Obama: “I’m all for the Constitution, except when I’m against it.”

Dean_L of the terrific Nonsensible Shoes, makes an interesting observation.

President Obama won’t defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which is still the law of the land because, as Newsmax notes,

 

Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the administration will not defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, which has banned recognition of same-sex marriage for 15 years. President Clinton signed the act into law in 1996.

 

Yet, President Obama will push forward with his health care law that has been deemed unconstitutional by more than one judge because (USA Today),

 

“We don’t believe this kind of judicial activism will be upheld, and we are confident that the (law) will ultimately be declared constitutional by the courts,” Stephanie Cutter, deputy senior adviser to President Obama, wrote on the White House blog.

 

Is anyone else doing an Obama double take over this?

Yes, I stole Dean’s entire post.  It was too good to leave on the cutting room floor.

Also, I kinda suck.  Sorry.

One thing that really aggravates me about Obama, and the Left in general, is just how arbitrary they are when it comes to the enforcing the law and upholding the Constitution.

Don’t get it twisted.  I’m not talking about priorities.  Every administration prioritizes.  After 9/11, George Bush was understandably concerned about international terrorism.  His Department of Justice naturally followed suit and pursued international terrorists.  Even Bill Clinton’s DOJ could be said to have priorities.  Just ask Monica Lewinsky, Vince Foster and David Koresh.

No, I’m talking about the la-di-da/make-it-up-as-we-go-along nature of the Obama Admenstruation.  What was that you say?  There was a well-documented case of voter intimidation involving the New Black Panthers that Team Bambi could’ve prosecuted?  Nope, no can do.  Eric Holder was too busy haughtily lecturing America about race relations to, you know, do his job.  

It’s that kind of ridiculous garbage, where it’s so blatantly obvious only a trained leftist smart-tard could fail to see it, that completely erodes any faith in Obamster’s ability to administer justice in any way that even sorta resembles fairness.  Combine that with his public declarations against DOMA and for the blatantly unconstitutional ObamaCare and one gets the feeling that these clowns really have no clue what the hell they’re doing.

Or maybe the libs really do have a plan, and we’re just too hung up in the individual cases to see it.  Think about how liberals view the US Constitution.  From penumbras to using foreign statutes to interpret American laws, the Left is constantly dreaming of new ways to subvert the founding governmental document of our nation.  

Now a lot of conservatives examine and analyze these liberal law tricks because they seek to understand the rationales behind them.  That’s a perfectly understandable reaction.  It’s puzzling how a case like Griswold v. Connecticut got ruled the way it did.  It’s easy to see why that sort of mystery would get folks into Dr. House mode attempting to diagnose the disease. 

The problem is that after a while, the habit of  conservatives trying to figure out progressive constitutional interpretation is fucking stupid and pointless.  Why?  Because there is no real logic to the jurisprudence of Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg or pretty much the entire 9th Circuit.  Oh sure, they’ll dress up their arguments in lots of loopy Latinized legal yakkety-yak.  But that’s just the window-dressing for the true-believer nitwits and the useful idiots in progressive movement.

No, the real raison d’être for liberal law interpretation is: “To Use Whatever Nonsense We Can To Get Whatever Lefty Agenda Item We Want.”

You’ll notice that whenever the Left wants something to be done–no prayer in public schools, legalized abortion, gay marriage, whatever–there is always a population of judges, lawyers and legal scholars ready to pore over the Constitution to find an amendment or clause that can be tortured into getting them just what they want.  Seemingly, the more unrelated the bit of the Constitution that they’re interpreting is to the case involved, the better.  Whether they use penumbras, foreign law or just plain old bullshit is of no consequence.  As long as Jeeebus McChristDude is out of the classroom, babies can be scraped at any moment in utero and two dudes can enter into state-sanctioned holy matrimony, it’s all good in the hood.

The Left’s idea of the purpose of laws is not justice or fairness or a reflection of the will of the citizenry.  If that was the case, most of the liberal agenda would have little chance of surviving.  The progressive movement looks at the law as a means of impressing it’s ideology on the country.  The Supreme Court, the circuit courts and the Justice Department of a socialist president are all fine tools for the committed American Left to complete their tasks.

That’s why Obama can on one hand ignore the Judge Vinson’s ruling characterizing ObamaCare as unconstitutional while on the other unilaterally declare the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.  It has nothing to do with any coherent logic or structural understanding of the law.  It has everything to do with the progressive movement using whatever club it can to get what it wants.

Music Monday Grohl-”White Limo” by Foo Fighters

Dave Grohl, reintroduce yourself to the amped-up rock we all loved on your first two albums.

Amped-up rock, reacquaint yourself with Dave Grohl’s epic scream.

Fans, go ahead and rejoice.

I dig the fact that it’s so lo-fi and crappy.  The goofy video premise mated with the rocked-out tune-age?  It’s like it’s 1997 again, in a good way. 

This song is not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.  God, I was getting so sick of the limp pop turds Grohl’s been laying on the public for the last ten years.  I might have to buy the new Foo disc.

By the way, it’s also nice to see the face attached to Lemmy’s massive cheek warts is doing well too.

Tea Party Vows To Do What It Is Supposed To Do

What’s that you say?  You wanted the tea Party to kick some GOP ass and keep them accountable?

Ask and ye shall receive, right-wingers.

Antsy for results, tea party supporters gathered for a weekend strategy summit say they’re intent on making sure the Republicans they helped return to power last fall live up to promises to dramatically change course in Washington.

