March 16, 2010
Lest We Forget
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:23 PM | Comments (12)
It was seven years ago today that smelly moonbat activist Rachel Corrie was fatally struck by a bulldozer while helping Palestinians defend tunnels that were used to import weapons to kill Jews.
Suddenly, I'm craving IHOP.
Continue reading "Lest We Forget"
Billboards of America
Posted by Van Helsing at 5:40 PM | Comments (23)
A good way to take America's pulse is to drive its highways. In 2010, here's what you will see:
It's safe to say at this point that Hopey Change just didn't take. Unfortunately that doesn't mean it can't be imposed by force.
On a tip from Oiao.
Counter-Moonbattery Alert: Throw the Bum Out
Posted by The MaryHunter at 3:24 PM | Comments (39)
A Tea Party activist group in New Jersey has been given the green light by a state court to initiate a recall petition effort against Democrat U.S. Senator Robert Menendez.
There's no question the odds of success are slim: A successful recall vote requires a fourth of the state's registered voters to sign the petition in order to get the issue on the fall ballot (Menendez' term ends in January of 2013).
That would mean roughly 1.3 million such signatures are needed.
"Given the will of the people embodied in our state organic law, and the dearth of clear precedent nullifying the people's enactments, we accordingly decline at this juncture to find our state constitutional provision and related stature permitting recall of a United States Senator to be unconstitutional," the Appeals Court found.
The opinion added, "The silence of the federal Constitution [on recall] may well result in the conclusion that it may be done."
The State Supreme Court has not even chimed in yet, so don't hold your breath for a first-ever U.S. Senator recall.
What do the Democrats say about this? Exactly: "Tea Partiers are RACISTS!" It must get real tired to have but one retort for any activism against a Democrat politician who is not a pure-blood cracker.
Hat tip: The Daily Caller.
Our Progressive Overlords
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 2:44 PM | Comments (34)
Hat Tip: NRO
If the Speaker of the House can just deem a very unpopular bill "passed" without even holding a vote on it, aren't we pretty much living in a dictatorship?
And what about you progressives? Do you just not give a damn about this perversion of democracy because it happens to suit your agenda? And doesn't that make you guys... um... fascists by definition?
Yes, Nazis Were Leftists
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:59 PM | Comments (53)
The most impressive example of sleight of hand in the history of propaganda may be the liberal establishment's alarming ability to pass off Nazis as right-wing rather than left-wing. Nazism and Stalinism were highly similar, rival variants of the totalitarian socialism longed for by progressives. When the Hitler-Stalin pact collapsed, the left was forced to choose between them. Nazis certainly deserved the demonization that followed, though no more than their Bolshevik brethren.
Despite the vilification from the left, it still isn't easy to distinguish Nazis from communists, as Stephen Hicks reminds us, quoting Ulrike Meinhof of the leftist Red Army Faction (aka Bader-Meinhof):
Auschwitz meant that six million Jews were killed, and thrown on the waste-heap of Europe, for what they were: money Jews. Finance capital and the banks, the hard core of the system of imperialism and capitalism, had turned the hatred of men against money and exploitation, and against the Jews … Anti-Semitism is really a hatred of capitalism.
Self-hating Jew Karl Marx would have agreed:
What is the profane basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money. Very well: then in emancipating itself from huckstering and money, and thus from real and practical Judaism, our age would emancipate itself.
As soon as society succeeds in abolishing the empirical essence of Judaism — huckstering and its conditions — the Jew becomes impossible.
Everybody knows that Nazis didn't like Jews, but despite the name of the party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers Party), few seem to be aware of their more fundamental hostility to economy freedom. Here's how Joseph Goebbels put it:
The worker in a capitalist state — and that is his deepest misfortune — is no longer a living human being, a creator, a maker. He has become a machine. A number, a cog in the machine without sense or understanding.
Whereas under totalitarianism — whether it's Nazism, communism, or the authoritarian political correctness that Democrats have been tightening around our throats — we can all blossom as individuals, right moonbats?
Hat tip: David Thompson.
