31 October, 2010

Faux News



Doing some quick research, I found lots of examples of Faux News today:
Two reporters caught on tape conspiring against Senate candidate.
Forged memos regarding armed forces service of Presidential candidate.
Doctored photos in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Staged photos regarding the aforementioned conflict.
Fake hate crimes reported at George Washington University.
Hiring actors to stage a sting operation for political correctness.
Hiring actors to show sports fans are racists.
Reporting on massacres that never happened.
A Journalistic Cabal created to collude in demonization of people with opposing views while advancing the agenda of the White House.
A page one story about an alleged affair by a candidate for the White House, that had no evidence whatsoever and was later retracted.
Firing someone  for expressing feelings that most of us have known, even though his point was that we need to get past that as a nation.
What do all of these events have in common? They all happened in journalistic organizations not called Fox News.
As Ronald Reagan said:
Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.
And with the help of organizations like Reuters, CBS, ABC, NBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times that will continue to be true.
UPDATE: I added some more events and cleaned up the text a bit.

What Liberal Media?



Or, why you should always make sure your phone is off. I have a friend who has experienced something similar. We all have made this mistake, but not all quite so painfully.
Assume you’re a reporter covering the AK Senate race. You probably don’t want to leave the following as a voice mail to the Joe Miller spokesperson:
FEMALE REPORTER: That’s up to you because you're the expert, but that’s what I would do...I’d wait until you see who showed up because that indicates we already know something...
[Laughter]
[INAUDIBLE]
FEMALE REPORTER: Child molesters...
MALE REPORTER: Oh yeah... can you repeat Joe Miller’s...uh... list of people, campaign workers, which one's the molester?
[INAUDIBLE]
FEMALE VOICE: We know that out of all the people that will show up tonight, at least one of them will be a registered sex offender.
[Laughter]
MALE REPORTER: You have to find that one person...
[INAUDIBLE]
FEMALE REPORTER: And the one thing we can do is ....we won’t know....we won’t know but if there is any sort of chaos whatsoever we can put out a twitter/facebook alert: saying what the... ‘Hey Joe Miller punched at rally.’
FEMALE REPORTER: Kinda like Rand Paul...I like that.
[Laughter]
FEMALE REPORTER: That’s a good one.
Or listen to the tape:
The Murkowski family is very powerful in AK. Former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) tried to clean this up, but obviously strong remnants remain. Do yourself a favor and use your favorite search engine to look up “Corrupt Bastards Club” sometime.
I assume these two people will not have jobs by the end of the day.
Of course, these two people worked for CBS, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising.
And liberals have the audacity to call Fox News “Faux News”? Day by day, more and more evidence piles up on the other side, folks. Of course, we’ve mentioned the liberal talent at projection before.
It still appears that Miller is going to come out on the correct side of the flood, but that’s by no means certain. This is what he’s up against. This is what every GOP candidate in the nation is up against.
2 more days.

30 October, 2010

Why Would ANYONE Vote For Charlie Crist?



For anything?

In the last year, he has reversed himself on every significant position, from Obamacare to Cap and Trade to the stimulus, even on the qualifications of Sarah Palin. He tried to play the “Hispanic Race Card” against Marco Rubio. He’s resorted to beyond sleazy tactics to get the true Democrat out of the race.

He started out as a moderately squishy Republican, then tilted right to try to win the primary. When it was obvious that wasn’t going to work, he switched to Independent and has run to the left of the Democrat in the race. He promised to refund his campaign donations when he switched to Independent, and then reneged on that promise. Now he says he’ll caucus with the Democrats.

I’m not sure they’d want him. This is obviously a man with no principals whatsoever.

He represents everything this election is about. If I could sum it up in a single candidate, it would be him. Well, I might need two candidates. Lisa Murkowski has some similar issues, and one or two that he doesn’t have.

But this is someone who no one should vote for. No matter what your political beliefs or what your party is. It is quite obvious that this man will screw his constituents over if he thinks it will help him in his power grab. He has no interest in representation, just power.

Think about that when you’re at the polls, Floridians.

Sorry about the lack of links. Everything I said in this post is true and you can look it up. I’m just in a hurry tonight, and don’t have time to put the links in. I may go back and add some tomorrow.

3 days until the flood. The flood needs to hit this man hard.

Rally To Restore Boredom



Ok, it wasn’t as bad and offensive as I predicted.

Still, there were plenty of examples of what I pointed out in my last post.

Did draw a pretty good crowd though. Maybe a third the size of the real Rally to Restore Sanity, which didn’t feature a free concert.

And since every other right wing blog will be talking about it, I have to mention this too.

I like the music of the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens as much as the next guy, but you really want to feature a man who has called for the murder of Salmon Rushdie at a “Rally to Restore Sanity”? Really? Umm…who thought that was a good idea?

Of course the real problem with the rally is that it put everyone to sleep. Memo for the future: sane to lefties is boring while sane to righties is inspiring.

Something to think about there.

I expected the rally to be a spectacular failure. As it is, I have to give it a C-.

29 October, 2010

Want To Restore Sanity? Go To A Tea Party Rally



Jon Stewart’s “Rally To Restore Sanity” is this weekend. Of course, the point of this is not to restore sanity at all. It’s yet another attempt by the left to portray normal hardworking Americans as extremists, and to portray the tone-deaf political class as normal.

His rally is taking a direct jab at the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally. Unfortunately for Stewart, Beck’s rally will likely be a lot more sane than Stewart’s. The Beck rally was quiet and peaceful and people cleaned up after themselves. They were well behaved and didn’t bring offensive signs or wear clothing plastered with obscenities. They came on their own, taking time off from work. These were parents and families who came together to remind this White House that they weren’t going to continue to let President Barack Obama (D-USA) and his cohorts destroy America.

crowd

In short, this was the Rally to Restore Sanity.

