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Happy Super Bowl (TM) Sunday. I like the Falcons in a close one 28-24. Matty Ice is at that part of his career where he's ready to lead his team to a title. Evidently someone thinks the same.
Here's what's happening:
-For decades the word fascist has been defined as strong central government and authoritarian rule. Business is rigidly part of the governmental system. It has never been defined as left-wing or right-wing...except by Google:
Here's Merriam Webster's definition:
And here's Google's.
No wonder the actual fascists have no idea what fascism is, they get all their info from Google and Occupy Democrats.
-Who knew Monty Python and the Holy Grail was part documentary?
- College is supposed to be about learning and being exposed to ideas and views you've not encountered before. Pure debate is dead and in it's place is whining, crying and safety pins where before it was counter ideas, free thought and intellectualism. This is a great read, however the fascists on the left do not want free speech or freedom of thought, they want a strict adherence to their doctrine and there's zero room for any variance. Hence the violence to shut outside thoughts down. A good example is a free-thinking homosexual or African-American who is completely ignored or worse for thinking for themselves.
- I posted this on Facebook yesterday but think it deserves a little more comment. What the left does not get or just chooses to ignore is that the new Republican party is not you fathers GOP. We are way more libertarian than in the past and the Christian portion of the party does not hold as much sway as they previously did. Homosexuality and recreational drug use are largely excepted in the party by those who are in their 40's and 50's. The party lost that battle and it's mostly because the people of my generation opted to sit that one out. We don't give a shit if you're gay, Black or purple, we care that we all have equal rights and smaller government. Good for the people in this deeply religious area for choosing a man based on the content of his character.
- California is considering exiting the US. From a purely intellectual perspective taking emotions out of it, it would truly be better for the nation as a whole. California has enormous debt for pensions and the spending continues apace. Add to that the number of liberal votes that would leave the union and you're talking about a center-right nation going forward for a generation. I would ensure that the vote was done properly with options such as Orange and San Diego counties remaining part of the US as well as the inland areas. I would imagine that Oregon and Washington state would also contemplate joining the Golden State if they were to make such a move. That would essentially leave the entire west coast from LA to the border unprotected or at least only protected by whatever military California opted to have--meaning none. This is a good read though it is the LA Times so normal bias is evident.
To the RNC, Congressional and Senate Republicans and other establishment cronies,
You've really done it this time. We've stuck by you and voted straight Republican time and time again. You've put up horrible candidates such as Mitt Romney going all the way back to that stiff Bob Dole. These were guys who were selected by you in back room deals with winks and nods.
We've defended you when the media would not because you did something, stupid, something illegal or something that was both.
You promised us that if we gave you the House you would stop Obama, You promised us if we gave you the Senate you would stop Obamacare. We gave you both and you gave us a Speaker who cried for no reason and would rather make bad deals than have to fight. You gave us a Senate Majority Leader who is the epitome of establishment politics and cronyism. He spent more time fighting fellow Republicans who happened to be conservative than he did fighting the vile Harry Reid.
We've had enough. Enough of the lies and deceit. Enough of your acting like you stand for conservative stances while approving every single dollar Obama asks for and allowing illegal immigrants to charge across the border. You are the lawmakers of this country and you allow the law to be broken daily.
You care more about what Politico or Morning Joe (both very liberal) say about you than you do what your constituents say (except every two years when you need our vote). You don't want to make waves because you just might not get invited to that big party in Georgetown.
You drag your feet on all substantive issues. Yes, some want to investigate corruption but the overall party does not. Four people including the ambassador killed in Benghazi? You investigate and then use the Democrats intransigence stall it. A Border Patrol Agent gets killed in an operation that allowed guns to flow to drug cartels and you do nothing. An American citizen gets killed by an illegal alien in San Francisco (an illegal "sanctuary city") and you do nothing because you don't want to upset the Democrats or the apple cart.
Obama says he wants to spend more and you not only allow it but give him more than he wants. Heavens no!, we can't shut down the government you said--even though we gave you the Senate after doing so. Obama welcomes in thousands of unverified Syrian refugees and you avert your eyes and do nothing or, worse yet, agree with him.
You allowed America to be a place where free speech is banned. I've not heard a single Republican stand up for free speech in the last several years. You've also allowed the police to fry and have not said a damn word. Just the very chance that standing up for the police will make you seem racist is enough to shut you up. In my book, that makes you a pussy.
Most shamefully, you've allowed our vets to die because of a the VA and have done nothing. You give lip service to veterans but in reality you despise them. If you didn't, you would have shut down Congress to get some results.
So here comes this brash and crass business man who says things that anyone else would have suffered for and you ignored him. Then he started winning so you actively worked against him. He kept winning so you sent out your last presidential nominee to bash him. He won more and you actually started to support Ted Cruz whom every single establishment type abhors.
Now he's the nominee and people are saying that they will not support him or will even vote for Hillary. The Speaker of the House will not support the Republican nominee. But that's fine because he was a very incapable candidate when he ran.
The National Review did an entire issue stating the case against Trump and he still won. Pundits who wrote him off were proven to be idiots.
