Virginia Abortion Politics Become Weirder

By weirder, I mean ‘fucked’.

Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia, plays hardball on the abortion issue:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has concluded that the state can impose stricter oversight over clinics that perform abortions, a move immediately decried by abortion-rights organizations and others as an attempt to circumvent the General Assembly, which has repeatedly rejected similar measures.
Cuccinelli’s legal opinion empowers the Board of Health, if it chooses, to require the clinics to meet hospital-type standards. Abortion-rights advocates say that could force some clinics to close because they would be unable to afford to meet the new requirements.

Can’t afford it? Really?

No, really.  They simply cannot afford these odious business-killing new regulations.

Evans noted that Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) recently achieved the status of a billion-dollar industry: between the fiscal years 2003 and 2008, abortion expanded from an 810 million dollar business to 1.038 billion-dollar industry, breaking the billion dollar revenue mark in FY06-07.

Over this time period, the nation’s largest abortion provider saw its stake in the abortion market dramatically increase from 245,092 abortions (raking in $88.2 million in 2003) to 305,310 abortions (yielding $122.1 million in 2007). 

Planned Parenthood was last seen yelling, “Pay no attention to the piles of money falling out of our asses from scraping unborn infants.”

Whatever. 

Let me mark this as the first time in the history that a knee-jerk leftist organization was concerned about the heavy hand of government oversight hurting the profitability of a business.  What sort of enterprise are we talking about, again?  Making sure babies aren’t born.

It’s also hilarious to see just how Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion mill industry arranges it’s priorities.  Pro-choice folks frequently return to the comforting formulation that abortion should be ‘safe, legal and rare.’  When push comes to shove, it seems that safety and rarity take a back seat to maintaining the unregulated legality of abortion.

The new pro-abortion catch phrase should be “Safe, Legal & Rare: One Outta Three Ain’t Bad, Right Gals?”

I got the original Pundit & Pundette link from Little Miss Atilla.  Thanks.

Speaking of “The Expendables”…

Here’s Giselle Itie, the main cutie in Sylvester Stallone’s latest magnum opus.  Enjoy, ya’all.

*Cue springy juvenile ’boing’ noise.

UPDATE:  Hey just wanted to say hi to all the folks coming in from The Other McCain’s spot.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you enjoy the scenery.

Blog De KingShamus:  Come for the view, stay for the right-wing political snark!

Cabela’s – The Gun Nut SuperMegaUltra Store

This past Sunday was going to be a sleepy little day.  The weather was supposed to be crap.  Nothing was going on. 

Leave it to my father to come up with the genius idea of trekking out to Cabela’s.  He had told me stories of this wonderland of outdoor death and danger, but I didn’t really believe his tall tales.  Here was a chance for me to see if my father was exaggerating.

Turns out he was telling the truth about everything-except the distance of the trip.  From the depths of the Garbage State to the dozy hamlet of Hamburg in Penn’s Wooded Land meant hours of commuting.  Luckily for us ZZ Top, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters were to be had in plentiful supply.  The speakers in our transport were given a thorough workout and found to be pleasantly deafening.

Once at Cabela’s I was immediately struck by the size of the place.  ’Massive’ doesn’t do it justice.  It was as if the Cabela’s architects decided to create a high-end hunting lodge, then fed it East German women’s swimmer-sized doses of steroids while simultaneously injecting it with Barry Bonds levels of human growth hormone.   If we’re talking about just the retail space, no stand alone store I’ve ever been in matches it.  Not the largest Best Buy, not the biggest grocery mega-store, not the most ginormous Wal-Mart.  You could probably drop a Costco or two into the place and still have plenty of room.  At least, that’s what it felt like.

Just what is sold there, you ask?  Everything awesome and nothing lame.  Guns, ammo, knives, fishing rods, bait, tackle, canoes, kayaks as well as nearly anything you’d need to store, clean, repair or take care of all that stuff.  All of these things (and more) were found in huge quantities.  It seemed like no amount of buyers could put a dent in the storehouse of pure bad-ass that was Cabela’s inventory.  At one point, the lines at checkout stretched from the cashier’s machines at the front of the store to 3/4 of the way to the back wall.  I know because I was in it.

Even if you weren’t buying anything, there was still things to see.  You could stroll through the gun library and take a look at $15,000 weapons of mass sweetness.  There was a salmon pond which seemed to fascinate the little kids.  There was a restaurant but I didn’t get to sample the cuisine.  Most impressive was a huge man-made mountain.  Festooned all over this structure were stuffed game animals from across North America.  Bears, Geese, Rams, Coyotes, Pheasants, Bobcats, Doves, Moose, Mountain Lions, Ducks, Wolves, Deer-basically anything you could hunt on our continent was there.  It was beautiful but oddly poignant; it made you sorta sad for all the animals you haven’t yet gotten a chance to kill.

What did I get out my trip to Cabela’s?  You mean, besides the bullets? 

The thing that hit me as I left is that there is still a huge market for hunting, fishing and other traditionally American activities.  You don’t go through the huge hassle and the enormous expense of building something like this if you don’t expect to turn a profit.  Related to that is the fact that American culture still creates bushels of outdoorsy type folks.  I saw licence plates from Virginia, Ohio, New York, Maryland, even the Carolinas.  There were men and women in abundance.  There were blacks, whites and Hispanics in great numbers.  The beautiful diversity of America was on display, all in the pursuit of diversions of the un-climate controlled variety. 

There is something magical about the outdoors that draws people from disparate backgrounds.  Cabela’s may be an example of gauche capitalism.  In some ways it’s a big box store for gun nuts, fishing freaks and granola-huffing hikers.  However and more importantly, Cabela’s is a reflection of America’s deep-seated desire to get out of the house and interact with nature in numerous ways.

That’s just plain awesome when you think about it.

Movie Review-The Expendables

The action movie is a tired old genre.  It’s male-centric in extremis, simplistic and violent.  The bad guys are unfailingly horrid.  The good guys are unflinchingly decent.  That’s what many of the important critics say about this red-headed stepchild of the motion picture industry.

Into the teeth of that widespread critical opinion marches “The Expendables”, starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li and a whole host of Hollywood tough guys. 

