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November 20, 2009
UCLA Students Nearly Riot Over Skyrocketing Fees
Posted by Van Helsing at 6:02 PM | Comments (36)
History shows that there are limits to the greed and incompetence people will tolerate from their rulers. Our current kakistocracy is pushing those limits to the last extreme. When the dam breaks, there's a good chance it will be in California, a state that moonbat bureauweenies have economically ruined. Recently, the liberal kleptocrats jacked up withholding by 10% on paychecks. They've gotten away with it — for now. They've also increased University of California fees by 32%. The reaction at UCLA:
The public is finally beginning to come to a boil.
On a tip from AlphaOmega.
San Fransicko Bookstore Considers 'Going Rogue' Too Icky to Sell
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:26 PM | Comments (34)
"Anything like that we wouldn't carry," said clerk Emily Stackhouse at Cover to Cover Books in San Francisco. "We're a small store and it would probably gross us all out. Some things you carry because of freedom of speech, but a book like that is just gross."
Are these hippies being narrow-minded and childish? You betcha. (Wink!)
Dear Senator, Think Before You Vote
Posted by The MaryHunter at 2:20 PM | Comments (8)
Faithful reader Bergbikr has the right idea with this letter to our senators, regarding the Obama-Pelosi-ReidCare monstrosity. I think the chances of any senator reading this or any letter from a constituent are about as good as those of their reading the whole thousand-plus-page bill before a vote, but we'll never know if we don't try, will we.
Dear Senators:
There has been no extended congressional debate regarding the two frightening, 1,000+ page healthcare bills now under consideration. The consequences of moving our country in this direction WILL NOT save our economy but WILL decimate what has been the best healthcare system in the world. Superior American medical practice and innovation has been available to serve patients from other government run systems denied timely care and new drugs and procedures at home. If we now become a similar government controlled system, our healthcare will deteriorate and become rationed as doctors refuse to practice in a stifling environment and medical student numbers decline. Without capital generation in the system medical research and development will decline.
With our country currently facing unfathomable deficit spending and skyrocketing debt, how can we pay for a health care plan that will serve all? Vowing to do so will not make caring for a larger patient base less expensive. One plan version will tax the wealthy more but can the middle class be far behind? Proposed excise taxes on professional medical items will also be paid by the patients. Inevitably our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay this cost along with our other bonded debt. This is irresponsible.
We like the private insurance based system that we presently have and do not want to see it destroyed in competition with a non-profit and probably loss ridden government alternative. The goal of the Statist reformers of America is to convert our healthcare system into a single payer, government bureaucracy managing medical quality and quantity and end-of-life care for the good of society. This social purpose is most un-American!
So, now, again in great haste (as with the stimulus and Cap and Trade), health care legislation is being prepared to be passed before Christmas as the number one achievement of this administration. Can you please analyze the contents of this bill and its real cost without payout timing gimmicks before you vote on it? Can I also ask you to please consider voting NO, and instead seek legislation that will actually help benefit the healthcare system, such as insurance reform and interstate access? Capping frivolous lawsuits is a must as well.
And before considering massive healthcare reform, please take the first step of fixing the waste, fraud and unfunded costs of Medicare and of Medicaid. Finally, whatever legislation is enacted, it should certainly be made mandatory for members of Congress and all government employees.
Respectfully,
A Concerned American
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:35 AM | Comments (72)
Government Scrooges Nix North Pole Letters
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:24 AM | Comments (15)
A new front has been opened in the War on Christmas — the children's safety angle:
Thousands of starry-eyed children all over the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season, but they will not likely get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.
The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.
Postal Service officials said they are tightening rules in such programs nationwide after a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to make changes to the program.
People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.
As with all government decrees, there will be negative economic consequences.
Losing the Santa-letter cache is a blow to the community of 2,100 people, who pride themselves on their Christmas ties. Huge tourist attractions here include an everything-Christmas store, Santa Claus House, and the post office, where visitors can get a hand-stamped postmark on their postcards and packages if they ask for it. …
Santa Claus House, built like a Swiss chalet and chock full of all items Christmas, sells more than 100,000 letters from Santa and one of the lures is the postmark.
Operations manager Paul Brown believes his business will be affected under changes to the volunteer Santa letter program because tens of thousands of letters are addressed to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska.
Those letters will still be forwarded to volunteers but it's unclear yet if anything will be done with them. Those intercepted by the postal service will probably eventually be shredded.
Here's an idea: Instead of shredding children's letters to Santa, why not keep them safe from molesters by treating child rapists to more than two months in jail?
On a tip from Anonymous Countermoonbat.
(Just Barely) Morning Briefs
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:55 AM | Comments (23)
Good Morning Campers, Good Morning Lefty Rachel Maddow Impersonators,
Item Number One: Deeply cool, a man who was evacuated at the age of five from South Vietnam after the communists (whom the progressive left were rooting for) took over has returned... as the Commander of a US Navy Destroyer.
"I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship," CMDR Hung Ba Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. "It's an incredible personal honor."
A small victory for America, and a defeat to all those sanctimonious hippie cowards who wanted Le to be raised in a communist dictatorship. (The same sanctimonious hippie cowards who now control the White House and Congress.)
Item Number Two: Andrew Klavan mounts a defense of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Glenn Beck but I couldn't figure out how to embed the video.
Item Number Three: In a sign of the times, Barack Obama --- who threw enormous gala White House celebrations in honor of Communist China and Moslem Ramadan --- has cut the size of the annual Hannukah dinner in half. You gotta wonder if the J-o-o-s are going to get the hint that this guy doesn't care too much for them, or at least not as much as he cares about Muslims and Communists.
Also... I'm sure Lao, Andy, and the rest of Tiger Beat's target demo are very excited that another Twilight movie opens today. In dishonor of that, I give you today's stinger:
Leaked Emails Confirm Global Warming Is a Deliberate Hoax
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:52 AM | Comments (34)
The jig is about up for the global warming hoax. The Climactic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia has been hacked into, and its emails have been released to the public. Watt's Up With That offers some examples of what the academics paid to play along with this farcical swindle say to each other when they think the public can't hear them. Here's a gem:
I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90.
Apparently even climate scientists have noticed that it's been getting colder, not warmer; that's why they have to fudge the numbers.
At least some of these people have a conscience:
I'm not too comfortable with this, and would rather not sign — at least not without some real time to think it through and debate the issue. It is unprecedented and political, and that worries me.
Everything having to do with "climate change" is political, all right.
On tips from Oiao, Dave K, LouieLouie, and Michael S.
A Tearjerker Argument for ObamaCare
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:40 AM | Comments (11)
Here's a tragic tale of the sort of lifestyle that really ought to be coercively financed by others via Big Government:
When an ambulance brought Daniel Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his knee in March, paramedics warned the then 550-pound man he probably wouldn't be able to get up from his recliner if they put him there, his wife said.
Webb told them to leave him there anyway. He would sit in that recliner, slowly dying, for the next eight months. Finally, paramedics were called back to his Greenwood home on Wednesday because he was in a lot of pain.
Webb's body was physically stuck to the power recliner and firefighters had to cut him from the chair to take him to the hospital. He died a few hours later, his body covered with sores and a "very bad odor," according to a police report.
Webb, 33, didn't ask for help for all those months, because he was ashamed and didn't have health insurance, said his wife, Ada. He slept and used the bathroom in his chair and she cleaned it every day. …
Webb's mother was the one who placed the final call to paramedics. Not only did crews have to cut apart the chair, but they had to cut a hole in the wall of the couple's mobile home about 70 miles west of Columbia [South Carolina] to get him out. A police report said he weighed about 800 pounds, but his wife said he was closer to 500 pounds.
If only he could have held on to see Obamao et al. provide free healthcare to everyone, Webb might have lived to make half a ton — unless being overweight put him last in line for rationed care.
On a tip from heckrulz.
Global Warming Causes Prostitution
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:59 AM | Comments (9)
If Big Government doesn't jack taxes through the stratosphere and seize totalitarian control of all human activity, it won't be only the polar bears who suffer. Global warming will force women into prostitution:
Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country.
"Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing, possibly driving some women into sex work and thereby increase HIV infection," Mukherjee said during the Wednesday launch of the UNFPA annual State of World Population Report in Pasay City.
Not to worry, UNFPA bureauweenies have come up with "five measures to mitigate climate change and overpopulation":
• Bring a better understanding of population dynamics, gender and reproductive health to climate change and environmental discussions at all levels;
• Fully fund family planning services and contraceptive supplies within the framework of reproductive health and rights, and assure that low income is no barrier to access;
• Prioritize research and date collection to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation;
• Improve sex-disaggregation of date related to migration flows that are influenced by environmental factors and prepare now for increases in population movements resulting from climate change; and
• Integrate gender considerations into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
To sum up, they want to reduce the human population by promoting abortion and other means of birth control on your dime — and they want to yap some more about meaningless BS like "gender considerations" as they relate to natural and unavoidable climate fluctuation, also on your dime.
Time to add prostitution to The List.
On tips from mega and Beef.
Obama's KSM Show Trial Will Cost NYC $100 Million
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:17 AM | Comments (18)
Circus show trials don't come cheap. According to Charles "Chucky Schmucky" Schumer, the bill for Chairman Zero to put George W. Bush, the CIA, the military, and pre-Moonbat Messiah America on trial will come to a pretty penny:
"Rough estimate from the city of New York, which I received yesterday, place the added cost of moving the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other terrorist suspects to New York somewhere in the ballpark of $75 million, that's a minimum," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Schumer said extra security procedures could push that number up to $100 million, and asked that the federal government foot the bill.
But New York is full of fat-cat capitalists, many of whom were foolish enough to vote for Obama. Let them spread the wealth around!
Maybe we can get Al Qaeda to pick up the bill. The propaganda value to their cause would be worth every cent. This farcical trial is likely to turn the tide in their favor. But so long as it can be used as an opportunity for Bush-bashing and sanctimonious posturing, that's fine with our current rulers.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Los Angeles ACORNista Eager to Assist Child Prostitution Business
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:27 AM | Comments (29)
James O'Keefe on the latest ACORN video released by himself and Hannah Giles:
Lavelle Stewart, of ACORN in South Central Los Angeles, tells us she thinks we have to hook up with "someone who's on that international sex business level," that "14 and 15 year olds been traveling overseas for years," that she can do independent research for us, and that she has had meetings with Porn magnate Larry Flynt. As for laundering the sex money into my faux political campaign, Lavelle says, "there are ways, people do it all the time. Yeah there are ways, especially out here in California."
With only one exception so far, Chairman Zero's ACORNista friends are always willing to help anyone they think crawls around in the sewer. No wonder the Moonbat Messiah would like to have his extensive ties to them scrubbed.
Don't miss earlier O'Keefe/Giles ACORN gems — and hold on tight for what might go public if Eric Holder still won't investigate his fellow cockroaches. Andrew Breitbart explains:
Not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder: I want you to know that we have more tapes, it's not just ACORN, and we're going to hold out until the next election cycle, or else if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution that they fear that this is a dangerous organization. So if you get into an investigation, we will give you the tapes; if you don't give us the tapes, we will revisit these tapes come election time.
We'll see what the chances are of getting a "clean investigation" out of the same Injustice Department that scuttled the prosecution of Black Panther thugs who intimidated voters during last November's catastrophe.
On a tip from Oiao.
I Went All the Way to China and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:45 AM | Comments (6)
The man-child Barack Hussein Obama is back from his wondrous and productive trip to Asia. Productive, that is, in the photo-op sense. But besides that spectacularly obsequious bow to the Japanese emperor and that Great Wall product placement ad, what was actually accomplished by this boy-wonder president in the big-boy department, especially with China and particularly on his signature issues of global climate change and international human rights? Nada. Well, how about something as mundane as the global economy? Not so much:
There were no apologies, at least in public, this time. Few raised cheers. "On every issue - exchange rates, market access, even the terms of the broadcast of his town-hall meeting in Shanghai - the president was outmaneuvered by a Chinese government growing in confidence every day," said Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
At least he was honored with that commemorative Oba-Mao tee shirt, utterly befitting his standing in the world of the Elitist Left. Obama's Marxist father would have been so proud.
November 19, 2009
Portland Greets the Goracle
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:16 PM | Comments (49)
Here's the reception Al Gore got yesterday when he came to hyperliberal Portland, Oregon to hype the global warming hoax and his latest book exploiting it:
The debate is over; we have a consensus: Al Gore is a liar.
On a tip from Oiao.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 3:40 PM | Comments (47)
Seen on the Streets of Philadelphia
Posted by Van Helsing at 3:36 PM | Comments (20)
Compliments of Conan:
Pat Leahy Is an Idiot
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:36 PM | Comments (14)
In case you doubted how utterly stupid the leadership of the majority party in the senate is, consider this gob-smackingly stupid quote from Vermont's senior (and less liberal) senator, Pat Leahy.
"The red herring that my friend [Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] was covering is not realistic," Leahy said during an appearance on "Washington Journal" on C-SPAN. "For one thing, capturing Osama bin Laden — we've had enough on him, we don't need to interrogate him," Leahy added.
This is the Democrat mindset. They have no interest in interrogating OBL to find out what he knows about terror networks or future mass casualty terror plots. In the Obamunist world, terrorists are, at worst, criminals --- kind of like arsonists, just on a bigger scale, (and with legitimate grievances against American power, of course) These people are too stupid to think beyond putting terrorists in prison. The idea that Islamic Fascism is an ideology with objectives far more dangerous than burning down buildings just can't fit into their tiny leftist minds.
Al "PhotoShop" Gore Tries Lies to Sell Books
Posted by The MaryHunter at 11:45 AM | Comments (106)
Apparently, the 30-year low in hurricane activity was about to make some trouble for sales of Al Gore's new book, "Our Choice; A Plan To Solve The Climate Crisis." Therefore, he settled on a little PhotoShopping instead:
Shortly after the devastation of Katrina, Al Gore was busy making a correlation between hurricanes and global warming in an effort to drive home his claim that higher global CO2 emissions cause an increase in extreme weather events. The cover art for Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, features an image of a hurricane rising out of a smoke stack.
Seemingly underwhelmed that there have been no major hurricanes since Katrina, along with the fact that global hurricane activity is now at a thirty year low, Gore came up with an ingenious method of solving the problem of the lack of scary depictions of frightening hurricanes to display on his book – simply airbrush them in!
Paul Joseph Watson, author of the above-linked post, quotes Univ. of Florida hurricane expert Ryan Maue, who made an interesting observation about Algore's new tome:
The cover opens and closes half and half — so you only see one hurricane…as in the press release photo or the one on Amazon.
But this is the real picture sequence from the book which I looked at Borders today and took cell-phone pictures, original (before the retouching by some “artist”) Note all of the Arctic ice and the size of the Florida Peninsula… And the final product:
A midget Southern Hemisphere cyclone is off the coast of Florida, another hurricane is sitting on the equator off the coast of Peru — and the Arctic Ice is gone (perhaps it is summer) and the Florida Peninsula is half gone
There are other differences I am sure you can find — but the hurricanes are just nonsense…
Editorial license, you say? Creative adjustment of an image, something that's done all the time in marketing campaigns, just to make a point of a future that could be?
How about: desperate act by a lying enviro-moonbat who is doing anything and everything possible to promote as reality what has been and continues to be confirmed as a hoax. The trouble for Gore (and potential book sales) is that the public are finally catching on.
Major tip of the tam to Alex Jones' PrisonPlanet.com
California's Petty Tyrants Crack Down on Televisions
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:59 AM | Comments (20)
Even as they drive the state's economy over the edge of an abyss, California's moonbat rulers continue to impose needless, intrusive, and economically harmful decrees. If this one doesn't cause a revolt, nothing will — they're coming after television sets:
California regulators have adopted the first energy-efficiency standards for televisions in the U.S., a move that will eventually ban power-hungry sets from the state's store shelves.
As always, the sheer mass of the Land of Fruits and Nuts allows it to pull the rest of us down with it.
Wednesday's action by the California Energy Commission could lead the way in a general reform of standards for an industry increasingly focused on wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets.
The 5-0 vote by the California Energy Commission is just the latest effort by the state to secure its place in the forefront of the environmental movement.
California represents such a big consumer market that environmental groups hope the new standards will lead manufacturers to make energy-saving TVs for the rest of the nation, just as California's stringent fuel standards for cars and trucks forced automakers to produce more efficient models for all of the U.S.
When it comes to vehicles, "more efficient" also means "more expensive" and "more likely to get you killed if you have an accident."
Until California bureauweenies are able to impose their television whims on the entire country, the result of this latest fiat will be more economic hardship for a state that can't take much more.
Some manufacturers warned that the regulations will cripple innovation, limit consumer choice and hurt California stores, because people could simply buy TVs out of state or online. The industry also complained that manufacturers will be forced to make televisions with poorer picture quality and fewer features than those sold elsewhere in the U.S.
"Instead of allowing customers to choose the products they want, the commission has decided to impose arbitrary standards that will hamper innovation and limit consumer choice," said Jason Oxman, a vice president with the Consumer Electronics Association. "It will result in higher prices for consumers, job losses for Californians, and lost tax revenue for the state."
But at least the dictate will benefit man-eating polar bears, according to the bizarre delusions that comprise liberal ideology.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Narcissist in Chief Finds a Use for Our Troops
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:30 AM | Comments (17)
For a change, Chairman Zero deigned to visit American troops while on his junket in Asia. Here's what he had to say to them:
You guys make a pretty good photo op.
I'm sure they're pleased to know they're good for something.
Meanwhile, the long-delayed decision on whether they will get the reinforcements they urgently need in Afghanistan has been kicked back to after Thanksgiving.
On tips from Conan and Conservigilant.
White House Counsel's Job: Make ACORN Ties Vanish
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:04 AM | Comments (5)
Just as Anita Dunn — the Obama communications director who led a campaign to marginalize Fox News and who publicly praised the genocidal dictator with the biggest body count in human history as one of her "favorite political philosophers" — joined the crowd under Chairman Zero's bus, her husband Bob Bauer climbed aboard as White House counsel. His mission: to erase the many ties between our Community Organizer in Chief and ACORN, the astonishingly corrupt ultra-left activist group with which he has been closely associated his entire career. The Hill reports:
Newly appointed White House counsel Bob Bauer is "perfectly positioned to be tasked with erasing the tracks between Obama and ACORN," one Republican lawmaker charged Friday.
The lawyer's hiring, announced this morning shortly after Greg Craig officially resigned the post, was also an attempt by the White House to deflect any fallout that may arise from an ACORN investigation currently underway in Louisiana, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) added in a statement.
"Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama's relationship with ACORN, the congressman told supporters. "Bauer's hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN's national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House."
Separating Obama from ACORN won't be easy. Gateway Pundit summarizes their intimate relationship:
One of Barack Obama's first big "community organizer" jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He has been working along side ACORN since before he became an elected official. Obama also trained ACORN employees. He represented ACORN in court. Obama worked with and protested with ACORN. His campaign donated $800,000 to ACORN in 2008 for voter registration efforts. And, ACORN even canvassed for Obama last year.
The task of obliterating so much factual reality will require a great deal of audacity, which makes Bauer ideal for the job. As noted in the Morning Briefs, he tried to sic a special prosecutor on John McCain for objecting to voter fraud.
On a tip from TED.
Obama Imitates Team America: World Police
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:35 AM | Comments (10)
Chairman Zero in South Korea yesterday:
"Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal . . . and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences."
Hans Brix in Team America: World Police:
Hans Blix: I'm sorry, but the UN must be firm with you. Let me in, or else.
Kim Jong Il: Or else what?
Hans Blix: Or else we will be very angry with you... and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.
Police Grovel Before Muslim Maniacs
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:06 AM | Comments (11)
The obsequious political correctness that allowed Nidal Malik Hasan to fester away until he was ready to launch his terrorist massacre at Ford Hood is hardly limited to the military. Law enforcement is rotted through with it too:
The Ummah, a violent fundamentalist Sunni Islamic group in Detroit, advocates a separate Islamic state that would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, also known as H. Rap Brown, a veteran of the black power movement now in prison for gunning down two police officers. According to the U.S. Department of justice the Ummah group "is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years, and known to be armed."
Last month, as the result of a two-year investigation, the FBI raided the Michigan headquarters of the group, now headed by Luqman Ameen Abdullah, sought by the FBI for providing firearms and ammunition to a person known to be a convicted felon, sale or receipt of stolen goods, and other violations. Luqman Ameen Abdullah fired at federal officers, who returned fire and killed him.
Other members of the group remained at large, including Yassir Ali Khan and Mohammad Al-Sahli, also known as Mohammad Palestine, both wanted for conspiracy to commit federal crimes. The pair were arrested across the border in Windsor, Ontario, by local police cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
So far so good. But then…
In the course of the arrest, Windsor police patted down one of the suspect's wives. This sparked complaints about police insensitivity. Gary Smith, Windsor's chief of police, promptly issued a public apology.
"It was never the intention for Windsor police officers to offend or embarrass the families of our Islamic community," said Smith's press release. "The actions taken did cause embarrassment and did offend their religious beliefs. I sincerely apologize to the families and the Islamic community." The police chief further called for more "cultural sensitivity training."
It ought to do wonders for officers' morale to be forced into humiliating brainwashing sessions as punishment for bringing violent criminals to justice.
One of the FBI's sources said that Luqman Ameen Abdullah would beat children with sticks until they couldn't walk. And in a recorded 2004 sermon, Abdullah said, "Do not carry a pistol if you're going to give it up to police. You give them a bullet!"
Here's a better idea: let the women carry the pistols. After all, searching them would violate their "religious beliefs."
On a tip from Wiggins.
British Bureauweenies Nix Anti-Cancer Drug
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:49 AM | Comments (7)
Socialized medicine doesn't really mean death panels. It means pleasantly named bureaucracies like Britain's NICE, which has just ruled that those with liver cancer are a burden on The State and must die quickly for the greater good. What use are taxpayers who are too sick to pay taxes?
The health watchdog has blocked a critical liver cancer drug, saying it is too pricey for the state health service, leaving manufacturer Bayer vowing to appeal the decision.
Most people who get the aggressive form of cancer are diagnosed too late for surgery to help, meaning that the drug — Nexavar — is one of the only options left, and it has been shown to prolong life by almost four months on average.
The decision, announced on Thursday, is a setback for Germany's Bayer and its partner Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which have already seen Nexavar turned down by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to treat kidney cancer.
NICE said in the final draft recommendation it would not recommend Bayer's Nexavar to the National Health Service (NHS) for the most common type of liver cancer as it was too expensive…
In a free country, you can have whatever drug you want, provided you have arranged to pay for it. But no doubt bureaucrats know best when it's time for us to die.
On a tip from Gore blimey, the sky is falling.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:17 AM | Comments (16)
Google Magically Reduces Saracuda's Fan Base
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:12 AM | Comments (18)
Apparently the lefties at Google don't much like all the excitement over Sarah Palin's book. They may have used their virtual powers to reduce her legions of fans with a little creative editing.
The story on My Way News:
The story on Google News:
The more powerful people get, the less they can be trusted. This goes double for the "don't be evil" folks at Google.
Hat tip: Free Republic, on a tip from Oiao.
Our Silly, Silly President
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:10 AM | Comments (11)
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:07 AM | Comments (8)
Good Morning Campers and Left-Wing Trolls Who Think Trees Are Precious But Babies Can Be Chopped and Discarded for Convenience,
Item Number One: The New Obama White House Counsel, Bob Bauer (husband of Mao-Worshiping Mr. Ed impersonator Anita Dunn) once filed a complaint with the Justice Department insisting that a Special Prosecutor be named to investigate John McCain for raising the issue of ACORN voter fraud. That's right, the White House lawyer is a guy who believes in prosecuting people for being *against* voter fraud.
Another Obama White House official, challenged about billions of dollars in Stimulus money being sent to congressional districts that don't exist, answered "who knows, man, who really knows?" He went on to say, "Have you ever looked at your hands, man. I mean... really REALLY looked at your hands?" (Hat Tip: Anonymous Countermoonbat)
Item Number Two: MSDNC's medical reporter Nancy Snyderman says "Hey, don't worry about not getting a breast exam. Health Care Rationing is no different than dieting." Except that Jenny Craig doesn't want you to suffer a horrible, disfiguring death so she can claim deficit reduction.
Item Number Three: IBM researchers have built a computer that simulates a cat's brain. Everything was going fine until the computer horked all over the rug. Researchers had previously been successful replicating less sophisticated brains, including those of a mouse, a rat, a cockroach, and an average Obama voter.
Anyone for a semi-obscure Futurama Reference?
More Sarah, That Should Rattle Some Cages
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:50 AM | Comments (17)
Let's see if we can get another 70-100 comments out of left-wing trolls who claim they couldn't care less about Sarah Palin.
Item Number One: Andrew "Milky Loads" Sullivan -- the AIDS-addled blogger who spent weeks during the 2008 campaign obsessively promoting the demented conspiracy theory that Sarah Palin is not Trig Palin's mother -- announced in his blog yesterday that he was parsing her book in order to analyze "Palin's unhinged grip on reality from the very beginning - specifically her fantastic story of her fifth pregnancy..."
That's right, *he* is calling her *deranged,* and still pushing the phony pregnancy conspiracy angle.
I like the way Ace sums it up: "What we have here is a man having a delusional love-affair with Barack Obama who perceives Sarah Palin as both a threat to his pretend "husband" as well as a source of painful sexual jealousy that she, unlike he, is the right gender to actually convert this pretend husband to real one."
That sounds about right.
There's just something about Sarah that makes people project their pathologies on her. Andrew Sullivan calls her deranged. Ana Marie Cox calls her a shallow attention whore. Larry O'Donnell calls her loud and stupid. Pathetic left-wing trolls who post comments from their parents' basements mock her alleged stupidity and lack of accomplishments. I half expect Rosie O'Donnell to call her a fat bull-dyke any day now.
Item Number Two: The hatred-filled lying sacks of crap at DailyKos have been caught red-handed plotting to create a phony Sarah Palin quote and arranging for it to go viral.
All these contracts let out willy-nilly under the stimulus package to repave roads and the like that could have gone directly to hard-working Americans who would've been more than happy to pave their own roads like the streets in front of their homes themselves with stuff they could have bought from the Home Depot so we could have not only been repaving the roads but also stimulating our economy by having millions of hard-working Americans buying paving stuff at Home Depot or their local hardware stores and the like.
They probably knew that "news" outlets like MSDNC and CNN would run the "quote" without checking it, the way they ran with "quotes" from Rush Limbaugh about slavery and James Earl Ray. Many left-wing idiots still believe she said she could see Russia from her house.
Item Number Three: By the way, hundreds of people waited all night in sub-freezing weather to gain admission to a Sarah Palin book signing event. That's not something I would ever do, but you can be damned sure they won't be lined up around the block for a David Brooks or Andrew Sullivan book signing.
Also, her appearance on Oprah, highest rated Oprah show in two years. Even higher than when Oprah interviewed that idiot-savant who could read a Teleprompter like nobody's business but otherwise functioned at a five-year-old level. The idiot-savant Teleprompter Reader must be seething with jealousy right now.
November 18, 2009
Stimulus Loot Spent on Soda Tax Study
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:15 PM | Comments (8)
A little more of the $zillions wasted on "stimulus" has been tracked down: $1 million was spent on figuring out new ways to expropriate our money while dictating what we eat:
Two pro-free-market groups have discovered a $1 million stimulus grant to the University of Illinois to fund a study of the relationship between fat taxes and food consumption, diet quality, and obesity. Of concern is that the study results might be preordained.
