It’s Snowing At Blog De KingShamus!

I dunno why I dig it so much, but I love the snowflakes falling on the blog.

It makes this wacky corner of teh intertubes seem just a little more festive.

Enjoy!

You want a perfect summation of the RINO?

Here it is, courtesy of Bob Belvedere.

Here before us is another reason we, the outsiders, the TEA Party folks in action and spirit, must show no quarter towards the GOP Establishment.  Besides living in a collegial and congenial past that no longer is [call it what you will, the Gerald Ford or Bob Michael Era], the GOP and conservative Elites have a track record that is strewn with utter and abysmal failures.  In fact, historians not yet born will label them as the Useful Idiots of the Left who, by their weaknesses and naiveté, help bring about the lamentable situation we now find ourselves in.

Bingo.  Read the rest of his post; Bob’s got some good stuff in there.

This is what kills me when people talk about the Republican establishment and their fetishization of electability.  It’s one thing to acknowledge that RINO’s and moderates can often get elected easier (in certain states/districts/campaigns) than a rock-ribbed across-the-board right winger.  This is a fact that we shouldn’t simply dismiss out of hand.  For instance:  Looking back on the particular circumstances of the race, Mike Castle probably had a better chance of winning the Senate election in Delaware than Christine O’Donnell.

However, what would we–actual factual conservatives–have gained by getting Castle into the Senate?  He would’ve voted for Cap-n-Tax in a potential dead duck congressional session.  He was still going to be pro-choice and anti-Second Amendment.  Knowing his record, his first term in the US Senate would’ve been marked by ArlenSpecterian hands-across-the-aisle moments of capitulation to various facets of the liberal nanny-state agenda.  A hug for Obama would not have been completely out of the question.

Would a guy like Mike Castle, a classic go along to get along DC establishmentarian, have the stomach for repealing Obama-Care?  What makes anybody think Castle would be capable of defunding the utterly wretched NPR or abolishing  the utterly useless Department of Energy?  In what possible scenario would a guy like Mike Castle vote against immigration amnesty?  Could Mike Castle, famous for his chummy clubby attitude towards Democrats, actually go along with his own party on something substantive like real free-market entitlement reforms?  Many signs point to an emphatic ’no’.

Not only would a potential Senator Mike Castle be a thorn in the side of conservatives, he’d be doing everything he can to damage the already-tarnished Republican brand.  While he was busy building a media-backed Fiefdom of Royal RINOLand, he’d also happily throw monkey wrenches into GOP-backed fiscal discipline measures.  

So conservatives would get lots of drawbacks and almost no benefits from a Senator Mike Castle.  But the Tea Party and it’s allies were supposed to forget all that because Mike Castle happened to have a weak ‘R’ behind his name?  Really?

(Cross-Posted at the great Baldilocks.  As always, thank you Juliette.)

Federal Pay Freeze: Good News/Bad News

A juicy morsel to be had in a strong piece by the foreign-hottie admiring Robert Stacy McCain.

What makes the [firedoglake] headline interesting to me, however, is that while Obama been flunking economics from Day One, it wasn’t until he took this one teeny-tiny token baby-step in the right direction that liberals started whining.

If Obama keeps taking baby-steps this way, it’s possible that the unemployment rate might actually decrease between now and November 2012, which is both good news and bad news.

The bad news is, if unemployment goes down, it will make Obama more likely to be re-elected. The good news is, that would drive the Left even more batshit crazy than they already are. The lefty bloggers will be howling “betrayal” and “sellout,” even while the economy improves and Obama’s approval rating goes up.

So we’d still have Obama as president after 2012, but we’d also have the delightful entertainment of watching these demented moonbat bloggers trying to explain why it was a very bad thing for him to pursue the very policies that did the most to secure his re-election.

And yeah: Millions more Americans would have jobs.

I basically agree with RSM on this one; hey, one and half cheers for St. Barry.

Yay.

The thing is, I really don’t think Teleprompter Jesus is capable of taking any more baby-steps towards fiscal sanity.  This is probably his one concession to the 2010 midterms and the congressional  Republicans: “Okay, latter-day Ebeneezer Scrooges, I’ll slow down the growth of the federal budget by .025 percent.  Happy now, you elderly-hating, child-despising, blood-sucking GOPers?” 

The President’s first major domestic policy act when he ascended into the White House was to pass the Porkulus.  The foundation of the Obama administration is a spectacularly ineffective quasi-Keynesian boondoggle.  He followed that chart-bottoming smash-miss with BarryCare, a massive federal power grab that will usher in swarms of gubmint medicine bureaucrats onto the federal payrolls.  Obamster’s history suggests he’s doesn’t have much moderation in his ideological cupboard.

McCain is correct.  If the President kept walking back some of his insane spending, cut some taxes and hewed to a tighter federal budget, the employment situation would improve.  We would then have to deal with the possibility of a more-popular Obama who would be harder to beat in 2012.  I just don’t think Obama is capable of that sort of pragmatism.

