Althouse defends her Obama vote. Commenters rip her apart.

Ann Althouse attempts defending her Obama vote again.

She's seen the light, but, at what cost to the country.

As for me, I appreciate that Obama/Pelosi/Reid are putting Marxism/Statism into stark relief for us.  2010 is our turn to set this straight.

Read the comments at Ann's blog.  Good stuff.

Tea Party? Lunatics? Liberal Sub blogger misses again.

Ouch, Rob thinks he's on to something.  Another big miss, though.

This time, it's a typical Liberal fantasy about the "Tea Party."  The Left, you see, wants there to be a 3rd party comprised of Tea Partiers.  They want it so bad, they will invent one.  Of course, the Tea Party is a movement, and out of some movements come 3rd parties, but, that hasn't happened yet in this case.  I hope it doesn't happen, because the things the Tea Partiers stand for - smaller government, fiscal responsibility,  lower taxes, elimination of earmarks, among other things - are things the GOP used to stand for.

Of course, Rob could have read the Contract From America, a document culled together by several Tea Party organizations, and he would have found, contrary to the "conservative social views of the Tea Party" that he abhors so much, there is little social policy in that Contract.  In fact, it is:

1. Protect the Constitution - Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
2. Reject Cap & Trade - Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.
3. Demand a Balanced Budget - Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.
4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform - Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words—the length of the original Constitution.
5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington - Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning.
6. End Runaway Government Spending - Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. 
7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care - Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries.
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy - Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs.
9. Stop the Pork - Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. 
10. Stop the Tax Hikes - Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011.

Hmmmm, don't see anything that really smacks of social policy (with perhaps the exception of the repeal of Obamacare).  But, the Left wants to make the Tea Party movement seem a social conservative movement, when it is not.  Hell, the GOP has largely been carrying social conservatives water for 30 years, it's the fiscal conservatives who have been abused by the party..

Rob takes another cheap shot at Sarah Palin (unqualified, despite being more qualified than Obama), Joe the Plumber (unlicensed and financially strapped - hey - I thought Liberals were the champions of the Little Guy?), Rand Paul (a flaming bigot - expect that meme from Liberals for the next 5 months), and some kook from North Carolina who got into a run-off in the GOP primary.  This from the party that sent Alan Grayson, Hank Johnson, Cynthia McKinney, and William Jefferson to Congress (among others).

But, Rob goes on:

"There is a large undercurrent of bigotry and unthinking anti-government sentiment. Unthinking? Look at all the wild misconceptions and outright falsehoods propagated by the Tea Party over the health care bill. Most of their beliefs and statements about it were simply lies. Look at the repeated examples of bigotry and tacit racism in the Tea Party. Look at the signs they carry at rallies."

Bigotry?  This is outright slander.  When members of the Congressional Black Caucus decided to take a photo-op walk through a Capital Hill Tea Party rally, they were attempting to goad the protesters into making racist statements, and, when they didn't, they lied and said they had heard racial epithets at least 15 times.  Despite the multitude of cameras present, and one Congressman filming it on his cell phone,  NO ONE has taken Andrew Breitbart up on his $10k offer (to the UNCF) to produce video of any racial slurs being hurled.  NO ONE.  Why? Because it didn't happen.

Lies about the health care bill?  Ok, get specific Rob.  No one really needs to LIE about the health care bill to prove how bad it is.  How about this - AT&T takes a $1B charge due to tax changes in the bill, others take smaller charges.  Or, how about this, from my mother-in-law's doctor to her:

"We regret to inform you that due to significant reimbursement decreases and endless regulations, effective July 1, 2010, we will no longer be a participating provider for Medicare."

That's your "doc fix" at work.  Was that a lie?

Oh, and those signs.  That would have been easy to put a link to some of those HORRIBLE signs.  But, he didn't.  How about these signs?  Pretty respectful stuff, eh?   I guess if you're an anti-semitic, America-hater, they are ok. BTW, Zombietime has plenty more of them.

