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Saturday, December 5, 2009

RULE 5 SATURDAY

The TCOTS Rule 5 Compliance Committee, in full compliance with Stacy McCain's Rules & Regulations, has decided to spotlight a gal who is multi-talented. She could sing a mean little ditty, dance to beat the band, and grace many different types of roles with her skills. She's one of the great broads of entertainment and we would still thrill to having her grant us the honor of the next dance. Without further adieu, it is with great pleasure that The Committee presents....

RHONDA FLEMING...

5 dec 09 @ 7:57 pm est Comments

THINKING OF SUMMER RULE 5

Well, I'm off to put together my RULE 5 SATURDAY posting. It'll take a bit, so I'll leave you with something to satisfy your RULE 5 Jones until I can deliver the stuff, man...

As we begin out trek into the depths of the Winter, its always nice to keep in mind visions of the Summer:

5 dec 09 @ 5:18 pm est Comments

HOW ABOUT A BREATHER...

The last issue I covered here today was quite heavy, so how about we take a breather...

-Paco has up a great Happy Feet Friday video of Benny Goodman And His Orchestra doing a great version of Minnie's In The Money, in color!

Here's one of my favorite Goodman numbers: Benny, the Orchestra, and Peggy Lee performing Why Don't You Do Right?...

[This is a shortened version done for the movie Stage Door Canteen. Check out the recorded version which contains one of Benny's best solos. In fact go out and buy the collection Peggy Lee & Benny Goodman: The Complete Recordings]

-Also, as part of this weeks RULE 5 Observance, Paco serves up a little Java Jivecourtesy of Alvino Rey And Orchestra and The King Sisters.

-Speaking of RULE 5, why not head on over to WyBlog where Chris has bikini babes frolicking in the snow! Here's one he missed:

We still got a few things going-on up here in the Nor'east.

-Fishersville Mike has up a great blast from the past: Gene Gene The Dancing Machine. If you're too young to know who he was, now's the time for you to get educated on one of the best talents of the 1970's.

-The title of this posting by the DarcPrynce, over at The Daley Gator, reads: Cookie Monster: Playful Muppet Or Sexual Predator? You Decide, when it should have read: Cookie Monster Grabs Him Some Skanky Ass:

-And finally...in her weekly FMJRA, Carol, over at No Sheeples Here, was kind enough to link to a posting by your humble Dispatcher, but, more importantly, there was this:

My friend, Smitty of The Other McCain, was recently interviewed by The American Glob. Anyone who is a regular reader of that blog knows that Smitty is the unsung Porch Manqué over there. Batman had Robin and Sherlock Holmes had Dr. Watson. Robert Stacy McCain has a gentleman and a scholar as his co-blogger.

He was humble with his answers and he admirably defended Stacy against the "erroneous regurgitation" of old libels. A good friend is a rare commodity in this world and, for that reason, I have featured Smitty depicted as “Super Man For All Seasons” with this post.

Right on, Carol. Here's a reduced-size version of Smitty being Sheepled...

Bravo, Carol.

5 dec 09 @ 4:58 pm est Comments

THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY...

...is awarded to Carol, over at Carol's Closet, not only for getting it right regarding the issue of GLSEN and Kevin Jennings [see my immediate posting below], but for also bringing-up a related issue that we should be investigating and thing about a lot more [emphasis mine]:

...These books have nothing to do with gay rights. These books have nothing to do with promoting self esteem. In fact, in many cases, these books depict personal degradation as normal and desired. But my shock that these books are being targeted at children isn't based on any feeling I have about a gay or lesbian lifestyle. These books promote the sexualization of children and no matter anything else, the "sexing up" of children is wrong.

Spot-on, Carol.

She also deserves praise for coming up with the best descriptive phase to describe Obama's 'Safe Schools' Czar: Sick Son of a Bitch.

5 dec 09 @ 4:07 pm est Comments

KEVIN JENNINGS, GLSEN, & CHILD PORN

They are so many things that have outraged me about what's been going on in Washington since 20 January. I think what has caused more blood vessels to burst in my head has been the massive and relentless all-out assault on The Constitution Of The United States by the Leftists in power there. But, I must say, this latest outrage has me practically homicidal...

WARNING: The details of this story we even make the hardest person sick to his stomach. I could only read a few of the numerous excepts before I had to stop because I was getting physically ill and, at the same time, ready to go out a kill the people responsible.

Jim Hoft [the Gateway Pundit] and Scott Baker [Breitbart TV] have published a report, prepared by independent researchers, on the books being recommended by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network [GLSEN] for reading by children and for use by teachers in the classroom. GLSEN was founded and manned by Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings. From the Report's introduction:

Out of curiosity to see exactly what kind of books Kevin Jennings and his organization think American students should be reading in school, our team chose a handful at random from the over 100 titles on GLSEN’s grades 7-12 list, and began reading through.

What we discovered shocked us. We were flabbergasted. Rendered speechless.

We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.

We knew that unless we carefully documented what we were reading, the public would have a hard time accepting it. Mere descriptions on our part could not convey the emotional gut reaction one gets when seeing what Kevin Jennings wants kids to read as school assignments. So we began scanning pages from each of the books, and then made exact transcriptions of the relevant passages on each page.

Are we exaggerating, or misconstruing quotes that could be interpreted a different way? No: Read the passages below and judge for yourself. There’s no wiggle room. The language is explicit, the intent clear.

Indeed, there is no wiggle room and the intent is extremely clear. I know it will be a very upsetting thing, but I do urge you to try and at least read some of the excerpts, especially if you are parents of children.

And then tell everyone you know about it. Shout it from the rooftops. Contact your elected representatives at every level; pressure them to offer their opinion on this [send them the link to the Report].

KEVIN JENNINGS MUST BE EXPOSED AND FIRED.

GLSEN MUST BE INVESTIGATED BY THE CONGRESS AND BY CRIMINAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.

PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA MUST BE HELD RESPONSIBLE.

FYI: Paco reports...

Shortly after Gateway Pundit posted pieces on the revolting reading material being recommended by so-called "Safe Schools" Czar Kevin Jennings, the site came under cyber attack.

The site is back up [I was just there].

REACTION FROM SOME OF MY FRIENDS IN THE ETHER...

-From Richard over at Three Beers Later:

I can't reprint the excerpts here, for fear of triggering Blogger's adult content minefield, but I urge you to follow the link, read the material in question, then go light a fire under the White House, your Congressman, your Senator and your schoolboard. Jennings has to go, and Obama has to do something to demonstrate he knows one person who isn't a lying, antisocial degenerate.

Don't hold your breath.

-Carol, over at Carol's Closet:

I am sorry if Jennings parents didn't deal his sexuality in a manner to his liking. But that is no excuse for making schools a branch of the the sex industry. Jennings is Obama's pick, let the President tell us why he supports these reading lists and why he chose a sick SOB as his "Safe Schools" Czar. In the mean time (I won't hold my breath while waiting for an explanation from the President) schools need to figure out how to improve math and reading skills and keep their hands off our children's bodies.

-Jim Hoft has a quick follow-up report today:

But, that’s not all.Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar is also on record praisingthe founder of NAMBLA (The North American Man/Boy Association) as one of his heroes.

-Michelle Malkin has more on other things GLSEN is sponsoring and comments:

Would Barack and Michelle Obama approve of their daughters reading this in their classrooms?

-Supermom Pundette comments:

...If this material reflects the values of the homosexual culture, and most importantly, its attitude toward children, our public schools need to confront their own role in promoting its influence.

-See my next posting: THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY

5 dec 09 @ 2:37 pm est Comments

I'M WITH THE HOOKERS [FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING, OF COURSE]

The Hopenhagen Conference in Copenhagen has a new controversy. From the Political Staff at Der Spiegel, we learn:

Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings.

