Geeze, I go away for a few days and all hell breaks loose.
First Mark Sanford, the N.C. governor hits a midlife crisis I haven't seen the likes of since my 50 yr old Uncle left his wife and kids for a blond he met at hooters, got hairplugs, and bought an orange corvette.*
Really guys. It's pathetic. When reading Gov. Sanford's e-mails, one realizes that affairs become like crack. The guy just wants that next high. But like the drug, it all eventually comes crashing down.
I bet no one was happier that Michael Jackson died Thursday than Gov. Sanford. Am I right?
The people of Iran are the least happy that Jackson died. As far as our news media goes, it's more important to do endless interviews with other stupid celebrities who knew Jackson, than to report on a people struggling against oppression to be free.
Does the media have their priorities screwed up or what?
Meanwhile the House passes this abomination called "Cap and Trade" which will affect all of our lives by "establishing the largest national energy tax in history and eliminate 2 million jobs across our country," and no one in America seems really to care. It's up to the Senate now, and is really up to us. We need to stop this thing. Let your Senators know.
Oh, and by the way... I don't care how talented Michael Jackson was, or how sad his childhood was, or how great "Thriller" still is, he was a pedophile in my view, and no kind of talent makes up for that disgusting part of his life.
Both Sen. Ensign and Gov. Sanford should resign. I would like to think that we as Republicans kick our cheating bums out instead of making them iconic Senators of our party like the Democrats do (see Kennedy) or beloved Presidents (see Bill Clinton).
People screw up, I get that. I also get they shouldn't be in public office if they do. Which is one of the reasons I will never get behind Newt Gingrich for President. Loyalty, fidelity, and vows should mean something in this world. They should mean something to us.
* The part about my Uncle..not true. Poetic license...;-)
Friday, June 26, 2009
I'm Back!!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
California Woes
Seems that the Failed State of California is about to issue IOUs to cover its debts. Its fortunate that States can't just spend money they don't have like the Fed does, someone eventually will say no more credit to a state. Unfortunately, the very people who irresponsibly caused the problems in the first place won't be punished for it. Unless you count the people of California who elected them in the first place. Maybe there is justice.
"At some point we Californians should ask ourselves, how we inherited a state with near perfect weather, the world's richest agriculture, plentiful timber, minerals, and oil, two great ports at Los Angeles and Oakland, a natural tourist industry from Carmel to Yosemite, industries such as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and aerospace—and serially managed to turn all of that into the nation's largest penal system, periodic near bankruptcy, and sky-high taxes." - Victor Davis Hanson
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday's Links and Things
The US is trailing a Nork ship which may or may not carry weapons they are barred from trading under U.N. resolution 1874. Yeah, those UN resolutions work so well. Boarding said ship would be an act of war... but so is shooting missiles at Hawaii or Japan. But does that matter? North Korea recently officially declared that the truce that has been in force for decades was off. Words like that have real consequences. We - we as in America and/or South Korea - may now resume the war and be perfectly legal and moral to do so, and that means we can board their ships with or without UN Resolutions. We are in a state of war with North Korea now, I say go ahead and board their ships and shoot down their ballistic missiles.
The Minneapolis government is spending over 200k to promote... tap water.
h/t Neals Nuze
The Washington Post actually has an article about the fawning coverage of Obama by the press.
Thanks to Samizdata for the link. Their perspective:
Apart from Fox, the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, a few niche publications like the American Spectator and the blogs, Mr Obama has had a remarkably easy ride and it does not seem to be ending soon. In part this is because much of the liberal media, even if some of its more intelligent denizens know that this is a bit silly, are playing as a "team" for Their Man, and don't want to be seeing doing anything that might help the other side.
There has always been, and always will be, slanted coverage of public affairs, and it will continue. Even if the BBC in the UK were scrapped tomorrow and its reporters sent off to planet Titan, the fact is that there will be a substantial block of leftish/liberal media types and pundits. But the sheer, jaw-dropping bias of the White House press corps is something to behold.
Does anyone watch Whale Wars on Animal Planet? Setting aside their ideology and intent to stop whaling, I have never seen such a collection of incompetants. The captain is a self-involved narcissist who hides in his cabin when things become difficult. The First Mate has no idea what he is doing and the crew are a gaggle of trust fund kiddies who have no training. One season the radar operator was a guy who spent three hours reading the manuel before they set sail. The entire series has the fascination of a train wreck in motion. Things break and no one knows how to fix it. If it were not for GPS and modern communications, I think they would have gotten themselves killed long ago. At least this season they have stopped showing the crew partying it up with drugs and alcohol every chance they get. In the end all they accomplish is to occasionally throw stink bombs at the Japanese who are too civilized to retaliate in kind.
Cause of the Day
Tea Parties are being organized for around July 4th to oppose socialized health care. On the home page of the Tea Party national site is this tidbit:
Government spending is filled with pork earmarks like this: The National Institutes of Health will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.'nuff said
Laugh of the Day
If spending your tax money to train Chinese prostitutes to drink wasn't funny enough. The city of Toronto photoshopped the cover to their Fun guide to show how inclusive they were. Bureaucrats should not be allowed copies of photoshop - it always ends badly. My favorite part is that they altered the fingers of the woman on the left to make them look like they were from the shopped man on the right who presumably has the longest arms in the world.
Men... and women too
I've been pondering lately the notion that American men are indoctrinated from an early age in school and bullied by women into becoming miserable pansies held in contempt by their own wives/girlfriends for being such sissies.
Klavan always has something evocative to say about culture, and seems to follow the rule that brevity is the soul of wit. So I will throw his latest column out there for reactions.
American Nursery
I’m the old-fashioned King of the Castle type: my wife knew it when she married me, she knows it now, and she knows where the door is if she gets sick of it. And you can curse me or consign me to Feminist Hell or whatever you want to do. But when you’re done, answer me this: why would a man get married under any other circumstances? I’m serious. What’s in it for him? I mean, marriage is a large sacrifice for a man. He gives up his right to sleep with a variety of partners, which is as basic an urge in men as having children is in women. He takes on responsibilities which will probably curtail both his work and his social life. If he doesn’t also acquire authority, gravitas, respect and, yes, mastery over his own home, what does he get? Companionship? Hey, stay single, dude, you’ll have a lot more money, and then you can buy companionship.