But the scariest thing to you--the establishment--is that you were proven irrelevant. No one gives a shit what you say or do because you are meaningless. Your spineless nature and actions have given rise to the man you hate. Allowing your fellow Republicans to be called racist, xenophobic and misogynistic when we weren't was unforgivable. Except you didn't say anything because you actually believe that securing the borders, checking Islamic immigration and telling off-color jokes is racist, xenophobic and misogynistic. You've morphed in to liberals and there's zero difference. How do you think we feel when we defend the constitution and the military and you call us zealots?
The media too is feeling the crushing truth hitting them. They are even more irrelevant than Congress. Trump owns them and then bypasses them to say what he wants on Twitter. They are an even bigger embarrassment than Lindsey Graham.
So I say to the GOP; there's change in the wind. People are so sick of your bullshit that they've voted for Trump. He's no conservative but he stands for the core values of America. He's attracting blue collar workers, pissed off middle class workers, disaffected tradesmen and people who believe in the American ideal Reagan did. And please, keep Reagan's name out of your mouth, Trump is more like Reagan than this party has been in 8 years.
The Republican National Committee is apoplectic right now. Donald Trump currently leads the polls in every state and nationally.
When Trump first announced he was running, the RNC looked at him as a novelty who stood no chance of winning. Then he started getting some momentum and they started paying a little more attention. While Trump gained in the polls, traditional GOP candidates like Christie, Kasich, Jindal and Rubio languished in single digits. How could this be? The guy is not even a Republican they exclaimed. He can't say the things he's saying they lamented. He'll say something so over the top he'll knock himself out of the race they snickered.
And still, only a few months before the first votes are cast Trump is dominating the race. He's packing them in in South Carolina, Alabama, Iowa and other locales. People like what Trump is saying and have relegated any concerns with how he says it to the back of their minds.
How did we get to this point?
First, Trump appeals to people who have had enough of the PC bullshit. You can only call a person a racist, homophobic, xenophobic bigot so many times before they just don't take it anymore. People who are not any of those things take umbrage to being called those words simply because they disagree with the sitting president. They see the real cost of unchecked illegal immigration and feel that they have no power anymore. They see that America is still great but we have a president who doesn't believe it and takes every opportunity to bash this great nation. They see the race relations at the worst point they've been in 50 years and see college students whining about free this and free that while they get up and get their asses to work everyday. They see a president who has all but checked out. He's allowed others to lead and it's led us to the point where Americans are praising an ex-KGB old-school Soviet because of the void left by Obama. Trump is striking a nerve and people are responding.
As for the RNC, this is the worst nightmare they could imagine. With all other candidates, they could easily control them with money and the RNC machine. "Fine, you don't want to temper your stance Gov. Christie, we will withhold funds for TV ads and spread stories that can hurt you through the media" But they can't do that with Trump, he doesn't need them or their money. He can say exactly what he wants without impunity and that is the second reason why Trump is winning. He's not a politician, doesn't sound like a politician and seems to hate politicians. You want to change Washington DC, send in a man like Trump. The American people see the dysfunction and stagnation and want something--anything to get us moving forward again.
Finally, the GOP is pissed. Give us the House and we will will stop Obama and his trampling of the Constitution. So we gave them the House and they elected Boehner to lead. We got nothing except daily tears and more spending. Next they said, we can't do it with just the House, we need the Senate then we can really stop the Obama juggernaut. So we voted them in and won the Senate and they elected Mitch McConnell as leader. We got nothing except agreement with Obama on major issues and whining that they donut have 60 votes and can't get anything through. Now they want the Oval Office and the American people are saying "fool me once..."
The GOP as a whole and RNC in particular see a weak candidate on the Democratic side and know that they can gain power once again. Except that damn plutocrat with bad hair and a hot wife keeps messing up their plan. Hell, at this point they'd even support the hated senator from Texas, Ted Cruz if it meant Trump was out.
It's so bad that the RNC and other Republicans are actively working against Trump even trying to get him off the ballot in some states. They want to change leadership in DC but don't want to change DC. They want to control the money and control the favors while keeping the trough open. Lobbyists have families to feed, you know.
Anyway, here's to Trump shaking things up. Was he my preferred candidate? No. Does he say some things that make me cringe and has he said things in the past that make me question his ideology? Yes. Would he make our nation great again as he says? Again, yes I believe he would. Can he win and become president? Yes, I believe he can. Face it folks, Trump is going to win and chances are he'll beat Hillary unless something drastic happens. In public, many people will say that Trump is horrible, etc. But when they get behind the curtain in the voting booth, they'll hit the button for The Donald. I'd be very wary of the polls because of this. I think Trump is actually at nearly 50% but people won't admit they like him for fear of backlash.
The American Conservative Union just finished hosting the 2013 version of CPAC. This was looked at as a meeting where we could turn the tide and put the party back on the winning path after losing an election that should have been a runaway fro every GOP candidate.
The ACU doomed the narrative from the beginning by not inviting the GOP Proud--a group of gay conservatives and republicans--and omitting Chris Christie. The former because they are, well, gay and the religious right still holds sway and the latter because he essentially gave Obama the election by inviting him, praising him and posing with him in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (a premature declaration of success while thousands of homes are still in ruins, BTW).
