogeneity via Gerrymandering. The thought of replacing any of these men or women with a “white” person in simply inconceivable. Replace Jackson or Sharpton with … Michael Moore (to pick someone who shares their views)? The question is simply silly. Their ethnicity may not be sufficient, but it is necessary.

In politics that situation has changed. To bring two examples to the fore, we now we have a black President and a black Republican Party chairman. Both lead majority white groups. And both have lost the confidence of many of their followers. Both want to hold on to their jobs for another term and both have a card that no white candidate can play: the race card.

For black followers of Barack Obama, which appears to include well over 90% of the black population, his critics are racists. I was sent a copy of a newspaper article by a retired black teacher which appears to reflect her views. These views include the assumption that Barack Obama’s life is in danger because he’s black. Andrew Manis, Associate Professor of History at Macon State College put it this way:
First, every day that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.

Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our damnable color prejudice.





Professor Manis is white. My correspondent is black. Can you imagine the reaction from them and millions of others if the Democrats, fearing a continuation of the electoral catastrophe that began this year, decided to try to deny Barack Obama the nomination for a second term? The Democrats – who are now of the opinion that Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing – are caught in a vice of their own creation. They absolutely need a monolithic black vote to win national elections so they cannot antagonize that part of their coalition. Having an incompetent, unpopular black man as their leader puts them in a virtually impossible situation which they are trying to wriggle out of. The article in the Washington Post Douglas E. Schoen and Patrick H. Caddell is the answer that would – mostly – get them off the hook. But the “Lightworker” whose election would cause the seas to recede and the earth to cool is not that kind of man. In case they have not noticed, it’s not about them, it’s about him.

Michael Steele is a problem for Republicans. He was elected to be the Republican Party Chairman in part to prove that Republicans were every bit as inclusive as Democrats. Steele is a politician and, like many politicians he likes the spotlight. He has had the unfortunate habit of putting his foot in his mouth too often. Party chairmen should neither be seen nor heard. Their job is to raise money and to tend to the party machinery. It now appears that Steele is prepared to play the race card if he does not get a second term. Since his tenure as chairman has not seen an increase in Republican support in the black community, Steele’s hold on the Chairmanship is much less secure. For whites, the accusations of racism – thanks to the rants of Professor Manis and other like him – has lost much of its sting. “You’re calling me a racist? Whatever.” Still, we can be sure that the Liberal community and their megaphones in the MSM will be sure to make the case that Steele is being dropped because he’s black.

There are things that are so emotionally charged that they are immune to logic. Race is one and religion is another. People who have been seeking a secular savior – someone who looks like them – will not let him go even if he brings misery to his people. That’s the hold the First-Black-President™ has on the overwhelming majority of the black community. To give another example, the photo “Piss Christ,” like a lot of Andres Serrano’s work product is - when stripped of its appeal to emotion - not much more than a blurry image in various shades of yellow. A visitor from Mars would wonder not just what all the fuss was all about but why it was put on exhibit in the first place. Only a Christian would have an emotional reaction and be offended.  Only someone who has contempt for Christians but understands the insult would like the picture.  So it is with the new class of black political leaders. If they become leaders due to their race – as Obama was in part – they create a racial crisis if they are found wanting.

So what can a non-black group or culture do if they find themselves governed or led by a black man who is unsatisfactory?  Can enough people find the courage to do the right thing; to look beyond the racial dimension and make a color-blind judgment?  What will be the result?

As I have said in the past, Barack Obama may well be the worst thing that has happened to the black community since the days of Jim Crow.  Many view him as a test case.  This is a problem that will not go away until another generation passes away. I always thought that the Bible verse about the sins of the fathers being visited on the children was unfair. As I have grown much older, I see it’s just the truth.

UPDATE: 

The very white Nancy Pelosi and her very white underling, Steny Hoyer, are now deeply enmeshed in the Democrat’s Black Problem©. It seems the number 3 Democrat in the House, James Clyburn, wanted to move up in the ranks but it seems Queen Nancy believes that she had nothing to do with the Democrat’s defeat so she’s staying, which means Steny is staying which means that Jim Clyburn doesn’t get the promotion that he believes he deserves. It seems that affirmative action is only for the little people since none of Jim’s white overlords is willing to give up his or her job for the affirmative action black man.