All right, I know, I’m a mean old man. But I’ve also been blissfully married for 30 years to a woman who wakes up singing. I think some of these young guys have been sold a bill of goods, I really do. I think they’ve been told what they’re supposed to be like and have sacrificed what they are like. Maybe their marriages are more “fair” than mine but just looking at them, I think they’re miserable. And I suspect, deep down, their wives are probably miserable too.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Random Thoughts and Links
Live Free or Die
"You can live as free men, but, if you choose not to, your society will die."
Seems the Feds cherry picked data and misrepresented a research to 'prove' man-made global warming, and the scientist whose research was cited is not happy about it.
Speaking of hot air...
Cause of the Day
The Hot Air Tour comes to the northern plains opposing Global Warming alarmism, lost jobs, higher taxes and less freedom. The Tour will be here in South Dakota tomorrow following a long string of rallies around the nation. Sign up to get updates on future events! Free food and free hot air balloon rides. Should be fun.
The tour is a project of Americans for Prosperity, a limited government and free market group.
Chuckle of the Day
"There's not really any question that zombie movies reflect left-leaning politics."
The author might have a point here. Romero's Dawn of the Dead had as its central theme the shopping mall, which Romero portrayed as banal suburban materialism where mindless people wasted their lives and after death they continued their mindless mall existance as zombies.
Anti-materialist contempt for malls is really quite non-sensical. Humans have always liked to hang out in trade centers, socializing, eating, chatting and entertaining themselves. The modern shopping mall is not much different than the town trade square or bazaar. As for the materialism of mass produced goods, well... that stuff is better. Mass production provides high quality goods for a low price. Handmade goods in the past were not necessarily of better quality, handmade could be made with ten thumbs. Now, we use mass produced goods of consistant quality for the majority of our needs and if you can afford it, buy custom made stuff from a craftsman. Its a win all around. Real craftsmen get paid well, the wealthy can distinguish themselves with quality custom goods, and everyone else can enjoy a high standard of living with inexpensive goods.
Video of the Day
The Dowd Conundrum: Why Vulcans and Other Intellectuals Don't Belong in the Big Chair
This is a pretty neat video. You need to sit through an advertisement and the setup is a little long, but it gets going when Whittle talks about the characteristics of leadership.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Rational Religion
Confessions of a Lapsed Atheist
But Atheists aren't content to leave religion as a mere object of ridicule. They want it cleansed from public life. And enlightened as they are, they've come up with quite the pretense for justifying the righteousness of their bigotry: they are defending the vision of our Founding Fathers from a dominionist conspiracy to establish Christianity as the state religion.
You see, for liberal Atheists, the only thing worse than religion is the Religious Right, a term they use to encompass all Christian conservatives. And what better way to siphon fuel from the Religious Right than to convince Americans that the government is perpetually on the verge of becoming a theocracy?
And so, they accuse local governments of trampling the Constitution in the name of God and they find subliminal Christian iconography in political ads. They wring new meanings from Thomas Jefferson's notion of separation between church and state, and condemn our country's motto and the status of Christmas as a national holiday. But above all, Atheists stoke fear among religious and nonreligious alike that conservatives view government as a tool to force religion down your throat.
Speaking as a doubter, Christianity is a good thing in general for several reasons.
First, Judeo-Crhistian ideology provides a clear moral code to follow. This is very important as humans are not born with an innate understanding of right and wrong. Our instincts and need to nurture and protect one another are well and good, but a society requires more than that. We have to understand at an intellectual level why a moral or ethical code is best for the individual and group. We need to be trained to habituate just behavior. The Judeo Christian ethic assumes we are flawed, imperfectable, and will from time to time fail.
It is, imo, a rational and realistic understanding of humanity. Whereas the leftist ideal of the perfectibility of humankind is doomed to failure.
That brings me to my second reason. When a person believes in God, they are less likely to believe in some other faith based ideology like Marxism, Socialism, Environmentalism or Global Warming.... er, -ism. The vast majority of people have faith in something unprovable. A belief in something greater than themselves which appeals to their better nature.
Judeo-Christianity, as stated above, is benign. It accepts our imperfections, while encouraging us to be better, and offering the reward of life after death. Well and good. Non-religious belief systems are more pernicious, leading down the road of quite earthly tyranny.
Its no coincidence that Leftists of all stripes are hostile towards religion and often claim to be enlightened Atheists. Religion is a rival for the faith of followers. Religion is an alternative to the State for charity, social life and affection. Religion challenges foundational precepts of Leftist ideology - the perfectibility of humans. I'd bet money that the author's father's contempt for religion stemmed from his belief in a leftwing politics.
As pointed out by many thinkers in the past, many self-proclaimed non-believers don't simply not believe in God, but personally hate Him. It is my opinion that the very people who react most emotionally - anger, contempt, derision - towards religion do so for that very reason. Hostility is a symptom of something deeper, for example the adolescent desire to not be judged. A higher being who sees through all your evasions and darkest impulses is terrible concept to one whose public face is to strive for a more perfect world.
I have met several non-believers in my life who were not hostile towards religion. They have been uniformly NOT leftists, and accepted other people faith as a matter of personal conscience. Other people going to church and praying to God is hardly a bother to anyone else, so why be hostile towards religious people? Most of the criticisms of religion as violent, intolerant and benighted don't apply to America's mainstream religions, if they ever did. Funny how these same criticisms are not applied by the Left to genuine religious bigots.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
It's Time For Freedom For Iran
The world is watching, and technology is connecting, and the West is sending what signals it can, but in the end that is true. Iranians have fought this lonely fight for a long time: to be free, to have a measure of democracy.
It's true. We sit on the sidelines, watching from a distant. But it's out of our hands. The United Nations, nor the United States will help. The words of leaders of all Nations can wash across the planet and make an impact though. If nothing else, they can at least let the people of Iran know they are not alone.