That idea emerged as an apparent consensus among the more than 2,000 people attending the Tea Party Patriots event, which wrapped up Sunday in Arizona. The meeting of the conservative-libertarian coalition was filled with warnings to the GOP not to squander their new base of support, at the risk of diminished help or challenges from the right.

Among the messages from attendees: Congress is too timid when it comes to slashing spending, Republican leaders seem too willing to compromise with President Barack Obama to avoid a government shutdown, and the newly empowered GOP won’t take a firm enough stand to tamp down the nation’s debt.

“A $100 billion budget cut was the first thing they promised. Have we seen that? No. But we’ve heard excuses,” said Donna Woodrum, a conservative organizer from San Diego.

More of this.  More of this. More of this.

Did I say ‘more of this’ yet?  Well let me say it again.

The tea party is the only thing that’s going to keep these damn near useless Republicans on the straight and budget-choppy.

The Red Letter Media Critique of “Star Wars-The Phantom Menace”

For the four or five people who haven’t seen this work of brilliance.

Some background:  The Star Wars prequels sucked, and this guy breaks them all down in creepy/hilarious/profane/awesome ways.

Here’s the first part.  Click the first link to get to Red Letter Media’s Youtube Page. 

Seriously, this isn’t just a movie review.  This is an educational video about how not to make a movie. 

Brilliant.

Here’s RLM’s homepage as well.

Enjoy.

Huckabee (Probably) Isn’t Running In 2012

One Republican–likely–down for the count before the fight begins.

“In order to run for president last time, I cashed in my life insurance, my annuities, I pretty much went through everything that I ever had as an asset that I thought I might someday live on. One thing I committed to myself, to my wife and God, was that if I do this I’m hopefully going to be in a position that I’m not so completely destitute at the end of it, that I have no idea what to do if I get sick.”

Can I get two cheers for inflation?

Cubachi thinks this signals Huckabee’s lack of seriousness about 2012.  I think she’s right.  But then again, has Huckabee ever been a serious candidate in the next presidential election?  The only reason anybody paid him any attention in 2008 was because the GOP field was so weak. 

Besides that, what’s his campaign narrative supposed to be in 2012?  I really don’t think America–and the GOP in particular–will be in the market for spend-happy compassionate conservative. 

Don’t get it twisted.  I think Huckabee’s heart is in the right place on a lot of issues.  So was George W. Bush’s.  Dubya was right about guns, abortion and–broadly–terrorism.  But his lack of discipline about spending (and his poor performance in 2004-2006 Iraq) soiled the GOP brand and helped usher in President Obama.  In similar ways, Huckabee’s compassionate conservatism very well could be just the thing to help re-elect St. Barry of the Sacred Union Payoff.

Maps, Borders and How We React To Them

Ace, talking about the possibility of Libya splintering after Moammar  Khhhhhhhhhadahhhfeeey finally nukes the fridge, talks about maps.

A guy is saying that Libya, the state, may not survive Qadhafi’s ouster; the state may split into tribe-controlled regions.

Does anyone care about this? Is there a single good reason to champion these arbitrary lines and larger-than-needed-or-wanted states which unite tribes that don’t want to be under a single authority?

Do we have some sentimentalism about our old maps? Do we fear having to draw new ones?

This expert wasn’t necessarily against Libya splitting into smaller states, but his general tone was one of alarm.

I don’t get that. Why do we care if Libya splits into seven more homogeneous tribal regions?

Personally, I couldn’t give a withered shit what the hell happens to Libya at this point.  I know there are oil interests in them thar nutbar-infested deserts, but whatevs. If Herman Cain is half as cool as I think he is, he’ll be able to make nice with the petrol-states that are born out of Libya’s corpse when he becomes President.

The thing is that maps, or more specifically the feelings and thoughts we have about maps, have a power over us that we don’t often realize.  It really doesn’t matter that the modern borders of Libya are the products of Italian meddling and United Nations bumbling.  For many Libyans, those basically random lines on the globe represent something important about their identity.  Yes, many Libyans might have a deeper attachment to their particular tribe, but I’d wager there are probably almost as many who feel ‘Libyan’.  Thus, those borders that seem so arbitrary to us have a power on people that we on the outide can’t quite grasp.

How’s about something closer to home?  Alaska is not connected to the lower 48 American states.  As far as it’s climate is concerned, America’s Last Frontier has much more in common with Canada–and Siberia–than with Washington or Idaho.  While geographically it might be huge, Alaska is very sparsely populated.  It’s borders, especially the southeastern panhandle section, are a squiggly mess.

From an outsider’s perspective, Alaska really should be part of Canada. From this American’s view (and many others I’m sure) Alaska is a vital part of our national identity. Those lines scribble-scrabbled onto a map that separate the 49th State from the Great White North have a deeper significance than one would think.

The passage of time tricks us into thinking a nation’s borders are more permanent than they actually are. The British basically drew the map from the Eastern Mediterranean to Persia. Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Saudia Arabia, the Gulf states, Oman, Yemen; all of their borders sprang from the minds of English dudes. In the aftermath of this extreme redistricting, the delineations probably made very little sense to the people on the ground. Nowadays, if you ask a Saudi what differentiates him from other people in the region, political geography will invariably be a part of that person’s rationale.

It’s only when something major happens, like a violent governmental collapse, that we sit back and wonder why the hell the country exists in the first place. “Oh, there’s a dozen ethnic/religious/tribal/ideological/linguistic groups who despise each other that are all supposed to coexist under one flag? Huh.”