Rand Paul is certainly going to pose challenges for the Tea Party movement who got behind him, and mostly, it's because he's got a Libertarian streak and isn't a seasoned campaigner.  Everyone in politics knows that you don't argue against the Civil Rights Act, even if parts of it go against your Libertarian beliefs.  So, stupid move.  As for BP, what he said was:

"What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I've heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it's part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it's always got to be someone's fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen."

He wasn't attacking those who want to hold BP accountable, he was attacking those who's first reaction is always to blame business (i.e. socialists).  Anyway, I think it's plenty American to attack a foreign company, so give one to Obama here.  Exxon wouldn't have done this.

 

Random Wednesday

Some random thoughts for the mid-week:

• Jason Heyward is going to be amazing.  If only the Braves could build a supporting cast around him.  
• Are Japanese pitchers all we thought they'd be?
• Kawakami: (Despite a good start tonight) - ERA=5.79; WHIP=1.473; 0-6 record
• Saito (made up for KK's goodness tonight with crappiness; stats don't include tonight's 3ER in .1 inning disaster)) - ERA=2.12; WHIP=.882 
• Matsuzaka - ERA=7.89; WHIP=1.523
• Okajima - ERA=5.27; WHIP=1.756
• Kuroda - ERA=2.87; WHIP=1.275, 5-1 record (an exception!)
• Takahashi - ERA=3.12; WHIP=1.385 (decent)
• CT Senate candidate and AG Blumenthal's latest story, he told the truth about his Vietnam service before he lied about it.  Oh, and I think Ann Coulter just endorsed Rob Simmons in that one.
• Primary night - rough for incumbents.  The only sad part: Dem pretending to be Republican retains lying, corrupt (and quite dead) Murtha seat, AND, Pat Toomey will not have the pleasure of sending Arlen Specter to political punditry.  Senator Rand Paul?  That will be priceless.
• L.A. threatens to boycott Arizona.  Arizona threatens to turn off California's power.  Two states at war?  Where does this lead?  I side with Arizona.  Perhaps AZ can turn back the refugees from California at its border, too.
• Proving the value of submarines, the South Koreans lay the blame for the loss of a patrol craft at the hands of a PDRK submarine.  Of course this violates the Korean Armistice terms.  Will we return to war over it?  Will the South Koreans?  As usual, the uniformed get involved (Bubblehead refers to them).
• My mother-in-law has been informed by one of her doctors that he will no longer take Medicare patients, unless she agrees to supplement the payments.  The ink is barely dry, and we've barely had time to learn all the good things in Obamacare Nancy Pelosi promised us, yet, has the exodus of doctors from Medicare already begun?
  
• SPOILER ALERT BELOW THE FOLD:

Palin calls out O-fficials for slamming Az to Chicoms

Sarah Palin posts on her Facebook page (one good reason to join), regarding the Arizona law.  I'll just echo Palin, it would be nice if Obama admin officials would actually READ the law before telling the Chinese how awful one of the 57 states is...

From Palin:

On Fox News this morning, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley became the third Obama administration official in short succession to admit that he hadn’t actually bothered to read Arizona’s 10-page long “secure the border” bill before condemning it and criticizing Americans who support Arizona’s necessary efforts to do the job the Obama Administration should be doing. Crowley’s statement follows similar admissions from Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

At first blush this revelation seemed unbelievable, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. This now seems “the Washington way” of doing things. If the party in power tells us they have to pass bills in order to find out what’s actually in them, they can also criticize bills (and divide the country with ensuing rhetoric) without actually reading them.

Still I can’t help but feel outraged on behalf of Arizona’s citizens for the incompetence shown by these Administration officials. Arizonans have the courage to do what the Obama administration has failed to do in its first year and a half in office - namely secure our border and enforce our federal laws. And as a result, Arizonans have been subjected to a campaign of baseless accusations by the same people who freely admit they haven’t a clue about what they’re actually campaigning against.

The absolute low point of this campaign came last Friday, when a U.S. State Department delegation met with Chinese negotiators to discuss human rights. Apparently, our State Department felt it necessary to make their Chinese guests feel less bad about their own record of human rights abuses by repeatedly atoning for American “sins” - including, it seems, the Arizona immigration/pro-border security law. Asked if Arizona came up at all during the meeting, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner answered:

“We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.”