Stewart’s rally hasn’t happened yet, but we know what we’ll see.

 

Click the picture to see some more.

For almost two years, the left has been projecting its insanity on the right with no evidence whatsoever. When they did come up with “evidence” it was manufactured, such as the “Obama as Hitler” protestor that was a Democrat plant.

Despite these incidents of poor behavior by the left, what got House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-08) so riled up? She claimed (with no evidence whatsoever) that the Tea Partiers were acting crazy and waving swastikas. The point here is not to tell the truth, but to paint the opposition, the American people, as extremists.

Yes, as I mentioned above there were some “Obama as Hitler” signs (funny that the MSM frothed at the mouth about those, but laughed at the “Bush as Hitler” signs, but I digress). In every known instance of the “Obama as Hitler” the purveyor was either a Democrat plant or a LaRoucher. People to the left even of Obama.

In fact, the Obama-Hitler theme (see right) is a recurring one for LaRouche. The top listing under the "Our Campaigns" header on his home page is "Stop Obama's Nazi Health Plan." Clicking on it leads you to a series of anti-ObamaCare videos, including one entitled "Hitler's T4 Program - Obama's Health Care Inspiration."

The MSM were willing accomplices in this. In fact, if all you watch is CNN and all you read is the New York Times, you haven’t heard of anything mentioned in this post. But it all happened. And much much more. These were just the examples that I remembered off the top of my head.

And there was the Jack Conway supporter dressed up as a Rand Paul supporter making racial slurs at a rally.

This week there was finally an incident with a Rand Paul supporter at one of his rallies, where a woman was apparently attacked. Of course, the woman was a MoveOn.org plant trying to get just this sort of reaction by pretending to be attacking Rand Paul.

Despite this, right-minded blogs were quick to denounce the incident.

Let us begin with what should be obvious and unnecessary to discuss: don’t stomp on anyone’s head. There are no mitigating circumstances to be presented in this article or video. You don’t stomp on a person’s head. Tim Profitt was wrong and should not have resorted to violence. If a police officer subduing a suspect were caught on video doing exactly what Profitt did, that officer would be in hot water.

Ken Gladney and several others are still waiting for the same from the left.

The fact that conservatives condemned Tim Proffit sticking his foot on Valle’s shoulder shows, again, that the right polices their side. The left does not. They create standards that they expect everyone else to follow; I’ve still yet to see a single one of them condemn the attack of Kelly Owens, on camera by SEIU, Kenneth Gladney, Alle Bautsch, Bill Rice, John McCormack, the assault on NC tea partiers, I could go on. The left has yet to rise to the challenge and match the right in condemning violence such as the examples I’ve given here.

There was some shouting and obnoxious people at the various ObamaCare townhalls last summer. Unfortunately, for Stewart, most of the shouting and bad behavior was from up on stage:

 

Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX-18) decided during her town hall that it was more important to talk on the phone than answer her constituents questions:

 

But they weren’t finished yet:

Of course, the poor behavior by the people who represent us wasn’t always up on stage.

 

Who can forget Howard Dean’s words about the Republican party?

I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for.

And I’m not even going to get started on soon to be former Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL-08). I could spend an entire post talking about this crazed lunatic.

And let’s not forget our prizewinner in civility this week.

Have the tea partiers been loud at times? Yes. Crazy? No.

They’ve been loud when necessary. If you’re walking downtown with a friend and she happens to start to step out into the street in front of an oncoming bus, you don’t politely say “Excuse me, but you really should watch where you’re going.” No, you grab her by the arm and yell “STOP!”

Which is exactly what the Tea Partiers tried to do all last summer.

Unfortunately, the reps didn’t listen. And now they’re paying the price.

See, the problem with Stewart’s rally is that he’s allied himself with the crazies, not the sane. He did say one thing that’s correct:

We live in troubled times with real people facing real problems, problems that have real if imperfect solutions that I believe 70 to 80 percent of our population could agree to try and could ultimately live with. Unfortunately, the conversation and process is controlled by the other 15 to 20 percent.

Here’s the problem, Jon. You and the people you’ve allied yourself with are in the 15 percent. Anytime you want to join the 85 percent, we’d love to have you. We won’t be at your rally, but you’re more than welcome at a Tea Party rally any time.

But as I said at the beginning, I don’t believe that you really have any interest in restoring sanity. What you’re doing smacks of hypocrisy and is another blatant and desperate attempt to paint the regular people of America as extremists. Just like you and yours have been doing for the last two years. I’m sorry, Jon, but it hasn’t worked yet and it’s not going to work. The American public knows who the extremists are, and despite you, we’re going to vote them out in 4 days.

Jon Stewart, don’t stick around too long after your rally. You might get hit by the flood.

28 October, 2010

The New Normal–Change We Can Believe In



Saw this on Drudge: German Unemployment Dips to 18-Year Low…

At first, I thought to myself, “Now why are things getting better in socialist Europe than they are here in center-right America? Couldn’t have anything to do with the Europeans waking up and moving away from socialism while America leaps at it, could it?”

But then I thought to myself, “Wait. Hold on a minute here. Let’s check the details before we jump to conclusions.”

German unemployment fell slightly in October, dropping to its lowest level in 18 years as the impact of persistently strong growth in Europe's top economy continued to filter through to the jobs market.

Well, that sounds like it fits my expectations. So, reading on…

The number of jobless fell by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.153 million, figures from the Labor Office showed on Thursday, while the headline level dipped to 2.945 million, confirming figures announced a day earlier.