We as a party have got to start examining exactly where we stand on issues. Whether it be gay marriage, immigration or drug policy, we have been marginalized because of our lack of inclusiveness. I credited Romney losing to Obama to the fact that the Dems put the GOP in a corner. We are considered by a great many Americans as the party that hates gays, minorities and wants to outlaw abortion over everything else. There was a Facebook article that went viral saying that Romney wanted to ban tampons if he were elected. It was ubiquitous and I believe it helped push the election to Obama. Of course it's ridiculous that anyone would believe it but we have been so marginalized that the non-political junkie type voter would believe it to be true. Think about it, there was outrage that the US military supposedly flushed a Koran down the toilet at Gitmo even though it's physically impossible.
But getting back to CPAC, there was some good things that came out of there: Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson were standouts. Sarah Palin got her shots in at Bloomberg and Obama and the crown failed to take the bait when a set up by supporters of Ashley Judd failed miserably. But we need to shed the image of not being inclusive. The three men I listed above are in order: an Indian-American, a Latino and an African-American; that's inclusive but we fail to get that message out with a clear voice.
We've got a few more years to get the ship righted and an increasingly deep bench but we need to take the steps in that direction starting today.
It's amazing how fast Chris Christie went from the golden boy of the GOP to just another politician in the mix for the 2016 nomination. Think about it, here was a guy in the bluest of the blue states taking on the teachers unions, slashing spending and cutting taxes. He was in-yor-face like a Jersey guy should be but spoke eloquently of conservative values and viewpoints. He was a fat, egotistical blowhard but he was our fat, egotistical blowhard.
Christie played the loyal soldier allowing Mitt Romney to ascend to the nomination and he threw his support behind him early and vehemently.
And then came Sandy.
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Christie heaped layers of praise on Obama at a crucial moment in time. before it was even clear that the administrations response was adequate or even good, Christie gave Obama a nice Lewinsky and that probably sealed the deal and knocked the last nail in Romney's coffin. Christie invited the guy to tour and gave him a photo op that Obama campaign chair Jim Messina couldn't have dreamed about the week before.
One could argue--and I'm sure Christie would argue this himself--that he was just being Christie and was doing what was best for the state by praising Obama. You know Christie, he calls them as he sees them. Except he wasn't.
I firmly believe that Christie saw his star rising and used whatever clout he had to back Mitt Romney seeing that Romney was not the best candidate and was in fact the exact wrong candidate. Christie burnished his GOP street cred by backing the eventual nominee and did his part knowing that Romney would lose and his star would rise setting him up for 2016. But then he realized that Romney could potentially win and that would destroy any presidential aspirations for the next 8-years and maybe longer if Paul Ryan held the second highest job in the land and was in the news frequently.
So Christie chopped the legs out from under Romney in one quick swipe. He left Romney no chance to respond and no chance to get the precious momentum back in his favor in such a short time.
Christie could have said nothing, he could have thanked Obama with a terse statement and that would have been that but he trumpeted Obama's response as the greatest thing ever. A failed response that was in fact worse than the response to Hurricane Katrina by some accounts. A month later the people who were suffering (and still are) expressed just how impotent the response was.
Jump forward to this week when the GOP-led Congress failed to pass a Sandy relief bill that had been larded with pork including roofing for the Smithsonian, fishery help in Alaska and numerous other non-relief spending. Christie lashed out at those in his own party again blaming them for not passing the legislation.
Now juxtapose the responses by Mayor Bloomberg in both circumstances. He told Obama to stay home and not come to NYC for a photo op in the wake of Sandy. Yes, Bloomberg endorsed Obama a few days later but that was with one eye on 2016 pure and simple.
Then this week, Bloomberg refused to blame the GOP for not passing the relief bill because he agreed that it had way too much pork in it and was a sham.
So Bloomberg will run in 2016 as either a Republican or an independent. He can claim that he did not push Obama across the finish line while Christie did. He can say that yes, he did endorse Obama but he did it because of conscience. Christie can't say any of that. He can say that he was the first major party figure to back Romney and was the good soldier but no one that votes in the primaries will forget that Christie stabbed Mitt right between the shoulder blades. They also won't forget that Christie gave his party the finger in bombastic fashion when they were fighting against a ridiculous $24-million in pork attached to a relief bill for New York and New Jersey. I know I sure as hell won't.
Of the many speeches we heard last night, the one that moved me the most was the one given by Mayor Mia Love of Utah. Christie did what was supposed to do and explained about hard choices and financial restraint. Ann Romney humanized her husband as was her role and Artur Davis, Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz were highly effective.
But this speech by a young mayor of a smallish town was way more effective because she told a story that is inspirational, truly American and hopeful. Think about the true role models for young African-American women we have the pleasure of hearing in this convention: Love and Condi Rice. If you want to inspire a group that has been destroyed by and taken for granted by the Democratic Party you would have them listen to these two women. They've probably faced racism numerous times in their lives but instead of playing the victim card, they opted to become better than those who cry racism or the very racists they faced and become great.