The movie tells the story of a team of mercenaries who do heavy duty wet work for profit.  Tasked by a shadowy CIA operative named Church (Bruce Willis, in a fun cameo) with taking out a military dictator in the (fictional) South American island country of Vilena, Barney Ross (Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Statham) do reconnaissance on the situation.  They soon find the job complicated by the presence of Sandra (Giselle Itié), their contact for the mission who also happens to be the daughter of General Garza (David Zayas), the leader of Vilena.  Garza is not only a thug, he’s also wrapped up in a cocaine running scheme with rogue American intelligence agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts).  In between all that, the viewer is treated to generous servings of fire fights, double-crosses, fisticuffs, car chases, gun porn and male bravado.

So no, we’re not dealing with the second coming of “Hamlet” here.  But we are confronted with an unpretentious, expertly crafted movie that does exactly what it means to accomplish.  Not only that, you get shitloads of manic fun.

Watch Stallone and Co. run around blowing stuff up and kicking massive amounts of ass.  After that, go ahead and sit through pretentious hand wringing anti-American slop like ”The Bourne” movies.  If Barney Ross and his crew of mercs inhabit a cartoonish un-reality, Jason Bourne occupies a universe that is just as divorced from our world as the one created in “The Expendables”.  The only difference is that Stallone’s story-and Stallone himself-makes no bones about the escapism of the film.  After self-important deadly-dull serious ‘action’ movies like “Syriana” or “Green Zone”, it’s incredibly refreshing to watch a flick that knows exactly what it’s supposed to be.

“The Expendables” is not perfect.  Dolph Lundgren still can’t act.  Eric Roberts still chews the scenery.  Stallone still can’t enunciate.  But these are trivialities.  In the positive, Sly can write a rousing yarn.  He can direct action sequences with the best filmmakers out there.  One more really nice thing:  the CGI stuff that has seemingly taken over every movie put out by Hollywood nowadays is reasonably unobtrusive.  What a relief.

Best of all, Stallone puts his cast into perfect situations for their abilities.  None of the cast is going to be found in the next Henrik Ibsen revival.  But each (male) role gets a chance to shine in some way.  The fight between Jet Li and Lundgren manages to be funny and serious all at once.  Toll Road’s (Randy Couture) insecurity is good for a laugh.  Hale Ceasar’s (Terry Crews) gun fetishization is kinda scary but also really hilarious.  Mickey Rourke is given a quiet introspective moment that ties the movie together.  The friendly ball-busting chemistry between Christmas and Ross is a winning part of the movie’s formula.

Oh yeah, and while doing all that, “The Expendables” still manages to hit all the right action movie notes in the most satisfying ways.  You want explosions?  Stallone’s second language is ‘Massive Fireball with an Accent From the Kaboom Region of BlowUpLand ’.  You need some hot babes?  Charisma Carpenter and Giselle Itié are really easy on the eyes.  Got a hankering for guns?  The film doubles as an NRA recruitment video.  Interested in seeing bad guys get their just desserts?  Ross’ team kills the fucking shit out of dudes in an assortment of gleefully gory and totally rockin’ ways.

If you understand what “The Expendables” is meant to do, you will not be disappointed.  To hell with the critics and their twinkish stupid opinions.   See this movie and know the enduring charm of a well-made action adventure movie.

What Needs To Be Done In November

Ace of Spades has a seering lesson for us as we get closer to the most crucial midterm elections in 20 years.   

For forty years liberals operated under a rule: “Don’t scare the bear.” The bear was the American electorate, skeptical of liberalism and hostile to socialism. So every liberal had to be afraid of the bear, approach it gingerly, be well-behaved, make small movements only.

For ten years, since 2000, liberal activists have been agitating for full-throated, unapologetic liberalism. In 2008, they got their wish — they elected the most socialist president in history and their Congress then became the most socialist congress ever.

 Now: They think there is no more rule “don’t scare the bear.” They have done everything possible to wake and rouse and agitate the bear.

The bear has two responses now:

1. It goes back to sleep.

2. It tears their fucking faces off and leaves them maimed for life.

If it does 1, they will continue with their shrill socialist takeover.

If the bear does 2, they will never dream of doing this again… or at least for thirty years, which is about how long it took them to forget the lessons of Carter and McGovern.

Either way, liberals will be taught a lesson this year.

This man speaks the truth.

Don’t get it twisted.  Few things in politics are permanently ‘settled’.  Alcoholic prohibition and black slavery are pretty much done in American life.  However, almost everything else is still fair game. 

You wouldn’t think that, but look at the civic life we lead.  Something as blaze-orange-in-a-lime-green-forest obvious as the Second Amendment and the individual right to keep and bear arms is endlessly debated.  Not only do people constantly look at whether gun rights apply to individuals, but the Second Amendment can muster only 5-4 decision when brought before the Supreme Court.  We’re talking about something written into the founding document of our government, not some rinky-dink state or federal statute.

When Ace talks about crushing the Left’s electoral hopes in November, he admits that this is not a permanent fix.  If things go to plan, it will only cause the statist caucus to back off, not go away completely.

But, here’s the cool part:  How bad we embarrass the Democrats in November determines how long they’ll remain docile.  If we just give them a slap on the wrist, they’ll be back in a few years.  Barack Obama and his Marxoid Congress of Crapulence will be a vaguely unpleasant little moment that the Donkey-Punchers will be hustling down the memory hole post haste.  Meanwhile, they’ll be pushing the latest Daily Kos-approved presidential candidate peddling more socialist nonsense.

Instead of that utterly demoralizing thought, here’s a better idea:  Wipe the Democrats off the political map.

But KingShamus, you ask, how do we do that?

As Ace advocates, we should pile on as hard as we possibly can.  If you live in a ‘safe’ GOP district, make sure it’s safe by 15-25 points at least.   Ain’t no half-steppin gonna cut the mustard here.  No 50.1%-49.9% squeaker margins will do in these cases.  Let whatever luckless brainless Democrat the Donks put up against the Republican know that he got his ass handed to him by the public on Election Day.  Better still, make whatever statist shitbag that decides to run in your district in 2012 knows that they’ve got a nearly impossible battle to fight in the next election cycle.  ”Oh, you can run in this congressional district, Mr. 2012 Democrat.  Go right ahead and run right into the teeth of our guy’s 70% victory in 2010.  I’ll get my popcorn.”