Note that he said “We brought it up” - not the Chinese, but the U.S. State Department’s own delegation. Instead of grilling the Chinese about their appalling record on human rights, the State Department continued the unbelievable apology tour by raising “early and often” Arizona’s decision to secure our border.

Arizona’s law, which just mirrors the federal law, simply allows the police to ask those whom they have already stopped for some form of identification like a driver’s license. By what absurd stretch of the imagination is that the moral equivalent of China’s lack of freedoms, population controls (including forced abortions), censorship, and arbitrary detentions?

Surely our U.S. Ambassador to China, John Huntsman, must disagree with the Obama Administration’s continued apology tour? We have nothing to apologize for. If Administration officials want to apologize to anyone, apologize to the American people for the fact that after a year and a half in office, they still haven’t done anything to secure our borders, and they join our President in making false suggestions about Arizona’s effort.

GOP offers YOU the choice of what to cut from the budget...

The GOP House Whip, Eric Cantor, today announced a new web site, YouCut, where each week, you can vote from a group of choices which program you would like to see cut from the federal budget, and the House GOP will call for an up or down vote on that spending cut.

Like Democrats will let that happen.

Anyway, get in on the act here.

National Security and Obama Administration...Not so much...

First off, Juan Williams must be tying himself up in knots defending the Obama administration and taking on the Tea Party movement.

Beyond that, John Brennan (you may remember him, he's the incompetent behind the Bam admin's anti-terror strategy) was on FNS this morning, and, his mere presence reminds why this administration is dangerous when it comes to prosecuting the War on Terror (oops!).

1. Brennan seems to think that it's ok that the administration has failed 4 times to stop domestic terror attacks in just the last year (Arkansas shooting, Fort Hood, Christmas Day, Times Square).  While I agree as a practical matter it is nearly impossible to stop all these efforts, but, that should not be stated so clearly by those in charge.
2. He doesn't think Christmas Day and Times Square were lucky breaks for us.
3. He still seems to think reading people Miranda rights is more important than capturing information
4. He defends the Obama administration's propensity to attribute these attacks to nutcases, acting "alone," despite all evidence eventually being to the contrary. In fact, this morning on This Week,  the administration has admitted the link of the Times Square bomber to Pakistani Taliban.
5. He defends the AG's refusal to say KSM will not be tried in NYC.

We have been lucky in a couple of these cases.  Relying on the incompetence of the terrorists is not (as Lynn Cheney says) an effective counter-terrorism strategy.  We need this administration to man up and be serious about the threat that faces this nation.

Arizona - is it wrong, even if it's right?

Jonah Goldberg posits, "Is the Arizona immigration law still wrong, even if it works?"

Along the way, Goldberg gives us something to think about.  Why is racial profiling ok when it's used for college admissions, yet, when it may be a component of law enforcement, it is somehow wrong?  There is no doubt that the vast, vast, vast majority of illegal aliens in Arizona (and California, and New Mexico, and Texas, and even Georgia, for that matter) are Hispanic, and likely from Mexico.  Yes, they are going to be disproportionately challenged.  They are disproportionately breaking the law.

President Obama incorrectly says a Hispanic family going to an ice cream shop could be harassed and asked for their "papers" under the law, but, even if they were (they can't under the law, as it requires some violation occur beforehand), what would be the upshot?

Well, they would produce their identification, just as any other American would.  We'd whip out our driver's license, our military ID, our Kroger Plus card, or whatever, and we'd be on our way.  We'd complain and move on.  An annoying inconvenience.  That's all.

Now, inasmuch as Americans hate (and our Constitution prohibits) illegal search and seizure, this will not happen under the Arizona law, or any other, since it does require a previous infraction.  To all those who want to say that this law is somehow discriminatory to Hispanics, the Reno Gazette Journal has published the entire text of the law with amendments.  I challenge you to read it and tell me what is racist or discriminatory in it.