Imagine a poor young black girl in Camden, NJ. She's been exposed to violence, despair and the vicious cycle of government "assistance" for her entire life. Imagine she was given the chance to see and hear the speech below given by a proud American who happens to be black and imagine if she took the words to heart and chose the other path, the path of self-reliance and self betterment. That one person could be the catalyst of a radical change in a community that has been beaten down by programs designed to make one dependent. NBC was so frightened by this thought that they wouldn't even show it because if one little spark were allowed to ignite a flame, there may well be reason for hope and that hope would topple the decaying house of cards implemented by failed government policies going to back to at least LBJ.
Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream that his children would be judged by the content of their character and that dream is alive. One example is below, the other speaks tonight.
The people over at Newsweek must be thinking "how could a Jew be a Republican, all Republicans are Nazi's". This thought occurred sometime after they decided that this would make a good cover for the mag that sold for a whopping $1 and was worth every penny.
So here's the story; Newsweek publishes a list of influential rabbis every year and Rabbi Schmuly Boteach is always in the top 15. All of a sudden things change:
Boteach has always ranked near the top of theNewsweeklist. In 2007 and 2008 he was #9 on the list. In 2009 he went to #7 and thenpeaked at #6in 2010. He was #11 on the 2011 list, still quite respectable. And then, this year, he suddenly slid all the way down to #30. What happened?
What happened was that the good rabbi won the GOP nomination for a congressional seat and will run in the fall. That's not sitting real well with the idiots over at the $1 publication.
I've written numeroustimes that I just can't figure out why Jews have historically been such staunch supporters of the Democrats. In the last 20-years or so, liberals and Democrats have been decidedly anti-Israel and in increasing instances anti-Semitic. The Jews were a bloc of voters that reliably fell into the liberal camp just like African-Americans and union workers.
But over the years, more and more liberals started backing the PLO and their offshoot Fatah. Some even sport the khaffiyeh in support of Hamas--the deadliest enemy of Israel as a whole and non-Israeli Jews in particular.
Media bias takes many forms but this is one of the more subtler but equally disconcerting.
In the 2008 election cycle, the Democrats had rapid responses to everything the GOP did. The presidential election in particular showed just how well their strategy worked. In conjunction with the MSM, the DNC and other organizations destroyed Republicans. Just think how they marginalized Sarah Palin ("I can see Russia from my house") and destroyed her as a viable candidate. The GOP couldn't respond fast enough and get many points to stick.
But this cycle, I'm seeing a concerted effort to keep the conversation right where it should be; on Obama's record and the state of the economy.
While the MSM goes on about Romney strapping his dogs' carrier to the roof of his car, Jim Treacher reads his book and posts that Obama ate dog so now let's get back to talking about jobs and the economy. The WaPo puts out a hit piece saying Romney allegedly bullied a kid 50 years ago in high school and blogs counter immediately with Obama's many youthful indiscretions.
The latest example is this new ad:
It took less than one day for the RNC to get this clip out. That's rapid reaction and highly effective.
The right-leaning traditional media in a synchronized effort with new media is on their game and highly motivated this time around and could be the ace in the hole for Romney.
Exit question: Is there anyone who has kept the Dems on the defensive more than Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller and in particular the aforementioned Treacher?
His spokesman who is openly gay was pushed out of the campaign by social cons. Romney cannot let these zealots hold sway over his campaign and this may very well hurt him on many fronts.
To my fellow Republicans, I ask you, think about what this looks like. We are the party of opportunity and to allow this to happen bothers me and makes me wonder just what kind of leader Romney will be. To accede to the wishes of these closed-minded bigots is the wrong move and Romney will need all the brains he can hire for this campaign.
Doesn't the Romney campaign see exactly how this will play in the media? At a time we are seeing Obama get creamed on a bunch of fronts, Romney allows this BS to happen?
He was running a pretty good campaign over the last several weeks and needed to just allow Obama to continue to implode. His Osama victory lap isn't playing well at all and he was riding a nice wave. Now this.
Mitt needs to get out there and slap down the bastards who forced this to occur and make damn sure everyone knows that the GOP is not going to play this game anymore.
Update: There's some arguments as to why he was asked to leave but my original thoughts remain valid; it looks terrible for the campaign but luckily it appears this story doesn't have quite the legs it would have if Obama had put out the ridiculous "Julia" garbage.
The GOP-led House passed a bill yesterday that would allow interest rates on student loans to remain at the current 3.4% fore another year. The rates are scheduled to go up in July and would add a significant amount onto each student loan.
Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the bill and Obama has threatened to veto it if it came to him because the GOP wants spending cuts to pay for while the Donks want tax increases (is there any option to them but to raise taxes). The spending cuts the GOP wants are to a program Obama himself has tried to cut to cover parts of Obama care:
Republicans noted that many Democrats had voted earlier this year to take money from the preventive health fund to help pay to keep doctors' Medicare reimbursements from dropping. Obama's own budget in February proposed cutting $4 billion from the same fund to pay for some of his priorities.
So it's nothing but politics by the White House and congressional Democrats. This is the norm but it is surprising that the AP actually reported this pretty straight. The Inquirer even put this article on the front page but it is a Saturday and a slow news day.
