Ok, one last blog...

I like to call these Republicans "Democrats".

No Blogging Until Wednesday

I am on my way to a job interview for a media relations position at a political magazine in DC, and I'm not taking my computer.

Rest assured, I'll have plenty to say on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Mugabe and the "coup"

According to Ed Morrissey, Zimbabwe's "president", Robert Mugabe has been trounced in that country's national elections. But that doesn't mean he will be leaving anytime soon:

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has claimed an overwhelming victory in the country’s general election, prompting a warning from President Robert Mugabe’s camp that the early declaration amounted to an attempted coup.

Ed reports:

Government forces turned away large numbers of people from the polls, claiming identification mismatches as a means to depress turnout. It didn’t work; Zimbabweans swarmed to the voting booth, enraged by 150,000% inflation and the utter collapse of their once-vibrant agricultural sector.

Emphasis mine.

I was in Zimbabwe for the Summer of 2001, and one of the things I learned was that people often have to get new IDs with inaccurate information. For example, if you have to repeat a grade of school, you have to get a new ID stating that you are actually one year younger than you are, as it is illegal to be the wrong age in the wrong grade.

While I’m sure that Mugabe is turning people away regardless, I wonder how many Zimbabweans are being turned away for “identification mismatches” for this reason...

This is what I do, I creep you out.

Every person in this video looks like someone's last known photo, and it stars that man who touched you inappropriately in 3rd grade.

Who would have thought...

...that after the blockbuster successes of In the Valley of Elah and Lions and Lambs that a film about the bravery of the American military how honor lies in deserting ones commitment to their country would fall flat?

I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."

Portraying soldiers as girlfriend-beating alcoholics who have become empty shells of human beings seems pretty old hat to me, not "ahead of its time". After all, that's basically been the storyline of every war movie since the Vietnam War began.

Time for more of that patented Howard Dean political savy...

Ramesh Ponnuru has a post up at The Corner pointing out an interesting line of attack against Sen. McCain from DNC Chairman Howard Dean:

Dean:

While we honor McCain's military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn't understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.

FAIL. Usually I would say it's good politics to try to diminish a political opponents selling points. For example, Republicans might be smart to say that Sen. Obama can give a good speech, but then note that his speeches are nothing more than verbal bumper stickers. But this is the type of faith that won't fly against John McCain.

Sen. McCain has consistently taken positions that border on political lunacy, not "blatant opportunism". That's part of the reason conservatives are so distrusting of him.

Because if you don't get behind it, he'll put you in front of it.

Zimbabwe's socialist dictator, Robert Mugabe, has found his new campaign slogan:

The president’s posters show him making a menacing gesture above the unenticing slogan: “Get behind the fist”. His rhetoric at rallies is still in the language of anticolonialism and he dismisses Makoni and Tsvangirai as “British stooges”.

Zimbabweans will probably be too busy saving up Zim$25,000,000 to buy a loaf of bread to notice.

Movie of the Day/Light Blogging Notice

The Virgin Suicides, director Sofia Coppola's feature-length film.



Also, blogging may be light until around Wednesday. I have a big interview in Washington, DC on Tuesday, and I need to prepare. Wish me luck!

Another Tuzla lie for Hillary

Saying that she "landed under sniper fire" isn't the only whopper the Glacier has told about her trip to Tuzla. From a January 2, 2008 taping of "The Today Show" comes this exchange:

CLINTON: Well I think that is a misreading of what went on in those years. I don't think it would have been appropriate to attend a formal National Security Council meeting. I have said that when I'm president my husband won't do that. I was intimately involved in preparing for a lot of the trips that I took. I was the first high profile American to go into Bosnia, after the Dayton peace accords. Nearly everywhere I went I was briefed both by the CIA, by the Department of Defense, by State Department, by National Security Council members. You know the idea that you aren't involved because you don't attend a meeting and knowing, as I do, that there weren't too many of those formal meetings, really doesn't understand the way decisions were made. And --

VIEIRA: But when you mention something like Bosnia, that, that people are responding, "Yeah but she went to Bosnia, for example, with Sinbad. With a performer. That, that was --

CLINTON: That's right. That's right.

Now that Hillary has said her piece, what does actual history have to say about that incident?:

With Apache attack helicopters patrolling the slate-gray skies overhead, President Clinton stood today before rows of the American soldiers he had sent to Bosnia and thanked them for being "warriors for peace."

On a chill airfield, the nearby roads mired in thick mud, President Clinton gazed at 500 soldiers in camouflage gear and told them they represented the American ideal.

The dateline on that article is January 14, 1996. That is both after the Dayton peace accords were signed on December 14, 1995 and before her trip in March 1996.

So does the President of the United States not qualify as "high profile American" anymore?

UPDATE: Secretary of State Warren Christopher apparently doesn't count either, as he was in the area a month before Hillary.

Song of the Day

"Did I Step on Your Trumpet?" by Danielson



Odd.

From the people who brought you "Shilling for Amnesty"...