The headline reading fell below the 3 million mark — a key political threshold — for the first time since November 2008, to its lowest point since October 1992.

Hey, wait a second. Germany isn’t that big. Isn’t 3 million unemployed still a pretty high number?

On an adjusted basis, the jobless rate held steady at 7.5 percent, while economists had forecast 7.4 percent.

"Although October's decline in unemployment turned out weaker than expected, the underlying trend in the German labor market clearly remains one of rapid improvement on the back of strong economic growth," said Aline Schuiling from ABN Amro.

So, the best unemployment number in Germany in 18 years is 7.5%?

Oh. See what I get for jumping to conclusions? This article says even worse things about the Obama administration than what I originally thought.

No wonder President Barack Obama (D-USA) isn’t all that upset about 9.5% unemployment. He’s comparing the U.S. to his idols, the Europeans. We’re not that far behind the Germans who are experiencing their best economy in decades.

This is what we can look forward to in America if we continue the policies of the Obama administration. 9-10% unemployment is to be expected, and 7.5% unemployment is something to cheer about. In 18 years. If we ever get there. Welcome to the new normal. You can travel to Europe and see the effects of it any time.

This perfectly sums up what is wrong with today’s Democratic party. I can’t think of a better example. They want America to emulate Europe, a society in decline. They don’t understand that America was founded on the principals that the European top-down model of government is wrong. And that those principals have led to unparalleled success for over 200 years.

On Tuesday, we have to remind them that America’s strength lies in its people, not its government.

5 more days.

5 more days.

The flood is coming.

October 28, 1886



Today in 1886, President Grover Cleveland (D-USA) presided over the dedication of the “New Colossus”, the Statue of Liberty.

Here’s to you, and another year of lifting your lamp to the golden door of freedom.

27 October, 2010

October 27, 1964



Sarah Palin just reminded me that today in 1964, Ronald Reagan gave his “A Time For Choosing” speech. So much of this speech is relevant today.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

[…]

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

[…]

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

Really, the whole speech is incredible.

Give it a listen.

 

This should have been my flood post for today.

Oh well.

6 days. The time for choosing has come again.

It’s Official–Democratic Party Says Sayanora To Catholics



From the Democrat-Farm-Labor party of Minnesota (they go by DFL, but they are the Minnesota Democratic Party) sent out the mailer below.

If you’re having trouble reading it, that’s a man wearing a Catholic Priest smock wearing a button with the words “Ignore The Poor”.

As Gateway Pundit points out:

The Catholic Charities network is the nation’s fourth largest non-profit, according to The NonProfit Times. The combined revenue of the Catholic Charities network from all sources, public and private, was $2.69 billion in 2000. Nearly 90 percent of these funds were spent on programs and services, making the Catholic Charities network one of the country’s most efficient charities.

Stay classy, Dems.

A local TV station called them on it:

 

No apology. No response.

This is disgusting. The Democratic party of Minnesota has declared war on the Catholic Church.

Think this election isn’t important? These people want to destroy America. There’s no other way to look at it.

6 days. Time to clean house with a nice big flood.

26 October, 2010

Cocktail Party Gets One Right, One Wrong



I’ve gotten tired of calling our Republican elites the “GOP Establishment”. From now on, I’m just going to call them the “Cocktail Party”.

They’ve decided not to have a “party” on election night.

[Y]ou don't celebrate at a time when one in 10 Americans are out of work and our children's future is threatened by mountains of debt," NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain told CNN.

Several Republican sources have told CNN over the past few days that Boehner made clear to colleagues and staff that he wants Americans to see that Republicans in Washington understand that the public is angry at Washington – and that includes the GOP establishment.

These sources say that even if Republicans take over the House, Boehner and other GOP leaders want to avoid the images of the Democrats in 2006, where Speaker Pelosi, then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, and others were dancing on the stage.

Good. Perhaps there’s hope for these folks yet.

On the other hand, there’s this:

In anticipation of major GOP gains in next week’s elections, House Republican leaders have put together a list of experienced Washington hands to help fill top staff positions for the surge of newly elected outsiders.

Leading the effort are Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Ugh. We’re voting for these people because they’re outsiders. We don’t want your insiders infiltrating and corrupting these people. This is so very wrong and exactly the thing citizens need be on the lookout for over the next two years.

The Cocktail Party thinks that come January, they’ll be running the show. They still haven’t gotten it, but they will. The Tea Party is running the show. We have the leaders. Now you can follow or get out of the way.

Too Controversial? Hardly



Is this commercial controversial? Maybe a bit. But, it’s also deftly done and reminds us once more what H.G. Wells was writing about. Paradoxically, Steven Jobs sounds more like the man on the screen these days, but that’s beside the point. Remember the mood of 1984. We’d experienced the promise of peace with Reagan, but all of us were still worried about Big Government and Big Brother.

It only ran once, during Superbowl XVIII, but is highly memorable.

The woman with the sledgehammer shows us that all it takes is one person to stand up to oppression, one voice that will not be silenced. Without directly injecting politics, there’s no doubt that there was a political side to this ad and that side was not a pretty one.

Still, I don’t recall anyone complaining that the ad was “too controversial”. In point of fact, the ad received numerous awards and is regularly touted as not just the best ad of that year, but one of the best ads ever.

Now compare to another ad, this one from the Citizens Against Government Waste.

The tone is strikingly similar. In many ways, it’s kind of the “It’s A Wonderful Life” version of the Apple ad, as it shows where we could be without the woman in the red shorts.

This ad is definitely political, but I don’t believe any more “controversial” than the Apple one. While it’s ironic that someone from China would be talking about America dying because of government largesse, perhaps that’s the scariest part of the entire ad. Or perhaps the scariest part of the ad is just how believable it is.