The answer? Create a new position. Let’s call is the Senior-Black-in-the-Democrat-House-Party position. He’ll have a car, a driver, a nice office and no power. Sort of like welfare on a grander scale. Hey, it’s worked for the Democrats for several generations.

Federal pay ahead of private industry


In USA Today, an apples to apples comparison of feral pay to private industry pay. It's not even close, the government worker gets more, in some cases much more than the private industry worker. And that's not counting benefits!

These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.


A New Poster Boy for Greed & Arrogance

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Osama bin Laden appoints new commander to spearhead war on West

Via the UK Telegraph:
Little was heard of al-Adel, who was held by Iran with a group of al-Qaeda fugitives, for several years thereafter. The fugitives were housed in villas along Iran's Caspian coast and in Lazivan, north-west of Tehran. Al-Adel lived there with his five children and wife Wafa, who is the daughter of Mustafa Hamid, another top al-Qaeda figure.


But in April this year, he was released from Iranian custody along with Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's son, and top al-Qaeda operatives Suleiman al-Gaith and Mahfouz al-Walid.


...
US and Pakistani sources have told The Daily Telegraph that al-Adel is running several similar operations as part of a war of attrition intended to persuade Western public opinion that the war against terror is unwinnable. This would clear the road for al-Qaeda to capture power in fragile states such as Somalia and Yemen.


"His strategy", said Syed Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani expert on al-Qaeda, "is to stage multiple small terror operations, using the resources of affiliates and allies wherever possible."
Our counter-strategy is to irradiate our citizens travelling on planes, and, if they object, to molest them sexually.

Mike Malloy calls for a race war.

The Radio Equalizer asks: Should Libtalker Be Held Accountable For Hateful Rantings?


Why are Democrats so violent?

Via Glenn Reynolds who linked to The American Spectator:
Kanjorski on Gov.-Elect Rick Scott: "Shoot Him"

Congressman Paul Kanjorski, the Pennsylvania Democrat who just lost his seat to Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican, had another target on his mind before he lost his election.


Curiously, that would be Rick Scott, now the Republican Governor-elect of Florida. Kanjorski is clearly not a Scott fan. In fact, he has suggested that the Governor-elect should be…shot.
Read the whole thing.

Why do Democrats win all the close races; it's uncanny!

Ann Althouse remarks on this. People like Mickey Kaus and Glenn Reynolds are beginning to notice that in the races that end in a slow count, there are frequently boxes or bags of ballots that just - mysteriously - show up with votes for the Democrat; just enough to put him or her over the top.

It's a puzzlement.

TSA out of control: "Cuffed to a Chair, Her Ticket Ripped up"

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Congress of the termites

Via Often wrong, never in doubt:

Art Laffer gave some remarks [at the Show Me Institute recently] and he said something that I found apt: "The political class are like bad renters, not knowing if they'll be in power more than two years they spend everything at hand and then some, because to conserve it is to eventually bequeath resources on their adversaries."

The crop that have just been semi-tossed were particularly bad - they've been ripping out the copper plumbing and smashing the furniture for firewood.
A comment followed:
The bunch that have just been semi-tossed consumed much of the structure of the building. The Congress of the Termites...

Very apt similes and metaphors.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

The video Rachel Maddow doesn’t want you to see

The Virginian Pilot cleans up its website, ignores the cause.

The Virginian Pilot has decided the anonymous comments degrade the quality of its website so they have decided that if people are going to be impolite, they will have to do it under their real names. I have to agree that anonymity give many people a cover to say a lot of obnoxious things.

