So now that Obama is President, is dissent still the highest form of patriotism?
Is “Questioning Authority” still a virtue?
Is “speaking truth to power” still a something to uphold and revere?
Just checking.
I usually try to keep my criticisms of lefties, and leftism, substantive and fact-based.
Being human, I occasionally resort to sarcasm, humor and snark. And you know it’s part of the reason you come here, so don’t try and get cute about it.
Sometimes, the best I can manage is a point-by-point fisking.
But in almost seven years of blogging, this is the first time I’ve had to sit back, scratch my eyes, re-read something, and decide that simply presenting the offending material in its full, dim, foul glory is all the criticism that material needs.
And so I present Grace Kelly – local 9/11 Truther and cog in the local DFL machine. Her particularly wide-eyed, fabulist brand of jackboot-with-a-smile liberalism has turned up on this blog a few times in the past.
But she’s outdone herself this time. She has summed up the collective id of the Democrat base in this country, in much the same way Rain Man summed up the cards in the casino, and presented it to the world in the form of a poem.
Lead Us President Barack Obama
At a time of darkness, the light appears
– that light is President Barack Obama.At a time when knowledge, skill and science was disdained, a champion of knowledge, skill and science has stepped forward
– that champion is President Barack Obama.At a time when it seemed that only corporations and the rich were represented, a representative of people appeared
– that representative is President Barack Obama.At a time of torture, a leader of morality appears
– that leader is President Barack Obama.At a time when the world no longer respects us as country, a reason for respect appears
– that reason is President Barack Obama.At a time of too many wars and too much violence, we look for the wisdom of peace and diplomacy,
– that wisdom is President Barack Obama.At a time of great economic crisis, a president who leads comes,
lead us President Barack Obama, speak for us,
lay out your plan of action,And we the people will say
YES. WE. CAN!
I’ve been staring at this for ten minutes.
Have at it, all. I’ve got everything…and yet nothing.
UPDATE: An emailer sends:
At a time with no flushable toiletsa man invented such a toiletAnd that man was Thomas Crapper
UPDATE 2: Another emailer:
At at time when freshness eluded us
a man made freshness attainable.
And that man was Irving Douchebag.
Keep ’em coming!
UPDATE 3: The hits keep coming
At a time when bands’ names were lame, and balloons were merely toys
A man came a long and fixed both.
And that man was Count Von Zeppelin.
More! More!
Camille Paglia – no conservative, she – sums up the absurdity of Dem proposals to reinstate the “Fairness” Doctrine.
For starters,they just don’t “get” radio (emphasis sparingly added):
Radio is a populist medium where liberals come across as snide, superior scolds. One can instantly recognize a liberal caller to a conservative show by his or her catty, obnoxious tone. The leading talk radio hosts are personalities and entertainers with huge rhetorical energy and a bluff, engaging manner…The best hosts combine a welcoming master of ceremonies manner with a vaudevillian brashness. Liberal imitators haven’t made a dent on talk radio because they think it’s all about politics, when it isn’t. Top hosts are life questers and individualists who explore a wide range of thought and emotion and who skillfully work the mike like jazz vocalists.
I’ll cop to “Mick Jagger”.
Talk radio is a major genre of popular culture that deserves the protection accorded to other branches of the performing and fine arts. Liberals, who go all hushed and pious at Hays Code censorship in classic Hollywood, should lay off the lynch-mob mentality. Keep the feds out of radio!
The liberal response is “But President Obama isn’t pushing the Fairness Doctrine”.
I answer “he’s not President for five more days, and it doesn’t matter; the Democrat leadership in Congress is, and I doubt Obama would waste a veto to protect Conservative talk.
In any case, all of us who’ve spent decades fighting – and lately, winning – the battle for the Second Amendment can tell you; liberty takes eternal watchfulness.
So we watch.
It’s all over the news – the Campbell family of New Jersey, who infamously gave their children Nazi-linked names (oldest boy is named Adolph Hitler Campbell) has had the kids hauled off by Child Protection:
Little Adolf, who is three, was removed along with his sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell.
There must have been some signs of physical abuse or neglect, since I doubt DYFS can parchute in just because mom and dad are neo-Nazis with awful judgement in baby names.
When I interviewed neighbors of the family last month, Sally Miller, who lives down the road from the Campbells, said they had trick-or-treated at her home (not dressed as storm troopers, or anything–just regular Halloween costumes).
Adolf’s mom, Deborah Campbell, was pregnant at the time, and when Miller congratulated her, she joked about fighting a lot with her husband. Miller also said other neighbors had heard the couple arguing.
Miller didn’t discover the boy’s name until it made headlines.
But according to Fox News, Holland Township Police Sgt. John Harris said cops never saw any signs of abuse and, in fact, dad Heath Campbell seemed very good with his kids.
The chattering classes are presuming there has to be more to it – but there’s nothing publicly available (which isn’t unusual in Child Protection cases).
Of course, if it was all about the name, that should make your hair stand on end. Let’s clarify this for you; your kids can be taken away if the authorities think you’re “too weird”).