Still, the History Channel and A&E regard the ad as too controversial and refuse to air it. I see that the History Channel has a show called “Armageddon” and another called “Life After People”. And A&E has one called “Obsessed” and another called “Billy the Exterminator” not to mention reality shows about the families of “KISS” and “Twisted Sister” stars. So, I guess they’re experts on “controversial”.

Or, perhaps they’re experts on burying their heads in the sand.

I keep hammering on the fact that the pace we’re on is unsustainable (and this won’t be the last time). This ad shows why.

Both ads are terrific if you ask me, but the Apple 1984 ad isn’t my favorite one time Superbowl ad. For that you have to go to Superbowl XXXVI:

 

We can prevent the future scene from the Apple ad and the CAGW ad, as well as preventing more events like 9/11. But we’re running out of time.

7 days until the first step. You can choose whether to be one of the mindless drones in the audience, or to be the woman with the sledgehammer. The choice is yours.

The flood is coming.

UPDATE: Apple ad wouldn’t display. Fixed.

25 October, 2010

President Obama, You Go Too Far



Ok, now I’m mad.

President Barack Obama (D-USA) has a history of inserting subtle but still racially charged phrases into his speeches. Phrases designed to strike a chord with his black (sorry, I don’t do the whole hyphen American thing—deal with it) followers.

But today he went over the line.

Republican leadership should be demanding an apology for this.

He said Republicans had driven the economy into a ditch and then stood by and criticized while Democrats pulled it out. Now that progress has been made, he said, "we can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."

This is clearly designed to remind voters of a time when blacks had to sit in the back.

Well, guess what, Mr. President? Those days are long past. Although if not for Republicans, that might not be the case. Your own Democratic party never had the guts to take on racism, and still advances it every day when it suits their ends.

But not this time.

I’m not going to let you this time.

Two can play at this game, champ. I bet my line is better than yours.

Are you ready?

We’re not going to sit in the back any longer, Mr. President. Just like Rosa Parks, we’ve had enough.

And now a word from our sponsor:

But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.

Who’s the oppressor now, Mr. President? Who wants us to give in? Who is making us endure? Who is it that thinks that common Americans are “bitter clingers” and treats us like second class citizens.

You, Mr. President. Actually, I’m being kind. You treat non-citizens better than us.

It’s bad enough you want to destroy my country, Mr. President, but being President doesn’t give you the right to use these bigoted and racist themes.

You, sir, are a disgrace to the office you now hold.

In 8 days I’m going to cast my vote, and it won’t be for any Democrats. The flood is coming, Mr. President.

And you’re in the way.

24 October, 2010

Fiscal Irresponsibility



It’s a cliché, but it’s true. You never stop being a parent. Even if all your children have graduated from college, gotten married, and moved out on their own. They’re still your children, and it’s up to you to watch over them and give them advice and to set a good example.

I had to set my two daughters down for a long talk this weekend. Neither of them have jobs or any source of income, and together they’re almost $90,000 in debt. They don’t have the assets to pay this off, or anything on the horizon that might indicate they’ll be able to pay it off anytime in the near or distant future.

What would you tell your children? What would you do?

I wanted to cut up their credit cards, but they don’t have any. I wanted to sell their cars, but they don’t have any of those either. They’ve never even applied for a loan of any kind.

You see, my daughters are 6 and 3.

The $43,000 in debt that they each owe is their share of the $13 trillion that America owes.

Since President Barack Obama (D-USA) took office, their share of the debt has increased by $9,000. Each. Add the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006 and it’s another $4,000. Each.

No, Speaker Pelosi (D-CA-08), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Barack Obama didn’t create this problem for my daughters. We had over 200 years to get into this fiscal mess. But the Democrats have hit new heights of fiscal irresponsibility, even for “tax and spend” Democrats.

I love my daughters. I can’t bear to look at them knowing the financial burden being placed upon them and not do something about it.

I’m sure you feel the same way about your own children. I hope you do, anyway.

If this doesn’t bother you, stay home on November 2. Or vote Democrat.

As for me, I’m going to do something about it. I still want a brighter future for my two wonderful daughters.

November 2 is 9 days away. The flood is coming.

College Football Week 9



Congratulations to Virginia Tech, Baylor, Nebraska, Northern Illinois, Temple, Arizona, Stanford, and Mississippi State, which all became bowl eligible this week. That brings the number of bowl eligible teams to 22. There are 35 bowls this season so we’ll need 70 bowl eligible teams.

Condolences to Minnesota, Bowling Green, Washington State, Eastern Michigan, San Jose State, and New Mexico which made the bowl ineligibility list. That brings the number of teams ineligible for bowls to 8.

There are 120 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (the division formerly known as D-1A) for those keeping score at home. So, if the number of ineligible teams reaches 51, we have a problem.

Ratings?

Computer top 5:

  1. Missouri
  2. TCU
  3. Oregon
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Auburn

The computer rating is a composite of a “Win”-based rating much like what’s used in the BCS, and a somewhat Margin-Of-Victory (MOV) based rating.

In case you’re interested in the breakdown, here’s Win:

  1. Missouri
  2. Auburn
  3. Oklahoma
  4. TCU
  5. LSU

MLE (maximum likelihood estimates):

  1. Oregon
  2. TCU
  3. Missouri
  4. Alabama
  5. Boise State

23 October, 2010

October 23, 1983



I posted this two years ago, and it’s as relevant now as it was then.

25 years ago today, October 23, 1983, modern suicide bombing was invented. The U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 241 Americans, including 220 Marines, 18 from the Navy, and 3 from the Army. Two minutes later, there was a similar (obviously coordinated) bombing at the French 1st Parachute Infantry Regiment barracks, killing 58 French paratroopers.