But …. you knew there was a “but” coming, didn’t you? But where did the people whose foam flecked fingers write those hate-notes learn their craft? Unfortunately, they are the product of the Unofficial School of Journalism. Yes, folks, the “wingers” and “a**s-hats” were taught by those great folks who brought you the Virginian Pilot, MSNBC and the Comedy Channel, just for starters. The difference is that the anonymous commenters don’t have editors to clean up their grammar and didn’t get a degree in English Lit. so they’re a little cruder.

They strive to provide the same message as Daryl Lease, editorial writer for the Virginian Pilot who wrote this column which he used to club Christine O’Donnell and the Tea Party like a baby seal. In the course of a single column we find 6 references to “witch,” 4 to “Tea” and several not-so-subtle references to O’Donnell’s illiteracy, all wrapped in the theme that dressing up like patriots is a really stupid idea. Lease imagines himself something of a political humorist. In reality he’s simply a political bomb thrower who’s paid to polish his bombs before throwing, something that the anonymous commenters on the Pilot’s website don’t have the luxury of doing.

One of the great benefits of the internet is that it has freed the previously passive recipient of the MFM’s bile from having to sit and take it. The alternative was a letter to the editor – which was then at the not-so-tender mercies of the same people who were busy insulting their readers in the first place. I don’t know why people feel compelled to respond on a paper’s website. The Internet is out there. Start your own blog. Be your own editor. Seize control.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

TimeScapes: Rapture

TimeScapes: Rapture from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.


Watch it full screen.

Why Can't Chuck Get His Business Off the Ground?

Via Carpe Diem

Self-fulfilling prophesies.

A response to Paul at Powerline ...
I am not a resident of Delaware nor do I have inside knowledge of its Republican political establishment. However, those who blame the Tea Party – which is not a party – for putting up a candidate who could not win, may want to amend their conclusions about the inevitability of Christine O’Donnell’s loss.

I base my dissent on several factors. First, despite being the focus of a really vicious national campaign to denigrate her personally; a campaign that included both Democrats AND Republicans, O’Donnell’s loss was not the blowout that was widely predicted. She received 40% of the vote in a state everyone said was a deep blue state. She was even with Coons for the Independent vote. According to exit polls, she received 51% of the white vote and 50% of the vote in small communities. She lost massively among blacks (by about the same margin as Republicans often get) but only got 81% of the Conservative vote.  In fact, O'Donnell got about the same percentage of the vote as Joe Biden's opponents received despite the national campaign to make her the poster child of the "Loony Right."

There was second factor that may give us some insight into her loss. She had to build a political machine from the ground up in the space of 45 days. Appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s show last week she said that the Republican Party in Delaware denied her their machinery to help her during the election. For all the good the Republican label gave her in blue-state Delaware, she actually ran an Independent campaign.

The bottom line is this: her loss was not foreordained. The Republican establishment – from Karl Rove on down – would rather lose an election than have people that they can’t control into that “big tent” they always say they want. When somebody as high profile as Rove denigrated O’Donnell after she beat the one the establishment anointed, Mike Castle, he was in the process of creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Not saying that O’Donnell would have won the election in any case, just saying that running against both the Democrats and the Republicans made it just that much harder. The lesson for the Tea Party and Conservatives in general is that you have to be careful about choosing your friends because they may be the ones who are close enough to you to stab you in the back.

HISTORICAL SIDE NOTE: 
As I was writing these comments I was reminded of another event, long ago, during England’s War of the Roses. It ended in the death of the last British king killed in battle: Richard III. Most people have heard of Richard III from the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. He made Richard out to be a bloody villain. With the benefit of hindsight, Shakespeare knew that it was much safer in the England of his day to be on the side of the winner, Henry Tudor who after the battle was crowned Henry VII.

Richard III was killed at the battle of Bosworth Field because one of his key military leaders, Henry Percy – Earl of Northumberland – decided to sit out the battle, and another, William Stanley, waiting to see how the battle developed before deciding to come on Tudor’s side; in the end helped to kill Richard.

Politics hasn’t changed much in the intervening 525 years.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Don't just do something - stand there.