Even better than that would be if we can eradicate some Democrat seats in their so-called safe districts.  In every election, we always hear the same old conventional wisdom from the same old lamestream media.  They haughtily intone that there are many safe seats for the Democrats, so the Donks have a floor that they can’t fall through.  I say to hell with that.

I know a lot of districts have been gerrymandered all to shit.  I realize the power of long term incumbency is often tough to beat.  But if ever there was a year where those things are going to be easier to overcome it’s this year, when Congress is at 75% disapproval.  Republicans should find Democrat districts in blue states that are vulnerable and attack the shit out of them.   

Speaking of which, here’s Sissy Willis with a great piece about Sean Bielat, the man running against the embodiment of comatose liberal activism, Barney Frank.

 ”You can call me Congressman,” quipped Barney Frank challenger Sean Bielat when we asked permission to call him “Sean” during a cordial and informative phone interview yesterday. Incumbent Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee since 2007 and enthroned upon the “Frank Seat” (MA-4) for nearly 30 years, has grown politically fat and perhaps campaign lazy after decades in office without a serious opponent. We hear he’s been looking over his shoulder, polling the popularity of our man Sean since April, when Bielat’s RetireBarney campaign started building up steam. And Barney — May we call you Barney? — has started attacking his challenger by name, the surest sign that he’s taking Bielat’s candidacy seriously. 

Another sign that Bawwwny Fwank could be in trouble?  Scott Brown won the 4th congressional district back in 2009 when he swept into” Ted Kennedy’s” Senate seat.  The demographics of the district look very do-able as well. 

Let a tired old socialist bull from a formerly reliable Democrat district like Barney Frank get kicked out of Congress and it would be a big deal.  Let a number of the same types of crusty left-wing dickbags from blue areas get sent packing and it would be revolutionary.

Finally, you know what would really freak out Democrats?  If they could no longer claim that there are only white GOPer’s. 

The Hip-Hop Republican has a list of minority candidates.  Let’s take a gander at a few of these folks.

Allen West?  Conservative. 

Jaime Herrera?  Conservative.

Dr. Deborah Honeycutt?  Conservative. 

Marco Rubio?  Conservatives.

Isaac Hayes?  Conservative.  

Charles Djou?  Conservative.

Michel Faulkner?  Conservative.

Nikki Haley?  Conservative.

I know I’ve been riding this hobby-horse an awful lot lately, but I cannot stress it enough.  If Republicans support and elect non-white candidates, it would be great on many levels.  Just one of the really good things?  It would punch Democrats right where it hurts: their reliance on racial divisions and Balkanization to wedge minority voters away from their natural partisan leanings.

For decades, the Donkey-Punchers have relied on the fact that non-white voters have been too intimidated by Democrat fear-mongering to vote for Republicans.  Imagine a political setting where a stand-up man like Allen West could forcefully and credibly argue that conservative positions are not only not racist, but they will be a boon to black folks.  Think about the possibility of Nikki Haley talking to her fellow Americans about her personal journey and her common sensical views about race and religion.  Ponder the notion of Marco Rubio being able to discuss with Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike the necessity of border enforcement.

Such an environment would open up vast swaths of the electorate to conservative ideals that once could not be cracked by Republicans of the past.  The Democrats fear minorities clambering out of the nanny-state plantations they’ve erected.  If blacks, Hispanics and Asians have smart conservatives from their ethnicity to look at as role models, the idea of conservative minorities would not seem so absurd anymore.  In fact, within a short time it would be seen as a perfectly rational choice instead of the near race-betrayal that it’s viewed as in some circles.

What a mortal wound that would be for Democrats, who’ve invested so much time and energy making free-market constitutionalist positions seem evil for non-whites, to have to actually defend their loathsome paternalistic socialism on the merits, not just on racial fear.

Make no mistake.  This is an uphill climb.  Even though Obama and the Democrats have presented us with a target-rich political milieu, it’s still up to the rank-and-file to take full advantage of this moment.  If left to their own devices, the GOP would twiddle their thumbs and fritter this opportunity away, so let’s make sure they don’t do that.  As Ace suggests, the Democrats will learn a lesson this fall.  If we do this right, the teachable moments we give to th Donkeys in November will help to kill the socialist project.

Pile on, conservatives.  Pile on hard, early, often and in all the many splendidly painful ways you can dream up.

Christian Terrorism?

(Yes, I used this picture before.  Sorry, it’s just too perfect)

I want to come back to something the preeminent cock-knocker of our time, Mike Bloomberg, belched out the other day:

“Every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, [do you want someone to] run over and say, ‘OK, now where do you come from, who are your parents, where’d you get this money?’ . . . A handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves.”  

Not only is this a classless little smear on the part of Nurse Bloomie, it’s got a whiff of our old friend, Moral Equivalence.  Because nothing gives a liberal a rock hard boner more than negatively comparing Christianity to Islam.

But hey, why not indulge Mayor Mike’s magnificent retardation for a moment?

What would it take to make Christianity the moral equivalent to Islam?

There would have to be groups of Christians that call for violent acts in the name of Jesus.  It could not just be the rare lone gunman-type with a Bible stuffed into his drawers and a raging desire to kill people for Christ wilding out.  You’d need to have densely populated structures incorporated for the purpose of fomenting Jesus-inspired terror.  These organizations would be populated by leaders that call for Christians to use terror to spread Christianity.  The power of Christ would compel the members of these religious groups to do violence to other humans.

Ideally, the Christian terrorists in our scenario should be internationalist in scope.  These Super Splodey Jesus Freaks should have sleeper cells and quasi-independent franchises in places like Jakarta, Mumbai, Fallujah, Jerusalem, Aden, London, Paris, Philadelphia and Toronto.  All of them should be vocal about the supremacy of the Christian faith and how Jesus commands them to acts of violence.  Along with the multinational flavor of these groups, there should be members of Christian governments that covertly sponsor our hypothetical Christian terrorists.