Hey, and President Barack Obama (D-USA) would be proud. I mentioned Slurpees.

Terrorism matters. Iran matters. Think about what happened 25 years ago today and what happened on September 11, 2001 when you're drinking your Slurpee and watching W. Think about them on November 4 when you're in that voting booth and think about which candidate wants to fight against Islamic terrorism and which one wants to "hope for change". Hope is a good thing, but hoping that Iran is going to change until and unless forced to do so, is insane.

I’m through hoping for change.

Crunch Time

There are two things you often hear from people seeking office who are behind in the polls.

  1. This is an endurance race, not a sprint.
  2. The only poll that matters is the one on election day.

Well, the first may have been true six months ago, but if you’re not sprinting now, you’re in trouble.

As for the second, that may also be true, but polls this close to election day start to be pretty accurate.

If you’re behind now, you better have some sort of ace up your sleeve to pull this out. If you’re ahead, you better keep doing whatever has worked for you, only do more of it.

For the GOP, the Dems will be trying to pull out anything they think might be an ace. They’re going to use some of the sleaziest ads of all time. We’ve seen that already. They will also flat out lie about policy issues. We’ve seen that too. They’ll resort to scare tactics. Check.

There are only ten days left. I started this countdown at 40 days out, but now it’s crunch time. The next ten days are hugely important. If you haven’t voted with your money yet, do so. If you haven’t voted with your time yet, do so. In ten days vote at the ballot box.

It’s time to give it everything you’ve got. Whether you’re the person running for office or someone supporting him/her. As David Farragut said [paraphrased]:

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

Or, if you prefer something more recent than the Civil War, try Lauren Holly:

Listen.

22 October, 2010

Lamestream Media: Quit Making Things Up!



Sorry, had to borrow that quote from Sarah Palin, especially as this is yet another Palin post.

Yesterday, Jonathan Martin at Politico dropped a mini-bombshell regarding Sarah Palin.

According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign logistics and planning. She offers little notice about her availability, refuses to do certain events, is obsessive about press coverage and sometimes backs out with as little lead time as she gave in the first place.

[…]

But the high-maintenance aspects of dealing with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee have angered and frustrated some conservative candidates and aides who once thought highly of Palin and, for more skeptical Republicans, simply confirmed their view that she’s self-centered and unhelpful to the cause.

The article goes on to discuss issues with the campaign of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA),  and the Iowa GOP. According to the article there have been issues with the campaign of Rand Paul as well.

She’s been giving talk show hosts fits as well, says the article, including Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck.

Only one problem with the article. Well, several problems, actually, if you want to count the same problem when it occurs multiple times.

Just about every single person mentioned in the article has come out and said the same thing: “It’s a lie. We’ve never had any trouble with Sarah Palin. No one from Politico contacted me or anyone on my staff about this article.” In addition, they’ve been consistent in calling for a retraction.

Chuck Grassley:

Eric Woolson, spokesperson for Senator Chuck Grassley’s campaign, for the record said, that the anonymous source “does not represent the Senator’s views.”  So evidently Senator Grassley was not displeased with any interaction they had with the Palin camp.

Iowa GOP:

All Iowa Republicans should be grateful for Governor Palin’s support for the Iowa GOP and for making our annual Reagan Dinner a record-breaking success. The funds raised at the dinner featuring Governor Palin supported a voter program that will benefit all our Republican candidates.

Mark Levin:

Glenn Beck:

And Charlie Davis, CEO of the Southern Republican Leadership Council (not named in Martin’s article as far as I can see) volunteered the following:

As most of you know the 2010 SRLC was the largest Republican Leadership Conference in over 30 years – with more speakers, more press and more attendees than ever before.

I interacted with every major GOP personality in the country leading up to the conference and can tell you first hand that the only thing different about Governor Palin was the intensity of the interest from the attendees, sponsors and even other speakers.

Governor Palin’s staff was incredibly easy to deal with and very professional.

She’s easily the most requested surrogate our party has and it’s a shame that Republicans would rather gripe that they can’t get more of her time instead of being appreciative of everything that she does do.

So, for those of you keeping score, Juan Williams gets fired from NPR for telling the truth, and Jonathan Martin (so far) gets to keep his job at Politico for lying through his teeth.

24 Years In The Military Doesn’t Count As ‘Public Service’



29 days ago, I started this “40 days and 40 nights” of the great flood series. The point of it was to remind myself and my readers (both of you) what is so important about the election on November 2nd. Generally the tone of each of these 40 posts has been “these liberals are stupid and arrogant and unfit to serve”. Sometimes I find several things I want to talk about at once, so I hold them for a few days, assuring myself I’ll have something to blog about. But most of the time, I just get up in the morning wondering if the libs will do something stupid enough for me to have a topic that day.

And you know what? The libs never disappoint.

Today’s topic: public service.

 

Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA-08) says that Patrick Murray, his opponent  has no record of public service, unlike him, who originally drove to Congress in his brand new Model T.

Well, Congressman, your opponent has had a little bit of public service, it turns out.

Moran’s opponent happens to be Col. Patrick Murray (US Army-Ret.), who served 24 years in uniform, was deployed to four different combat zones, including Baghdad, as part of the 2007 troop surge under Gen. David Petraeus, and was even shot at by foreign combatants. If that isn’t public service, I don’t know what is.

I’m sorry, Congressman, I think four combat tours more than qualifies as public service. If anything, he might be overqualified for Congress. Certainly your public service credentials are no match for his.

Here’s another man who needs to get hit by the flood. Hard. This kind of condescending attitude is inexcusable. I’d never vote for someone who said something like this, no matter what letter they had after their name.

Oh, and one more thing.