The Wall Street Journal has a piece up extolling the virtues of U.S. Securities and Exchange Chairman Chris Cox, and what he could bring to the GOP ticket as Sen. John McCain's vice presidential nominee:

At 55, he's youthful and confidence-inspiring, with ample experience to serve as understudy to a well-traveled 72-year-old. He has a reputation as a serious and sober minded politician. He earned both a law and business degree from Harvard. He's fluent in Russian -- before entering politics he started a company that translated Soviet publications into English. He served a stint in the Reagan White House, then ran successfully for Congress from Orange County, serving nine terms and amassing a strong record as a fiscal conservative and tax cutter. He also led a bipartisan Congressional commission that wrote the book on Chinese technological espionage.

The former California Congressman is a good and decent man. I had the pleasure of meeting him and hearing him speak while at my internship last spring in DC. That being said, the ticket needs someone exciting and different who can help raise funds and has a commitment to fiscal restraint. While I think Cox has the latter, I am hesitant to believe he can do the former. McCain will be running against the Obamessiah himself in the fall. We need someone who can match that excitement.

Also, in the hopes of providing an inspiring story, the author mentions this:

At age 25, Mr. Cox faced the possibility that he might never walk again when a Jeep he was riding in flipped over and pinned him to the ground. His spine was crushed. It took him six months and a steel brace that he wore around his chest before he regained the ability to walk. Today, he still suffers severe pain, especially if he sits for long periods of time, so he often uses a desk that allows him to work while standing up.

While it is good that he survived and has accomplished all he has while in this condition, "having constant immense pain" is not something I look for in a vice presidential candidate.

My choice, of course, is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, even though I think the chances that will happen are slim to nil.

Dick Morris' Handy List of Hillary Lies

I found this nugget over in Ace's headlines section. McCain's people need to read up on this, methinks. The most deplorable, in my mind, is this one: "Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)" First, if you had a child in New York City on September 11, 2001, you knew where she was. No parent in their right mind would still think that she was jogging several years after the event took place*. That is an insult to anyone who lost their lives, or the life of a family member or friend, on September 11th. Democrats always complain that Republicans and conservatives politicize the events of 9/11. Doesn't claiming your daughter was there fall into that category?


*During my internship in DC in Spring 2007, Dick Morris came to my office and said she was still telling that story. So Clinton's admission that this was a lie...err...misstatement caused by sleep deprivation...is within the past year. Of course, Dick Morris could be wrong. He has been before.

Interesting Fact About Feminism...

Apparently, giving pregnant women temporary handicapped placards for their cars is anti-feminist:

Assemblyman DeVore had offered an amendment to the bill that would have prevented use of the permits in paid municipal meters, which already have high usage in urban locations. The National Organization for Women testified in opposition to the bill, once again proving the hypocrisy of their group’s title.

[...]

The bill was granted reconsideration, but Betty Karnette offered her own solution: “This is why we need a man around the house.”

Karnette, of course, is a devoted feminist Assemblywoman from Long Beach, CA. Make sure you click the link to see the grounds on which the National Organization for Women opposed the bill. It's classic.

Of course, I'm not really sure what NOW was doing testifying before the Assembly Transportation Committee. Shouldn't they be off making someone dinner?

Don't give no matches to Mikey!

We break from blogging to give you this special message from the Satellite of Love...



We now return to blogging.

After Putin...

Do yourself a favor and go read Cathy Young's article on the new leadership at the Kremlin. Take-away quote:

Post-Communist Russian democracy, like Communism itself, is dead. The authoritarian system that has risen on its wreckage is not a pretty sight. But there are still signs of life.

I've been worried about Russia for at least a few years now, and I have been wondering why the U.S. government has been so silent. Does it really behoove anyone at this point to pretend what is going on in Russia is democracy"?

Exit question: Wasn't Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice supposed to be an expert on Russia?

Tibet vs. Palestine

Dennis Prager wonders why the American government is so accomodating toward the Palestinians, yet not that supportive of the Tibetan people:

Consider the facts: Tibet, at least 1,400 years old, is one of the world's oldest nations, has its own language, its own religion and even its own ethnicity. Over 1 million of its people have been killed by the Chinese, its culture has been systematically obliterated, 6,000 of its 6,200 monasteries have been looted and destroyed, and most of its monks have been tortured, murdered or exiled.

Palestinians have none of these characteristics. There has never been a Palestinian country, never been a Palestinian language, never been a Palestinian ethnicity, never been a Palestinian religion in any way distinct from Islam elsewhere. Indeed, "Palestinian" had always meant any individual living in the geographic area called Palestine. For most of the first half of the 20th century, "Palestinian" and "Palestine" almost always referred to the Jews of Palestine. The United Jewish Appeal, the worldwide Jewish charity that provided the nascent Jewish state with much of its money, was actually known as the United Palestine Appeal. Compared to Tibetans, few Palestinians have been killed, its culture has not been destroyed nor its mosques looted or plundered, and Palestinians have received billions of dollars from the international community. Unlike the dying Tibetan nation, there are far more Palestinians today than when Israel was created.