Perhaps this maneuver is some sort of negotiation? Maybe this is Obama’s opening offer to Republicans; he’ll offer a pay freeze if GOP gives in on…something in the future.  In that scenario, Obama is sending a signal that he is willing to embrace this itsy-bitsy chunk of bipartisan consensus for Republican cooperation later on down the line, presumably on the looming budget battle next year. 

This is certainly possible.  If that’s the case, the GOP would be idiots to accept that quid pro quo.  As has been noted, a federal pay freeze represents the tiniest most shrivelled-up spuds in the small potato bunch.

Actually, it will make a miniscule dent in $2 trillion in deficits.  If the savings get calculated over two years, then we have to do the same with the deficits they supposedly address.  The savings, assuming they actually occur, will amount to a reduction of 0.25% in the biennial deficits.  Calling it a drop in the bucket is an insult to both drops and buckets.  It’s a single grain of sand from the coast.

As is his fashion, Obama is offering .25% more than nothing and acting like it’s a massive deal.

If you play fantasy football, you’re probably familiar with Obambi’s brand of chicanery.  There’s always one guy in every league that offers psychotically lop-sided trades that could only benefit him.  All the while, he acts like he’s doing you a massive favor by taking stud running back Adrian Peterson off your team in exchange for his scrub has-been fresh off the free agent scrap heap.

Thinking of it from that perspective, President Obama is more than willing to trade the absolutely useless hack quarterback Matt Leinert.  What does he want in return?  Probably not that much, of course.  Barry is only looking to get All-Universe QB Peyton Manning in return.  And superstar wide receiver Andre Johnson.  And the supremely talented tight end Antonio Gates.  And league rushing leader Arian Foster.  Maybe throw in the highly productive tailback Frank Gore as well.  It’s a really good deal if you think about it.

Be warned, Republicans.  The president isn’t offering you anything.  Don’t take the deal.

Music Monday C & W-’The Fightin’ Side of Me’ by Merle Haggard

Great patriotic tune by the original Okie from Muskogee.

And what the hell, this is a stellar little piece of fried gold right here.

Merle was rad, ya’all.  Trust me on this.

Leslie Nielsen-RIP

Good night, funny-man.

Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen, who most famously achieved global success in comedy movies such as “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun,” has died aged 84, Manitoba radio station CJOB reported Sunday.

His death was first reported in unconfirmed messages on Twitter late Sunday that suggested the actor had died in the hospital after suffering from pneumonia.

His nephew Doug Nielson, told CJOB that Leslie had been in the hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for 12 days and that with family and friends by his side at 5:30pm Sunday “he just fell asleep and passed away.”

Born in Regina, Canada, Leslie Nielsen appeared in more than 100 movies and hundreds of television shows over the course of his career.

The man was a brilliant comic talent.  Here’s a taste.

If you have not seen “Airplane!” or the Naked Gun flicks, get them now.  You will not regret it.  There is a reason the guy basically had four movies–at least–written for him.

After you’ve watched “Airplane” a few times, you’ll notice how the movie kicks it into high gear once Nielsen shows up.  The opening 20 minutes is pretty funny, but Nielsen’s dead-pan delivery of the most ridiculous lines turns an better-than-average spoof movie into a classic.  I couldn’t find the clip, but watch for the scene where Nielsen’s Dr. Rumack discusses the passengers with Captain Ouevre (Peter Graves).  The sharp delivery and interplay between the two veteran actors is laugh out loud funny.

As for the Naked Gun trilogy, each one has moments of absolute genius.  More importantly, it is impossible to see another actor in the Frank Drebin role.  Nielsen completely owned the part.  The ‘lovable yet stupid cop’ character has been done more than a few times in movie history, but Nielsen infused Drebin with a comedic timing that hasn’t been seen before or since.

RIP.

Turducken is sooooo 2005

Regular readers know that I have a special place in my hopelessly clogged palpitating heart for intensely unhealthy food.  So it’s no surprise that I damn near fell into a LSD-like diabetic coma/trippin’ my balls off at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey out-of-body experience just by watching this glorious clip.

And now you all have something to attempt to recreate for Christmas.  You’re welcome, BDKS readers!

Ya gotta love the Youtube comments:  JordanK3lly ”It should be seasoned with the sweet tears of whiney vegetarians.”

Amen, Jordan K3lly.  A-fucking-men.

If cooking shows are the culinary equivalent of porn, this video would be the Two-Girls-One-Cup of the food-making community.

The masterpiece you’ve just seen comes from twitter homie Kevin Oberg, who blogs at Ya Gotta Be Kiddin’ Me.  Big ups to you, brosef.

“And bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips…and bacon strips.”