Sometimes you wonder if even really smart people have not been paying attention. For example, in the Virginian Pilot (my local birdcage liner) today I found an op-ed that brought me up short. Jesse T. Richman, assistant professor of political science at Old Dominion University actually thought that it would be a good thing if Republicans and Democrats were able to get together after this election to enact major legislation.

I realize that professors of political science have a bias in favor of legislators legislating. The article does not specify exactly what congress should be legislating on, but the general thrust of the article was that while “cooperation is difficult,” he was optimistic that Democrats and Republicans in congress would be able to work together with Obama to pass laws that “address broad public concerns.”

Well, the public is broadly concerned about jobs, under-water mortgages, ObamaCare, multi-trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see and … if you have been shopping lately … the rising cost of food and fuel. Given that Obama seems to be fixated on spending as a way of stimulating the economy, has staked his Presidency on passing ObamaCare, and the Democrats in congress and Obama have passed housing legislation that has been a dismal failure, what are the chances that they will do a U-turn and agree with Republicans that taxes should be reduced, ObamaCare should be repealed and spending should be cut?

A call for major bipartisan legislation is, in my view, a call to tinker around the edges of the Liberal agenda; to make it work better so that we can go even faster to becoming a semi-fascist state where government makes the rules, tells us what will be produced, which technologies will be developed, where people who have “enough” will have it taken away from them to give to some other more politically connected class. The right to vote for the person who will tell us how to run all aspects of our lives is not how the experiment in American democracy should end.

Every sentient economist agrees that entitlement spending, which now represents about 80% of federal outlays, need fixing. What are the chances that the Democrats in congress and Obama agree to curb entitlements when they have spent every election since FDR scaring seniors by claiming that Republican want to take their social security away? What is the professor thinking is going to happen?

There is one other aspect of professor Richman’s op-ed that bothers me. It seems that passing legislation - major legislation - is viewed as a GOOD THING. I, and a lot of people in this country, do not agree. In the absence of a total repeal of all the laws passed by congress in the last two years, people on Wall Street and Main Street are hoping for gridlock. Some wag said that the mid-term election was a restraining order. Stop with the “major legislation” already because the deck is still stacked against this government, now thankfully divided, actually fixing our problems instead of making them worse.

Some people really believe that a legislature should be like a factory producing … cars or boots or iPods. And the more the factory produces the better. Can’t you hear the writer now? “You: yes YOU - Senator - don’t just sit there, pass a major law. The more pages the better; the more intrusive the better.  That’s your job.”

One of the great things about Virginia is that the legislature is only in session for about 60 days out of the year. The rest of the time, the Old Dominion is safe from the imperative of the legislature to do something.  So it leaves.

Truth and Science and Facts vs. Unwashed Hillbillies

Randall Hoven destroys Obama's claims for the so-called "economic recovery."

Andrew Klavan: Lies! Deceit! Treachery! You Too Can Be a Mainstream Media Reporter.

Via Instapundit

Blame Bush



Now that the midterm election is over and "Blame Bush" has been temporarily shelved - sure to be resurrected shortly - is there anything that Obama and his enablers have not blamed George Bush for?

Let me count the ways.

George Bush is responsible for the bad economy, for the Obama deficit, for out-of-control spending, for cutting taxes for the rich, for the bailouts, for unemployment, for deregulation, for you losing your home, for 17 pregnant teens in Gloucester, for the Gulf oil spill, for the way the war is going in Afghanistan, for not closing Guantanamo, for the coal mine disaster in West Virginia and the Christmas Day airline bombing, for a stupid American public, for Obama failing to get the 2016 Olympics, for Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts, for the Somali pirates, for the heartbreak of psoriasis … and much, much more.



Paul Krugman, of course, believes that Obama does not blame Bush enough. But that’s just Krugman being Krugman … sort of like Biden being Biden when he says something so stupid that even his acolytes on the Left who revere him as an elder statesman throw up in their mouths.

There are things for which Obama does not blame Bush, instead he takes credit for winning in Iraq. Of course I predict with absolute certainty that, should the situation there deteriorate, he will blame Bush.