We watch, we pray, and we hope that the blood and pain that the Iranian people are enduring will lead them to freedom.
It's an old saying, but it still rings true...Freedom is never free. It's bought and paid for by the brave willing to sacrifice to have it.
Dads and Daughters
My Dad passed away 25 years ago, and still hardly a day goes by that I don't think of him. It wasn't until I went to college that I realized what a truly incredible man he was. I learned from the other girls I met there that not all fathers were like him. I learned that some fathers didn't care, or weren't there, or couldn't be bothered.
My Father came from poverty, born of teen mother. His father left him when he was 12 years old. If you have been reading my blog for long you know his story.
When I think of my Dad, beyond the love that I remember, I remember having such respect for him. I knew that he would always do what was right. He took a tattered childhood and built a life of success and respect. Everyone who knew him respected him.
I learned how to be a loving mother and a lady from my mother, but my self confidence and self esteem came from my Dad. A Father's role in a daughter's life cannot be measured. It defines how she sees herself and how she lets men treat her.
John Mayer wrote a beautiful song called "Daughters." His lyrics say it all:
Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too
Ooh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left cleaning up the mess he made
................................
On behalf of every man
looking out for every girl
You are the guide and the weight of her world
So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Today I want to wish all Fathers a Happy Father's Day, but I want to say more to the fathers of daughters. Your daughter sees herself through your eyes. How you love her and treat will forever mark how she loves and treats herself. She will inevitably find a man like you. Are you the kind of man you want her to find? You need to be.
Be good to your daughters, daughters will love like you do.
Filming of another student shot in Iran
It's only getting worse. Scroll through Gateway Pundit's pics and video,especially this one where a young girl is shot dead:
From the video:
"Original source - Facebook: Basij shoots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know."
"Troubling," as Obama says, indeed.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Affairs. It just never turns out well.....
Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.
It's interesting that some politicians can get away with affairs (see Bill Clinton and Rudy Guiliani) and others (see John Edwards) cannot. I don't see Sen. Ensign as one of those who get away with it. He's already lost his Republican leadership position, and after reading this letter, I think he may lose more.
"Juneteenth"
From the Project 21 Black Leadership Nework:
On the occasion of "Juneteenth," the oldest and most recognized annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, members of the Project 21 black leadership network suggest the civil rights-themed holiday be used to celebrate freedoms that have been won and as a warning of how easily freedom can be threatened by an overbearing government.
Project 21 members have called attention to the Juneteenth since 1999, urging black Americans to use Juneteenth to embrace their inherent talents and strengthen their ties with family and community.
Now, when the Obama Administration and Congress are increasing government intervention into the lives of all Americans, Project 21 members suggest that people reflect upon how this expansion of power can reduce the threaten individual freedom.
"The liberties we enjoy today came at a tremendous cost and after a lot of suffering," said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. "Today historically marks the day of the opening of the door to opportunity for blacks to seek 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' We should take advantage of this liberty to strive to improve our lives and build upon the sacrifices of those who fought for freedom."
"It's important to remember that Juneteenth is rooted in our achieving our freedom. It is the growth of an activist government intent on regulating most - if not all - aspects of our lives that is now threatening that freedom," said Project 21 member Bishop Council Nedd II. "There's a lot at risk should politics be allowed to take precedence over the protection of individual rights. Environmental regulations, for instance, already substantially affect private property rights and the ability for many to conduct legitimate business. Just think of what might happen to our independence if we are forced to rely on a partisan government for health care, to determine if we can buy a car or how we can worship without offending perceived sensibilities? This is something we need to consider as we mark Juneteenth this year.
"Project 21 member Ak'bar Shabazz added: "As our nation advances rapidly away from embracing personal responsibility towards government protection and oversight, we should keep in mind that these freed slaves wanted only the opportunity to be free and control their own destinies. Their attitudes towards freedom contrasts greatly from today, as many people look for more government control over their lives."
Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of the June 19, 1865 arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas. The soldiers carried the news that the Civil War was over and that President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had abolished slavery two-and-a-half years earlier.
The annual commemoration became known as Juneteenth and quickly became a stabilizing as well as motivating presence in the lives of black Americans in Texas, who faced many uncertainties associated with newly-acquired freedom. The observance quickly spread from Texas to be recognized across the United States.
Juneteenth is celebrated in many ways, but education and self-improvement have been consistent themes at commemorative community gatherings and picnics in recent years. In 1980, Juneteenth was made an official holiday in Texas. According to the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign, 25 states currently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday.
Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization supported by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or Project21@nationalcenter.org, or visit Project 21's website at www.project21.org/P21Index.html.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
"Push America"
(Media Credit: Natasha Sankovich)
A while back I asked all of you to consider giving to "Push America," a charity benefiting people with disabilities. I asked you to do this through this handsome young man who is riding across America this summer for "Push America." Read all about it here.
Thanks to many of you, Matt met his goal and his journey has begun. Keep up with him here. He is blogging as he goes with video and pictures.
I want to thank all of my readers who gave.
Twittering a Revolution
On Saturday, after the "re-election" of President Ahmadinejad, I watched Christiane Amnapor of CNN do a live report from Iran with no video. She mentioned unrest. Unrest? Calling what was happening in Iran unrest is like calling the Superbowl just another football game.
I was surprised because anyone paying attention to political things on twitter knew that there was a revolution erupting. We also knew that atrocities were taking place. We knew at least a day before the news reported it, that Iran was shutting down all social networking. But the brave souls inside Iran were finding proxies and were getting around the censorship.
Our media was ordered to stay in their hotels by this time. But video kept coming from twitter and Youtube. We watched a revolution given to us, not by the media, but by the very revolutionaries themselves.
The most amazing thing was the outpouring of support the Iranian tweeters were getting from Americans. Most of us turned our avatars green in support of the Iranian people. It wasn't much. But appreciation flowed back to us.
We on twitter saw the pictures of the river of people protesting first. We also saw the pictures of students shot. We received updates of people being brought to hospitals. The iron fist of Iran couldn't suppress the voice of the people. It was an historic thing to be a part of, even if it was only as an observer.