Read the whole thing to see his analysis on the subject. All in all, If the United States has to send $512 million in aid to a group, I would rather it be the Tibetan people than the Palestinians.

(h/t The Corner)

Why Consevatives Shouldn't Do Things, Reason #324739287439

Bughhhhhhh.....

Is there any conservative - honestly - out there with creativity and talent? This is just embarrassing.

I knew I liked this guy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the situation in Tibet has left him considering a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games being held in Beijing:

When asked about a possible boycott on a visit to the south-western Pyrenees region, Mr Sarkozy said: "All options are open and I appeal to the Chinese leaders' sense of responsibility."

He added: "I want a dialogue to start and I will step up my response according to the response given by the Chinese authorities."

France's state TV network said it might boycott coverage of the Games if Beijing censored protests during the event.

I don't think a boycott is the right path, as all it would really do is crush the dreams of athletes who have been dreaming of this moment since they were children. However, it is nice to see a Western European leader actually stand up to fascism, even in symbolic ways.

UPDATE: Apparently Sarkozy only meant that he himself might boycott the opening ceremonies. Never drink Val-U-Rite Vodka and blog. Unless you're a pro.

The Huckabee Post-mortem

Betsy Newmark has it at her site. Her last line sums up how I feel about the man:

I didn't like him during the primaries and I still don't.

Blogroll Update

Conservative Belle - She was kind enough to link me as member of the Ace O' Spades moronosphere. She's also part of The Cotillion*.

*(I hear that all the bloggers there are now on the same cycle. Ew.)

Maybe he could Obama's running mate!

Outstanding! New New York Gov. David Paterson has admited to previously using both cocaine and pot:

“I tried it a couple of times,” he said in an interview with the NY1 News, when asked if he had ever used cocaine.

It was is first television interview since he became governor last week.

Host Dominic Carter asked Paterson a number of questions about prior drug use. The governor also admitted he has used marijuana, but added that he has not touched illegal drugs since his early twenties.

Imagine the fundraising gimmicks: Used, Rolled up $20 Bills for HOPE and CHANGE!

Is there even one honest, non-scandalized, ethical politician left in New York?

Gateway Pundit: Obama: "Trinity Is One of the Finest Churches In Chicago"

Nice catch! If Trinity isn't a "crackpot church", what is?

Also, take a look through Karl's post on Black Liberation Theology, which is the basis for Trinity United's belief. It's not hard to see its influence on Hate-monger Wright.

Hate-moner Jeremiah Wright had a middle-class upbringing?

Marty Peretz over at The New Republic has a quote from someone who knew the high school Hate-monger Wright attended in Philadelphia:

I attended Central a few years after Rev. Wright, so I did not know him personally. But I knew of him and I know where he used to live – in a tree-lined neighborhood of large stone houses in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. This is a lovely neighborhood to this day. Moreover, Rev. Wright's father was a prominent pastor and his mother was a teacher and later vice-principal and disciplinarian of the Philadelphia High School for Girls, also a distinguished academic high school. Two of my acquaintances remember her as an intimidating and strict disciplinarian and excellent math teacher. In short, Rev. Wright had a comfortable upper-middle class upbringing. It was hardly the scene of poverty and indignity suggested by Senator Obama to explain what he calls Wright's anger and what I describe as his hatred.

Well, if it wasn't his upbringing and "poverty" that made hm so hateful, what was it?

Wright's "poverty" extended to his higher education as well:

Another old style liberal Chicago politician, State Rep. Monique Davis of Chicago, sponsored the resolution which was passed by the House on March 11. The resolution does not describe a minister who grew up in a segregated South, attending segregated schools, drinking out of separate water fountains, being attacked by police dogs and sprayed by fire hoses. In fact, it says Reverend Wright grew up in Philadelphia, PA – were segregation was not the law of the land and is ironically the same city where Obama delivered his speech.

What the resolution tells us is that Reverend Wright attended integrated public schools in Philadelphia. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Union University, a Master’s Degree from Howard University and another Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago. Revered Wright enjoyed the advantage of some of the finest education American provides.

Listen, I'm not going to say I know what poverty is like. I don't. But I've seen it, and you don't get Master's degrees when you're in poverty.

The Trinity United Easter Sermon

Did I call it or what? In his Easter sermon, Trinity United's new pastor Otis Moss III reflected on the resurrection of Jesus Christ how Hate-monger Jeremiah Wright is a lot like Jesus, if you think about it:

The new pastor of Barack Obama’s church delivered a defiant defense of its retiring reverend Sunday, comparing media coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to a modern-day lynching that resembles Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans.

In a sunrise Easter sermon, Rev. Otis Moss III never mentioned Wright by name, but implied that his mentor, who has delivered sermons in which he likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and declared it damned for its “state-sponsored terrorism,” is facing the same challenges Jesus did.”No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching,” Moss said.

“The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching?” he continued.

Classy. Predictable. Retarded on so many levels.

Blogroll Update

Kadnine - Another Kentucky blogger you should check out!

Sufjan Stevens music for Easter weekend.