Those charges are false and they are leveled purely for political purposes by Liberals and opportunistic Democrats.  The Dems care only about turning illegals into Obama voters in 2012 and enslaving Hispanics, much as they have created a Dem plantation for blacks.

Praiseworthy Businesses

For some time I have been meaning to give some deserved praise to businesses we've used recently.  So here goes a quick run down.  First the national people...

• Lowes - after the set we bought proved to be a POS, Lowe's stepped up and let us choose any washer and dryer we wanted, at their expense.  I'll add that our local Lowes store was great to work with, too.  I know I have some family closely connected to Home Depot, and they are our local Atlanta store, but we don't shop anywhere other than Lowes.
• Nissan - while Nissan issued a recall for 2006 and 2008 Pathfinders, they also stepped up and paid for the repair for my 2005 model for the same issue.  However, this praise is muted, since I think they'll eventually recall this model, too.  Furing my research of this issue, I found Edmunds web site very useful.  If you're having a car issue, check out their forums.  Also, the NHTSA safercar.gov site is useful, too.
• Netflix - if you use Netflix, you know what I mean.  If not, you should try the free trials they offer.  Since brick and mortar Blockbuster will soon be kaput, better get used to getting your videos this way.  Curious those of you who use the Red Boxes, what you think of them?

And, a few local businesses:

• Ridgeway Mechanical - I used Service Magic to bid out the replacement of my hot water heater.  I highly recommend you use Service Magic for your jobs like this.  All 3 bids were professional and competitive, but Ridgeway had awesome ratings on kudzu.com and pledged to meet anyone else's bid.  They did and I saved. 
• Horvath Heating and Air - We have used Horvath for years to service our air conditioning.  He's honest, on-time, and reasonably priced.  This time, we have finally decided instead of just recharging our dying a/c, to replace 2 evaporator coils.  Now, we are not completing this work til this Friday (they're very busy), so I'll withhold total judgement, but, I know I am getting a good price and someone I can contact if I have problems.
• Unnamed contractor - As we sit today, we have another highly recommended contractor painting the exterior, replacing our gutters, repairing our porch, ripping down wallpaper, retiling and repairing a shower, repairing a ceiling, and repairing a chimney.  Since they're still working, we'll reserve judgement on them.  So far, so good, and when they're done, I'll reveal the company.
• Wayne's Automotive - My '97 Grand Cherokee was in a fender bender that caused more damage than the car is worth, had I let a normal repair shop handle it.  But, Wayne's guys understood what I wanted done on what's basically the family work truck, and gave me an unbelievable estimate and they fixed a stuck hatch for nothing.  We've had them do work on our Pathfinder, too, and have not been dissatisfied yet.  Probably won't ever be.  Plus, they're about the friendliest people in the world. If you live in Alpharetta or Suwanee, don't take your car anywhere else, for any service.

Immigration Danger for Leftists: Giving Tea Partiers Something Else to Be Fired Up About

The government-run media this weekend were all a-twitter over the large numbers of "protestors" coming out against Arizona's enforcement of existing Federal immigration laws at the state level.

They may think this is good politics, and, in light of the alternatives for them, it probably is as good as it gets.  But, let me remind the pro-amnesty Left, the last time we saw large numbers of these kinds of protests, an immigration bill supported by George W. Bush, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and most Democrats, went down in flames.  Why, because those opposed are much more vocal, law-abiding, outnumber the amnesty crowd, and vote.  Finally, because W supported amnesty, and many senate republicans did as well, it was really the start, in my opinion, of the downfall of George W. Bush and the Republican party, leading directly to these voters disaffection with the GOP.  So, the lesson for the GOP is - amnesty is a losing proposition.  Don't go there.  Law and order is a winning proposition.  Enforcing the existing laws is a winning proposition. National security wins. 

As for the Dems, in the current political climate, they are treading on dangerous ground here.  Everyone knows the Dems are pro-amnesty.  Everyone knows it has nothing to do with Civil Rights, it's all about political calculus.  Dems want and covet these voters.  They want to enslave Latino's just as they have blacks for 30 years.  They want to keep them down and dependent on the Liberal's endless government teat.  And that's all it is for Democrats.