We here in America are not naive. We understand that in foreign policy Mousavi is not that much different from Ahmadinejad. We understand the Mullahs rule the land. But freedom fought for and tasted, even for a moment, can change a world. We in American understand that. This may only be a tiny ripple, but when information flows, minds open. Whatever happens in Iran, nothing can change the fact that Iranians and Americans reached out to one another. Knowing each other is the first step to trusting one another. It is the first step to understanding one another.
When Americans, so different from Iranians, can (and I know this sounds silly) twitter together. It means we can talk. It means we can get to know one another in a way never possible before.
This isn't about the leaders of our countries anymore. This is about the people of America and Iran, supporting a common cause, that the voices of the Iranians not be suppressed. We offer our comfort and our support. We are cheering them on from a distant land, we are praying with them...... on twitter.
A twitterevolution.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
It's worse than we imagined...
NRO:
From a Hospital Somewhere in Iran [Michael Ledeen]
I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help—I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.
What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?
This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people.
Micheal Ledeen: The president says he doesn't want to "meddle." Aside from the fact that he unhesitatingly meddles in Israel, how can any American remain aloof from this sort of thing?
Charles Krauthammer’s take from last night's Fox News:
I find the president's reaction bordering on the bizarre. It's not just little and late, but he had a statement today in which he welcomed the Iranian leader's gesture about redoing some of the vote, as you indicated.
And the president has said "I have seen in Iran's initial reaction from the supreme leader." He is using an honorific to apply to a man whose minions out there are breaking heads, shooting demonstrators, arresting students, shutting the press down, and basically trying to suppress a popular democratic revolution.
So he uses that honorific, and then says that this supreme leader -- it indicates that he understand that the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election. Deep concerns? There is a revolution in the street.
And it is not about elections anymore. It started out about elections. It's about the legitimacy of a regime, this theocratic dictatorship in Iran, which is now at stake. That's the point.
What we have here is a regime whose legitimacy is challenged, and this revolution is going to end in one of two ways -- suppressed, as was the Tiananmen revolution in China, or it will be a second Iranian revolution that will liberate Iran and change the region and the world.
And the president is taking a hands-off attitude. Instead of standing, as Reagan did, in the Polish uprising of 1980, and say we stand with the people in the street who believe in democracy. It is a simple statement. He ought to make it.
And it is a disgrace that the United States is not stating it as simply and honestly as that.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Obamacare must be stopped
Read a few examples of what Doctors have gone through with Medicare here.
Sen. John McCain says the bill should be scrapped:
McCain pointed to a nonpartisan cost estimate of $1 trillion over ten years for the major portion of healthcare reform suggested in a bill floated by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health Committee and said the cost was too high for American taxpayers, especially since the nonpartisan review foresaw $23 million would lose their current insurance plans under the proposal.
.............................................
McCain called for giving all Americans a $5,000 tax credit to purchase insurance on the open market. And he suggested lifting bans intended to protect some state health insurance quality requirements that keep people in one state from buying health insurance sponsored in other states.
Doctors booed Obama on Monday when he met with them at a American Medical Association Meeting because they know he sides with trial lawyers in support of malpractice lawsuites without caps.
Obama told the Doctors what they wanted to hear. All the usual pretty words. But this is socialized medicine. It just is. I blame Republicans for putting us in this situation. Healthcare should have been addressed by Republicans long ago.
If this passes, we will all suffer.
Rich Lowry has more here.
Iranian guards shooting innocent protesters
It's just interesting to me how careful Pres.Obama is with words. I understand that. A President has to be. But explain to me why Pres. Obama was "outraged" by abortionist Tiller's killing and merely "deeply troubled" by what is happening in Iran?
via Gateway Pundit
Sen.Lieberman has this right: We should “loudly and clearly” stand with the people of Iran
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Lesson Not Learned
This White House loves the unions. No question about that. Biden slobbers over the unions. Obama told the Union Bosses at a White House ceremony, “Welcome back to the White House.”
Consider this:
Nearly 93 percent of America's private-sector workforce has not chosen to unionize, so union officials hope to leverage these federal funds in a full court press to corral millions more workers into forced-dues-paying union ranks.
It is beyond irony that at the same time Obama and Biden are pushing for more union workers, we see the end result and failure of what unions do to a company.
I give you GM.
Unions, like welfare, are a well intentioned idea gone horribly wrong.
GM long dominiated the car industry. A great powerful and producing company for decades upon decades. What brought this great company down? Many things, but the union is at the top of the list.
From The Week:
The company, which in the 1980s employed over 800,000 people worldwide, brought labor peace by giving it's unions lavish pay and benefits packages that earned it the nickname, "Generous Motors." But those labor contracts crippled the company's ability to cut costs.
..................................
They resisted the closure of unneeded factories and pressured GM to create a "jobs bank" that paid laid-off workers up to 95% of their salary and benefits.
...............................
The United Auto Workers, meanwhile, resisted every attempt to shrink the company to match it's declining sales. It refused to renegotiate health benefits for its current members and the 377,000 retirees, even though they cost GM about $1,200 per car, putting the company at a sizable cost disadvantage to Japanese rivals.
So here we are with proof in the pudding of how harmful unions can be to a great company, and we learn nothing. We have an administration that embraces unions and works to require more and more workers to join unions.
Iran
Check out these incredible photos of the protests in Iran.
I'm still following several people from inside Iran on twitter and I am still just fascinated in how Americans and Iranians are reaching out to each other despite the government crackdown on social networking. There is just such a feeling on twitter from of all of us, left and right, that here in America we are cheering them on and hoping for the best for the Iranian people. Let us all pray for a peaceful solution.
If you want to follow real time tweets about the election and tweets from Iran also, Go here.
Has Obama Betrayed the Gay Community?
It looks that way.
From AMERICAblog (Just about the most liberal blog out there btw):
Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children.
by John Aravosis (DC) on 6/12/2009 09:44:00 AM
UPDATE: Former top aide to President Clinton says DOJ had a choice, they did not have to file a brief in favor of DOMA.