Unfortunately, the Inqy couldn't resist opining on this very topic in today's editorial:
In an obvious slap at President Obama, the Republican-controlled House voted Friday to extend the lower rate by slashing $6 billion from a fund created by the health-care-reform law for breast and cervical cancer screenings, child immunizations, and prenatal tests for birth defects.
I guess the editorial writers don't read the news section of the paper because no where in the editorial does it mention that Obama sought to cut this or that it is set to be cut in the sham budget he presented. That's either really lazy by the editorial folks or it's an intentional attempt to skew the facts. I'm betting on the latter.
Update: The Inquirer printed my letter to the editor on Wednesday:
In the front-page story “House acts to curb loan rates” (Saturday), readers were informed that House Republicans passed a bill that would keep student loan rates at 3.4 percent for another year. The GOP wants to pay for the cost with spending cuts on a medical-screening program. According to the story, this exact program was targeted for cuts by President Obama in his budget proposal and by congressional Democrats to help ensure that Medicare reimbursements were not allowed to drop.
Yet, a few pages later in the newspaper, the Editorial Board skewered the GOP for insisting on cuts to the very same program that the Democrats and Obama had tried to trim. Nowhere in the editorial does it mention the Democrats’ proposed cuts. I guess the claim that “GOP Aims to Cut Cervical Cancer Screening Program” has more punch than “President Obama and Congressional Democrats Aim to Cut Cervical Cancer Screening Program.”
I received three emails expressing thanks for pointing out the Inqy's bias.
Republican's will forgive a great many things when it comes to past activities of their candidates. Whether it be Mitt Romney signing healthcare legislation into law in Massachussetts or John McCain sponsoring his infamous bill with Russ Feingold that trampled free speech, we tend to look at the bigger pictures (we will never forgive one of our members driving off a bridge and leaving a young woman to die while he called his lawyer, for the record).
But Newt Gingrich taking $1.6 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is one thing we will never forgive and forget:
Mr. Gingrich has faced many questions recently about the more than $1.6 million in consulting fees he got from Freddie Mac since leaving Congress in 1999. But part of the relationship started years earlier, as records and interviews show that Mr. Gingrich, as House leader in the 1990s, aligned himself with Freddie and Fannie on a number of key issues — defending them in Congress against political attacks, joining with them on housing projects and seeing top aides go work for them.
While Mr. Gingrich has minimized his past connections to the two closely related companies on the campaign trail, his Congressional record shows that his political and financial ties to the firms run deeper and farther back than he has acknowledged publicly and, in fact, set the stage for the lucrative consulting work that followed.
Mr. Gingrich, whose campaign declined to comment on his ties with Fannie and Freddie while in Congress, has been blistering in his recent criticism of the mortgage finance companies. He has blamed them in part for the 2008 housing collapse, said they should now be “broken up,” and in an October debate he declared that Representative Barney Frank should be “in jail” for associating with lobbyists close to Freddie.
No, we will never give a man who speaks with two tongues a second chance. Hypocrisy is as much a part of Gingrich's psyche as is infidelity. Bad enough Newt took the money from the two firms that share the greatest responsibility in the housing market implosion and worse that he assisted them while Speaker but to take our tax money for "consulting fees" while espousing smaller government and other conservative talking points is the end of the line with regard to supporting him. Freddie sand Fannie have taken %150-billion of our tax dollars and pissed it away on mismanagement and bad bets. Newt got a slice of that and smiled as he cashed the check.
Ask any fiscal conservative the five things they hate the most in government and you'll find Freddie and Fannie in the mix with Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Obamacare.
Gingrich got into bed with the dogs and will just have to deal with the fleas.
We're starting to see the problems that always affect moderate candidates in primaries happening to Romney. In all primaries when there's no incumbent running, the centrist candidates have to go far outside their comfort zone to appease the more hard core voters who actually get out and vote in their state's contests. Mitt is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. When he tries to be anything but he looks like he's pandering and people pick up on that easily. Add to that he's a Mormon in a deeply evangelical state and you have what we are seeing today: a Newt surge.
People don't like Newt because he's Newt and a good candidate but because he's not Romney. The guy is a hypocrite and philanderer but the evangelical bloc thinks of him as one of them in a weird sense. Santorum would be the most likely guy to gravitate to but as a Catholic, he's still not one of them. Herman Cain may have done well there as well.
So we have a little momentum for Gingrich that will last until possibly Florida. It seems that the party has gravitated back to Newt after the interview with his ex-wife aired and people viewed it as a hit piece on him (which it was). He's got the victim card working for him going into a conservative state and he's playing that card with relish.
Hopefully Romney can make up some of the votes he's hemorrhaged over the last week but PPP has Gingrich up by double digits as of last night.
We all knew Newt was mostly a douchebag but he's now gone full douchebag. From his days in the House to his subsequent lobbying and deals with Fannie and Freddie, he's shown that he is the ultimate Washington animal who will slither to anyone willing to throw him a signed check.
He rose quickly to the top of the GOP primary heap but went to the bottom even quicker once people had a chance to assess him and came away feeling like they just spent a few minutes with a dude who sells used cars in a run-down lot off County Road 27.
