The Simplicity Of Egypt As An Outright Enemy

I’ve been a little nervous about just how crappy the Egyptian revolt is likely to turn out. I’ve been sorta encouraged–although I dunno if that’s the right word–by the optimistic view taken by Donald Douglas over at American Power.

But folks need to get a grip. Nostalgia for Mubarak is exceedingly misplaced. Yeah, he’s our guy and all that. But he’s been a disaster for Egypt’s development, and in an age of increasingly rapid global communications, the regime’s failures are exponentially multiplied by the day. Victor Davis Hanson points out that the roots of radicalism in Egypt have more to do with Mubarak’s rule than anything found in Israel or the United States, “What’s the Matter with Egypt?”

VDH-What’s next? “Finger-in-the-wind” diplomacy may work for a while, but it requires deftness that follows conditions on the street in a nanosecond to avoid appearing purely cynical (a skill beyond Hillary, Biden, and Obama). I think in this bad/worse choice scenario we might as well support supposedly democratic reformers, with the expectation that they could either fail in removing Mubarak or be nudged out by those far worse than Mubarak. Contrary to popular opinion, I think Bush was right to support elections in Gaza “one time” (only of course). The Gazans got what they wanted, we are done with them, and they have to live with the results, happy in their thuggish misery, with a prosperous Israel and better-off West Bank to remind them of their stupidity. All bad, but an honest bad and preferable to the lie that there were thousands of Jeffersonians in Gaza thwarted by the U.S.

There is much to agree with regarding Douglas’ and Hanson’s assertions.

First, it’s important to note a few things.  I think most people in the West want the Egyptian uprising to end in a democratic government that respects free speech, the rule of law, property rights, religious pluralism, free elections and all the other happy horse shit that goes along with a functional sane nation.

One problem: What happens when the populace of a country–you know, the folks that actually live there–wants something completely anathema to democracy?

A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries’ political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to the survey, majorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria would favor changing current laws to allow stoning as a punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft and death for those who convert from Islam to another religion.

Big ups to Bunkerville for finding the survey in question.

In the meantime go ahead and click the link.  Unpack the data and take it for a drive around the block once or twice. Is there anything in there that suggests a place like Egypt is prepared for a democracy that won’t immediately get swallowed up the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas?  A democratic Egypt would almost surely result in a Muslim Brotherhood victory.  The MB would promptly end all elections, install a sharia-based thugocracy and commence with the ooey-gooey Islamofascism.

So, barring a miracle, a real Egyptian democracy is probably out of the question.

On the other hand, a continuation of the secular military government might not be so great either.  We’ve paid Egypt about $50 billion since 1979 to play nice in the sandbox with Israel and the rest of her neighbors.  What exactly has the United States government bought for that hefty price tag?  The Egyptian regime either can’t or won’t neuter the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties to Hamas, al-Qaeda and the very terrorist-friendly Iranian theocracy.  For fifty billion dollars, Egypt should’ve stomped the MB into a pile of fertilizer while simultaneously singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in perfect eight-part harmony on a continuous loop since the Carter era.

What we’ve gotten for our money is a frenemy.  A stab us in the back, anti-Semitism supporting, wink-and-a-nod to terrorists frenemy.  I don’t know about you, but I think we probably could’ve gotten that for a whole lot less cheddar and a whole lot less trouble. 

Having Egypt go rogue would remove a lot of the ambiguity to her relationship to America, Israel and the West.  Instead of the current situation, which amounts to Egypt giving us a handshake with their right hand with stabbing us with their left, it would be abundantly clear that the Egyptian government just hated us, full stop.  That’s not great, but it does make it easier when and if we have to kick their ass back into the Old Kingdom. 

The only snag to a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt is the Suez Canal being used as a club to beat the West into submission.  To be sure, that’s a mighty big problem.  It’s an issue that would have to be addressed with either incredibly deft diplomacy or military intervention.  As Hanson has noted, the Obama Admenstruation has proven itself incapable of smart foreign relations.  Nothing in St. Barry’s paper-thin resume suggests he’s willing to use the US armed forces in that manner. 

So yeah, the Suez is a tough nut.  But it isn’t the most difficult problem America has ever had to deal with.  The Cold War presented far greater challenges across a far longer timeframe and on a far larger geopolitical playing field.  Better still, I don’t think a President Palin will have any qualms about laying the smack-down on any Muslim Brotherhood jag-offs that might take over the Egyptian state.

I don’t know.  Maybe this is a glib read on the Egyptian revolt.  I think perhaps I’m trying to put a decent spin on an otherwise craptastic situation.