Copenhagen's city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to 'Be sustainable - don't buy sex'.

"Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes," the approach to hotels says.

Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that the council has no business meddling in their affairs. They have now offered free sex to anyone who can produce one of the offending postcards and their COP15 identity card, according to the Web site avisen.dk.

Those always witty [when not invading other countries] Germans have now renamed the Conference 'Gropenhagen'. Pretty funny for the Krauts, don't you think? [Note to the Diversity Police: I'm part Hun, so I can get away with that term, so STFU.]

I prefer Clifton B's choice for a rename: Man Laid Global Warming Conference.

Good one ABC.

And another thing: the Mayor wrote 'Be sustainable - don't buy sex'. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? You know, I've heard many a reason why we, for 'sustainability's' sake should not practice or perform this or that thing or action. But, as someone who has actually had sexual encounters in the past, at least a few times [have to say that for the wife's sake], I cannot for the life of me figure out how having sex with a hooker is 'anti-green'. If you have any idea what the Hell they mean, please let me know and I'll publish it.

5 dec 09 @ 1:58 pm est Comments

Friday, December 4, 2009

HEY!!!...

...How come no one's returning my phone calls anymore?

4 dec 09 @ 6:49 pm est Comments

CLEANING OUT THE CACHE

Wherein I provide
links to postings
by my fellow bloggers that are well-worth
your time.

A semi-regular feature of TCOTS.

Here's the latest and some stuff I haven't had a chance to get to as we've been hurtling our way along to perdition...

It's been a month since I've done any cleaning and, boy, the dust is flying.

-Mark Hyman looks at The Man Who Despises America. Can you guess who he is before clicking on the link?....yea...thought it might be an easy question.

-Pundette on the cost we are paying, and will have to pay, for having elected a Narcissist-In-Chief.

-Many have compared Julius Obamacus Caesar to Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame, but that would mean he at least had green blood flowing through his veins. I agree with Pat Austin that our Fearless Leader is, in fact. bloodless:

And what's wrong with being cool and detached, anyway, you might ask. It seems to me that in a president, we appreciate those that are human, and that empathize with us. If he can't seem to get on the same plane as the common people, how can he lead or represent us? He becomes imperial and monarchist, even. Removed.

-In addition, Jamie Jeffords is spot-on in thinking there's 'something off' about this guy.

-Over at The Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez put together a great aggregation of links and quotes on honor killings in America. It's a repulsive Muslim practice that we have to stamp out now before it becomes commonplace.

-The winners of the 2nd Annual Infidel Blogger Awards.

-DaTechguy answers the question 'What do the "Global Warming" people have in common with some forms of Protestantism?'

-Regarding our Fearless Leader's remarks about this year's Thanksgiving, Cassy Fiano points out how He got the history wrong, William Teach has his Turkey Day partially ruined by reading Obama's narcissistic Thanksgiving e-mail to his Organizing For America minions, and Donald Douglas reports on how this uniquely American celebration was combined by Barack Hussein Obama with the Muslim Hajj [this clown apparently sees no distinction between the cutting-off of turkey heads with the cutting-off of infidel heads and just can't bring himself to leave any American celebration untainted by his global world view (Imagine there's no America...)].

Well, I hope all of you at least got to relax a bit on Thanksgiving...

-Stogie points us to where we can get the answer to the question 'How Many People Has Islam Murdered?' He also thinks[and I agree] that single mothers should be not permitted to serve in the military. Professor Stogie also gave us a lesson on the history of the N-word and the lies told about it by the Left.

-Thanks to Paco, I was able to enjoy this, perhaps the greatest panning of a book I have have ever read. Regarding everything that's been happening since last November, he thinks 'This cannot end well'. Methinks the man is a prophet.

-Amidst a whole bunch of spot-on commentary, Irish Cicero provides us with a tribute to Horatio Caine and his glasses.

-Everything you need to know about Burkha Barbie from William Teach, Michelle Malkin, Carol at No Sheeples Here, and Dan Riehl.

-The Classic Liberal has the 411 on being able to download all of the episodes of the original series of The Prisoner for free [don't even bother with the new version; it's dreadful].

-If Wonder Woman had looked like this back in the 70's, I would have been a big fan [swiped from Theo Spark]:

-Regarding the greatest guitar riffs, Smitty offered up Chords of Life by Joe Satriani. In the comments section, Ronsonic gets it right and selects Jimmy Page [His name be praised]. As a guitar player since 1973 and as known believer in my own greatness, I set my friend Smitty straight and commented:

A great guitar riff: (1) every note counts [see: Jimmy Page]; there are no throwaways or notes that are merely there for show [see Eddie VanH and his clones]. (2) it must so penetrate the soul that it repeats in the head [Ex: Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore are masters], and (3) it must be the main creator of the mood the song is trying to capture and succeeds in doing so [Ex: Kashmir].

Satriani is doing variations on a theme; this is not a riff, though, as we've come to expect from him, it is a masterful set of variations on a theme.

Ronsonic is absolutely right that Jimmy Page is the greatest of the greats [Ex: Black Dog, Whole Lotta Love, Living Loving Maid, The Rover, Kashmir, Dazed & Confused, How Many More Times, Heartbreaker, Houses Of The Holy, Nobody's Fault But Mine, etc.]

I cannot come up with a #1 riff, but I think the best of the best are: Black Dog [Page/Jones], Supernaut [Iommi], Smoke On The Water [Blackmore], Train Kept A Rollin' [various], Louie Louie [Richard Berry], Layla [Clapton], Jumpin' Jack Flash [Richards].

I should also mention that Ronsonic provided a link to a news report I had not read in that prestigious journal, The Onion:

Calling it the planet's last, best hope for saving rock music, the Guardians of the Protectorate of Rock announced Monday that they would take the extraordinary step of unleashing a never-before-heard Jimmy Page riff, hidden for decades in a mythic, impenetrable vault.

"We who believe in the immortality of rock took a vow 30 years ago that we would never release this incredibly powerful force unless we faced a Day of Reckoning—and that day has come," said Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, one of the chosen few who helped forge the Secret Vault to Save Rock and Roll, at a press conference in the Welsh highlands. "Just look at the pop charts, and you shall know I speak the truth."

Maybe there is hope for rock and roll.

4 dec 09 @ 10:53 am est Comments

USEFUL ROVEIOTS

I always get to feeling a little bit queasy when Karl Rove is introduced on Fox News as a conservative expert and/or strategist. Old warhorse Richard Viguerie has articulated quite well why:

RINOs such as Dede Scozzafava and Florida Governor Charlie Crist aren’t the real issue. Scozzafava, Crist, and others who rightly deserve the “RINO” tag are merely an annoyance. Besides irritating their fellow Republicans with their liberalism, RINOs haven’t really had a great deal of impact on the direction of Republican party policies over the past decade.

The current Republican leadership has consistently supported our national slide to socialism. I’m talking about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and the leading architect of Republican endorsed socialist-statism, former Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove. These “leaders” have consistently abandoned constitutional principles of limited government in favor of socialist-statist programs, all in the name of “winning.”

The Bush supported Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 was the largest Federal Government give-away program in decades. Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay broke a few arms in the party to make sure this legislative travesty passed, and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert cheered him on. At the time of its passage, Karl Rove mistakenly crowed that the legislation meant that the Republican Party had wrapped up electoral dominance for years to come.

In the fall of 2008, both McConnell and Boehner voted in favor of President Bush’s now infamous Troubled Asset Relief Program legislation, a $700 billion bailout of large financial institutions which merely transferred large piles of money from average taxpayers to Wall Street fat cats who had run their businesses into the ground, based in part on requirements forced on them by Congress.

During both of these disasters, as well as many others, most of the national conservative leadership maintained its silence as the “pragmatists” destroyed free markets and conservative principles.

What profiteth a Republican if he winneth elections, but loseth his conservative soul?