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

If you really think about it, the United States has been granted an embarrassment of riches.  Within our borders are vast quantities of natural resources.  We have abundant fertile land that feeds not only ourselves, but much of the world.  America is vast in size, buffeted by oceans that grant her a measure of separation from the potential unrest that has marked the history of the Old World.  In short, Americans should spend every Thanksgiving expressing undying gratitude to their Creator for giving their country so many advantages.

As much as resources, climate and size matter, America has been granted something even greater than all those things.  As the writer Julian Simon noted, people are the greatest natural resource.  If that’s the case–and it is–the US armed forces are a sterling example of Simon’s fundamental truth.  For Thanksgiving, I decided to take a look at a great American. 

 

In his Silver Star citation, Marine 2nd Lt. Brian M. Stann is praised for his “zealous initiative, courageous actions and exceptional presence of mind” during seven days of fighting in Iraq.

But Stann, now a captain, is not into fame or self aggrandizement.

“It’s not about awards, especially when you’re out there,” said Stann, 27. “It’s about defeating the enemy and getting your boys out alive.”

From May 8 to May 14, 2005, Stann was part of Operation Matador with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines.

The action started when Stann’s platoon was given about 35 minutes’ notice that it needed to head to the Ramana Bridge, north of Karbala…Aother unit was supposed to provide a blocking position at the bridge, but when they couldn’t make it on time, Stann’s platoon was sent to fill the gap.

As it turned out, a lot of the enemy had settled in that area. Stann said his platoon was engaged in a “constant gunfight” until it was relieved, and then he and his Marines had to fight their way back to base.

The worst fighting was May 10, when his platoon was sent back to the bridge to stay and got ambushed on the way, he said.

The insurgents hit Stann’s platoon with roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide car bombs, destroying a Humvee and a tank recovery vehicle that was hauling wounded, he said.

“We had a rough night.”

Stann’s Silver Star citation briefly summarizes his actions during the ambush.

“Second Lieutenant Stann personally directed two casualty operations, three vehicle recovery operations and multiple close air support missions under enemy small arms, machine gun and mortar fire in his 360-degree fight,” the citation reads.

Stann didn’t want to get into specifics about what he did during the fighting.

“Everyone has done some courageous things,” he said. “It’s just part of our calling. It’s part of our job.”

Instead, Stann preferred to talk about his Marines.

Despite the casualties and carnage, they did not panic, he said. They kept their heads, beat back the enemy and evacuated their wounded.

“Because of that, the casualties that we did take did survive,” Stann said. “Guys that lost limbs lived. Guys that took shrapnel and things of that nature to the head lived, and they wouldn’t have lived if we hadn’t have done that.”

Throughout their deployment, Stann’s Marines focused on their job, whether it meant sleeping in their Humvees on hot nights or manning a machine gun at 2 a.m., he said.

Stann, who was born at Yokota Air Base in Japan and then moved to Scranton, Pa., said his Silver Star represents what the Marines under his command accomplished.

“They executed flawlessly, and we’re talking 19- to 20-year-old kids, and these are tougher situations than 90 percent of Americans will face,” he said.

In your time today, please say a prayer for our armed forces.

More importantly, we should thank God that America still produces men and women like Captain Brian Stann.  We will chow down on our turkeys and potatoes and gravy in large part because of the efforts of incredibly brave folks.  They are more courageous than most of us will ever have to be.  For that, we should be eternally grateful.

A View of the Recent Korean Unpleasantness

Great insights by Trestin Meacham on the NoKo’s decision to up the tension levels on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is not a nation full of Islamic extremists that embrace death. Like the Soviets of old, they are very interested in self-preservation. There are many reasons for what they are doing now, but one stands out in my mind. I think that the recent attack has a lot to do with securing succession. Mr. Kim does not seem to be in the best health, and is getting ready to pass leadership to his son. However, there is some division in their government over who should succeed Mr. Kim. Many feel he is doing this to unite the nation. Nations tend to unite when faced with an outside threat.

The North knows that an all out war with the South and its allies would not be wise. I do not think they would risk an invasion, unless they had assistance from China. They simply do not have the industrial or military might to defeat the south by themselves. I know this will raise a few eye brows, but I think less is more. Kim wants a hard response from the South, or even better, an America response. He needs it to unite his nation during the succession. Let’s not play into his hands, as we have the terrorists.

Read the rest, where Trestin takes the great Charles Krauthammer to the woodshed.

As they say in the ‘hood–Meacham goes hard, yo.

Here’s a question:  Just how will Team O’bumbler react?

This isn’t exactly encouraging.

Still, this administration is notable for its lack of grand strategy – or strategists. Its top foreign-policy makers are a former senator, a Washington lawyer and a former Senate staffer. There is no Henry Kissinger, no Zbigniew Brzezinski, no Condoleezza Rice; no foreign policy scholar.