Newt has sunk even lower than I thought possible with his latest attacks. Hitting Romney from the left and skewering businessmen and corporations is despicable and to be honest, he has been exposed for the cretin he is because of it. Newt wouldn't understand how businesses are really run if it was explained to him by Sam Walton himself.
Today the WaPo gave him the dreaded four "Pinocchio's" for his 29-minute attack video on Mitt Romney and his affiliation with Bain Capital; a venture capital group.
Now don't for one second believe that the WaPo did this to protect Romney. Anyone with half their wits knows that Gingrich doesn't stand a chance of beating Obama should the unfortunate occurrence of him winning the nomination happen. The WaPo would, in most circumstances, be trumpeting Newt to help Obama. But the blatant attack, the hypocrisy and deception of it was too much even for that particular liberal DC rag.
Go away Newt. Go back to selling your soul and yourself for a paycheck like the dirty crack whore you are.
It's been a weird year up here in the great state of New Jersey. In one week in in August we experienced an earthquake and a hurricane. Around the rest of the country and world it's been just as strange.
Here's my choices for stories of the year:
10. Occupy Protests End as Epic Fail: Despite having massive adoration from a slobbering media, free use of public parks and money from rich (1%) patrons, the occupiers ending up being exactly what we thought a bunch of liberal entitlement babies with no jobs, sense or idea what they were protesting would be. They trashed every park they took over, made life miserable for people adjacent them and generally showed us what a society led by them would look like. If you are for rape, murder, public masturbation and seeing some dude take a dump in front of you, these are your type of folks. I guess if the Tea Party groups were ruder, whiter and less hygienic they could have been Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
9. Japanese Tsunami: This event more than anything showed what a different world we now live in. A major earthquake followed by a lethal wave that obliterated a nuclear facility and released more radiation than we'll ever know would have been enormous in, say, 1983. In today's high-speed world it was only on the front pages for a week.
8. Steve Jobs Passes: Steve Jobs was a great American entrepreneur who created things we didn't even know we needed but couldn't live without. You know he was a great capitalist when the MSM started running stories slamming him within days of his death. The same media that didn't have the balls to say anything mean about him while he was alive joined with fellow liberals kicking the carcass with anecdotes about his lack of charitable giving and other bullshit. I'm proud to say I'm typing this on a new Mac so thanks Steve and rest in peace.
7. Tim Tebow Gives Liberals Conniptions: Quarterback Tim Tebow is a devout Christian man and wears his religion on his sleeve. That's enough to make the left go apeshit. Tebow is a great athlete but not the prototypical QB a la Marino or Favre. Normally, people would love Tebow but he made an innocuous anti-abortion commercial (see below) and gets down on one knee and prays after games so he's the worst thing to happen to the NFL since steroids in the liberal mind. The same liberal minds that would not be acting this way if, say, Tebow were a Muslim.
6. The Arab Spring Disintegrates into Hell: I recall being in England back when the Tahrir Square uprisings were the only thing anyone was covering. The BBC covered it non-stop as if it was just great that a stable regime was being toppled by citizens who were good and just. We soon found that was not exactly the case. Instead, Egypt has become what could be the most militant Islamic nation in the world. The Muslim Brotherhood (started by Zawahiri) has control and a more militant party will soon join them in a coalition. Christians are being persecuted and any peace agreements with Israel will soon be nullified. Success!
5. Obama Gives the Finger to Iranian Protestors: The current title for most theocratic and oppressive nation (with Saudi Arabia a very close second) is held by Iran. Stonings, murder of homosexuals and other atrocities are commonplace. So what does the president who espoused hope and change and freedom do when Iranian's try to fight back against the ruling Ayatollah's? He dithers and votes present just like he does with every other big decision that may cost him some votes. All the uprising needed was a few words from Obama transmitted across the border from either Afghanistan or Iraq pledging some kind of support and the regime and theocratic house of cards would have tumbled.
4. The Continued Attack on Iran's Nuke Program:Stuxtnet is a virus on steroids. Apparently it was introduced into the Iranian nuke program in 2010 and wreaked absolute havoc. Add to that the recent and unexplained explosions and mishaps happening throughout the Persian nation and one has to wonder who's to blame. Could it be the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia or a joint effort? We probably won't know for a while but it definitely has had an effect on their ambitious plutonium enrichment project.
3. The Coordinated Media War on Herman Cain: Anyone who has followed politics knows the backlash that black men and women suffer when they come out as conservatives. Generally it comes from other African-Americans so they can have some cover because you know blacks can't be racist toward other blacks. All that was thrown out the window with Herman Cain. They went after the former corporate CEO harder than any of the white candidates--and it wasn't just fellow blacks. No, they made it personal and reported any shred of rumor they could find that portrayed him as unfaithful and a serial adulterer. They played on what they perceived is a conservative idea that all black men are horn dogs banging anything they can because any good liberals know us on the right have racist, pre-conceived notions of blacks. In other words, they used the race card in a way that was not easy to detect unless you were paying attention. Stories about John Edwards were ignored for months until the National Enquirer broke them because the proof supposedly wasn't there. The same decency was not extended to Mr. Cain.