UPDATE: Mormon Bush holdover helped write and file anti-gay DOMA brief.
UPDATE: Gay groups rip Obama.
UPDATE: Are gay politicians going to continue hosting gay pride fundraiser for Joe Biden?
UPDATE: Obama spokesman caught lying to Politico.
Joe and I have been trying since last night to get a copy of the government's brief just filed in this case. This is not the GLAD case that we've written about previously, it's another in California.
We just got the brief from reader Lavi Soloway. It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).
He actually argued that the courts shouldn't consider Loving v. Virginia, the miscegenation case in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to ban interracial marriages, when looking at gay civil rights cases. He told the court, in essence, that blacks deserve more civil rights than gays, that our civil rights are not on the same level.
Read the whole thing here.
This is the thing. Obama doesn't care about you in the gay community. Obama cares about getting re-elected. He doesn't want to seem to backtrack on his being against gay marriage. What Obama knows is that you have no where to go. He knows you will vote for him against a Republican no matter what. He takes you for granted, just like the Democrats take the black vote for granted. I guess you feel pretty silly slamming that poor Carrie Prejean now, don't you? You might should have used your energy to go after Obama. Carrie said that she and Obama had the same stance on gay marriage, but Obama clearly had the power to work against your agenda.
Who looks silly now?
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The "Stimulus Bill" has failed.
Protest Against Letterman
I've said before that Republicans aren't too good at protests because we are just too polite, but maybe it's time we stepped up to the plate EACH time anyway. Maybe we can stop this leftwing hate machine. From Conservatives4Palin:
There will be an anti-Letterman protest in NYC this coming Tuesday, June 16th. The details can be found here - we're reprinting them to help spread the word:
DATE: Tuesday, June 16th
TIME: 4:30 PM
PLACE: Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway, New York City
PURPOSE: To protest disgusting sexual jokes made against Governor Palin and her teenage daughtersNeed help with a couple of things - RAM spoke with John Ziegler today, and he suggests that one or more attendees should webcast the protest live. If anyone here has the technology to do that, or knows someone who does, please contact us at editor@conservatives4palin.com.Alternatively/additionally, we are looking for people willing to videotape/photograph the event, and upload the video/photos as soon as possible after the event.One more thing - we're attempting to contact the organizers of the NYC Tea Party Protests to see if their membership will be willing to provide support and assistance. As a reminder, Governor Palin is a Tea Party supporter; Andrew Breitbart even basically called her the candidate of the Tea Parties. If any of our readers can put us in touch with New York Tea Party organizers, please let us know!
Emotional Testimony from Chrysler Dealer
"My grandfather paid for Carlisle Chevrolet from his labors. My father paid my grandmother for Carlisle Chevrolet through his efforts. It took me nearly 20 years to pay my parents for Carlisle Chevrolet. It took GM and Chrysler a mere 24 hours to take Carlisle Chevrolet from me."
Saturday, June 13, 2009
What Happened in Iran Yesterday
I found this is a good summary of events from Gary's Choices:
On the basis of what we know so far, here is the sequence of events starting on the afternoon of election day, Friday, June 12.
*Near closing time of the polls, mobile text messaging was turned off nationwide
*Security forces poured out into the streets in large numbers
*The Ministry of Interior (election headquarters) was surrounded by concrete barriers and armed men
*National television began broadcasting pre-recorded messages calling for everyone to unite behind the winner
*The Mousavi campaign was informed officially that they had won the election, which perhaps served to temporarily lull them into complacency
*But then the Ministry of Interior announced a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad
*Unlike previous elections, there was no breakdown of the vote by province, which would have provided a way of judging its credibility
*The voting patterns announced by the government were identical in all parts of the country, an impossibility (also see the comments of Juan Cole at the title link)
*Less than 24 hours later, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene`i publicly announced his congratulations to the winner, apparently confirming that the process was complete and irrevocable, contrary to constitutional requirements
*Shortly thereafter, all mobile phones, Facebook, and other social networks were blocked, as well as major foreign news sources.
All of this had the appearance of a well orchestrated strike intended to take its opponents by surprise – the classic definition of a coup. Curiously, this was not a coup of an outside group against the ruling elite; it was a coup of the ruling elite against its own people.
Amazing pictures here.
Michael Totten has updates and video here.
Update: I stayed up until 3am last night reading the tweets on twitter from Iran. It was just fascinating to me that while the Iranian government was trying to block the people from Iran from letting the world know what was happening by trying to shut down all social networking, the people were still managing to tweet and post video on Youtube.
There we were, so many Americans from all over the United States, talking back and forth with people from Iran, while all these things were happening as it was happening. We read their cries, their updates on what was happening, and their heartfelt concerns. It was such a strong example of people over power that I couldn't go to sleep.
It's only a matter of time, in my opinion, before the youth of Iran (which are many) will rise up against the tyranny they live under, and forge a true Democracy. My only fear is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will throw their country into war first.
Update: HuffingtonPost has much more with video here.
Friday, June 12, 2009
"How Fox News Opened America"
The following is excerpted from Charles Krauthammer's remarks upon receiving the 2009 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism, named for The Post's late edit orial-page editor, yesterday in Washington.
....there should be a special award for Fox News. Fox has done a great service to the American polity -- single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliché) over the broadcast media.
I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.
...................................
That's why Fox News is so resented. It altered the intellectual and ideological landscape of America. It gave not only voice but also legitimacy to a worldview that had been utterly excluded from the mainstream media.
I'm proud to be part of this televised apostasy. And particularly proud to be part of the single best news program on American television, the six-o'clock news -- first with Brit Hume, now with Bret Baier. How good is "Special Report"? So good that even if I weren't on it, my mother would watch it -- and she spent 50 years as a Democrat.
My favorite part of this is his referral to the "niche market"in America, which is HALF of America. That's what puzzles the mainstream media. They don't understand Fox New's success because they never understood half of America.
It's that simple.
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin, we as a country need you, but we don't deserve you.