UPDATE:  Big hellos and howdys to the Dustbury readers who came over to hang out.  Thanks for stopping by and make yourself at home.  Mega-thanks to the incomparable CG Hill.  I am very grateful for the linky goodness.

UPDATE II:  Leave it to the great Innominatus to come up with a very tough critique of Moammar Khhhhhhhhadaffy.

I wish somebody close to Murmur K’daffy would tell him that Gargoyles sunglasses stopped being cool when The Intimidator died. “Colonel, it has been 10 years! Dude!”

I think it’s insensitive to hate on Khhhhadaffy because he’s still mourning Dale Earnhardt.  We all died a little that day.  I say throw up your ‘three’, Moamarrrrr.

 

Wisconsin and The Reactionary Left

First, some encouraging signs brought to us by Byron York.

[Wisconsin Governor] Walker has stood firm in the fight, but the truth is a lot of Republicans were nervous last week when crowds of protesters showed up and Democrats headed for the hills. What if the public supported the unions? After going home to their districts over the weekend, Republicans are feeling better. Many heard from constituents telling them to hang tough, and voters were especially unhappy with Democrats for hightailing it out of state. “We think public opinion is with us on the budget issue, and we’re sure public opinion is with us on the Democrats’ not showing up for work and doing their job,” says Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party.

In fact, for many Republican supporters, the big question is not whether the fight is worth the trouble but whether there’s some way the GOP can steamroll over the Democrats. But that’s not going to happen, at least for now. Republicans believe they are going to win without using extraordinary measures.

Is it time to let up yet? No, but I think this is a very good sign.

First, this is not–as I erroneously hinted in an older post–just some minor statehouse squall.  By running out of the government, the Donks turned what might’ve been just a run-of-the-mill budget fight into a contest of wills. When Obama unleashed his Organizing For America flunkies to meddle in Wisconsin’s business, that pissing contest supernova’ed into epic showdown status. When something in the states goes mega-national like this, the stakes almost automatically get raised to the rafters; Wisconsin 2011 is no different.

I think everyone on the Right who was paying attention to this feared the Wisconsin GOP or Governor Walker buckling under the pressure. York’s piece gives conservatives hope that the good guys can win this fight. It’s also nice–and a pleasant surprise to boot–to see Wisconsin voters following through on the 2010 midterm elections by continuing to back up their representatives. They could’ve easily listened to the MSM narrative and gotten wobbly, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

As far as the Left goes, they haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory with this fiasco.  Fleeing from a vote, hiding in another state, fake doctor’s notes, rampant whining, union shenanigans, anti-democratic overtones, moral equivalence; much of the modern progressive movement’s pathologies have been laid bare by this political battle.

But something else about liberalism has been revealed in Wisconsin. Roger Simon calls it…reactionary.

I admit I have been using the term “reactionary” for a while when referring to contemporary liberals. This has been quite intentional, something of a deliberate hoisting by their own petard. In my old days on the left, we would brand everyone we didn’t like as a reactionary, mired in the then supposedly-evil capitalist system. And I would like to use the events in Wisconsin to explain why I do it to them now. (Yes, it is partly to get their goat, but it is also to make a point.)

…So why has our left become so reactionary, so unwilling or unable to adapt to a changed world that they “act out” with all the juvenility of adolescents deprived of the family car keys? Some say it is because they have replaced religious faith with politics and I, an agnostic, see some truth in that. But there is more. Liberalism has become a mask for greed in our culture — a way of hiding excessive selfishness from others and, importantly, from the self. It’s a deflection, really.

There’s a lot to like in that article, so read the rest. Simon’s analysis is pretty much spot on, but I think he misses something. The question here is why has the Left become so reactionary, so reluctant to change.

Look at the public sector unions, a key component of the American progressive movement. They’ve pretty much become the establishment in many facets of government. For them, the current order of things isn’t too shabby.

It’s one thing to advocate for change when you’re on the outside looking in. When you’ve become the epitome of ‘business as usual’, you generally don’t want to rock the boat all that much. In fact, anything that jostles your position is likely seen as a dire threat to your existence, even if the jostling in question is relatively minor.

The Tom Hayden/Abbie Hoffman/Bill Ayers Axis of Poor Hygiene and their spiritual descendents have taken over major chunks of the federal government, as well as large portions of many states’ governments.  As part of the governmental machine, progressives have set up a very cushy relationship with taxpayer money that they can readily exploit.  Systemic unsustainability, responsibility to voters or just a simple sense of fairness are not enough to convince the Left to forgo their gravy train. 

The system we have now, where government workers’ unions make psychotic demands and governments readily acquiesce, has reached the point that we have, in the words of Margaret Thatcher, run out of other peoples’ money.  The reactionary forces on the Left will not help tear down the quasi-pyramid scheme they’ve erected.  There is simply too much for them to gain from the current racket.

No, the real agents of change in America–principled conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party acttivists–will have to do it all by themselves.

UPDATE:  Welcome, welcome The Other McCain readers!   Glad you could stop by.  You can go ahead and move about the blog freely. 

I thought my Chris Rock slammage was underappreciated.  Maybe ya’all will find that fun?  I dunno.

In any case, big thanks to RS McCain for putting me up in his Headlines sidebar thing.  I appreciate it very much, sir.

The Current Iran-America Relationship, Explained

Found this over at The Swash.