No kidding. The results of anything having to do with Big Government are preordained: we lose our freedom and our money.
This is our arrogant rulers' idea of stimulating the economy.
On a tip from Katherine.
Fort Hood Through Israeli Eyes
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:53 PM | Comments (11)
Moonbats did promise The Anointed One would change the way America is perceived around the world. Here's how Israelis perceive us in the wake of our governmedia's contemptible reaction to the terror attack at Fort Hood:
Far better to be resented by some than despised by all.
Via Caroline Glick, on a tip from Oiao.
O Bow Mao
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:45 PM | Comments (8)
It's not too soon to start shopping for stocking stuffers:
On tips from RMartin and BURNING HOT.
9/11 Mother Dope Slaps Eric Holder
Posted by The MaryHunter at 6:28 PM | Comments (23)
An eye-opening moment from Alice Hoagland, who lost her son on Flight 93, as she confronted Holder today:
Again, the Blame Bush meme throughout even this clip, as Holder had do squirmfully deal with a 9/11 relative.
But she had to close with "I will trust you..."
That's the problem with this nation: 53% of us put our trust in an Obama who turns out (*yawn* surprise) to be not at all what he claimed to be. Just how much more trust can we afford?
On a twip from Mary Katherine Ham
SEIU Threatens Legal Action over Rogue Boy Scout
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:20 PM | Comments (77)
Unions are such an important part of the American loonscape. Where else could you find someone who could try to make a convincing argument for taking legal action regarding a Boy Scout who cleaned up a public trail?
Nick Balzano, president of the Service Employees International Union's Allentown chapter, said last week that the union might file a grievance against the city for allowing 17-year-old [Boy Scout] Kevin Anderson to clear the hiking trail, instead of paying some of the 39 recently laid-off SEIU members to do the work.
Anderson, a member of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center Valley, spent more than 200 hours creating the 1000-foot path in Kimmets Lock Park along with fellow scouts, friends and parents.
We already knew that SEIU sicks its thugs on Tea Partiers. Watch out, these guys are really getting tough now.
On a tip from Lyle.
Oh Noes!
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:10 PM | Comments (20)
It used to be, the only people who dared mock the Obamassiah were "right-wing, Bible-thumping, racist talk show hosts."
So, has The Onion been taken over by "right-wing, Bible-thumping, racist talk show hosts?" Or, is his weakness now so plainly obvious that there's no point in even supportive media outlets ignoring it? Granted, The Onion's about six months behind the curve in mocking the Obamassiah's helplessness without a Teleprompter, but the first step is admitting you have a problem.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 3:00 PM | Comments (25)
PelosiCare Hearing Aid
Posted by Van Helsing at 2:55 PM | Comments (8)
To keep costs down for all of us, PelosiCare may entail taking a few steps backward technologically, before making the great leap forward into socialism.
On a tip from Stormfax.
ROFL: Obama Warns Us About Reckless Spending
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:41 PM | Comments (34)
Obama has sent what his fluffers in the media are calling a "stern warning" that reckless, out of control spending and record deficits threaten to prolong and deepen the recession.
Oh, Gosh, who could possibly be responsible for all this reckless government spending? What party and what president are in charge of all this Government spending? Who could he possibly mean?
This is like Roland Emmerich warning that, "Whoever is making those crappy big budget disaster movies better cut it out. Right now! I mean it!"
This is like ACORN saying, "Whoever is registering phony voters and committing vote fraud that exclusively benefits Democrats better knock it off!"
This is like Barney Frank saying, "Dammit, you mortgage companies destwoyed the economy by wecklessly giving mortgages to powitically favored minowity gwoups who were financially incapable of wepaying them, and you better do a lot more of it!"
Maybe Chairman Zero should make OJ Simpson his "Spending Czar," with a mandate to track down the real spenders.
Holder, KSM, and That Pesky Miranda Right
Posted by The MaryHunter at 11:50 AM | Comments (28)
Attorney General Eric Holder is defending his decision (made in careful consultation with his wife and his friend, no one else) to haul Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's tookus into New York City to be tried a few blocks from Ground Zero in a spectacular show trial. On to The Weekly Standard and Mary Katherine Ham for a quick report:
Holder says: "Failure is not an option. These are cases that have to be won. I don't expect that we'll have a contrary result." To which Senator Grassley replied: "I don't know how you can say failure is not an option...I'm a farmer, not a lawyer, but it seemed to me ludicrous."
As Senator Kyl said, "How could you be more likely to get a conviction in federal court when [KSM] has already asked to plead guilty to military commission?"
If you think that's rich, get this:
Graham: "If I were defending...I would argue that any questioning of my client w/o Miranda warnings would be a violation of...law."
Cornyn: "Do you acknowledge that a judge...could conclude that KSM was denied (Miranda) right and thus cannot be prosecuted?"
Holder: "I'm confident that Miranda issues" are not going to be a problem.
Holder is "confident." Great.
To paraphrase Rush: If they can be convicted in criminal court without having been Mirandized, then the precedent has been set for Americans. Heck, Pres. of the World Obama has already prejudged the case, said KSM should get the death penalty, but also told the world that KSM had been tortured. Does this mean, is torture now permitted by officials pursuing civilians accused of crime? And, if Holder keeps insisting that KSM & Co. are guilty and will be convicted, then, what if they aren't, and the U.S. Government locks KSM away anyway? What message does that send to the world, to the Muslim world, about our legal system?
So many destructive fools in this Administration, so little time to correct the damage being done to our nation, our personal rights, our freedoms.
Obama's "Outstanding" Performers
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:31 AM | Comments (9)
If the president were anyone other than a Democrat Demigod worshiped by a slobbering media cult, this would be a fatal scandal to his administration. As Fred Barnes reports in the Weekly Standard, Tax Cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner used $27.1 Billion in taxpayer money to bailout his friends and buddies at AIG, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms.
Rather than bargain with AIG and its creditors for a reasonable bailout, Geithner agreed to pay “an amount far above the market value at the time,” the report said.
The shorthand of what the inspector general concluded is this: Geithner bailed out AIG and its investment bank creditors without negotiating for tougher terms that would have saved the taxpayers billions.
I just want to take this opportunity to remind the audience of what Dear Reader thinks of Tim Geithner.
"I think Geithner is doing an outstanding job," - Barack Obama, March 18, 2009
Translation: "You're doing a heckuva job, Browny."
The word outstanding reminds me of someone else Chairman Zero thought was outstanding, Detroit's big, fat, thug mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
"I want to, first of all, acknowledge your great mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. Who has been on the front lines doing an outstanding job" - Barack Obama, 2008
Kwame Kilpatrick's big fat thug ass is back in the news. Seems someone is loaning him the money to pay his $800,000 restitution settlement to the city of Detroit, after he was convicted of perjury and other crimes, and he has invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid revealing who is loaning him the money.
Outstanding.
KSM Show Trial Script Has Been Written
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:30 AM | Comments (16)
The plan for helping Khalid Sheikh Mohammed complete the 9/11 terror atrocities is all mapped out. First the Obamination Administration postures as morally righteous in contrast to George Bush, against whom Chairman Zero continues to campaign, despite W last having run for office in 2004. Then KSM is granted a soapbox from which to denounce America and rally Muslims to the cause of jihad — which was the point of killing those thousands of innocent Americans in the first place. Finally, he is found guilty in the circus show trial, completing his martyrdom and allowing the Community Activist in Chief to pose as our defender from terrorists.
In a fair trial, KSM would very possibly walk on a technicality — like another famous terrorist, Obama's close friend Bill Ayers. But it's hardly a fair trial when the Attorney General and the President of the USA essentially guarantee the outcome in advance. Eyebrows have been raised even at NBC:
NBC: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — can you understand why it is offensive to some for this terrorist to get all the legal privileges of any American citizen?
Obama: I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.
NBC: But having that kind of confidence of a conviction — I mean one of the purposes of doing — going to the Justice Department and not military court is to show of the world our fairness in our court system.
Obama: Well —
NBC: But you also just said that he was going to be convicted and given the death penalty.
Obama: Quack quack quack backtrack quack quack obfuscate quack quack quack quack…
America may never live down this catastrophic farce of a presidency.
On a tip from Matt L.
Al Gore Claims Interior of Earth Is As Hot As a Star
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:47 AM | Comments (29)
A startling revelation from Al Gore, the distinguished climate scientist who has been so influential in driving our energy policy:
People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees…
Several million degrees — now that's what I call global warming!
Only the Nobel Committee could be surprised that The Goracle barely managed to pass his science classes.
On tips from Edward and V the K.
Jane Fonda, Jodie Evans, Obama, and the Taliban
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:17 AM | Comments (13)
One reason traitors were shot or hanged in the olden days is so they wouldn't persist in their treacherous activities — as Jane Fonda has been doing. Forty years after this…
…she has been hanging out with top Obama bundler Jodie Evans.
Evans is the founder of Code Pink, which funneled $600,000 to terrorists fighting our troops during the dark days in Fallujah. Now Evans and her gang are in touch with the Taliban, as Hanoi Jane let slip:
Last Saturday, My dear friends Jodie Evans and Max Palevsky, invited Richard and me to join them at their table at a fundraiser at the Armand Hammer Museum in Westwood. It was a good evening for lots of reasons. I had never been to the museum and definitely want to go back. Clearly it is a courageous place, very cutting edge. Then, too, I saw lots of friends I hadn't seen in a long time and I sat next to Jodie who told me a little about her recent trip to Afghanistan with an American delegation that included a retired colonel, and member the State Department. While there, she met with people ranging from the brother of President Karzai, Afghan members of Parliament, activists, to warlords and members of the Taliban.
Just what kind of business does a treasonous nutcase like Jodie Evans have with the Taliban? Big Government has an idea:
There is precedent to suspect that Evans is acting as a conduit for the Taliban to Obama. In June, her fellow Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin hand carried a letter out of Gaza from the terrorist group Hamas addressed to Obama.
Evans ought to hit it off great with Mullah Omar's crew:
Over the seven years of its existence, Code Pink has acted as propaganda shills for the anti-American governments of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's President Evo Morales, Cuba's Castro brothers and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, as well as Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
Here's video of Evans delivering a package from Afghanistan to our ultra-left Community Organizer in Chief:
Apparently the package contained propaganda favoring immediate American withdrawal.
It's not unreasonable to suspect that she might also have relayed messages from the Taliban to Chairman Zero that neither side would want going through official channels. Despite the "fundamental transformation" at the top, many in our government are still loyal to this country — although they are being systematically purged.
Thanks to Obama's ballyhooed "transparency," we'll never know exactly what's going on. But we do know that it isn't good.
On a tip from Randy.
The Disko Bay Expedition
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:28 AM | Comments (6)
For an idea of what results when you mix state-sanctioned moonbattery with art, refer to last year's Disko Bay expedition, which entailed a gaggle of artsy-fartsy phonies venturing to the arctic to promote the floundering global warming hoax. The results were hilarious — unless you were forced to pay for them.
Among the participants was Beatboxer Shlomo, who "dedicates his beats to the cause":
Insights Beatboxer gleaned from the arctic adventure include:
I couldn't help but notice that it's really quite cold.
Being with all these inspired people seems to have filled my head with a zillion ideas for musical endeavours that could easily save the world.
Possibly the most bold and transgressive artwork to be created during the expedition was this piece of performance art by Francesca Galeazzi:
This morning I walked across the fresh snow with a gas cylinder in my arms, containing 6kg of CO2. I took it across the unspoiled snow field of the Jakobshavn Fjord until I found what, to my eyes, was a wonderful place. …
I put the cylinder down, got on my knees and opened the valve. The CO2 came out violently, freezing the air around the nozzle and producing an unpleasant whistle. When I lowered the cylinder towards the ground, the snow blow off all around me under the pressure of the air jet, almost to signify the melting of the Arctic ice shelf because of the Carbon emissions generated somewhere else.
Reading this you might think I am an evil horrible woman.
David Thompson responds:
You're not evil. That would at least be interesting. You're merely a talentless poseur and a freeloading narcissist. Not evil, just a bint.
Tragically, no one encountered a hungry polar bear.
Obama Gun Boom Continues
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:27 AM | Comments (74)
A rare sector of the economy not based on coercion that has actually benefited from the disgraceful results of last November's election continues to flourish:
All over America demand for firearms and ammunition is rising amid concerns that rising unemployment, which passed 10 per cent this month, will lead inexorably to higher rates of crime. Fears of terrorism have also helped to lift demand, as have concerns among gun owners that the Obama Administration may introduce restrictions on gun ownership and impose additional taxes.
Smith & Wesson is expecting sales to rise by 30 per cent to $102 million (£61 million) in the first quarter of the next financial year, after growing by more than 13 per cent this year to $335 million.
At Sturm and Ruger, sales for the third quarter hit $71.2 million, up 70 per cent from the same period last year. At Glock, the leader in law enforcement markets, pistol sales rose by 71 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year for 2010, in comparison with the same period last year.
Stock up while you can. Ammo prices aren't going down, and it's only a matter of time before disarming the public comes to the top of the Obamunist agenda.
On a tip from Conan.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 6:51 AM | Comments (38)
Morning Briefs: Stuff You've Probably Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:44 AM | Comments (11)
Good Morning Campers, Good Morning Lefty Trolls Who've Tasted Everything Under the Kitchen Sink,
Item Number One: The Obamas aren't going to let a little thing like a trillion dollar deficit or massive recession stop them from enjoying bloated, wretched excess. Dragonwatch has found a rather interesting statistic on the amount of personal staff enjoyed by previous First Ladies:
Total Personal Staff members for other first ladies paid by taxpayers: Mamie Eisenhower : 1, Jackie Kennedy: 1, Roseline Carter: 1, Barbara Bush: 1, Hilary Clinton: 3, Laura Bush: 1, Michele Obama: 22.
A commenter notes that the veracity of this assertion is disputed. But using Obamamath, we can say that those 22 personal staff assistants for M'Chel represent 6,913 jobs created or saved under this administration.
Item Number Two: Once Chairman Zero gets done with his ass-kissing tour of Asia, he plans to spend some time among his adoring subjects. Chairman Zero is planning a tour of the United States to check into this recession thingy he's heard some of the proletariat are displeased about. Whether this tour will include all 57 states and 700 Imaginary Congressional Districts where Stimulus Dollars have been wasted remains to be seen. I also wonder if he will be using the full 71-car motorcade he brought to China with him.
Item Number Three: And since the Obamas are living large off the taxpayers whose values they absolutely despise, it should be noted, first of all, that millions of Americans are now going to have to pay back the "tax cut" that was part of the Stimulus; so it was actually more of a "tax loan." Also, Obama's economic advisors are raising the possibility of revoking all of the Bush tax cuts, not just those on the prosperous. Marriage penalty - back. Child tax credit - cut 60%. Death tax - back. They think it will raise $2.5 trillion, but that won't close the projected $9 trillion in deficits they expect to run up. So, where do you think that other six or seven trillion is going to come from?
Since I mentioned The Office...
Thank you, Instapunk
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:27 AM | Comments (77)
A lot of us have struggled with understanding the deranged hatred of the progressive left and mainstream media toward Sarah Palin. We get that they disagree with her politics, but that did not seem to justify the all-out scorched Earth campaign to destroy her not just politically but personally. The standard explanation has been that they're afraid of her, but something about that always seemed not quite right to me; not wrong, just incomplete.
Blogger Instapunk has found the missing piece that completes the puzzle of Palin Derangement Syndrome.
Americans—remember them?—should be asking themselves what it means that a woman of traditional American values can be so reviled, so relentlessly, so unscrupulously, so take-no-prisoners viciously. ... Because she is us. A good-hearted ambitious American doing her best to offer her best. If they—and who are they, exactly?—hate her so much, then it has to be the case that she’s only a symbol of the hatred they feel for all the rest of us.
Bullseye! The progressive left and the MSM direct all their hate at Sarah Palin because she is a symbol of classic middle-American values. They know that openly expressing the hatred and loathing they feel for Middle America would be bad for business. But they can focus it all on Sarah Palin, and they can actually dupe middle America into going along for it. The willingness of middle class Americans to ape the mannerisms of pop culture is at the heart of some of our best television satires, including South Park, King of the Hill, and The Office. If the media say it's not cool to like Sarah Palin, a lot of people follow their lead so as not to be thought uncool.
Instapunk thinks that if Middle America ever wakes up to how the liberal left really hates them, it's over for the elites. I wish I could be more optimistic about the chances of that happening.
November 17, 2009
The Deepest One Yet
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:24 PM | Comments (20)
Activist Judges Begin Short March into Judiciary - With RINO Help
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:15 PM | Comments (14)
It appears to have ended before it really began: a GOP-led filibuster of a leftist activist judge, who is now basically headed for the Chicago-based Court of Appeals. This guy is an extremist:
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., voted against ending the debate on [U.S. District Judge David] Hamilton. "Judge Hamilton is the definition of an activist judge and is clearly not qualified to sit on a court of appeals," he said in a written statement. "Judge Hamilton, who spent years working with the ACLU and ACORN, has used his position on the bench to drive his personal political agenda."
Aah, memories of that Gang of Fourteen, now long gone:
Beyond the political message, the filibuster effectively ended a bipartisan accord reached in 2005, when 14 senators signed onto a deal that effectively stopped Democratic filibusters of Bush's judicial nominees except in extraordinary circumstances.
Sen. Jeff Sessions R-Ala., who led the opposition to Hamilton, argued that Hamilton's record met his definition of extraordinary circumstances.
Oh, did we mention, this was all done with the help of 10 Republican senators? Those fools who voted to not take a stand for conservative principles included some faithful RINOs but a few surprises: Lamar Alexander (TN), Saxby Chambliss (GA), Susan Collins (ME), John Cornyn (TX), Judd Gregg (NH), Orrin Hatch (UT), Richard Lugar (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Olympia Snowe (ME), and John Thune (SD). Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) didn't vote.
But wait: the vote to end debate on Hamilton's qualifications was 70-29. The Democrats didn't even need the Republican votes to end the filibuster.
Granted, Hamilton was a shoe-in from the beginning, given that a simple majority puts him on the bench for the "Living Breathing Constitution" team. Still, even if these ten loser Republicant senators vote against Hamilton's confirmation, their good names are befouled. If Republicans can't stand together on matters of bedrock conservative principles (freaking ACLU and ACORN, for heaven's sake!), then what's the point of even having GOP representation in Congress?
Nobel Peace Prizes Aren't As Hard to Get As They Once Were
Posted by Van Helsing at 3:35 PM | Comments (12)
If terrorists, traitors, communist dictators, useless bureauweenies who facilitate nuclear proliferation, snake oil salesmen, and even neophyte post turtles can have Nobel Peace Prizes, why shouldn't everybody?
On a tip from Jimbo.
The Company You Keep
Posted by Van Helsing at 1:21 PM | Comments (21)
Chairman Zero is right where he belongs — next to Castro's demented henchman on the shelves of a bookstore in communist China:
While the Moonbat Messiah begs the Chicoms for more loans, others have a less conciliatory attitude toward this growing totalitarian threat. Across the Taiwan Strait:
If tiny Taiwan can stand up to the communist behemoth, maybe America could too, by refusing to let it buy our country out from under us. All we'd have to do is stop borrowing and live within our means. But that will never happen with our current leadership.
Hat tip: Cristy Li.
Jihad-Enabling Lawyer Finally Going to Jail?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:20 PM | Comments (58)
In a 200 page ruling, a U.S. federal appeals court that ordered terrorist-enabling progressive-leftist lawyer Lynne Stewart to get her fat, ugly, America-hating, communist ass in jail; which she has been avoiding since her conviction four years ago on charges of facilitating terrorism. The Court also ordered the trial judge to consider lengthening the 28-month prison sentence. (Ramos and Compean were sentenced to twelve years for defending the border, and she gets 28 months for helping terrorists? WTF?)
Stewart helped her terrorist BFF, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman --- who was in prison for plotting the multiple terror bombing attacks --- smuggle messages out of prison to his terrorist followers.
KSM and Nadal Hasan have nothing to worry about, though. The ACLU is packed to gunwales with Progressive Left Lynne Stewart Wannabes who would be only too happy to help Al Qaeda in its war against the United States. And with the inevitable trial delays, she may well be out in time to serve on their defense teams; even without the pardon the White House is as likely as not to issue.
Lest anyone claim it's unfair to smear the progressive left by association with the lovely Ms. Stewart, read the banner.
I found the above picture at a photo essay where in the communist dingbat addresses what looks like a gathering of socialist metrosexuals. I'm willing to be none of the guys in the photos have ever pumped their own gas.
But... But... There Are No Death Panels
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:33 AM | Comments (26)
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel of doctors and scientists, has decided that women under 50 don't need Mammograms, and women probably shouldn't perform self-examinations either.
This Panel ... similar to the Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (CERC) (Section 1401(a), p. 738) in the PelosiCare Bill ... has determined that these tests cost too much, and don't save enough lives to justify them. Tell that to the 40,000 women under 50 who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Left-wingers often caricature the notion of "Death Panels" as though right-wingers are claiming there will literally be bureaucrats before whom sick and elderly people will stand before being sent to the Soylent Greenworks. What the right is concerned about is more insidious than that. The right is concerned about panels like CERC deciding that certain treatments and certain levels of care simply will not be provided to whole classes of people on the basis of these bureaucratic assessments. Which is exactly what happens in Britain under its equivalent to the CERC.
BTW, these commissions would be staffed by unelected, bureaucratic, political appointees. Voters would have no say whatsoever in who was on the commission, and no way of removing them.
Unnamed Experts Find Michele Bachmann Extreme
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:49 AM | Comments (23)
Michele Bachmann must be doing something right. She's scared the pants off moonbats all the way over in England:
Bachmann, at 53, is a darling of the so-called Tea Party movement, which has campaigned vociferously against healthcare reform, the economic stimulus package and legislation to combat climate change. Her followers have been behind mass rallies in Washington and smaller ones all over the country. She has emerged as one of the most visible politicians in America, frequently appearing on the conservative Fox News channel, whose hosts often champion her causes.
She is part of an increasingly visible "female brand" of conservatism that is rising in America in the wake of the election of Obama. They include notable syndicated commentators such as Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, whose dislike for liberals has grown ever more shrill in recent months. And, of course, Palin herself. …
All these women express a mood of conservative discontent that is becoming increasingly vocal and, some experts warn, extreme.
The Unnamed Experts have spoken once again.
What's so extreme about Michele Bachmann? She has voiced concern about Chairman Zero's paramilitary "volunteer" programs; she has noted the undeniable fact that Obama holds socialist views; she doesn't pretend to believe in the global warming hoax; she has used the term "gangster government" to describe our gangster government, which greedily expropriates half the wealth we produce; she's Christian; and she has done her part to block Big Government's attempted seizure of the healthcare industry.
Such extreme statements and beliefs have made Bachmann a figure of both fun and fear among liberal Americans, especially in her home state of Minnesota. "It is hard to think that people take her seriously. But on a national level it is happening. It scares me," said Aaron Landry, a senior correspondent at MNpublius.com, a Minnesota-based politics blog.
To quote Ghandi:
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.
Fear has made the ridicule shrill. The liberal elite establishment is moving on to the fighting stage against patriots like Michele Bachmann.
On a tip from Edward.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:19 AM | Comments (57)
EPA Cracks Down on Cap & Trade Dissenters
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:10 AM | Comments (13)
We have a consensus on global warming all right — at least to the extent Big Government has been able to impose it. Here's what happens when Environmental Protection Agency employees try to alert the public about the looming catastrophe of Tax & Charade:
The EPA has told two longtime agency veterans and outspoken critics of the administration's cap-and-trade plan to remove any references to the agency in their critiques and to get approval for any future "outside writing projects." That includes removing their critical video from You Tube.
Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, a married couple and EPA lawyers in San Francisco, have been railing against cap-and-trade proposals for a while. Most recently, they had a sharply-worded op-ed in the Washington Post that said current legislation would be ineffective and even counterproductive.
The couple stressed that the views they expressed were their own — not the agency's. But they also stressed that their years of experience with the EPA, and specifically working on other cap-and-trade programs, informed their views.
Via Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, here's the video our ecofascist rulers have tried to suppress:
On a tip from Varla.
Chairman Zero Bows to Chicoms
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:48 AM | Comments (26)
The only way to keep the Moonbat Messiah from bowing obsequiously to foreigners would be to put the Queen of England in front of him. Here he is behind the Bamboo Curtain, via HotAirPundit:
On a tip from SK.
Moonbat Judge Reversed by SCOTUS 3X --- On the Same Case
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:57 AM | Comments (3)
In case you are wondering what kind of legal shenanigans await as the terrorist mass-murderer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is tried in a civilian court that usually handles tax evaders and insider traders, here's a foretaste. Far-left whackjob Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt (a Jimmy Carter appointee) has just been overturned by the Supreme Court on a death penalty case ... for the third time.
The murderer Reinhardt is going to bat for over and over again bludgeoned a woman to death with a dumb-bell and left her to die (she was still fighting for life when paramedics arrived) in order to steal $100 in beer and drug money. An AIDS-ridden cockroach is making better use of my oxygen than this piece of filth. And every time he overturns the death penalty, Reinhardt finds a completely different justification. In one appeal, he said that the piece of human filth was well represented by his defense counsel. In the next appeal, he claims defense counsel was inadequate. First, he says that sufficient evidence was presented at trial. Then, he claims mitigating evidence was left out.
"If the jury had heard even a portion of the available humanizing ... testimony, it is likely that at least one juror would have chosen to spare Belmontes' life," Judge Stephen Reinhardt said in the majority opinion.
Why is the progressive left all about trying to make life easier for brutal criminals, and harder for law-abiding taxpayers? The same people who want Mumia freed and wanted to save the worthless life of Tookie Williams want KSM to have a "fair trial" in a civilian court.
Maybe Obama can save Reinhardt future deliberations by just pardoning the piece of filth and getting him a job with ACORN.
Global Warming Produces Plague of Giant Jellyfish
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:52 AM | Comments (29)
Even as the wheels come loose from the discredited global warming hoax, the statist media continues to fabricate exotic new threats in an increasingly farcical attempt to scare us into believing in the liberal elite's favorite Trojan horse for totalitarianism. Now we need the Authorities to do something really drastic or we'll be menaced by giant jellyfish:
A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.
The fishermen leaned into the nets, grunting and grumbling as they tossed the translucent jellyfish back into the bay, giants weighing up to 200 kilograms (450 pounds), marine invaders that are putting the men's livelihoods at risk. …
Scientists believe climate change — the warming of oceans — has allowed some of the almost 2,000 jellyfish species to expand their ranges, appear earlier in the year and increase overall numbers, much as warming has helped ticks, bark beetles and other pests to spread to new latitudes.
The gelatinous seaborne creatures are blamed for decimating fishing industries in the Bering and Black seas, forcing the shutdown of seaside power and desalination plants in Japan, the Middle East and Africa, and terrorizing beachgoers worldwide, the U.S. National Science Foundation says.
The only solution to a plague of giant jellyfish is still more bloated and omnipresent Big Government, as AP hastens to make clear.
"We have been getting rid of jellyfish. But no matter how hard we try, the jellyfish keep coming and coming," said Fumio Oma, whose crew is out of work after their net broke under the weight of thousands of jellyfish. "We need the government's help to get rid of the jellyfish." …
Addressing the surge in jellyfish blooms in most places will require long-term fixes, such as introducing fishing quotas and pollution controls, as well as capping greenhouse gas emissions to control global warming, experts said.