Music Monday BritPop-”Coffee and TV” by Blur

Yeah, I know.  Blur is kinda…eyyyyrrrrrrggggghhhhh…not great.  Their lead singer Damon Albarn sorta sucks too.  The whole band seems a little too twee and a little too precious to be taken seriously.

But damn this is a cool tune.  It’s got great hooks, cool vocals and neat lyrics.  Watch and you’ll see.

Everytime I hear this song, it sends me right back to the 90′s.  Not just the time period, but the vibe of those days too.

It’s hard to explain.  For me, the 90′s were beyond unserious.  A half-assed president.  A somnambulent electorate.  A flippant pop culture.  

What were the big worries?  Y2k, the decline of the ‘X-Files’ and how to fund midnight basketball.

In any case, Blur felt like a rock group perfectly suited to those jokey years.  But even a broken clock is right twice a day.  Not only did they write “Coffee and TV”–a master class in pop perfection–they came up with this enduring modern classic.

Woo-Hoo! 

Rock out, ya’all.

The best take on the State of The Union speech

…Comes from none other than the great Innominatus.

WTF, ya’all.  W–T–F.

Robert Redford is kind of a dick

Yeah, he is.

Because impossible pointless environmental standards are for the little people.

So I guess Egypt is shitting the mattress

Let’s listen to the most intelligent sentient moustache ever and his human host, John Bolton.

I think what’s clearly happened today [in  Egypt] is that the Muslim Brotherhood, the radical Islamist party in Egypt has called it’s supporters into the street. I don’t think it was present on the first two or three days. 

I think after the Friday prayers the Brotherhood brought its people out. That’s why the protests are even more extensive today. That constitutes no doubt about it a direct threat to the military government, and I think the failure of the other security forces to bring the demonstrations under control also now explains the presence of the military. 

Let me be clear here, this is not just the Mubarak-family government. The military has ruled Egypt since Gamal Nasser and they over through King Farook. 

It’s the military that is the real government and they are not going to go peacefully. 

…I think the question is whether and to what extent the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamists have infiltrated the leadership. If the military holds firm it’s entirely possible, although bloody, that the government can hold onto power. That doesn’t necessarily mean Mubarak will be in power, but the military will be, and I think that is why this contrast makes it so important for people to understand, this is not a choice between the Mubarak government on one hand, and sweetness and light, Jeffersonian democracy on the other.

That’s whats at stake here folks.

More than likely, there are no reform-minded democrats in Egypt in a position to take the reins of this revolution.

That means we have no good options. 

Damnit.

Once again, we are confronted by the thinness of possibility.  In our dreams, anything can happen.  Time travel, mental telepathy, Weezer putting out a listenable album in the 21st century; lots of crazy unbelievable shit can happen in an ideal world. 

In the real world, most of the time we get only a few choices and none of them are good.  I would love for there to be a vibrant democracy movement in Egypt.  I’d also love to own a McLaren F1.  Neither one are gonna happen.

Why?  Because in both cases, nobody has created the conditions for those things to exist.  In Egypt, the American government hasn’t done enough to foster real live democrats. Neither has anyone else for that matter.   Of course the Mubarak regime hasn’t lifted a finger to help create a democratic tradition.  Has the United Nations encouraged an Egyptian democracy?  Please.

Until we start investing time, manpower, resources and money in promoting rad shit like the rule of law, property rights, limited government and natural rights, we’re always going to be stuck with bad options.  We’ll either have to cozy up to vile scumbags like Hosni Mubarak and try to scour off his stank-ass stench or we’ll have to give implicit thumbs up to local jag-off movements that hate us.         

Instead of being proactive we watch as nations go into violent revolt,  then grab our rabbits’ foot and wish for things to work out.  “Oh please, make Egypt a happy little Mediterranean republic.  Hell, I’d take a semi-functioning constitutional monarchy. Pretty Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze?”

Bolton’s right.  This could be a little hiccup in Mubarak’s reign of douche.  The Egyptian military could put this little unpleasantness down and it’ll all be over.  On the other hand, the Muslim Brotherhood could finally cream their jeans and snag themselves an Egypt trophy for the terrorist cave mantlepiece.

Whatever happens in Egypt, we’ll probably still be wishing for a more fair government instead of actually doing what we can to make that happen.

The 2010 Oscars: Minorities Need Not Get The Hook-Up?

Ann Althouse finds El Rushbo in a zesty mood.