With the approval of an awful lot of people, from comment section trolls to the mainstream media:
Obviously, if the Campbells were denying the children food that’s one thing. But is the state within its rights to remove children from a home because of the parents’ political beliefs? If indeed that’s the reason (the state isn’t saying so). That’s a tough question, but I think in this particular case most of us can agree that removing children from an atmosphere of obvious poison is probably a good thing.
Obvious poison?
Naming a kid “Adolph Hitler” is certainly a social gaffe. But worse than the parents (at least the overeducated Anglos) who name their kids “Che”? In historical degree, maybe.
What if they’re following through; teaching the kids that Jews are subhuman? It’s perfectly legal – indeed, protected by the first Amendment – for adults to believe that (albeit not act on it on more than a rhetorical level); should it be illegal for parents to teach their kids hate? Wonder what the daughter that Garrison Keillor dotes on thinks about red-state Republicans.
The point, obviously, is that “poison” is a moving target. Some consider non-cafeteria Christianity a “poisonous” environment, and they’re powerful enough to spark genuine worries that Christian beliefs could be viewed as factors in “hate crimes”.
This might be a better question for all of you who spent the last eight years worrying about John Ashcroft and Karl Rove shipping you off to camps in Idaho for voting for John Kerry; is this a precedent you want to let stand?
(Via AP at Hot Air)
There’s an add running on some online conservative podcasts lately; paraphrasing it, it says something like “join the resistance to Obama!”
Big, dumb mistake.
For starters, applying military metaphors to politics and government is (unless one is fighting a war) always, always a dumb mistake. Back away.
And beyond that? It’s the sort of talk that makes conservatives sound like too many lefties over the past eight years – the shrieking ninnies that spent the last years digracing themselves and their families with the depths of their obsession with Bush Derangement Syndrome.
And Jeffrey Lord is right; it’d be a very bad idea to sink to that level:
It will be well and vividly remembered, of course, that Bush mistakes on, say, weapons of mass destruction were morphed into “lies.” That a philosophical commitment to keeping America safe by taking the fight to enemies abroad was treated not as a serious difference of opinion or judgment but rather as evidence of a lust for deliberate murder in the mode of the infamous mass murderer of six million Jews. That this lust included a desire to murder the children of American citizens. And so on and on and appallingly and drearily so on.THE QUESTION NOW IS, should conservatives pick up the cudgel? Should Obama be Bushed in the style of Mr. Rich and his friends? For example, is President-elect Obama’s trillion dollar spending plan simply a wrong-headed (if spectacularly mammoth) example of even more government financial mistakes that will prove ruinous for generations? Or, in Rich-think, is it the mark of a venal liar (the new President Obama) scheming to rob average Americans blind in perpetuity to reward both his own political cronies and those of his party? Is the push to close Guantanamo a mistaken decision that could allow a collection of vicious killers to go free under the guise of legal protections never given before in American history? Or is it instead the action of a devious fool who has no intention of protecting American citizens because in reality he believes Americans should be murdered for their multiplicity of sins (against blacks, native Americans, all people of color etc., etc., etc.) during their history? Did Obama’s support for the election and re-election of the now-nationally infamous Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich mean that he was just doing the routine rally-around-my-party’s-nominee-for-governor dance common to all politicians? Or was he a sinister cynic and a willing participant if not a leader in the effort to elect as governor a man whose ethics were plenty visible to insiders before caught on tape trying to sell a seat in the U.S. Senate?
What would Mike Malloy do?
This is a serious question for conservatives. There are now (as there have been the last eight years) vital issues at play in the world. Issues of economics, constitutional law, national security, foreign policy, health, immigration and on and on. If conservatives start down the road of these Frank Rich-style Shallow Hal’s of the left — and doubtless there will be some unable, understandably, to resist the temptation — the conservative movement will not be back any time soon. Nor would it deserve to be. The fundamental successes of the Reagan era and, yes, of the George W. Bush presidency are devotion to ideas. In Reagan’s case it was a well thought out and deeply serious commitment to end the Cold War and put right (no pun intended) the American economy. Volumes have been written about the serious approaches inherent in launching the defense buildup that included the 600-ship Navy and Strategic Defense Initiative while rejecting the nuclear freeze or installing Pershing missiles over the vociferous objections of the American and European left. Or the intellectual work that went into supply-side economics and the understanding of tax cuts and monetary policy.
Read the whole thing.
And eschew the dark side.
Much, much more later.
The snowy winter and wet autumn points to possible spring flooding in the Red River Valley this spring.
On Friday, the North Central River Forecast Center, which tracks flood potential in all or parts of nine states, forecast a 90 percent chance of major flooding for Fargo-Moorhead before May 1 and about a 45 percent chance for Grand Forks-East Grand Forks. The chance of a flood crest reaching the 1997 mark is about 7.5 percent in Fargo and 6 percent downstream in Grand Forks.That forecast is “not likely to change much for better unless we get really innocuous conditions,” said Steve Buan, a hydrologist for the forecast agency, which is part of the National Weather Service operation in Chanhassen. “We’ve gotten a really strong kick-start.”
The Twin Cities left erupted in reaction to this news.
“While the citizens of the Red River Valley can defend themselves from floods” said U of Minnesota victimization-studies professor Jacob Lawrence, “it’s important that the response be proportional. The locals should only respond by making the water wet”.