What experts? What are they experts on? Never mind, all experts know what they're talking about or they wouldn't be experts, and the experts say jellyfish belong on The List.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Update:
Imaginary America Doing Great Under Obamunism; Real America Not So Much
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:41 AM | Comments (14)
The website established (at a cost of $18 million) to track "Stimulus" money and the numbers of "jobs created or saved" shows that the majority of these jobs are located in Congressional Districts that don't exist except in Imaginationland.
In Imaginationland California, Obama's website lists jobs created or saved in congressional districts 57, 64, 67, 76, 80, 91, and 99. Real California, however, only has 53 congressional districts. Imaginationland California has created 110,185 jobs under Obamunism according to the Government. Real California has lost 732,700 jobs this year.
In Imaginationland Minnesota, Obamunism has created jobs in the 13th, 14th, 27th and 57th congressional districts. Real Minnesota has only eight congressional districts.
In Imaginationland Arizona, all 86 Congressional Districts have benefited from the stimulus, as have the 42 Congressional Districts in Connecticut. Real Arizona has only 8 Congressional Districts. Real Connecticut has five.
All in all, $6.4 Billion in real dollars has been spent in 440 imaginary congressional districts. WTF? Maybe the states had to carve out all those new congressional districts to account for all the new "voters" ACORN has registered.
KSM, Holder and Obama: Is there Any Hope for Justice?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 6:10 AM | Comments (37)
Once again, real slow this time.
The man who brought you this:
could now very likely get one of these:
because of these two men:
With all the expected legal motions and delays from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's to-be-named ACLU lawyer team, this trial may not even start for another 3 years. By that time, Our Dear Leader will either be out of office, or safely re-elected. Therefore, Obama-Mao may well have no true accountability for this affront to Justice.
If you're still stunned and saddened at the prospects of justice NOT being served, there is a possible up-side for the trial being in Manhattan:
For those who believe this is a very bad decision with little upside for America, the best we might hope for is that the judge is a Jewish woman. That would be sweet revenge for these misogynist anti-Semites.
PSA: See Michael Goldfarb's information on how you might be able to fight Atty. Gen. Holder's nefarious decision.
Goldfarb info on a twip from CO2HOG
Leftist Critic Slams Palin Without Bothering to Read Her Book
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:46 AM | Comments (21)
In a rare effort at "balance," the Washington Post assigned conservative Matthew Continetti of the Weekly Standard and liberal dingbat Ana Marie Cox of Air America radio to each write review of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. Apparently, the dingbat didn't even need to read the book in order to write a review that unsurprisingly consisted almost entirely of snarky Sarah-bashing.
I cannot claim to have completely read "Going Rogue" -- I had to skim the last 150 pages (or more than one-third).
Pretty typical for a lefty. They already know their opinions, don't annoy them with facts or expect them to actually investigate the things they bash. (And I would reckon the truth is she only skimmed the first 150 pp and completely blew off the rest) Showing another typical leftist trait --- complete lack of self-awareness --- the blogger who achieved "fame" by writing a blog consisting of nothing but sexual innuendos about political figures accuses Palin of being "all flash and no substance."
I found myself thinking yesterday,"What if Sarah Palin had said no," when McCain asked her to be vice president; as she should have. Before the left hit her with everything they had, she was a popular and successful governor. If she had said no, she could have avoided the smear campaign and avoided the frivolous ethics charges that ultimately left her with a choice between resigning as governor or declaring bankruptcy. She would have had more time to prepare herself for the national stage and could have emerged in 2012 or 2016 as a very potent national candidate.
Perhaps her fatal mistake was hitching her star to the cranky, decrepit gasbag John McCain. On the other hand, a $5,000,000 book deal and big money on the lecture circuit isn't too bad either. Sarah Palin is still far more accomplished than most of the people snarking about how stupid she is... and that includes David Brooks and Ana Marie Cox.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You've Probably Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:48 AM | Comments (7)
Good Morning Campers, Good Morning Left-Wing Trolls with Embarrassing Skin Conditions,
Item Number One: As one would expect in a government run by a Chicago Street Thug, there's much shadiness in the distribution of Government money. A cursory review of money dispensed through the Stimulus (a.k.a. "Debt-Financed DNC Slush Fund") shows millions of dollars are being spent in Congregational Districts that don't exist. Listings at the Recovery-dot-gov website show millions have been dispensed to the 9th and 86th Congressional District (CD) of Arizona which do not exist, the 42nd CD of Connecticut which does not exist, and to districts in Iowa and Oklahoma which also do not exist.
Item Number Two: The Government of Iran has declared that the enemies of its nuclear program have been defeated, and they are pushing full-speed ahead to nuclear armament. I guess they weren't as impressed with the crease in Obama's pants as David Brooks was.
Item Number Three: It used to be the the best minds came to the USA for opportunity, and capital followed them. But as the USA becomes increasingly over-regulated and over-taxed, the appeal of doing business here diminishes. It's getting so bad under the Obamunists that entrepreneurs and venture capitalists would rather seek their fortunes in China and India than here. That's just plain sad.
Not a stinger, but a good impersonation:
Mainline Churches Go to the Dogs
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:28 AM | Comments (17)
Since the late 1960's, mainline protestant denominations in the USA have been declining (while evangelical churches are thriving). The old-school churches have watered down the gospel and, in many cases, have become little more than daycare and social activity centers with a vaguely Christian theme. These churches become ever more secularized, and wonder why their congregations are elderly and declining.
A few churches think they've found the answer: Dogs.
Every week, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles holds "Canines at Covenant," a service for dogs and their owners, featuring dog treats, dog beds, prayers for pets and even special music, such as "GoD and DoG."
A church in Austin, TX is offering a similar service. I don't think this is an occasion for "outrage," it's more an occasion for "point and laugh." And I get the argument that anything that gets people into church is good. But when I hear people say things like, "dogs are my children," I think their values are misplaced. In most cases, people ought to count more than animals (although I'll make exceptions for Nadal Hasan, Eliot Spitzer, and Bill Maher).
November 16, 2009
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:12 PM | Comments (19)
The Constitution Reduced to Two Words
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:05 PM | Comments (18)
The US Constitution is a very brief document, compared to the monstrous 2,000-page obscenity that is the PelosiCare bill. Even so, it's mostly filler, from the statist point of view. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) boils it down to two words: "general welfare."
These two words are like a magical incantation that render the rest of the Constitution null and void. All is permitted the State, so long as our rulers tell us it's to advance their conception of the general welfare.
Hat tip: The Blogprof.
Communist Goons Attack Tea Partiers
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:45 PM | Comments (52)
Chairman Zero's supporters demonstrate what patriots are up against:
Supporters of President Obama's Amnesty plans attacked Tea Party Against Amnesty & Illegal Immigration demonstrators in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Sat. November 14, 2009. One of the men attacked is 62 years old. Dave Caulkett of FLIMEN (Floridians for Immigration Enforcement) is assaulted and then kicked in the face while he is down. The other camera man from the Tea Party is hit with several signs.
Those attacking the Americans that oppose Amnesty for illegal aliens were organized by ANSWER Florida.
ANSWER is a communist front group.
Leftists believe in a thug ideology of taking what they want from its rightful owners by force. Since they think like thugs, it's hardly surprising that they also behave like thugs.
On a tip from glenwood183.
A Grownup Weighs in on Chairman Zero's Historic Hubris
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:30 PM | Comments (8)
Charles Krauthammer provides a little historical perspective on our self-proclaimed First Pacific President's preposterous ego:
Also, Bush Sr. was the unofficial ambassador to China under Ford. But only Barry Soetoro can claim to be the Moonbat Messiah.
On a tip from Edward.
Massachusetts Parents Equate Santa Claus with the Nazi Swastika
Posted by The MaryHunter at 6:58 PM | Comments (21)
The annual Assault on Christmas is revving up this year. Dateline Chelmsford, MA, specifically the Byam Elementary School:
Kathryn McMillan and Kathleen Cullen, who both have children at Byam, asked school officials to allow all holiday items at the gift shop following a ban on Santa, candy canes, stockings, and all Christmas, Hanukkah and other "religious items."
But a meeting with some PTO parents on Thursday night grew heated as emotions got in the way.
"One of the parents said, 'If we allow Santa, what do we say if a child brings in a swastika? Do we allow that too?' "
McMillan said. "All I could think of was, are you kidding? You're comparing a Christmas ornament to a swastika? It seems as if reason is lost somewhere and I just hope we can find it again."
It seems that wrapping paper can even be banned by the bonkers Byam PC police:
Red and green tissue paper to wrap presents was also crossed off the list because it looked too "Christmasy," McMillan said.
I'm wondering if the school had a Halloween gift shop that at least allowed sales of wicken paraphanalia. Indeed, Chelmsford appears only a brimstone's throw away from invoking that tired old meme equating Santa with Satan.
On a tip from Anonymous Countermoonbat.
The News Media and the Fort Hood Terrorist Attack - Explained!
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:22 PM | Comments (5)
For a sensible explanation of what the news media are all about in general, and in particular, their coverage of the multi-talented Soldier of Allah/U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan's terrorist massacre at Fort Hood, what better commentator could there be than Uncle Jay. Check out the first minute or so of this vid - or the whole thing, for that matter:
Not in Vain
Posted by Van Helsing at 1:22 PM | Comments (24)
Separated at Birth?
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:08 PM | Comments (14)
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Gibby from the Nickelodious show iCarly:
Compliments of Ray V.
2010 Master's Canceled … Winner Already Announced
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:11 AM | Comments (10)
On a tip from Air2air.
Tweety Matthews Interviews Nadal Hasan
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:36 AM | Comments (9)
It's hilarious because it's plausible. Here's a taste:
Read the whole thing...
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:19 AM | Comments (27)
Union Goons Go After Aspiring Eagle Scout
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:04 AM | Comments (21)
No good deed goes unpunished, in a country dominated by Comrade Obama's union cronies:
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
Fortunately, it looks like the union may be sensitive enough to public opinion to drop the issue. We wouldn't want Kevin to end up like Ken Gladney, who ran afoul of the SEIU by protesting Obamao's plans to seize control of the healthcare industry.
On a tip from Henry.
Anita Dunn Boasts of Damage Done
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:29 AM | Comments (9)
White House communications director Anita Dunn was thrown under the bus when it became public knowledge that she regarded genocidal dictator Mao Zedong as one of her "favorite political philosophers." But Dung didn't leave without getting in her licks against the free press, by discouraging other networks from following up on stories broken by the only major news outlet willing to criticize the Obamination Administration on a regular basis, Fox News. The proud Moaist boasts:
People took a step back and said, "Hmm, am I really wanting to go chase those stories?"
But she doesn't pretend the jihad against Fox was her own idea:
I am not a person who is known for going rogue, OK?
That is, she was acting on orders from the top of the dung heap.
Lest anyone think that Dung going under the bus with Van Jones et al. means Chairman Zero is purging his administration of dangerous ultra-left radicals, her husband Bob Bauer has been named to replace Greg Craig (who has represented John W. Hinckley, Jr. and the Cuban government) as White House Counsel.
On tips from Edward and TED.
Racism Imposed From the Bench
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:57 AM | Comments (15)
So much for people being judged by the content of their character. Our president was chosen primarily for his skin color; U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle in Louisiana has ruled that the same should hold true for school board members:
A federal judge ordered the Tangipahoa Parish School Board this week to hire qualified black applicants for administrative positions until 40 percent of these positions are held by black educators, court records show.
Blacks make up only 29% of Tangipahoa Parish's population.
Lemelle has imposed his racial preferences from the bench before:
Last year, Lemelle ordered the School Board to hire a black coach who had been passed over for a job opening at Amite High School.
Say a candidate for an administrative job in the schools of Lemelle's fiefdom has no qualifications whatsoever other than the one that matters, black skin. The superintendent can refuse to recommend him, but…
If the superintendent does not recommend a black applicant for a position, he must submit written reasons to a committee made up of the chief desegregation plan implementation officer, director of personnel and minority recruitment officer.
This committee then may interview the rejected applicant and decide whether to recommend that person to the School Board anyway.
The objective of course is "diversity" — that is, naked anti-Caucasian racism.
On a tip from Andrea.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:55 AM | Comments (24)
Good Morning Campers, Good Morning Menopausal Men of the Left,
Item Number One: NY Times columnist David Brooks expresses the opinion that "Sarah Palin is an idiot." Consider that this assessment is coming from a guy who decided to support Obama after being wowed by the crease in his pants.
“I remember distinctly an image of–we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”
That's what passes for intellectual discussion in the Cult of Obama.
Item Number Two: The deranged harridans of Code Pink are claiming that Nidal Hasan's mass murder was a protest by a "military officer" against the War in Afghanistan. Quoth the Gorgons: "The recent shootings at Ft. Hood ... demonstrate how even our military officers are opposed to US strategy in Afghanistan." Code Pink is simply living up to the motto of the anti-war left "We Support Our Troops When They Shoot Their Officers." Or, vice versa, apparently.
Item Number Three: Democrats are pitching a fit over plans to burn Nancy Pelosi in effigy at an anti-PelosiCare rally in Virginia. I really don't see what the big deal is. Burning politicians in effigy harms no one, and has a long history in political protests. IDK, maybe it's just because Democrats are a bunch of whining cry-babies who consider any criticism of them to be "Un-American."
Brought to you by...
Border Security Takes Back Seat to Environmental Concerns
Posted by The MaryHunter at 3:45 AM | Comments (16)
The national embarrassment that is our "border security" continues to not be taken seriously. Now, it's a battle between the Interior and Homeland Security departments:
In the battle on the U.S.-Mexico border, the fight against illegal immigration often loses out to environmental laws that have blocked construction of parts of the "virtual fence" and that threaten to create places where agents can't easily track illegal immigrants.
Documents obtained by Rep. Rob Bishop and shared with The Washington Times show National Park Service staffers have tried to stop the U.S. Border Patrol from placing some towers associated with the virtual fence, known as the Secure Border Initiative or SBInet, on wilderness lands in parks along the border.
In a remarkably candid letter to members of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department could have to delay pursuits of illegal immigrants while waiting for horses to be brought in so agents don't trample protected lands, and warns that illegal immigrants will increasingly make use of remote, protected areas to avoid being caught.
But wait, it gets better:
The documents also show the Interior Department has charged the Homeland Security Department $10 million over the past two years as a "mitigation" penalty to pay for damage to public lands that agencies say has been caused by Border Patrol agents chasing illegal immigrants.
Rep. Bishop, Utah Republican, is having none of this:
"If wilderness designation gets in the way of a secure southern border, I want the designation changed. "
Good luck with that, bud. We already know that Nappy Napolitano does not consider border security and immigration as paramount to our national interest: political correctness and diversity are much more important. The bizarre priorities of our country, the inter-agency fighting, and enviro-moonbattery run amok in our federal government, all lead toward the same result: our borders are still like a sieve, our national security is still at risk.
November 15, 2009
Abscam Jack in Command
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:12 PM | Comments (12)
This is the sort of farce our democratic institutions degenerate into when the government is run by crumbs like the treasonous porkster John Murtha:
On a tip from TED.
Spot the Crawling Moonbat
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:48 PM | Comments (27)
Can you find the obsequious moonbat among these world leaders?
Here's a hint: moonbats are characterized by a servile attitude toward foreign royalty, whereas credible leaders are not known to bow and abase themselves before the Japanese Emperor.
On a tip from BackPain.
The Master Speaker and the Fashion Queen
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:38 PM | Comments (13)
Compliments of RobKraft.
Candidate Obama Opposed Coercive Healthcare Coverage
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:31 PM | Comments (17)
Here's Comrade Obamao before the election, assuring us that he wouldn't support healthcare coverage imposed by force:
Maybe Chairman Zero will veto PelosiCare out of respect for individual liberty and so that people would be able to take him at his word. Maybe I'll grow wings and fly off to outer space.
On a tip from Knights of the Dumb Table.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:07 PM | Comments (20)
More Shame
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:50 AM | Comments (51)
I wonder how many survivors of the Bataan death march lived to see the Affirmative Action farce we're supposed to regard as President bowing and scraping obsequiously before the Japanese Emperor.
Powerline comments:
Obama's breach of protocol is of a piece with the substance of his foreign policy. He means to teach Americans to bow before monarchs and tyrants. He embodies the ideological multiculturalism that sets the United States on the same plane as other regimes based on tribal privilege and royal bloodlines. He gives expressive form to the idea that the United States now willingly prostrates itself before the rest of the world. He declares that the United States is a country like any other, only worse, because we have so much for which to apologize.
But then, maybe he wasn't really bowing. Here he is, just happening to leave the erroneous impression that he was bowing to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (actually, he was looking for a lost contact lens):
For his lowest bow yet, here's the Moonbat Messiah granting a show trial soapbox to Osama bin Laden's top terrorists:
In case the media spins this by claiming that everybody else bows to the Japanese Emperor so America ought to start doing the same, HotAirPundit proves otherwise.
It will take decades to get the egg off our face after letting this Marxist clown play President.
On tips from Edward, Bergbikr, C B, J, Byron, Bill T, John L, SK, Moonbat Skullcracker, Oaio, and Bob S. Hat tip: American Power.
Obamamania Explained -- and How to Defend Yourself
Posted by The MaryHunter at 9:36 AM | Comments (20)
According to anonymous sources, the Obamanation efforts at mind control are due to bazillions of nanobots one can inadvertently ingest when drinking the Obama Kool-Aid. These nanobots head straight for the pleasure centers of the brain and await psychotronic orders from Our Dear Leader, President Obama.
When Obama speaks, the nanobots stimulate, giving the unsuspecting a profound sense of euphoria. Meaningless statements such as "Yes, we can", "We are the change we are waiting for", and especially "Hope and Change" suddenly become the mind-numbing focus of one's life and well-being. Unrelenting desire to profess oneness with The One ensues, with concomitant deterioration of other higher mental functions and loss of personal hygiene.
According to some reports, the nanobots are particularly sensitive to the special coded language that Obama emits when he speaks truly from the heart, without the aid of his teleprompter. What the uninfected hear as mindless stammering, petulance, and/or socialist rants is perceived by the nanobots as a clarion call for hyperstimulation of the nucleus accumbens and septum pellucidium, with augmentation of the hypocampus and other as yet undetermined submission centers of the brainstem and cortex. In short: the afflicted are rendered mindless mush, putty in his hands.
How to avoid these and other pesky mind-control efforts from the left, far-left, skinhead-right, Newt Gingrich, and even LaRouchians? Astute reader SK offered up the most sensible defense: the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB), also known as Tinfoil Hats.
AFDBs have been around for years and are well known for their excellent protective properties in thwarting attempts at mind control. It has been recently shown that they are effective against this new form of nano-Obamamania attack, as well. SK offered up this website as your best source of the latest in background information and instructions on how to create, use, and care for your very own AFDB.
Update: as an extra treat, see the testimonial from Eneils Bailey posted here on November 14, 2009 8:29 PM
More Sarah Palin Derangement Syndrome
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:55 AM | Comments (70)
Well, yesterday's post that mentioned Sarah Palin evoked the expected Pavlovian response from the lefty trolls, so let's see if we can provoke the attack chihuahuas into furious fits of yipping again.
Item Number One: Deranged Palin-Stalker Andrew Sullivan -- who developed a deranged obsession with the idea that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin's son -- Now claims it was *she* who was obsessed with *him.* Um, yeah, Andy, posting dozens of entries on your weblog promoting conspiracy theories about Sarah Palin definitely proves that she is stalking you.(AIDS-related dementia isn't pretty, kids. Please, don't be gay! And don't smoke, because, smoking is gay).
Item Number Two: Newsweek, the dying fringe-left publication with plummeting circulation has a new cover story timed to coincide with the release of Sarah Palin's best-selling memoirs, warning that Sarah Palin is a deadly threat to the GOP and a nation as a whole; mainly because she embodies and promotes traditional values of self-reliance, independence, and love for family that horrify the left-wing elites.
Item Number Three: MSDNC's Larry O'Donnell was all but literally frothing at the mouth as he denounced Palin's best-selling memoir as an "index and footnote free, score settling campaign memoir" possessing "[no] mind numbing charts or graphs, no big words, no scholarly Latin phrases, like caveat emptor."
If Sarah Palin is a joke, then why is the left-wing obsessed with destroying her? The right directs similar fury at Barack Obama, fair enough, but Obama is actually in power and making many bad decisions that actually affect our lives. Sarah Palin is a private citizen, with no power to rule over anyone. One can disagree with Palin's values, but it's not as if she's running up massive federal deficits or dithering over war strategy while our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan.
John Edwards is in many ways the left-wing's analog to Sarah Palin, being the VP candidate on a losing presidential ticket and now a private citizen. (Newsweek did a cover story on John Edwards, too, once. Compare and contrast.) Sure, the right made fun of John Edwards. How could you not? The ambulance-chasing pretty boy with the enormous ugly house who knocked up a "campaign aide" while his wife fought cancer; the guy's a walking punchline. But did the right-wing media engage in an all-out, scorched Earth war on John Edwards? Hardly, because when someone really is a self-evident joke, those tactics are not necessary.
November 14, 2009
Corrupt Former Congressman Jefferson Gets Just Desserts, But Is America Better Off?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 10:12 PM | Comments (21)
Corrupt-Beyond-Approach Democrat William Jefferson, former New Orleans U.S. Representative, gets 13 years up the river for all sorts of nasties:
A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., handed down the sentence to Mr. Jefferson, a 62-year-old Democrat ousted by voters last year. He had been convicted by a jury of bribery, money laundering and racketeering in schemes that prosecutors said he devised to enrich himself and his family.
The best part of the story is that the "alleged" bribe money was stuffed into boxes of veggie burgers. Goes to show you: Just say beef.
Of course, his replacement, RINO Rep. Anh "Joe" Cao, if at least not as corruptible (yet -- this is Louisiana after all), was the lone Republican vote for PelosiCare. Who knows, if he keeps his freezer clean, perhaps he'll have a long run in that congressional seat.
Which, of course, provides a segue to this video:
On tips from Anonymous Countermoonbat.
CAIR Proud of Its Media Influence
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:58 PM | Comments (9)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations boasts of how it was out front in condemning the Ft. Hood terrorist massacre:
In a fundraising letter, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told potential donors that within hours of the attack by a Muslim Army major, the Washington, D.C.-based group issued a statement of condemnation to thousands of local, national and international media outlets.
"Perhaps you saw CAIR spokespeople interviewed on MSNBC's Hardball or on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, or the BBC," Awad writes. "Or maybe you read CAIR quotes in the Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, or USA Today."
"Our tone and immediate response is paying off," Awad said in the fundraising appeal. "Major media acknowledged the strong statement that American Muslims issued condemning the Fort Hood attack. On CNN, Anderson Cooper reported that CAIR 'reacted to the shooting spree, condemning the attack in the strongest terms possible.' On MSNBC's 'Hardball,' Chris Matthews noted that CAIR was 'quick to condemn the massacre.'"
Proud as punch they are, it seems.
But wait, wasn't CAIR named in 2008 as an unindicted co-conspirator in what amounted to the largest terrorism-finance case in U.S. history? And isn't there FBI evidence that Awad himself has direct ties to Hamas, indeed, one of the top Hamas operatives in the US?
Oh yea, it's that CAIR. Just in October, a new book came out with details:
D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is not the beneficent Muslim civil-rights group it claims to be. Indisputable evidence now demonstrates CAIR and other "mainstream" Islamic groups are acting as fronts for a well-funded conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate and destroy the American system.
And aren't CAIR leaders including their communications director Ibrahim Hooper, on record as wanting America to become a Muslim country?
"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1993. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."
Whew, I'm glad we have that all straight. Then again, perhaps another Muslim public relations group the State-Run Media should consider listening to is Muslims Against Sharia.
On a tip from SK.
Environmentalist Stupidity Watch
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 1:53 PM | Comments (12)
A couple of notes on the stupidity that passes for environmental policy among the Progressive Elite. First off, Australia has already enacted the type of Cap and Trade regulations strongly favored by the Obamacrats in Congress and the White House. The result: Energy prices immediately shot up 20% and will double by 2015. Of course, only right-wing lunatics point out that cap and trade schemes are massively expensive and completely ineffective.
Also, according to a new study, land use has a far greater impact on climate than "greenhouse gas" emissions. Urban sprawl has more climate impact than SUV's, but don't expect the progressive elite to jump on this because urban sprawl in the US is caused by immigration-fueled population growth. And it is forbidden on the left to even discuss limiting immigration. So, we have to pretend that the US can "welcome" millions of illegal immigrants with no environmental consequences. Just like, we have to pretend that drilling for oil off Brazil is environmentally benign, but drilling off the American coast will destroy the ecology of the Earth.
Ridiculous Overkill
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 11:11 AM | Comments (95)
How much does the left-wing press hate/fear Sarah Palin? Well, the Associated Press assigned no fewer than 11 writers to fact-check her book, Going Rogue.
11 guys to read Sarah Palin's memoir and look for errors. How many guys did the AP assign to fact check the books Barack Obama "wrote?" For that matter, did the AP assign anyone to read the PelosiCare Bill? Or, did they just repeat what Nancy Pelosi's flacks told them to say about it?
These eleven guys, working 'round the clock, dug deep into the text and found a grand total of six "errors." Not only that, but this is what they count as an error:
PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.
THE FACTS: Although she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard)...
So, in other words, the genius writers at the Ass Press don't know the different between "not often" and "never."
Meanwhile, Powerline, without the aid of full-time played Columbia Journalism grads at their disposal, fact-checks the fact-checkers.
Why the KSM Show Trial Makes Sense
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:57 AM | Comments (50)
I clearly remember the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop while working in Manhattan in the weeks following 9/11. Years later, it finally has. Terrorism isn't just about murder and mayhem. It's a form of propaganda. First you get everyone's attention with an audacious atrocity. Then you deliver your message. Now that the US Government is controlled by vermin so treasonous and vile that they would pander to Al Qaeda to score cheap political points against the previous administration, Step 2 can get underway with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's farcical civilian trial.
KSM won't be the one on trial. He's already admitted to everything. America will be on trial. The full impact of 9/11 will not be felt until the terrorists who brought it about stand a few miles away from the continually festering empty sockets of Ground Zero and denounce this country with our own government's tacit approval.
From Obama's point of view, the appalling decision to give Al Qaeda this soapbox makes perfect sense. His approval ratings are in a nose dive, and the public is close to open rebellion over his ham-fisted plans to seize control of the healthcare industry. Obama's base is the rabidly anti-American left; he won election by attracting moderates who had been exhausted by Bush fatigue. He ran against Bush in 2008 and won, despite Bush not being on the ballot. This show trial will allow him to run against Bush again — and against the rotten country America allegedly was before he began to "fundamentally transform" it into a socialist utopia.
For many years Obama has been a close friend of Bill Ayers, an infamous terrorist who bombed the Pentagon and the Capitol, yet walked off scot-free on a technicality. He knows the same could happen to the 9/11 mastermind and/or other top terrorists. But this is a risk our Community Activist in Chief is willing to take for the sake of trying to prop up his sagging political support.
The election of Barack Hussein Obama is without question the most contemptible event in American history.
Still Not Proud of His Country
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:11 AM | Comments (56)
Remember the Moonbat Messiah's crotch salute?