Hehehe, nice grab Swash-man.

No One Of Any Import: A Precocious One Year Old Blog

Happy late birthday, homegirl.

This is like eleventy days late, but whatevs. Gotta reckanize game, no matter how tardy the recognition is…know what I’m sayin’?

Yep, I’m a year old now.  Time flies.

You know how it is with most one-year-olds.  They’ve figured out how to get around, but they haven’t the slightest idea what they are doing or where they are going.  They just lurch as far as physical boundaries will allow, reaching for everything and breaking stuff in the process.

And ew.  A one-year-old will put almost anything in its mouth.

Sounds about right.

Read my first post!  It’s sad and lonely, with nary a comment attached.

Or tell me how you first stumbled upon my humble little site, if you can remember.  (Funny, I can’t remember how I got introduced to most of the blog buddies I read regularly.  Then again, I can’t recall what I had for dinner yesterday . . . .)

A big sloppy thanks goes out to all regular readers, commenters, and fellow bloggers.  You guys have turned this little experiment into a most gratifying addiction.

I for one am glad she is still addicted to this blogging thang.

If you haven’t already done so, show her some blogaversary lovage. 

Merry Berfday, No-1!

The Tragedy of Chris Rock

John Nolte over at BigHollywood.com notes the degeneration of a comedy icon is complete.

And today we get this from Mr. Rock, an unbelievably vicious and elitist attack on everyday Americans who peaceably gather to protest their government:

“I actually like it, in the sense that—you got kids?” asked Rock. “Kids always act up the most before they go to sleep. And when I see the Tea Party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism’s almost over. Because this is the last—this is the act up before the sleep. They’re going crazy. They’re insane. You want to get rid of them—and the next thing you know, they’re f—-ing knocked out. And that’s what’s going on in the country right now.”

In a mere fifteen years, the future of standup has willingly allowed himself to be grinded down into just another elitist Hollywood overlord, another coward smearing a whole group of people he’s likely never met. You think Rock’s ever stepped out of his limo and attended a Tea Party? You think he’s ever escaped the posse  he’s hired to laugh at his jokes to talk to any of us?

Here’s another question-Has Chris Rock ever met Mychal Massie, Ken Blackwell, Tim Scott, Thomas Sowell, Alonzo Rachel, Baldilocks, Angela McGlowan, Allen West,  JC Watts or Herman Cain?  All them are black.  Not all of them consider themselves part of the Tea Party, but all are connected to the larger conservative movement.  If you peruse their writings or watch their speeches, the causes they champion–limited government, individual liberties, an aversion to the welfare state–are quite copacetic to Tea Party goals and ideas.

Now let’s really sort this out.  Chris Rock thinks the Tea Party is a bunch of racist children having a temper tantrum, yet he conveniently ignores the relatively well-known black folk affiliated with the Tea Party or the Right.  Does he think all those people are immature anger-junkie bigots?   Do black conservatives simply not exist in Rock’s mental landscape?  Or maybe–and this is ugly to suggest, but it has to be said–Rock thinks black Tea Party people are simply Uncle Tom sell-outs.

If that’s the case, then Nolte is right and Chris Rock is just like every other spoiled useless Hollywood dickface. 

And hey, since Chris Rock can toss out half-assed uneducated shit about people he doesn’t know, how about we do the same to him?  Here’s what I think happened to Chris Rock.  “Bring the Pain” was freakin’ brilliant.  Don’t believe me?  Watch a part of it.

(Obviously, Not Safe For Work or little kids’ ears)

Most likely, Rock caught a lot of shit from other black folk after ”Bring The Pain” came out.  There was way too much dirty laundry aired about the black community in that routine.  Worse, some racist white people used Rock’s stuff as ammunition against African-Americans, taking some of the sheen off of “BTP”‘s power.

So how did Chris Rock, a guy who clearly derives a lot of his identity from his ‘blackness’, react to criticisms about “Bring The Pain” that came from within the black community?  For Rock, there would be very few barbs directed at African-American foibles.  Instead, Rock was going to make sure his comedy hit the right targets.

And now, he’s made sure to hit the most ‘correct’ target of them all:  The Tea Party.

Does that sound like an unfair narrative?  It should.  But at least I have evidence–like, his stand-up DVDs–to back up my claims.  Chris Rock can’t find racism in the Tea Party’s ideas except the bullshit the lamestream media makes up out of thin air.

It’s sad.  Watch the ”Kill The Messenger” clip.  Rock is still a one-of-a-kind talent.  His delivery remains passionate and pointed.  Even his anti-Republican barbs have humor in them.

The problem is that Chris Rock has become part of the entertainment industry’s craptastic lefty group-think. That means he’ll continue to direct boneheaded insults at a large portion of his potential audience.  Most tragically, he’ll become boring as time goes on.  A dull routine is a big problem for any performer; for Rock it will be a career killer.

Enjoy your fast-approaching obsolescence, Rock.  Hope your royalty checks from “Everyone hates Chris” don’t run out any time soon.

Music Monday Rawk-”You Don’t Know What Love Is” by The White Stripes

I give you the now-departed White Stripes.

I was never a huge fan of the group, but there was a neat interplay between Jack and Meg White that made for some great music. 

I think the most important thing to take out of the White Stripes’ career is that artists who want to make great music don’t need gajillion dollar recording studios or piles of major label hype.   The red/white/black color scheme gimmick and the drum-guitar-vocals minimalism was only a small part of their charm. The big thing was talent and the songs were key.