There would also have to be a long history of Christian terrorism in the 20th and 21st centuries.  We’re talking about elements of the Kooky Christian Thrill Kill Cult carrying out acts of terror over the course of many decades.   As before, these atrocities should be happening all over the world.

Finally, there would have to poll after poll showing rank and file Christian opinion was ambiguous-if not supportive-over the use of terrorism to spread the word of Christ.  Leaders of the Genocidal Jesus Peeps should be supported by disturbing pluralities of Christians. 

Do any of these hypotheticals exist in the real world?  Not even close.  Not even with a light-year.  But still the lefty thumbsuckers just have to make their moral equivalence arguments/slime jobs.

The truth of the matter is that our Muslim friends have a serious existential problem.  Their religion has been infected by vicious life-hating cancers.  The faith desperately needs to kill these tumors before it’s too late.  Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists cannot do this for them.  We can support reformers and decry the back-asswards types within Islam, but in the end it’s up to them to figure out how to exist peacefully within a multi-religious world.

There are Muslims of good faith who want to see real positive change.

In fact here’s one now, talking about the Ground Zero Mosque: 

“This is not a humble Islamic statement. A mosque such as this is actually a political structure that casts a shadow over a cemetery, over hallowed ground. 9/11 was the beginning of a kinetic war, it is not an opportunity for cultural exchange. It was the beginning of a conflict with those who want to destroy our way of life,” Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Daily Caller.

  “I am in no way looking to infringe on First Amendment issues. I approach this as a Muslim that is dedicated to reform,” he said.

Jasser sees the danger inherent in the Ground Zero Mosque.  He also realizes the need for a peace-loving tolerant renaissance within Islam.  Because he’s accepted some hard truths about his faith, he doesn’t engage in bullshit moral equivalence.  

We have more than enough head-in-the-sand unrealists like Mike Bloomberg.

The Muslim religion…and the rest of us…desperately need more clear-eyed people like Zuhdi Jasser.

Hey, Dick Armey Gets It!

Sorry.  I’ve always wanted to write that.

Yeah, well…here he is.

The many branches of the tea party movement have created a virtual marketplace for new ideas, effective innovations and creative tactics. Best practices come from the ground up, around kitchen tables, from Facebook friends, at weekly book clubs, or on Twitter feeds. This is beautiful chaos—or, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek put it, “spontaneous order.”

Decentralization, not top-down hierarchy, is the best way to maximize the contributions of people and their personal knowledge. Let the leaders be the activists who have the best knowledge of local personalities and issues. In the real world, this is common sense. In Washington, D.C., this is considered radical.

Look at the basically headless nature of the Tea Party as well as it’s parallel ideology.  Distrustful of central authorities and large bureaucracies, the members of this movement seek alternatives to the centralized nonsense coming out of the statist caucus.

As our twitter homie Sissy Willis is fond of noting, the old-boy networks are crumbling around us.  Why?  Disintermediation is one part of the explanation.  But there’s something else too.

  “A whole new cultural paradigm to the political process.” That must be what’s gotten armchair activists like ourselves — who’d never done anything much political but gripe and moan on the blog and maybe write a few letters to the editor — to get up out of that armchair last March and April, Tea Party signs in hand, to tell the powers that be that we are “as mad as hell and aren’t going to take this any more.”

The truth of the matter is that while the GOP professes to be a political operation dedicated to individual freedom, it is  liable to go for a top-down messaging approach when push comes to shove.  This means that Republican campaigns are deadly dull affairs that end in demoralization and defeat (See McCain, John-2008).  Even though Dan Riehl says the GOP is getting better at utilizing new media like Twitter, they’ve still got a long way to go.

Rank and file conservatives have watched the Republican Party ossify over the last three decades.  From the candidates to the campaign managers, too many of the Right’s leadership are interested in collecting a paycheck while still being able to hang out with the swells at Beltway shin-digs.  So they play it safe trying hard not to offend the permanent DC bureaucracy, the mainstream media jerks and the other left-of-center dipshits that inhabit Washington.  Meanwhile out in the hinterlands, the conservatives (who make up 40% of the country) have gotten more and more frustrated by the GOP’s constant capitulation to leftist demands and assumptions.

So what did the Right do after the 2008 election?  They turned their annoyance at the Republican Party leadership into concrete action and formed the tea parties.  If the old guard within the GOP couldn’t or wouldn’t at least make an effort to resist Obama’s Euro-douche socialism, then they would be usurped from the ground up.

To me this is the great political story of the last two years.  In the face of the Democrat Party’s radicalism and the Republican Party’s somnambulence, the ordinary folk didn’t just roll over and accept Obama’s statism.  They instead became proactive and decided to take back the power from their pussified leadership.  That’s a truly American miracle.

The real interesting part comes later.  Does the Tea Party sustain itself and yank the Republicans (and thus the US political scene) back towards constitutionalism, federalism and small government?  Or will it become entranced by the trappings of power as the 1994 Republican Revolution did and become just an echo of the Democrat Party’s radical leftist ideology?

Nancy Pelosi Wants To Investigate Opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque

The Good Ship San Fran is just grinding on the rocky bottom of the Mariana’s Trench at this point.

I know this seems like she’s just asking to get hammered in the conservative media.  But I don’t think she much cares.  This wacky broad has tripled down on the hard-left stance at this point.  I guess she figures handing yet another box of rhetorical ammunition for the Right isn’t going to matter one way or the other.

Dave Reaboi makes a great point further along in his piece.

It’s about time the 70% of Americans opposed to the Ground Zero Mosque–including majorities of Democrats and independents–came to grips with the fact that the Left despises you. Conservatives have known for a while now that there’s no more hyperbole left in their quiver; the smallest deviation from the Party orthodoxy is met with a hail of accusations of foul intent and moral depravity. If you think you can have an honest disagreement about policy, you’re dead wrong. The Age of Obama has ushered-in a time of political demagogy that’s stunning and disgusting the average American.

I think it was Charles Krauthammer who once described how liberals and conservatives gauge each other.  The Right views progressives as stupid, while the Left sees conservatives as evil.  If you look across the political battlefield and always see monsters amongst your partisan opponents, eventually rational thought is going to abandon you.  It’s just a matter of time. 