Stacy McCain [tip of the fedora to him for calling Mr. Viguerie's posting to my attention] is dead-solid-perfect when he comments:

Some would say that it is unfair to use "socialism" to describe those GOP-supported policies. But if conservatives are going to call Barack Obama's policies socialist, then it's hard to argue with Viguerie's consistency in applying the "s-word" to big-government Republicans.

While Barry O and his Leftist minions in the Congress deserve the lion's share of blame for our speeding down the Road To Serfdom, we cannot forget that the GOP have been the kids in the backseat.

4 dec 09 @ 10:11 am est Comments

THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY...

...is awarded to Stogie, over at Saberpoint, for this very apt analogy:

Obama's belief that small business owners should hire workers they neither need nor can afford shows how little he knows about economics. Let me use a simple analogy to show you why his idea cannot work.

A small farmer has a garden of vegetables. Obama wants this small farmer to give away all of the vegetables to the needy, without leaving any for the farmer and his family to eat. The vegetables needed by the farmer for his family are the profits. If he doesn't keep them for himself, he and his family starve...and he doesn't much give a sh*t if Obama likes it or not.

Spot-on, Stogie.

4 dec 09 @ 9:56 am est Comments

DEATH, WHERE IS THY CASH?

In its infinite wisdom, the House Of Representatives voted on Thursday to make the death tax permanent at a rate of forty-five percent [all Republicans vote 'no' and were joined by twenty-six Democrats].

Chris, over at WyBlog, is justifiably angry:

The death tax is class warfare pure and simple. It's a way for the people who vote for a living to "get even" with those of us who work for a living. It's the embodiment of the Robin Hood philosophy, born of the fallacious belief that "the rich" are a bottomless well of free money.

The taxman has his chance to exact his pound of flesh while we're alive. Once we die we should be able to rest in peace. We don't know for sure if there is life after death. But if the democrats get their way we will surely know that taxes after death are all too real.

You work hard all of your life to achieve some level of success and also leave a legacy to your family and the government comes by in your family's hour of grief and takes a good chunk of that away at the point of a gun. If you think about it, the death tax is not only a penalty for being successful, but a fine for dying.

This is another stark reminder of the irreconsilable differences between the Left and the Right: the Left believes justice is served by dunning people who work hard and profit as a result; the Right believes justice is served by letting people keep what they legally earn.

SIDENOTE: The first line in Chris's posting is 'Congress wants you to keep paying taxes even after you're dead.' Well, what do you expect: they believe the dead should be allowed to vote, after all.

4 dec 09 @ 9:49 am est Comments

AN INNER VIEW OF SMITTY

From Smitty this morning I learned of an interview of him that was conducted by Aleister over at American Glob. It's quite entertaining and informative. A highlight:

Aleister: Who do you like for the GOP in 2012?

Smitty:I like anyone with the asbestos knickers required to go after the Federal Dragon. Our three branch/three level organization scheme has been worn down over the last century by Progressives. I think even Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page, ascribes too much legitimacy to the premise of Federal healthcare management.

What we require is not just another Reaganesque leader who understands the premise of the United States, but someone who can do more to instill those ideas in the populace. Another Reagan chased by another Bush simply isn’t helpful. The national debt noose tightens.

I would probably prefer Ron Paul, except that his foreign policy excites me as much as Barack Obama’s. You’re not going to get the rest of the world to permit the kind of disengagement Paul advocates, for all anyone might think the idea pleasant.

Back to Sarah Palin: on her, I’m neutral. Arguing for/against her based upon her looks/speech patterns is ridiculous. You can build a case that BHO functionally rules out rolling the dice on anyone without extensive experience ever again. Expect that line from HRC in about 28 months. The fact that Sarah Palin has the left doing back flips has some entertainment value, but does not a solid plan to alter our course out of shoal waters make. Some may see my posts chiding other bloggers for shrill attacks on Sarah as a sigh of enthusiasm. I was guilty of being insufficiently critical of George W. Bush. This is about as sinful as voting for President Obama was. Let us all repent and restore sanity to US politics.

I voted for Fred Thompson in the VA primary (for all he’d withdrawn from the 2008 race by then) and would love to see him as POTUS, for the simple reason he seems to lack maniacal drive for the job, but does have the horse sense to get it done.

Ultimately, I reject the concept of politics-as-celebrity. Maybe that’s the next step in the unraveling of our system, after politics-as-profession. Thus, the question “Who do you like”, for all it’s an honest nod to the need for a name on the ballot, excites me not. “What ideas do you prefer?” would be a better approach for everyone to take to the leadership question, in my opinion.

A couple of comments...

1) Smitty's assessment of Fred Thompson is spot-on.

2) His one of Ron Paul is too.

3) Kudos to his comments on the kind of leader we on the Right need.

4) Smitty truly is the Federalist Di Tutti Federalists.

5) Good questions, Aleister.

Also in his posting of this morning, Smitty was kind enough to state this:

It's easily the best interview you'll ever read, at least until he gets around to Little Miss Attila, The Sundries Shack, Riehl World View, American Power, No Sheeples Here, Paco Enterprises, The Camp of The Saints, Instapundit, Troglopundit, The House of Eratosthenes, A Newly Conservative Lesbian, or the admittedly mysterious Sir Not Appearing On This Internet.

To be included in his list with those other great bloggers [except, of course, TrogloPundit] is an honor.

4 dec 09 @ 9:08 am est Comments

END OF ANOTHER ERA

Over at Saberpoint, Stogie laments the end of the Pontiac [last week the last one of them rolled off the assembly line after eighty-two years]:

GM had to close half of its US divisions in order to get the government blackmail bailout money. Pontiac didn't make the cut.

...

Pontiacs were great cars. Like so many aspects of Americana, they now fade into the pages of history.

Even though I'm a hardcore Chrysler man, I empathize with him. How friggin' sad that it had to end like this. It was a damn fine brand. Do check out Stogie's posting, if anything for a great picture of a classic, the 1949 Indian Chief.

Sic transit gloria mundi...

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but with a bailout

4 dec 09 @ 8:30 am est Comments

Thursday, December 3, 2009

AT THE POINT OF A GUN

From Accuracy In Media, L. Daniel Glover reporting, we learn:

Rep. Henry Waxman trekked from Capitol Hill to Federal Trade Commission headquarters today to deliver a message to journalists and news consumers: All of you need to reach a consensus about working with the government in order to bail out the struggling news industry.

The California Democrat, who chairs the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't say it quite so bluntly, but his point was clear. "Government's going to have to be involved, in one way or the other," to save journalism from an ongoing "market failure" that will only worsen without intervention, Waxman said.

He spoke at the second day of an FTC workshop on how journalism can survive in the Internet era.

Waxman bemoaned the demise of newspapers across the country, including in Denver and Seattle, and warned that the troubling media trends will continue. "This recent depression in the media sector is not cyclical," Waxman said. "It is structural."

"Congress can't impose a solution" to that structural problem, he said. But the government should partner with the media industry to ensure a sound future for journalism. Waxman praised the record of "independent" reporting in U.S. history and said it has implications for democracy.

"There needs to be a consensus within the media industry and the larger community it serves" before the government acts, Waxman said. "We have to figure out together how to preserve that kind of reporting."

Spoken like a true fascist [and I mean that in the actual sense of the word, not in the deceitful way the Left has thrown around the word for years (see TERM #6 below right)].

Anytime, anytime, the government forms a partnership with a private business or industry it holds the figurative majority stock in the company or companies. It has the power to force the private businesses involved to do whatever it wants done [as Ayn Rand so eloquently put it 'at the point of a gun']. And the company or companies can do nothing about it. This is most especially true when the government is holding the purse strings. Once the weed of government germinates inside of a company or industry, it feeds off them and its growth is uncontrollable because they've got might on their side. All controlling power eventually and inevitably accures to the government and the employees are absorbed into the Borg-like Collective.