Hey, Columbia University Anti-Military Assholes…

Just a quick question:  Was there a time when you weren’t going to play to the spoiled ivory tower leftist shithead stereotype you’ve got going there?

Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

 ”Racist!” some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

“It doesn’t matter how you feel about the war. It doesn’t matter how you feel about fighting,” said Maschek. “There are bad men out there plotting to kill you.”

Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.

Nice work Columbia U.  What’s next?  A ‘baby-killer’ chant?

Political Junkie Mom has some kind words for these pathetic brats.

Strip the school of its federal funding NOW and let the snivelling bastards who don’t want ROTC on their campus pay the tuition hike. The bogus argument used for years, i.e. “we’ll let ROTC back on campus once DADT is repealed,” has been exposed for the lie that it is. Oh, now you don’t want ROTC because transgendered students are part of your community? I see.

Not bad.

Read the rest, because it’s good.

But for now I’ll go PJMom one better:  How about we let the Castro Bros. in Cuba set up a colony right on the Columbia campus?  I think an immediate unilateral pull-out from Columbia is in America’s best interests and the University’s as well.  Everybody will be happier–until the Commies turn the Student Lounge into a reeducation gulag.

Wisconsin-The Reverberations Will be Huge

Fake doctors’ notes for real Wisconsin teachers?

Wow.

The shittiness is strong with these clowns.

Bunkerville, take it away.

This is the test of our democracy. Ms Piven must be delighted.

‘Delighted’?  That repellent old socialist windbag is wringing out her panties as we speak.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, where all but the most blinkered left-wing ideologues actually live, Herman Cain throws down a marker.

Big ups to RS McCain for posting this vid.  Read the rest of his piece as he makes some good points and includes a smidge of Breitbart magic as well.

As for Herman Cain, he declares, “Wisconsin in ground zero for the rest of America”

Listen to this man.  He speaks the God’s honest truth here.

As I said in an earlier post, Obama has sent his troops into this fight.  Organizing For America pretty much sat on it’s hands during the 2010 election season.  Unlike in November, the President has decided to enter this battle with both barrels blazing.  He is gambling that with OFA assistance, rent-a-goon union tactics and good old fashioned media bias, he can get Wisconsin Republicans to back down. 

Obama must not be allowed to win this fight.

Ponder this scenario:  The GOP in Wisconsin is broken.  They give in to Democrat demands and business as usual reconvenes.  The consequences from that loss would be dramatic and immediate.  First, this will embolden the Obama political hack groups to pull this kind of stuff anytime a fiscally conservative statehouse gets too uppity.  If the Cloward/Piven/Alinsky tactic works in CheeseHeadLand, the Left will naturally seek to use these same political moves everywhere else.  Obama will send out OFA to infiltrate, disrupt and disarm any states’ attempts to slow the growth of government. 

Governors from states that are in similarly dire budgetary straits–like all 50 of them–will look at this hypothetical conservative failure in Wisconsin with great interest.  They will learn that there is no political gain to be had from trying to evade the budgetary dilemmas they face.  Runaway entitlements, public-sector union issues, basic fiscal discipline…all those concerns will go by the wayside.  Politicians will instead recalibrate their messages to voters; the big fight in the next election cycle will be which party can best deliver the gubmint cheeeeeeeez to state-dependent voters. 

Just a reminder:  Even after the compassionate conservatism of the Bush years, Republicans will never–EVER–win that argument.  If faced with the prospect of  Republicans offering an ‘efficient’ well-organized welfare state or Democrats promising a generous fluffy relaxing social safety hammock, voters will choose the Donkey Punchers every time.  When a little kid cries for a Snickers bar, he really doesn’t care how much money Mommy saved when she bought the thing.  No, the child only cares that the chocolate goody gets to him as soon as possible and that there is more where that came from.  Same thing is true with the electorate if faced with that kind of ‘choice’.

What Obama and the Dems are trying to do is nothing less than the repeal of the 2010 midterms. 

Wisconsin might not be America’s political Ragnarok.  Perhaps I’m misreading just how big this thing is.  However, the fact that Barack Obama has decided to expend such efforts and has unleashed his rabble-rousers tells me that this is a massive deal.

Happy Blog-Birthday Manhattan Infidel

Manhattan Infidel is two years old this weekend.  Don’t believe me?  Check it out.

On February 20th, 2009, a date which will live in infamy, a small humble blog named Manhattan Infidel debuted to intense anticipation and rave reviews.

The New York Times wrote, “A small insignificant blog.  The blogger needs serious psychological counseling.”

MSNBC opined that “Manhattan Infidel is just the latest manifestation of dangerous anti-government feelings.  Clearly this man is not of the elite.  Probably a redneck.  Stupid too.”

Newly elected President of the United States Barack Obama warned Americans to “Ignore the hate-filled rhetoric of this man.  No doubt he clings to guns and religion.”

Olivia Wilde wrote “Show up at my door again and this time the taser gets directed at your scrotum.”

This amazing celebrity stalker humorist has done some great work these past years.  I recommend you check it out before Joe Biden accidentally deletes it from the internet while searching for Brazilian shart fetish porn.

Can beer be gay?

Sure. If you’re a godless communist or something. ;-p

The beer, which has a slight honey flavour, will initially be marketed to homosexual consumers in Mexico, Colombia and Japan.

The Minerva brewery said that the “Artisan Honey-Ales” would appeal to a section of the beer-drinking public that had so far been snubbed by larger brewers.