Instead there is Obama, who likes to believe that he knows as much or more about policy than any of his aides – and who has been conspicuous in driving the strategies on nuclear disarmament and Israeli settlements. “I personally came of age during the Reagan presidency,” Obama wrote in “The Audacity of Hope.” Yes, and it shows.

As with everything in this Administration of Noobs, we have rank amateurs running the show.  Rule by lawyers is bad enough when they attempt to write massive legislation, a la health care deform.  It’s even worse when the attorneys try their hand at creating foreign policy. 

Exit Reassurance:  Chances are, no matter what strategy Obama employs, he and his State Department will help to escalate the situation to something near catastrophic levels.

Feel better now?

Super-Dooper-Smart Obama Diplomacy Strikes Again

Anybody who has gone through a TSA groin-grope/boobie-poke session at the airport knows that our domestic security apparatus is seriously busted.  Now comes word our foreign intelligence services are waaaaaaaay out of the loop too.

KABUL, Afghanistan — For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

What went wrong?

The Afghan leader said both the Americans and the Afghan leadership were initially cautious of the Afghan man’s identity and motives. But after the first meeting, both were reasonably satisfied that the man they were talking to was Mr. Mansour. Several steps were taken to establish the man’s real identity; after the first meeting, photos of him were shown to Taliban detainees who were believed to know Mr. Mansour. They signed off, the Afghan leader said.

Remember the Obamessiah’s sales pitch to America back in 2008.  Among his many fabulous campaign promises, Team Bamster swore that America under a Democrat-controlled government would engage in smart diplomacy.  There would be no more of the rammy hardheaded cowboy mentality that the Left believed characterized the Bush Administration’s foreign policy.  In place of quick-draw militarism, America would rely on soft power, persuasion and—here’s the real kicker—scary smart competence to advance US interests outside our borders.

So what do the self-described geniuses in Obambi’s foreign service team do to show us how just how brilliant they are?  Let themselves get played like a fiddle by a group of people described by the New York Times as, “… largely made up of barely literate clerics from the countryside….”  Wrap your mind around the idea of the smartest presidency in the history of the world being fooled by a pack of knee-jerk religious extremists straight off of a 10^th century crap farm.  Next up on the Obama State Department’s To-Do List:  Getting an inbred slack-jawed yokel from the “Deliverance” casting call to sell Hilary Clinton the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here’s what’s really remarkable about this situation.  The President and his cabinet are simply unable to handle the jobs they currently occupy.  Okay, fine.  We’ve lived through disastrous administrations before.  It’s not pleasant, but the country has survived and thrived in the aftermath of a bad president.  I think we’ll be alright as long as we get this incompetent jack-ass out in 2012.

Look past all that for a second.  You’d think that, just by the laws of chance, this Administration would dumb-luck themselves into an unadulterated win every once in a while.  Instead, Barry and the Obots can’t get out of their own way.  Even when they actually achieve something—like passing socialized health care—the achievement is tainted by the fact that it is so massively unpopular that it cripples the party and presidency. 

Totally awesome ultra brainiac politicians don’t paint themselves into electoral black holes.

The American Plane Traveler’s Official Anthem

As brought to you by the great and hilarious Innominatus.

Sung to the tune of Metallica’s “Fade to Black“.

Dignity will fade away
Drifting further every day
Detained within airport walls
“Easy, dude! Those’re my balls”

I have lost the will to fly
Don’t like groping from a guy
There is nothing more to see
Scanner showing all of me

Things just what they seem to be
Got no bomb inside of me
Deathly lost, this can’t be real
Can’t stand this hand I feel

Latex glove is filling me
To the point of agony
Grinning asshole fondles a nun
I was free, but now freedom’s gone

No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late
Now I can’t think, think why I should even fly?

Bus travel always seemed kinda limp-wristed
But the Greyhound is warm, now I will just say goodbye, *Goodbye*

——————————————————-

Inn,  I couldn’t let it just sit in the comments.  That thread just couldn’t contain all that pure unadulterated win, dude.  Great job.

Bow to Innominatus, everyone.

Strange Bedfellows(?)-George Soros’ Unexpected Beneficiaries

Chris Queen over at the great News Real Blog has done some digging into every leftist’s favorite Nazi collaborator.  You’ll never guess what seemingly banal organization is taking Soros money.

A good look at the YWCA reveals a much more political Leftist organization, much of which is paid for with your tax dollars. Although it was socially progressive from the beginning, the YWCA was not exactly the radical force it is today.

So, how did this organization become Soros-worthy? It all started, as many things did, during the Progressive era in the early 20th century. Not long after its incorporation in 1907, the YWCA began to carry the mantle of the feminist agenda and the radicalism that often went along with it, advocating minimum wage laws and promoting the concept of what we now call sex education.( At that time, sex education meant little more than teaching young people about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.)