… You have a very powerful industry run by liberal Democrats, very rich liberal Democrats, and they have their top ten best movies, nominated best movies, and not a single person of color nominated for anything, not even best supporting stooge….

What, were there no movies with black or Hispanic people in them the last year?

No minority actor, writer, director, producer, gaffer, best boy or key grip did anything of note in 2010?

Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least one movie in 2010 that featured folks of a non-Caucasian persuasion.  It’s not like Hollywood didn’t put out The Book of Eli back in January.  I know that’s a long while back, but I’m pretty sure Eli got a 2010 release, so it’s Oscar eligible.

(Content warning-NSFW)

Just taking a cursory glance, you’d think The Book of Eli had a lot of Oscar-bait qualities going for it.  It’s a visually stark movie with a very bleak atmosphere.  The story makes it clear that most of America has been obliterated by a nuclear war.  A film that features a harsh vibe about the US getting destroyed by nukes?  The Hollywood grandees that nominate flicks usually lap that kind of stuff up by the wheel barrell load.

From a racial perspective, Eli has several non-white peeps in prominent positions.  The great Denzel Washington, a highly respected actor who has been nominated and has won Oscar gold in the past, stars in the title role of the movie.  Jennifer Beals, a wonderful character actress with a wide-ranging resume, plays an important supporting character.  The directors are none other than the Hughes Brothers, who helmed Menace II Society and Dead Presidents among several other films.  

To be sure, more than a few critics weren’t in love with the film.  It wasn’t a huge box office smash either.  As for the actual film itself, it was not perfect by any means.  While Washington, Beals and Gary Oldman were very strong in their respective roles, the gorgeous and talented Mila Kunis was miscast as Solara.  Eli wasn’t a big rah-rah story with a conventionally uplifting message, so it’s not like it had that kind of hook to snag Oscar buzz.  It was released in early 2010, so maybe some of the nominators forgot about it.  There were elements of the flick–the post-apocalyptic Western tone, the Mad Max-type stuff, the nature of the violence in the plot–that might’ve put off some of the more delicate members of the Academy. 

But if not-perfect movies aren’t allowed to even get nominated, how come a stinking pile of cinematic dogshit like Crash caught all types of Oscar love?  If we’re just talking about individual performances, Hustle & Flow was a decent movie, but there’s no way in hell 3-6 Mafia should’ve gotten an Oscar for best song. So the Academy is more than willing to give some films and some performances the benefit of the doubt.

So why didn’t The Book of Eli get nominated for anything? 

First, Eli’s book is none other than the Holy Bible.  In the film, Eli has been commanded by God to protect the Good Book and bring it to the west coast of America.  Eli is portrayed as a devout believer who talks to God and is comforted by His presence.  The plot of the movie all but demands the viewer to take Eli and his faith seriously.  Eli, and the story itself, is driven by a firm belief in a Christian God.  This kind of blatant pro-Jesus stuff is almost always kryptonite for Academy Award nominators, who tolerate religious elements in film only if they are gauzy unspecific kumbaya pieties or overtly hostile to Christianity.

So there’s an anti-Christian reason for Eli‘s Oscar snubbing.  The other factor that plays a part here is race.  While the title role is played by a black dude, his ethnic background doesn’t become a part of the plot.  The bad guys don’t use it against him and the good people don’t seem to notice Eli’s blackness either   Denzel Washington was superb as Eli, but the character could’ve been portrayed by Russell Crowe, Jim Caviezel, Hugh Jackman or even Kurt Russell.  Eli’s racial make-up was of no consequence to the story.  The character was simply a determined man on a mission. 

Even more interesting are the directors.  The Hughes Brothers are black, yet here we find them making a movie that doesn’t have anything to do with race.  It’s not an ‘urban’ film like Menace II Society or Dead Presidents.  Nor are the characters dealing with racism.  The folks in Eli seem far more preoccupied with the prospects of food and shelter than with the color of anybody’s skin.

I think this is where we see the true ghettoization of Hollywood come into play.  Non-whites can star in non-racial movies.  People of color can write and produce and direct films that don’t have anything to do with racism and bigotry.  But if minority folks want to get the Academy to give them props, they’d better be involved in films that deal with some sort of ethnic intolerance or other explicitly racial theme.  For the people who control the Oscars, the best type of movie is one like the aforementioned Crash:  one-dimensional, pious, melodramatic, stacked to the rafters with white guilt handwringing and politically correct to a fault.