And those working or owning the private businesses involved in such an arrangement who are in favor of the 'collaboration' all end-up becoming enslaved to the government. Many are willing to do this [see the rest of the AIM report and read their sheep-like comments]. And, I suspect, because, in this case the vast majority of people in the news business are Leftists, they will happily sit there while their shackles are applied. They will be overjoyed morphing into apparatchiks.

Tip of the fedora to Dan Riehl for bringing this report to my attention. After he justifiably labels this whole specific situation as repulsive, he comments:

We can not allow this to happen. I'll give them my keyboard when they take it from my cold, dead hands. And it won't be the only thing I'm carrying if they try to come for it! It's time to start drawing lines in the sand around our freedoms and our Rights. It isn't only felons and degenerates that have them. That's the America the progressives want, not an America for us. We need to stand up against what's going on in Washington now more than ever and turn things around beginning with the mid-term elections in 2010.

Hear, hear, Dan. The rubber is meeting the road and we, if we want to call ourselves 'Americans', have to act, and act quickly over the next year. Or else we may have to ask ourselves Questions We Can No Longer Avoid.

Stacy McCain, as you would expect, is up-in-arms over this as well:

Sad as it is for an old newsman to see the industry circling the drain (especially the worsening woes of the Washington Times) I'd go back to driving a forklift before I'd work for a newspaper dependent on bailout money swindled from the taxpayers.

This "gimme" attitude -- that government has an obligation to support us at the expense of our fellow citizens -- is antithetical to liberty....

...

Want to tell Henry Waxman to shove his newspaper bailout up his notorious nostrils? Just support your favorite bloggers, and we'll make sure he gets the message.

Bailout? We don't need no stinkin' bailout!

When they kick in your front door
How ya gonna come
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun?

3 dec 09 @ 5:03 pm est Comments

PREPARE FOR DEFEAT

In a posting yesterday, I offered my criticisms of Julius Obamacus Caeasr's plan for Afghanistan. I was especially critical of his setting of timeline for the withdrawal of troops, which is something that no competent commander ever does.

Today, over at The Corner, Victor Davis Hanson finds another, more disturbing aspect of the speech. This is worth quoting from at length because it is so ominous and spot-on:

But the problem is that the commander-in-chief was clearly pained by the decision — sometimes fobbing off his dilemma on the prior administration, at other times trying to contextualize the war as a complex socio-legal problem rather than a struggle to force our enemy to accept our own political aims (i.e., a consensual government in Kabul that is inhospitable, rather than welcoming, to global terrorists).

And when a war leader visibly regrets the situation he has found himself in — rather than being determined to prevail in the struggle at hand — that hesitancy inevitably ripples through the ranks. Think of the British or French war effort between September 1939 and May 1940, or America in Vietnam between 1964 and 1969. Chamberlain was no Churchill, and LBJ, like it or not, was not a Nixon, at least when it came to trying to win in Vietnam.

In contrast, with the ascension of the "Tiger," Georges Clemenceau, as prime minister in 1917, his will to win ("la guerre jusqu'au bout") filtered throughout the French ranks and soon made an enormous difference in the trenches. Take away a win-at-all-costs Lincoln in the dark days of spring and summer 1864, and the Army of the Potomac, Grant or no Grant, would have lost its soul. During the Cold War, American forces, down to the level of private, were more enthused with a "tear down this wall" president than an earlier "free of that inordinate fear of communism" commander-in-chief.

So, yes, in the short term, troops will be sent. Two brilliant generals will have leeway. And we will have a year and a half at the new troop levels. But no nation can — or should try to — win a war when the heart of the man at the top is not in the struggle.

This is one of those Golden Lessons Of History because it has been proven true a near-infinite number of times.

Our Divine Obamacus does not believe in waging war to victory in the METO, or, for that matter, in the War Against Islam [which he does not even believe exists]. Therefore, pray hard for the troops who are in, and will be sent to, Afghanistan—they'll need every bit of help they can get because they can't count on their C-in-C. As of right now, we're on our way to losing this War.

Goddamn the man.

3 dec 09 @ 2:43 pm est Comments

DISPATCH FROM THE TWO FRONT WAR

For a background on the war, please click here.

Bad news from the Republican Front from Erick Erickson:

Friends, it is as bad as I feared. The Republicans are playing so nice with the Democrats in the Senate that they are improving the health care bill so it can pass.

...

...While I’m glad the Democrats are now fighting it out amongst themselves, the GOP is not really helping the fight for freedom here.

As many of us predicted, the Republicans in the Senate are not trying to defeat Obamacare at all. Rather, they seem to have convinced themselves that socialized health care is going to pass and that the best they can do is not make it as socialized as the Leftist Democrats want. The Republicans do not understand one of the basic truths of life: whether you have a lot of a thing or a little bit of the same thing, you still have the thing. Whether you have a lot of Socialism or you have a little socialism, you still have Socialism. Once you open the door to the government controlling every aspect of our lives in the name of preserving our health, you make ALL OF US wards of the state.

This cave-in by the Republicans is not only pathetic and disgusting, it is a betrayel of their oath to 'preserve, protect, and defend The Constitution Of The United States against all enemies foreign and domestic'. The enemy is the Left. It wants to tear down and destroy everything America stands for. The Republicans in the Congress are either oblivious to this fact [stupid/naive] or they have resolved to stand by and observe and aid in this rape of America [accessory during the act].

If your Congressman is a Republican, contact him or her and tell them you will not vote for them ever again if they help in any way, no mater how watered-down the final product, to get Obamacare passed.

Do not give money to any Republican who betrays his or her oath.

Do not give money to the NRSC or the NRCC.

NOT ONE RED CENT!

OBAMACARE DELANDA EST!

3 dec 09 @ 2:18 pm est Comments

TIME TO BUY THOSE 2010 CALENDARS...

...and while my main calendar will always be Gina Elise's Pin-Ups For Vets Calendar...

..it never hurts to have a second calendar available, like, say, the Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar...

...for backup purposes, you understand.

Special tip of the fedora to Track-A-'Crat for letting me know about this backup option.

3 dec 09 @ 11:54 am est Comments

PATHETIC WEASEL LOOOSA

As I wrote on Tuesday about the murder of four police officers in Lakewood, Washington and the subsequent killing of the shooter, Maurice Clemmons:

This whole horrible affair was set in motion when then-Governor Mike Huckabee commuted Clemmons's sentence. I saw him try to explain his involvement last night on The O'Reilly Factor and, I must say, while he seemed to take more responsibility than he had earlier on his radio show, he still was diluting the blame, spreading the wealth of blame around, you might say....

...

Mr. Huckabee, you should hang your head in shame. How many more ticking timebomb psychos are out there free because of you and your supremely wrong-headed compassion?

Yesterday over at AmSpecBlog, Quin Hillyer has a Come-To-Jesus moment with former Governor Hucksterbee:

Mike Huckabee is out there attacking his attackers. "“It really does show how sick our society has become that people are more concerned about a campaign three years from now than those grieving families in Washington." No, Mr. Huckster, that's not it at all. The fact is that the time to think about the grieving families in Washington would have been IN ADVANCE, so they wouldn't be grieving. Gov. Huckster faced PLENTY of opposition back home to his outrageous clemency policies, and he was warned that violent criminals become recidivists. In other words, he was warned that turning violent offenders loose would create more victims, more grieving families. But he thought he knew better. He thought he, the high and mighty, could tell when a violent offender had "found God" and that such a finding could override the duly enacted decisions of judges and juries, based on duly enacted legislation. Well, he was wrong -- and that is WHY there are now some grieving families in Washington. Of course Huck is not directly responsible for the cop killings; only Mr. Clemmons is. But Huck is responsible for Mr. Clemmons being free. Yes, parole boards let Clemmons free -- but only AFTER Huck's clemencies made it possible for them to do so. Without his commutation of Clemmons' sentence, my understanding is that Clemmons would not have been even eleigbile for parole until 2015.