Government Math
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:07 PM | Comments (5)
Shrillary Gathers "Human Rights" Dirt on USA
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:52 AM | Comments (10)
Shrillary doesn't spend all her time locked in a cage in the White House basement after all. Here's what she's been up to:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the State Department is soliciting comments from citizens, advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations on the human rights record of the United States.
"Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard, including ourselves," Clinton told a press briefing at the State Department, where she unveiled the "2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices."
Clinton said the U.S. is now gathering facts on its own record because — as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council — it is participating in the UNHRC's "universal periodic review" process.
The UNHRC is a farce, by the way.
The Obama administration's decision to join the Human Rights Council was controversial. The Geneva-based, 47-member HRC faces numerous criticisms, chief among them the presence of countries with poor rights records. Iran is currently running for a seat on the council.
The objective of this first-ever report on America's human rights record for review by the corrupt thugs dominating the UN is revealed by Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute:
"It will give pretty left-wing groups a forum for criticizing the U.S.," Ruse told CNSNews.com. That internal criticism will then end up at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
"This is a two-step process," Ruse said. "The second step is another opportunity for the U.S. to come under fire, this time by the United Nations."
No wonder Shrillary has been completely off the radar screen as Secretary of State. Gathering anti-American propaganda is full-time job. Just ask Keith Olbermann.
On a tip from Nancz.
Felons in the White House?
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:01 AM | Comments (13)
Redemption is possible for anyone — even the odious Benedict Arlen Specter, who makes this constructive remark about the simmering White House job-bribing scandal most of the press has been studiously ignoring:
There's a crime called misprision of a felony. Misprision of a felony is when you don't report a crime. So you're getting into pretty deep areas here in these considerations.
Sphincter is referring to the jobs that were offered by the White House as highly illegal bribes to Democrats Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff for getting out of the way of favored Senate candidates Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet in Colorado. As the American Spectator explains in a story worth reading just for the URL, this means that anyone who knows about the proffered bribes and stayed quiet could be headed to prison on felony charges:
Stunningly, this would presumably also include anyone on the Obama White House staff who knew one of their colleagues had offered such a job — which is to say committed a crime — and didn't report it. …
It should be recalled here that Specter is not just Sestak's opponent. He is a former Philadelphia district attorney and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. …
If in fact Sestak is telling the truth, if in fact the Denver Post story about Andrew Romanoff is correct — and neither Sestak nor Romanoff reported these offers to federal authorities — Specter is saying both could in fact do jail time for committing a felony.
This may explain why Robert Gibbs has been doggedly stonewalling questions on the topic by two of the last real journalists in Washington, Major Garrett and Jake Tapper.
If Sestak has told the truth, if the Denver Post got it right — then not only is the person or persons within the White House who made these job offers in big trouble, but anybody else on the Obama White House staff who currently knows this has happened and has not reported it to the proper authorities — the FBI, just for starters — is, according to Specter, a potential prosecution target for "misprision of a felony." For which this person or persons could also go to jail along with whomever offered the jobs in the first place.
Good thing they don't still wear those black and white horizontal stripes at the Big House. Beltway Bob is a little heavy to look good in them.
On tips from TrickleUpPolitics and the Knights of the Dumb Table at Blue Gold Nation.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:12 AM | Comments (33)
Transsexual Freakazoid Becomes a "Neuter"
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:51 AM | Comments (20)
No matter how far moonbats push the envelope in the Culture War, they can be counted on to push it further still so long as they encounter no meaningful resistance. What's next after surgically and chemically mutating your body into a blasphemous simulacrum of the oppose sex? How about deforming yourself so that you have no sex at all:
Norrie May-Welby, 48, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990, at the age of 28.
After becoming unhappy as a woman, May-Welby decided to become a "neuter". The 48-year-old is now officially recognised as a person of no specific gender.
On the positive side, this is good news for the construction industry, as publicly accessible buildings will no doubt be required to add a "Neither" room between the Men's and Ladies' rooms.
On a tip from Antara.