Because of your conservative values and principles and the fact that you bring 10's of thousands of people out whenever you speak, the left is deathly afraid of you. You are number one on their hit list. Letterman is just the tip of the iceberg. They will not stop until they have made a joke out of you.
Any one of us would have quit long ago. We would have said that it isn't worth it. But you are standing strong. You are an incredible amazing woman.
Think about this. Has there ever been a time when comics or the left or the media made fun of a former candidate's children? Ever? No. Al Gore's son gets arrested for going 110 miles an hour with an assortment of drugs in the car, and we never hear a joke or peep about it from the comics. Joe Biden's 20 something year old daughter gets arrested for obstructing a police officer, and once in college she was arrested for possession of marijuana, and there is no joke there? The press and comics could not let go of the Bush twins partying because they ordered a margarita once while in college, when they were not yet 21, but while Clinton was President Chelsea Clinton partied and was photographed stone cold drunk passed out, and only the British press published stories and pictures. I don't remember one joke about Chelsea partying, and as you can see, see clearly did.
It is clear that the media, the left, and Hollywood will do whatever it takes to demean the politicians they hate. With Palin they lied about her banning books in the library in Alaska and they lied about her believing in creationism. They lied about her being a member of the Alaska Independence party and they lied about her cutting funding for Special Needs. And if you think those things were only said by the Internet rumor mill, think again. I personally saw Brian Williams of NBC news say these things one night the NBC nightly news.
What the left learned with Bush is that if you just keep saying the lie, and the comics keep telling jokes about the lie, and movies and documentaries are made about the lie, eventually the general population will accept it.
If anyone can take them on, it's Sarah Palin.
Pres. Bush endured years of movies, documentaries, comics, jokes, and commentators whose sole purpose it was to demean, degrade, and discredit our President, including his daughters. Pres. Bush never responded. That was his way.
But it's not Sarah Palin's way and I'm glad. It's time we stood up against this leftwing hate machine.
It's way past time.
By all measure, Sarah Palin has been an incredible Governor. Just recently she helped forge a deal between two rivals, TransCanada and Exxon Mobil, after a long-running battle over the construction of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline. They have agreed to work together. Her long list of accomplishments can be found here. But it's the little things that tell me who she is. When she became Governor, she let go of the Chef, because she said she could make the meals for her family. Can anyone see, say Pelosi or Hillary, doing such a thing? Of course not. She hunts and fishes. She has never had a nanny. She's owned a business. She runs marathons. She goes to Church. She is one of us in a way no other politician has been.
She believes in true liberty and freedom. She sees the danger of an overreaching government. She's a Christian, pro-life, pro-family values, pro-gun ownership, and she is woman. This is why the left hates her. This is why they are trying to destroy her.
I'll say it again, Sarah Palin, this country needs you, but we don't deserve you.
Michelle Smacks Down Letterman
It's just good.
Do you the feeling that maybe, just maybe, decent liberals are getting this too?
Palin on "The Today Show" this morning:
The reason it has written on the video that Palin "distorts" letterman's joke because this was taken from the sick leftist's site FireDogLake.
Like that site, the liberals that AREN'T decent don't get it:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Is there nothing about Obama to joke about?
One wonders why the late night comics are STILL joking about Palin. Has there ever been, in the history of comedy, at time where the comics were still joking about the Vice Presidential nominee that wasn't elected 7 months after the election? Of course not.
Now, any person can see that our current Vice President gives us enough material to do tons of late night material, but somehow they don't see Obama (or his daughters!) very funny. But as Drew at Ace's proves (with video!) Obama has given them lots of material as well, they just haven't used it.
Enjoy.
More on the left, the lies, and the media spin
From Andy at NRO:
Have you seen the latest from the Obamedia? Stories like this one from the Washington Post telling us that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was actually prescient in approving the widely condemned release of an agency intelligence assessment fretting about a potential outbreak of "right-wing extremism." And yes, this is the same Homeland Security Secretary who knows neither the immigration laws it is her responsibility to enforce nor how the 9/11 terrorists got into the homeland, and whose idea of "nuance" is to call "terrorism" a "man-caused disaster."
Why prescient? The Post quotes Alex Kingsbury of U.S. News and World Report:
"In the past two weeks, the country has seen the bombing of a Starbucks coffee shop in New York City, the arrest of four men for allegedly plotting to blow up synagogues and shoot down planes, the shooting of two soldiers at an Army recruitment center in Arkansas, the assassination of a doctor inside a Kansas church, and the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.... Although these are not all cases of right-wing extremism, each is an example of domestic terrorism."
What rot. The men plotting to blow up synagogues and planes, and the shooter of the two soldiers (one of whom was killed), were jihadists. Their activities were an extension of an international terrorist threat we have been confronting domestically for over 20 years (the World Trade Center bombers began training for terrorism in the New York area in 1988). They had nothing to do with "right-wing extremism."
Update: Andy at NRO gives the full story on the "rightwing extremism" notion. Read the whole thing, here is an excerpt:
Have you seen the latest from the Obamedia? Stories like this one from the Washington Post telling us that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was actually prescient in approving the widely condemned release of an agency intelligence assessment fretting about a potential outbreak of "right-wing extremism." And yes, this is the same Homeland Security Secretary who knows neither the immigration laws it is her responsibility to enforce nor how the 9/11 terrorists got into the homeland, and whose idea of "nuance" is to call "terrorism" a "man-caused disaster."
Why prescient? The Post quotes Alex Kingsbury of U.S. News and World Report:
"In the past two weeks, the country has seen the bombing of a Starbucks coffee shop in New York City, the arrest of four men for allegedly plotting to blow up synagogues and shoot down planes, the shooting of two soldiers at an Army recruitment center in Arkansas, the assassination of a doctor inside a Kansas church, and the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.... Although these are not all cases of right-wing extremism, each is an example of domestic terrorism."
What rot. The men plotting to blow up synagogues and planes, and the shooter of the two soldiers (one of whom was killed), were jihadists. Their activities were an extension of an international terrorist threat we have been confronting domestically for over 20 years (the World Trade Center bombers began training for terrorism in the New York area in 1988). They had nothing to do with "right-wing extremism."