For those of you who have yet to be introduced to him, Sufjan Stevens is one of my favorites. He's an excellent lyricist, and just happens to be something rare: a talented artists who just happens to be a Christian. I'm posting two songs from him for this Good Friday weekend. The first is titled "To Be Alone With You". Many, including the producers of "The O.C." (who used this track for their show), apparently assumed it was a romantic song. But it seems to be more about the crucifixion (at least in part).

The next song is "Majesty Snowbird", literally the best song I have ever heard in my life. It is just over ten minutes in length, but is the most beautiful, sweeping song I have ever heard. This is the tune I put on when I'm having a horrible day (or week or month) just to remind me how much good there is in the world. A little melodramatic, sure, but just watch:

Consider this an open thread for the weekend. I might post if I feel like it, or if giant news breaks, but it is likely that I won't.

UPDATE: "Majesty Snowbird" is an unreleased track, but a mp3 of this song can be downloaded for free at the end of this post.

John Dingell: Hey, I've got an idea! Let's raise the gas tax by $0.50/gallon!

You've really got to work to keep those approval ratings at 20% or less, don't ya Johnny boy? Showing, once again, how much they truly care about working class Americans, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) has suggested a half-dollar increase in the gasoline excise tax to help the environment:

A Michigan congressman wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption.

Polls show that a majority of Americans support policies that would reduce greenhouse gases. But when it comes to paying for it, it's a different story.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wants to help cut consumption with a gas tax but some don't agree with the idea, according to a new poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The poll, scheduled to be released on Thursday, shows 48 percent don't support paying even a penny more, 28 percent would pay up to 50 cents more, 10 percent would pay more than 50 cents and 8 percent would pay more than a dollar.

I don't know about you, but I can barely afford gas as it is, and my car gets 35-40 mpg. Which is interesting, because aren't Democrats always the ones saying they are for helping the poor? I make less than $20K a year after taxes...I don't see how five more dollars sent to the government each time I fill the tank is helping my situation.

My favorite line in the article:

Some environmentalists and economists say pain at the pump may be bad for Americans, but good medicine for a sick planet.

See, I call those economists "bad economists" or "tenured Marxist college professors".

And while I would like to think this would hurt him in November, Rep. Dingell has, of course, been entrenched in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1955. He's not going anywhere.

No wonder Hillary's keeping her mouth shut...

...about St. Obama and hate-monger Wright. The good "pastor" was a guest of the Clinton White House.

Best buddies: Hate-monger Jeremiah Wright and Pres. Bill Clinton

Normally I wouldn't play this association with a politician, but since Hillary is taking credit for everything Bill did in the White House*, it's fair to give her credit for this as well.

*okay, not everything.

I guess that makes me an atypical white person...

Jim Geraghty discovers what Sen. Barack Obama thinks a "typical white person" does.

UPDATE: Here is the audio:

Whose Spleen is it Anyway?

Drew Carey wants me to be free to sell my kidneys.

Why Do Presidents Want Second Terms?

A Reason Magazine article from April 2004 asks this question. The argument being that nothin good usually comes in a President's second term:

The thinking among politicians and historians is that two terms are required to vault a chief executive from the ranks of the good presidents to the ranks of the greats. But re-election is also a good way to go from good to terrible. Few presidents have enhanced their stature in their second term, and many have blown their reputations to bits.

Bill Clinton would be remembered with far less controversy had he stepped down in 1996, with the nation at peace, the economy healthy and the federal budget deficit well on the way to erasure. Instead, he stuck around for the pleasure of having his sex life dissected in public and becoming the second president ever to be impeached.

Disgrace is a recurring theme of second terms. Ronald Reagan achieved the bulk of his economic program and defense buildup in his first four years, leaving much of his remaining time for the Iran-contra scandal—which involved the secret sale of weapons to Iran, with the proceeds going to rebels fighting the Marxist government of Nicaragua.

Richard Nixon, of course, had Watergate—which erupted because his aides mounted a break-in at the Democratic National Committee office in a crazed effort to ensure his, yes, re-election. He found that winning a second term doesn't guarantee you'll complete it.

This can, somewhat, be said of President Bush. In his second term, he faced: the Dubai ports issue, Harriet Miers, fake "scandals" like the "outing" of Valerie Plame and the U.S. Attorney firings, losing the immigration debate (twice), an extreme downturn in the Iraq situation, losing both Houses of Congress, and now an economic hardship.

However, he was able to install two incredibly competent strict constructionist jurists in Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sam Alito. Also, while the writers and editors at Reason would disagree, the surge has been a success. I think those successes, and the added bonus of not having a President John Kerry, are worth it to Pres. Bush, and to the American people.

Are any House Republicans actually running in 2008?

Yet another Republican Congressman is retiring after finishing out the 110th Congress:

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) is set to announce today that he will retire from the House upon the conclusion of his current term. Reynolds will make the announcement at a 12 p.m. event in Buffalo and a 2 p.m. event in Rochester, according to sources.