How is this fair to minorities in the entertainment business?  How is this fair to the multiracial American viewing public?  In both cases, it’s not.  However, it’s very beneficial to Hollywood big-wigs.  This unwritten policy allows them the freedom to only pay attention to movies involving blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic groups when they advance Hollywood’s preferred storylines.  When Denzel Washington and the Hughes Brothers put out a speculative fiction genre piece like Eli, the Academy can safely tune out and nobody but cranky right-wing bloggers and hyper-left race-hustlers will notice the Oscar peeps doing it.

Better still, by ignoring non-racial movies that feature minority actors and creators, the Academy sends a loud message to non-whites in the entertainment field:  ‘Advance the show biz-approved racial message, because if you don’t you cannot expect us to recognize the strong work you do’.  This is how the liberal Hollyweird narrative, with all of it’s goofy racial sentiments and ethnic grievance politics, gets advanced.

This is spectacularly racist.  It’s not the hard Jim Crow/KKK racism that we tend to think of when we define bigotry.  But just because Hollywood isn’t screaming ‘Seig Heil!’ while goose-stepping down Sunset Boulevard doesn’t mean they’re not engaging in a particularly insidious and hurtful form of discrimination.

State of the Uni…blah blah fucking blah

Seriously, did last night’s speech by Barack Obama tell us anything we didn’t already know about him?

In the face of a punishing midterm election for him and his party, the Obamster has decided to focus on…government sponsored high speed rail lines.

That’s the new hotness.

Wow.

Better still, did the SOTU help Obama?  Maybe in the short term as his fan-boys get a little of their swagger back.  Back on planet Earth, people have made up their minds about the President.  One little pep rally isn’t going to change that.

Obama, Rebooted (And Rahmbo too)

One kudo I’ll give to the the Obama Administration-They’ve been pretty good about keeping their inner workings private.  We know they’re prone to knee-jerk reactions.  We know they’re scattershot in extremis.  What we don’t know is the why.  Why is Team Bambi so seemingly disorganized?  Why is this presidency in such bad shape?  

 

Turns out it was all Rahmbo’s fault.

 

The second basket that [Pete] Rouse identified had to do with a trap the White House had fallen into of being too tactical and reactive. To some extent, this was the result of the fusillade of crises and imperatives—the stimulus, TARP, the auto bailout—that hit the administration in rat-a-tat succession right from the get-go. But it was also a feature of [Rahm] Emanuel’s métier. “Rahm always wanted to win the day, win the week, at the expense of a longer-term focus,” says a senior White House official. “So we’d set up a plan to drive the economic message for a week, and then something would happen, so we would switch and do something different. The legislative calendar was all over the place. Everything had a certain madhouse quality about it.”

Yeeeeesh.

 

Question for the audience:  How much space is left under Barry’s Magic Bus after they just rolled Rahmbo under it? 

 

Anyhoo, the above quote is taken from a big New York Magazine piece on the re-jiggering of the Obama presidency.  Not surprisingly, there are a few more zings at Emmanuel’s expense to be found.  But the article is more than a passive-aggressive hit piece on the former chief of staff.

 

One big surprise here was an MSM piece that said something mean about the American political class’ puppy dog crush.

 

Few perceptions were more widely shared or loudly voiced around Washington than that the Obamans were huffing their own fumes. “You know the cliché about our strengths being our weaknesses? It’s true for them as well,” says a top political strategist in a previous White House. “I think they felt like if they had listened to conventional wisdom in 2007, they never would have run. When they hear criticism, they say, ‘Been there, done that, we’re gonna stay the course.’ There’s almost a Zen-like quality about how they’ve been in their own universe and their own bubble.”

 

The more pointed variant of this critique was directed specifically at Obama. Unlike 42—who loved to stay up late, jabbing at the speed dial, spending countless hours gabbing with local pols and businesspeople around the country to gauge the political wind and weather—44 not only eschewed reaching out to governors, mayors, or CEOs, but he rarely consulted outside the tiny charmed circle surrounding him in the White House. “What you had was really three or four people running the entire government,” says the former White House strategist. “I thought they put a pretty good Cabinet together, but most of those guys might as well be in the witness-protection program.”  

So wait, the great Lightbringer/President has created a close-minded feedback-loop of lackeys?  I thought this guy was supposed to be The One.  Messiahs aren’t supposed to need henchmen to tell him what he thinks.

  

Fast forward to the 2010 midterms.  Obama takes a massive hit and realizes he might have a little bit of a problem, so he invites a bunch of DC types for a pow-wow.  Here’s how that went:

 

The grandees, being grandees, had no paucity of advice for Obama. They told him that he could and should get business done with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. They counseled him, in the words of one, on “the social power of the presidency”—building relationships with friends and foes alike by inviting them to Camp David or aboard Air Force One, even (or especially) when he wanted nothing from them. Most pertinent, they reinforced Rouse’s tripartite diagnosis: Obama and his White House had to be less cloistered and more strategic, and employ the bully pulpit better.