“We’re out in the market with great respect with the idea of offering a product directed to the gay-lesbian community that has been ignored for too long but is important and very demanding”, Dario Rodriguez Wyler, commercial manager for distributors Bodega 12, told the Mexican news agency Efe.

The label on the beer bottles has been designed so that it can be unglued and worn as a symbol of gay-lesbian pride, he said.

Minerva is saying this is the first beer for homosexuals.  That’s complete bullshit.  Corona Lite had that market cornered back when the Earth cooled.

[rimshot/]

I snagged the original link from Hot Air’s Headlines thingy.

Democrats: Chickens Playing Chicken

Matt at Conservative Hideout gives us the run-down.

I’ve been watching the Wisconsin story with great interest. Essentially, the Wisconsin Legislature is working on a bill that will limit union power. The goal: Have public union workers pay some of their pensions (but still less than the average private sector worker). But, for the unions, any potential limits on their power demands a rent-a-mob response. So, shirts were printed, buses were obtained, hotels reserved, teachers called off “sick,” and off they went…just like any other “real” grassroots movement.

The rent-a-mob occupied the Capitol Building. Others stalked the homes of legislators. The Democrat delegation fled the state, preventing a vote from being taken.

Read the rest. He’s got a nice compilation of links as well.

We hear a lot of talk about political bravery. Many pols pat themselves on the back because of there alleged courage. And now the Wisconsin Democrats have literally taken their ball and gone home. Sir Robin would be proud.

What about the President? Where is he on this issue? Why, he’s community organizin’ of course.

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America arm — the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign — is playing an active role in organizing protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marraige, but it’s riding to the aide of the public sector unions who hoping to persuade some Republican legislators to oppose Walker’s plan. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA’s engagement with the fight — and Obama’s own clear stance against Walker — mean that he’s remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

Last week Barry HopeyChangey came out with a budget utterly divorced from reality. With that proposal, he declared in no uncertain terms that the big gubmint spending of the last two years is his highest priority. Deficits? Debt? The fast approaching entitlement apocolypse? No sweat America; here’s some high speed rail boondoggles. That’ll solve everything. [sarc/]

But St. Barry of the Holy Hand-Out isn’t content to just run the federal government merrily off a cliff. Oh no, that simply wouldn’t do. He’s got his rent-a-hack bozos trying to spread the Donkey-Puncher gospel of fiscal debauchery all across the fruited plain. Amazing.

You know what I love about our current leadership class? They’re a perfect combination of utterly unlikable traits. From the Obamessiah down to the Wisconsin Demo-Chickens you get cowardice, smug indifference to voters and a breezy disregard for the disaster they’re bringing on this country all rolled up into a nice neat bungwad of fail.

Meanwhile, what are the Republicans doing? Twiddling their thumbs and worrying about some pissant House rule rather than just going ahead and killing socialized medicine.

Hey Tea Party Peeps: We still got a whole lotta work to do.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit is just putting up this wanted poster out of civic duty.

Edumakashin=Lame Lefty Indoctrination

What is the point of college? Roxeanne de Luca at the great Camp of The Saints makes an interesting point.

Conservatives, on the whole, see higher education as a means to an end – a degree that one uses to get a job. Culture comes at a fraction of the cost – you could buy yourself season passes, for life, to every ballet, play, museum, and symphony in town, plus access to special libraries, for the cost of a single semester of private university. We don’t see the need to line the pockets of college deans, administrators, and professors in order to get an education. Liberals, on the other hand, think that having sex makes them intellectuals, and that enlightenment comes from spending gobs of money on useless degrees – the more useless, the more enlightened the student.

Bingo. Read the rest. It’s good.

Instapundit often refers to the campus left alumni that dominates America’s educational system (and most of the Ruling Class) ‘credentialed, not educated’. I think that’s pretty much spot-on.

The best part about being a highly-credentialed poorly-educated liberal in the education/propaganda biz? You get to spread the rot that comes from college lefty indoctrination into the high schools. Case in point:

Short story even shorter: Teacher drags students out of class to protest…something. Let the brain-washing commence.

Why the hell would a teacher do this? What purpose does it serve? If you said ‘Cheap Union Tactics’ give yourself a gold star with diamond-accented NEA logo cluster.

We can do lots of things to change our political culture now. If the GOP and the Tea Party remain strong, they can do entitlement reform and kill ObamaCare for good. But if we don’t get a hold of our education system, we’re just giving our kids over to the soft-socialists that infest American institutions.

Lara Logan, Egypt & Feminist Sob Sister Idiocy

Pray for Lara Logan.

On Friday, Feb. 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a “60 Minutes” story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

Read the rest of Pundette’s piece; you’ll get a taste of a particularly vile left-wingers exceedingly nasty attack on Ms. Logan.

As for the attack, sustained sexual assault sounds an awful lot like ‘rape’. Being that this horrific act was perpetrated during a lawless clusterfuck means there is probably very little chance that the scumbags who did this can be identified. Being that this happened to a western female reporter, there probably wasn’t going to be much of an investigation in the first place. You can’t tell me that in a country where an estimated 96% of married women are…“cut”…there will be much effort made on behalf of one American media personality.

This incident brings a few things into sharp relief. I’ve heard more than a few people call CBS the Tiffany Network. Supposedly they have the highest ratings of any broadcast channel. Ummmm, how’s about spending some of that money on better security for your reporters? I don’t know what kind of safety infrastructure the network had in place for Ms. Logan. Frankly, I don’t care because it clearly wasn’t good enough.