Others were less conciliatory. “Water was there before the people of Fargo were; they plopped their city into the middle of the Water homeland” said Meghan Jeffreys, spokesbeing of Victims Unanimous of Plymouth. “We express solidarity with the water”.
A pro-flood protest is planned for Wednesday at 8AM in front of the Federal Building in Minneapolis. Protesters are urged to wear water in solidarity.
Obama gave a speech yesterday. Word has it (I didn’t watch or listen) he discussed the economy in no uncertain terms.
Let me guess though, I’ll bet he used the words “crisis” numerous times; I’ll bet he furrowed his eyebrows real good like and probably had a real ominous look on his face too.
Were ya scared?
Did he make you think you need him to save you? …that this crisis is too severe for you to solve it on your own? Did he speak of sweeping, decisive, massive and immediate action being required on the part of the federal government? Did you need a hug? A big government hug?
These days it seems like it is our patriotic duty to consume more. And if we don’t choose to spend more money ourselves, the government will do it for us.
Obama is building his case: You need big government. You need guys like him; guys that are smarter than you cuz they read more books, went to better schools and have more letters after their name. Guys that aren’t afraid to take massive, decisive action; to write big checks with someone else’s money.
These problems, despite being undeniably caused by liberal policies in the first place, must be solved by the government. The government must “create” three million “jobs.” The government is the answer, no matter what the question, when you’re a liberal.
Liberals can’t do anything if it doesn’t justify government’s growth and influence in our lives.
But wait a minute. Isn’t it excessive spending that got us into this mess in the first place? Spending more now seems like drinking Scotch to cure a hangover.
But what if the right thing to do right now is nothing?
Here and there are some small signs that the economy is at least bottoming — a crucial stepping stone to meaningful recovery.
New orders, employment, backlogs, and exports all ticked higher than the previous month.
The November factory-orders report showed non-defense capex rising at a 3.9 percent annual pace, the first increase in four months and the best gain in 10 months. Computer orders surged 12.5 percent.
Commercial construction rose 0.7 percent annually in November, and is up 12.1 percent over the past three months.
And in the November personal-income report, real disposable income jumped 1 percent for the month and is up 7.1 percent at an annual rate over the past three months. Real consumer spending in that report rose 0.6 percent in November.
Additionally, the credit freeze continues to thaw. The three-month LIBOR rate is all the way back to 1.4 percent. And corporate bond rates continue to decline, a signal that private capital markets are starting to function again. The 30-year mortgage rate is holding around 5.3 percent.
At a recent conference in San Francisco, academic economists were very pessimistic, expecting recession to last through the whole year. But easy money and low retail gas prices may be a lot more stimulative than the academics think.
The stock market says we’re already over half way through the recession, it’s up almost twenty percent since it’s low point in November.
Americans are already saving more. Banks are amassing cash which they will lend as soon as their balance sheets improve.
Unemployment has a long way to go to match Reagan-era suffering let alone Great Depression levels. Reagan came into office with 7.6% unemployment, it rose to 9.7% then fell to 5.5% on his watch.
Riddle me this: How did he do that? How big was Reagan’s government stimulus? (It’s a trick question).
Obama’s fear mongering is designed to set the stage for the hero to enter. The damsel in distress is you, he’s going to rescue you, and we all know what the hero gets to do to the damsel once he rescues her.
It’s not enough for Obama to be the first African American President of the United States.
Obama needs a legacy, and in the annals of history, the great liberals, the ones with fist-pounding speeches and legacies, all did the same thing. Increase government, create ever more massive government spending and debt, and screw the next generation (or two or three).
Obama’s 9/11 is the economy and he is going to take the only action a liberal knows.
The economy will improve. The free-enterprise system will come to the rescue like it always does. Capitalism will survive. It may have started already. Obama just wants the credit for it.
You see liberals have just one lever in front of them, and they’re always itching to pull it whenever we give them the chance. Obama wants to pull it so hard, it will be in the history books.
Whether you are a conservative, liberal or independent, or can’t find it with both hands, I can’t imagine anyone outside Democrats in Congress thinking highly of this proposal, highlighted in the Most Viewed Story of 2008 on InvestmentNews.com.
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
Powerful? Maybe so. Smart?
Well now, we know they wouldn’t be Democrats if they were smart, would they.
And here’s proof:
the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, testified that some $2 trillion in retirement savings has been lost over the past 15 months.
A poor, certainly intentional and patently alarmist choice of words. I can’t corroborate my suspicion, but I’m convinced Orszag is a prodigy of Al Gore.
The market drops, like it does from time to time, and this one was a big one, but certainly no precedent, and $2 Trillion is “lost“. Someone with Orszag’s book-learnin’ credentials should know the difference between a presumably temporary (and albeit severe) fluctuation in the market, and a permanent loss.
The sky is not falling. The market will recover from the cluster of liberal social engineering and corruption that caused this crisis; this despite the fact that those culpable are still at the helm or advising the Occupant of The Office of the President Elect.