 

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.

 

Chocolate Jesus needed a bunch of Beltway brainiacs to tell him to play nice in the sandbox with other politicians.

 

Put it another way:  Barack Obama had to be told by David Gergen–DAVID GERGEN–to not be a dickhead. 

 

Seriously?

 

Isn’t that, like, Politics 101?

 

This is exactly why most businesses don’t hire fucking incompetent amateurs to run their companies.  Obama never managed anything–not a law office, not a college department, a goddamn lemonade stand, nothing–in his life.  His resume consists of being a hack lawyer, an adjunct professor and BFF to his memoir writer Bill Ayers.  His Senate career was a little over five minutes long and marked by a big rotund zero when it came to actual legislative achievements.

 

So of course, that guy–a smug undertalented affirmative action hire–should be President of the most powerful nation in the universe.

 

And then people have the nerve to wonder why Obambi doesn’t know how to perform even the most rudimentary functions of being a politician.  This clown has been told for his entire life that he’s a pretty pony that is so super scary smart that he can do anything with no effort.  It’s not hard to see how a person raised in that kind of ‘self-esteem first, accomplishments second’ atmosphere doesn’t think to make friends and influence people in his professional cohort.

 

We’ve got an interesting two years ahead of us, kids.

 

I guess I’ll be live-blogging/twittering the State of the Union Speech.  Check back here for updates and crap and stuff.

ObamaCare Is So Awesome!

How awesome is it?

It’s so awesome that the SEIU is getting out of it as fast as they possibly can!

Three local chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose political action committee spent $27 million supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, have received temporary waivers from a provision in the Obamacare law. The three SEIU chapters include the Local 25 in Obama’s hometown of Chicago.

The waivers allow health insurance plans to limit how much they will spend on a policy holder’s medical coverage for a given year. Under the new health care law, however, such annual limits are phased out by the year 2014. (Under HHS regulations, annual limits can be no less than $750,000 for 2011, no less than $1.25 million in 2012 and no less than $2 million in 2013.)

It must be nice for the SEIU to have a true man of the people like Barack Obama as a friend. With Barry for a buddy, it’s so much easier for the SEIU to screw it’s members out of the Democrat’s glorious new health care reforms. Yes, you heard me right; the SEIU is screwing it’s own membership by denying them access to ObamaCare.

Think about it–How often did the SEIU gently and politely explain to us that big government in general was great and that socialized medicine in particular was a wonderful thing? The union dutifully rolled out their rent-a-protesters at any opportunity they could in support of this supposedly excellent new program. Now that the SEIU finally got it’s wish for gubmint helf cairrrr, they cry for their buddy in the White House to exempt them from it.

By the SEIU’s own logic, they’re denying their membership this spectacular health care plan by asking the government for an ObamaCare waiver.

If you are a rank-n-file SEIU member, you should be very angry now. You were told by high-ranking union leaders that ObamaCare was going to solve your family’s health care needs. You were informed that you should support it and welcome this reform program. You might’ve even been urged by that same union leadership to get involved in political rallies for Obama and for government health care. Now the union is asking their bestest pal Barack to exempt them from something you were told was going to be a life-saver.

Maybe ‘angry’ isn’t the right reaction to all this. Perhaps the more apt term is ‘swindled’.

Watching the slow-motion hypocrisy train wreck of a group like the SEIU stamping it’s feet for ObamaCare then screaming even louder for a waiver should be an eye-opener to anyone with a functioning brain cell. Imagine the spittle-flecked tantrums that would ensue if the National Right To Life Committee somehow criminalized abortion, yet allowed it’s membership to terminate their pregnancies. The wailing and gnashing of teeth would be deafening. So of course, we should just ignore how forty-five labor unions have been granted exemptions from the government medicine they demanded the rest of us vote for and embrace.

Screw that bullcrap.

Repeal, defund, whatever–ObamaCare must be destroyed.

Music Monday Classic Rock-”Theme For An Imaginary Western” by Mountain

Lots of people know Mountain’s big hit “Mississippi Queen“.  It’s a great tune, with some of the best cowbell you’ll ever hear.  Having said that, Mountain is more than just one rad song.  The band had a long connection to Cream’s bass player and vocalist Jack Bruce.  This collaboration helped give birth to their greatest work, “Theme For An Imaginary Western”.  Check it out.