As the century wore on, the YWCA picked up increasingly radical agendas, joining in the push for more graphic sex education and taxpayer-funded abortion on demand and against abstinence education and school choice measures. The YWCA teamed up with other radical feminist organizations like the National Organization for Women and Martha Burk’s infamous National Council of Women’s Organizations to promote Leftist policies and “Fight the Right.” After 9/11, the YWCA called for “tolerance” toward radical Islam and supported a number of anti-war and bald-faced anti-Israel causes. It’s clear how far leftward the YWCA leans these days and how they could be Soros-approved.

You have to read the entire piece in order to get the full flavor.  Queen examines four more organizations.  A lot of these groups seem very benign on the surface.  They’re anything but.

The realization that the YWCA is just another tentacle of the Soros Left-o-Blob reminds me just how succesful the Gramscian march through the institutions have been.  Antonio Gramsci was an old-skool communist douchebag.  He was also a visionary that saw that Marxist revolution would be better served by slowly boiling the frog rather than violent bloody struggle. 

To few Americans is Antonio Gramsci a familiar name. That is to be regretted because the work of the late Italian Marxist sheds much light on our time. It was he who first alerted fellow revolutionaries to the possibility that they would be able to complete the seizure of political power only after having achieved “cultural hegemony,” or control of society’s intellectual life by cultural means alone. His was an incremental, rather than an apocalyptic, revolution-the kind, that is, that we have been witnessing in the United States, and the Western world generally, since the 1960s.

If you’re a die-hard Gramscian…or just the average George Soros paid shill…one of the best ways to get Americans to fall headlong into the loving arms of socialism is to replace their old traditional institutions with cultural organizations that promote a Marxoid ideology.  What’s an even better strategy?  Don’t replace a country’s social networks.  Just take the existing ones over, hollow them out from the inside and make them socialist.  That way, folks will be much more open to the statism you’re trying to inculcate in them.

Most people think the YWCA is just another charitable organization that does good deeds and helps people.  I’m sure they do some things right.  But for all their decent charity efforts, there is an undercurrent of leftist dogma that runs through everything.  Soros is only too happy to pump money into this kind of seemingly non-partisan group.

But now here’s the funny thing about that Gramsci douche.  The process that allowed the Left to infiltrate traditional institutions–aided by inattention and laziness–has been uncovered.  The jig is up. 

The naked truth: The conservative Swiss People’s Party “has produced a provocative anti-immigration campaign in which a photograph of naked young models wading into Lake Zurich is contrasted with an image of headscarf-wearing Muslim women bathing in filthy water.” Arresting imagery meant to warn what will happen to the country if immigration is left unchecked. In our view they could have skipped the secondary image of the covey of covered crones and let the lake-wading lovelies stand alone as an in-your-face message to those who would impose Sharia law on a free society.

Oh, the irony. Antonio Gramsci turns out to have been right all along, but not in the way he envisioned. The slow statist creep of the Marxist philosopher’s “long march through the institutions” that was to have empowered the great unwashed at the expense of the powers that be seemed to be going so well, as we wrote five years back in “The Tocquevillians strike back“:

While America slept — or rather, while it was going about its business — Gramscian thinking, like sewage leaking out of a cracked drainpipe into the surrounding soil, has seeped into major sectors of our civil society — the law, foundations, universities and corporations among others. Fonte provides horrifying examples of how “major American social policy has come to be based not on Judeo-Christian precepts nor on Kantian-Enlightenment ethics, but on Gramscian and Hegelian-Marxist concepts of group power.

Sissy Willis makes a great point here.  What’s even better is that knowing the plan means conservatives can now adequately deal with it.  If it’s all about taking over cultural institutions, what’s to stop us from re-taking the societal foundations of our nation?  It’ll be a long process–Hollywood, the universities and Rhode Island weren ‘t co-opted by leftist turds overnight–but it’s worth it.  The long term health of the Republic depends in large part whether conservatives and traditionalists can not only push back the Gramscian tide, but if the Right can infiltrate the culture once again.

UPDATE:  Fixed the first link to Chris Queen’s piece over at NewsRealBlog.  Sorry for sucking at teh intertubes, homie.

UPDATE II:   Welcome Other McCain readers!  Enjoy the full-dorsal nudity!

Maybe the new airport security procedures is hunky-dory

Nah. They fuckin’ huff horse dong.

So let’s just make fun of the incompetent freedom-hating, citizen-groping  jagoffs in the Obammy Admenstruation that came up with this bullshit.

Big ups to darcprynce over at the awesome Daley Gator blog.

Music Monday Screamo-”Apathy Is A Cold Body” by Posion The Well

Okay kids, I know what you’re thinking.  I agree, this is maudlin screamo-rock.  And yes, the video is aimed directly at whiney spoiled oversensitive high school nerdlingtons.  But forget all that for a bit and take a listen.

I know.  I was rooting for the old guy to get up and punch the kid right in the groin too.

However–beyond the throat-shredding, the ultra rocked-out guitar and the truly awful video, there lies a pretty rad tune. 