Here is a map of the district. Judging from the location, I'd say it will be almost impossible for the GOP to keep the seat in November.
However, the seat does have a Cook Partisan Voting Index Score of R+3, so keep your fingers crossed that the NRCC finds a good candidate.

How's Hate-monger Jeremiah Wright Playing in Kentucky?

Let's go to the polls:

Kentucky
McCain 53 - Clinton 43
McCain 64 - Obama 28

Not that Kentucky was in any danger of going blue, but McCain's support jumped 10 points and Obama's dropped five in three weeks. Clinton's support remained steady, though she trails McCain by 10.

This is the best Democrat primary ever.

Strollin' Dirty

A young couple buys a stroller on an internet auction in Germany that, apparently, was previously owned by James Bond:

A stroller sold in an Internet auction in Germany came complete with a deadly plaything - a pistol loaded with six bullets.

A young couple from the northern town of Verden found the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol in a side pocket of the pram after collecting it from nearby Hamburg. They called the police.

What I find most amusing about this story is how not newsworthy it would have been in my hometown. All good strollers are packin' heat in the South.

doubleplusundead Fisks the NRCC

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the people who helped the GOP lose House seats in 2006, have released a survey asking for your input.

doubleplusundead does the job most Americans won't do and takes the NRCC to task for being, well, complete retards:

6. Do you support Congressional Republicans’ efforts to decrease domestic government spending in order to reduce the national deficit?

So we started with obvious, tedious talking points, now we're throwing loaded questions? If I answer Yes, then they'll take that as approval of their current "effort" and give them clearance to continue their pork-laden big-spendah ways. If I answer No, then they'll read it as, "no, he wants more big government and pork!" Nice try, chumps.

Go get 'em, tiger!

Mikhail Gorbachev's a Christian

Who knew? This passage really stuck out to me:

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Now that Pope John Paul II is no longer with us, I would like to hear what happened in this meeting before Gorbachev is gone and it is too late.

Quote of the Day

If, as Obama seems to be claiming, those are the sentiments only of Wright's generation, how come those whooping and clapping their approval in those sermon clips include lots of young people?

*SUPREME COURT BACKS GUN RIGHTS!*

This is good news, and has the potential to help the GOP in 2008. But conservatives (especially the few left inside DC) should be cautious:

Governments have a right to regulate those firearms, a majority of justices seemed to agree. But there was less apparent agreement on the case they were arguing: whether Washington's ban on handguns goes too far.

However, Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the best things to happen in the Bush presidency, and Justice Antonin Scalia openly mocked the District's trigger lock provision in today's hearings:

"When you hear somebody crawling in your bedroom window, you can run to your gun, unlock it, load it and then fire?" Justice Antonin Scalia said.

Roberts, who has two young children, suggested at one point that trigger locks might be reasonable.

"There is always a risk that the children will get up and grab the firearm and use it for some purpose other than what the Second Amendment was designed to protect," he said.

On the other hand, he, too, wondered about the practical effect of removing a lock in an emergency. "So then you turn on the lamp, you pick up your reading glasses," Roberts said to laughter.

Anyone want to take a bet on how long it will take The Deciders to ask Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama where they stand on this case?

St. Obama in 2007: Fire Don Imus

Doublestandardmania! Catch the fevuh!:

"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

A crusty old shock-jock saying "nappy-headed hoes" is beyond the pale, but saying "God damn America", and then claiming that the Bible backs that kind of sentiment, that's fine.

Anyone who believes St. Obama at this point is still using him as their human Rorschach test.

Sen. John McCain on DC v. Heller

Sen. John McCain's campaign today released this statement on the DC gun rights case I spoke of earlier:

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on District of Columbia v. Heller:

"Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark case for all Americans who believe as I do that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. I am proud to have joined in an amicus brief to the Court calling for a ruling in keeping with the clear intent of our Founding Fathers, which ensures the Second Amendment rights of the residents of District of Columbia are reaffirmed."

Sens. Clinton and Obama, by their absence on the pro-freedom amicus brief, both support the DC gun ban.

UPDATE: Courtesy of SCOTUSblog, here is their live-blogging and final analysis.

Geraldine is not Jeremiah

During his speech on race in America, St. Obama said the following:

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

Got that? Geraldine Ferraro and her comments are no different than Hate-monger Jeremiah Wright's loathsome "sermons".

That is about an unfair a comparison as I can think of in this situation. Let's do a quick compare and contrast, shall we? Here is what Ferraro said:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Now here is what Hate-monger Wright has been saying:

- "Israel" is a "dirty word", and Israeli policies are somewhat responsible for 9/11.

- "The government lied about Pearl Harbor. They knew the Japanese were going to attack."

- "The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment. They purposely infected African-American men with syphilis."

- "Fighting for peace is like raping for virginity."

- He called America the "U.S. of KKK A"

- "Black men turning on black men. That is fighting the wrong enemy. You both are the primary targets in an oppressive society that sees both of you as a dangerous threat."

- "We cannot see how the same thing we're doing is the same thing al-Qaeda is doing under a different color flag."

- "And guess what else, if they don't find them some weapons of mass destruction, they gonna do just like the LAPD and plant them some weapons of mass destruction."