Now the blame for the Democrats electoral defeat is being laid at the feet of … George Bush;  here's Trudeau's Doonesbury:




Reagan had a better and much funnier way of dealing with his mistakes.









Friday, November 05, 2010

The left starts to wonder if Obama is really so cool after all

Jim Treacher finds one of the increasing number of nutbags who find "The Won" a little less inspiring these days.

Remember who the Effing A-holes treated their opponents two years ago?

Ellmers to NRCC: Thanks for Nothing

The Other McCain tells us what he really thinks about the Republican Establishment:
Notice that the bumbling dingbats at GOP-HQ are now telling the New York Times that everything happened because of them and their genius strategy. Excuse me while I quote myself:

Pete Sessions should have been stripped of his chairmanship the day after Dede Scozzafava endorsed Bill Owens. If there were still any old-fashioned justice in the world, Pete Sessions would have been horsewhipped and stomped to death by the House Republican Caucus, his head carried through the streets atop a pike, and his mutilated headless corpse fed to dogs.



Forget about the Republican establishment in Washington. Civil war has broken out between the RINOS and Real America as to who is going to represent Republican values, set the direction of the Republicans in congress, and who will be the next Republican presidential candidate. All the RINO guns are trained on Sarah Palin with daily hit pieces on her by the RINOs and their - temporary - allies in the MFM.

In the meantime, please contribute to Renee Ellmers to fund her recount effort against the truly vile Bob Etheridge in North Carolina.

GOP candidates top Obama in hypothetical 2012 race

The Presidency is the Republicans to lose?  CNN poll:
"Looking ahead to 2012, it may be too early to count Barack Obama out, particularly if Sarah Palin is his opponent," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The former Alaska governor gets a lot of attention, but she is in third place when Republicans are asked to pick a presidential nominee, and in a hypothetical matchup with Obama she is arguably the weakest candidate of the top-tier GOP hopefuls."

In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, Huckabee leads Obama 52 - 44 percent, while Romney has a 50-45 point advantage, which is within the poll's sampling error.

The MFM are already picking Republicans' candidates for us.  Remember how well that worked out in 2008?

And so it begins: "New House Judiciary Chairman to Obama: Prepare for Investigations"

Veteran Republican Lamar Smith, a Yale graduate and social conservative who grew up in the brush country of south Texas which is now transit point for illegal immigrants and drugs, said in a news conference that a number of issues will come into the sights of his committee when he takes the chairmanship in January, from cracking down on child pornography to taking the Obama Administration to task for failing to do enough to protect the southern border.


Smith says it is his Constitutional duty.


"Part of that checks and balances is in fact holding the administration accountable, is in fact insisting on more transparency, is insisting on more honesty, and getting the facts," Smith said. "Right now, because of the one party monopoly, the Administration has been able to dodge any kind of supervision, any kind of oversight committee action, and they refuse to testify, and that is no longer acceptable."

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Students demand consorship in "Free Expression Tunnel."

N.C. State sophomore Monique Bonds, blocking the tunnel and protesting, said ...
"We'll be out here until we get an answer that we can guarantee that we don't have to walk through this tunnel and worry about what's written on the wall,"

Bonds said that graffiti demeaning many different groups is common in the tunnel.

"It's free expression, but nobody is walking through, regulating it," she said. "They're just letting it happen, and it's not just racism, but gender, sexuality and religious discrimination."

You have to appreciate the words: It's free expression, but nobody is walking through, regulating it

ajmiller comments:
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room! But seriously, do any of these people bickering here get the concept of a free speech tunnel, or more importantly understand how bizarre and sad it is that a university NEEDS a special place for free speech? I know at UNCW, there was no shortage of offensive, bitter, and hateful speech against the president, from Jan 2001 til Jan 2009, and I'm pretty sure none of that was punished. Then again, that was mostly the UNCW administration that was saying it...

Is this a visit or an invasion? "34 warships sent from US for Obama visit"

As President Obama begins his 10 day - $200 million a day taxpayer funded - tour:

Press Trust of India reports that ...
He [Obama] will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.

Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.

Obama is expected to fly by a helicopter -- Marine One -- from the city airport to the Indian Navy's helibase INS Shikra at Colaba in south Mumbai.

From there, he will drive down in Lincoln Continental -- the Presidential limousine -- to the nearby the Taj Hotel.

Two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, and a fleet of over 40 cars will be part of Obamas convoy.

Around 800 rooms have been booked for the President and his entourage in Taj Hotel and Hyatt.
Gary V comments:
34 US Navy ships, 571 rooms at the most expensive hotel in India, 3000 government employees, 4 helicopters 18 jets, Mooshell and the kids for a 3 day trip? This village idiot is abusing the US Govt system. They are a sham and a disgrace to the taxpaying working class American. Make him commute in a Tata! How much you want to bet he is there to pitch the SEIU to the off shore call center workers hired by US companies?
According to the UK Telegraph:
Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip
Mr Obama will arrive in India on Saturday for the first leg of an Asian tour.

But as well as the usual security measures that come with welcoming a a visiting dignitary, Indian authorities have decided to go one step further, by removing all natural threats to the president as well.

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

The "over the top" size and cost of this trip is beginning to seep into the MSM and political debate after getting lots of attention in the Internet.

From another article in the Press Trust of India:

Representative Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota fresh off a victory in her closely watched re-election bid, slammed the White House for the "massive overspending" for Obama's maiden visit to India.
Meanwhile from the Old Grey Whore (NY Times) ... crickets chirping.  Enter "Obama trip cost" in the Washington Post search box and  ... nothing, nada.  The Wall Street Journal?  Silence.

And what is this trillion dollar trip expected to produce?  Barun S. Mitra in the Wall Street Journal:
Indians are not expecting much from the visit of President Barack Obama this week. Rather, given the range of issues on which the two governments diverge today, they are just hoping that no new conflict arises. Neither side seems capable of the leadership that made the visit of George W. Bush in 2006 such a success....

In India, Mr. Obama has attracted neither welcome nor hostility. That may come as a relief after today's U.S. election outcome, but it also means the trip is likely to turn out to be a damp squib. The president is expected to make some concessions to the export-control order that restricts India's access to sensitive and dual-use technologies, something India has been seeking for a long time, but this step is likely to get lost among technical discussions. Mr. Obama may also indicate the U.S. support for India's place on the U.N. Security Council. But this is something the U.S. may not be able to deliver anytime soon.

Bilateral cooperation on international issues is no better. There, Mr. Obama has three key agenda items: Af-Pak, the yuan-dollar exchange rate and climate change. But again, he seems to have given little thought with how to integrate India into his agenda. Either his administration does not see any significant role for Delhi, as in Af-Pak, or the Indian priorities are different, as in climate change.


 
But don't fret, like Michelle's extravagant trip to Spain earlier this year, it will be a swell vacation for the Obamas and the village of hangers-on they're taking along.  After this, I'll never be possible to criticize congressional junkets again.  Everything else - all other royal progresses in the past will pale in comparison.  Over-the-top does not even begin to describe it.

UPDATE:  Allahpundit at Hot Air labels the $200 milliondollar price tag of the trip an urban legend and says "Don’t trust Indian media." 

Instead, who does she trust?  Snopes!  

Do you know who or what Snopes is?  Snopes is about as reliable as Wikipedia.  It’s a husband and wife team running a website out of California.  To suggest that they have any better information about the cost of this junket than the writers if the Indian Press Trust is risible.
The cost “debunked?”  Then come up with something more believable than denials from the same administration that told us that the cost of ObamaCare was zero.  Don’t do the math and say that an entourage of 3000 people that includes the entire White House staff is equivalent of booking accommodations and meals in for a large tourist group visiting India.  Is an aircraft carrier task force going to be assigned to this jaunt?  Are the number of planes and cars going there accurate or not?  What’s the cost of the security arrangements other than the Air force, Navy and Army that surround this trip?   Have the Obamas been known for caring anything about taking extravagant trips on the taxpayer's dime?