Here's video of it, via Atlas Shrugs:
Apparently, the guy supposedly qualified by his skin color and the mere mass of his ego to be President of the United States still doesn't know what every seven-year-old at a ball game knows: you show respect for this country when the National Anthem is playing. Here's our contemptuous Ditherer in Chief on Memorial Day 2009:
The teleprompter in front of him should read: Hand on the heart, you insolent punk.
On tips from Byron and Burning Hot. Hat tip: Lucianne.com.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:09 AM | Comments (15)
Sometimes, You Have to LOL to Keep from Screaming
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:27 AM | Comments (3)
Flights of MSM Fancy: When Air Force One Is Not Air Force One
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:20 AM | Comments (13)
The media and blogosphere were abuzz yesterday over the announcement that self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be judged by a jury of "his peers" in a Manhattan "criminal court." But was the coverage slanted, you ask? From the Reuter's news coverage, intrepid blogger Jim Lynch of Bright and Early made an astute observation. Quoting Reuters:
Several security scares since 2001 — a 2007 steam pipe explosion and earlier this year a low flying plane trailed by a fighter jet flying over the Statue of Liberty for a photo shoot — have created panic among still jittery New Yorkers.
To remind, via Gateway Pundit:
Amusing to no end, the lengths that the State-Run Media will go, to make Our Dear Leader B. Hussein Obama's feces smell sweet.
Mileage Tax Imposed in Holland
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:10 AM | Comments (15)
In an unholy marriage between Big Brother and the Tax Man, the Dutch government will now be monitoring, via GPS, every driver in every car in the country for purposes of taxation.
The Cabinet approved a bill Friday calling for drivers of an average passenger car to pay a base rate of euro0.03 per 1 kilometer (7 US cents per mile), beginning in 2012. Drivers of heavier, more polluting vehicles will pay more, and the cost will go up for driving in peak hours.
Allegedly, this is to reduce congestion and, of course, "carbon emissions." Seems every scheme for saving the Earth comes down to giving up more freedom and more money to the Government.
The Dutch people acquiesced to this scheme in exchange for reductions in other automobile related taxes. But, guess what's written into the law...
The tax will increase every year until 2018 and could be adjusted if it fails to change traffic patterns.
Suckers.
"What Is This Like?" --- A Weekend Diversion
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:07 AM | Comments (18)
Have you read where PBO is preparing --- once he signs his multi-trillion dollar bill health care --- to really buckle down and get serious about reducing the deficit?
ROFLMFAO.
It gets better. If you read the article, they aren't even talking about reducing the deficit in 2010 (which will be over a Trillion dollars) or 2011 (ditto) or even 2012 (ditto)... but just to come up with some scheme that says someday they'll get the deficit under control. Eventually. Maybe. Unless, of course, they really need to keep running massive deficits.
This gave me idea --- a diverting game of "What is this like?"--- i.e. "This is like a crackhead saying he just needs one more hit of crack to give him the strength to get off crack." Or, "This is like Kirstie Ally swearing she's gonna start that diet right after the holidays are over." But I'm sure you guys can come up with clever, scathing analogies, so let's have them. Post your analogy and if we get more than, say, 20 of 'em, we'll post the best ones in the Monday Morning Briefs.
November 13, 2009
Gaia wants you to go sockless a la 'Miami Vice'
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:38 PM | Comments (38)
Aquatarkus thinks this guy is a genius.
Sculptor and artistic luminary Antony Gormley shares his wisdom on matters ecological. “Dispense with your socks,” says he. “This is a time of global warming. Through our feet we can begin to feel it.” This is no doubt because “our feet connect with our brains” and “engage with time.” And what’s more, “through our feet we can begin to be one people, standing through gravity on one Earth.” Yes, standing through gravity, united in our socklessness. Go barefoot for Gaia, people. It’s “an act of solidarity.”
Hat Tip: David Thompson
Obamamania Open Thread
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:52 PM | Comments (33)
Muslim Hate Crimes
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 2:04 PM | Comments (26)
The Progressive and the Mainstream Media (but I repeat myself) got all worried that after an Islamist killed 14 human beings at Fort Hood, that Christians would go mad with rage and an epidemic of anti-Muslims hate crimes would follow. Because, to left-wing logic, Jesus Christ's most devout followers will show their faith by behaving in exactly the opposite way Jesus Christ taught them to.
Well, there have been some incidents of violence since the Fort Hood terror attack.
In Hayward, California, a Christian employee at a mall kiosk attacked a shopper for wearing a hijab... Oops, no, wait, it was a Muslim employee who attacked a Christian shopper for wearing a crucifix.
Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center. According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head.
And in Rochester, New York, a man tried to run down pedestrians in his car while shouting "Jesus Loves You." No, not really. Though the crime seems to be more about bad taste in "women" than about jihad, there are some interesting details.
According to court documents, when he was arrested, Munir Muthana was yelling remarks such as “F*** the police,” "Ben Franklin was stupid," “The Muslims will fix this country,” and “I was trying to fight that f***** shemale.” .... While he was also heard muttering words like "jihad" and "hating Americans," he also reportedly said he didn't hate Americans, just police.
I wonder if Munir Muthana will be on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's jury. He is Obama has entitled him to a jury of his peers.
Chairman Zero to Begin Purging Republicans from Civil Service Jobs
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 1:49 PM | Comments (10)
Remember the massive tantrums thrown by the left when the Bush Administration fired a handful of U.S. Attorneys? Do you remember that? How the left howled endlessly about how terrible it was to fire these attorneys for "political" reasons? Remember how the Obamacrat Congress agreed this was a terrible, terrible misuse of power and demanded full investigations?
Amazing how on 01.20.2009, all the rules changed.
Under new (Obama Administration) rules, made retroactive for five years, the Office of Personnel Management will examine civil service employees who got their start as political appointees in the Bush administration and terminate those employees. The order is retroactive to 2004, that moment when a number of Republican congressional staffers and others sought to embed into the second Bush administration right after the election.
Hope, Change, and Purging of All Who Might Be Disloyal to Dear Leader. It's how they do it in Chicago.
(via RedState)
If You're Fat, Go Give Birth in a Gutter
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:58 PM | Comments (32)
...or, at least not in our birthing center, say the noble souls at this UK facility:
Weston General Hospital, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, has a low-risk midwife maternity unit and can only safely admit women with a body mass index (BMI) of up to 34.
This equates to an average 5ft 6in (168cm) woman weighing 15 stone (95kg).
That's 210 lb to you and me.
Women above the specified weight are sent 20 miles to the nearest fully-facilitated maternity unit at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol.
The policy also includes women who have gained 44lb (20kg) in 36 weeks of pregnancy.
Ladies in the audience can discuss how common a 45 lb weight gain is. I've certainly heard of them.
If the hospital isn't competent to handle the potential complications from such births (is there an OB-GYN in the audience to discuss these?) then why can't the place upgrade its facilities, rather than put women and babies at even greater risk by transporting them an extra 20 miles? Apparently, people don't matter, even when seconds count, if they are a little overweight.
Reason 3,492 to fight socialized medicine.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Could Walk
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:16 AM | Comments (82)
Elections have consequences. One consequence of voters' appalling lapse of judgment last November is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the Muslim atrocities of 9/11, may soon be free to plot future terror attacks at his leisure.
Mohammed and the four others — Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali — are accused of orchestrating the attacks that killed 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001, and will now be tried in a courtroom down the street from the World Trade Center.
We all know they're guilty. But in a civilian circus of a trial, information gathered through means of which our liberal rulers disapprove — e.g., waterboarding — will be inadmissible. If O.J. could walk, so could K.S.M.
Maybe that's what it will take for people to understand just how insane and disgusting it was to put a leftist punk in charge of our country.
Lawmakers and victims' families expressed outrage Friday that President Obama has approved a recommendation to try self-proclaimed Sept. 11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court.
"These terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of thousands of innocent Americans. Treating them like common criminals is unconscionable," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement.
"This, I think, will go down as one of the worst decisions any president has ever made," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
"The only thing they are going to do is give them a stage to mock us … and this makes me sick to my stomach," said Tim Brown, a former New York City firefighter and founder of Thebravest.com, a group that is petitioning the administration not to bring terrorists to civilian courts.
If Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's next masterpiece involves a mushroom cloud, there may come a day when people are torn apart by angry mobs on mere suspicion of having supported the traitors who are doing this to our country.
On a tip from Varla.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:57 AM | Comments (18)
Ditherer-in-Chief
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:53 AM | Comments (8)
Moonbat Tech: Trash-Powered Streetlight
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:41 AM | Comments (19)
The latest in eco-technology, via Yanko Design:
A lamppost powered by trash seems like a strange idea but if you think about the ratio between city trash and energy needs — things start to make sense, kinda. This lamppost composts trash and uses the methane byproduct as a fuel to power the lamps. The compost can then be retrieved to re-green our cities.
Maybe a troll could volunteer to translate this text out of the Moonbattese:
Air2air investigates the efficiency of garbage-powered streetlights:
The designer forgot to consider the actual mechanism the light would use to turn the trash into electricity, but:
• I looked up the actual power consumption of a streetlight, and it's 800 to 1,000 watts/hour.
• The smallest Honda gas-powered generator, the EU1000, will provide that power consuming about one pint of gasoline per hour.
Regarding methane, it is considered a much more destructive greenhouse gas than C02. From Wikipedia:
"Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential of 72 (averaged over 20 years) or 25 (averaged over 100 years). Methane in the atmosphere is eventually oxidized, producing carbon dioxide and water. As a result, methane in the atmosphere has a half life of seven years."
To really produce methane, animal excrement produces over 200 times more than trash by volume, due to nitrogen content. Paper and half-eaten snickers bars just don't produce energy. According to methane power pioneer Harold Bate:
"After experiments with just about every type of animal manure, I found I got the best results from mixing that of chickens and pigs. Chicken manure contains more nitrogen than others and pig droppings are useful because they generate heat so well."
Over a period of several weeks of fermentation, you can produce the equivalent of 50 gallons of gasoline from 300 pounds of chicken and pig manure. Therefore, to power a streetlight:
1. The generator would require a gallon of gas every day, if the light was on for eight hours.
2. 300 lbs of manure could create that much gas for each streetlight — if it was refreshed and topped off every day.
3. To use trash instead, each streetlight's bin would have to accomodate 60,000 lbs. of trash.
Of course, the energy costs of moving and processing 60,000 lbs. of trash per streetlight were not considered by the designer either.
Fortunately, green technology doesn't have to actually work. It just has to make liberals feel good about themselves, so as to attract government subsidies.
It's Called Hypocrisy (And Unlike Most Leftists, I Can Actually Spell That Word Correctly)
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:05 AM | Comments (6)
First Scozzafava and now this. Bad RNC! Bad! No money for you!
Update: Either "Never Mind" or "That was quick!"
Liberal Blog Learns to Appreciate W
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:59 AM | Comments (22)
Despite his Big Government tendencies, at least W is a class act — as even the libs at HillBuzz now acknowledge:
If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of "Dubya" nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.
Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.
We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.
Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone. More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.
Honestly, we don't think President Gore would have been much better that day. The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.
As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack. …
We hope someday to be able to thank George W. and Laura in person for all they've done, and continue to do. They didn't have to head to Ft. Hood. That was not their responsibility.
The Obamas should have done that.
But didn't.
Wouldn't.
Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.
Somehow I doubt that when the current nightmare is over, anyone is going to look back with newfound appreciation of the decency and patriotism of the crew we've got in the White House now.
On a tip from Antara.
Ain't Hope and Change Great?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:56 AM | Comments (15)
Remember when the Republicans controlled Congress and the White House? Remember how they voted massive taxpayer bailouts for the Wall Street rich, while poor and middle class Americans were reduced to lining up at Wal-Mart at midnight to buy food on their meager unemployment and welfare checks. Remember how the Republicans' rich buddies on Wall Street were doing just fine while the rest of the country was mired in massive unemployment.
Oh, wait! That wasn't the Republicans. The Democrats ran Congress when the Wall Street bailouts were pushed through. And then a Democrat was elected president and even more bailouts were pushed through (the "Stimulus). And the bankers and Wall Street guys are still getting bailed out. But the little guys are still lining up at Wal-Mart and worried about losing their jobs and their homes.
And instead of doing anything to help the economy, the Obamacrats are trying to make the business climate even more hostile with climate change regulation and a massive new health care entitlement. Because those are the priorities of the elite left, and as long as the recession isn't eating into any of their trust funds, they don't give a damn about the middle and working classes.
You're doing a heckuva job, Peebo.
Nidal Malik Hasan's True Motive as Revealed by Daily Kos
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:23 AM | Comments (25)
We know Nidal Malik Hasan can't be a Muslim terrorist, because believing that would be insensitive to the Islamic death cult bent on our destruction. The media tried post-traumatic stress syndrome, but Hasan has never been in combat. The media also floated "compassion fatigue" as an excuse for murdering 14 people, but that just set off bitter laughter. Finally, the Daily Kos proved its lasting relevance by coming up with this one:
He was trying to save these troops from the horrors of war that he heard about from returning troops.
In a reader poll, this answer was chosen by 8% of Daily Kos readers.
What a thoughtful guy, gunning down unarmed soldiers so that they wouldn't have to face the horrors of war. No wonder liberals twist themselves into knots trying to portray him in a sympathetic light.
Hat tip: Hot Air Pundit, on a tip from SK.
Great Fundraiser for Schools: Selling Grades
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:55 AM | Comments (9)
Only in America would a school undermine the concept of education in order to raise money:
GOLDSBORO, N.C. – A middle school in North Carolina is selling test scores to students in a bid to raise money.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that a parent advisory council at Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro come up with the fundraising plan after last year's chocolate sale flopped.
So, instead of spreading obesity, the parents and teachers would rather generate children with no respect for the education system, who believe that academic success is for sale.
The school will sell 20 test points to students for $20.
Students can add 10 extra points to each of two tests of their choice. The extra points could take a student from a "B" to an "A" on those tests or from a failing grade to a passing grade.
Cry foul? Don't bother, the school's principal has it covered:
Principal Susie Shepherd says it's not enough of an impact to change a student's overall grades.
In which case, of course, the whole fundraiser is a scam.
No wonder our system produces so many adults who can't think to save their lives.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:31 AM | Comments (4)
Good Morning Campers and Strange Furry Creatures from Alpha Centauri
Item Number One: The MSM has no trouble labeling anyone to right of Olympia Snowe hardcore conservative. So, what do you think the MSM would call a senator who's an open, avowed socialist? In the case of Bernie Sanders (S-VT), the phrase they us is "left leaning." What an understatement. Bernie leans toward socialist in the same sense that Balloon Daddy leans toward getting some publicity for himself. If an avowed socialist can't be described as a leftist, who can be? Do you ever hear the MSM ever describe anything or anyone as "hard left?" Not even Castro or Chavez.
Item Number Two: Bill Clinton whines about the treatment of women on the show 'Mad Men.' Apparently, women around the Sterling Coop office are treated as nothing more than objects for the sexual gratification of men. This is like Roman Polanski complaining that Miley Cyrus's skirts are too short. Very much like that, in fact.
Item Number Three: Headline of the day: Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF. (Hey, I never said every item had to be about left-wing insanity.) The article quotes the kidnap victim --- I am not making this up --- as saying "I think if they wanted to kidnap somebody they'd be inclined to go for a much younger man "
Have a nice weekend. Here's a stinger that kind of sums up my feelings on the past week.
GM Sends Bailout Money Overseas while Planning American Layoffs
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:43 AM | Comments (16)
Remember that $50.2 bazillion bailout that GM received earlier this year, turning it into Government Motors (a federally supported subsidiary of the UAW)? And how that bailout was supposed to ultimately save American jobs and keep that vital automotive sector alive?
Fast forward about half a year to this, your tax dollars at work in Latin America:
For example, "Government Motors" is spending your tax dollars in Brazil. According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the $1 billion to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012" will come from the $50.2 billion bailout GM received earlier this year. Yet at the same time, GM says it intends to eliminate 21,000 U.S. jobs by the end of 2010.
I'm sure they'll only be firing marketing and publicity personnel, since they'll have the Obama Administration to handle all of that now. But wait, let's not forget our bailout-worthy friends just across the border:
GM plans new investments in Mexico of $1.2 billion through 2011.
...and don't even think about forgetting our environmentally sensitive friends half way around the globe:
[GM] has promised to "continue to invest heavily" in China and to roll out at least five new brands there before the end of the year.
But wait: What about our European allies, most of which just love our new New Dear Leader so very much? OK, why not:
And last Thursday, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said the company could tap some U.S. government aid to help restructure the company's European Opel unit. According to GM statements, "as a matter of principle, [the U.S. authorities] are not opposed to GM making investments in its foreign operations."
When "a matter of principle" stands in apparent contradiction to the whole presumed point of the government takeover of GM -- to save American jobs, prop up a (decaying but yet somehow vitally important) American industry, and thereby boost the American economy -- then foreign investment seems a little counterproductive.
The "Free Market" isn't "Free" if federal funds are involved. In this perverse scheme, all tax-paying Americans -- from the loopiest vegan moonbat to the most free-market conservative business owner -- are now stockholders in GM. That is, non-voting stockholders with absolutely no choice to NOT buy into the stock, which offers no dividends, just feel-good vibes about a more prosperous nation, if only we save just this one industry over here, for the sake of America's workers.
Multinational corporation or not, Government Motors has no business spreading our wealth around the globe.
Photo credit: fotosessions
November 12, 2009
Acting Stupidly
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:24 PM | Comments (11)
The Moonbat Messiah continues to inspire artists of all kinds:
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:09 PM | Comments (19)
Is it just me?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:58 PM | Comments (30)
Or, does it seem like the Obamas just don't respect the military very much.
Here's PBO responding to a salute by smirking like an empty-headed leftist idiot.
OK, maybe the camera just caught him at an awkward moment (like the time he was staring at that Brazilian girl's mudflaps) and maybe he did respectfully acknowledge the Marine's salute before the picture was taken.
On the other hand, there's this: M'Chel Ob'Ama seems to think the purpose of the military is to hold umbrellas for her and her girlfriends, while she shows up at a Memorial service wearing quilted surgical Scrubs and Starfleet boots.
Condi could pull off the boots because, unlike M'Chel, she had genuine class.
Tax & Charade Bedtime Story
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:46 PM | Comments (12)
Sane people can also play at the game of portraying menaced children in commercials related to the global warming hoax.
Shameless moonbat propaganda:
The response:
Hat tip: Theo Spark, on a tip from Joe.
And Now for Something Completely Different...
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:35 PM | Comments (9)
How to break up a kitten fight:
Video from Rizzzalie
Is It Too Early to Stick a Fork in Dodd?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:45 PM | Comments (10)
Possibly not, but Quinnipiac has some new numbers. RedState discusses the latest Connecticut poll results:
The poll shows Dodd with a favorable/unfavorable rating of -15 (38-53) among men and -25 (34-59) among Independents, and a re-elect number of -24 (34-58) among men and -32 (30-62) among Independents, the latter mirroring the showing of Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds among Independents.
Yes, the wait for 2010 seems like an eternity, so let's not be hasty:
It’s still somewhat early to judge whether any of the other Republicans in the race would be electable against Dodd; clearly, Simmons, as a moderate former Congressman, has a very real shot of winning this race, as he’s polling basically where Chris Christie was polling at this stage against Corzine. And bear in mind, this was a poll of registered, not likely voters; the likely-voter screens almost always help the GOP candidate, especially since 2010 will be an off-year election in which polls are consistently showing that voters on the Right are far more motivated and energized.
For anyone who is not a dingbat lock-step Democrap Obot and is still considering an actual vote for this beyond-corrupt politician (who, with Ted Kennedy, invented the "Waitress Sandwich"), here's a Chris Dodd primer. The video is several months old but still summarizes relevant information.
Is Dodd going down? Dunno, but it sure doesn't look good for him - which means, all the better for us.
Image: www.sotr.us.
Moonbat Goes a Year Without Using Money
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:10 PM | Comments (17)
Mark Boyle decided to take himself out of the greedy, capitalist system and go a year without spending any money. He did it for environmental reasons, but that didn't stop him from moving into a mobile home; which are manufactured by the capitalist system. Once installed there, he lived primarily off refuse (also produced by the capitalist system) and from foraging... in other words, living in a manner that, if adopted by all humans today, would quickly reduce the population through starvation. Not only that, cultures built on foraging have no time or excess resources to devote to art, literature, and higher culture, but I digress.
He's currently a feast to celebrate of his freegan "journey."
I'm currently organising a free mini-festival called the Freeconomy Feast 2009, where myself and Fergus Drennan, the BBC's Roadkill Chef, aim to feed 250 people a three-course meal with full service for free, completely out of waste food and things foraged from the wilds of Bristol.
And these people look down on people who eat at Olive Garden.
Mark Boyle actually annoys me far less than most other Eco-Moonbats. Yes, he's a smug, self-righteous eco-jerk. But, there are three big reasons his moonbattery is tolerable:
1. He seems sincere, and doesn't appear to be doing this as a publicity stunt like that "Zero Impact, Man" douche.
2. He's not a hypocrite like Al Gore, John Kerry, RFK Jr, Nancy Pelosi, and all those other "environmentalists" who demand everybody else give up cars and travel while they tool around in SUVs and travel everywhere by private jet.
3. Unlike 1 and 2, he is not demanding that the Government force everybody else into a lifestyle he will choose for them.
Number 3 is really the problem. Moonbats are just annoying on their own; it's when they use the power of the state to force everyone to embrace moonbattery that they become dangerous.
Another Crappy Enviro-Car Death Trap
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:00 AM | Comments (41)
The G-Wiz is a another POS electric car being touted by enviro-weenies as a way to save the Earth, because instead of hydrocarbon fuel, it runs on electricity. Electricity creates no pollution because it is generated by the mating of fairies and unicorns.
Eurotopian countries are promoting the use of the G-Wiz and similar vehicles through tax incentives and special parking privileges in congested cities like Londonistan. Millions and millions of Euros are being spent to provide public electricity plugs.
But how does this wonderful triumph of Green Engineering actually perform? Here's a video.
So, basically, it's a POS, and if you get into an accident with it, you die. Thus, reducing your carbon emissions to zero, which was probably the Environmentalist Left's plan in the first place.
Moonbat Tech: Placenta Teddy Bear
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:12 AM | Comments (44)
Enviromoonbattery may be the first truly totalitarian ideology, in that it insists that absolutely every aspect of human existence be warped in homage to green sanctimony. Since even children's toys have to be "sustainable," moonbats have invented the Placenta Teddy Bear:
Doing it for the Kids is a current exhibition put on by [re] design to showcase the latest, most innovative sustainable toy designs from around the globe. Among them, the Placenta Teddy Bear by designer Alex Green. A crafty alternative for those who don't necessarily want to eat their baby's placenta, but want to pay their respects to the life sustaining organ by turning it into a one-of-a-kind teddy bear. Green's 'Twin Teddy Kit' 'celebrates the unity of the infant, the mother and the placenta,' and enables preparation of the placenta so it may be transformed into a teddy bear. The placenta must be cut in half and rubbed with sea salt to cure it. After it is dried out, it is treated with an emulsifying mixture of tannin and egg yolk to make it soft and pliable. Then, you craft it into a teddy bear.
Goofing around with bodily waste is an obsession with ecomoonbats, as we have seen again and again and again and again and again and again. These weirdoes basically control our energy policy.
Hat tip: BelchSpeak.
Client #9 to Address Harvard Ethics Center
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:24 AM | Comments (15)
Our degenerate liberal elite rulers are redefining the term "self-parody":
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will give a lecture Thursday afternoon at Harvard University's ethics center, raising a few questions over what the prostitute-visiting ex-official has to say on the topic.
The engagement drew an objection from the former madam whose escort service provided Spitzer with high-end hookers.
According to The New York Post, Kristin Davis, who reportedly repeatedly supplied Spitzer with an escort, wrote a protest letter to the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics calling Spitzer a "man without ethics."
"I am greatly intrigued as to what Mr. Spitzer could contribute to an ethical discussion when as Chief Executive Law Enforcement Officer of NY he broke numerous laws for which he has yet to be punished," she wrote, according to the newspaper. "As Attorney General he went around arresting and making examples out of the same escort agencies he was frequenting."
But when it comes to violating fundamental ethical principles, Spitzer has left prostitution behind in favor of mass theft and economic slavery:
[Spitzer's] lecture is about the basis for government intervention in the private economy. The title of the lecture is: "From Ayn Rand to Ken Feinberg — How Quickly the Paradigm Shifts. What Should Be the Rationale for Government Participation in the Market?"
The answer: the only rationale for Demonrats like Spitzer to seize control of the economy is that they think they can get away with it.
Democrat Values: Jail for People Who Don't Buy Insurance, Citizenship for Border Jumpers
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:10 AM | Comments (20)
Once all of the mandates for health care are added up, an insurance policy that complies with the recently passed PelosiCare bill will cost $15,000 annually. Under Section 7201 of the PelosiCare bill, people who don't buy the super-expensive insurance the Government will mandate will be guilty of a felony with fines of $250,000 and up five years in prison.
Yeesh, talk about your heavy hand of government.
And the reason the Obamacrats want to take away your freedom to choose whether or not to have health insurance is because they are concerned about people "free-loading" on other people. Obama's Teleprompter made him justify the jail terms thusly, "Penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”
Since when do Obamunist Democrats care about people freeloading off the system? These are the same people who want as many people on welfare as possible for as long as possible... generations, ideally. These are the same people who want to reward those who violate our immigration laws with a "path to citizenship." These are the same people who monkey-wrenched the economy by making banks give mortgages to freeloaders who couldn't afford them. This is a party whose entire philosophy is based on taxing the productive so that the unproductive can have a free ride. Now, they claim to be concerned about people freeloading off the health care system?
The same people who want to free cop-killers like Mumia Abu Jamal want to throw you in jail if you want to pay for your own health care.
Obamunism: Welfare Good. Self Sufficiency BadVictim of White Privilege Takes His Revenge at Columbia
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:17 AM | Comments (46)
It could be time for another beer summit:
A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations…
Police busted Lionel McIntyre, 59, for assault yesterday after his bruised victim, Camille Davis, filed charges.
McIntyre and Davis, who works as a production manager in the school's theater department, are both regulars at Toast, a popular university bar on Broadway and 125th Street, sources said.
The professor, who is black, had been engaged in a fiery discussion about "white privilege" with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also white, Friday night at 10:30 when fists started flying, patrons said.
McIntyre, who is known as "Mac" at the bar, shoved Davis, and when the other patron and a bar employee tried to break it up, the prof slugged Davis in the face, witnesses said.
"The punch was so loud, the kitchen workers in the back heard it over all the noise," bar back Richie Velez, 28, told The Post. "I was on my way over when he punched Camille and she fell on top of me."
The other patron involved in the dispute said McIntyre then took a swing at him after he yelled, "You don't hit a woman!"
"He knocked the glasses right off my face," said the man, who would only give his first name as "Shannon." "The punch came out of nowhere. Mac was talking to us about white privilege and what I was doing about it — apparently I wasn't doing enough."
McIntyre had squabbled with Davis several weeks earlier over issues involving race, witnesses said. As soon as the professor threw the punch Friday, server Rob Dalton and another employee tossed him out.
"It was a real sucker punch," Dalton said. "Camille's a great lady, always nice to everybody, and doesn't deserve anything like this."
Nonetheless, the Community Organizer in Chief would no doubt conclude that Davis had "acted stupidly" by stopping the oppressed black fist with her face.