Letterman apologizes
I'll just let Allah at HotAir take this one:
"A sneak preview of tonight’s monologue from EW. He wasn’t joking about her 14-year-old daughter being a prostitute, silly. He was joking about her 18-year-old daughter being a prostitute. Perfectly legal. Whew!
“We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter [Bristol]… and now they’re upset with me…” Letterman says on tonight’s show. “These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl…. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.” Saying he hopes he’s “cleared part of this up,” Letterman extended an invitation to Palin to come on the show as a guest.
Don’t you see? He’d never condone statutorily raping a girl who’s underage. All he meant to do was goof on the idea that Palin’s eldest daughter, a single mother with a baby, is a whore. Everything cool now? Let’s move on."
The thing is that this is not an isolated incident. This kind of vile crap comes from the left on a regular basis. And I'm not talking little anonymous trolls on the internet. I'm talking comedians, TV talk show hosts, actors, and movies, and leftwing politicians. I'm sick of it.
Just like the recent "Hate F**k" article in Playboy about conservative women, this kind of thing never gets attention until the right in the blogosphere scream so loudly about it that the MSM finally pay attention.
Many might bring up Rush as an example of the other side fo the coin. But it's not even the same coin. The difference is that Rush never says anything as vile as Letterman says. I've never heard him say anything vile at all. He just doesn't, no matter what the leftwing loons in the blogosphere say. Also, Rush's job is to talk politics. That is what he does. But with the left in Hollywood, that ISN'T their job. We tune in to be entertained, not insulted. When you tune into Rush, you know what you are getting.
There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I'm not more convinced of how right we on the right really are.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Behind The Spin, The Truth
The left never misses an opportunity to spin a tragedy into a political smear. They tried to do that with the Tiller murder, but every pro-life group condemned it so that kind of fizzled. Now they are saying that the shooting at the Holocaust Museum were done by a "rightwing extremist." The only problem is that the shooter hated "neo-cons", "Bush", and "McCain." Add to that that he was a part of the far left "truthers" regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories and that his writings show a hatred of big corporations that is the same as that of leftwing anti-globalization activists. you have something crazy, but not a "rightwing extremist."
But don't expect to hear that on the MSM or the leftwing blogs. It doesn't fit their narrative, so they will ignore it.
Hitting the nail on the head...
This new writer over at HotAir just wrote the most excellent summary of the hypocrisy of smears in this country that I have ever read:
Our culture praises tolerance as the supreme virtue, but intolerance has its uses, too. For example, decent people should not tolerate a tired, bitter old late-night comedian making jokes about raping the 14-year-old daughter of a politician on national TV. The equivalent joke about raping Barack Obama’s daughters would not be tolerated. To let something like this slide is to concede that Sarah Palin and her daughter are less worthy of respect - less human - than Obama and his daughters. People do not forfeit their humanity because they hold political views that elite liberal culture disapproves of. There are only two things decent Americans need to hear from David Letterman now: his heartfelt apology to Willow Palin and her parents, followed by his resignation. Any guest on Letterman’s show who wishes to be respected as a gentleman or a lady should make this demand to his face, until he finally gets the message.
I’m also intolerant of celebrities casually tossing off ugly religious bigotry during fluff interviews. Asked how she would deal with the villain of her Transformers movies, Megan Fox said, “I’d barter with him, and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?” A comparable remark about the black or Hispanic “anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America” would not have been tolerated. A similar insult directed at the even more anti-gay Koran-beating Muslims in the Middle East, who are known to actually murder gays on a fairly regular basis, would have ended her career. To tolerate this kind of idiocy against certain racial groups and religions, but not others, is to concede that certain racial groups and religions are inherently inferior and worthy of contempt.
Read the whole thing.
Not Good
Terror Names Linked To Doomed Flight AF 447
Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.
French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31.
Flight AF 447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.
While it is certain there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.
via Patrick Madrid
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
NRSC.org
Go check out NRSC's new website. My friend Vincent Harris did a fantastic job! It is very clean and user friendly. They have a twitter feed, texting service, in the news, and blogs.
It's about time we got up to speed in social networking and such for political sites. Let your voice be heard at NRSC! Become a member. It's free!
If you missed this, you shouldn't have....
I can't seem to embed it, but it's Jon Voight's speech at a Republican fundraiser yesterday. Awesome doesn't begin to describe it. Talk about speaking truth to power...
Enjoy.
Found another copy of the vid here:
Made Up Christian Protests by a Marketing Firm
From Apoloblogology:
It doesn't matter whether or not Christians are actually protesting the release of the EA video game "Dante's Inferno;" what matters is that EA thought that people would expect it to happen. When a negative reaction to the game didn't materialize organically, EA decided it was time to manufacture some dissent:
Video game giant Electronic Arts has admitted it funded a group of fake protesters who pretended to be Christians as a publicity stunt to spur interest in its upcoming action game very loosely based on Dante’s “Inferno.”
The game company hired a group of almost 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Associated Press says. The phony protesters passed out amateurish material and held signs bearing slogans such as “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation,” “Hell is not a Game” and “EA = Electronic Anti-Christ.”
Holly Rockwood, an EA spokeswoman, said the charade was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by the company.
A web page in the crude style of 1990s web design was also created in connection with the stunt. It depicted crosses crushing the word “sin” and placed images of the King James Bible among phony condemnations and thinly-veiled promotions of the game. “
A video game hero does not have the authority to save and damn... ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE. and he will not judge the sinners who play this game kindly,” the site said.
I tried to find the website and couldn't.I don't know whether I'm amused, or (pardon the pun) inflamed by this stunt. But I do know that I'm amused by this little gem that the writer of the above article decided to sneak into the copy:
Dante placed the fraudulent and the sowers of discord in the penultimate Eighth Circle.
All of this raises an interesting ethical question: does unfairly representing someone you believe to be a bigot make you a bigot too? Me thinks it does.
Monday, June 08, 2009
To the left, minorities only matter if they agree with the left
J.C. Watts does a great job here of pointing out the hypocrisy of the left on stories of people who came from nothing and became incredible people with incredible accomplishments. Everyone in the media and the Obama administration gush over Sotomayor background of being born in the Bronx to immigrants from Puerto Rico and was raised by a single mother after her father died when she was nine.