2. Obama Abandons One War and Starts Another: Obama pledged a great many things on the campaign trail in 2008. One was to get out of Iraq and W left him a stable situation that required a little finesse to allow us to exit with dignity while still keeping the peace. Instead, Obama blew and if to compound the issue he started a NATO bombing campaign against Libya that resulted in the death of Qaddafi and yet another unstable Islamic nation. Iraq will disintegrate into a civil war with Iran and Saudi Arabia using proxy armies to fight one another while Libya will ally with the Egyptian islamist's and offer refuge to every terrorist group that needs it.
1. Chris Christie Says "Thanks But No Thanks": In the year where we have several strong GOP governors doing what conservatives have always wanted: fighting unions, cutting spending and taxes and generally walking the walk we end up with the lamest slate of candidates we've had in decades. I mean really? Does anyone get the warm fuzzies thinking about trudging out to vote for Newt Gingrich? The guy is the finest example of inside the beltway politics I could show you and the dude is just plain sleazy. What about Romney? The guy signed into law what was later the framework for Obamacare and he makes me pine for the electric personality of Bob Dole to boot. Bachman? Seems like a nice woman and a capable politician but she's just not cutting it. Santorum? He's the only one that hasn't had the lead and for crying out loud let's hope he doesn't. Ron Paul? I've been battling the Paulistinians for years and they kept telling me their guy was not really racist and definitely not an anti-Semite. Er, the evidence is mounting that they weren't exactly correct. So the man who could have destroyed Obama in debate after debate while joking the entire way opted out. Chris Christie could have been our next president but either felt he owed New Jersey something or just didn't want the scrutiny that a bid would entail. His wife and kids would be picked apart and we'd hear endless stories of his weight and health. Imagine: Christie/Rubio 2012. Oh well, one can always hold out hope for a brokered convention.
Allahpundit notes that John Cornyn is getting some heat from the establishment GOP (read: those who bow to evangelicals) about attending a Log Cabin republican meet up.
All credit goes to Cornyn for saying the hell with it and attending an event the aforementioned evangelicals believe is akin to the anonymous sex clubs Tom Hanks frequented in Philadelphia. He's getting it and it has everything to do with Tea Party madness as he would considered it political suicide to have contemplated it previously.
And therein lies the problem I've always had with the establishment GOP; they always inject social issues into the debate when at this point we have no room for it. We are facing economic Armageddon and most people are too damn concerned about paying for food and their house and less about whether Jim and John want to hook up or get married. Abortion is distasteful but we have the opportunity to get control back and set things on a more even keel fiscally and that will be impossible if we get into the gay marriage or any other social issue. The Christian right is a non-factor and that's how it has to remain if we have any shot at taking back the entire Legislative branch.
The Tea Party is a movement that has the ability to shift the political landscape in ways we'll not realize for a decade. The most important way would be to smack the religious sector in the mouth and make them understand that the majority of Americans and--dare I say--the majority of the new Right just doesn't give a damn if two women want to exchange vows. I never have and I'm a hard-core conservative with a strong libertarian streak.
This is our time and the moment can be turned to dust by the zealous Christian minority. We, as a party have no choice but to be welcoming to all who preach fiscal responsibility. This is a different America than it was thirty years ago, an America where the main tax-paying demographic grew up knowing guys who were gay, a girl who chose an abortion and a dude who smokes weed as a hobby but is still pretty damn cool. It's not the party of Reagan when it comes to social issues but it is when it comes to faith in what America was, is and will be. Why exclude those who were born gay?
Imagine the coalition we could form if we included those we've traditionally shunned.
It's feeling more and more like that every day. In what was supposed to be "Recovery Summer" it's been anything but. Drearier economic news comes out on a daily basis and Americans are now at the point where they've lost hope. Hope in the administration, hope in Congress and hope in a deficit-inducing stimulus approach.
How bad have things become in Washington? So bad that Obama's best and brightest are fighting amongst themselves and the creepiest looking dude in the House is looking on the bright side of a bad situation:
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) believes the November elections will likely weed out some of the “most difficult Democrats” that leadership lawmakers have dealt with this Congress.
In an interview with The Hill, the Energy and Commerce Committee chairman expressed confidence that Democrats will retain the House, and suggested he won’t miss some of the Democrats who won’t be back next year.
“I think a lot of the House seats we’re going to lose are those who have been the toughest for the Democrats to pull into line — the Democrats that have been the most difficult,” Waxman said.
Way to sell out the Blue Dogs, Henry. It's you and your policies that have destroyed your party and now your preparing to dance on the graves of the only sane people in your caucus. Real classy, douchebag.
Anyway, Pat Cadell--one of the only Democrats (along with Carville) who sees that the Democrat party is about to see itself wounded for a decade--says it's going to be good year for moving companies in the DC metro area.
Republicans aren't ruling out raising taxes or any other option for dealing with the country's debt problem as they head into the White House fiscal commission's first meeting.
"Everything is on the table," said Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), one of six GOP lawmakers on the commission, when asked by The Hill whether he'd block any recommendation to raise taxes.
"I will sit down with anybody at anytime to discuss anything to see if there is any common ground to prevent the fiscal insanity this nation has engaged in today," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), another commission member.