Coherence has most certainly taken flight from Nancy Pelosi’.  Her first reaction to the opposition against the Ground Zero Mosque is not to engage in the arguments at hand.  No, it’s to call for an investigation against the people who oppose the GZM.  She wants to use her political power and influence not to try to convince others of the strength of her positions, but to get some congressional committee to subpoena people who oppose the GZM.  The irony is delicious.  Here’s a member of a political caucus that bangs their spoons on their high-chairs about the serious moral dangers of ‘McCarthyism’, but will gladly drag people in front of some kangaroo court when it suits their purposes.

Let’s take Nancy Pelosi’s call for an investigation seriously for a moment.  As Reaboi notes, 70% of Americans oppose the Ground Zero Mosque.  If she was able to get her way, she’d be bringing in all sorts of Democrats along with those meanie reich-wing racist tea party people.  Hell, maybe even Harry Reid would get caught up in Pelosi’s dipshit dragnet. 

This is a sign of deep-seated  paranoia on the Left.  The enemies list grows larger by the day, the number of political friends shrinks and the urge to win arguments via brute force becomes more intense. 

By the looks of things, the next few months in the run-up to the midterm elections are going to be very interesting.

Awwwww-The True Believers Are Emo

What’s that German word for enjoying somebody else’s pain?

Well, whatever it is, I’m feeling it. 

Long story short:  Sun King Bamster went out to Hollywood for some fundraising.  In doing so, he created traffic clusterfucks (well, even larger ones anyway) and widespread inconvenience for boatloads of Angelenos.  Some of the resident Obamaphiles in La-La Land got skinned knees and subsequently cried to the press.

“I was an Obama supporter, but … was stopped by police from crossing Olympic to get home … during my daily dog walk,” Amy Christine said on the website. “I’ve lost all belief in his judgment. Can he really think he’s more important than the tens of thousands of people trying to get home to their families?”

Seriously, Amy?  Is that a real question?

This guy plays golf about ten times a week, sends his sour-faced wife off for million dollar vacations and…oh yeah…took over 1/6 of the American economy with the stroke of a pen.  You think Obama gives a withered shit that you got inconvenienced by some LAPD flat-foot?

I also like how this is the incident that breaks this chick’s faith in the Obamessiah.  St. Barry’s has a proven record of magnificent incompetence when it comes to helping the economy, creating jobs or controlling government spending.  Our new BFF Amy could swallow all of that.  Being treated like the down-market prole that Obama thinks she is?  That’s going too far.

I’d say this is what the Hope-n-Change hangover looks like on the street level.

Get your popcorn, kids.

Tila Tequila-Still Not Dead

But at least the Juggalos tried their best to make it happen.

Reality TV star Tila Tequila suffered facial cuts when she was pelted with rocks and bottles while performing at a music festival in Illinois early Saturday, according to a witness and a law enforcement official.

“She’s pretty cut up,” said a performer who saw the violence at the “Gathering of the Juggalos” in rural Hardin County, Illinois. The witness asked not to be identified so that he does not anger the juggalos.

Tequila, a Playboy model who also sings, posted a Twitter message Saturday, saying she would sue the festival, which is organized for fans of the hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse.

It got better.

The performer said a mob of hundreds chased Tequila from the stage and surrounded the trailer where she sought refuge. They rocked the trailer and smashed its windows, the witness said.

Tequila eventually escaped, but only after windows in her SUV were smashed, he said.

Then it got weird.

The rocks and bottles flew harder and faster when Tequila bared her breasts, he said.

“She took her top off and they got really violent,” he said.

Youch.

You know you’re a scab if you show a pack of stoned drunk teenage boys your tits and they get angry at you.

Who is Tila Tequila?  Who are the Insane Clown Posse?  What are Juggalos?

Here’s a taste of ICP’s oeuvre.  Ummm, really not safe for work.  Or home.  Or in a secluded area miles away from other humans.  Or any fuckin’ where really.

And here’s a pretty good working definition of a Juggalo.

For the most part, an uneducated, pathetic excuse for a human being who listens to the group ICP who are bold enough to actually consider themselves musicians. People you see wearing “hatchet-man” accessories. They should not be allowed to reproduce, because that is too cruel to future generations. ICP isn’t rap, it isn’t metal, it isn’t rap/metal, and it isn’t horrorpop. There is only one way to properly categorize ICP; unnecessarily and unartfully offensive and obnoxious noise.

Finally, here’s the embodiment of class, understatement and taste, Ms. Tila Tequila herself.

Is there any way that ICP, their dipshit fans and Tila Tequila could all somehow lose?  Can anybody make that happen?

Please.

Wanna See Feminists Beclown Themselves?

What the hell am I saying?  Of course you do.

This is a little web-ad from EMILY’s List, who’ve officially knee-capped themselves with this.

I’m not a snippy feminist uber-douche, so I really don’t know what’s funny about this.

Oh, I know what I find funny about this.  But what hilarity-filled messages are lefties supposed to get out of this?

Did EMILY’s List think Sarah Palin was taking her metaphor of the ‘Mamma Grizzly’ literally?

I guess it’s up to me to point out that Mrs. Palin never donned a cheap bear costume, put some black-out paint around her eyes and delivered a speech about the maternal instincts of conservative women.

The only people who look like amateur hour clowns are the gals that EMILY’s list roped into starring in this goofy exercise.

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey chuckles at the flaws in the Mamma Fizzle-Out’s arguments:

Let’s see if we can count up the straw men offered up by Emily’s List in their attempt to co-opt the “Mama Grizzlies” label from Sarah Palin, an effort ridiculed by Tammy Bruce yesterday and featured at CBS today. Palin wants to eliminate “health care”? Check! Republicans want to completely eliminate unemployment benefits? Check! Outlaw gay relationships? Check!

I think Morrissey knows this already, but this ad really isn’t meant to sway anybody.  The ladies are singing hosannas to the liberal feminist choir. 

Which gets me back to the execution of this thing.  If you’re going to throw red meat at your side (and I don’t really have too many problems with that in principle), you’d think you’d at least want to do it effectively.  I mean, you want your opponents to look like the idiots, not your own team.  This ad just make EMILY’s List look like a pack of goofballs who can’t get out of their own way.