Colonel Murray, thank you.

11 more days.

21 October, 2010

It’s All Bush’s Fault



From a commenter this morning in the Washington Post:

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this: January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:

At the time:
1. The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
2. The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
3. The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
4. George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Remember the day…

1. January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.

2. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy? BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

3. Thank Congress for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment to this CRISIS by dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiasco’s!

(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001, because it was financially risky for the U.S. economy, but no one was listening).

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA.

‘Nuff said.

hat tip: The Greenroom.

Elections Have Consequences



 

These are the people who represent us. They’re supposed to work for us. Do they sound like they realize that? Or do they sound like they feel that they know better and we should shut up and get out of their way?

12 days until the flood. Show every one of these people the door.

hat tip: RedState.

Will The Real Islamophobes Please Stand Up?



One of the many hysterical attacks on the right from the left is accusing us of Islamophobia.

Stop me if you’ve heard me say this before.

There’s a word for this. It’s called “projection”.

Let’s go to the tape, shall we?

Was it the left or the right that fired Juan Williams for admitting that seeing Muslims on airplanes makes him nervous? The left. And this certainly wasn’t because what he said was “over the line”. Remember this is the person that once called Sarah Palin a “centerfold for Republican men”.  No, it was because he dared say something bad about Muslims. You’re not allowed to that if you work for the Islamophobic left.

Was it the left of the right that would not allow the publishing of the Danish cartoons which caricatured the Prophet Mohammed? The left.

Was it the left or the right that would again cringe at the idea of publishing the cartons in a book about the cartoons? The left.

John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said the press has a long history of defending free expression, but the risk of violence in this case, outweighed the benefit of including the images, which can easily be found on the Internet.

Was it the left or the right that decided that the word terrorism should be replaced with “man-caused disasters”? The left.

Was it the left or the right that continuously defers from associating “man-caused disasters” with Muslims? The left.

Was it the left or the right that decided to prosecute Geert Wilders merely for having the temerity to speak out against radical Islam? The left.

Was it the left or the right that wouldn’t print a “Where’s Mohammed” cartoon that didn’t even include the image of Mohammed? The left.

Was it the left or the right that censored the television series South Park from showing an image of Mohammed or even talking about him? The left.

The left, particularly the MSM in the left, has made it plain that they will not tolerate anything that might offend practictioners of the peaceful religion of Islam, and if you dare attempt it, they will hang you out to dry.

Now, I ask again, who are the real Islamophobes?

Why I Can’t Take the NAACP Seriously



Yesterday, the NAACP released its report on the Tea Party and racism. They have a nice little website to go along with it: www.teapartynationalism.com.

Their biggest “evidence” of racism is the claim by Congressmen John Lewis (D-GA-05) and Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN-07) that racial epithets were shouted at them by Tea Partiers on the day before the health care vote.

I’ve been pretty blunt lately. Let me continue.

John Lewis and Andre Carson are liars.

The events they described never happened. Four videos of the scene in question have been brought to light. None of them show the events unfolding the way these gentlemen describe. Not one piece of evidence has yet been unearthed that corroborates their story, despite an offer of $100,000 for such evidence by Andrew Breitbart.

Several months have gone by. No one has come forward to claim the money.

Recently, a UCLA grad student named Emily Elkins decided to look into these claims of racism at Tea Party events. She took a novel approach. She went to the 9/12 March in Washington D.C. and photographed every single sign she saw.

The results?

Ekins photographed about 250 signs, and more than half of those she saw reflected a "limited government ethos," she found - touching on such topics as the role of government, liberty, taxes, spending, deficit and concern about socialism. Examples ranged from the simple message "$top the $pending" scrawled in black-marker block letters to more elaborate drawings of bar charts, stop signs and one poster with the slogan "Socialism is Legal Theft" and a stick-figure socialist pointing a gun at the head of a taxpayer.

There were uglier messages, too - including "Obama Bin Lyin' - Impeach Now" and "Somewhere in Kenya a Village is Missing its Idiot." But Ekins's analysis showed that only about a quarter of all signs reflected direct anger with Obama. Only 5 percent of the total mentioned the president's race or religion, and slightly more than 1 percent questioned his American citizenship.

But such evidence didn’t stop Ben Jealous,  President of the NAACP.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said tea party groups must repudiate any racist elements within their ranks and prevent them from using tea party events as a platform for views against ethnic and religious minorities.

“These groups and individuals are out there, and we ignore them at our own peril,” Mr. Jealous said. “The danger is not that the majority of Tea Party members share their views, but that left unchecked, these extremists might indirectly influence the direction of the Tea Party.”

Notice the creative use of innuendo here. He never comes out and directly says that the Tea Party is racist, just that they should “repudiate any racist elements within their ranks”. You know, that’s a good idea for any organization. I think any time any group congregates they should start out by saying “Anybody out here who is a racist, we don’t want you here and we’re not interested in what you have to say”. This should apply at Tea Party rallies, Amway conventions, church picnics, boy scout camp outs, stockholder meetings, etc. Clearly what Mr. Jealous suggests is ludicrous.

IF racist elements attempt to “influence the direction” of your group, yes, you should put a stop to it, and call them out. Until then, they are best left ignored (usually). You give such fringe elements power when you recognize them.

The NAACP has long since lost sight of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

[…]

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

The NAACP is all about divisiveness. It has forgotten that what King wanted was inclusiveness. In fact, the Tea Party and the NAACP should be working hand-in-hand. They both claim to desire the same thing: freedom. Of course, the NAACP is no longer interested in freedom. They long ago shackled themselves to the Democratic party, and have no desire to free themselves from those shackles. Thus, any attempt to lessen the power of the Democrats, or worse yet, to lessen the hold the Democrats have over blacks, is cause for fear and alarm.