Uh, no Senator Coburn, tax hikes are not on the table. Spending cuts should be the only thing "on the table" starting with the huge increase in government hiring and continuing on to the NEA, Department of Agriculture, anyone working on global warming/cap and trade and this idiot Obama is hiring to sell the American people something they vehemently oppose.
Here we sit with a major opportunity to decimate the Dem advantage and Coburn passes on the chance to say an emphatic no when asked about tax hikes.
Expect to see the GOP destroyed rather quickly if they agree to so much as a single penny of increases. Obama got us into this fiscal morass and he's going to have to get us out. Let the Dems tax the hell out of the middle class and we'll send them into political Siberia for a decade while we dismantle Obamacare and get the country back to its roots of capitalism and profit. Plus we can work on that concept of American exceptionalism that Obama has managed to stomp on at every opportunity.
In spite of every single poll showing dwindling support for The one and the bloodbath the Dem's suffered in NJ, VA and MA, Obama is plunging ahead with healthcare reform and telling the American people that they either are too stupid to know what is best for them or just plain telling us to go screw ourselves. Either way, we're going to be paying one hell of a bill:
This morning, President Obama released his latest health care blueprint, which he hopes will breathe life into his moribund effort to overhaul one-sixth of the U.S. economy. The new blueprint is almost exactly the same as the House and Senate health care bills that the public have opposed since July. It mostly just splits the difference between the two.
One new element, however, is the president’s proposal to impose a new type of government price control on health insurance premiums. I explain here how those price controls are a veiled form of government rationing that helped sink the Clinton health plan.
If anything, those price controls make the president’s new plan even more bureaucratic and government-heavy. The Senate bill would take an ill-advised stab at cost-control by imposing a tax on the highest-cost health plans. That president proposes to pare back that excise tax and instead have a panel of federal bureaucrats cap the growth in health insurance premiums for all health plans. Those new government powers could make it even harder for people to obtain the coverage and care that they need.
How bad is it? The CBO can't even score it and tell us the actual costs, which even the Dems say will be over a trillion in the next decade.
I heard Gingrich on Hannity today say that he believes the American people would go ballistic if they rammed this down our throats. That may be the case but the Republican's have got to distance themselves from everything in this bill. they can't go to the healthcare summit with OBama on Thursday and show any weakness. They must be stout and require that any bill include major tort reform, no new taxes and a pay go status. They must also tell Reid that no way will they be a part of any sweetheart deals like the one given Mary Landrieu and unions. If Obama doesn't play ball on all of these issues, they need to make a statement and walk out in front of the entire nation.
The American people want nothing to do with healthcare reform and the only ones who can represent us and defend the idea of an America governed by the people and for the people are the GOP. I'm not hopeful as they've shown they are experts at losing every advantage afforded them but one can be hopeful.
The One met at a retreat with Republicans. He lectured them on what partisanship means and other such things that he's an expert on after a total of about four years in Washington. The GOP were as stupid as ever by allowing cameras and Obama took full advantage but didn't really say anything substantive.
That didn't stop the leftosphere from getting all tingly though. Check out the links to this at Memeorandum. He fired up his dwindling base but everyone else is still in the malaise and watching him drone on for 70-minutes the other night didn't help his case. Still no real jobs plan and still no concrete economic plan so we're where we were last week/month/year.
To read a thoughtful post on what occurred, read Althouse instead.
There's one thing you can generally count on from Democrats in an election year. They will cater to the black constituency whom they ignore all other times; They will try to go to the right to make themselves look less liberal; and they will always put off any tough decision until after the election is over.
Obama knows that the Dems are scared and the Brown win in Mass. only made them more angst-ridden. He also knows that the reason Brown won and Dems are trailing in many races is because people are pissed about the gross spending he's done with our money. He can't ditch health care now or he loses his far-left base, which is the only solid bloc he has left. So he has to play the game of talking about deficit reduction.
But like a heroin junkie, he's gonna kick that spending habit tomorrow...or in this case, he'll beat that jones in November:
Trying to win the votes of fiscal moderates, President Barack Obama formally endorsed legislation Saturday creating an independent commission with the power to force Congress to vote on major deficit reduction steps this year, after the November elections.
Obama’s statement gives new momentum to efforts in the Senate now to attach such legislation this coming week to a pending debt ceiling bill. But the endorsement comes so late that it risks being seen as just a ploy to win over swing Democratic senators whose votes the White House needs to lift the federal debt ceiling.
Everyone opposes it because the Dems need pork to win and the GOP sees massive tax increases and has the foresight to know who Obama's going to try to blame.
The GOP has to stand united and throw this piece of shit proposal back at the White House. Hammer him that he has to reduce spending before they will even talk about it. Not slight spending cuts but a full-scale rollback of government spending cutting out the fat in every sector. Eliminating programs that are useless or redundant and abolishing cash cows like the NEA.
It's time for the GOP to stand as one with the backing of the nation and scream at Obama to stop. Give him no room to maneuver and no quarter. This is a war that we've turned decidedly in the last six-months. Brown's win was the Battle of Midway following last November's Pearl Harbor. We've stemmed the tide and won a decisive victory where we didn't expect to. It's time to mobilize and continue with a strong front that challenges every single spending increase the administration proposes.
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