Hope you liked it, homies.

Also-GUESS WHAT?  I GOT A FEVAH, AND THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION IS MORE COWBELL.

Sorry.  I couldn’t resist.

“…he was like a white Reverend Wright.”

Hitler Finds Out That Keith Olbermann Has Been Fired.

Inevitable. 

But still totally rad.

I found this over at The Other McCain.  Great find, RS.

UPDATE:  Gateway Pundit finds out that Keef Overbite has landed on his feet.

Tip o’ da cap to Alan Burkhart.

Hmmm: The Anti-War Movement Craters

I wonder why.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say the 2003-2008 anti-war movement was used by the Democrat Party as a cynical ploy to score cheap political points against George Bush or something.

No, that can’t be it.

[sarc/]

Now for the most part Democrats have forgotten their strident moralistic slogans about the evils of war they employed during the Bush II Administration.  But there are a few thumbsucking libs out in the leftover-sphere who actually took the ANSWER/Code Pink/Smelly Hippie nonsense seriously. 

So what happens when an anti-war true believer gets mugged by reality?  I give you master sock-puppeteer and all-around lefty doucherocket Glenn Greenwald.  I will not bore you with all of his rhetorical throat-clearing.  Instead, let’s cut to the money quote:

Conservatives would love to bash Obama for being weak on Terrorism so that, in the event of another attack, they can blame him (and Cheney, in last night’s interview, left open that possibility by suggesting Obama may suffer from unknown failures).  If it were at all possible, they’d be out accusing him of abandoning critical programs that Keep us Safe; that’s what they do best.  But they cannot with a straight face claim that Obama has abandoned their core approach, so they do the only thing they can do:  acknowledge that he has continued and strengthened it and point out that it proves they were right — and he was wrong — all along.   If Obama has indeed changed his mind over the last two years as a result of all the Secret Scary Things he’s seen as President, then I genuinely believe that he and the Democratic Party owe a heartfelt, public apology to Bush, Cheney and the GOP for all the harsh insults they spewed about them for years based on policies that they are now themselves aggressively continuing.

Obama has won the War on Terror debate — for the American Right.  And as Dick Cheney’s interview last night demonstrates, they’re every bit as appreciative as they should be.

Fellow conservatives in my reading audience, I want you to slowly savor the delicious cream-filled nougat-rich schadenfreude of the repellent socialist Glenn Greenwald calling on President Obama to apologize to George Bush.

What’s even better here is the tacit acknowledgement by a committed liberal hack that President Bush might’ve been right about Islamic terrorism.  From roughly 2002 till 2008, Greenwald–and many others in the progressive caucus–made very loud moralistic statements about the obvious wretched villainy of the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush Axis of Weasel.  It seemed like every day, some voice on the left would bemoan the erosion of the Constitution by Dubya’s war and security tactics.  Going further down the proggy rathole, there were more than a few folks who said that Bush was using the War on Terror as an excuse to create a fascist police state.

My how things have changed in the Age of Obamster.  Now that St. Barry of the Holy Handout is in charge, liberals can kinda sorta give Bush the benefit of the doubt on Islamic radicalism.  With a reliable statist as commander in chief, leftists are now allowed to think it’s cool to butch up and fight the War On Terror.  And when a Republican becomes president again, you can be sure the Left will go back to calling conservatives war-mongering constitution-shredders while giving aid and comfort to the enemy. 

But don’t you dare question the progresive movement’s (on-again off-again, situationally based, politically convenient) patriotism.

The House Votes To Repeal ObamaCare

As you all know, the House of Reprezentin’ has voted to repeal St. Barry’s socialized medicine deform plan. 

Everybody’s favorite nonsensible shoe-havin’ homeboy Dean_L has the good news.

Congress voted today to repeal Obamacare.  Every Republican voted for repeal and 3 Democrats came onside.  Three. Blue Dog Democrats are apparently a rare breed.  So rare in fact, that they only outnumber the number of Democrats who think of Republicans as Nazis by two.

Haha.

If don’t know what that means, check this out.

Meet the new political tone, same as the old political tone.

Whatevs.

Nobody actually expected the Democrats to not call conservatives Nazis.  Libs never wanted to back down the rhetoric.  They just wanted Republicans to shut the hell up.

Anyhoo, lots of folks–including Harry Reid–say the Republican effort to repeal ObambiCare is pointless.

I don’t get that at all.