- God damn America! That's in the Bible, for killin' innocent people. God damn America for treating us citizens as less than human. God damn America!"

There are then the following quotes:

Mr. Wright thundered on: “America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.”

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, “We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . .”

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: “We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . .”

And:

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.

So, yes, St. Obama, those Geraldine and Jeremiah are exactly the same.

Is there a New York politician who hasn't at this point?

Wow. Newly sworn in Gov. David Paterson admits having an affair with another woman for years:

In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

[...]

"This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson conceded in his first interview Saturday. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."

In a second interview with Paterson and his wife Monday, only hours after he was sworn in to replace scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer, Michelle Paterson confirmed her husband's account.

At least he can say, "Hey, at least it wasn't with a hooker!"

I think this will be a net positive for his governorship. Social conservatives in New York are few and far between (I'm guessing), so the damage there is minimal. The ones who are there may even applaud he and his wife for getting counseling and saving their marriage. Secondly, I think New Yorkers will value his honesty, especially when compared to his predecessor.

Everything You Need to Know about Tomorrow's DC Gun Ban Case

This is an interview with Reason Magazine Senior Editor Brian Doherty, who is currently writing a book on the District of Columbia v. Heller case, which will begin hearings in the Supreme Court tomorrow. Its just under five minutes long and pretty informative.

Good Filmmaking or Torture Porn?

Has anyone seen the movie Funny Games? I am planning on seeing it soon, and I would like to know your take. From what I hear, it is a pretty much identical remake of an Austrian film of the same name.

National Review contributors seem to be divided on it. Greg Pollowitz at the Media Blog seems to think that there's no reason to want to see it. Andrew Stuttaford gives his review in the New York Sun:

The original "Funny Games" was profoundly and brilliantly disturbing, an unsettling, upsetting examination of human savagery and the spectacle that we like to make of it.

[...]

In almost every other respect, there is little to choose between the two versions. If the first was a masterpiece, so is the second.

I'm leaning toward Stuttaford's analysis, as I tend to enjoy this type of film more than Horton Hears a Who, which was praised in the Media Blog link. Also, judging from the trailer (and the music in the trailer), the film almost seems to have an A Clockwork Orange quality to it. Here is the trailer:

New York's New Governor

Lt. Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) is being sworn in at the state capitol in Albany later this afternoon. (Doesn't the Spitzer affair seem like years ago?)

From what I have heard, Paterson is far more liberal than even Spitzer was, but he is also far more personable. Check out JammieWearingFool for more on that, as he wrote the post I wish I'd written.

The NewsMax/Obama Debacle

Over the weekend, NewsMax released an article stating that they attended a service at Trinity United, and that St. Obama was in the audience nodding along to professional hate-monger Wright's denunciation of white America.

The Obama camp says, basically, "Unless Obama can bend time, he wasn't there that day." Which, to me, is even more of a story, in that St. Obama, as the Second Coming of the Messiah, should be able to bend time.

Ace is all over this story.

Sunday links: "I'm lazy" edition

***The New York Times has an article up on where Sens. Clinton, McCain, and Obama stand on the issue of free trade. It's worth a look.

(h/t Club for Growth)

***Gateway Pundit has video of St. Obama praising Hate-monger Jeremiah Wright at Hampton University last summer. The rest of the post is excellent, too.

***doubleplusundead highlights the interesting new goodwill procedures at the LAPD.

***JammieWearingFool looks at the new evidence that suggest more Manson Family murders have been found.

***Little Green Footballs finds that St. Obama's website is now Wright-free.

***Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy wants to know who you think Sen. John McCain's vice president should be.

St. Obama and gay marraige

When His Holiness was running for his Illinois Senate seat in 2004, same-sex marriage was a hot topic in Democrat circles. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had recently decided to defy the rule of law and authorize the city to issue same-sex marriage licenses. St. Obama was naturally asked his position on the issue:

"I'm a Christian, and so although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman," Obama said.

But here is the kicker: his denomination of Christianity supports gay marriage!:

The UCC has been one of the most supportive religious organizations in the fight for marriage equality for same-sex couples. Many UCC clergy members across the country regularly perform same-sex union ceremonies.

How, then, does one arrive at St. Obama's conclusion? Does he find gay marriage incompatible with Christianity based upon his own personal study? Is the position based on political expediency?

It seems as though St. Obama's church (according to him) takes many positions with which he is in disagreement. I understand not believing in every position church leadership has, but I think at some point in the previous two decades as a member I would have begun the search for a new congregation, if not an entirely new denomination.

Blogroll update

Yes, I am updating it yet again.

Gateway Pundit

Sweetness & Light

Check them both out!

Is there another Trinity United hate-monger taking over?

I'm honestly trying not to make this an "All Wright, All the Time" blog. Honestly. But there is such a wealth of material here. In his blog post on Wright at the Huffington Post, St. Obama said the following:

When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

Emphasis mine.