The Huckster set the whole process in motion by his absolute stupidity and now refuses to be a man and take responsibility for his greivous mistake.

GatorDoug decides to comment visually and is right on target:

Also, as Quin writes later in his posting, Huckabee is a 'pathetic weasel'.

In Doug's posting he also has a map that compares the number of clemencies The Huckster granted versus the states that surround him. It shows you how bad this guy is. Of course, what you expect from such a...

3 dec 09 @ 11:23 am est Comments

THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY...

...is awarded to the Left Coast Rebel for his accurate and succinct description of the Administration:

...A brothel of snot-nosed, wide-eyed bleeding heart pointy-heads straight out of academia that care more for image and photo-op than any institution or sacred American lexicon....

Spot-on, LCR.

3 dec 09 @ 10:42 am est Comments

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A LITTLE HUMP DAY RULE 5

LINDSAY WAGNER...

2 dec 09 @ 8:53 pm est Comments

THE LATEST DETECTIVE PACO ADVENTURE IS HERE

Please click here to check it out.

2 dec 09 @ 6:51 pm est Comments

NEEDLESS DEATHS

I owe a big thank you to William Jacobson, over at the must-read site, Legal Insurrection, for bringing this article in the Guardian first to my attention:

Up to 10,000 people die needlessly of cancer every year because their condition is diagnosed too late, according to research by the government's director of cancer services. The figure is twice the previous estimate for preventable deaths.

Earlier detection of symptoms could save between 5,000 and 10,000 lives in England a year, Prof Mike Richards will reveal this week. The higher figure is nearly twice his previous calculation, which put the figure at about 5,000.

Richards has revised up his estimate after studying the three deadliest forms of the disease ‑ lung, bowel and breast cancer ‑ which together kill almost 63,000 people a year.

"These delays in patients presenting with symptoms and cancer being diagnosed at a late stage inevitably cost lives. The situation is unacceptable," Richards told the Guardian.

...

Britain is poor by international standards at diagnosing cancer. Richards's findings will add urgency to the NHS's efforts to improve early diagnosis.

They also raise further questions about how often family doctors fail to recognise telltale signs.

I wonder why they fail to? Could it be that the best of Britain's doctors go to America where they can be free to practice as they wish and what is left are bottom-of-the-classers and foreigners educated in sub-standard medical schools? Could it be that the doctors who are half-way decent and still practice in Britain have lost an incentive to care that much? You can only demoralize someone so far before they cease to care.

As Professor Jacobson writes:

Since Britain's population is less than one-fifth that of the U.S., the equivalent number of unnecessary deaths in the U.S. would exceed 50,000. The U.S. has cancer survival rates which exceed even the better European countries, so that number may be higher.

Keep that in mind the next time you hear Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and others throw around fictitious numbers about how many people die in the U.S. from lack of insurance....

So many numbers and statistics are being thrown around in this debate, with only a few being true. Its best to check in with people like William Jacobson who do the homework and the grunt work and look into them.

OBAMACARE DELANDA EST!

2 dec 09 @ 2:39 pm est Comments

THANK GOD ITS HOCKEY SEASON

2 dec 09 @ 2:21 pm est Comments

GOD DIDN'T MAKE LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS

So...Charles 'Very Small' Johnson has formally broken with the Right. He issued a statement over at his site Little Green ~~Johnsons~~ Footballs [here's the Memeorandum thread].

I think Donald Douglas, proprietor of American Power, has come up with the best blog posting title on this subject:

Charles Johnson Completes Auto-Excommunication From the Entire Conservative Blogosphere

I think Professor Douglas has also got the best aggregation of commentary on Mad King Charle's actions in that same posting.

With that being said, the best commentary on anything to do with the man or his dememnted site can be found at The Other McCain. Stacy's wit and wisdom are in full flower on this subject.

2 dec 09 @ 2:02 pm est Comments

THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY...

...is awarded to GaterDoug, over at The Daley Gator, for this accurate reading of Mike Huckabee, the man:

The truth is this. Huckabee is a fake, a fraud, a used car salesmen in a nicer suit. A televangelist with a better haircut. He is a guy who will say anything to get a vote. He will promise you anything you want to hear if you vote for him. He is not presidential material, he is frankly, not fit to be elected dog catcher, he is, in fact, a lying sack of you know what.

2 dec 09 @ 10:51 am est Comments

OBAMA...MAKING THE TIMELINES...

A lot of my Friends In The Ether have been publishing some very good commentary on Julius Obamacus Caesar's speech last night wherein he explained his plan for our military operations in the Afghanistan sector of the METO. I'm just going to concentrate on what a few of them had to say, the best of the best, if you will.

-Over at Red State, Erick Erickson is spot-on:

Proving yet again that he is a rank amateur, Obama intends to have a surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, but concurrently announce the timeline for their withdrawal. This is akin to announcing to burglars exactly the time at which you intend to depart your house and also announcing you intend to turn off the burglar alarm. Al Qaeda will just wait us out. They’ll only need to wait a year. The men who spent years planning 9/11 are more patient than this President who wants instant gratification in a never ending campaign.

And that is, at the end of the day, what this was — not the speech of a Commander-in-Chief to his troops, but a campaign speech at time of falling poll numbers because of his dithering, trying to blame the other guy.

Only, there is no other guy now. There is only Barack Obama. A man who sees no special role for America in the world and a moral equivalence between good and evil.

You NEVER announce a timeline. Even if you have set one, you NEVER let the enemy know what it is. This is one of the essential rules in fighting a war or a battle to victory. If any of you still held a belief that this 'rank amateur' could rise to the role of Commander-In-Chief, I hope it's finally gone now. This was a purely, one hundred percent, weaselly political decision that will only end in failure. The soldiers charged with leading and fighting over there have had their hands tied buy this setting of a timeline. War is an ever-changing set of circumstances that requires constant adaptation by those who are waging it. Our Fearless Leader has no clue how to lead a war effort because (1) he has never studied the history of warfare [he knows political 'warfare' which is quite a different thing] and (2) by his past speeches and writings he has shown that he does not even believe we are in a war in the first place [hence his belief that terrorists should be prosecuted like regular criminals].

Let us not forget that Barack Hussein Obama is someone who has spent all of his life viewing the world through a funhouse mirror—everything is distorted, nothing appears as it actually exists. He, literally, has no clue of how wars are fought and won, and. most importantly, the intelligence to realize when a war exists. Our Fearless Leader is an ignoramus of the first order [many Leftists are].

Later in his posting, Erick comments:

Lastly, Barack Obama said, “We have not always been thanked for these efforts, and we have at times made mistakes.” What mistakes exactly? And why tell our soldiers that, in essence, they have made mistakes?

This is the kind of statement that is stroke-inducing. I just want to get in this fool's face and say: 'Enough with the apologizing you clown! Enough with running America down at every single Goddamn opportunity. This is the greatest and most humane nation that has ever existed and has done more good for the world in its short history than all of the other nations of the world that have ever existed combined. By the way, you jerk, if America is such a horrible place, why did you stay here? The USSR would have taken you in, Red China, I'm sure, still will.'

-Over at WyBlog, Chris puts the eighteen month timeline in perspective:

...Some Taliban guys wait longer than 18 months to change their underwear. We'll be gone, and they'll still be hiding out, causing trouble.

And he's quite right about this point:

And in 18 months the pressure from Obama's left flank to cut and run will be impossible for him to resist. They're already pissed at him for not pulling out today. The generals in Pakistan know this, and they know the safe play is to bide their time with the Taliban until we're choppering off the roof of the American embassy. Then they can call the shots and become the dominant power in the region. A dominant power, I might add, that's cozy with al Qaeda and in possession of nuclear weapons.