On tips from Edward, Judith M, Puffdaddy, and SK.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 6:59 AM | Comments (30)
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:46 AM | Comments (13)
Good Morning Campers and Lefty Trolls Who Have Never Stood in the "12 Medications or Less" Line at CVS,
Item Number One:On 29 OCT, the US Naval Academy Color Guard made an appearance at the World Series. The day before their appearance, two Midshipmen were removed from the Color Guard by senior NA commanders. The reason? They were white males. No one is even denying that's the reason they were pulled off the guard; the NA just wanted to project more "diversity." Our military is more obsessed with "diversity" than it is with winning wars, honoring and rewarding excellence ... or even with protecting our soldiers from crazed Islamist radicals.
In related news, CinC PBO has reportedly rejected all recommendations to win the war in Afghanistan. He's still waiting for that, "Lose The War But Make Me Look Good" strategy. Or maybe he's thinking war is just a kind of college term paper, and it's okay for him to turn in it as late as he wants.
Item Number Two: Two Three depressing stories about the economy, and the Neo-Marxist mismanagement thereof. An AP poll has found that Americans have never been more pessimistic about the economy, despite the happy talk from PBO's fluffers in the MSM. And an economic analyst says 10.2% unemployment isn't the peak, and we'll see 12% unemployment, maybe more, and for longer, primarily because... well, short answer, the Government is being run by Big Government Neo-Marxists. The deficit spending is sucking so much capital out of the economy there's simply no money available for business to expand. It is difficult to see how trillions more in PelosiCare spending will make the situation any better.
Also, PBO is depending on China's economy to pull the USA out of recession (and supplant the USA as the globe's dominant power). But at least one analyst thinks China may be heading for a fall as well.
Depressed yet? Well, there is a stinger at the end of this, at least.
Item Number Three: A fringe political movement that demands absolute ideological purity from its membership has purged another member for failing its litmus tests. I refer, of course, to Lou Dobbs leaving CNN. A gleeful (but still deranged) Keith Olberman dislocated his shoulder while high-fiving himself that someone who was not 100% compliant with the views of the media left had been driven from its ranks.
What else do I got? Oh, yeah, a Stinger...
"Diversity" Is Killing America and Americans
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:35 AM | Comments (10)
There has been a lot of fabulous (and furious) writing from the Right in the wake of the Fort Hood terrorist massacre. This is not something to celebrate per se, but something for which to be thankful if it shines light on serious errors of judgment by the Army Brass and urges citizens to speak out against those inane government policies that allowed this horrific attack to occur.
Cal Thomas wrote two essays about the terror attack that explore the topic of "diversity", that artificial construct by the PC Police that means nothing to average Americans and everything to a bureaucrat interested in inflicting a left-wing, socialist, relativistic, anti-American agenda upon us. "Diversity" has become a code word for "intolerance of the Anglo-European, Judeo-Christian, democratic founding principles of this nation." "Diversity" also allows human pimples like Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to fester into gangrenous infections threatening our entire nation. "Diversity" then offers up excuses and tries to fix the problem through more "Diversity."
In a piece earlier this week in the Washington Times, Thomas wrote:
Suddenly, the issue of gays in the military doesn't seem as important as jihadists in the military.
Yes, indeedie.
And this morning:
Apparently, "diversity" is not for everyone, and even if it were, what does it mean? To those who wish to impose it, it seems to mean that no one can any longer speak of truth, or even seek it out, because according to the rules of diversity, there is no objective truth. Thinking so makes you a fundamentalist, unless you are a fundamentalist Muslim, in which case you are to be accommodated, pacified and given special rights - like ritual footbaths, prayer rooms and prayer times at public schools and universities that would probably be denied and challenged as violations of church-state separation if a Jew or a Christian were to make requests unique to their faiths.
I grow weary of having to tolerate everything when none of those making such demands seems willing to tolerate much of what I believe. Shouldn't diversity be a two-way street instead of a roadblock?
And we grow weary with him.
Cal Thomas is at his best when he says precisely those things that need to be said that few others will.
November 11, 2009
We Love the Obama Fuzzy Math - Part Trois
Posted by The MaryHunter at 8:42 PM | Comments (19)
A few new examples of the shadiness of Obamanation mathematics, which promised us it could hold unemployment at 8% if the porkulus bill was passed:
Massachusetts received nearly $4 billion in stimulus funds and reported more than 12,000 jobs affected.
Hmm, let's see... that's $333,333.33 per job. Gub'ment efficiency.
The Boston Globe reports one state college claimed 160 full-time jobs from $77,000 in stimulus money.
Hmm, let's see... that's 160 folks working full time about 240 days/year, making 307,200 worker hours/year,... so the new full-time jobs are paying at most $0.25 per hour. But it's good work, if you can get it.
In other instances, federal money that recipients already took in annually was re-classified as stimulus money and existing jobs were attributed to recovery funds.
Hmm, let's see...robbing Peter to pat Obama on the back.
Obama Administration: Dereliction of Duty
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:30 PM | Comments (10)
Punctuality seems not to be one of Our Dear Leader's strong suits - especially when it comes to filling key posts in his own administration:
Nearly 200 top positions in the administration remain vacant a full year after President Obama was elected. USA Today reports the backlog puts President Obama behind his predecessors in terms of the amount of time taken to fill key jobs.
The Senate has confirmed 366 Obama nominees, compared with 421 at this point for President George W. Bush and 379 for President Clinton. New York University professor Paul Light, a federal bureaucracy expert, says: "Obama is well on pace right now to set a new record in terms of lateness."
One glaringly ironic absence, in the face of the rush to ObamaCare:
There is no one permanently in charge of Medicare or Medicaid at a time when the president is pushing health care reform in Congress. Mark McClellan, a former administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says the timing isn't good, "without a permanent administrator in place."
Then again, perhaps it's not a bad thing that the Obamanation Administration is a veritable ghost town. One could argue that no one in an O-post is one more non-communist, non-enviro-whackjob, non-baby-killer on the job.
Obamunist Newspeak Vocabulary Terms
Posted by Van Helsing at 1:47 PM | Comments (24)
B. Hussein Obama: The Nowhere Man
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:52 AM | Comments (13)
A recovering Berkeley Lib psychology (a scary combination of words if ever there was) has psychoanalyzed professional TelePrompter Reader B. Hussein Obama, trying to make sense of his bizarre and inappropriate behavior: Giggling over unemployment numbers in a 60 Minutes interview, or giving a glib "shout out" to a member of the audience before announcing the tragic news from Fort Hood. She also ponders the odd fact that no one seems to remember him much from his days at Columbia, or from his days at the Harvard Law Review. She considers that in his books, he confesses to not enjoying the company of other people.
She considers the conventional explanation of his behavior: narcissism; high functioning autism; schizophrenia. Then, she examines his childhood and raises the possibility that PBO just never learned how to care about other people. He arrived in adulthood as a blank slate, ready for others to transform according to their needs.
Obama's identity seemed to have been formed when he found his clan: Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and Bernadine Dohrn. But these are disconnected people, misfits who aren't comfortable in their own skin. Their radical ideology arises from rage and alienation. They, like Obama, treat people with disdain.
I don't have any conclusions, I just found it an interesting and worthwhile article.
He's as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
(Lennon, McCarthy)
Millionaire Actor Despises Capitalism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:30 AM | Comments (60)
Jim Carrey was the first actor to be paid $20,000,000 per picture. His ability to make faces and talk out of his butt-cheeks has made him one of the wealthiest men in Hollywood. So, what does he think of the capitalist system that enabled him to amass such great wealth.
"Every construct we’ve built in American life is falling apart. Why? Because of personal greed and ambition. Capitalism without regulation can’t protect us against personal greed.. . ."
So, greed is bad, and capitalism must be regulated. That must be why he and fellow left-wing actors are demanding that congress cap their enormous paychecks, as left-wing progressives in congress are doing to the financial industry? Oh, you mean Hollywood progressives aren't demanding pay caps? Oh, well, never mind. I am sure that someone who despises greed and ambition as much as Carrey does has turned his back on Hollywood and decided to make movies within a highly regulated collective structure, where all cast and crew are paid equally, and the films are distributed at modest cost to entertain the masses. Oh, wait, he hasn't done that either.
So, can we conclude that Mr. Carrey's actual position is that unregulated capitalism is bad when it allows people other than him to become rich?
Mayor Daley Blames Islamic Terror Attack on America's Love of Guns
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:11 AM | Comments (20)
When an Islamic extremist screams "Allahu akbar" and opens fire on American soldiers, liberals know one thing for sure — it can't have anything to do with Islam. 9/11 put Muslims first in line for the privileges of political correctness; their barbarous death cult is consequently beyond reproach.
But this hasn't left the Left at a loss to explain Nidal Malik Hasan's horrific killing spree. It was caused by all the things liberals don't like — guns, for example. To quote Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose corrupt machine politics helped produce our Community Organizer in Chief:
Unfortunately, America loves Guns. We love guns to a point where that uh we see devastation on a daily basis. You don't blame a group.
Likewise, it was America's unfortunate love of air travel that caused Hasan's colleagues to fly passenger airliners into buildings full of innocent people on September 11. You don't blame a group, unless that group is normal Americans.
If anything good can come of the Islamic atrocity at Fort Hood, it is that liberals in both the government and the media have now squandered the absolute last of their credibility. It simply isn't possible for them to deny any longer that their depraved ideology puts them on the side of the savages who are trying to destroy us.
On a tip from Charlie G.
New London - The Triumph of Socialism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:14 AM | Comments (11)
When the enlightened progressive government of New London, Connecticut decided to confiscate private property and turn it over to a large corporation for development, they declared it was for the Common Good. They promised development, jobs, and tax revenues from the developments that would be built on the confiscated land. The Central Planners of the city government decided that the needs of the community were greater than the needs of the private homeowners. The Supreme Court agreed, and allowed the city government to confiscate the land.
How well did this exercise in central planning at the expense of property rights work? Not so great as it turns out.
Pfizer, the company for whose benefit the central planners confiscated the land, is pulling out of New London, leaving its existing campus vacant and taking away 1,400 jobs. The hotel which was to be built on the confiscated land won't be built after all, partly because of Pfizer pulling out, and partly because the Coast Guard Museum that was to be built on the site is in limbo while the local Demonrat congressman tries to get an earmark for it. (BTW, there are already Coast Guard Museums in Seattle, Cape Cod, and Virginia Beach. Why, in an age of trillion dollar deficits, do we need to build another one?)
But remember, we need government central planners to run health care, energy, banking, and other areas of the economy because they do such a better job than the private sector.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:54 AM | Comments (93)
Not So Merry Christmas Coming in New York
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:41 AM | Comments (26)
Big Government grows at a rate that exceeds even the rate it bleeds the life out of the economy — as evidenced by New York, which is scheduled to go bankrupt by Christmas despite the second-highest tax rate in the country. Accidental governor David Paterson is yelping in panic:
"We're going to run out of cash in four and a half weeks. We are going to run out of money. Unless we do something about it, (it will) threaten generations," Paterson said.
Paterson is so desperate that — having tried new taxes on everything he could think of — he now advocates finally reducing state spending. But of course, the entrenched bureaucracy will have none of it.
Senate Democrats, with their tenuous 32-30 hold on the upper house, are terrified to make school and hospital cuts because, they said, the cuts could mean increases in local property taxes.
And that could mean suburban Democrats on Long Island, in Westchester and other parts of the state could have trouble getting re-elected next year.
Remember, high property taxes led to the ouster of many suburban Democrats last week, including Westchester County Executive Andy Spano. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi could also lose once absentee ballots are counted.
New York property taxes are already so astronomical, they were a major factor in driving Yours Truly out of the state. But the money has to come from somewhere — unless of course bureaucrats reduce the size of government. But that would defeat the very purpose of government, which is to grow like wildfire at the expense of our wealth and freedom.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Veterans Day Salute
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:24 AM | Comments (8)
Once again, vets: thank you.
Don't let the cowardly politics get you down. Heroes always prevail in the end.
On a tip from John R.
Left Wing Dingbat: Fort Hood Attack Was Bush's Fault
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:21 AM | Comments (39)
You knew it was inevitable that the Progressive Left would find a way to blame George W. Bush for the Fort Hood Terror Attack because, as the Devil in Progressive Left Mythology, George W. Bush is responsible for every bad thing that happens ever.
George Bush made many people around the world feel like this was a war against Islam by using words like crusade and all of that.
You see, Bush went to war against terrorists, and this antagonized Muslims; but it's totally wrong to imply that all Muslims are terrorists, unless you're an unfunny left-wing dingbat radio host who wants to blame Bush for everything bad in the world. If you take the Progressive Left at their word, then then basic position of the Progressive Left would seem to be, no matter how many Americans are butchered by Islamic terrorists, we must never, ever fight back. Because if we fight back, they will kill us. Of course, if we don't fight back, they will still kill us, but Progressive Leftists will feel better about themselves.
Oh, and the Mayor of Chicago has blamed the Fort Hood terror attacks is lack of gun control laws. Because Chicago's Draconian Gun Control laws have done such a smashing job of ending violence on the South Side.
Mayor Daley also repeats the Progressive mantra that "You don’t blame a group" for the killings. I wonder... if the Fort Hood shooter had been a White Supremacist, if he had belonged to a radical White Supremacist group, if he had sent emails to the leaders of White Supremacist groups, and if he had shouted "White Power" while shooting his victims... would the Progressive Left still be saying, "Oh, you can't blame an ideology for the actions of one person?"
Chairman Zero Clamps Down on Dissent
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:14 AM | Comments (8)
Hey, Remember Jimmy Hansen, the NASA bureaucrat and "climate scientist" who whined that the Bush administration had silenced him from speaking out on "climate change?" He became well-known for speaking out on "climate change" in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the AP, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR, the BBC, Mother Jones, as well as multiple conferences and gatherings... all the while complaining that the Bush Administration was preventing him from speaking out on "climate change." Remember how the progressive left thought it was terrible, just terrible, that the administration would punish someone for expressing dissent from the administration's "climate change" policy. (Though it wasn't)
Well, guess what. Chairman Zero's EPA is threatening disciplinary action against two of its lawyers for expressing dissent from the administration's "climate change" policy.
Here is the video Chairman Zero's EPA is up in arms about, in which the lawyers criticize the Cap-and-Tax bill as misguided and ineffective. I'd embed it, but it's kinda long.
Venezuela - The Triumph of Socialism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:50 AM | Comments (6)
When Marxist President Hugo Chavez took power in Venezuela, he came in on an agenda of hope and change, promising to correct disparities in society by redistributing wealth. The energy sector was the first of many sectors of the economy to be nationalized, with the promise that the state would run it more efficiently by eliminating greed and profits and running it for the people's benefit.
This country may be an energy colossus, with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and one of the world’s mightiest hydroelectric systems, but that has not prevented it from enduring serious electricity and water shortages that seem only to be getting worse. Power failures have plagued Venezuela in recent years.
President Hugo Chávez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.
When Marxist President Barack Obama took power in the USA, he came in on an agenda of hope and change, promising to correct disparities in society by redistributing wealth. The health care sector was the first targeted for "reform," with the promise that the state would run it more efficiently by eliminating greed and profits and running it for the people's benefit.
How well does one expect that to work out?
Another Progressive Myth Debunked (Meaning, Proven to be Bunk)
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:26 AM | Comments (10)
Part of the mythology of the Environmentalist Left is that prior to the arrival of evil white Christian capitalists (EWCC), the Western Hemisphere was a pristine, unspoiled Eden. The Native Americans, according to progressive mythology, lived in peace and harmony with their environment, which was untouched until EWCC ruined it with agriculture and urban development.
Conservatives have long expected this was a big load of poopie. And environmental scientists have confirmed that, yeah, it was pretty much a big load of poopie. The Indians were raping the environment for thousands of years before the EWCC arrived.
Indians were here far longer than previously thought, these researchers believe, and in much greater numbers. And they were so successful at imposing their will on the landscape that in 1492 Columbus set foot in a hemisphere thoroughly dominated by humankind.[...]
The Beni is a case in point. ... To keep the habitat clear of unwanted trees and undergrowth, they regularly set huge areas on fire. Over the centuries the burning created an intricate ecosystem of fire-adapted plant species dependent on native pyrophilia. [...]
IOW, the Indians expressed their harmony with the environment by setting massive forest fires.
Oh, and you know that rainforest thingy? The Indians probably made that, too.
Amazonia has become the emblem of vanishing wilderness—an admonitory image of untouched Nature. Yet recently a growing number of researchers have come to believe that Indian societies had an enormous environmental impact on the jungle. Indeed, some anthropologists have called the Amazon forest itself a cultural artifact—that is, an artificial object. [...]
So, basically, everything the environmental left has claimed about pre-Columbian America is a falsehood. What are the odds they are telling the truth about Global Warming?
Patriot Alert: Vets and Active Military Eat Free at Applebee's
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:55 AM | Comments (15)
A wonderful idea from a great restaurant chain, to commemorate veterans and active-duty military this Veteran's Day: eat on us!
In recognition of your service to our country, all veterans and active duty military personnel are invited to eat free at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar Restaurants this Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.
All U.S. veterans and active duty military with proof of current or former military service will eat free at all Applebee's nationwide on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.
Hat tip: The Mudville Gazette
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 2:49 AM | Comments (40)
Good Morning Campers & Left-Wing Trolls with Imaginary Girlfriends,
Item Number One: PBO skipped the commemoration of the End of the Berlin Wall, but has expressed interest in visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you think it's because he only likes to go to places where he can apologize for the United States?
Item Number Two: A Demonrat politician is demanding an investigation into a religion that she believes represents an existential threat to the United States. The Demonrat is Representative Lynn Woolsey of California. And the dangerous religion... is Roman Catholicism. The US Conference of Bishops has drawn her ire for opposing the use of taxpayer funds to murder unborn human beings. A certain other religion that demands that non-adherents convert or be killed is of no particular concern to her.
Item Number Three: The UK Telegraph has released its 100 top films of the decade. Their Number Two film was the one inspired by a South Park joke. Their Number One film was a piece of anti-Bush propaganda produced by a morbidly obese socialist hypocrite. I am sure that no bias whatsoever went into the selection.
Oh, and also one of Obama's Mao-adoring minions has announced that she's leaving the White House. I hope she doesn't let the door hit her ass on the way out. It would be a waste of a perfectly good door.
November 10, 2009
In Honor of Our Servicemen and Servicewomen
Posted by The MaryHunter at 3:57 PM | Comments (53)
Moonbattery.com is honored to salute all veterans and current military this Veteran's Day. Thank you and your families, and God bless you all, for your service and sacrifice.
Video from The FUNSON's channel (which has a good quantity of other interesting videos-probably more so for guys), on a twip from TJ_Hancock
Radio Network Goes Belly-Up After Liberal Execs Dump Hannity
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:00 PM | Comments (17)
In 2008, a fed-up Sean Hannity ditched Citadel (ABC Radio) networks for rival Premier Broadcasting. Apparently, Hannity was fed up with his treatment at Citadel/ABC. In one instance, a liberal executive refused to share a company jet with him out of pure contempt and spite.
As a direct result of Hannity's departure, Citadel/ABC's earnings plunged 31.5% year-to-year, its stock is down to 6 cents a share, and the network is now facing bankruptcy.
On a personal note, I'm not a big Sean Hannity fan. He seems to spend half of his airtime promoting his other shows, and his argument-fu is weak. But I do respect that he has done yeoman's work promoting conservatism, and he seems like a genuinely decent guy.
The larger point is this: We are constantly told by smug progressives that "corporate media" only cares about profits. Consider the example of Citadel/ABC networks as a datapoint to the contrary. Consider the entire MSDNC primetime line-up several million datapoints to the contrary.
The Future of Healthcare Rap
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:12 PM | Comments (4)
This alternative insight about the coming of ObamaCare/PelosiCare almost makes me think it will all be OK after all.
Video by MC Infatuated
Code Pink Witches Taunt Children of Military Families
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:27 AM | Comments (33)
Just because they got their guy into the White House is no reason for Code Pink kooks to stop indulging in deplorable behavior.
Dressed as 'zombie soldiers' killed in combat, 'ghosts of war victims,' witches and healthcare fairies, members of Code Pink menacingly paraded in front of a captive audience of children one block from the White House, who waited along the sidewalk in front of Decatur House just off Lafayette Park for a Halloween party hosted by President Obama.
Last Saturday, the President hosted several hundred military families for trick or treating. Also invited were children of White House staff and about 2000 children from eleven D.C. area elementary schools.
In a press release published at their website, key Obama ally Code Pink — a group co-founded by one of Obama's top funders Jodie Evans, announced they were targeting military families for what can only be called psychological abuse by conducting a macabre protest of the war in Afghanistan as the families waited in line to enter the White House grounds.
Even al-Reuters was appalled. Check out their caption to the photo below:
But as of yet there's no sign that our Commander in Chief sees the need to throw his Code Pink supporters in with the growing crowd under the bus. If funneling $600,000 to the terrorists fighting our troops in Fallujah was okay, a little Halloween prank at children's expense is no biggie.
On tips from Anonymous Countermoonbat and Varla.
Indymedia Moonbats Feel the Heavy Hand of Big Government
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:35 AM | Comments (25)
Even some moonbats are getting unnerved by the Obamination Administration's intrusiveness, hyper-politicization of the media, and aggressive contempt for the First Amendment:
In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.
The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.
Kristina Clair, a 34-year old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the Justice Department's subpoena. (The Independent Media Center is a left-of-center amalgamation of journalists and advocates that — according to their principles of unity and mission statement — work toward "promoting social and economic justice" and "social change.")
The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.
Clair turned to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which dug into whether Big Government is supposed to be able to behave like this.
Under long-standing Justice Department guidelines, subpoenas to members of the news media are supposed to receive special treatment. One portion of the guidelines, for instance, says that "no subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media" without "the express authorization of the attorney general" — that would be current attorney general Eric Holder — and subpoenas should be "directed at material information regarding a limited subject matter."
Still unclear is what criminal investigation U.S. Attorney Morrison was pursuing. Last Friday, a spokeswoman initially promised a response, but Morrison sent e-mail on Monday evening saying: "We have no comment." The Justice Department in Washington, D.C. also declined to respond.
Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, replied to the Justice Department on behalf of his client in a February 2009 letter (PDF) outlining what he described as a series of problems with the subpoena, including that it was not personally served, that a judge-issued court order would be required for the full logs, and that Indymedia did not store logs in the first place.
Morrison replied in a one-sentence letter saying the subpoena had been withdrawn. Around the same time, according to the EFF, the group had a series of discussions with assistant U.S. attorneys in Morrison's office who threatened Clair with possible prosecution for obstruction of justice if she disclosed the existence of the already-withdrawn subpoena…
For more info on this alarming example of applied Obamunist Transparency:
Bankston has written a longer description of the exchange of letters with the Justice Department, which he hopes will raise awareness of how others should respond to similar legal demands for Web logs, customer records, and compulsory silence. "Our fear is that this kind of bogus gag order is much more common than one would hope, considering they're legally baseless," Bankston says. "We're telling this story in hopes that more providers will press back and go public when the government demands their silence."
Hopefully liberals who believe in at least some of the fundamental principles of liberty that make America America will awaken soon to the nature of what they have wrought by allowing the Moonbat Messiah and his gang of skeevy neo-Marxists into the White House.
On a tip from nancz.
Happy Birthday, USMC
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:02 AM | Comments (30)
A special Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps, which turns 234 years old today. Thank you, Marines, not only for your service in battle, but for providing the ultimate example of countermoonbattery for every American to try to live up to.
On a tip from Ryan.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:49 AM | Comments (40)
Lindsey Gramnesty in Bed With George Soros
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:37 AM | Comments (13)
Moonbat politics makes for some extremely unsavory bedfellows. With amnesty for illegal alien colonists off the front burner for now, alleged Republican Lindsey Graham has been advancing the liberal agenda by pushing "climate change" legislation. Ads running in his home state declare that he is "fighting to protect South Carolina" by helping the Obamination Administration to raise power bills by up to $4,000 per year in the name of a discredited hoax.
The ads were to be paid for by an outfit calling itself the "Truman National Security Project." But then this George Soros front group's background came to light. FITSNews reports that
the board of directors and executive staff of the Truman National Security Project are littered with establishment liberals and Democratic consultants representing groups like the Progressive Policy Institute, the Open Society Institute and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign organization. Several of the organization's employees — including its president, a Democratic activist — also receive funding from an environmental group called "Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs." …the Truman National Security Project was formed out of the ashes of John Kerry's failed 2004 presidential bid, with the specific goal of "preventing other Democratic candidates from being identified as soft on defense."
This was bad press for a guy elected as a Republican in a conservative state, so Gramnesty's people played the front group shell game that characterizes Soros's Shadow Government. They hurried to have the funder of the ads changed to "Republicans for Environmental Protection," which as it turns out
is connected to a donor fund managed by the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, one of the many George Soros-funded non-profits that provides provides "fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups."
South Carolina, you know better. Please do your duty to the rest of the country and vote this RINO moonbat out on the street at the next possible opportunity.
On a tip from Anonymous Countermoonbat.
UMass Welcomes Terrorists... Again
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:28 AM | Comments (5)
Less than a month ago, this blog noted that the University of Massachusetts - Amherst was rolling out the welcome wagon for the terrorists Chairman Zero is hell-bent on releasing from custody at Guantanamo Bay.
Now, the enlightened progressive leftists at Amherst are welcoming another hero... Raymond Luc Levasseur a convicted terror bomber who robbed nine banks, committed about 20 bombings, injured dozens of people, and killed a N.J. state trooper. Lavasseur's talk is sponsored by the Department of Social Thought and Political Economy, a progressive campus group.
You know, if the ACLU can get Nidal Hasan off on a technicality, he has a promising future in academia. He, Lavasseur, and Bill Ayers would have much to discuss, I think.
Progressive Leftist Demands More Jew-Killing
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 7:05 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
The selfishness and narcissism of the progressive left is on full display as the anniversary of the breach of the Berlin Wall is acknowledged. Neo-Marxist Teleprompter Reader B. Hussein Obama used the occasion to remark on how his election was the pinnacle of human destiny. And Progressive Leftist Robert Naiman, who writes for DailyKos and the Huffington Post, has used the occasion to demand that Israel open itself up to more Palestinian suicide bombings.
On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western leaders are full of self-congratulation. But their paeans to universal freedom ring hollow, when they bear large responsibility for another wall constricting human freedom: the apartheid wall dividing the Palestinian West Bank.
As William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection writes, the reason Israel built that wall was in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings that targeted innocent Israeli citizens; and the wall has been an effective deterrent to additional attacks.
The barrier built by Israel was a direct reaction to Palestinian suicide bombings commenced as part of the Second Intifada in 2000, which took almost a thousand Israeli lives. Suicide bombers slipped past the unprotected border to blow themselves up in Pizza restaurants, buses, supermarkets, hotels, and anywhere else they could find civilians.
The barrier was built to keep suicide bombers out, and it worked, much to the chagrin of the Palestinians. In 2002 452 Israelis were killed; that number dropped by half in 2003, and now almost no suicide bombers get through, although they still try. Ironically, the barrier also saved Palestinian lives by lessening the need for Israeli military actions in the West Bank to prevent suicide bombers.
It is safe to conclude then that Mr. Robert Naiman --- Kos Diarist and HuffPo writer --- wants Israelis to die, so he can pat himself on the back for being such an enlightened progressive.
If the Palestinians want peace, all they need to do is lay down their weapons. Who on the progressive left is demanding that?