Note that the song structure isn’t the more traditional ”verse-chorus-verse-chorus” you tend to hear in most pop music.  A lot of times, when rock and metal bands try to go outside the “V-C-V-C” format, the tune sounds very slapped together.  For me, it seems like groups that go ahead with an unorthodox song pattern just sorta hodge-podge a bunch of riffs just for the sake of being contrary.  While a lot of these attempts do sound different from more normal arrangements, they also tend to sacrifice the flow of the song in the process.

In this case, Poison The Well was able to go outside the traditional song structure and still have a tune that flows together in a very organic way.  The group managed to do that while employing a weird guitar tuning (I can’t pick it out, but it sounds like some sort of drop-D or drop-every-string-down-a-step-or-two tuning with some other weird shit thrown in) and deliberately obtuse lyrics.  Bravo, dudes.  Well played.

The other thing I dig are the words right at the end.  There have been more than a few times when I’ve wanted to scream “YOU’LL SEE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE” right at some leftotron’s dweeby arguments.  The blinders that a liberal straps onto himself can be very aggravating.

In any case:  Enjoy, homies.

Amnesty Still Sucks

Hey kids, the dead duck douchebag Congress has got a fevah, and the only prescription is more AMNESTY!

In the post-election “lame duck” session of Congress, Obama and the Democrats will focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. … Oh, wait, no. They’ll focus on passing a big amnesty for illegal immigrants, in order to reward their Latino “base”–which was only 8 percent of the national vote but supposedly cares with something approaching monomania about amnesty (despite evidence that Hispanic American opinion is shifting against illegal immigration). … When did the Democrats’ African-American base–11 percent of the vote–get that kind of service?

Oh Mickey Kaus, you ask the most hilarious hypothetical questions.

The Democrats ‘care’ about Latinos because they’re a growing population segment.  Unlike black folk, who abort their babies at something like a 30% clip, Hispanics haven’t completely guzzled down the demographic-choking life-hating pro-choice kool aid.  Since Donkey-Punchers can still be bothered to read an actuarial table every once in a while, they know they’re going to need a more robust minority group to keep on the statist plantation in order to win 21^st century elections.

I know people want to make this more complicated—Democrat concerns for minorities, traditional liberal support for social programs, open-borders libertarianism, blahblahfuckingblah—but it really is just about pure electoral politics.  The Democrat Party needs votes.  They see amnesty as a way of stocking up on a large voting bloc for future elections, when they believe El Estados Unidos will be far more Latin and much more liberal than it is today.

As far as current Hispanic-Americans and their feelings about illegal immigration, let’s take a closer look.

A new study shows Latinos have soured considerably on illegal immigration in the last three years.

In 2007, 50 percent of Latinos surveyed told the Pew Hispanic Center that the growing number of illegal immigrants was a positive force for the existing Latino population. In a Pew survey released last week, that number had plummeted to 29 percent.

Thirty-one percent said illegal immigration had a negative effect, and 20 percent said it had no effect.

Common sense would suggest that a blanket acceptance of amnesty amongst Hispanics would be unlikely.  First of all, the idea that you can group all Hispanics together into one big bloc of voters is problematic.  A dude from the Mexico feels a national affinity with his native country, not to some nebulous ‘Hispanic’ concept that doesn’t exist except in US Census questionnaires and American college applications.  Nor does that same Mexican feel a strong fraternal allegiance to Panama or Cuba.  A Honduran woman comes to America with a different set of cultural and historical assumptions than a woman from Argentina.  Moreover, these feelings don’t tend to cross over to another Latin American nationality nearly as much as some folks seem to believe.    

On top of all that, it’s important to take into account things like geographic factors, length of time in America, education and economic attainment when looking at a potential Hispanic voting bloc.  A Dominican man with a high school diploma who lives in Washington Heights, New York, works in a corner store and has been in America for less than two years is more than likely going to have a different sort of political beliefs than a Peruvian guy who has lived in rural Kansas for the last twenty years, has an MBA and runs a business.

Because Latinos really aren’t a monolithic voting bloc, if a political party jumps whole-hog onto the DREAM Act bandwagon they’re likely to alienate large segments of the Hispanic populace.  This is one reason why the GOP’s dalliance with amnesty under George W. Bush was so monumentally bone-headed.  What were they thinking?  “Let’s get Hispanics to vote for us by passing something that’s going to piss off a whole shit-load of Hispanics who’ve been in America longer than five minutes.”  Really?

Furthermore, somebody in the Democrat Party needs to explain how amnesty makes political sense now.  Unemployment is 9.6%.  Passing the DREAM Act with no real border control mechanisms in place would almost surely invite more illegals into the country.  Voters who are nervous about getting employed or keeping their jobs are not going to be thrilled about yet another tidal wave of undocumented folks putting heavy downward pressure on wages and benefits.  Better still, unease about maintaining a precarious economic position during the Obambi Recession isn’t just being felt by native citizens.  Many Hispanic-Americans have to be fretting about keeping out of the unemployment office.