For more about the NAACP’s surreal attempts to tar the Tea Party with unfounded accusations of racism and extremism, go here.

20 October, 2010

Why I Can’t Take Paul Krugman Seriously



I’ve gotten into a little hot water recently for comments I’ve left on a couple blogs suggesting that noted economist Nobel Laureate Dr. Paul Krugman isn’t the smartest man in the universe.

Let me be more blunt. I don’t think he can count past ten without taking off his shoes.

Krugman is a fanatic regarding Keynesian economics. When I have time, I plan to do a whole series on just how dumb Keynesian economics is, but when I do, I want to document my case thoroughly, and I’m only about halfway through my research. It’s coming, though.

Anyway, in a recent article for the New York Times, he wrote (emphasis mine):

Here’s the narrative you hear everywhere: President Obama has presided over a huge expansion of government, but unemployment has remained high. And this proves that government spending can’t create jobs.

Here’s what you need to know: The whole story is a myth. There never was a big expansion of government spending. In fact, that has been the key problem with economic policy in the Obama years: we never had the kind of fiscal expansion that might have created the millions of jobs we need.

Krugman keeps saying that Obama’s biggest problem is that he hasn’t spent nearly enough. This is the crux of Keynesian economics. There’s no hole so big that you can’t spend your way out of it. Of course, this is a ludicrous proposition when the economic crisis is caused by too much debt, and the “solution” is to acquire more debt, but logic has never been a strong suit of Keynesians.

He says this later in the article:

So as I said, the big government expansion everyone talks about never happened. This fact, however, raises two questions. First, we know that Congress enacted a stimulus bill in early 2009; why didn’t that translate into a big rise in government spending? Second, if the expansion never happened, why does everyone think it did?

Answers. 1) It did. 2) They’re smarter than you are.

As rebuttal I offer the following graph:

Well, as I said. I don’t believe that math is Dr. Krugman’s strong suit.

Let me lay it out in numbers. They’re big ones, so I don’t expect Dr. Krugman to understand, but hopefully you will.

Federal spending went from 20.7% of GDP in 2008 to 25.4% this year. 25.4% is the highest percentage since WWII. But it ain’t just percentages of GDP I’m talking about. We can look at raw numbers.

2008 federal spending was $2.983 trillion. A hefty sum, to say the least. 2010 spending? $3.720 trillion. For those keeping score at home, that’s nearly a 25% increase in federal spending. In two years.

Allow me to be blunt once more. If you don’t think that a 25% increase in spending over two years is a “big government expansion”, then you’re just as dumb as he is.

And if you quote Krugman in an effort to make a point, I will continue to ridicule you.

For more info, go here.

AP Can See The Wave Coming



And it’s big.

All signs point to huge Republican victories in two weeks, with the GOP now leading Democrats on virtually every measure in an Associated Press-GfK poll of people likely to vote in the first major elections of Barack Obama's presidency.

But the devil is in the details. And they’re not just bad for Democrats, but horrible.

In another worrisome sign for Democrats, women now split pretty evenly between the two parties, 49 percent favoring Democrats, 45 percent Republicans. In 2006, Democrats took over Capitol Hill in part by winning 55 percent of the female vote to 43 percent for Republicans.

[…]

52 percent have a favorable impression of the GOP; 44 percent view the Democratic Party positively.

I can’t remember the last time the GOP got a 52 favorable rating from an AP poll. Not even in the post 9/11 aftermath was it that high.

Democrats have struggled to find a winning message in such tough economic times. This could explain why: Just a third of likely voters think the massive economic stimulus package — designed by Obama and his Democrats — has improved the economy.

They're just as down on other parts of the president's agenda as well, with a majority of likely voters opposing his remake of the country's health care system. They are divided over whether to change the law to expand it or repeal it entirely.

There is just no good news for the Dems at all in this poll. Every single line is bad, and it generally gets worse as you go on.

However, a small word of caution, and it goes along with what I wrote last week about the GOP possibly peaking too soon.

The more I study the pollsters, and the cross tabs, and notice the real variance between the pollsters on the details, the more I begin to think the following is true.

I have decided that the pollsters…all of the pollsters…don’t have any clue what’s going to happen on November 2. None of them have ever experienced an election like this. And what’s worse, the last election was also extremely unusual, in completely the opposite direction. So, they’re throwing darts at a dartboard when it comes to projecting likely voter turnout, and party affiliation.

Add to that the fact that off year elections are notoriously difficult to project, almost as bad as primaries, and I don’t think anyone truly knows where we are.

I’m not even 100% certain we’ll take the House. On the other hand I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 70 seat GOP gain. Or more.

For the Senate, it’s not much better. Somewhere between 5 and 12 seats. You pick the number you like, and you’re just as likely to be correct as Rasmussen, SurveyUSA, Gallup, Zogby, etc.

So, cross your fingers and do whatever you can personally do to get your candidates over the finish line.

Then, when you get home from work on November 2, break out the popcorn, prop your feet up and turn on FNC. It’s gonna be a late night.

13 days until the flood. Where’s Charlton Heston when you need him? Oh yeah. Too bad. He would have enjoyed this, I think.

19 October, 2010

Party Like It’s 1773



Ok, there’s a zillion blog posts out there about this already, so one more is hardly needed.

But this blog has been unabashed in its support for Sarah Palin for two years, and this is the funniest thing I’ve read all year. Too bad I already did “Libs Say The Darndest Things” because this would work well in it.

So, what am I talking about?

Sarah Palin kicked off the nationwide Tea Party Express tour on Monday and during her speech, she told the audience of Tea Partiers:

Don’t party like it’s 1773 yet.