University Shuts Down Anti-Communism Display
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:16 AM | Comments (18)
To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a conservative group at Washington University in St. Louis constructed a gulag exhibit to remind students of the denial of human rights under communism. This did not sit well with university apparatchiks, who quickly shut the exhibit down, labeling it "offensive."
In doing so, the university administration made a perfectly cromulent demonstration of the type of arbitrary power-wielding and denial of human rights (in this case, freedom of speech) that was standard operating procedure under the communist regimes they adore.
How much do you wanna bet that if students had erected precisely the same exhibit and labeled it "Gitmo," the university administration would have nodded approvingly? Heck, they probably would have gotten course credit.
Iowahawk: How the MSM Wanted to Cover the Fort Hood Shooter
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:58 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
Iowahawk shows us the headlines the MSM wanted to write after the Fort Hood Terror Attack. Here's a sampling:
Newsweek: Inevitably, Another Soldier Snaps : Newsroom experts: stress, violence, stupidity, tragedy a way of life for GIs
Los Angeles Times: Fort Hood: Another Black Eye For Teabagger Movement: Like many Town Hall protesters, Hassan motivated by rage, pattern baldness
MSDNC: Investigation: Ft. Hood Killer Had Access to Fox, Talk Radio, Right-Wing Blogs: Defiant Palin rejects calls to apologize
Rolling Stone: 'Ozriel': Portrait of a Bullies' Target: Sensitive, artistic outsider said ostracized by Army jocks, "in crowd"
NPR: No Country For Old Men: From Fort Hood to Waco to Dealey Plaza to Bush Compound, death is a way of life in the Lone Star State (Download Morning Edition's exclusive in-depth podcast, complete with mournful banjo dirge interlude)
New York Times: Lessons of Ft. Hood: Military Bases Need More Mental Health Professionals
On second thought, some of these headlines are more or less how the media have covered the Fort Hood terror attack. Bob Scheiffer's real quote from the Morning Briefs is practically identical to Iowahawk's fake New York Times headline.
Fuzzy Math Whisps throughout Costs of Pelosicare
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:45 AM | Comments (8)
Not only are the POTUS and his administration adept in the ways of the Fuzzy Math Ninja. So too can Nancy Pelosi obscure and obfuscate in the name of taking over our very bodies and end-of-life decisions through the house healthcare bill. It seems that Pelousy would simply bill us later for at least "two dozen programs whose funding is listed as 'such sums as may be necessary' ":
The list of projects ranges from the "No child left unimmunized against influenza" project to 10 programs in the Indian health care system. There are also programs to encourage people to go into nursing and to spur states to restrain medical-malpractice lawsuits.
The tactic is far from new and has been used for years by Republicans and Democrats alike. The health reform examples are just the latest of what has become known as "fuzzy math" - the sort of budgeting that has been drawing extra scrutiny as the economy sputters, federal spending balloons and deficits deepen.
"If you're calling these fuzzy math, then every authorization bill is fuzzy math," said a Democratic aide, who requested anonymity. "It's not fuzzy math at all. It's not math. That's the way Congress works. You authorize a program, and the appropriators appropriate for it."
Wellalrightythen, isn't this just what's a wee bit wrong with the way Congress works? Mayhaps why in 2010 we will likely witness a major purge of both parties, especially the one currently in power? See the article for a number of other examples from current and past congresses of more and more fuzz, like this one noted by a former Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
He said Democrats are counting on spending cuts that "are political fiction," adding that by imposing a new surtax but not indexing for inflation they've invented yet another budget boondoggle future congresses will have to adjust every year.
While this all is not surprising in the least, it did offer up another chance to use this photo.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You Probably Have Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:04 AM | Comments (20)
Good Morning Campers, (But not trolls. Today, I am ignoring you),
Item Number One: Mainstream Media elites are still baffled trying to explain what could be the motivation behind a radical Muslim shooting three dozen people while screaming, "Allahu Akbar!" Bob Scheiffer, one of the fossils at See BS news, blames the US military.
"Sadly, this shows the Army still does not take protecting soldiers’ mental health as seriously as it does training them to shoot.”
Paraphrasing Jim Treacher, Hasan could have worn a T-shirt reading "I am a radical Muslim and I hate America! Die, Infidels, Die!" and the MSM would still be asking, "Why? Why did he do this?"
Item Number Two: The New York Waste of Times is so eager to provide PR cover for Muslims it falsely implied Lt. Michael Monsoor --- who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism --- was a Muslim. In reality, Monsoor was a devout Catholic, but they omitted that detail. You can be pretty sure if he had shot an abortionist, the Times would have put his devout Catholicism front and center.
However, you must always remember, the MSM is superior to blogs because their legions of editors and fact-checkers assure information on their pages is accurate and bias-free. /sarc
Item Number Three: Apparently, like most radical Islamists, Nidal Hasan liked him some strip clubs. Gee, he hated America, he hated Christianity, and he enjoyed smut. No wonder the mainstream media is in love with this guy.
So, for smut lovers everywhere, we continue our series of Classic MST3K Stingers.
November 9, 2009
Narcissist in Chief: That Berlin Wall Thing... All About ME!
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:45 PM | Comments (36)
Here's what The One thought was the most important thing to remember about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it."
That's right, the Fall of Communism was maybe kind of a big deal, but it was just a footnote on the path to history's ultimate destiny ... the election of B. Hussein Obama.
Did the massive ego mention Reagan at any time in his address? What do you think?
Profiles in Countermoonbattery: Ronald W. Reagan
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:22 PM | Comments (28)
Little need be said about this man, this legend, the finest United States president in modern history. He fought against and ultimately defeated one of the the greatest scourges in the name of moonbattery-cum-tyranny perpetrated on this planet: Soviet Communism.
In keeping with the theme of today's 20th anniversary, here is a piece of history no one should ever forget (especially Pres. Obama, Chancellor Merkel, and others feigning understanding of today's profound significance):
On a tip from Jay Guevara. Video courtesy of JohnJ2427
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 2:53 PM | Comments (37)
The Wall, the Fall, and the Enablers of Communism
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:59 PM | Comments (42)
The truism of communism's supreme failure as a politico-economic system has reared its head again as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall today. Our Dear Leader Obama's visage has apparently been beamed to Brandenburg Gate, most likely praising Gorbachev and denying Reagan, and those who died trying to defy The Wall, as the true heroes of this remembrance.
Right now I'm looking at a chunk of The Wall that my wife retrieved during a visit to Berlin in mid-1990. There was still much confusion even then - tour guides and public officials stood agape, answerless, as events continued to unfold. The hunk of concrete she retrieved has a bit of blue and red graffiti on part of it, perhaps an element of some freedom-praising art, its wish finally realized through its own destruction.
I'm wondering if any of the apologists and enablers of communism have actually ever held a piece of The Wall in their hands, felt the heavy and insidious oppression it represents.
I'm guessing, not. Or, if they have, I doubt that they could feel the blood and bone and brutality within it.
Cal Thomas recently dusted up a number of said popular-culture and MSM nimrods:
When the wall fell, leftists could not bring themselves to admit they had been wrong, much less apologize for their misplaced faith. So they did what they do best: They made excuses.
Thomas lists some examples collected by the Media Research Center of how "the pre-Fox, pre-talk-radio liberal media were the handmaidens of one of the greatest totalitarian evils to strike the planet."
In 1987, before the wall collapsed, CBS anchor Dan Rather said, "Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy."
Strobe Talbott, then of Time magazine and soon to be an influential member of the Clinton administration, wrote on Jan. 1, 1990, "[Soviet leader] Gorbachev is helping the West by showing that the Soviet threat isn't what it used to be, and what's more, that it never was." How is it possible to simultaneously have been a threat, but not a threat? The millions who died in gulags, starved to death or were assassinated might have a different interpretation of Russian history under communism.
Ted Turner, the former CNN mogul, is always good for an outlandish quote, and when it came to Soviet Russia, he offered a cornucopia of self-deluded statements, none better than this one: "[Mr. Gorbachev is] moving faster than Jesus Christ did." But Time magazine bested him with this howler when it described Mr. Gorbachev as both "the communist pope and the Soviet Martin Luther."
Highly recommended reading this day: Better Off Red? Twenty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Recalling the Liberal Media's Blindness to the Evils of Communism.
Time Reporter Has a History
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:59 PM | Comments (32)
Time Magazine reporter Tim McGirk has posited the theory that Nidal Hasan --- who attended a radical mosque with the 9-11 hijackers, told colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut, and screamed "Allahu Akbar" as he killed 13 people --- was suffering from "secondary trauma," a sort of "contact PTSD," where hearing stories from combat soldiers who suffered from PTSD drove him to commit mass murder. Because it couldn't possibly have been Islamic jihad, and the media will grasp at any straw to deny that possibility.
Noah Pollak at Commentary has discovered that Mr. McGirk has a rather interesting history:
This shouldn’t be surprising coming from Tim McGirk. He went to Afghanistan after 9/11, had Thanksgiving with the Taliban, and wrote a long piece for National Geographic about what a great time he had and how we’re all just human beings doing our thing on this big blue marble, so let’s not judge. Then he went to Iraq and singlehandedly created the Haditha Massacre hoax. Then he went to Jerusalem and spent a few years slandering Israel. Now he’s trafficking in pop psychology on behalf of a likely domestic jihadist. It’s been quite a career.
Empathy for the enemies of the United States is the default position for Mainstream Media organs like Time Magazine. It's a good thing that they are dying.
BTW, here's yet another clue the MSM will ignore. Hasan's business card contains the notation "SoA" meaning "Soldier of Allah." Will they still claim this guy just needed a vacation?
SEIU Thugs Rough Up Whistleblower
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:34 AM | Comments (9)
Here's what you get if you open your mouth about corruption among Chairman Zero's SEIU friends:
Ken Hamidi is a state worker at the California Franchise Tax Board. [Thursday] night he walked into a union hall in Sacramento for an SEIU local 1000 meeting.
"We had every right to be here, very simple; it wasn't anything private or anything exclusive," said Hamidi.
But…
"Three, four people jumped at me, wrestled with me, then did all that," said Hamidi. "I was covered in blood and then over to the emergency room."
Photos of Hamidi in the hospital show him bloodied from the brawl. So why did this happen? Besides being a state worker, Hamidi says he's an unpaid reporter for a cable access show and a vocal critic of the SEIU. He calls the state workers' union corrupt. …
Hamidi says he came to the hall to expose how he says SEIU union leaders are spending tens of thousands of dollars on a political race, he claims, they have no right to do. After he and a photographer walked in to the meeting, it didn't take long for Hamidi to be right out the door and on his way to the hospital.
SEIU might have responded that Hamidi should have known better, after the treatment patriots received from SEIU goons for daring to speak up against government seizure of the healthcare industry at town hall meetings. But the ACORN-affiliated union had no comment.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Couple on the Run to Stop Bureauweenies From Stealing Unborn Child
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:56 AM | Comments (22)
The outrageously intrusive British Nanny State confiscating people's children is old news. But now it's laying claim to children who haven't even been born:
A heavily pregnant woman and her fiance have gone on the run after social workers threatened to take away their baby at birth.
Kerry Robertson, 17, and Mark McDougall, 25, had been told that she was not bright enough to raise their child and that they would have to give him up.
It was another blow for the couple, whose wedding this year was halted just 48 hours before the ceremony in a row over whether Miss Robertson was intelligent enough to marry.
Miss Robertson, who is 29 weeks pregnant, has since been told the couple will be allowed only a few hours with their baby - a boy they have already named Ben - before he is taken into care and placed with foster parents.
Desperate to keep their family together, the pair fled their home yesterday for a secret safe house.
Last night, Miss Robertson, who has mild learning difficulties, said: 'I have been out of my mind with worry about my unborn baby being taken away.'
It adds insult to injury to be denied the fundamental rights to marry and to have children on the grounds of low intelligence as determined by petty tyrant bureaucrats, who are hardly known as the brightest members of society.
Hat tip: Brussels Journal. On a tip from Puffdaddy.
Separated at Birth?
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:41 AM | Comments (13)
Army Doubles Down on Political Correctness That Enabled Hasan
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:41 AM | Comments (28)
The governmedia has been twisting itself into pretzels in attempts to justify siding with Muslim terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan against the memories of the 13 Americans he murdered. "Compassion fatigue" doesn't even begin to pass the laugh test, but our liberal rulers have an alternate explanation for Hasan's killing spree: he was harassed for being a Muslim — the implication being that mass murder is an appropriate response to teasing for those who belong to a politically sacred special interest group.
But was this terrorist lowlife even teased? Ralph Peters doubts it:
Let me kill the harassment myth right now: Political correctness rules in today's Army. We even protect our enemies these days. Had any soldier harassed Hasan because of his Islamist nuttiness, that soldier would've disappeared faster than a Franklin on a Times Square sidewalk.
Any snarky remarks directed toward Hasan — if there were any — would've come in reaction to his railing against our government, our military's mission and the monstrous injustice that, after grabbing an education in psychiatry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from our military, he might have had to do his duty.
Far from being harassed himself, this creep was allowed to harass the soldiers he treated for stress disorders. According to colleagues, Hasan not only argued with his patients about our wars, but preached Islam to those under his care. (Just what troubled vets needed, no doubt.)
Prejudice? You bet. In this terrorist's favor. Nobody in Hasan's chain of command had the sense of duty to weed this pervert out. Why? Hasan would've accused them of discrimination. And the officer who brought charges against Hasan would've been the one whose career suffered.
Don't believe it? Here's proof:
General George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said on Sunday that he was concerned that speculation about the religious beliefs of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and one civilian and wounding dozens of others in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, could "cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers."
"I've asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that," General Casey said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union. "It would be a shame — as great a tragedy as this was — it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well."
That is, the same suicidal political correctness that prevented anyone from responding to the red flags Hasan had been flapping around in open sight will now be intensified, assuring that future Hasans can fester undisturbed like the pustules they are until it's time for them to pop.
On tips from Byron and Viking04.
Chairman Zero Calls Tea-Party Patriots "Extremists"
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:38 AM | Comments (32)
From the Washington Examiner:
President Obama called the tea partiers "extremists" in front of Democrat House members. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon said the President asked them, "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”
Our President believes middle-aged, middle-class, Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights are "extremists", but warns against "jumping to conclusions" when an Islamic radical commits mass murder on a U.S. base. Harvey Dent has nothing on this two-faced hypocrite.
So, in the POV of Chairman Zero and his administration, these people are radical extremists:
And this is a guy from the neighborhood we shouldn't jump to conclusions about:
MSM Empathizes with Stressed Out Jihadist
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:17 AM | Comments (17)
The MSM meme on the Fort Hood Islamic Terror attack is that the cause was not Islamic radicalism, but "teasing" and "tension."
According to the New York Waste of Times, the cause of Nidal Hasan's murderous attack was not Islamist ideology, but "tension." Instead of playing Halo to blow off steam, he just decided to murder a dozen people. It had nothing to do with Islamic radicalism, according to the "newspaper of record."
Since Hasan survived the attack, maybe the Obama Administration will do something about his "tension," like send him to Bermuda so he can relax with his fellow jihadists.
Back to the Future
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:38 AM | Comments (11)
Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano provides the official Obamunist position on the Fort Hood terror attack; and that position is prostrate, with the head buried deeply in the sand.
Napolitano said her agency is working with state and local groups to try to deflect any anti-Muslim anger after the Thursday attacks by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who reportedly expressed growing dismay over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The shootings left 13 people dead and 29 wounded.
“This was an individual who does not, obviously, represent the Muslim faith,” she said after meeting with a group of women university students.
The man was screaming Allahu-Akbar as he slaughtered our soldiers, including a pregnant woman. He attended the same radical mosque as the 9-11 hijackers whose imam has praised the attack. He described American soldiers as "infidels who should have their throats slit." How many dots to you need to connect, woman? The Obama Regime is more concerned with not hurting Muslim feelings than it is with protecting American lives. To Janet Napolitano, the real terror threat, as identified in her department memo, are tea-partiers, pro-lifers, and anti-tax activists.
This is a replay of Clinton Administration policies: Multiple terror attacks on the United States (in Kenya, Tanzania, the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole) were ignored. Reports that Muslim radicals were signing up for flight school but cutting class on the days when landings were covered were ignored. Instead, the Clinton administration ordered the FBI to focus on threats to abortion mills.
Ignore Islamic terrorism, and use the FBI to persecute political opponents. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You Probably Have Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:47 AM | Comments (1)
Good Morning Campers and Disgusting Worms,
Item Number One: Message from Obamacrat baby boomers to future generations of Americans --- "Screw You!" That's the real message of the House's vote on PelosiCare; they're destroying health care at enormous cost and sticking future generations with the bill. Thanks to Obama, Pelosi and company, future generations can look forward to being poorer, sicker, and less free.
What people don't realize about PelosiCare is it's actually a counter-terrorism bill. If the Obamacrats destroy America first, there's no reason for Iran or Al Qaeda to bother.
Item Number Two: Congressman Bawney Fwank, a.k.a. "The Banking Queen's" taste in boyfriends is as lousy as his mad economic skillzs. We all knew about Steve Gobie, running the prostitution ring out of Fwank's Townhouse. Another boyfriend was implicated in the Fannie Mae collapse. Now, it turns out another boy-toy was a drug dealer. The congressman claims he had no idea what a marijuana plant even looks like, which makes him far more stupid than the average sixth grader.
Item Number Three: And in the "Would They Ever Do This to Mohammed" Department, a Theater Company looking for some cheap but perfectly safe "controversy" has created a play in which Our Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed as a trans-sexual woman. It occurs to me that if the Religious Right were really as dangerous as the progressive left is always whining that it is, they would never pull crap like this. One would think that after 30-40 years, the whole game of insulting Christians to gin up controversy would have grown hackneyed, but the left never seems to tire of it. They are so easily amused and satisfied with themselves; like infants enjoying the warm mushy feel of their own crapulence.
And now, another stinger.
November 8, 2009
This Thread Is Now Open
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:04 PM | Comments (58)
Moonbat Professor Laments the Collapse of the Berlin Wall
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:01 PM | Comments (64)
The Academic Elite in the USA and Eurotopia have a genuine love and affection for brutal, oppressive Communist regimes. Castro and Chavez are heroes to them. And it should come as little surprise that a feminist professor takes to the pages of the Guardian to lament the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
On 9 November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down I realised German unification would soon follow, which it did a year later. This meant the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the country in which I was born, grew up, gave birth to my two children, gained my doctorate and enjoyed a fulfilling job as a lecturer in English literature at Potsdam University. Of course, unification brought with it the freedom to travel the world and, for some, more material wealth, but it also brought social breakdown, widespread unemployment, blacklisting, a crass materialism and an "elbow society" as well as a demonisation of the country I lived in and helped shape. Despite the advantages, for many it was more a disaster than a celebratory event.
By "for many," she means "me." (Progressive leftists are masters at projecting their selfish desires on masses of people.) In her case, the disaster was she was no longer a privileged academic in a country where the great masses of people waited in lines all day for scarce supplies of food and consumer goods, and were subject at any time to arrest and imprisonment by the secret police. Being a progressive leftist academic, she was okay with that as long as there was socialized health care.
Since the demise of the GDR, many have come to recognise and regret that the genuine "social achievements" they enjoyed were dismantled: social and gender equality, full employment and lack of existential fears, as well as subsidised rents, public transport, culture and sports facilities.
That doesn't sound a whole lot different than the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda; except for the "full employment" part.
There's no need for me to rebut her, Jonah Goldberg already did so, and did so well.
As Newsbusters reminds us, the media left were just as pro-communist back in the day as the academic left.
“Few tears will be shed over the demise of the East German army, but what about East Germany’s eighty symphony orchestras, bound to lose some subsidies? Or the whole East German system, which covered everyone in a security blanket from day care to health care, from housing to education? Some people are beginning to express, if ever so slightly, nostalgia for that Berlin Wall.” — CBS’s Bob Simon, March 16, 1990 Evening News.
By "some people" he means "me." East Germany may have been an oppressed, impoverished police state... but it had subsidized symphonies. To Bob, that made it okay.
Our media, our academic institutions, the White House, and both houses of Congress are now firmly in the control of people who believe the wrong side won the Cold War.
Filed under Irony of Ironies Dept.
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:45 PM | Comments (19)
Props to uberband U2, who felt that the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall warranted special recognition -- unlike Our Dear Leader of the (Not-So-) Free World, B. Hussen Obama, who declined Chancellor Merkel's invitation due to a hangnail, or pulled cerebrum, or perhaps it was an ear liposuction appointment.
But a razz to U2 for the ironic situation that ensued:
The band played a free concert Thursday at the city's Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Ten-thousand tickets were distributed, but, in honoring one wall's demise, the organizers put up another one — literally.
A 12-foot-high metal fence draped with a white tarp was set up to keep people without a ticket from seeing the concert.
Some Berliners were heard shouting "Tear down this wall!" about the U2 concert wall.
Reagan would have been proud.
Allegedly there was a reason for concert organizer MTV to construct this New Berlin Wall:
...MTV said it worked with the local promoter, the city and police to install a temporary fence "around the site to ensure the safety and security of the attendees at the event as well as residents and businesses in the area".
U2's representatives declined to comment.
This all brings new meaning to the notion that freedom isn't free - even if it was intended to be.
Two Degrees of Separation
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:36 AM | Comments (79)
Former president George W. Bush wasted no time getting to Fort Hood to comfort survivors of the latest devastating Islamic terror attack on our soil. Yet the Marxist community activist we're asked to regard as the current president couldn't be bothered; he was too busy loafing at Camp David.
Everyone knows that leftists like Chairman Zero have no love for our troops, but even so this gargantuan faux pas is a mystery. Apparently he has yielded to public outrage and agreed to make an appearance at a memorial service later in the week. But weren't there any grownups among his advisors to tell him right away how a president would behave?
Maybe he just didn't want to draw attention to Nidal Malik Hasan's loose ties to the Obama Administration:
In 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Institute (HSPI) initiated a transition task force to help craft homeland security policies during Obama's transition period. In May of 2009 HSPI finished its report titled, "Thinking Anew-Security Priorities for the Next Administration." One of the members of this Obama transition project was none other than the Muslim murderer Nidal Hassan.
Hasan has also been loosely linked to Al Qaeda:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Hasan's eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday's horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan's motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Granted these links are much looser than Obama's close ties to Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, but they do give us only two degrees of separation between Al Qaeda and the Obamination Administration, through Hasan. Maybe that also explains why the liberal establishment is trying desperately to spin off the terror attack as a case of "compassion fatigue," ignoring the killer's screams of "Allahu Akhbar" before opening fire.
On tips from Wiggins, V the K, Oiao, Cheetah, Edward, and Conservigilant. Hat tip: American Power.
Another Peek Into the Bunker
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:21 AM | Comments (12)
The Obama bunker, November 3, 2009:
Via The Nose on Your Face, on a tip from Joe. Hat tip: JammieWearingFool.
B. Hussein Obama Embracing Islam
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:13 AM | Comments (21)
The Marxist community activist in the White House may no longer be a Muslim technically speaking, be he's made it clear enough where his sympathies lie in the struggle between Islam and Western Civilization. I suppose he's just being true to his roots…
If only he would show this much respect for our culture.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Religion of Peacenik: America Will Be Annihilated
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:58 AM | Comments (10)
Uh oh. Our governmedia's Islamic friends are promising that America will be annihilated:
If so, it will happen from within, because we have allowed crucial institutions like the media, academia, and even the government to be hijacked by treasonous scum who facilitate our country's enemies however they can.
On a tip from Moonbat Skullcracker.
O'Reilly, Goldberg Stick a Fork in Depraved MSM
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:50 AM | Comments (7)
The Age of Obama has given the mainstream media more than enough rope to hang itself — which it may have done definitively by siding with demented Islamic terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan in the wake of the 13 murders he committed at Fort Hood, actually attempting to portray this jihadist fiend as somehow the victim. Bill O'Reilly and Bernie Goldberg explain:
Via TVNewser, on a tip from JC.
Dems Had a Choice
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:41 AM | Comments (8)
…between the parasitical trial lawyers who bankroll their corrupt party and seniors in need of medical care. They chose predictably.
On a tip from John R.
November 7, 2009
The Religion of Peace and Tolerance Meets the Ft. Hood Terrorist Massacre
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:25 PM | Comments (72)
What can one say about this video?
Hat tip: FlagThisMuzzles3
On a tip from Moonbat Skullcracker.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:18 AM | Comments (62)
Village of the Obamatrons Video Epidemic
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:11 AM | Comments (49)
The quaint statist habit of training children to sing praises to an authoritarian ruler — popularized in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and communist North Korea — is turning into an epidemic among Obamunists. We've seen them before, e.g., here and here. Big Hollywood has discovered 11 more. Almost immediately, all but two were pulled from YouTube. Have a bucket handy before watching the survivors:
Just how disturbing were the others that they would get pulled down so quickly once patriots shone a light on them? Big Hollywood has the lyrics. Some of the performers are barely old enough to tie their shoes.
Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."
Adolf Hitler
Statists of the past would love Obamania.
On tips from mega, Byron, Bergbikr, and TED.
Saturday Briefs
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:36 AM | Comments (33)
I don't usually do this, but there's some choice stuff out there today. I'll make this quick, it's a beautiful morning, there's a hiking trail calling my name.
Item Number One: Chairman Zero's Press Secretary Robert "Family Guy" Gibbs whines that, unlike Obama, Bush never had to put up with people comparing him to Hitler. Oh, Really? Next, he'll be saying PBO is the first president to be accused of having an Enemies List.
Item Number Two: Forget about the 13 soldiers murdered by the jihadist Nidal Malik Hasan, Geraldo Rivera says the real victims are American Muslims. His view is common among his fellow Obama-fluffers in the MSM, who don't really feel for the families of the dead and wounded, they're too busy fretting that the shooter wasn't named Smith, because a white male shooter would be perfectly acceptable to demonize. This comes from the same media who had no problem smearing all pro-lifers after that abortionist got capped.
The Muslims have the most out of whack ratio of "Oppression bitched about" to "Oppression actually suffered" of any group except maybe Teh Gheys. A guy murders a dozen people while screaming, "Allahu Akbar," and we're supposed to pretend his religion was not a factor.
Item Number Three: Thanks to new drilling techniques, Global reserves of exploitable natural gas have tripled in just the last four years. Funny, I thought moonbats like Joe Biden were telling us "Drill, Baby, Drill" wasn't even part of the answer.
November 6, 2009
White House's Funny Jobs Numbers - Part Deux
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:22 PM | Comments (15)
News Flash: fuzzy math might be fairly common in the Obama administration's estimates of those thousands of jobs it claims to have created or saved through the $787 billion porkulus bill. The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today provide examples:
The Journal estimates at least 2,000 of the 640,000 jobs the administration claimed to have saved or created do not exist.
USA Today reports that a Texas public housing authority manager told the government he had hired six people with the $26,000 in stimulus aid he was given. The government told him that was not correct. When he reported the total hours worked, 450, that figure ended up in the "jobs created" column.
The AP says 9,500 jobs claimed by the Health and Human Services Department weren't saved at all, but were included when existing employees were given pay raises and benefits. HHS spokesman Luis Rosero defended the practice saying, "If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job."
What's more...
Many Head Start preschool programs also counted workers who got raises, as jobs saved. An administration spokesman says the problems with the Head Start numbers probably would be balanced out by other errors that under report jobs.