Progressives Are Idiots with No Math Skills
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:30 AM | Comments (15)
Listened to the trained progressive seals respond with "boos" when insurance companies are mentioned, and cheers and applause as Dear Reader promises them that insurance premiums will go down 3,000%!
3,000%? So, at that rate, insurance companies would be paying employers to cover their employees.
Alternately, Dear Reader is an idiot who doesn't have even a marginal clue what he's talking about.
Americans Not Allowed to Fly Old Glory in Haiti
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:59 AM | Comments (16)
I guess M'Chel just isn't proud of the relief work our country is doing in Haiti.
The many nations helping Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that struck there have set up their own military compounds and fly their flags at the entrances.
France's tricolor, Britain's Union Jack and even Croatia's coat of arms flap in the breeze.
But the country whose contributions dwarf the rest of the world's -- the United States -- has no flag at its main installation near the Port-au-Prince airport.
The Obama administration says flying the flag could give Haiti the wrong idea.
"We are not here as an occupation force, but as an international partner committed to supporting the government of Haiti on the road to recovery," the U.S. government's Haiti Joint Information Center said in response to a query about the flag.
I guess Chairman Zero was hurt when his boyfriend, Hugo Chavez, suggested that US relief efforts were just cover for an invasion and occupation of Haiti.
Remind me again, why the Hell would anyone want to invade and occupy Haiti?
Crisis of Culture
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:07 AM | Comments (9)
As the lunatic wing of the Democrat Party prepares for the great leap into socialism by ramming through a federal healthcare entitlement certain to lead to national bankruptcy, now might be a good time to reprint highlights from a letter that Dr. Roger Starner Jones wrote to the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion Ledger:
During my last night's shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B; tune for a ring tone.
Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.
She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer. And our President expects me to pay for this woman's health care?
Our nation's health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture — a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
A culture that thinks I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me.
There it is in a nutshell: the depraved infantilism of liberalism, which demands that those who take responsibility become slaves to those who do not.
No culture rotted through with this mentality can survive indefinitely. Our healthcare system is only the beginning of what we stand to lose.
On a tip from Oiao.
NY Gov Asks for the Other 49 States to Bail Him Out
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:02 AM | Comments (6)
Since raising taxes on everything failed to restore New York's budget to solvency (surprise surprise), New York's corrupt governor is asking the Federal Government to bail them out of a $9 Billion budget deficit.
It is worth nothing that New York State's $9 Billion deficit this year is smaller than the $10.5 Billion increase in state spending Paterson enacted last year.
In sum, the taxpayers of fiscally responsible states like Texas, Indiana, and Alaska are going to be asked to bail out the bloated budget of New York State, its too large and overcompensated bureaucracy, and its public employee unions.
The very definition of "redistributing wealth."
And if states are in bad shape now, wait until the Medicare/Medicaid expansions in ObamaCare hit their budgets.
Your Welfare Dollars at Work
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:31 AM | Comments (32)
Helping Unemployed Hipsters buy Organic, Gourmet Food with Food Stamps.
Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding -- and her usual gigs -- to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she's used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house in the neighborhood of Hampden, and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away.
"I'm eating better than I ever have before," she told me. "Even with food stamps, it's not like I'm living large, but it helps."
Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month.
"I'm sort of a foodie, and I'm not going to do the 'living off ramen' thing," he said, fondly remembering a recent meal he'd prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. "I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it's great that you can get anything."
I guess sponging off the taxpayers spares the indignity of relying on their families, or taking jobs that are unworthy of a "30 year old Art School Graduate."
Also, anyone who describes himself as a "foodie" needs to be smacked on pure principle.
Consistently Kicking Our Allies in the Teeth
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:18 AM | Comments (37)
New York Times Headline: "Israel Feeling Rising Anger From U.S."
Seth Liebsohn at NRO writes:
How I just pray for the headline someday that reads "Iran Feeling Rising Anger From U.S." or "Venezuela Feeling Rising Anger From U.S." or "Cuba Feeling Rising Anger From U.S." or "Myanmar Feeling Rising Anger From U.S." or "Sudan Feeling Rising Anger From U.S."