Orszag is on a mission.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
Liberal Democrats have uncovered yet another avenue for government to invade our lives, confiscate our hard-earned dollars, and throw them down the same rat-hole that is the soon-to-be-insolvent Social Security Administration. It’s not the “nation’s 401k system.” It’s my 401k. It’s your 401k.
Under Ms. Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5% of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3% a year, adjusted for inflation.
The reason prudent investors choose to diversify into equities and bear their inherent risk is that historically over time that risk has returned a premium over “safer” investments that may have less volatility but don’t keep pace with inflation and therefore lose purchasing power.
In the mean time, these dollars are invested back into our economy unlike the dollars that would be “invested” by the government on your behalf. Most likely they would be stolen by greedy liberals with a penchant for spending other peoples’ money.
“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ms. Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”
The colossal arrogance of Ms. Ghilarducci is beyond comprehension. Teresa, you ignorant slut. It’s not a subsidy. It’s our money.
401k’s will be a boon to federal coffers as most of the dollars invested in “the nations 401k system” will be taxed once distributed to the retiree. True to form, liberal democrats’ myopia prevents them from waiting that long. They want your money. They want it now.
401k’s have been a boon to future retirees and may be the sole source of retirement income for many hard-working and deserving Americans who will never ever come close to recovering their mandatory contributions to the mismanaged Social Security Administration.
Most people understand this simple concept.
Apparently Democrats don’t, or are counting on the fact that we’re too stupid to get it or too uninvolved to do anything about it.
As the bumper sticker says, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
…Kathy Griffin wasn’t this dumb:
“I said Israel will attack any boat carrying doctors and medical supplies,” Barr wrote on her blog, adding that, “Israel is a NAZI state. The Jewish Soul is being tortured in Israel.”[Roseanne Barr], who has courted controversy in the past, also condemned Israel’s counter-terror operation against Hamas, asserting that, “The destruction of the Jews in Israel has been assured with this inhuman attack on civilians in Gaza.
Am I the only one that finds it depressing that Roseanne Barr can still get headlines?
(Via Repurblican)
Here at the Hopey Changey Roosh household, we are concerned for the environment too.
We’re all wearing Green to celebrate the coming rescue by Brrr Ack! Obanana of our besieged Mother Earth.
After reading Mitch’s alarming post, I convened an ad hoc family symposium! Starting today, we only turn on our L.E.D. Christmas (er – sorry to offend) X-Mas lights during off-peak hours (2:20-2:40 AM) so please stop by then to enjoy their glorious splendor.
We have our thermostat set for a cozy 52 degrees, but we’re a Snuggly-Wuggly clan! Plus, we have discovered coats and snow pants aren’t just for the outdoors any more! Yay!
Our Turkey was interviewed before we chose it to make sure that it wasn’t mistreated, and we made sure to buy one that died of old age.
Yum.
In order to thwart Global Warming Cooling Change, we are walking to Church as a family this year! It’s 4.9 miles by car but we should be able to shave some of that by cutting through yards and crossing streets diagonally, like The Crosstown Highway 62. It’ll be a swell time to try out our new Vegan-Tanned Ethical Leather shoes!
Gift-giving is another way to express your rage for the Bush Administration, Corporations, Employers, Wall Street, Exxon, SUV Owners, Methane-Leaking Cows, Taxpayers, Jon Voight, God-Fearing Bible Bangers, Plumbers and Hockey Moms.
First of all, we’re really into recycling, so all of our gifts are recycled this year too!
I can’t wait to see the look on Great Grandpa’s face when he unwraps my son’s Playstation 2! We didn’t want to contribute to the slaughter of our forests so we wrapped it in Saran Wrap.
A guy in the cube next to me says he read an email from an old girlfriend whose Mom’s boyfriend knows a lab assistant that said manufacturing new gifts releases more carbon trioxide into the environment which has created a massive tidal wave of Arctic runoff that is heading towards Florida and is going to come ashore next Wednesday.
So we did our part.
Not to worry, the kids won’t be disappointed! They’re all getting their own Starter Kits for Change! Wait ’till all their little friends see this!
…a super-cool, eco-friendly, gift that keeps on giving! Packed full of green goodies that include a recycled, reusable tote bag, and arbor day tree seedling or “tree in a box”, fair trade hot chocolate, a treeless journal, soduku booklet, compact fluorescent light bulb, gratitude cards, and an envelope to end hunger.
Fun! Yay!
Okay, so maybe we’re not going into another Great Depression. Maybe That 70’s Show offers us a better glimpse.
Actually, the year that offers the closest historical parallels to the present might be neither 1932 nor 1980 but 1976, and that analogy helps us understand the directions in which the country will be moving. Both in government and opposition, people might want to hold off on planning for the next New Deal, still less for a coming generation of liberal hegemony. In three or four years, the main political fact in this country could well be a ruinous crisis of Democratic liberalism.
The parallels are amusing if not cause for concern.