She was telling them that the fight’s not over until true conservatives control Washington.

Well, the liberal twittersphere went ballistic over her “gaffe”. Follow the link for several of the tweets, but I’ll show a couple:

For those that don’t know Markos above is the founder of the Netroots organization and the biggest lefty site, DailyKos. And Gwen Ifill is the PBS newsperson who “moderated” the VP debate in 2008.

So, yeah, this is clearly a gaffe. What could she have been thinking?

Maybe she was thinking that she was talking to Tea Partiers and that the Boston Tea Party was in 1773? Whaddya think? Maybe?

Sorry Kos et al. As the cool kids say, you’ve just been pwned.

What’s the line?

Oh yes. Libs, you could benefit from this one.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. –Unknown

I’m sorry, but I just can not stop laughing.  Follow some of the other links.

Perfunction

Memeorandum

Michelle Malkin

Ace of Spades

HotAir

I’m sure Rush, Sean, and Glenn will all have something to say about this tomorrow as well.

I’m still laughing.

HELL NO!



Wow, Rush is on a tear today, and the object of his attack is the GOP leadership. He believes that they will cave to MSM pressure and “work to find compromises” with the President. He points out that Democratic controlled Congresses are never faulted for their inability to find compromise with Republican Presidents, but we knew that already.

Rush is right to be angry about this possibility. And the MSM has already started it’s push for it.

Allow me to quote myself for a moment:

We’re watching you.

We’ll elect you if we think you’re right for us, but if you don’t represent us, we’ll replace you. And we don’t care how long you’ve been around. In fact, how long you’ve been around may actually be a detriment to you. And a lot of us don’t care what letter you have after your name. We just want you to represent US, and not yourself. We don’t want your corrupt, politics-as-usual power grabs. We don’t want any hint of you thinking that you’re better than we are. And if we think that’s what we’re getting, we will send you packing so fast it will make your head swim.

GOP, we’re still watching. And we’ll be watching you closer than ever.

Compromise is not an option. You can not compromise with people who want to destroy the country. This is what you did for most of the term of President George W. Bush (R-USA). You decided that it was ok to just destroy the country slower. In the process you nearly destroyed the Republican party.

If you want to finish off what you started, and accomplish the MSM’s 40 year goal of destroying the GOP, please go ahead and compromise. Because I guarantee you that if you do, come 2012, I’ll be shopping for a new party. And I won’t be the only one.

As Sarah Palin has said, we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

And we expect nothing less from you. It’s very simple, be the party of “Hell no!” or we’ll replace you with someone who will.

Molly Norris & Freedom Of Speech



Regular followers of this blog know that the First Amendment is a big deal to me. There was a huge First Amendment story in the United States earlier this year, and I didn’t comment on it at the time. I’m rectifying that now.

This story is about a woman named Molly Norris. I assume you’ve heard of her, but if you get all your news from NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and the New York Times, then you haven’t. Sadly, she doesn’t even have a page in Wikipedia. On the other hand, maybe that’s appropriate.

Molly Norris is a political cartoonist. You know, one of those folks that draws George W. Bush and makes him look like Alfred E. Neuman, or makes Barack Obama’s ears look like Dumbo’s. Anyway, earlier this year, she drew what she thought would be a humorous political cartoon. It was called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”.

This was a response to what many people claimed was censorship of a South Park episode depicting Mohammed. As you know, the Muslim faith forbids creation of any likeness of the Prophet. The South Park episode was altered after completion to have Mohammed’s face blurred and several sections were “bleeped” out.

So, Molly was trying to a) have some fun, b) respond satirically to this perceived censorship, and c) poke some fun at Muslims. This type of thing is expected behavior for a political satirist.

According to her, the entire point of the cartoon was satire. She says that she never really meant for May 20, 2010 to be “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. It was a joke. She points out that in the cartoon all the images claim to be the likeness of Mohammed, but they’re quite clearly not. She found herself and the cartoon to be at the center of a media and grass roots political firestorm. She even tried to stop the movement and stop the event from occurring.

Then, of course, came the death threats. This is what happens when you mock the peaceful religion of Islam. As others have discovered previously.

On July 11, 2010 it was reported that Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had put Molly Norris on a hitlist. In an English-language Al Qaeda magazine named "Inspire," Al-Awlaki wrote "The medicine prescribed by the Messenger of Allah is the execution of those involved." and was quoted as saying "The large number of participants makes it easier for us because there are more targets to choose from in addition to the difficulty of the government offering all of them special protection [...] But even then our campaign should not be limited to only those who are active participants." FBI officials have reportedly notified Norris warning her they consider it a "very serious threat."

Okay, so that was back in May. What has Molly been up to since?

No one knows. You see, there is no more Molly.

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, "going ghost": moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It's all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon.

This woman has been sent into hiding by our federal government, and the feds aren’t even picking up the tab. If you use your favorite search engine and look up “obama ‘molly norris’” you’ll find that President Barack Obama (D-USA) has had nothing to say on the issue.

He has time to criticize Republicans for “sipping Slurpees” and time to attack the Chamber of Commerce but no time to defend Molly Norris or to defend her free speech.

This is appalling and disgusting. In fact, it may be the most reprehensible thing yet from this administration. And you have to leap pretty high to clear that bar.

If Molly Norris’ right to free speech has been lost, then we have all lost it. If our President won’t stand up against radical Islam to protect an innocent U.S. citizen, then the war on terror is lost. Every time we acquiesce to the demands of radical Islam it emboldens them. Every time we cower in fear over their potential response to an action, we lose.

Mr. President, you have failed your country. You have failed the entire world.

I hope the GOP makes the next two years of your life a living Hell.

14 days. I can see November from my house.