Unfortunately, we have an administration in place that thinks Jews building houses is an atrocity, but Palestinians lobbying bombs and rockets at Jewish schoolchildren is, at worst, inconvenient.
Meanwhile, the Hamas Terrorist Government has declared a "Day of Rage" in response to the unspeakable Jewish atrocity of ... reopening an Ancient Synagogue in a Jewish Section of Jerusalem.
The horror!
GreenJobsGate: This One Has Incriminating Emails, Too
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:24 AM | Comments (11)
On the Green Jobs-Green Energy front, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Obama Administration is in bed with lobbyists, going completely against his campaign pledge at the very least. But it goes deeper than that.
Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Obama Department of Energy is using the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) -- the lobbying arm of "Big Wind" in the U.S. -- to coordinate political responses with two strongly ideological activist groups: the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the George Soros funded Center for American Progress (CAP).
This is further proof that Obama has betrayed his promise to ban lobbyists. Further, this incident suggests yet another questionable appointment -- Cathy Zoi, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the DoE, injected politics into public policy. Cathy Zoi also happens to be the former CEO of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.
This all comes back to the green jobs farce that has been revealed in Europe, in particular in Spain. The Obama Administration cites Spain over and over as a success story for green jobs. However, an economic report published by a Spanish university revealed the truth: that Spain's "green jobs" program ended up costing them 2.2 regular jobs and $800,000 for every "green job" created.
Naturally, Obamunists did not care for this report. The aforementioned emails reveal a conspiratorial path of intimidation, spin and deception that aimed to tweak a DoE report on renewable energy. It's aim was to accentuate the positive (viz., UCS and CAP pro-green-economy propaganda) and eliminate the negative (viz., the Spanish report). Christopher Horner's article clearly outlines the sequence of events revealed in the incriminating DoE emails, which also reveal "apparently misleading -- or false -- statements made to Congress by the DoE. Particularly the statements made by Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi. "
So, in short: nothing really new here, just another flavor of Obamunist corruption infusing our nation in the name of the radical-leftist, power-hungry green movement. The day we are truly free from this garbage is the day that the last progressive is purged from the federal government. Don't hold your breath.
Item #3: Speaking of Phonies
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:18 AM | Comments (4)
It looks like the Runaway Prius Guy has a suspiciously long history of financial problems. He filed for bankruptcy in 2008, with over $700,000 in debts. Also, Toyota and Government engineers have been unable to recreate the incident and the brakes on the vehicle do not show the wear that would be associated with stomping on them at 94 miles an hour, as he claimed he did.
There's also evidence to suggest that "sudden acceleration" is nothing more than geezers stomping on the gas instead of the brake. Which, as it turns out, was the cause of "sudden acceleration" in Audis twenty years ago.
Item #2: Chairman Zero's Human Health Care Prop Is a Big Phony
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:06 AM | Comments (14)
Continuing the Democrat strategy of "Legislation Through Sob Story," PBO dragged up cancer victim Natoma Canfield and claimed that because of our craptacular health care system, she was going to lose her house and then die of cancer. And later her corpse would tossed into a landfill and Republicans would pee on it, because Republicans hate sick people that much.
None of it turns out to be true. Canfield is receiving cancer treatment at one of the country's best facilities, is eligible for existing Medicaid and charity assistance, and is no danger of losing her home.
Far from being an example of the system being broken, Canfield indicates that the current system works just fine.
Continue reading "Item #2: Chairman Zero's Human Health Care Prop Is a Big Phony"
Morning Briefs for Tuesday Item #1: Our Sad President
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:57 AM | Comments (12)
The Washington Post is fretting that PBO doesn't seem very happy being president. Poor baby.
I don't recall the media ever giving a damn about whether GWB was happy being president.
Then again, I don't recall GWB whining like a little bitch over how hard it was to be president, or crying like a little girl because he thought the media were unfair to him. Or simpering that Sarah Palin was stealing his thunder and taking attention away from him.