So disaffected was bicentennial America that it sought leaders unconnected to the establishment. In Jimmy Carter, voters found a candidate whose main qualifications were his lack of experience and connections within the Beltway or corporate worlds. Like Barack Obama, Carter claimed to rise above failed partisanship, while his New South background allowed him to symbolize racial healing. Carter, like Obama, sold himself mainly on the virtues of his character. He presented himself as a man of simple honesty, faith, and decency, and his lack of a track record allowed voters to see in him what they wanted, however far-fetched those hopes might be. If they hadn’t believed it, they wouldn’t have seen it with their own eyes. Above all, Carter promised change, a message that carried weight as long as its details remained nonspecific. The problem with messiahs from nowhere is that when they do exercise power, people discover to their horror what their leader’s actual views and talents are. The disillusion can be dreadful.
Gulp.
And as they did in 1976, Democrats now show every sign of repeating the blunders that led to a generation-long discrediting of liberalism.
Hee hee hee.
But if liberals seem so determined to repeat the mistakes of that era, then we have at least a plausible sketch of the coming Obama administration—of its rise and ruin.
Obama may have been right. They are the people we’ve been waiting for…
…to illustrate to those that weren’t paying attention: what happens when Liberals have the helm.
Minnesota is famous for being…well, cold.
Of course, as has been confirmed on this site many times in the past, Minnesotans are wusses about the weather – North Dakota is colder, and windier to boot.
But that’s not the chill I’m talking about, this time.
No, it’s free speech that’s freezing on Minnesota’s college campuses. The Young Americas Foundation (YAF) has compiled its annual Top Ten Abuses for the past year – and two of them take place within a mile of each other, at Saint Paul’s two up-market Catholic schools.
And the scary part is, the story doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Saint Thomas comes in at #2:
2. Transgendered activists in, pro-life speakers out. Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker because campus officials felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the school. The University’s mission statement claims it values “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.” Except, not really—or better yet, as long as the said “pursuit” doesn’t offend leftist predilections. Meanwhile, within the past year, the same school hosted Al Franken, the bombastic liberal comedian, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes God is a black lesbian. Realizing they had a public relations disaster on their hands, the head honchos at St. Thomas eventually reversed the ban on Star Parker.
Since it’s a “Worst of 2008” award, the YAF necessarily omits the larger historical context of oppression at St. Thomas during the reign of the school’s president, Father Dennis “Havana Denny” Dease.
Father Dease has blazed a frozen trail during his tour at St. Thomas – from forbidding students to assist Cuban baseball player Manuel Chaoui’s bid for freedom when he defected to the US on a trip to play the Tommies, to actively attacking the students that booked an appearance by Ann Coulter, to turning a blind eye to the vandalism directed against the campus’ conservative student newspaper. Some considered his (brief) banning for Bishop Desmond Tutu from campus a sign that he was an equal-opportunity oppressor; leaving aside the imbalance of the campus’ oppression, it’s fair to say that chilling one side’s freedom of speech chills everyone‘s. Even if they don’t know it yet.
St. Thomas sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River gorge at the intersection of East River Road and Summit Avenue is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country – unless you’re a conservative activist; for them, the campus is a windswept ideological gulag, as cold, barren and oppressive as Solzenitzyn’s Kolima.
Stroll south down Cleveland Avenue about half a mile to Randolph – the icy ideological tailwind will put purpose in your step. Hang a left. It takes you to the University of Saint Catherine:
10. Who knew? Universal health care is actually a non partisan issue. Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota—the nation’s largest Catholic women’s college—unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. College officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 2008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. Those same “concerns,” mind you, didn’t prohibit the school from sponsoring programs that push for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases or hosting Frank Kroncke, an anti-war radical who is reliving the Vietnam days. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan, according to St. Catherine’s administration.
Of course, the Twin Cities has other contenders for the Top Ten. Go east on Grand from St. Thomas (or north on Fairview from St. Kate’s) maybe half a mile, and you run into Macalester College, a Presbyterian-affiliated liberal (heh) arts school that richly earned a “Red” rating from FIRE for its stultifying-yet-capricious speech codes. Then, don your wooly (rastafarian?) cap and handmuffs to plod up Snelling a mile and a half to Hamline, which earned brickbats (or perhaps ice chunks) from FIRE for suspending student Troy Scheffler for advocating legal concealed carry on campus (for students that passed Minnesota’s permitting criteria, no less). I give ’em both a good shot at making the “top” ten before long.
And I’m so proud.
Twin Cities’ “liberal arts” campuses – where the icy winds of repression are always leaking up under your waistband.
Mr. Oprahma, the worst President in modern history is on line two and would like a word.
A Past President’s Advice to Obama: Act With Haste
Almost three decades later, Jimmy Carter recalls vividly what it was like trying to get Americans to turn down their thermostats and kick the oil habit.
“It was like gnawing on a rock,” the former president says.
…speaking from experience.
Now President-elect Barack Obama is heading to Washington with a set of energy goals as ambitious as Mr. Carter’s back in 1976. He promises to free the country from “the tyranny of foreign oil” and to save “our planet for our children.”
…so they can live to give…60% of their earnings to fill in the hole that you’ve dug for them.
He’s calling for a “spirit of service and sacrifice,” and promoting hybrid cars and wind and solar power.
Guys, guys. It’s the economy, stupids.
By the way, “That One”, a “spirit of service and sacrifice?”
Huh?
Is that what you call your proposed largest-ever ginormous government economic stimulus program?