The counter-argument to that is, “Well, she’s a reporter, that’s her job, she knew the risks.” I get all that. It’s a valid train of thought. However, just because Ms. Logan was cool risking her neck by going into Tahrir Square doesn’t mean that maybe somebody higher up the food chain could’ve put her in a safer location from which to make her reports. Like, maybe someplace other than a choke point ripe for an ambush.

To be perfectly frank, CBS dropped the ball on this one. They need to take a good hard look at themselves and their security procedures. If I was a foreign correspondent, I’d be very nervous about just how much the news bureau actually cares about my safety after this episode.

Meanwhile, The Other McCain finds a feminist sob-sister in high–or is that low?–dudgeon.

Echidne begins her discussion of insensitive comments by threatening to cast into outer darkness anyone who might be tempted to see the crime against Lara Logan as having a distinct cultural component. That would categorize you as the “loathsome” type who “describes Muslims or Arabs as animals and so on.” Scroll through the comments at I Own The World and you can see that these “loathsome” sentiments are actually quite common. To be counted among the bien-pensants, however, you can’t think of such things. No, says Echidne, you must ignore the specific context of this crime — a blonde American woman raped by Egyptians during a revolutionary demonstration — and instead focus all your wrath on the terrible sexism and insensitivity of anonymous people leaving crude comments on a Web site.

Because sexism and insensitivity are the real problems, you see.

What an amazing act of intellectual prestidigitation! And if you call attention to the element of distraction involved in Echidne’s magic trick, if you describe what she is actually doing as opposed to what she claims to be doing, your criticism will be cited as further proof of the looming menace posed by insensitive sexists. And constant vigilance against that menace is the raison d’etre of feminism.

The mind magic on display here is a particularly common species of progressive thought.  It’s the cognitive clash that happens when two or more of Left’s grievance groups are in conflict. In this case, it’s bed-wetting multicultural feel-goodism versus strident man-hating Vagina Monologuing feminist moral preening.

Take note who wins that battle. The feminist blogger Echidne is more worried about the feelings of Muslims who might get their delicate sensitivities mildly bruised because somebody got a little rough on an internet forum.  Where does Ms. Logan–the only real victim in all of this–fit into Echidne’s story? Hell if I know.

So I guess multi-culti bullshit beats grrrl-power nonsense in this go-round.  I wonder why that’s the case here.  Maybe it’s because Muslims have proven so adept at using violence to answer their critics.  It’s not like anyone fears feminist terrorism beyond the horrifying wardrobe malfunctions.

Beyond the cowardice of the self-styled brave truth tellers, Echidne’s epic fail here is a failure of priorities.  I don’t have a problem with left-wingers having a hierarchy of political goals and interests.  Conservatives of different stripes do the same thing.  If a lib wants to value ethnic grievance groups over feminism, that’s entirely up to them.

But if you’re going to call yourself a feminist and make a big show of caring about women, you should…you know…at least pretend to give a rat’s ass about a female rape victim before you go off on a moralistic tirade against a figment of your ideology.

Update:  Angel over at Woman Honor Thyself has some words.

And while all compassionate humans no doubt pray for Lara’s physical, emotional, and spiritual healing…Will someone dare ask if hers’ or others’ eyes have now been opened to the belief system that motivated these attacks against her?

….. Will she or others speak on her behalf of the the truth about this ideology in all it’s horror.

Or will we be insulted yet again with the “lone” wolves theory…. who of course—don’t represent Izlam— being the perps?

All hundreds of them.

How many lone wolves make a pack?

Maybe that should be a valid question, rather than the PC hand wringing we get from the left’s representatives.

I guess AlterNet is telling us racial epithets are cool again

Out:  Refraining from racist shit-talk.

In:  Doubling down on the racist shit-talk.

Who knew?

In the immortal words of Megatron in Transformers: The Movie, Herman Cain’s speech at CPAC really is bad comedy. As you know, I find black garbage pail kids black conservatives fascinating not because of what they believe, but rather because of how they entertain and perform for their White Conservative masters. …

Instead, Herman Cain’s shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs “authentic negritude” as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies….

We always need a monkey in the window, for he/she reminds us of our humanity while simultaneously reinforcing a sense of our own superiority. Sadly, there are always folks who are willing to play that role because it pays so well.

Fucking wow, brosef.

The Left is constantly crying about conservative ‘code words’ and ‘dog-whistles’ that obfuscate the Right’s supposed just-below-the-surface racial hate.  Yet here we see a big ol’ representative of the progressive brain-o-sphere happily busting out the old skool anti-black slurs.  No attempt is made to hide it; the AlterNet blogger just comes out and calls Herman Cain a monkey.   But hey, at least liberals aren’t demanding that Clarence Thomas be put back out into the fields.  Oh wait…  

By the way, Chauncey DeVega…a pseudonym even dopier than ‘KingShamus’…compounds his feverish hatred of black people by screwing up the Transformers movie reference.  If you’re gonna play the geekier-than-thou card in the middle of your bigoted attack on an African-American conservative, you’d better at least know that it was Galvatron, not Megatron, that used the ‘bad comedy’ line.

So what have we learned here?  AlterNet is down with the ethnic slur sickness and they don’t know their 80′s animation for shit.

Batting a thousand in the Major Dickbag League, Chauncey.  Keep up the good work being a racist cock-knocker.