My fear this election cycle is that the Tea Partiers will lose steam and limp across the finish line, and the GOP would barely challenge for control of the House and not even challenge for the Senate.

However, with this latest immigration brouhaha, in the afterglow of Obamacare passing, and two years removed from the shock of Porkulus and TARP and Bailouts, now those nasty racists rednecks known as Tea Partiers will latch onto something that continues to fire them up, and that will be immigration.

Six months out of the election, and Obama continues to pursue unpopular legislation - immigration "reform" and cap and tax.  He's passed pretty much nothing but unpopular legislation. 

What is this guy doing?

Heather McDonald on AZ Law. And LI on Nazis...

City Journal's Heather McDonald, unlike the New York Times, and 95% of the Liberals in this country, has actually read the Arizona immigration enforcement law.

As she says,

"The Arizona law is not about race; it’s not an attack on Latinos or legal immigrants. It’s about one thing and one thing only: making immigration enforcement a reality. It is time for a national debate: Do we or don’t we want to enforce the country’s immigration laws? If the answer is yes, the Arizona law is a necessary and lawful tool for doing so. If the answer is no, we should end the charade of inadequate, half-hearted enforcement, enact an amnesty now, and remove future penalties for immigration violations."

H/T to Legal Insurrection, who provides this:

"Illegal immigration is illegal and will be treated as illegal, and the laws setting forth that illegality will be implemented in accordance with longstanding practices for determining citizenship and immigration status based on a constitutionally acceptable "reasonable suspicion" test.


"A law which was not extraordinary, except to the extent that it signaled an intention to take the immigration laws seriously, was met with a crescendo of accusations of racism and Nazism (with a dash of communism and Apartheidism thrown in to spice things up a bit)."

As with all things Liberals don't like, if YOU like it, you're a Nazi.

More on Arizona. Read Aloha Dump's post.

I love Aloha Dump. He has a great post on the Arizona law.  Read it.

Money shot:

"Obama has stopped kissing the asses of our enemies and begging them to friend him on his Facebook page to weigh in on the AZ immigration law; his teleprompter minions are checking on the legality of such a law. People are calling for boycotts to AZ tourism, the Diamondbacks and products and services from AZ based companies [and I will add, New York made Arizona brand Iced Tea]. Futile, irrelevant and symbolism-over-substance gestures that will have no affect on anything except the warped conscience of the Americans who have lost sight of their fellow countrymen who are desperately trying to live their own American dream without the fear of losing it to people who enter this country illegally."

Immigration. Arizona is right, and they know it.

Tonight on the (Nobody's Watching) CBS News, they followed an illegal immigrant and his citizen "partner" as they complained about the new Arizona enforcement law and participated in a protest in Arizona.  Of course, CBS pretty easily found this 4 year illegal, and refused to film his face, since he's now scared that if he's discovered, Arizona might actually enforce the law and send him back to Mexico.

His "partner" is packing their things. I guess so they can make a quick getaway, or maybe they're planning on moving from Arizona to a state that cares less about our immigration laws. Like broke California?

So, what are we to make of the Arizona law? The Left wants everyone to think this is just a bunch of racists white guys who want to see darker-skinned people thrown out of the country.

The reality is that this is much less nefarious, but about as simple. You see, we have laws in this country that dictate how one enters the country and ultimately becomes a citizen. Those laws need to be enforced, and we need to have a REAL, HONEST debate about legal immigration - how many people we will allow in the country, what we need them to be able to do, and how we will put them on a path to citizenship. Unfortunately, the Left sees illegal immigration as the fastest path to add millions more to the lower, indebted-to-Liberals class, and ultimately turn them into Democrat voters.  It's all about power with Liberals.

The Conservative, on the other hand, sees immigration much more pragmatically. We're able to argue intellectually that in an age where the average white American family has settled into a birthrate less than 2 kids/household, that the only way to keep the country growing is to accept some level of immigration. The question then becomes, how many, from where, and what skill sets do we want from our immigrant population?