Obama would be wise to spend his dwindling political capital on the economy. Four years won’t be long enough to get to what should be ninth or tenth on your “Things to Do If I Become The Messiah” list.
But Mr. Obama must now champion his $150 billion energy plans in the face of a sinking economy and oil prices that have fallen 70% since their record mid-summer high. Forces like these have killed at least four similar presidential efforts in the past. Already, falling energy prices and the credit crisis are laying waste to scores of alternative-energy projects, from huge wind farms in Texas to biodiesel plants in Mr. Carter’s home state of Georgia.
As it should be. Priorities being what they are.
Mr. Carter offers Mr. Obama this advice: Try to inspire Americans to see the virtue in making energy sacrifices, a notoriously tough sell, especially in the face of falling prices. Get energy legislation to Congress quickly, during the presidential honeymoon. And stick with it.
Don’t worry that people are losing jobs, retail is down double digits, the national debt clock in New York City to be pulled down for lack of digits and the auto industry – well never mind about them.
Speaking of sticking it, Mr. Carter…how’d that all work out for you?
“I think he can prevail if he does it early and with a great deal of dedication and enthusiasm — and with tenacity,” Mr. Carter says in an interview.
What out-of-work journalist sought to rejuvenate their career by interviewing Jimmuh?
Mr. Carter says he had a key advantage over Mr. Obama — a national sense that something had to be done: “The energy crisis that I inherited was in many ways much more serious than it is now.”
And yet he also failed. While you’re at it Mr. Former-Crappy-President, any stock tips?
Just two weeks into his presidency, Mr. Carter gave his famous “fireside chat” on energy. Clad in a yellow cardigan that now hangs in his presidential museum
…because no one else wanted it
Please pass the malaise…
Later, in his most politically costly address dubbed by critics the “malaise speech,” Mr. Carter announced a massive program to boost solar power and make synthetic fuel from coal. He vowed the U.S. would never again import more oil than it did in 1977.
…and a two-hour movie would soon fit on a small thin shiny disk. Oh, sorry. That actually did happen.
Mr. Carter concedes that his battles over energy policy cost him political support. “It sapped away a substantial portion of my domestic influence to harp on this unpleasant subject for four solid years,” he says.
Oh, well in that case, Mr. Oprahma should make great haste to heed this most sage advice of the wise and revered former President.
At 84 years old, Mr. Carter hasn’t lost his fascination for the subject that helped to define his presidency. Eight years ago, he planted 10 acres of paulownia trees on several fields around his house. Native to China, the trees are among the fastest growing in the world. His groves already stand more than 50 feet tall. He sent one of the trees this summer to a lab at the University of Georgia, where it was pulped and turned into ethanol.
…and he sits in a rocker on his porch, donning another yellow cardigan, sipping it.
…so that we can load it up with the most useless projects we can devise…but we’ll call them “Infrastructure,” and taxpayers will look the other way.
From a couple posts ago…
“We understand that we’ve got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilized. And that means that we can’t worry short term about the deficit. We’ve got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving,” he said.
Let’s dissect what Mr. Jimmy just said. We have to make sure to print and/or borrow so much money that the economy will have to get better?
Obama’s words rang out like a dog whistle for liberals everywhere.
And not surprisingly, the term “Infrastructure” gained a new, broader meaning.
On Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors went to Capitol Hill to ask for a handout, or as they put it: “We are reporting that in 427 cities of all sizes in all regions of the country, a total of 11,391 infrastructure projects (emphasis mine-JR) are ‘ready to go.’ These projects represent an infrastructure investment of $73,163,299,303 that would be capable of producing an estimated 847,641 jobs in 2009 and 2010.”
…it turns out $73 Billion is “capable” of producing 847,641 temporary jobs.
A wish list that is 11,391 projects strong! What vital infrastructure projects would cash-strapped taxpayers get for their $73 billion? Here’s a sampling:
– Hercules, Calif., wants $2.5 million in hard-earned taxpayer money for a “Waterfront Duck Pond Park,” and another $200,000 for a dog park.
– Euless, Texas, wants $15 million for the Midway Park Family Life Center, which, you’ll be glad to note, includes both a senior center and aquatic facility.
– Natchez, Miss., “needs” a new $9.5 million sports complex “which would allow our city to host major regional and national sports tournaments.”
– Henderson, Nev., is asking for $20 million to help “develop a 60 acre multi-use sports field complex.”
– Brigham City, Utah, wants $15 million for a sports park.
– Arlington, Texas, needs $4 million to expand its tennis center.
It’s a simple fact. Liberals can not be trusted with the nation’s checkbook. In a time of world financial crisis, their solution is to spend more taxpayer money on even more useless pork.
The government does have a role to play: stimulate the economy by creating incentives for growth, incentives that will be permanent, paid for by cutting government down to size. But liberals would entertain that notion. Liberals seek to justify and extend government largess, not reduce it to it’s rightful weight.
Instead of stimulating the economy, Barack Obama and his faithful liberal lunatics in Congress aspire to become the economy.
The Occupier of the Office of The President-Elect Barry Oprah reveals his National Suckurity Team, which of course includes Mrs. Bill Clinton, a fervent rival who roundly criticized The President-Defect during the primaries, but now: BFF!