What the hell did the GOPer’s campaign on in 2010?  A major part of their platform was flushing gubmint helf cairrrrr.  Politically, it would be far worse if the Republicans didn’t do this.  

Just for shits and giggles, anybody know how many states have brought suits against ObamaCare?  Five?  Wrong.  Ten?  Ehhhh, no.  Definitely not more than fifteen, right?   Try twenty six.  Twenty six state Attorneys General are suing the feds over this oncoming sure-fire trainwreck. 

While not a direct measure of voter anger over socialized medicine, the fact that over half the country is trying to get out of this big government retardation should be all the proof anybody needs of just how clusterfucked Barry’s Boondoggle really is.

Knowing all that, there’s absolutely no reason for congressional Republicans not to push for repeal.  If they’re serious about being small-government hawks now, they have to do this.  Better still, it’s politically popular.

When Democrats keep whining that Republicans shouldn’t do something, that’s pretty much the fifty foot million candle power day-glo green light to do just that.

If there was an instruction manual on how to be a GOPer, that should be Rule 1 through 20.

US States and their foreign economic equivalents

The Economist finally makes itself useful.

Fun fact:  It turns out New Jersey is roughly equal to Switzerland.

Wow.

Hey, over-rated Lake Geneva.  We got Seaside Heights.

The Alps?  Please.  Try on the Palisades for size. 

We didn’t forget about you, Davos; how does Camden’s ass taste?

Oh, it was “economically equivalent”, not actually equivalent.

Whoopsies.

In any event, click on over and check out the cool data goodness.

I found the original link at Instapundit’s place.

Faux-Sapphists, Silvio Berlusconi and the Dental Hygienist

Look, I’m gonna be honest here.

The Italian political scene makes the shit Bill Clinton did back in the day seem like a family picnic.

Case in point: Lesbian Sex Shows Set Up By a Former Dental Hygienist Turned Local Politician for Silvio Berlusconi.

Run that through your noggin a few times.

Lesbian Sex Shows.

Dental Hygienist.

Silvio Berlusconi.

Read on.

Women paid to have sex with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dressed in nurse and police uniforms and performed stripteases at parties, it was claimed today.

The damaging allegations emerged in court documents which are part of a probe into Berlusconi, 74, looking at charges of extortion and using underaged prostitutes.

Some women even put on a ‘lesbian’ show for him and his cronies.

Former dental hygienist Nicole Minetti, now a local politician representing his party, is named as a recruiter of the girls.

…Minetti, a former showgirl, helped restore Berlusconi’s smile – literally – after he was struck in the face at a political rally with a marble statue, breaking two of his teeth.

She was his dental hygienist, and she swiftly made the move into politics by joining his People Of Freedom party, scoring a seat in Lombardy’s regional parliament.

…In the 400-page document, it is claimed the girls would stroke themselves up and down Berlusconi and allow themselves to be touched, acting provocatively and vulgarly.

It went on to describe how there were wardrobes with varying uniforms which the women would put on to carry out stripteases and how they would dance seductively, semi-naked, lesbian style.

Wow.

Note to sleazy American politicians: Time to step up your scumbag game.

Banging unpaid interns? Naughty text messages to young men? Airport bathroom dalliances? That’s bush league shit. Berlusconi beats weak garbage in an average weekend.

When it comes to sordid dirty misuse of power and influence, it’s official.

You win, Italy. Well played.

How NOT to celebrate MLK Jr. Day

Bob Belvedere finds South Carolina’s NAACP playing their cherished 21st century role:  Hyper-PC jag offs.

At a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr held yesterday at the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, run by the NAACP, the statue of George Washington was concealed in a black box so as not to ‘offend’ the people attending.

Don’t believe me? 

Check this shit out.

I love the bald-faced chutzpah of the NAACP.  Using Stalinist tactics to shove the greatest president in American history down the memory hole while celebrating the legacy of another.  In the immortal words of Buck Murdock, irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.  

He’s the first president, for fuck’s sake.  He wasn’t perfect, of course, but he was better than most.

Then there is this to ponder:

Washington once told a visiting Englishman that slavery was neither a crime nor an absurdity, noting that the U.S. government did not assure liberty to madmen. “Until the mind of the slave has been educated to understand freedom, the gift of freedom would only assure its abuse,” Washington explained.

His will, drafted a year later, said otherwise. He wrote that he wished he could free all the slaves at Mt. Vernon, but couldn’t because some belonged to his wife’s heirs, and he didn’t want to divide families. Unless Martha or her heirs freed the Custis slaves as well, families would be broken up. Wiencek believes George was trying to persuade Martha to use her influence on her heirs to free the Custis slaves–but she did not. Washington also stipulated that the freed children be taught reading, writing and a trade.