Maybe that's why Barry didn't use the word "victory", because victory (for America) is not in the cards.

-Congressman Jason Chaffetz was both spot-on and succinct and said exactly what I think:

Mr. President, go big or go home.

That's the ooonly way to fly, buster.

-For those of you who, mercifully, didn't sit through the speech, Michele Malkin provides a checklist that brings you up to speed:

Bush-bashing? Check.

Noxious complaining about the cost of fighting a necessary war? Check.

Disingenuous denial that he dithered? Check.

“Let me be clear”s/”clear”s = 9.

Self-congratulations for sticking to Gitmo closure policy = 1.

Self-referential “As your Commander-in-Chief”s = 2.

References to global jihad = 0.

Charles Krauthammer tonight called the speech “strange,” “defensive,” “hedging,” and full of “uncertainty compounding uncertainty.”

Way to restore America’s standing in the world, eh?

Mrs. Malkin: the world is LTFAO at him.

-In another posting, Erick Erickson succinctly offers his opinion about Chris Matthews's comments after the speech:

...there was an interesting word choice used by one of Obama’s sycophants in the media. NewsBusters notesChris Matthews of MSNBC referred to West Point as “the enemy camp.” Matthews said, “He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean, that’s where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches for, back in the old Bush days. That’s where he went to rabble rouse the “we’re going to democratize the world” campaign back in ‘02. So, I thought it was a strange venue.”

Classy.

Mr. Matthews merely stated what many of us who have studied the Left understand very well: the Left hate the United States Armed Forces with a passion that is usually reserved for lovers.

-Thanks to Smitty, over at The Other McCain for first bringing the Matthews quip to my attention. He's a Navy Man and I think his retort is quite fitting:

...Even though I might make fun of the Woops and their non-command of football, they are US citizens, fellows in arms, and, unlike yourself, contribute something of value to their country and humanity.

ZING!

2 dec 09 @ 10:19 am est Comments

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

SHAME

Maurice Clemmons, the psycho who murdered four police officers in cold blood, has, himself, been killed by police officers [Stacy McCain has the story, with great links, here][see also Dan Riehl here]. Most importantly: justice has been served, but also: an animal has been put down, the taxpayers have been saved a lot of expense, and the Left has been deprived of another cause to champion. Nothing will bring back the four slain officers to their families and friends, but we can all take some measure of satisfaction in that this waste of human skin will never, ever, rape, terrorize, or murder again. It seems that members of the Clemmons family and friends helped him in his attempt to evade justice. They should be prosecuted to the full extent that the law allows and, if found guilty, given the maximum sentences allowed [don't hold your breath].

This whole horrible affair was set in motion when then-Governor Mike Huckabee commuted Clemmons's sentence. I saw him try to explain his involvement last night on The O'Reilly Factorand, I must say, while he seemed to take more responsibility than he had earlier on his radio show, he still was diluting the blame, spreading the wealth of blame around, you might say. Michelle Malkin was dead-solid-perfect in her assessment:

Huckabee got softball treatment on O’Reilly. He blamed other prosecutors and judges while downplaying his ill-considered judgment. There was no discussion of Huck’s long, controversial record on mass clemencies that resulted in more innocent victims of brutal crimes. And O’Reilly unbelievably praised Huckabee for his openness in explaining clemency decisions — which should cause the entire state of Arkansas to shake in derisive laughter and revulsion given the former GOP governor’s stubborn refusal to explain his decisions until forced to so by a massive public backlash.

Back in December of 2007, Phillip Klein did a masterful job chronicling the Governor's horrible record on commutations and pardons here.

Stacy McCain is also dead-solid-perfect in his messageto Mike Hucksterbee:

You failed in your duty to protect the lives of your fellow citizens. Enjoy your broadcasting career. Your credibility as a political leader died Sunday morning in that Lakewood coffee shop.

Mr. Huckabee, you should hang your head in shame. How many more ticking timebomb psychos are out there free because of you and your supremely wrong-headed compassion?

1 dec 09 @ 2:34 pm est Comments

A FISHY MAIN COURSE

The circumstances and personalities surrounding the breach of security at last week's State Dinner at The White House are getting more and more interesting. Over at American Power, Donald Douglas has been on top of the story like Hefner on a Bunny [in the old days]. I've linked to two of his reports yesterday in my posting: PALESTINIANS AT THE GATE.

-Professor Douglas reports on the interviews conducted of Michaele and Tareq Salahi and the Secret Service review here.

-In another, he has gathered some very good links to information on the gatecrashing couple. A highlight:

So, perhaps besides the egregious security breakdown (which amply illustrates gross administration incompetence; no White House social-functions personnel were stationed at the gates), it's mostly a White House in damage control issue at this point. Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Bertha Lewis ... the list goes on. Maybe there's a limit to the heat the president's willing to take on his outrageous ties to ideological extremists and Palestinian lobbyists.

-Early this morning, the Prof. published a good postingconcerning White House Social Secretary and Obama pal, Desirée Rogers and her role in all of this, and the claim of the Salahis's that they were invited.

-Later he posted on the happy couple's apppearence on The Today Show. A highlight:

Give Lauer credit for exposing the Salahis' fraud in the early part of the interview, where they refuse to respond to questions about their Pentagon e-mails. Otherwise, way too sweet of an appearance. These people are not victims. They're glamor-seekers, and stuff's hitting the fan now....

Great work, Donald.

1 dec 09 @ 1:59 pm est Comments

STEYN OF THE WEEKEND

A day late, but never a dollar short...

We have a triple-shot of Steyn this time:

-From his most recent weekly Maclean's column:

...a constrained and regulated culture policed by politically correct enforcers leads to slaughter. I’m not being speculative here, as Commissar Lynch is about my murderous prose style. It’s already happened, just a couple of weeks back. Thirteen men and women plus an unborn baby were gunned down at Fort Hood by a major in the U.S. Army. Nidal Hasan was the perpetrator, but political correctness was his enabler, every step of the way. In the days that followed, the near parodically absurd revelations piled up like an overripe satire, but a two-panel cartoon at the Toronto blogger Scaramouche’s website provided the pithiest distillation:

“This is your brain. This is your brain on political correctness”—a small and shrivelled thing.

Major Hasan couldn’t have been more straightforward about who and what he was. An army psychiatrist, he put “SoA”—i.e., “Soldier of Allah”—on his business card. At the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, he was reprimanded for trying to persuade patients to convert to Islam and fellow pupils objected to his constant “anti-American propaganda,” but, as the Associated Press reported, “a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.”

This is your brain on political correctness.

As the writer Barry Rubin pointed out, Major Hasan was the first mass murderer in U.S. history to give a PowerPoint presentation outlining the rationale for the crime he was about to commit. And he gave the presentation to a roomful of fellow army psychiatrists and doctors. Some of whom glanced queasily at their colleagues, but none of whom actually spoke up. And, when the question of whether then-Captain Hasan was, in fact, “psychotic,” the policy committee at Walter Reed Army Medical Center worried “how would it look if we kick out one of the few Muslim residents.”

This is your brain on political correctness.

So instead he got promoted to major and shipped to Fort Hood. And barely had he got to Texas when he started making idle chit-chat praising the jihadist murderer of two soldiers outside a recruitment centre in Little Rock. “This is what Muslims should do, stand up to the aggressors,” Major Hasan told his superior officer, Colonel Terry Lee. “People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square.”

In less enlightened times, Colonel Lee would have concluded that, being in favour of the murder of his comrades, Major Hasan was objectively on the side of the enemy. But instead he merely cautioned the major against saying things that might give people the wrong impression. Which is to say, the right impression.

This is your brain on political correctness.

“You need to lock it up, major,” advised the colonel.