Yup, balance them out, just like this:
Without the stimulus, Unemployment would have hit 8%.
With the stimulus, it hit 10.2%.
Therefore, the stimulus worked.
QED
Photo credit:Insidiator.
Hope & Change
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:41 PM | Comments (47)
Here's your Hope & Change:
If the Dems manage to ram PelosiCare and Tax & Charade through for the Moonbat Messiah's eager signature, the current stratospheric unemployment rate could double.
But on the positive side, Chairman Zero is "creating or saving" millions of imaginary jobs every hour.
$15 Billion More Down the Fannie Mae Hole?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:21 PM | Comments (15)
Do you remember Fannie Mae, one of several oh-so-successful government experiments in controlling an aspect of the financial industry -- in this case, home mortgages? Well, it seems Fannie is asking Uncle Sam Bigbucks for a hand again:
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Embattled mortgage lender Fannie Mae said Thursday after posting a third-quarter net loss that it has asked the U.S. Treasury Department for an additional $15 billion in assistance by the end of the year.
Fannie Mae (FNM 1.03, -0.09, -8.05%) said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its request for more funding was made "to eliminate our net worth deficit" as of the end of September. It's hoping to receive the funds by Dec. 31.
Has anyone kept track of how much the U.S. has already shoved into that Fannie? Why yes:
Fannie Mae has already received some $44.9 billion in federal government assistance, under a senior preferred-stock purchase agreement.
So, let me get this straight: in order for this utter failure of a financial institution to not post a net worth deficit, our nation needs to add more to it's deficit.
Did I miss something here? Oh yes, the obligate Barney Frank video:
Well, at least their stock is only $1.03 now, sounds like a perfect bargain for long-term investing. If the Obama Administration keeps bailing them out, at least it couldnt ever be worth nothing.
Social Decay Rots Recruitment Prospects
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:42 AM | Comments (26)
The degenerative disease known as moonbattery is taking its toll, reducing Americans to shameful shadows of what we've been in the past. A nation of brainwashed, bellyaching liberals who spend most of their time in front of the idiot box is making life hard for military recruiters:
About 75 percent of the country's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for military service, largely because they are poorly educated, overweight and have physical ailments that make them unfit for the armed forces, according to a report issued Thursday. …
"We are very concerned," said retired Army Maj. Gen. James Kelley, a member of Mission: Readiness, the Washington-based nonprofit organization that issued the report. "We do have the greatest military in the world [—] we have the greatest planes, the greatest tanks, the greatest ships [—] but the key goal is having great people. Right now, we're attracting very highly qualified folks but that could change over time."
Education is such a problem that recruiters have been trying to fill the void left by our union-suffocated government schools, tutoring potential recruits and helping them with their homework.
There are also physical factors, caused by a general wussification of our culture:
[A]bout a third of all potential recruits can't join … because they're too fat and out of shape.
"When you get kids who can't do push-ups, pull-ups or run, this is a fundamental problem not just for the military but for the country," said Curtis Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accessions policy.
If cultural trends aren't reversed, we'll soon need to import soldiers, like other dying civilizations have done. But we'll still lead the world in producing fashionably liberal metrosexual movie stars.
On a tip from Anonymous Countermoonbat.
Radiation Threat From Environmentally Correct Moonbatmobiles
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:41 AM | Comments (19)
If there's one thing sanctimonious moonbats will never run short of, it's pernicious unintended consequences. From Israel:
The Environmental Protection Ministry confirmed to The Jerusalem Post this week that it has launched an independent study of exposure to electromagnetic radiation from hybrid car batteries.
There have been concerns raised both here and abroad that the batteries might generate worrying amounts of electromagnetic radiation over long periods of time. …
Ministry Director-General Yossi Inbar first turned to the hybrid vehicle importers, and through them to the manufacturers themselves, the ministry said, asking for information about exposure to electromagnetic fields in the cars. However, it soon became clear that the manufacturers did not have the requested information, the ministry said.
Fortunately, this health threat isn't necessarily a problem for us. If California goes through with plans that could effectively impose metallic reflective window glazing on the entire American car market, the shielding might keep in not only radio signals from wireless safety features, but also potentially deadly radiation. That way, only the people in the car will be affected — and they deserve it for not taking public transportation. The important thing is that the polar bears will be safe.
On a tip from nancz.
Cluelessness Compounded
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:54 AM | Comments (33)
Yesterday the Moonbat Messiah turned stomachs with his inappropriate demeanor when he gave a jaunty "shout-out" to "Congressional Medal of Honor winner" Joe Medicine Crow before belatedly getting around to delivering his obligatory words of regret over Religion of Peacenik Nidal Malik Hasan's horrific killing spree. However, NewsBusters informs us that Joe Medicine Crow, said to be the last living Plains Indian war chief, didn't even win the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the Medal of Freedom. Chairman Zero awarded it to him himself just last August. But medals and stuff are all kind of the same to a community organizer.
On a tip from John H.
PelosiCare Will Force You to Pay for Abortions
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:11 AM | Comments (10)
Since the will of the people is clearly not a concern in the reckless left-wing legislation our rulers have been ramming through Congress, it should come as no surprise that PelosiCare finances abortion. The tab for snuffing out children's lives is to be picked up by every person enrolled in the government "option" — which of course will be mandatory after insurance companies have been deliberately driven into bankruptcy. Rep. John Boehner's office confirms:
Health reform should be an opportunity to protect human life - not end it.
Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi's 2,032-page government takeover of health care does just that. On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under "Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed" the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker's plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.
By the way, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is known as the Abortion Queen.
What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan. It's right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under "Insurance Rating Rules." The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account -and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services .
Saddam Hussein used to send families of political prisoners who were shot by firing squad a bill for the ammunition expended. Forcing people who believe in the sanctity of innocent human life to finance abortions displays the same belligerent arrogance.
On a tip from Mattius Maximus.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 6:42 AM | Comments (20)
California's CARB to Take Lead in Ruining Auto Industry
Posted by The MaryHunter at 6:11 AM | Comments (11)
Fruits and nuts are not all that infest the political nightmare that is California. The California Air Resources Board (CARB), infused with eco-greenbats, is threatening to impose strict regulations that could irrevocably damage the auto industry nationwide. The loopy rule would require cars and light trucks sold after 2012 "to feature metallic reflective window glazing to keep interiors cool and thus use less air conditioning." It is an attempt to make greener cars by reducing auto air conditioning use - and ruining GPS, cell phones and other wireless safety features in the process.
Toyota tried this approach back in 1989-94, and it was a disaster. The problem is that the new windows would reflect radio waves, thus highly compromising the use of GPS units, garage-door openers, laptop computers, satellite radio systems, parolee ankle bracelets, wireless medical equipment and cell phones. CARB admits the mandate would interfere with radio signals but is poised to promulgate the new rule later this month anyway. A 15-day public comment period would follow, during which alert consumers could overwhelm the bureaucrats with objections.
The new windows would add about $250 to the cost of each vehicle. Cars with sunroofs, and perhaps convertibles, probably would not comply and thus could effectively be outlawed. Drivers trapped in their cars after accidents couldn't call 911.
Forget about the safety issue, there's that guy thing about getting directions to consider:
The proposed regulation even could be counterproductive. Destroying GPS capability could lead to increased emissions that more than counteract the reduced use of air conditioning. An industry study this year showed that drivers using GPS reduce carbon emissions by 24 percent by virtue of taking shorter routes and not getting lost. That's 10 times the expected benefit from the CARB proposal.
California is a huge auto market. If it forces automakers to comply with a mirrored glass mandate, the industry may be forced to change auto standards nationwide.
All this, when the American auto industry is already backed into a corner. But when your aim is to tear down a way of life -- the American automobile -- for what is perceived as "the greener good", these collateral effects would naturally drive more Americans into inconvenient, smelly, unreliable public transportation. Just another freedom -- freedom to purchase, own and operate a car safely -- that the AlGore Green Conspiracy is eager to extract from us.
Thank you, California.
We Borrow Money from China?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:41 AM | Comments (5)
If the Founding Fathers were around today, would they be siding with tea-partiers, or the political elites?
Morning Briefs: Stuff You Probably Read Someplace Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 2:47 AM | Comments (15)
Good Morning Campers and Creepers,
Item Number One: Iranians protesting against their despotic regime chant, "Obama, are you with us (the people) or with them (the oppressors)?" I think he answered that question earlier this year. ("The, uh, regime is, uh, slaughtering people in the street. Who's up for ice cream?") The Mullahs hate America and freedom, just like Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and the rest of his old crew from Chicago. PBO loves those guys. It's the tea-partiers he hates.
Item Number Two: On Airstrip One, social workers have confiscated the children of a heavyset couple because of concerns the children might become fat. Previously, local busybodies had spent $190,000 in taxpayer money to pay "minders" to tell them not to eat so much. Fat people are, of course, subhuman and not entitled to the same rights as the rest of us.
Item Number Three: Here's some nice blue-on-blue violence: Moonbat procedural drama Law and Order takes on Moonbat Talk Show host David Letterman and Dingbat talkfest The View. In an upcoming L&O episode, a lesbian talk-show host with a history of sexually harassing subordinates (it's okay when liberals do it) becomes involved in murder and blackmail. I've seen enough episodes of Law and Order to know that no matter how obvious it seems that the lesbian is a killer, somehow, a white male is responsible.
I leave you with the voice of Mark Levin mocking an Obamunist bureaucrat caller.
November 5, 2009
Alan Grayson: Follow the Rules! Make an Appointment!
Posted by The MaryHunter at 7:50 PM | Comments (23)
"The Rules" apparently require the media to "Make an Appointment" with congressmen like Rep. Alan Grayson if they wish to ask questions.
Is that so? Well, naturally, as Grayson explains:
Shine a little light on a cockroach, watch it run.
Hat tip: Bill O'Reilly.
Couresy of rexanders8.
More from the DC Patriot Rally: Can You Hear Us Now, Washington?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:52 PM | Comments (41)
These pictures were shot by my friend and neighbor Patriot Tim, who attended with a friend from Alaska. Both went to visit AK Congressman Don Young in the morning to discuss ObamaCare and other liberty-stripping moves by Obama's pet Democrat Congress. Then, they attended the rally with thousands of attendees. "The talks were great: Levin, Bachmann, a couple dozen congressmen and women... everyone was energized like for the 9/12 March," said Tim, a veteran of the Patriot League trying to take back America from the political hacks--both Republican and Democrat--running our nation into the ground. He went on:
I tried to get into Pelosi's Palace [aka the Cannon Building] but the line went around the building. I also heard the capitol Gestapo wouldn't let people into her office. Thousands are in the house office buildings right now ripping heads off those stealing our freedoms. Hannity should have it all on his show tonight.
More from the rally:
Whether or not this protest march gets nudged off of the MSM Obama Propaganda Machine "News" tonight and tomorrow morning, it won't be lost on those of us who wished we could attend. And it had better not be lost on those (many now without heads) who would continue to steal our freedoms if left unchecked.
PBO's 'My Pet Goat' Moment
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:09 PM | Comments (73)
Watch as PBO gives a "shout out" to a friend in the audience, then glibly yammers on about some conference, and then... finally ... acknowledges the Fort Hood shooting.
I just don't like this guy. I mean, this is how he treats a somber moment like this? With a "shout-out" to some guy in the audience. I can hear the trolls now, "How dare you politicize this tragic moment, you racist hater." I don't give a damn. I think his glib manner was totally inappropriate.
Eyewitness Report From DC Patriot Rally
Posted by Van Helsing at 4:15 PM | Comments (7)
Mega reports from today's rally against socialized medicine in DC:
It was hard to estimate the crowd size. It was, of course, on a different scale than the 9/12 rally, perhaps 5,000 to 8,000 people. Not too shabby for a workday, and on six day's notice from Bachmann. There were people from all over, with heavy representation from Texas, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The crowd, the signage, and the overall flavor were all reminiscent of 9/12 and the tea parties — very patriotic and jazzed, just on a smaller scale.
The first few speakers were excellent — Michele Bachmann, Mark Levin, etc. As it went on, it seemed like every Congressional Republican wanted to get up there for their 90 seconds of gaining street cred with conservatives, and that got a bit tedious. Bachmann, Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, and a few others were powerful; a whole slew who came after them were basically poseurs. They all see that there's some raw energy there, and they all want to channel it into support for Republicans; some do it better than others.
I was expecting an air of resignation or defeat in the crowd, or perhaps some anger for being ridiculed and written off after the summer, but that turned out to be my own projection. The crowd seemed optimistic, energized, and not ready to throw in any towels. Many had come in on buses from across the country.
There was almost no media coverage at all. I saw one media crew doing a few low-key man-on-the-street interviews, but nothing approaching real media coverage as you'd expect to see at a rally of thousands.
I think Bachmann pulled off a pretty good event.
Unfortunately, another event will obliterate any chance of this uprising getting the attention it deserves.
Name of the Fort Hood Shooter
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 3:45 PM | Comments (93)
ABC News is identifying the man who murdered 11 people and wounded 30 at the U.S. Army Base at Fort Hood as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.
I'm just going to go out on a limb here and guess he's not a Presbyterian.
The good news is, they killed the bastard.
*Update" Nope, now they tell us the bastard's still alive.
Prayers for the soldiers, the dead, the wounded, and their families, people.
Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Muslim convert, was born and educated in Virginia. He is a psychiatrist who worked at Walter Reed for six years (and got a poor performance evaluation there). Hasan was transferred to Ft. Hood and worked at the psych ward there. He complained about deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Fox has interviewed someone who worked with him at Ft. Hood (Terry Lee) who says he was a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy who said Muslims had a right to stand up and fight against the aggressor in Iraq and Afghanistan — i.e., us.
Counter-Moonbattery Alert: American Seniors Association Accepts Torn AARP Cards
Posted by The MaryHunter at 12:55 PM | Comments (22)
Are you sickened that "your AARP" has backed the counter-productive (to put it mildly) House PelosiCare/ObamaCare healthcare bill? There's something you can do: Not only can you tear up your AARP card and write AARP a note of protest, but you can send that trashed card to the American Seniors Association (ASA) for a great deal on membership:
ASA is allowing elderly citizens to mail in their torn AARP cards and receive a 2 year-for-1 year membership with the American Seniors Association.
This deal has been going since the summer but it deserves renewed attention. From the ASA website:
The American Seniors Association (ASA) invites any American Association of Retired Persons member to mail us your torn AARP card and receive a 2 year- for- 1 year membership with ASA. Our organization representing hundreds of thousands of members believes we need health care reform, but we want what is best for seniors. ASA wants to cut wasteful spending in Medicare. ASA wants to see the Congress work to curb frivolous lawsuits that drive up the costs of doctor’s malpractice insurance. Our system needs an overhaul, but we do not need expensive Obamacare or anything resembling it.
Good alternatives always come along in an open society with a competitive free market. So feel free to show the AARP that actions have consequences.
Hat tip: Mark Davis, sitting in for Rush.
Chimp Attack Serves as Pretext to Loot Taxpayers
Posted by Van Helsing at 11:45 AM | Comments (31)
A Connecticut woman mauled and blinded by a chimpanzee is seeking to sue the state for $150 million.
Attorneys for Charla Nash's family filed a notice Wednesday with the state's Office of Claims Commissioner asking for permission to sue the state.
The 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis went berserk in February when his owner, Sandra Herold, asked Nash to help lure him back into her house in Stamford. The animal ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids, and she remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic.
Herold is already getting sued for $50 million. But the taxpayers have deeper pockets, so the state lawsuit should be far more remunerative for the vultures who flap down out of their law offices to feed on every tragedy. How the state of Connecticut is responsible for the behavior of a privately owned monkey is anybody's guess.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Republican Health Care Reform Plan Would Save Money and Reduce Costs
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:20 AM | Comments (59)
Well, we can't have that can we?
Their (Republican) plan, which relies on interstate competition, HSAs, and tort reform, would only cost $61 billion in the first ten years of the plan...
So, it would reduce future deficits by a minimum of $1,339,000,000,000 compared to the Neo-Marxist Democrat plan. What else would it do?
CBO anticipates that the combination of provisions in the amendment would reduce average private health insurance premiums per enrollee in the United States, relative to what they would be under current law-by 7 percent to 10 percent in the small group market, by 5 percent to 8 percent for individually purchased insurance, and by zero to 3 percent in the large group market.
So, it would reduce deficit spending by almost a trillion and a half, and it would make health care more affordable, without any abortion funding, death panels, or cuts to MediCare.
To reject such a sensible, affordable plan, the Congress would have to be run by spendthrift idiots who don't care about the debt as long as they expand government power.
Unfortunately....
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 9:12 AM | Comments (21)
Eurocourt Bans Crucifixes in Italy
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:42 AM | Comments (17)
Sometimes it seems liberal Euroweenies are deliberately testing to see just how much totalitarian moonbattery they can ram down people's throats before encountering significant resistance. In the latest outrage against liberty and national sovereignty, bureaucrats of the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that Italians cannot have crucifixes on the walls of their classrooms.
The ruling by the court in Strasbourg, which Italy said it would appeal, said crucifixes on school walls — a common sight that is part of every Italian's life — could disturb children who were not Christians.
That is, Muslim colonists might not like that Italy has been a Christian country since Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century.
Even some commies are aghast:
Paola Binetti, a Catholic in the opposition Democratic Party, the successor of what was once the West's largest communist party, said: "In Italy, the crucifix is a specific sign of our tradition."
Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini concurs:
The history of Italy is marked by symbols and if we erase symbols we erase part of ourselves.
This of course is exactly why progressive Eurocrats want crucifixes banned. The objective is not just to suppress Christianity, which is hardly even defended anymore; it is to eradicate Western civilization. That's why no effective measures are taken to save Europe from the ongoing Muslim demographic conquest — and why amnesty will soon open the door to massive Third World colonization of the USA.
On a tip from mega.
Spendulus Failures Updates
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:40 AM | Comments (4)
Item Number One: It's bad enough that Chairman Zero's crew decided to count raises given with stimulus money as jobs "saved" by the Stimulus. A count the White House defends thusly:
“If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job,” HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said.”
Now, you see why Chairman Zero wanted a creepy tax cheat in charge of the Treasury Department; he needed someone really good at fudging the numbers. But it gets worse, the vast majority of jobs "created or saved" were those of government bureaucrats. As an example:
“About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren’t saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.”
It gets better, the Obamassiah apparently performed a "loaves and fishes" job creation miracle.
President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.
Item Number Two: We know that Cash for Clunkers ended up costing $24,000 per car sold, and there is strong evidence that it did nothing but cannibalize sales from September and October, but the die-hard Obama culties still proclaim, "At least it helped the environment by getting those gas guzzlers off the roads."
“The single most common swap – which occurred more than 8,200 times – involved Ford F150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based on engine size and other factors, an improvement of just 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the clunkers.
Owners of thousands more large old Chevrolet and Dodge pickups bought new Silverado and Ram trucks, also with only barely improved mileage in the middle teens.
So, Cash for Clunkers was a massively expensive Government program that failed in its primary objectives. The Obamunists are citing it as a smashing success.
Harry Reid Panics Like a Little Sissy Girl
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 8:14 AM | Comments (18)
Granny Clampett look-alike Harry Reid (Demonrat-NV) was thrown into a panic, shut down the senate, deployed the Capitol Police, and dispatched HazMat Teams... to deal with a letter from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop that was critical of the current Health Care Reform Takeover proposal winding its way through America's lower digestive tract... the United States Senate.
Koop wrote Reid a typed letter, tucked inside a hand-written business envelope, that appeared in Reid's office without postage and without going through a security screening process. A Senate postal clerk noticed the envelope and alerted a Reid staffer, who in turn notified Capitol Police about 2 p.m.
A small swarm of officers responded, first shutting down the hallway outside Reid's office and then taking the even rarer step of shutting down the wide Ohio Clock corridor that senators use for press conferences outside the Senate's main entrance. Mindful of the ricin and anthrax attacks in 2001, teams of hazardous materials technicians were called and tested the envelope before opening it and discovering Koop's letter.
Jumpy little twerps, aren't they?
Moonbat Tech: Electric Police Cars
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:50 AM | Comments (9)
Stressing official preference for pandering to political correctness rather than controlling crime, police in Oxford, England are puttering around in electric ecojokes.
The $33,000 Mitsubishi iMievs are guaranteed unhurtful to polar bears (since electricity is generated from pixie dust) and can go 100 miles on a charge — but only with the lights off. Consequently, cops are not able to use flashing blue lights to get people's attention.
Not to worry though, ecoscientists are working toward a solution:
Some manufacturer's have opted for an integrated solar roof to power such systems, like this quirky Trabant. One obvious drawback of this approach is that extended cloudy or dark periods will render it useless.
Here's an idea: why not let the police drive real cars, and give the electric go-carts to criminals? That way, the cops will be able to catch them.
On a tip from Scaramouche.
While Obama Spends, Storm Clouds Gather
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:17 AM | Comments (13)
Obamaphiles aren't the only statists who long for mandatory absorption into a scary collectivist herd. Yesterday was Russia's Day of People's Unity. While the Ditherer in Chief loses the war in Afghanistan and maneuvers our economy toward eventual collapse with unsustainable spending, this is what's going on in Russia, which has the firepower to blow up most of the solar system:
It's a scary world out there. Too bad our government is more interested in "fundamentally transforming" America than defending it.
On a tip from Cristy Li.
Early Sesame Street Not PC Enough For Today's Rug Monkeys
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:20 AM | Comments (12)
Today is the 40th Anniversary of the debut of Sesame Street, a multi-billion dollar marketing enterprise that makes reasonable people question why the hell PBS is still sucking up taxpayer dollars like a giant Hoover Varmint Vac. Google, of course, has marked the day with a special logo, since this occasion is neither patriotic nor acknowledges the brave sacrifice of American Veterans.
But as bottom-dwelling news network CNN notes, those early episodes of Sesame Street contained references to cookies and smoking that would shock the conscience of today's tweedy perpetually offended helicopter mom.
On the DVDs, Cookie Monster can be seen as his character of Alistair Cookie in his "Monsterpiece Theatre" segment (a spoof of Alistair Cooke's "Masterpiece Theatre") smoking a pipe.
Yep, Cookie Monster smoked.
Horrors! The article also notes that in 2006, Cookie monster cut back on the cookies, because the liberal do-gooders who make the show were convinced he was causing childhood obesity by encouraging kids to eat cookies. Note, however, the do-gooders were not so convinced that childhood obesity was a problem that they wanted the little crumb-crunchers to turn off the idiot box and go outside for a while.
As a result of these and other horrors (the original neighborhood was a bit untidy), the DVD release of those early episodes carries, naturally, a warning label
"These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child."
I love the "intended for grown-ups" part. If ever there were an admission that the typical PBS-pledging lib is an arrested state of development, that is it.
Also, who knew The Count Was Such a Potty Mouth?
Post-Election Euphoria Fades with Depressing WaPo Headline
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:52 AM | Comments (18)
The Washington Compost does have a knack for sucking the wind out of a celebration with its headlines, doesn't it:
Va. Republicans pledge to steer toward center
A tone set by McDonnell
Even more depressing, the first paragraph:
RICHMOND -- Despite winning the governor's race by a 17-percentage point blowout, Virginia Republicans insisted Wednesday that they had gained no broad mandate and would make their top priority the pragmatic platform that drove voters to the polls.
They. Just. Don't. Get. It.
Virginian Republicans and Conservatives, I pity you.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You've Probably Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:45 AM | Comments (10)
Good Morning Campers & Lefty Trolls Who Never Got Past Their Daddy Issues,
Item One: A judge in Airstrip One has ordered that environmentalism be treated as a religion equal to Christianity. The right has long recognized that the green movement has embraced its own mythology, complete with a demon (George W. Bush), a concept of sin (activities that emit carbon dioxide), and an Apocalypse (Global Warming). Now, because of this judge's ruling, if you claim that your environmental beliefs preclude you from doing things your job requires and as a result your employer fires you, you can now sue your employer for religious discrimination.
Item Number Two: Delusional basket case Keith Olbermann is claiming MSDNC is the Number One cable news network. FoxNews has 4 times as many viewers as MSDNC (4,043,000 versus 974,000), but Olby's boyfriend B. Hussein said Fox isn't really a News network, so that makes Olby Queen of the Cable News Channels. (Just like his buddy Dan Rather is Queen of the Space Unicorns.)
Just to remind you, on Election Night, Olby ditched live coverage so he wouldn't have to cover Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia.
Item Number Three: As you may have heard, Olby's boyfriend B. Hussein, is skipping the celebration of the twenty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (After all, it was a defeat for global communism, why would PBO want to celebrate that?) In El Lay, pieces of the Berlin Wall are being displayed in commemoration of the 20 year anniversary. A local artist wanted to place a portrait of President Kennedy on one end of the exhibit to mark the beginning of the wall and a portrait of Ronald Reagan at the other to mark the end. Event organizers were okay with one portrait, but vetoed the other. Can you guess which one they vetoed?
Morning Briefs were not brought to you by Microsoft. Check out what greeted Microsoft employees returning through Sea-Tac airport recently.
Spot the Racism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 4:26 AM | Comments (13)
The Progressive Left are masters of 'Magic Eye Racism.' They can look at a typical scene in which a normal person would perceive no hint of racism and by squinting at it, tilting their heads, focusing on a point behind it, they can find racism.
The AFL-CIO claims that this Anti-ObamaCare Advert created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is racist. Can you see the racism?
Did you see the racism? Did you see the promotion of White Supremacy? Did you see the denigration of non-white races as inferiors who deserve to be discriminated against? Do you give up? OK, then go to Michelle Malkin to help Spot the Racism.
November 4, 2009
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:55 PM | Comments (10)
A Salute to Mr. Really in Your Face Earmarker
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:51 PM | Comments (4)
Abscam Jack Murtha and the rest of our Democrat rulers get credit for one thing: chutzpah as boundless as their appetite for other people's money.
On a tip from TED.
Joe Scarborough Does Keith Olbermann
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:43 PM | Comments (3)
Scarborough's imitation of Queef Doberman isn't half bad:
If he develops his talents just a little further, he'll be ready to graduate to FNC.
Hat tip: HotAirPundit, on a tip from SK.
The Pride of America: Our Obot Children
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:20 PM | Comments (50)
You need to have a pretty strong stomach to handle this: Many children paying homage to Our Dear Leader Obama.
Hat tip to RobtKraft.
On a twip from LeCombat.
Your Money at Work
Posted by Van Helsing at 12:09 PM | Comments (23)
As real unemployment soars well into the double digits, and the economy staggers under the weight of Big Government, this is where your tax money goes:
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius … announced plans to establish the nation's first national resource center to assist communities across the country in their efforts to provide services and supports for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. …
The LGBT Resource Center will help community-based organizations [e.g., ACORN] understand the unique needs and concerns of older LGBT individuals and assist them in implementing programs for local service providers, including providing help to LGBT caregivers who are providing care for an older partner with health or other challenges.
The Administration on Aging will award a single Resource Center grant at approximately $250,000 per year, pending availability of funds. Eligible entities will include public-private nonprofit organizations with experience working on LGBT issues on a national level.
Pending availability of funds? Even the Moonbat Messiah admits the government is out of money, but that hasn't slowed down spending any. Once these frivolous sinkholes have opened, they will continue to suck in tax loot forever and ever, whether we can afford them or not.
On a tip from Karin.
Narcissist in Chief Update
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 11:02 AM | Comments (24)
Chairman Zero wasn't watching election returns last night. There was something much more important on his mind, watching the fawning, HBO Documentary about himself that would have made Leni Riefenstahl say, "Don't you think this might be a bit much?"