“His will was a rebuke to his family, to his class, and to the country. He was well ahead of people of his time and place,” Wiencek said. “This is George Washington’s true legacy. He’d said the slaves weren’t ready for freedom, but at last he said they must have it because of their humanity.”

Let me get this straight.  The NAACP thought that Washington had to get airbrushed out of history.  A dude who freed his slaves.  That guy had to go.

Okay.

Collating The Left’s Insanity-The Results

Here is the best documentation of the Left’s ridiculous reaction to the Tuscon shooting.

The Conservative Hideout should be an everyday stop but with this post, Matt & Co. should be required reading for everybody…and I’m not just sayin’ that because I got a few links in there.     ;-p

Seriously.  Get your asses over, peruse the links and see what you can see. 

Here’s my take from the CH2.0 piece.  First, the incredible job Matt did sifting through these links and organizing all these disparate sources is nothing short of heroic.  If there was a way to give homeboy a round of applause on the internet, a lot of us should be doing that right now.

Second, this gives me a lot of hope for conservatism in general.  Look at how quickly and how effectively the Right mobilized and parried against the lamestream media/prog-tard narrative.  Matt’s post should show both friend and foe alike what the conservative movement can do to fight against the lies and stupidity of the progressive agenda.

We didn’t vanquish our foes from the political arena.  That will take quite a long while.  What we did do is lay down a marker.  As the mainstream cock-knocker press corps and their statist allies starts to fade into obsolescence and senility, the right side bloggers and commentators are going to win more and more of these arguments.

Observe how the Left responded to the Tucson shooting.  In the immediate aftermath of the shooting–like, the first few hours–the libs couldn’t blame conservatives loudly enough.  The narrative took shape, the marching order were sent out and off the progressives went.  They used every single media outlet they could to ‘prove’ Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck gave the Tucson shooter the idea to spray bullets at his congresswoman.  

Now, what did the Right do?  Did they sit on their hands?  Did they wait until the statists had cemented their hold on the story?  Nope.  Instead, conservative talkers and writers made sure they counter-attacked, not with some pre-ordained game plan, but with facts.  Once the real story emerged, liberals had no response to reality. 

The lesson here?  As long as we write the truth and as long as we use facts and logic to back up our assertions, the Left cannot beat us.  They might win an election or two, but they cannot score the kind of permanent victories they thought they had with the election of Barack Obama.  Not when they have to use the sort of ridiculous chicanery they did on the Giffords shooting.

Matt’s work here is essential for understanding just what occurred in these past few days.  Again, get over there and read his work.

Music Monday Post Rock-”Take Me Somewhere Nice” by Mogwai

Just warning you:  This is slow.  It’s very light.  It’s fairly repetitive.  The dude doesn’t start singing till about two  minutes into the tune.  But it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

Mogwai is one of those bands that has a relatively small but fairly vocal fan base.  If somebody is into Mogwai, they’re usually fiends for the group who’ve collected all their albums and been to a shit-load of shows.  I never got why these guys were so rad; it seems like Mogwai found a formula and can’t get beyond it. 

Having said that, this song hits the spot for me.  I hope ya’all dig it too.

Smokin’ blonde Amber Heard will star in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Rum Diary”

I didn’t read it but I hear good things.  Maybe this has a chance of being cool.

I dug ”Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” when it came out.  The drug-fueled insanity and Terry Gilliam’s studied weirdness worked.  That and it was funny as hell watching Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro stumble around huffing ether.

In any case, “The Rum Diary” doesn’t come out till October so we’ll have to wait a bit to see if this is any good.

What I do know is that Amber Heard, the female lead in the flick, is pretty easy on the eyes.

Don’t believe me?  Well, why don’t we take a gander at some pics to see if I’m right.

See, I was right.

Enjoy!

UPDATE:  Yeah, the old headline was lame as hell.  As per the great Other McCain–who has a neat piece on the Tuscon Shooter-Douche, I’ve changed the title of this here hot chick post.

UPDATE II:  Welcome welcome The Other McCain readers!  Come on in, make youselves at home and enjoy the other menu items I’ve got here.  Big ups to RS McCain, who continues to rule.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry I’ve been out and about lately.

My laptop took a shit and died a few days ago.  It’s weird.  Even though I have a desktop, posting on the laptop is more comfortable. 

I dunno.

In any event, I got a new system up and running, so I’m gonna post more and whine less. 

See you tomorrow, homies.