But of course, the political geniuses that gave us the gargantuan Democrat bloodbath in the 2010 midterms are now dead-set on passing another politically suicidal piece of legislation.  Bravo, Nancy and Harry.  Way to prove everybody right about just how idiotic you two window-lickers are.  Enjoy pounding your approval ratings down into the single digits.

Your government-mandated mammogram/TSA grope

Details forthcoming from the lovely and talented Mary Katherine Ham.

I found this over at Jim Treacher’s Blog That Is On The Intertubez And Computers And Such And Whatnot and stuff and things and stuff…AKA, The Daily Trawler.

Big ups, homie.

Westboro Baptist Douchebags Are Going On A Roadtrip

To where, you ask?

Dearborn,  Michigan.

To ‘meet’ up with whom?

Lots and lots and lots of Muslims.

Believe it or else, kids.

PICKET SCHEDULE
Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI November 18, 2010 8:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Fred Phelps and the WBC will picket the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI, the largest mosque in North America, to remind the idolatrous, doomed Muslims that Mohammed was a pedophile and a false prophet. Like most other false religious systems of modern doomed america, Islam teaches rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. Muslims claim Christ was merely a prophet and that He did not die and live again. They claim His blood is not sufficient or even necessary for salvation. They shall learn the truth when Christ himself returns!

Freakin’ wow.

Meanwhile, Innominatus gives us the tale of the tape.

In this corner, weighing in at a handful of stark raving hateful idiots who do great harm to the Gospel: Westboro Baptist “Church.”

In the opposite corner, weighing in at an uncountable horde of untethered rage: The mooselimb population of Dearborn, Michigan.

Dude, is there anyway both of these jag-off groups could lose?

Green Lantern Trailer

Could be cool.  Maybe.

I guess the love interest in the movie is played by Blake Lively. 

Ummm…yeah.

Oh fine, here’s some Ryan Reynolds beefcake as well.

The Parental Rights Amendment vs. Leftist Indoctrination & Intense Incompetence

The professional Left in America love to work in education.  From the Bill Ayers/Bernadine Dohrn Axis of Kiddie Propaganda to your community college wanna-be-Chomsky English professor, statists have used the education bureaucracy to peddle their pet socialisms to captive audiences.  Judging by the numbers of young people who voted for Obama in 2008, it’s pretty clear the liberal re-education of American youth has been fairly successful.

What is a citizen that doesn’t want to watch the next generation be morphed into a pack of Zombie Marxoids supposed to do about this?  Matt over at the great Conservative Hideout has an idea.

So, for many decades now, there has been a concerted effort to take over our education system.  They have succeeded.    The system itself is now set up as a progressive manipulation machine.  Why try for universal daycare?  To separate kids from the parents!  Why belittle and attempt to limit home schooling, especially when home schooled kids, as a group, out perform the public schools by a large margin?  It’s all about control!  Get the kids away from the parents, and their beliefs, and indoctrinate them into the collective/progressive drones of the future.

I wrote this a few months ago…

People that believe in freedom are already the new pariahs for the left.  One only needs to look at the media coverage of the Tea Parties to confirm this.  The drumbeat will only grow.  As it does, the left will continue to indoctrinate more and more children.  We might yet defeat the socialized medicine, and we might prevent passage of Cap and Trade.  Obama may lose his congressional majorities in 2010.  He might even be defeated in 2012.  But if we continue to give our kids to the government every day, those victories will be temporary, delaying the socialists for a few years to be sure, but in the end, futile.

So, what is the solution?  The Parental Rights Amendment has been discussed since the 90’s.

Homeboy is exactly correct about the risks we face.  Read the whole thing for more explanation about what the PRA is all about.  It’s illuminating.

The leftist infiltration of the education establishment is a dire threat to the Republic.  Does that sound like an overstatement?  The socialist mind-porking of our kids not only ram-rods liberal clap-trap directly into kids’ skulls.  Liberal edumakation is also fantastically incapable of teaching youngsters how to read, write and do math.

Ponder Paterson, New Jersey’s JFK High School.

During the 2008-2009 school year, JFK had a total population of 1932 students.  67% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, which means that roughly 7/10th’s of the students came from poor households.  The graduation rate for JFK High was 79.8%. 

Like many states, New Jersey uses standardized tests to determine student proficiency in English and Math.  Specifically, all 11th graders and those 12th graders who didn’t pass the test in the previous year take the assessment.  The tests measure whether children have skills commensurate with their grade level. 

In 2008-2009, Language Arts Literacy test scores fell into the following ranges:  55% of students scored ’partially proficient’.  This means that these youngsters flat-out failed the assessment.  44% of the students tested scored in the ‘proficient’ range; these children passed the assessment.  A mere 0.3% of the students were ‘advanced proficient.  The kids in this cohort scored above their grade level. 