Wright is being replaced by Trinity's pastor, Otis Moss III. If this is true, I don't think that the problems will stop for Barack Obama. Sean Hannity recently played a tape of Moss from Trinity's pulpit, and he sounded just as antagonistic as Wright did. Also, if you are serving alongside a man as despicable as Wright you would, at the very least, be able to stand by some of his deplorable comments. I don't feel I could stand alongside and serve with a man who preached such vitriol and hatred.

But, back to how this affects St. Obama. Imagine if a member of the Westboro Baptist Church was running for office, and his excuse was "Oh, well, I didn't think about leaving the church because Fred Phelps is retiring." How well would that fly?

Stuart Smalley stared pure evil in the face and lived to tell about it

Nice Deb has a post up about an encounter alleged comedian and Senate hopeful Al Franken had with a conservative college student. The whole post is worth reading, but this quote from the article Nice Deb examines caught my eye:

An aide eventually interrupted Franken's act, [Peter] Fritz said, by announcing to the candidate that it was time to go.

Fritz told me Monday that he then stuck out his hand to shake Franken's. "Well, at least it's nice to meet you," the GOPer said he told Franken, who reportedly replied, I can't say the same.

There was no handshake, said Fritz.

Now, to many people this would appear rude. However, you have to understand who the article is about: Al Franken. It is conceivable that this was simply the first time that Franken have ever had anyone tell him that it was nice to meet him. Put yourself in Franken's shoes, wouldn't you be confused?

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) to face GOP primary challenge!

Finally, it looks like there might be more political change coming to Alaska. 18 term imcumbent Rep. Don Young will be facing Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in a primary.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Here is Rep. Young last summer on the House floor defending earmarks:

Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home state of Alaska.

"You want my money, my money," Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that "those who bite me will be bitten back."

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

You got that? Your tax dollars = his money.

Interesting side note: Lt. Gov. Parnell's father, Pat Parnell challenged Rep. Young for his seat in 1980 and lost. Rep. Young's extremely classy reaction to this new challenge noted this (from earlier link):

"Sean, congratulations," Young said. "I beat your dad, and I'm going to beat you."

Pat Parnell ran as a Democrat against Young in the 1980 general election. Young received 114,089 votes to the elder Parnell's 39,922, according to the Division of Elections.

Gesturing with his finger toward Parnell, Young said that if Parnell had wanted the U.S. House seat, he should have run two years ago.

"If you wanted to run for this job, you should have done it two years ago instead of running for lieutenant governor," Young said. "You wanted that job. Stay where you are, and that's where you're going to be."

It is about time that Alaska stopped being a politically corrupt "Northern Louisiana". First stop: removing Rep. Young. Then on to Sens. Stevens and Murkowski!

it needs to be summer. now.

some lucky theater owners in las vegas got to see the opening scenes from the dark knight yesterday. some new info on the film:

Unlike 1989's "Batman," in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson's Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, "The Dark Knight" starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.

"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger," Ledger's depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery

director christopher nolan addressed the death of heath ledger:

There had been speculation among critics and fans that the studio and filmmakers might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger's death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.

"I think he'd be very pleased to see we're just moving ahead as is," Nolan said. "If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see. He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form."

also, here is the trailer, in case you've been under a rock for the past three months:

a statement from a man who has never faced a real republican challenger or a hostile press

st. obama has responded to the jeremiah wright situation over at the huffington post (naturally):

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

i don't know why people are jumping on st. obama like this! don't they know that st. obama's mentor and pastor is just speaking words, and these words don't really matter?

what's that st. obama?



oh yeah, you're right! i guess his words do matter. and while sen. mccain may not take the bait (for some pretty good reasons), conservatives should be passing out youtube links to those jeremiah wright clips like candy on halloween.

light posting notice

i probably won't be posting much today, unless major news breaks or i get bored at work tonight.

in the meantime, here is the 1950's short "keeping neat and clean" getting the full "mystery science theater 3000" treatment form mike nelson, crow t. robot, and tom servo.



enjoy!

st. obama the corrupt?

2005: st. barack obama sworn in as the as illinois' junior senator.

2006: university of chicago hospital gets a $1 million earmark, requested by st. obama.

here's the fun part:

You know who works for the University of Chicago Hospital?

Michelle Obama. She's vice president of community affairs.

As Byron [York] noted, "In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office."

obama may be able to give a speech and raise money, but he's a political amateur. as much as i disagree with sen. john mccain on some issues, there's no denying that st. obama will look like the empty suit he is when on stage with this man.

rep. jeff flake on cuba policy

here is video from the reason magazine event i posted earlier. (i'm a moron and can't figure out how to embed the video.)

election 2008 link dump: mccain edition

- sean hannity will be having a one hour interview with sen. john mccain tonight on hannity & colmes tonight at 9pm eastern. hannity is saying he's going to ask all the questions we want answered. i wonder if hannity will ask about juan hernandez' role in his campaign?

- has the mccain campaign been buying up domain names that suggest he is vetting alaska gov. sarah palin to be his vice president? (related: mccain's vice presidential search officially began today.)