Which we pretty knew already.  Nice to be reminded of it from time to time though.

Ground Zero Mosque-It’s a victory monument

Mosques around the world have been built on the lamentations of the conquered.  The Muslims are proud of their victories.     

No really.  Check it out.

I have tried to find a way to make this mosque just another ho-hum event in my mind.  The problem is that the more I think about this issue, I’m not becoming less angry.  I’m just becoming more enraged.

Look, this needs to be said.  Al-Qaeda won on 9/11/01.  They scored a victory against us. 

Don’t get me wrong here.  The self-sacrifice and courage displayed by ordinary Americans on that day stands in stark contrast to Osama bin Laden’s inherent life-hating cowardice and depravity.  As the reports came out about how America responded to the attacks-amazing acts of bravery, service and love for fellow Americans-I became more and more proud to be an American.  In the darkest time in our national life that I’ve ever seen, the freeborn citizens of these United States were able to pull together and go above and beyond the call of duty.    

In the years since 9/11 we’ve had our triumphant moments.  We’ve beaten the terrorists in many places.  It’s been fitful and less spectacular than we might’ve hoped for, but we have snagged some important wins since al-Qaeda picked this fight with us.

But make no mistake.  9/11/01 was extremist Islam’s coming-out party.

And now elements of that same twisted ideology want to come back to the site of our great national sorrow and build a monument to their victory over us.  This mosque is a celebration of our pain.  It is a trophy forged on the site of our open wounds. 

I’ll admit that this radical Muslim touchdown dance is unsettling.  However, the Muslim desire to build a mosque on that spot is not unexpected.  Winners like to bask in the glow of winning.  As seen in the video, Islam has that human characteristic deeply ingrained in it’s collective psyche.

What has been truly revolting has been the way some of our fellow Americans have defended the Ground Zero Mosque.  From Mike Bloomberg’s snippy denunciation of Americans with legitimate concerns about the mosque to Barack Obama’s half-baked non-defense defense of the project, too many people who should know better seemingly can’t understand the big deal.  This arrogant insensitivity to the feelings of ordinary citizens is vulgar.

Some of our so-called elites say they want to support the First Amendment’s enumeration of religious freedom.  Others insist they want to  promote ecumenical dialogue and interfaith understanding.  These are utterly unconvincing arguments. 

First, nobody says Muslims can’t build a mosque.  Nobody is even saying that they cannot build a mosque in New York City.  It’s just that the particular site they’ve chosen is a historically sensitive place because of the radical Islamic attack of 9/11.  Because of that, a mosque in the old Burlington Coat Factory building would cause unneccessary pain for many Americans.

Second, if the idea behind the mosque is create interfaith dialogue and understanding, Imam Faisal Rauf and his co-religionists have failed miserably.  Old hurts and old fears have been re-ignited.  If Rauf was truly interested in promoting tolerance for Muslims, he would show the same sort of deference he is expecting others to show him and move his mosque someplace else.  Instead, he’s dug in his heels and insisted the project go forward.  This understandably leads people to think he has less savory motives for wanting to build the mosque in the shadow of the 9/11 massacre.

For whatever reasons, many of our leaders have bought into these bogus arguments.  This is yet another example (if we needed any) that the important people that make up our elites are a sick joke being played on the rest of us.  The Ivy League think-tank Trotskyites, the media mouth-breathers, the elected hand-wringers; they are showing us all the vast depth and breadth of their moral incompetence and spiteful vanity.   

I got the video from TeaTephi’s twitter feed.  Thanks.

UPDATE:  Christine Brim over at Big Peace nails the Ground Zero Mosque as a base to foment sharia in America.  It’s a little long, but there is a lot of supporting evidence to back her assertions up, which is awesome.  Brim hits a home run here.  Check it out.

Mark Halperin=Bad Advice Giver-Upper

Listen to this man at your peril, Republicans.

Yes, Republicans, you can take advantage of this heated circumstance, backed by the families of the 9/11 victims, in their most emotional return to the public stage since 2001. 

 

But please don’t do it. There are a handful of good reasons to oppose allowing the Islamic center to be built so close to Ground Zero, particularly the family opposition and the availability of other, less raw locations. But what is happening now — the misinformation about the center and its supporters; the open declarations of war on Islam on talk radio, the Internet and other forums; the painful divisions propelled by all the overheated rhetoric — is not worth whatever political gain your party might achieve.

Here’s Mark Halperin’s argument boiled down to it’s essence: “Hey right-wing bitter-clingers, you’re a bunch of troglodyte assholes for even thinking meanie-weanie thoughts about the Ground Zero Mosque.  You’re also going to win big in November, but pretty-please with sprinkles on top don’t mention the mosque, because then you might win too much for my tastes.”

Well, here’s my response to that:  EAT ME, MARK HALPERIN.

Hapless Halperin is such a typical elitist mediocrity.  Daddy Halperin was a far-Left Soviet apologist and sonny-boy Mark followed his father into the media-government complex.  He’s also the guy that gave the MSM game away in 2004 by telling his ABC News pals to go after Bush in the election.  Now he’s schooling the GOP on what they should be doing for the fall elections.  That’s just a little presumptuous.

As Robert Stacy McCain has said many times, you can’t let your enemies determine who you should have for a friend.  A corollary rule to The Other McCain’s maxim is that you can’t let your enemies dictate what tactics you can use in the fight against them.

Here’s the great thing about the GOP being against the Ground Zero Mosque.  It’s the politically popular move and it’s the right thing to do.  Letting some jock-sniffing liberal whiner tell conservatives and Republicans what their tactics should be is monumentally stupid.

Which means that the Maine Sisters, Lindsey Graham and at least five other RINO dickbreaths are creaming their jeans just thinking about doing just what Mark Halperin is telling them to do.          

Tale of the Tigers-Baldilocks hooks you up with some rad reading

As many of my rad readers know, blogging is an awesome form of writing.  It can be lots of fun and a source of creative inspiration.  One draw-back:  It’s not exactly lucrative. 