Mr. Obama essentially said Americans should not take too seriously some of the things said during “the heat of a campaign.”
Really, Mr. Oprah, sir? It will be quite interesting to see just exactly how far you get with that ticket once you step into the Oval Office and find out how utterly unprepared you are for the job (and that it’s a smoke-free workplace), and start doing the math on all the promises you made to win the White House for the people who’d been waiting for you to be the people for whom they were waiting.
Some examples I think you’ll have an unfunny challenge with:
Just put the budget up on a teleprompter. He won’t Change anything, but at least some of us will feel better about it.
2008 Grants Recipients Artist Initiative
Media arts
Number of grants: 12
Total dollars granted: $59,000
Mauricio Arango, Saint Paul
$5,000 — to produce a video essay dealing with the lives of the inhabitants of the town of San Jose de Apartado in northern Colombia…so I don’t have to get a job.
Peter B. Becker Nelson, Minneapolis
$6,000 — to purchase video equipment and create a new video work that explores themes of relationships, empathy, sexuality, and gender…so I don’t have to get a job.
Paul R. Danhauser, Minneapolis
$5,200 — for a two-dimensional animated short film called “Bitter and Crabby” that deals with cute cartoon characters who are confronted by real-world morality…so I don’t have to get a job.
Amber Ellison Walker, Minneapolis
$2,000 — to increase the post-production quality of her video work and the overall quality of her publicity materials, and to have her work seen by a broader audience…so she doesn’t have to get a job.
Timothy A. Fort, Inver Grove Heights
$6,000 — for the creation of a professional broadcast-quality video of his kinetic art for Internet and television distribution…so he doesn’t have to get a job.
Nathaniel H. Freeman, Minneapolis
$6,000 — for a sixteen-stage video installation that shows the opening scene of sixteen imagined narratives, all informed by the people and events of his northeast Minneapolis neighborhood…so they don’t have to get a job.
Heather R. Johnson, Minneapolis
$5,000 — for a documentary film, titled, “No Ugly Trees,” that explores women’s body and self-esteem issues…so I don’t have to get a job.
Daniel J. Lundquist, Bloomington
$5,000 — for creative time to finish hand coloring “Boris,” an animation about overcoming difficult circumstances to live a happy life…so I don’t have to get a job.
Kevin S. McKeever, Saint Paul
$800 — to produce duplicates of his documentary that examines one man’s success in helping inner-city youths rise above crime and violence, prepare and produce related publicity packets, and submit the film to festivals…so he doesn’t have to get a job.
Pamela Nice, Saint Paul
$6,000 — for funds to help film interviews in Twin Cities coffeehouses for her next documentary, “Desert in the Coffeehouse,” a film that asks what Minnesotans know about Arab and Muslim lives…so I don’t have to get a job in a coffeehouse.
James M. Vogel, Minneapolis
$6,000 — for funds to film an observational documentary about drug abuse…so I don’t have to get a job and actually pass a drug test.
Rosemary T. Williams, Saint Paul
$6,000 — to film the documentary “Futures,” which will document open call trading at the last few North American exchanges that have not switched to digital trading…so I don’t have to get an analog job in a digital world.
The cause of our current financial system crisis, overarching government meddling and regulation, set in place by liberals, bolstered by the Clinton Administration and allowed to remain during the Bush Administration is not going away any time soon.
The Community Reinvestment Act is to blame for the financial crisis, but it so powerfully serves Democrats’ interests that they’ll do anything to protect it — including revising history.
But powerful Democrats in Washington want to protect the act — along with Fannie and Freddie — and spin the subprime scandal as the result of too little regulation, not too much.
“Repealing or weakening the CRA would be a mistake,” warns Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who argues that the CRA should be strengthened.
Dodd, the top recipient of Fannie donations and himself a beneficiary of a sweetheart mortgage brokered by a subprime lender, recently invited one of Clinton’s top enforcers of the CRA to testify.
Read the whole article for the facts.
Liberal Democrats caused this crisis, Liberal Republicans allowed it to remain, and the American people rewarded them by voting in an ever larger number of liberal politicians without the tools or the wherewithal to bring us out of this crisis. As usual, those that are responsible, productive and truly conservative will pay the price, and ultimately come to the rescue of our economy.
As we’ve seen in California since the election, the only really acceptable form of discrimination is against blasphemers against PC – in this case, Christians in the Castro District in San Francisco:
At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like “haters” and “bigots”. Since it was a long night, I can’t even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us. Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us. Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually. Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said “Hey, that’s not yours, can you please give it back?”. He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said “No, tell him I forgive him.”
They got video.
I fully expect to see a proposal to make fundamentalist objection to the gay lifestyle declared a hate crime in the next four years.
I’ve often thought Denny Hecker’s empire was built on sand these past few years as he levered his automotive empire, already a survivor of one financial crisis into the Real Estate and Mortgage markets.
…talk about bad timing.
And now this…
Denny Hecker sues Chrysler’s financial arm
The ubiquitous auto dealer also is expected to file for bankruptcy for some of his businesses as soon as today.