I have argued here, and it is still true, that Latinos, particularly those crossing from Mexico are, on the whole, law-abiding, hard-working, and religous (90% Catholic) people, who I think ultimately will be a net plus for the country, but...

The numbers must be carefully controlled. Why?

1. We need controlled and orderly immigration.  Let's debate the numbers, but let's stick to them when we agree.  Let's agree that assimilation into our American culture, learning the language, learning the nation's history, and understanding our unique position in the world, are critical to American citizenship.
2. We need to ensure that we're not letting so many immigrants into the country that they don't negatively impact American's job chances and choices.  I am not one who believes that Mexican immigrants only take jobs that Americans won't do.  It hasn't been THAT long ago that the home construction industry was dominated by Americans.  Those are generally good paying jobs that lead to greater skills and capabilities.  They are the kinds of jobs that high school graduates, both black and white, would excel at, and should be looking for.
3. We need to carefully consider the skills we need.  If Obamacare sticks around, we are seriously going to need more doctors, especially general practitioners.  Guess what, these aren't coming from Mexico.  Since we seem to be in decline in the number of American-trained doctors, the next best source is going to remain India and eastern nations.  My answer, we need to increase immigration of those specific skill sets - no matter where they are from.
4. We need to ensure that we are not allowing immigrants into the country who are net drains on our economy.  This is going to require tough choices and it's going to require saying "no" to a lot of immigrants.  It's going to require changes in policies that favor family unification, and perhaps even to changes in our treatment of children of immigrants.  What the country could withstand when it was a thriving free-market economy, is much different from what can be sustained during the march to socialism and the generous distribution of government benefits.
5. We need American blacks to wake up and realize the largest group under attack from illegal immigration are them.  With black unemployment at the 25-30% level, this community seriously must reconsider their devotion to liberal immigration policies.  Because black leaders so long ago sold their souls to Dems, this most conservative of groups needs to re-evaluate their position on this issue.
6. We need blue collar workers, including unionized ones, to stand up for American workers in those industries that most employ illegals - construction, landscaping, food service, agriculture.  Unions seem to accept the fact that these low-skill industries aren't worth their efforts and they have ceded that turf, in the interest of increased power from what they believe will be a reliable voting block.  Why?  Stupidity, I guess.
7. We must address the national security implications of a porous border.  And, let's not lie and act like the Canadian border is as porous as the Southern one.  It is not.  The drug trade primarly comes from the south, and, since that's an industry ripe with lifelong criminals skilled in human and drug smuggling, they are the ones who terrorists will call upon to assist them in getting through the border. 

So, the state of Arizona, in light of the refusal of the Federal government to act, has decided to take enforcement of our immigration laws seriously, and attempt to assist the Feds.  The people of Arizona, and nationally, largely support this.  It's not about race, it's not about hatred.  It's about reality.

Obama recovery compared

Coming out of recessions, here are recent recovery GDP growth rates by qtr:

Reagan: 5.1%, 9.3%, 8.1%, 8.5%

Obama's: 2.2%, 5.6%, 3.2%

Doesn't seem so hot after all, does it?

November 2010 is coming. Check out these ads

From RememberNovember.com, check out this great ad:



From the San Antonio Tea Party, via Moonbattery:

Lack of posting...YOU get more Steyn. And, you get to keep your head (for now!)

I haven't posted in a while. So sorry.

Anyway, lots going on here.  I finally have blooms on my Irises.  They grew so big I need tomato stakes to hold them up.

The rest of the garden is doing nicely, and my Grand Cherokee is repaired and now the hatch can be opened again! Meaning...more garden items can be brought home.

Anyway, back to politics.

Mark Steyn compares Bill Clinton's demonization of Tea Partiers to the treatment the "edgy and hip" Cartoon Network gave to the South Park episode lampooning (somewhat) Mohammed (you know, the guy the Islamofacscists all say we can't lampoon, or do much else negative about, without fear of losing, well, you know, our minds...via beheading).

At any rate, Wild Bill took to the airwaves this week to remind everyone that those nasty granma's hanging out at those wild and crazy riots otherwise known as Tea Party rallies, are not only mind-numbed homophobic, seditious, racists, but also (dramatic drumroll)..... terrorists!  Of the Tim McVeigh variety.