At first he was concerned that the documentary seemed to portray him as hiding a nefarious agenda behind promises of global peace and universal health care ... then, someone pointed out that he was watching the premier of V and helped him change the channel.
Also, Breitbart has uncovered 11 new videos of schoolchildren being forced to sing songs of praise to Chairman Zero. Sure, nothing creepy or North Koreaish about that. No, sir...
Oh, The Ironing!
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:45 AM | Comments (32)
The same day his party got shellacked in Virginia and New Jersey, and the two candidates he campaigned heavily for lost big-time, the Obama White House was hosting contestants from an NBC program called The Biggest Loser.
The White House is trying to spin the NY-23 race as having national significance, but the NJ and VA races as being "just local." They had nothing to do whatsoever with Obama. They want you to forget you ever saw these Corzine billboards:
And forget this Creigh Deeds mailer sent to hundreds of thousands of Virginia voters.
Given that two of my three predictions were wrong, it's safe to say I suck at analysis. Which is actually good news because I don't see the Republicans taking the House next year, and I can see Chairman Zero handily winning re-election. I'd only say all three races - NJ, VA, and NY-23 - have lessons in them for Republicans. 1. Connect conservative positions to practical policies that solve problems. 2. Choose candidates that appeal to the base.
And maybe there's a lesson for Democrats, too. Campaigns based on scorched Earth and personal attacks don't always work, even when you have the Washington Post to carry the water for you (Creigh Deeds) or spend tens of millions of dollars on ads that attack your opponent for being fat (Jon Corzine). I note that a scorched Earth campaign based on spending millions on attack ads is precisely what Harry Reid is promising next year.
One more thing, Rasmussen, the pollster the progressive left hates and calls a Republican tool, was the only pollster to call New Jersey accurately. He nailed it!
Next Punitive Tax: Meat
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:40 AM | Comments (44)
The power to tax is the power to destroy. Since the liberal kooks who run the government favor vegetarianism, that will mean the destruction of anyone who eats a normal human diet, if it's up to prominent moonbat "ethicist" Peter Singer, who claims that "the reasons for a tax on beef and other meats are stronger than those for discouraging consumption of cigarettes, transfats or sugary drinks." This is because:
1. Despite the fact that our teeth are clearly designed for eating meat, meat is supposedly bad for us.
2. Farming is bad because it's cruel to animals. Let the chickens fly free!
3. Farm animals have to eat, and feeding them is a waste of food.
4. Fertilizer from crops fed to farm animals causes pollution.
…and finally, the topper:
5. Eating meat makes it be too hot out because animal farts cause global warming.
Singer's solution: "a 50% tax on the retail value of all meat."
Despite the impression his pronouncements will leave on any sane person, Peter Singer is not a hobo with congealed vomit in his hair, but a distinguished Professor of Bioethics at Princeton and a leading light of the liberal intelligentsia. How he missed becoming Obamao's Diet Czar is anyone's guess.
On a tip from Puffdaddy.
Massive Turnout for Tea Party in Houston
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:07 AM | Comments (5)
The Tea Party phenomenon hasn't run out of gas. From Houston:
More than 10,000 people turned out Monday night for a North Houston Tea Party Patriots gathering to protest proposed health care reform and what they called big government spending and overzealous government leadership, according to preliminary attendance figures.
Joan Orozco of The Woodlands summed up public sentiment:
Basically, I think the country is going in the wrong direction quickly. I think the Constitution is being violated. People are tired of being told what the government is going to do to them.
The shoe will soon be on the other foot if our liberal rulers continue to push forward with radical legislation like healthcare nationalization, Tax & Charade, and card check. The fates of Corzine, Deeds, and Scuzzyawfula should give socialist apparatchiks some idea of what the people will do to them.
On a tip from Byron.
Andy Stern: Comrade Obama's #1 Visitor
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:27 AM | Comments (9)
Two court recent court rulings have resulted in the Moonbat Messiah "voluntarily" disclosing his White House visitor's list. Stanley McCrystal — commander of our forsaken troops in Afghanistan — has met with Obamao twice. In stark contrast, Andy Stern — head of the ACORN-affiliated SEIU — has visited the White House 22 times, leading the list.
SEIU has earned its face time with the POTUS by donating $60 million and 100,000 volunteers to Obama's campaign. Although Stern has made it clear that every single member of SEIU is to devote time to helping elect Democrats, the union is designated a 527, meaning that it is supposedly apolitical and therefore is not limited in the soft money it can shovel at sleazy politicians, unlike honest institutions.
Given Stern's radical background, it's unsurprising that his tactics are thuggish:
Under Stern's leadership, SEIU commonly bullies and pressures companies into signing agreements to make SEIU the representative of their employees. If a company resists joining the union, Stern and his political, media and activist allies conspire to launch "corporate campaigns" aimed at breaking down that resistance through what they term the "death of a thousand cuts." In such campaigns, the cabal of attackers harasses and disrupts company activities, sends vicious emails and letters to stockholders, intimidates customers, stalks and frightens employees, files baseless lawsuits, and plants false stories with media allies to smear the company's reputation.
These pressure tactics are often successful in bringing companies into SEIU's fold. When this occurs, all of their employees are required to join the union. SEIU prefers this arrangement (which Stern calls "Union Democracy") because, in times past, a large percentage of workers who were given a choice voted against joining the union.
This is also why Chairman Zero & friends favor card check.
SEIU stands to make out big from healthcare nationalization, so when patriots spoke out against it at town hall meetings, even high-level SEIU thugs turned out to rough them up.
Another favored White House visitor is the radical financier George Soros, who only has to snap his fingers for a sit-down with the Manchurian Teleprompter. Investors.com reports:
Like the sociable Stern, administration records show Soros' appointments were officially scheduled within hours of his actual visit. It looks like fast service.
Soros not only has made statements critical of free-market capitalism, he's also a philanthropist whose hobbyhorse MoveOn.org tried to smear Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus as "Gen. Betray-us" in a full-page ad in the New York Times.
Both Soros and Stern are prominent partisans in the Shadow Party, a network of ultra-left activist groups working feverishly toward the destruction of liberty in favor of collectivist statism. They have a comrade at the top.
On tips from Milton and Edward.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 6:46 AM | Comments (60)
Gray Dawn: Old Hippies Trespass at Nuclear Base
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:35 AM | Comments (18)
In Washington state, a bunch of super-old hippies crashed a nuclear weapons base.
Bill “Bix” Bischel, S.J., 81, of Tacoma, Washington; Susan Crane, 65, of Baltimore MD; Lynne Greenwald, 60, of Bremerton Washington; Steve Kelly, S.J., 60, of Oakland, CA.; Anne Montgomery RSCJ, 83, of New York, New York, were arrested on Naval Base Kitsap- Bangor. They entered the Base in the early morning hours of November 2, 2009, All Souls Day, with the intention calling attention to the illegality and immorality of the existence of the Trident weapons system.
As they walked onto the grounds, they held a banner saying…… “Disarm Now Plowshares : Trident: Illegal + Immoral”, left a trail of blood and hammered on the roadway, hammered on the fences around SWFPAC and scattered sunflower seeds throughout the base.
Then comes the cool part:
They were then thrown to the ground face down, handcuffed and hooded and held there for 4 hours on the wet cold ground. They were taken, hooded and carried out thru the very holes in the fence that they had made, for questioning by Base security, FBI and NCIS.
I guess these guys can't afford to wait around until Chairman Zero succeeds in disarming the United States... they may well be dead in two years.
Morning Briefs: Stuff You May Have Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:00 AM | Comments (40)
Good Morning Campers and the Fussy, Uncooperative Moonbattery Server,
Item Number One: As you may have heard, the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia were won by unpopular fringe party candidates. The unpopular fringe party candidate in Virginia won by 17 points and increased the unpopular fringe party's representation in the House of Delegates by seven seats. The unpopular fringe party candidate in New Jersey was massively outspent by his Democrat opponent, who received massive support from popular infallible president Barry Soetero (who campaigned in the state six times on his behalf), and who was supported massively by organized labor.
Item Number Two: Gay Marriage l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-s-e-s in Maine! Supporters will tell you this defeat means nothing since Maine is probably one of those deep-red, Bible-Thumping, southern states. Advice to Mormons in Maine: Arm yourselves.
Ace points out that this is a huge win for B. Hussein Obama, who opposes gay marriage just like Carrie Prejean does, but, for some reason, doesn't have whackjob gay-marriage supporters hanging him in effigy or displaying a chopped carcass representing his body as a Halloween decoration.
Item Number Three: HHS Secretary and Partial-Birth Abortion fanatic Kathleen Sebelius has designated $250,000 (annually) in taxpayer/borrowed Chinese money to establish a "National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders." (Hat Tip: Karin)
WTF? Why in an era of Trillion dollar deficits is this administration blowing money on queer geezers? I'll tell you why, it's because some group of octogenarian Judy Garland fans somewhere raised money for his campaign, so Obama pays them back with grants and political appointments. (Queer is a PC word, BTW. It's no longer considered derogatory. So, you can use it with wild abandon, as in, "Goatse Wellstone is a flaming queer.")
We close with a salute to Mr. Deeds, Mr. Corzine, Ms. Scozzafava (and by extension the NYS Republican party {RINOs}), gay marriage supporters, and all the hosts at MSDNC.
The Democrat Party Died Last Night
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:25 AM | Comments (45)
...Er, not really, but the headline sure grabbed you. We're not so ignorant here as to believe that these historic election losses for Pres. Obama and his Democrat minions will quell their thirst for power and perpetual need to oppress Americans rich and poor, young and old. But this is what one writer at CNSNews.com proclaimed:
If I owned a cable news network, the Mullings News Network, this is what I would demand every anchor, analyst, guest, floor director and cameraman say: The Democratic Party in America is officially dead.
It died in Virginia last night when Bob McDonnell the R*E*P*U*B*L*I*C*A*N won the election for Governor, beating the democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds by something on the order of 18 percentage points -- way, WAY more than even the most optimistic public polls had predicted.
The Democratic Party also died in New Jersey, when R*E*P*U*B*L*I*C*A*N Chris Christie beat incumbent democrat Jon Corzine by better than 100,000 votes in a State which hasn't voted for a Republican since … a very long time ago (it was 1997 when Christine Todd Whitman was re-elected Governor).
Hamid Karzai called Barack Obama to offer both condolences and advice as to how Obama might want to approach his own re-election in 2012 based upon Karzai's excellent showing in the Election That Never Was in Afghanistan.
Jokes aside: Our Dear Leader and his Hopey-Change Thaaaang actually got three losses last night: not only the Virginia and New Jersey races, but New York 23rd as well. Even though it appears that Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has lost that race to Democrat Bill Owens, the whole Gingrich-Scuzzyawfula-RINO incident has done more than any race this election cycle, and perhaps the last as well, to lift the rock and expose the soft yellow putrid goo that will destroy the Republican Party, if it continues to fester.
The Conservative base of the GOP has been reinvigorated with the knowledge that it will not be ignored anymore, to the party's peril. Had a Hoffman-type candidate been chosen initially by local party apparatchiks to run for the NY 23rd seat, he or she would have had time, party money, and ballot exclusivity, rather than this messy three-way gang-bang that occurred. Even still, it is far better to have a liberal Republican lose a seat, than to win at the expense of basic party principles.
The question is whether local and national GOP leaders will heed the warning. Really, this time.
See today's Washington Times editorial for cutting commentary on the implications of this historic election.
November 3, 2009
Obama Zombies Take to the Streets
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:52 PM | Comments (22)
Halloween was a little scarier than usual this year in Manhattan, where Obama Zombies crept out from their fetid lairs and crowded the streets, plying the unwary with the very Kool-Aid that reduced them to their wretched state:
On a tip from JC.
Your Money at Work
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:38 PM | Comments (7)
Where did all those $billions and $billions in "stimulus" money go? CNBC managed to chase down a few $million:
Dems are still sitting on the vast majority of the cash that was supposedly so urgently needed, in hopes it can be used to buy support before the next election. Maybe they should have gotten off to a faster start spreading it around in Virginia and New Jersey.
On a tip from glenwood183.
Lawrence O'Donnell: Reagan Too Liberal for GOP
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:12 PM | Comments (10)
It's no use wishing Ronaldus Maximus were around today, because if he were, the Republican Party would have no use for him — because he's too liberal. At least, that's the analysis moonbat drones are being fed by MSNBC. Take it away, Lawrence O'Donnell:
The GOP is so fanatical in its devotion to liberty that it "can't support a liberal like Ronald Reagan now." Since I wouldn't want O'Donnell to feel like a fool, I'm hoping the Republicans who kicked Democrat tail in Virginia and apparently even New Jersey today are so conservative, they really do make Reagan look like a liberal.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Counter-Moonbattery Alert: Does ABC's 'V' Aim to Deconstruct Obamamania?
Posted by The MaryHunter at 5:12 PM | Comments (27)
One deserves to be a little suspicious in reading an article like this one from The Chicago Tribune (though the article is syndicated through McClatchy/Tribune News):
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."
So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?
Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors.
Certainly others have observed this symbolism, including NewsBusters, who noted that the producer of the mini-series has denied any connection with the Obot-Zombie/Dear Leader situation we see every day in the U.S.:
Others on both sides of the political spectrum may point to the visitors' explicit promises of hope, change and universal health care as a pointed reference to pledges of the Obama administration. But [Executive Producer Scott] Peters says the show has been in the works since 2007. Reality was “never really a factor,” he says. “There's no political message being shoved down anyone's throat.”
And, of course, it's a remake.
This all seems more like a self-fulfilling prophecy, but let's put it out there. Is this reporting a set-up by the MSM to squelch any allusion to the inanity of Obamamania that the Right might flame through this show, or is it an honest observation with potential political implications?
On a twip from ObotNot. Hat tip: DrudgeReport.com
20:10 UPDATE: Here's a link to the V page at ABC, thanks to SK.
And Now for Something Completely Different...
Posted by The MaryHunter at 3:30 PM | Comments (23)
If The Anchoress can post this, so can we (with major tip o'the tam to Her Majesty):
Teh Gheys Against Free Speech
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 12:17 PM | Comments (44)
The State of Maine is voting today on a referendum on the question of whether the traditional definition of marriage will be protected, or whether marriage will be redefined to include same-sex couples. A high school guidance counselor made the mistake of exercising his First Amendment right to free speech by appearing in an advertisement supporting traditional marriage. Gay Marriage Activists responded by filing a complaint with the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation alleging that the counselor “does not have the right as a licensed social worker to make public comments that can endanger or promote discrimination.” The counselor must respond to the complaint in writing, and faces disciplinary action from the department.
The Progressive Left claims that hate crimes laws will never, ever be used to censor Free Speech. Why should we believe them?
The complaint also charged that Mendell has a “long history of being unsupportive of GLBTQ issues” and was “very vocal” in opposition to a homosexual student group. It cited a student who thought Mendell’s participation in the ad showed him to be “racist against gays,” and claimed another student thought the counselor’s actions would make students who believe they are homosexual feel Mendell is less accepting of them.
I note that in Washington state, teh gheys are suing to have the names of everyone who signed pro-traditional marriage petitions made public. Clearly, the objective is to subject anyone who stands in their way to harassment and intimidate them into silence.
Roland Emmerich: Another Hollywood Hypocrite
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:57 AM | Comments (20)
Roland Emmerich -- the director of big-budget disaster schlock like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow (which New York Waste of Times Kook Columnist Thomas Friedman thought was a documentary) -- was perfectly happy to show the destruction of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in his new piece of crap 2012 because he is "against organised religion." But when it came to showing an artifact sacred to Muslims being destroyed, the big douchenozzle wimped out.
"You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have a fatwa..."
In other words, he is a big, brave tolerant liberal who will only respect any religion that threatens to kill him if he doesn't.
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:44 AM | Comments (53)
Frau Merkel Needs to Do Her Climate Change Homework
Posted by The MaryHunter at 10:25 AM | Comments (17)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Washington DC today, preaching to the choir in a joint session of Congress about "that global warming/climate change/mankind is evil" thaaaang. While she and other "well-meaning" but thoroughly ignorant politicians and world leaders continue to try and outdo each other in enviro-greeno-dingbat activism, what they should be doing is actually looking up the facts about the farce of AGW, like JustA11en did.
JustA11en is just a simple, everyman kinda guy who has more sense in his little fingernail than Frau Merkel has in her, well, ...
NJ Democrats Using Gangbangers for GOTV?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 10:23 AM | Comments (6)
According to a report at Election Journal, New Jersey Democrats are sending out known gang members to canvas for Jon Corzine and state Democrats.
How would you like to be a New Jersey police officer and look out your window and see several known criminals, including a man you arrested several weeks ago and another who had just been released from prison for shooting a cop? And then find out that the men were sent into the neighborhood by the Democratic Party for GOTV operations - complete with lists of voters names, addresses and phones numbers!
Here's a video.
But remember, to the progressive left, gangsters, thugs, and terrorists are just guys from the neighborhood. It's dangerous tea partiers like the ones depicted below who are "dangerous."
Moonbat Blames Constitution for Obama's Inadequacy
Posted by Van Helsing at 8:38 AM | Comments (40)
What's a Moonbat Messiah to do when blaming Bush just makes people's eyes roll? Aussie Obamunist Anne Davies has the answer — blame the Constitution:
A year ago a jubilant Barack Obama stood in Grant Park, Chicago to claim victory before his exuberant fans. … The first year of the Obama Administration has tested the strength of the true believers who gathered in Grant Park on that November night last year. During the campaign they had suspended their beliefs in how the American system works and embraced Obama's heady promises of a changed America…
Yet a year after the November 4 election, the checks and balances the founding fathers built into the US political system to moderate the revolutionary zeal of its early settlers have worked, all too well, to blunt Obama's agenda.
Those angry white male Founding Fathers are oppressing The People from beyond the grave with all that liberty stuff.
Chairman Zero was no fan of the Constitution, even before it thwarted his plan to "fundamentally transform" America into a socialist utopia:
FDR managed to effectively repeal the Tenth Amendment, opening the door to decades of explosive government growth at the expense of our freedom. Time will tell how much damage The Anointed One will do, as media moonbats like Davies slap their hands together and hoot with delight.
On a tip from mandible claw.
Al Gore Exploits Envirofascism for Fortunes
Posted by Van Helsing at 7:21 AM | Comments (19)
Even as the global warming hoax threatens to plunge the country into a depression via demented Tax & Charade legislation, its most strident pitchman is exploiting it to amass astounding fortunes — as his enablers at the New York Slimes admit:
Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.
Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, asserted at a hearing this year that Mr. Gore stood to benefit personally from the energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.
The Goracle responded with the ultimate in socialist chutzpah:
"Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?" Mr. Gore said. "I am proud of it. I am proud of it."
But then, that's how business is done, in a world run by the likes of Al Gore. You convince your government cronies to force people to pay for whatever you have to sell. The "green revolution" extolled by the Slimes will come about when all the green has been transferred from those who produce wealth to those who have friends in Big Government.
Bureaucrats just shoveled over $560 million of our money at Silver Spring Networks, in which Gore's Kleiner Perkins outfit has invested heavily. He's also working plenty of other angles:
He is a founder of Generation Investment Management, based in London and run by David Blood, a former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (the firm was quickly dubbed Blood and Gore). Mr. Gore earns a partner's salary at Kleiner Perkins. He has substantial personal finances invested at both firms, officials of the companies said. …
Mr. Gore's spokeswoman would not give a figure for his current net worth, but the scale of his wealth is evident in a single investment of $35 million in Capricorn Investment Group, a private equity fund started by his friend Jeffrey Skoll, the first president of eBay. …
He has a stake in the world's pre-eminent carbon credit trading market and in an array of companies in bio-fuels, sustainable fish farming, electric vehicles and solar power.
Capricorn holds a major stake in Falcon Waterfree Technologies, the world's leading maker of waterless urinals. Generation has holdings in Ausra, a solar energy company based in California, and Camco, a British firm that develops carbon dioxide emissions reduction projects. Kleiner Perkins has a green ventures fund with nearly $1 billion invested in renewable energy and efficiency concerns.
In short, if it's economically useless but likely to be subsidized if not imposed by the watermelons running our government, Gore is getting a fat cut from it. He needs the money to pay his gargantuan power bills.
His next big project: a $300 million campaign to ban fossil fuels in electricity production within 10 years. Since windmills and pixie dust just don't work, and nuclear power is frowned upon by moonbats, where the electricity will come from is something for people to worry about later — like how to pay for all the government subsidies to inefficient ecokook technology.
On a tip from Charles O.
Does this look like hate to you?
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:39 AM | Comments (20)
You could argue that it's actually the left's insane hatred of Glenn Beck that is being mocked here. I think that's a stretch, but it's plausible. But let me ask this: If wishing Death on Glenn Beck is okay because "it's just humor, it's just 'The Onion,'" then why is it "hatred" and "racism" for Rush Limbaugh to play 'Barack the Magic Negro?'
Morning Briefs: Stuff You've Probably Already Read Somewhere Else
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 5:20 AM | Comments (9)
Good Morning Campers and Schizophrenic Lefty Dimwits,
Item Number One: Militant Atheists (tm) have succeeded in forcing the state of Washington to cancel all Christmas displays at the state's capitol. The Militant Atheists (tm) expressed bitter satisfaction at their success in sapping some of the joy out of other people's holiday season, then continued along their meaningless trudge to the grave.
And the progressive left still insists the 'War on Christmas' is a figment of Bill O'Reilly's imagination.
Item Number Two: In Airstrip One, one in every five homes is now rented by government subsidies. Of course, to the progressive left, this isn't nearly enough; "housing is a right." they say. They say everybody's home should be provided by the government... like these lovely homes on the south side of Chicago provided by Barack Obama's close friends Valerie Jarrett and Tony Rezko with generous subsidies from taxpayers.
Item Number Three: Moonbat Congressman Jim Moran, Demonrat of Virginia (and child abuser), opined on Washington's NPR affiliate that the Republicans were the American equivalent of the Taliban. "If the Republicans were running in Afghanistan, they'd be running on the Taliban ticket as far as I can see." Which must be why Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham are all forced to wear burqas. Oh, they're not? Then, I guess the analogy is retarded and Jim Moran is a retard.
Election Day Predictions: I predict Republicans will win in a blowout in Virginia, taking the Governorship, the Lt. Governorship, and the Attorney General's seat. I predict Doug Hoffman will win in NY-23. And I predict ACORN will drag Jon Corzine's carcass over the finish line in New Jersey.
Today's Morning Briefs are brought to you by the Obama Weather Page, because cultists need to know what their Dear Leader thinks they should be wearing in response to precipitation and temperature.
Beck Bits: Holiday Cheer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency
Posted by The MaryHunter at 4:06 AM | Comments (17)
Didn't know you were probably going to be assisting the less fortunate this season with their holiday travel plans? Glenn Beck explains:
The postal service can't get your birthday card to Grandma on time, but the government is apparently capable of sending illegal gang members back home for Christmas. According to a Federal investigator, an MS-13 gang member who was in the U.S. illegally wanted to get a free trip home for Christmas so he turned himself in to the authorities. Did it work? Yep. They sent him home on the taxpayers' dime, where he spent the holidays with his family and then returned to the U.S. by illegally crossing the southwest border. In fact, the ploy worked so well that he did it over and over again.
November 2, 2009
Sarah Palin Smacksdown Clueless Joe Biden
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 1:16 PM | Comments (29)
Proving once again that the Democrats are the party of invective and stupidity, Chairman Zero's vice president, Joe Biden, who think "jobs" is a three-letter word and that FDR went on television in 1929 to comfort Americans when the stock market crash, decided to slam Sarah Palin while speaking to a half-empty "rally" for Democrat Bill Owens in NY-23.
“The fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy is ‘drill, baby, drill,’” said Biden. “It’s a lot more complicated, Sarah!”
As Sarah points out in her rebuttal, if it were up to dimwitted hacks like Joe Biden, our energy situation would be even more perilous than it is today.
The vice president’s extreme opposition to domestic energy development goes all the way back to 1973 when he opposed the Alaska pipeline bill. As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Biden cast one of only five votes against the pipeline that has produced more than 15 billion barrels of oil, supplied nearly 20 percent of this nation’s oil, created tens of thousands of jobs, added hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and reduced money transfers to the nation’s enemies by about the same amount.”
This nonsensical opposition to American domestic energy development continues to this day. Apparently the Obama-Biden administration only approves of offshore drilling in Brazil, where it will provide security and jobs for Brazilians. This election is about American security and American jobs.
There’s one way to tell Vice President Biden that we’re tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation’s progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!
Under the radical neo-Marxist administration of Chairman Zero, domestic energy exploration has been halted. Leases to extract oil from Rocky Mountain shale and to explore for offshore oil have been revoked, while billions in loan guarantees have been extended to help Brazilians exploit offshore oil reserves. Why does Brazilian energy development not threaten the environment but American energy exploration does? Another question the Obamunist Cult can't give a good answer to.
Sez Rush: Take Your Cameras to the Polls
Posted by The MaryHunter at 11:58 AM | Comments (75)
Rush Limbaugh just suggested to his listeners that it would be mighty prudent for voters to take their videos, digicameras and cell phone cameras to the polls, so as to capture anything that looks or smells rotten. After all, that Black Panther voter intimidation fiasco we witnessed in Philadelphia last election:
...was identified by good citizens like you.
The only thing worse than pure moonbattery (which at least we can laugh at) is voter fraud and intimidation of the voting public by Democrats -- a perennial of this nation's election process but now a special concern, since the ruthless Chicago dirty-politics machine now runs the Democrat party from the White House.
16:28 PST Update: thanks to CrackrJak, here is the raw video of the Black Panther fiasco: (TYVM, man!)
Open Thread
Posted by Van Helsing at 10:02 AM | Comments (43)
Reverend Jeremiah Wright Praises Marxism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:48 AM | Comments (30)
Reverend Jeremiah Wright crawls out from under the bus to remind us that he, like Mao-admiring Obama aide Anita Dunn, is a fan of socialism and Marxism, and thinks of America as "“land of the greed and home of the slave.”
In the video, which captures Wright’s appearance at a September 17, 2009, anniversary celebration of Monthly Review, Wright said that while the “corporate media” provide a “binary lens” of the world, in such terms as “communist versus Christian,” Monthly Review offers what it calls “no-nonsense Marxism.”
Chairman Zero sat in this guy's church for twenty years and he claims he had no idea how radical Reverend Wright was. Either Obama is lying and he really shares Reverend Wright's beliefs, or Obama is so stupid he sat there for twenty years without realizing where his preacher's head was at.
Which is it?
Mark Steyn on Environmental Totalitarianism
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 9:18 AM | Comments (3)
Mark Steyn reviews progressive left environmentalist excesses -- the Cap and Trade bill that won't let you sell your house without approval from a government environmental bureaucrat, the travel restrictions proposed, and the intrusive monitoring systems in place in Airstrip One -- and concludes that Big Brother has arrived, not in a fascist uniform, but in a free-trade hemp shirt and organically-dyed jeans.
You float a rumour that George W. Bush is checking up on what library books you’re reading, and everyone goes bananas. But announce that a government monitoring device has been placed in every citizen’s trash can in the cause of “saving the planet,” and the world loves you.
At their Monday night poker game in hell, I’ll bet Stalin, Hitler and Mao are kicking themselves: “ ‘It’s abou