But, of course, he didn’t. He could pretty much say what he wanted—infidels should have their throats cut, for example. Meanwhile, the only ones who felt any “need to lock it up” were his fellow psychiatrists, his patients, his teachers at the Uniformed Services University, officials at Walter Reed, and the brass at Fort Hood. So they locked it up for years, and now 14 people are dead.

And even when the slaughter had happened, much of the media found it easier to slander both the U.S. military and the general populace than to confront the evidence. The Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano professed to be most worried about an “anti-Muslim backlash” from the knuckledragging bozo citizenry she has the forlorn task of attempting to hold in check. This is the Jennifer Lynch argument: the priority is always some hypothetical atrocity waiting to happen, no matter how many times we ace that test: there was no “anti-Muslim backlash” after 3,000 corpses on Sept. 11, or after Bali, Madrid or London. Muslims have certainly been murdered in New York and London but by their co-religionists on 9/11 and 7/7 rather than by any “Islamophobes.”

-From his appearance last week on the Hugh Hewitt Show:

STEYN: ...I think what Copenhagen is really about is about erecting a global bureaucracy that has no electoral accountability to people anywhere on the planet. I mean, it sounds nuts when you talk about it like that, but if you actually read what they’re proposing at Copenhagen, they want to create a kind of embryo bureaucracy in the interest of so-called saving the planet, that will have a vast, unlimited budget, and will suck, literally, trillions out of the developed world to so-called solve this entirely artificial problem based on all this bogus data from East Anglia.

-From his most recent weekly syndicated column:

My favorite moment in the Climategate/Climaquiddick scandal currently roiling the “climate change” racket was Stuart Varney’s interview on Fox News with the actor Ed Begley Jr. — star of the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere but latterly better known, as is the fashion with members of the thespian community, as an “activist.” He’s currently in a competition with Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) to see who can have the lowest “carbon footprint.” Pistols at dawn would seem the quickest way of resolving that one, but presumably you couldn’t get a reality series out of it. Anyway, Ed was relaxed about the mountain of documents recently leaked from Britain’s Climate Research Unit in which the world’s leading climate-change warm-mongers e-mail each other back and forth on how to “hide the decline” and other interesting matters.

Nothing to worry about, folks. “We’ll go down the path and see what happens in peer-reviewed studies,” said Ed airily. “Those are the key words here, Stuart. ‘Peer-reviewed studies.’”

Hang on. Could you say that again more slowly so I can write it down? Not to worry. Ed said it every 12 seconds, as if it were the magic charm that could make all the bad publicity go away. He wore an open-necked shirt, and, although I don’t have a 76” inch HDTV, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a talismanic peer-reviewed amulet nestling in his chest hair for additional protection. “If these scientists have done something wrong, it will be found out and their peers will determine it,” insisted Ed. “Don’t get your information from me, folks, or any newscaster. Get it from people with Ph.D. after their names. ‘Peer-reviewed studies is the key words. And if it comes out in peer-reviewed studies . . . ”

Got it: Pier-reviewed studies. You stand on the pier and you notice the tide seems to be coming in a little higher than it used to and you wonder if it’s something to do with incandescent light bulbs killing the polar bears? Is that how it works?

No, no, peer-reviewed studies. “Peer-reviewed studies. Go to Science magazine, folks. Go to Nature,” babbled Ed. “Read peer-reviewed studies. That’s all you need to do. Don’t get it from you or me.”

Look for the peer-reviewed label! And then just believe whatever it is they tell you!

1 dec 09 @ 11:30 am est Comments

THE TWO FRONT WAR

Also from Erick Erickson, we learn this disturbing and frustrating news:

The Senate Republican Conference is giddy that its first amendment to the health care legislation is to preserve the bloated Medicare bureaucracy. The Senate Democrats want to do what they always accuse the GOP of doing and cut Medicare. The GOP is apparently giddy at the opportunity to rub the Democrats’ noses in their Medicare cuts.

So now the GOP is using its first amendment to reaffirm the Democrat theory that Medicare cannot be cut and cuts even to the rate of growth of Medicare are also wrong.

The GOP could have, by chance, offered up the Stupak language, which has not yet been inserted. The GOP could have offered up an amendment to split the Democrats up front. The GOP could have done nothing and moved on to let cloture fail, thus killing the bill. Instead, Democrats and Republicans will no doubt join hands and vote to put the money back in Medicare, making it a grand bipartisan exercise.

What next? A GOP amendment to guarantee breast cancer screenings in the legislation?

Having started from the presupposition that the health care legislation is going to pass, the GOP seems to be signaling it will work to “improve” the legislation just enough to overcome a filibuster.

The legislation has 57 votes already. The GOP does not need to offer amendments to improve the bill — they need to bring it to a vote and kill it. Preening for cameras and favorable press coverage is going to get the bill to 60 votes and a signing ceremony.

Two weeks ago, after the Senate voted to debate Obamacare, I wrote:

Disregarding the overwhelming opposition of the electorate, the Senate voted Saturday Night to begin the debate on the socialization of American health care. The Republicans there seemed poised to fight it, but, from past experience, we know we cannot trust them. Too many times have they said that passage of this or that bill is 'inevitable, so we might as well make the best of it' and then gone on to use the amendment process to try and lessen the blow to our freedoms and liberties with the result that they usually get NOTHING for their benighted efforts. But, oh, how they tried! Erick Erickson is dead-solid-perfect when he comments:

As I have said before, if Republicans work to improve the legislation, they presuppose its passage. Instead, the GOP should plan for the destruction of the bill by offering amendments designed to divide and fracture the Democrat coalition.

Its up to us to hold the squishe's feet to the fire. Burn, baby, burn.

So, we'll have to fight this battle on two fronts....

I think it safe to say that the two front war is on.

The stakes are so high, as I wrote three days before the above posting:

It will also mean that the government will now own our lives. Think about it: so many aspects of our lives can be connected to our health. The amount of hours you work. Driving. What and how often you eat. What you watch on television. And these are just a very few of the activities that, it can be argued, effect one's health. The definitions can be stretched like Silly Putty. If we allow the government to gain power over our health care then they will be given the power to set the rules for how we can live our lives [see: mammograms and prostate exams]. They will be in charge, be the bossman. Like parents, they will be able to punish us for not following the rules. Like executors of a trust fund, they will decide how services and monies are distributed. They will control the horizontal and the vertical. This naked totalitarian power grab must be stopped. Oh, and—a little fact this—ITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

On this last point, Gene Healy had an excellent and succinct explanation for Obamacare's unconstitutionality in The Washington Examiner of 24 November.

OBAMACARE DELANDA EST!

1 dec 09 @ 11:03 am est Comments

WELCOME TO THE FUNHOUSE

Over at Red State, Erick Erickson has up a good posting describing one of Julius Obamacus Caesar's deficiencies:

A friend of mine told me about a meeting he had with Goldman Sachs’ CEO in Atlanta at the beginning of the year. Someone asked the CEO what he thought of the new Obama administration. The CEO admitted he voted for Obama, but then said how stunned he was at lack of advisors surrounding Obama who had come from the private sector.

In fact, a new study showsObama has fewer advisors who’ve made a living in the private sector than any other American President in the last 108 years — since the turn of the 20th century when the business of America became business.

This is not to say that the Chief Executive should have private sector experience. And this is not to say that the Chief Executive should employ only people from the private sector. But it is to say that we should not trust a Chief Executive to know how to fix the private sector or “create competition” in health care when there is hardly a person near him who knows anything about job creation.