But not so fast. There are other equally amazing stories that you may have missed:
"... recall how Clarence Thomas was treated in his confirmation process. I guarantee you'll not find more humble beginnings than his birthplace in Pin Point, Ga.
Thomas made it to the Supreme Court by a 52-48 vote in 1991, after he was man enough to call the process just what it was in his case -- a "high-tech lynching."
Think of Miguel Estrada, the 2001 circuit judge nominee whose confirmation was filibustered by Democrats to where Estrada withdrew. He came from humble beginnings in Honduras and arrived in the United States as a teenager with limited knowledge of English.
Think of Janice Rogers Brown's nomination to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She took her seat only after two years of procedural delays. And you can't find more humble beginnings than being the daughter of sharecroppers who attended segregated schools in Alabama.
Interestingly, all three of these nominees are ethnic minorities. Two black, one Hispanic.
The people who put these three nominees through their living hell somehow failed to slobber all over themselves concerning their paths from the valley to the mountaintops.
Have you ever wondered why? Let me enlighten you:
The reason these three minority candidates got no credit for their individual journeys is due to the fact they lined up the wrong way on the Second Amendment -- the right to keep and bear arms.
They lined up the wrong way on when life begins -- at the time of conception.
They lined up wrong on how to make policy. They believe our nation creates policy through legislation -- not through the courts, as Judge Sotomayor and President Obama seem to believe.
.......................................
But please spare us the hogwash that if a nominee has a great rags to riches story, he or she is entitled to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.
If it were about pulling one's self up by the bootstraps, Clarence Thomas would not have had to endure the most brutal confirmation fight in history, and Miguel Estrada would be sitting on the federal bench today.
The process today is about viciously imposing political correctness on the Second Amendment, the issue of life, and legislating from the bench, and viciously punishing anyone who does not comply.
Clarence Thomas, Janice Rogers Brown and Miguel Estrada all believe the responsibility of the jurist is to define the law of the land, not to create it.
In my opinion, it's OK if some disagree with Thomas, Brown and Estrada. That's fine. But we shouldn't confuse a great human interest story with the merits of confirmation to the bench. I just don't believe the fantasy that living a "rich life" qualifies one to be a Supreme Court justice.
Don't kid yourself, folks. It's only a facade. According to the oath that a judge is administered, one's empathy is not the standard.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Guess where this came from?
There is much going on in Iraq that is admirable. Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis are beginning to work out their differences through negotiation, not violence. Freedom of speech abounds. A new economy is taking shape, in which entrepreneurs are creating jobs and a civil society. Elections are punishing thugs and theocrats who cannot deliver services and rewarding more-pragmatic forces. The appeal of radical Islam is waning.
Who would write such a thing? National Review? World Net Daily? Who?
Would you believe....Newsweek?
Of course the article couldn't go long without fawning over Obama and giving him some kind of future credit for the success of Iraq:
But Obama still has the power to shape a decent outcome in Iraq. In doing so, he could help change the political dynamic within the Arab world and present a new model of America's relations with a modern, Muslim, Arab country.
Gee, kind of exactly how Bush wanted it to be.
Somehow, I think that even if the fawning press gives unfairly some or much of the credit to Obama to how Iraq turns out in the next few years, our gracious ex-President will never utter a defense. Bush never sought anything for himself. It was always about us in America and what was right in Iraq.
Imagine if things do turn out so well that 20 or 30 yrs from now we have an American President shaking hands with an Iraqi President and both speaking heartfelt words before the world about the men and women of our U.S. forces who gave so much that Iraq might be free. The shrill political partisan voices of today will have long faded, and all that will be remembered is the sacrifice and the gratitude.
The Real Race-Baiters.
Looking through the criticisms of Sotomayor from the right you find many complaints, but her being Hispanic is not one of them, naturally.
That was not the case with another certain Hispanic (emphasis mine):
From Brian Garst at American Thinker:
The most shocking case, however, is that of Miguel Estrada. Estrada was nominated by President Bush for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a position he was, by most accounts, more than qualified for. Estrada graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was also editor of the Harvard Law Review, a post that would later be highly touted on Obama’s thin Presidential resume. In addition to time spent in private practice, Estrada went on to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and then joined the Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration as an Assistant to the Solicitor General.
In 2001, President Bush made the Estrada appointment to the Court of Appeals. The democratic response was apocalyptic, and Estrada was eventually forced to withdraw after 2 years of stonewalling and filibusters. Thanks to a slew of leaked memos between democratic Senators and liberal interest groups, we now know the despicable motives behind this opposition: Estrada was a Hispanic who might one day be appointed to the Supreme Court, and by a Republican, no less. One memo highlights that Estrada was “especially dangerous” in part because he “is Latino.” In the twisted world of identity politics, advancement of minority groups is only acceptable when it’s made through the appropriate political party, namely the democrats. Conservative minorities are not afforded the same benefits of identity politics as liberal minorities, because they are a threat to the condescending notion that minorities may only think and vote democratic.
Naturally, Estrada’s opposition had to come up with better reasons than blatant racism to publicly oppose a candidate even they admit in the memo was “clearly an intelligent lawyer.” In their “talking points” section, they justified opposition on the grounds that he “has serious temperament problems,” and is a “right-wing zealot.” This last line of attack is somewhat baffling given the repeated claims that he “has virtually no paper trail.” And far from being the asset touted with Sonia Sotomayor, Estrada’s “compelling life story” was dismissed as evidence of nothing more than “affirmative action.” It’s hard to imagine the uproar if a similar statement were to be made about Sotomayor today.
The left never ceases to amaze me. When they are looking for race-baiters, they need look no further than the closest mirror.
via Protein Wisdom
Forgot this...
I forgot to include this great pic from Washington D.C. with my baby girl and Fox News Anchor Brian Wilson. That is the actual Capitol in the window. Brian called it "the money shot." Pretty cool, right? She's a natural.