UPDATE: Read Ran over at Si Vis Pacem for a good concise defense of Herman Cain and his upcoming presidential run in 2012.

I’ll just say this: If Herman Cain can drag Godfather’s Pizza out of financial ruin, if he can successfully articulate a Tea Party/pro-growth/reform-minded conservatism and if he shows that he can sell that message to America then I’m with him.

Oh and he drives left-wingers into angry tirades that reveal their thinly-veiled racism? Sign me up, homie.

UPDATE II:  Matt over at Conservative Hideout pretty much slays it.

This is a clear idication of the following:

1.  Herman Cain is being noticed by the left as a potential threat to Obama in 2012.

2.  Since he might be a threat, he must be attacked, discredited, and destroyed.

3.  Rather than talk about Cain’s ideas, the left will concentrate on his race.

4.  Dividing Americans based on race is still a priority for the left.

The worst part?

For the Left, Herman Cain must be destroyed because of his race.

Black folk cannot be allowed to see Cain as anything but a kook fringe race-traitor weirdo.  Imagine if being conservative wasn’t just the crypto-Klan ideology of the American honky, but a perfectly normal political choice for black people.  The sound you just heard was about a million Democrat assholes puckering in white knuckle terror at the thought of losing the 90% of African-American voters the Dems get in every presidential election. 

That’s why the Democrats and their progressive allies can’t let Herman Cain get to 2012 unscathed.  It’s just that simple.  So if anyone thinks the attacks against Cain are going to stop, think again.  This ‘monkey’ slur is just the tip of the spear.

Responding To The Sentry Journal

John Carey over at the aforementioned Sentry Journal–which is a cool site that you need to read–posted something the other day that got lodged in my peanut-sized brain.

…I had a discussion with a good friend of mine about how I thought the Republicans were blowing it.  They seem more concerned with putting on a show for us than actually doing things to significantly reduce spending and limit the growth of government.  My friend told me that there was really no difference between the two parties anymore; one party is just more obvious about their desire for big government solutions than the next.  After watching John McCain once again drift back to the left, and Lindsey Graham bring up immigration reform I was finding it hard to argue with his logic.  I do understand that both McCain and Graham are RINOs, but they are also part of the establishment and do steer the direction of the conservative conversation in the party.  I also felt like Paul Ryan’s debt ceiling discussion with Ben Bernanke was nothing but a show to appease the masses.  I like Paul Ryan; but I’m beginning to think this is more about creating the illusion of fixing a problem than actually rolling up our sleeves and tackling our spending problem.  I’m sorry but cutting $74 billion in spending is a drop in the bucket when you are talking about a trillion dollars in deficit spending.  This means we’re still heading towards a financial cliff.  Rand Paul appears to being one of only a few who understands how serious our debt problem is.  He has proposed $500 billion in spending cuts, and that my friends is what I call a good start.  In the end we both agreed that we shouldn’t expect a great deal from this congress.  It will take a few more cycles to purge more RINOs and establishment Republicans from the ranks and pick off some vulnerable Democratic seats.

First, I will heartily agree that the Republicans cannot be trusted to actually cut the budget in any meaningful way if we leave them to their own devices.  That’s why the Tea Party movement has to keep the pressure on the GOPers while continuing to infiltrate the party leadership.  The Tea Party is the only chance we have to push the RINOs out of the Republican Party and replace them with real conservative leadership.  So far, there are signs that these processes are playing out to the Right’s advantage. 

Moving on, however much we want to cut from the federal budget–and I can think of two Cabinet departments that can be defunded right now–that game will be moot if we don’t finally end the Democrats’ health plan.  John is right when he says that ObamaCare has been severely wounded by Judge Vinson’s ruling against it.  But wounding the beast is not the same as slaughtering the damned thing.  We have seen health care deform pronounced dead more times than I can remember, just to see it be resurrected over and over again.  As of 2011, BarryMedicine is the Michael Myers of American legislative politics–big, stupid, destructive and nearly impossible to kill.

What happens if somehow socialized medicine slips the noose and gets fully implemented?

…the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (let’s not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a “conservative”). The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless.

Balanced budgets?  Fiscal restraint?  Originalist constitutional interpretation?  Classical liberalism?  You can pretty much kiss all that happy horse shit goodbye if ObamaCare wins.

More than that, St. Bambi’s Boondoggle For Boo-Boos threatens what we think of the current world order.  America will spend close to $900 billion this year on the military.  That spending contributes to the relatively tranquil period–No World Wars Since 1945!– that is occurring in much of the developed and developing world.

Government medicine, on top of every other jag-off unsustainable entitlement program we have, will eventually bankrupt the country.  In the meantime, the inevitable rising costs of health care deform will slowly choke the life out of our defense spending.  If you’re libertarian minded, the winding down of the military-industrial complex might be cause for celebration.  The problem is that the instability that would happen as a result of America’s withering armed forces would have serious negative consequences on our economy.  The truth is that our military buys us not only physical security, but a measure of financial security as well. 

All of this doesn’t mean I don’t agree with John’s basic premise.  The Republicans have offered a lot of weak proposals when it comes to the federal budget.  They could easily screw the pooch and backslide right back into soft-hearted soft-headed compassionate conservatism  if we let them.  I just believe that the primary focus of this Congress should be to repeal/defund/destroy government health care.  There is far too much to lose if we don’t finally toss ObamaCare into the ash heap.