He's absolutely correct. But, we have to remember that this fact does not trouble our Fearless Leader in the slightest. He is a committed radical Leftist. While he may pay lip service to the free market, it is all pure show, played out for the purposes of deceiving us. He doesn't believe in it at all and thinks it actually is a horrible thing. For our Divine Julius, 'job creation' means something quite different than the way we think of it. For him, it means to enslave the individual to the state, as the state, in his mind, is the only entity that should be about the business [pun intended] of assigning work, and all work should be towards the end of benefiting the state. The state knows what's best for the individual. This is basic Leftist thinking.

We have to realize that the way of thinking that most people have, is not the 'normal' way of thinking for the radical Leftist. When they look at the world, their eyes translate the landscape before them into a whole different set of shapes because all of the signals are filtered through an ideology that allows for no individual freedom. Their lenses are like the mirrors in a Funhouse. Never forget this.

1 dec 09 @ 9:57 am est Comments

Monday, November 30, 2009

YOU'VE GOT SOME 'SPLAINING TO DO

Man up, Rev.

[More on this tomorrow]

30 nov 09 @ 7:53 pm est Comments

PALESTINIANS AT THE GATE

I have long been an admirer of the Secret Service. I think the men and women who work for it do a tremendous job under often difficult circumstances. This is especially true on The White House detail where the personalities the agents are assigned to protect with their lives can often be very difficult. However, despite what they are going through in light of the two gate crashers, I'm glad it happened. It has taken this incident to shine a couple of spotlights on some of the, shall we say, 'fishy' stuff going on at The White House.

-Spotlight #1 is shining on the couple who did the gate crashing: Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele [get her a sandwich]. It seems Mr. Sahahi is a Palestinian national and, according to Donald Douglas:

In addition, and ominously, it turns out that Tareq Salahi, the polo-playing intruder, is a Palestinian nationalist with ties to the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) , a pro-Palestine lobby demanding the "right of return" for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The "right of return" has long been considered the backdoor to Israel's destruction. But not only that: ATFP President Ziad Asali is an America-basher who blamed 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Asali was a lead U.S. official to PLO terrorist Yassir Arafat's funeral in 2004. And in a position paper in 2007, the ATFP called for a power-sharing agreement at the Palestinian Authority, which would have included the State Department's designated-terrorist group, Hamas.

Ah well then...it would seem that Salahi and his stick-thin wife belonged at the State Dinner. I mean, hell, our Fearless Leader is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, so Salahi's presence was rather appropriate, don't you think?

Cassy Fiano has the straight poop on how far back the relationship between our President and the gate crashing couple goes.

Professor Douglas also has a good posting up about the whole 'when did our Divine One meet them' question and how the New York Daily Newsscrewed the pooch on the timeline.

-Spotlight #2 is shining on White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers. Guess what? She's a longtime associate and pal of Valerie Jarrett, friends with Michelle Obama, and a campaign cash bundler for the Obama Campaign. Michelle Malkin has a lot of detail over in a long posting over at her site. A highlight:

She’s the intimate Chicago fund-raising cronyof Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett who was once married to fellow Obama crony and frequent White House visitor John Rogers, chief executive of multi-billion-dollar Ariel Capital Management. They both bundledhundreds of thousands in donations for Team Obama before Desiree was appointed to head the White House social secretary’s office — an office smack dab in the middle of the Crasher-gate scandal that is smellier than week-old Thanksgiving turkey. More on that in a moment.

That is merely just a sip of a filled cup Mrs. Malkin is serving, so please do take the time to click here and read the whole report.

SIDETHOUGHT: This Administration, if it does nothing else positive, will at least help restore the reputations of the Robber Barons and Richard Nixon. After this lot is through, the Barons won't seem half as bad and neither will Mr. Nixon.

Barry O is well on his way to out Nixoning Nixon.

30 nov 09 @ 2:37 pm est Comments

PUT SOME OINTMENT ON THAT

Barack Obama, President of The United States Of America, Fearless Leader and Duce, Lowerer Of The Seas, Defender Of Islam, Apologist Of All That Is American, Sovereign Of The Stimulus, Healer Of The Earth, Duke Of No Nukes, Sovereign Restorer Of Images, Messiah Of The Mob, Leader Of The Lay-Abouts, Sovereign Organizers Of Communities,
Duke Of Alinsky, Sovereign and Most Honourable Provider Of Health Care, Sovereign of the Most Venerable Order of Narcissists, Financial Adviser-In-Chief, Physician-In-Chief, Linguist-In-Chief, is adding a new title to his name: Personal Trainer-In-Chief.

It seems he will be teaming-up with the National Football League to fight obesity!

Erick Erickson is not very happy about this:

Seriously, is nothing sacred? Can we not escape this man at all? People watch sports in general for the love of the game and to escape the daily minutia of life. Barack Obama showing up randomly like a bad rash is annoying.

Hey you there! Get off that couch and give me twenty!

30 nov 09 @ 11:03 am est Comments

BABY, WE WERE BORN TO FISK

This past Saturday while I was in my RULE 5 haze, Stacy McCain treated us to two very enjoyable Fiskings of people supposedly on the right side of things, but who, nevertheless, spend most of their time putting down the Right for practically everything it stands for. If they had their way, the Republican Party would seek to elect only me-too-ers who's only function would be to be efficient managers of the permanent Leviathan and attend all the right soirees where they could be treated as accepted curiosities.

-Stacy once again was forced to apply his sharp wit and intelligence to the words of Mzzz. Kathleen Parker, elitist figurative illegitimate daughter of Nelson Rockefeller. In his 2009 Evil Top 10, she tied for tenth with Twelfth-Iman-Loving Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A highlight:

You can be sure that when some latter-day elitist like Kathleen Parker cites [Russell] Kirk and [William F.] Buckley, the citation will always be used againstconservatives. The elitist versions of Kirk and Buckley are revisionist mannequins, shorn of any unfashionable populism so as to obscure the fact that the conservatism of yore -- when Buckley defended Joe McCarthy and helped inspire the conservative insurgency that made AuH2O the Republican nominee in 1964 -- was thoroughly disdained by the soi-dissant elite of that time.

It was WFB and his crew that penetrated the Southland and the Western prairies and helped convince many a redneck and rancher that the conservative cause and the Republican Party were their natural home. He saw in their independent spirits the kind of spirit he possessed. While he enjoyed hosting and attending cocktail parties in New York, he also understood that the average Joe and Jane were the backbone of The Republic. Hence his famous quip about his preference for being ruled by the first two hundred names in the phone book than by the elitist university educated types.

What prompted Stacy's paragraph above was this statement by Mzzz. Parker:

The old elite corps of the conservative movement, men such as William F. Buckley and Russell Kirk, undoubtedly would find this attitude both dangerous and bizarre. When did thinking go out of style? . . .

As Kirk wrote in his own "Ten Conservative Principles," conservatism "possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata . . . conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order."

I must say I really do get sick and tired of non-conservative Republicans [such as Mzzz. Parker] digging up Russell Kirk's body to use him to make points that Mr. Kirk would not agree with in any way. I have read almost all of his non-fiction and I consider him my top American conservative mentor. And I can tell you he would not have appreciated being used in this way by ideologues such as Mzzz. Parker. [You can see for youself what I mean by clicking here to read Mr. Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles.]

-Stacy then turned his attention to Michael Gerson, who he crowns The World's Most Useless Douchebag. He Fisked the man in two separate postings, one at The Other McCain and one over at AmSpecBlog. From the former:

Most cable news networks have forsaken objectivity entirely and produce little actual news, since makeup for guests is cheaper than reporting.

(Translation: "WWAAAAHH! I'm not on O'Reilly!")

From the latter:

Gerson's payroll position at a think tank funded by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, of course, qualifies him to look down his elitist nose at the rest of us. (We don't live in "repressive countries" and therefore lack "great courage," which Gerson obviously possesses in incomparable measure.)

Does Mr. Gerson know Grover Norquist who is on my Top Ten Evil List?

Thanks for uncovering that Stacy.

30 nov 09 @ 9:59 am est Comments

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