Minnesota auto dealer Denny Hecker filed a federal lawsuit this morning against its longtime partner Chrysler Financial Services for allegedly acting in bad faith after it froze Hecker’s credit lines, affecting his rental car business, fleet sales business and 13 Hecker dealerships including one in California.
If you will allow me to ramble, consider the cascade effect manifested here.
Corrupt (and Liberal) officials at ACORN, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae simultaneously crash the markets for Credit, Homes and Equities. Congress and the Unions slowly bleed the domestic automotive industry to death.
As a result, a local billionaire goes bankrupt, likely taking local jobs and investment with him.
Thank you liberals. Your evil plan is coming together. I can’t wait to see your solution. Lemme guess: it will involve more of the same. Higher taxes, bigger government, more regulation.
The backlash that will be the Conservative Revolution can’t come quick enough.
No need. We just became Canada.
The line forms here.
Am I a sore loser? Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.
The Big Stink captures the essence for me…
Last night does not mean that my side is wrong – we were merely outnumbered. …I’m going to be much more selective about whom I fight alongside in the future. The old allies of “moderate” conservatives, I believe, led us to this dead end. I no longer have a stomach for them. They can pack sand. If the party wants me to hitch my wagon to anything less than a Palin/Reagan conservative – get lost. I’d rather go down in flames with my principles intact than ally myself with a bunch of rodents who believe conservatism means destroying just a few less liberties than liberalism.
As for me, I am going to work hard as always; not look to the government to solve my problems or pay my mortgage. I am going to enjoy watching Obama’s minions try to cash in the lottery tickets he’s given them, rhetorically speaking. You promised Obammy! -er, I mean Mr. President, sir.
Ah, the perils of high expectations.
Today begins the campaign of ’12.
Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it. Joe drives to Obama’s house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it’s clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.
Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it’s an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.
Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.
Joe immediately says, “$9,500.”
“$9,500?” Obama asks, stunned. “But you said it’s an easy repair!”
“Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free,” explains Joe. “It’s always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It’s known as ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.’ Surprised you haven’t heard of it, Senator.”
In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.
Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe’s price, Obama does nothing.
The leak under Obama’s sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.
A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there’s a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.
Joe goes back to Obama’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says “Let’s see – this will cost you about $21,000.”
“A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!” Obama quickly fires back.
Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. “Well, because of the ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act,’ a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I’m doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.
“Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they’re not being replaced – nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won’t make any money. I’m hurting now too – all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t pay their fair share.”
Obama tries to straighten out the plumber : “Of course you’re hurting, Joe! Don’t you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you’ll be broke, and then what will you do?”
Joe immediately replies, “Run for president, apparently.”
HT “Uncle Dave”
I’m not sure what to think of Senator “Chuckles” Schumer’s take on the return of the “Fairness” Doctrine.
Three possibilities present themselves:
Read this and then you be the judge:
Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, Schumer used the fair and balanced line, claiming that critics of the Fairness Doctrine are being inconsistent.
“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”
There’s a vote for #1; if he thinks political speech is in the same weight class as pornography, he’s clearly been hanging out with Barney Frank and Al Franken too long.
In 2007, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told The Hill, “It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”
There’s a vote for #1 and #2: Americans can hear dozens of sides to every story, 24/7. There is no shortage of free speech in this country.
Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) last year said, “I believe very strongly that the airwaves are public and people use these airwaves for profit. But there is a responsibility to see that both sides and not just one side of the big public questions of debate of the day are aired and are aired with some modicum of fairness.”
Another vote for both. “Fairness” comes from having the ability to get your point out there. Nothing prevents the left from being heard in (it’s absurd that I have to even mention this) the media.
He also defended “card check” legislation [saying] “there has to be some counter” to the leverage businesses have, claiming “employers have every leg up on people who want to organize and that’s why union workers have gone down from about 25 percent to 6 percent [in the private sector].”
There’s a vote for #1, because nobody could be stupid enough to think that a private ballot benefits business any more than it harms unions.
So that’s four votes for “Schumer is an idiot”, and two for “He thinks everyone else is an idiot”.
As long as Chuckles Schumer sits in office, no New Yorker has any reason to feel superior to any toothless, Klan-voting yokel from Alabama.
In political scandals, it’s not so much the crime as it is the cover-up.
There’s more to Ohio’s Democrat establishment’s outing of Joe the Plumber’s personal data than the official denials would have you believe, according to my radio partner Ed Morrissey:
What’s becoming apparent is that Ohio officials have something to hide. The records-check request came from an assistant deputy director for child support. When the story went public, the deputy director “literally demanded” Niekamp write the e-mail that would get them off the hook. The agency’s leadership engaged in a cover-up — and that strongly implies that a crime got committed.
Niekamp told the Dispatch that she’s seen people get fired for unauthorized records checks, and that she herself fired one employee for the violation of public trust. This has gone beyond just a mere firing. It now looks as though Helen Jones-Kelley’s staff engaged in an attempt to obstruct justice, and Jones-Kelley’s lie about the Famous People Records Check appears to be part of it.
Go read the whole thing – before the act of reading the whole thing sets Mark Ritchie to releasing your personal data to the Strib.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Progressive Tyranny category.