So when a great blogger goes above and beyond the constraints of web-based punditry and actually writes a novel, we should recognize the awesomeness.

So without further ado, here’s the synopsis of Juliette Akinyi Ochieng’s (AKA Baldilocks) first novel, “Tale of The Tigers”.

At a southwestern university, a young man and a young woman do something that’s done every day: they fall in love. There’s just one thing–he’s white and she’s black.

Set in the early 1990s, Tale of the Tigers tells the story of how the tables have turned on race relations and sexual jealousy and of how two young Americans weather the storm of that heritage in the post-Civil Rights Era.

Sounds cool to me.

Here’s some more words for the author herself.

I know that this is a time of great economic uncertainty, but buying my book will not only provide the reader with an inexpensive form of entertainment, it will give the reader a bit of insight with what’s happening right now in America.  Well, at least I think so. A morality play? You could call it that, but, as all successful novelists attempt to do, I tried to show more than tell.  I hope that I succeeded.

And, naturally, I want to have an independent source of income using whatever talent and inspiration that God gave me.  But I can’t do that without your help. 

Buy my novel.  You won’t be sorry.

And ooooh lookie here:  A link for you to order the novel.

Now you have no excuse not to pick up this book.  ;-p

Anyway, many of us talk about supporting creative efforts that are pro-American and artistic folks that believe in the treasured values of our nation.  Here’s a chance to do just that. 

Give “Tale Of The Tigers” a whirl.

Sweet New Left-Wing Video Game

Have you ever wondered, “I love ‘Halo’, but I’m also a bedwetting Bolshevist useful idiot.  Is there a game that lets me experience life in a totalitarian Stalinist super-state?”

Look no further, comrades!  Let RedSquare over at the People’s Cube re-educate you!

Workers’ Paradise: those who control the past, control the future! This centrally planned game teleports you to a people’s democracy of your choice: Cuba, North Korea, or now defunct Soviet Union with its Eastern Bloc allies. You may be pressing the buttons, but it’s the government that decides your next move. Spend unforgettable hours of waiting in line, starting around the block from the food store and slowly moving towards the objective. Major challenges: someone cuts in the line and the food runs out before you reach the counter. Receive a Five-Year-Plan quota from the government and fulfill it in four years despite the lack of materials and spare parts. Cheat codes are available.

Increase life expectancy by subscribing to the official Party organ, which is also your only version of toilet paper. Advance to a new level by reporting on your communal apartment neighbor and move into his room after he gets arrested. This level requires sharp instincts and fast reflexes: if you don’t act fast, it is you who will be interrogated as your neighbor’s mother-in-law moves into your quarters. Don’t despair – A Trip To The Gulag extension will satisfy your urge to live in a proletarian dictatorship just as well. (All references to the People’s Republic of China have been expunged on request by Chinese government).

Check out all the other awesome games mentioned at the link.  You won’t be disappointed.

Al Greene-The (Porn) Education Candidate

Showing porn to a college girl is a crime?  Who knew?

Longshot Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene was indicted Friday on two charges, including a felony charge of showing pornography to a teenage student in a South Carolina college computer lab.

…Authorities said he approached a student in a University of South Carolina computer lab, showed her obscene photos online, then talked about going to her dorm room

That’s an interesting way of scoring chicks.  It’s a high-risk/high reward strategery.  If she says no, you could get arrested.  If she says yes, you’re in like Flynn.

Alvin Greene:  Girl-Shagging Pioneer.

Here’s the best part.

If convicted, Greene could face up to three years for the misdemeanor or up to five years for the felony.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, everybody in politics knows:  First you get elected to public office, then you break the law.  Just ask Maxine Waters, William Jefferson and Charlie Rangel.  You’ve got your shit all back-asswards, Alvin.

I’m starting to think that maybe…just maybe…Alvin Greene is not really ready for prime time.

I gotta give props to Patterico for finding this story in the first place.

Ground Zero Mosque Defender-Hey, it’s an environmentally-friendly Islamic Victory Monument!

If you’ve ever dealt with children for any length of time-or if you still remember your own childhood-you know that one of the most shop-worn rationalizations for a youngster’s crappy behavior is the “But at least I did (X good thing) defense”.  For instance, let’s say a kid gets into a book of matches and proceeds to toast a hole into your brand new wall to wall carpet.  As you attempt to pull back your anger, there’s a good chance the juvenile delinquent with the burgeoning pyromania will say something like, “But I did all my homework and mowed the lawn!”  You are then supposed to dutifully reply to the errant rug-rat, “Why yes!  You did all those wonderful things, which totally redeems this destruction of my property”, then let the kid off with a short stern lecture and a warning not to do it again.

You’d think this defense wouldn’t be used much as a person exited their teen years.  You’d certainly think an ad-hoc spokesman representing a controversial group wouldn’t stoop so low.  You’d be thinking wrong.  Check out the amazing nonsense flowing from one Ibrahim Abdul-Matin.

In the midst of the drama around the mosque that’s being erected two blocks from Ground Zero, a few details have been left out that provide some clarity as to the purpose of this project. Specifically, the project will be the country’s first certified “green mosque,” in full compliance with stringent LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards…

Man, this is the most amazing mosque ever!  It’s going to promote tolerance, community values and it’s going to be the environmentally friendly Muslim house of worship.  It’s like this mosque is just gonna solve every problem ever!  Why have I been so douchey about this thing?  Sign me the fuck up! 

…which is why organizers have named the project Park51, rather than the oft-cited “Cordoba House.”

Oh, that’s why you changed the name?  Because I thought it was because you wanted to obfuscate the true purpose of the building.  Man, was I being a silly doo-doo head! 

The mosque (which is more accurately a community center with a prayer space) is located on Park Place in Downtown Manhattan,

Oh so now it’s not a mosque.  Well, why didn’t you say so, dude?  You had me all worried and shit.

…but the new name also reflects a desire to emphasize the intricate (though widely unknown) connections between Islamic teachings and environmentalism. For example, Islam calls upon people to be “stewards of the Earth” and to treat all things in nature as sacred.  