As Steyn points out, "they’ve got everything in common. They both want to reduce the size of government, the late Mr. McVeigh through the use of fertilizer bombs, the tea partiers through control of federal spending."

At least the Democrats have their national security priorities in place.  As Steyn says, "Don’t worry about Iran’s nuclear program, but if you meet a tea-party supporter waving some placard about the national debt, try not to catch his eye and back away slowly without making any sudden movements, lest he put down his placard and light up his suicide belt."

Turning his attention to the Comedy Central/South Park incident, Steyn takes us through the "courage" of the Left.  Read the whole thing, but, the courage of the Left boils down to this,

"In the end, Comedy Central has incentivized Islamic violence and nothing much else. Nevertheless, we should be grateful to its jelly-spined executives for reminding us that the cardboard heroes of the American media are your go-to guys for standing up to entirely fictitious threats. But for real ones? Not so much."




If the Left wasn't around for sad comic relief, we'd have to invent them.

Buh Bye, NASA

President Obama has dashed the dreams of young boys and girls across the United States, killed good engineering and spacecraft operations jobs, turned manned spaceflight over to the Russians and Chinese, and, yes, broken another campaign promise.

53 years after Sputnik and 41 after Apollo 11, seeing nothing really left for us to do, Obama decides to punt.

As Neil Armstrong (and others) put it in a strongly-worded letter to Obama:
"Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity.”
Robert Costa, in National Review Online relates, Resign Yourself, NASA

Dems to lose 100 House seats in 2010? Don't be surprised.

I think I told someone this weekend I wouldn't be surprised to see Dems lose 80 seats in the House this year and 10 in the Senate. The President is hugely unpopular and the Democrat brand has been seriously tarnished by Obama and his socializing cretins, PelosiReid.

Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics sees a massive loss ahead for Dems. And he explains why.

You read and either cry or rejoice:

How Bad Could 2010 Really Get For Democrats?

Bam in free fall

Now that the American people are learning about Obamacare, they like it less and less.

The latest polls have Obama's job approval at a Bush-like 43%.  Obamacare is 7% less popular than when it passed (from 48% to 41%).  Jobs are not coming back.  And, while the economy in general looks ok, the mountain of debt is starting even now to have implications for the country that will last for a long, long, time.

Obama runs off to sign an arms control treaty with Russia that will do little as he announces a major change in US nuclear policy.  A foolish, amost child-like change that assumes other nations play by the same rules as us.  You would think a follower of the Alinsky method would understand this.

Obama lowers himself to arguing with Sarah Palin.  Bart Stupak reads the tea leaves and decides to give the Dems a chance to keep his seat. 

To make things worse, John Paul Stevens retires from the Supreme Court, giving Obama a chance to appoint an ultra-liberal to succeed him, while he still has a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  This is not the national debate Obama wants to have as we head into the 2010 election season.  He does not want the debate to focus on his radical liberalism and creeping socialism, and a SC nominee who promises to use the power of the courts to force that on us, is not the debate Obama wants to have now.

So, the winds are blowing the GOP's way right now.  Dick Morris is predicting the R's will take 40-50 seats and take back the House.  I think it's possible that the GOP could pick up 50-80 seats.  Morris also predicts a GOP retake of the Senate.  I think that, too, is possible.

So, with the GOP in charge of Congress, Obama might just find his unpopular and unsound agenda stopped, ensuring his reelection in 2012.

Wow.

What would Tiger Woods do?

The son of a white mother, and black father, filled out his census form, and chose "african american."

He could have checked white, checked both black and white, or checked the last category on the form, “some other race,” which he would then have been asked to identify in writing.

So, the New York Times has declared Obama officially black.

Obama says "F-you" to our allies. Mark Steyn analyzes.

You must read the great Mark Steyn on Obama and our allies.

Poignant and funny.

This country is up the proverbial sh*t creek with this guy at the helm.

Sorry, Obamainiacs, but it is true.