The Mathematics scores are no better.  69.9% of the students tested were partially proficient.   The proficient level was attained by 27.7% of those tested.  Finally, 2.4% of the children were advanced proficient.

How are you sure a left-wing bureaucracy came up with the system in place at JFK High School?  The psychotic price tag.  The total cost per pupil per year: $18,117.  In short, the taxpayers of Paterson and the State of New Jersey spend $18 grand every year on each kid to get way less than half their students to be moderately okay at English and Math.

We definitely need to be thinking long and hard about the way we educate American kids.  For too long, the leftists have hijacked our schools and turned them into propaganda centers.  Beyond that, the liberals have made our education system intensely incompetent and magnificently expensive.  Massive fundamental reform cannot come too soon.

Why 2011 won’t be 1995

There’s a lot to like about Ramesh Ponnuru’s analysis of the upcoming Republican-heavy Congress, but here’s something that caught my eye.

… [John] Boehner isn’t Gingrich. The new Republican leader is sometimes emotional — he teared up repeatedly during his election-night press conference — but he is not grandiose. Gingrich, by contrast, told confidants in 1995 that he was “moving the planet.” Boehner has learned from the experience of Gingrich and Tom DeLay that he is better off keeping a low profile. No congressman can win media cycles day after day going up against a president one-on-one. Boehner knows it. Boehner isn’t as full of ideas as Gingrich was, but he won’t make as many mistakes either.  

A savvy small business owner once told me something he’d learned from his years growing his company.  He said “Smart guys get confused”.  It sounded…and sounds…counter-intuitive.  You’d think intelligent people would be less prone to befuddlement.  The more I think about it, the more I agree with him.

The 1995-1996 Newt Gingrich saga bears out my businessman friend’s maxim, of course.  Gingrich is as smart as anybody in American politics.  Whatever you think of the dude’s personality, there is no denying that the man has serious intellectual gifts.  However, for all the genius of the Newt-Man, there are always the scattershot plans and goofy pronouncements to make you think he isn’t exactly wired right.

Moving past politics, if you watch NFL football, you know Mike Martz–currently the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears–is considered something of pigskin mastermind.  As the brains behind the St. Louis Rams offense, he helped them become the “Greatest Show on Turf” and contributed greatly to their victory in Super Bowl XXXIV.  When he took over head coaching duties, his pass-happy style got the Rams back to the Super Bowl the very next year.  His football curriculum vitae are reasonably strong.

The problem with Mike Martz is that he’s almost too smart for his own good.  His heavy reliance on passing, aggressive play-calling and unorthodox offensive formations is often characterized as brilliant.  They’re also considered incredibly risky.  Five wideout sets, the diminishing of the tight end’s role, empty backfields, only five down lineman available for protection; these hallmarks of a Martz offense often put the quarterback in dire peril of turned into ground meat from being sacked all the time.  There’s no doubt in my mind that Martz’s inattention to quarterback safety contributed to Kurt Warner’s mid-2000′s career swoon.   

The truth of the matter is that pro football is a quarterback’s game.  The QB is by far the most important member of any NFL team.  The skill level of a quarterback almost always determines how successful the team becomes.  That means that the QB needs to be protected as much as possible in a game as physically dangerous as professional football.  For most offensive coordinators and head coaches, this reality forces them to scale back any thought of overly ambitious offensive schemes.

Even though he has to understand the primacy of quarterback protection, Mike Martz has somehow gotten it into his head that his offensive program doesn’t need to follow the basic laws of football (or physics).  For Martz, the plays that he’s designed work just fine.  In short, dude is confused.

John Boehner might not be nearly as smart as Newt Gingrich.  On the other hand, the next Speaker of the House is not stupid either.  Moreover, he brings an advantage to the position that Gingrich never had.  Boehner isn’t encumbered by an overabundance of arcane ideas.  Boehner isn’t obsessed with weird futurist writers, he’s shown no interest in trying remake the conservative movement in his image and, most importantly, he doesn’t see himself as the Prime Minister of America. If John Boehner focuses on a few key issues…repealing ObamaCare, stymieing St. Barry’s brainless hyper-statism, maybe  instilling some real budgetary discipline…rather than getting hung up in media wars with the President over small potatoes problems, the next Speaker of the House will be an effective steward of the conservative movement’s agenda in Congress. 

Boehner will never be a Mensa candidate.  He’s also not prone to the kind of confusion that can cripple much smarter people.  In a country led by a President who gives himself a daily public ball-massaging for being so much smarter than everyone else, a Speaker with a little intellectual humility would be a relief.

Overscheduling is a bitch

Sorry I’ve been semi-AWOL lately. 

Lots of crap has come up that has kept me from rockin’ out with ya’all.

I’ll try to do better the rest of the week.

My bad, homies.