Jebus H. Keeeeeristmas, have I been getting Muslims all wrong.  What with the 9/11 attacks and the beheadings and the theocratic psycho-regimes and the clitorectomies, I thought you were guys were just a bunch of pushy jerks.  Turns out you’re really a charming misunderstood band of slightly irritable hippies who just want to commune with nature and plants and goats and stuff.  Like, ya’all are far out man.

Dudes, I am so totally tripping balls on this freakin’ grooooooooovy Islamic tree-hugger shit.

Whoa, where was I?

Anyway, the defenders of this mosque-excuse me, “community center with a prayer space”-are full of more shit than a Ramadan lamb feast.  My Twitter homegirl Sissy Willis directs our attention to the term ”Taqiyya”

the Qur’an-sanctioned practice of misdirecting the Infidel’s attention away from the faithful’s insidious mission of imposing Shari’ah law on “the planet”  

I mean sure, the Koran talks about being kind to the Earth.  So does every other monotheistic faith’s holy texts.  I’m pretty sure the polytheistic religions are okee-dokee with people treating nature with respect.  But the way Abdul-Matin makes it out, you’d think every other chapter of Islam’s scripture was about being nice to the environment. 

I think you’ll find bigger, more important messages in the Koran than just some vaguely ‘green’ feel good pap tucked into the pages.  Spreading the faith and impressing shariah law upon the world?  Yeah, those are just two things that are way more important to Islam than ecological concerns.

Do I even need to mention the fact that numerous independents and lefties are going to buy this thumbsucker argument?  I can’t really get mad at the Muslims who want to build ‘Park51″.   I mean, really, you can’t punish a lion for being a lion.  Certain characteristics are just hard-wired into every religion, and it takes an awful long time for a dogmatic belief to travel out of the belief system.  The way the Muslims figure it, if the enemy is going to allow a mosque to be built near the 9/11 site , then far be it from them to turn up a golden opportunity to gloat over their 9/11 victory. 

More specifically, the mushy middle and the soft left might not buy this entire ‘Eco-Islam’ argument all in one bite.  However, they will add it to their mental checklist when it comes to the mosque:  “Park51 might make some people all emo about 9/11, but at least it’s a mosque that’s trying to make a difference for our environment.  Awwwwwwwwwwww.”

That’s the worst part right there.  Dog-like credulity and the desire to push this uncomfortable story away will make many folks readily fall back to the easy pablum of the “Islam Means Ecologically Sound” narrative. 

It’s sad when 20-35 percent of the population refuses to see what is plainly obvious, then gets pissed off at the rest of us for pointing it out.

The Five Stages of (Michelle Obama’s) Grief

Seriously, Manhattan Infidel has been on fire lately.  If you don’t know, now you know.

Check out the newly revised fives stages of grieving, Queen Michelle Antoinette style.

Denial.  “I feel fine.  Let’s go to Spain” 

Anger.  “Why me?  This isn’t fair.  How about a trip to Spain?“

Socialized medicine.  “Buying health insurance to avoid a fine is a proven way to help with the grieving process.”

Vacationing in Spain.  “During the fourth stage the individual may spend most of their time crying. It has been proven that those who fly to Spain aboard Air Force One will feel better about themselves.”

Shutting down public beaches.  “The individual comes to terms with grief and moves on, helped by security with yellow tape who keep others away.  Sometimes a person has to be alone.”

Seriously, read the whole thing.  It’s tremendous.

Tweet You? No, Tweet ME!

No, that isn’t some weird censored “F-bomb” thing.

I just wanted to let you know that if you like my crap and you want to send it out into the vast 140-character wonderland that is the Twitterverse, there’s a little button at the bottom of the post that let’s you do that with just the click of a mouse.

Go ahead.  Tweet me.  From a totally unbiased ironclad-researched scientific study I’m imagining right now, twittering my posts improves posture, helps the homeless, aids in weight loss and stops the oceans from rising.  You’d be a freakin’ dorkface not to do this.

What?  You’re accusing me of shameless self-promotion?  Why I am insulted that you’d even think such a horrible thing about me.  Hey look over there-AN EAGLE!

*Runs away.

Sarah Palin = Broiling Democrat Rage Dog-Whistle

Darth Sidious just called in from the Death Star to say, “Yo, Democrats…even I think all this anger is counter-productive.”

A New Hampshire state legislator resigned his office Thursday after becoming the second Democrat in as many days to speculate about Sarah Palin’s death on Facebook.

State Rep. Timothy Horrigan made the remarks Wednesday night in a thread discussing the Alaska plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens.

“Well a dead Palin wd be even more dangerous than a live one…she is all about her myth & if she was dead she cldn’t commit any more gaffes,” Horrigan wrote.

Horrigan was commenting on another post by a Democrat running for the state house, party activist Keith David Halloran, who found himself in hot water Wednesday after writing about the crash: “Just wish Sarah and Levy [sic] were on board.”

Sarah Palin is like some kind of subconscious signal that triggers lefties’ rage centers in their brains.  It’s amazing to see how she’s treated and referred to by members of the left.  For them, any nasty piece of rhetoric they can direct at Palin is kosher. 

Think back to the 2000 election.  When the Gore/Lieberman ticket finally gave up trying to steal the election, nobody on the GOP gave much thought to failed VP candidate Joe Lieberman.  Joe-Mentum just went back to the Senate and did his sorta conservative but basically liberal thing.  Conservatives didn’t kvetch or snarl at Lieberman years after the election.  Hell, the American Right didn’t really slam him when he decided to run for President in 2004.

I know there are many differences between Palin and Lieberman.  Their public personalities are quite dissimilar.  There are very few parallels regarding the ways they came into national prominence.  Lots of factors separate the former Alaska governor and the Connecticut senator.

But still, the way Palin has been attacked is just astounding.  I think it’s unprecedented.  I cannot remember a failed VP candidate being hammered by so many members of the opposition party.

Nobody on the GOP side of the aisle wished Joe-Mentum dead a year and a half after the 2000 presidential race.  But for Palin, all insults, excessive rhetoric and crazy talk is banal within the Left.  The big surprise isn’t that Timothy Horrigan and David Halloran were pondering over Palin’s demise.  The shock here is that Horrigan actually resigned over this.