- new poll results from suggest a close race for mccain. however, i think that the most most enigmatic person to ever win a presidential nomination in either party ever, sen. obama, is who he will be challenging. once obama's dirty laundry comes out, i think things will turn in his favor.

- rob port highlights an article on mccain's role in the senate during pres. bush's first term.

- obama attacks sen. mccain for wanting to keep tax cuts. yes sen. obama, let's raise the issue of how you would raise the taxes of most americans. that could be a fun discussion.

that's funny...

...this type of behavior seemed to be a novel idea to the democrats when they were saddling us with sen. john mccain as our nominee.

another coveted endorsement for obama

raul reyes, foreign minister and public face of the FARC terrorist group in columbia, seems to find sen. obama would be good for his cause:

"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," he writes, saying Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.

Reyes writes that his response to the Americans was that the United States would have to publicly express these positions.

hmmmmmmm.

(h/t gop vixen)

sen. claire mccaskill on the demint amendment

here's sen. claire mccaskill's speech on earmark reform:

she may not be a republican, but she has been surprisingly good on more than one issue since she bean her tenure last january.

watch out, sen. byrd!

dr. jack kevorkian plans to run for for congress in michigan's 9th congressional district:

Kevorkian was released from prison last year and remains on parole. But the 79-year-old told The Oakland Press for an article published Wednesday that he plans to run for office as a candidate with no party affiliation.

"We need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington," Kevorkian said.

i know that when i think of honesty, sincerity, and ethics, i think jack kevorkian.

quote of the day (already)

A thought after talking to an Obama-backing young person or two... the youngest voters disproportionately support Barack Obama not in spite of his inexperience but because of his inexperience. Many of them see no benefit or value in years of experience, because they don't yet have any.

- jim geraghty

why i want mccain vs. obama, part 234738

because when it comes down to it, the "crazy relative" excuse doesn't work for you when you have donated money to his church and have been there for two decades. from abc news:

Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

once again, these are statements that probably help him in the demcrat primary, but will not fly in the general. especially when people find out that he is part of the obama campaign.

also, on a more personal note, what kind of christianity is this pastor preaching? it doesn't sound very christian to me. aren't christians supposed to pray for their enemies? shouldn't our devotion be to Christ, and not a particular race or ethinic backround?

UPDATE: it's also hard for obama to distance himself from wright in light of this information:

The other Chicago connection that dogs the Obamas is Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., their pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ. Wright, who drives a Porsche and references Bernie Mac and Terry McMillan in his unorthodox sermons (“Take what God gave you and say, ‘In your face, mediocrity, I’m a bad mamma jamma!’ ”), officiated at Michelle and Barack’s wedding and baptized their two daughters. Barack took the title “The Audacity of Hope” from a sermon that Wright preached. In 2006, the Obamas gave $22,500 to the church.

(h/t the corner)

we're goin' onna lurch hunt...

the young america foundation's jason mattera catches up with the not-so-good senator from massachusetts to ask him about the winter soldier investigation.

comedy gold!

kinda-sorta quote of the day

In the two days since news of Mr. Spitzer’s involvement in the prostitution ring surfaced, he has been engaged in an intense legal and family debate about whether to resign or, as aides said his wife was urging, to stay on.

- from an nyt article on schtupergate. (emphasis mine)

someone has snatched that woman's brains.

the dc gun ban: or, why any sane person stays out of anacostia after dark...

next tuesday the supreme court will begin hearing oral arguments in the dc gun rights case. i'm hoping to get a job in dc soon, and this has been one of the things that has concerned me about moving inside the city: i like living in places where law-abiding people have guns as well as the criminals.

reason magazine senior editor jacob sullum gives an overview of one of the strictest gun bans in the nation:

D.C. requires that all firearms in the home, including rifles and shotguns, be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device." That "safe storage" requirement makes it pretty hard to use any gun for self-defense, except maybe as a club. It makes D.C.'s gun laws look extreme even compared to those of other cities that ban handguns. If D.C.-style gun control does not violate the Second Amendment, it's hard to imagine what sort of gun control would.

the disctrict is apparently now using some strange legal meandering to misrepresent their own law:

Although three of the original plaintiffs in the D.C. gun ban case said they wanted to keep functional long guns in their homes, the District did not claim they already were allowed to do so. Instead it dismissed the very idea of armed self-defense as self-evidently absurd. "It cannot be seriously contended that the Second Amendment, even if applicable, guarantees private persons a right of ownership or possession of firearms on the basis of an asserted need to resort to self-help," D.C.'s lawyers told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

But when the plaintiffs appealed Sullivan's dismissal of their complaint, the District suddenly began to suggest there might be exceptions to the "safe storage" requirement that are not mentioned in the statute. "The [D.C.] Council appears to have recognized that on rare occasions, in the event of a true emergency when necessary for self-defense, a gun could be unlocked," it said.

needless to say, i will (hopefully) be weighing in on this issues as the verdict is rendered next tuesday.

i'd refrain from using the word "screw", jim

cnbc host took a break from screaming at the cnbc television cameras* today to cry about his sleazebag friend eliot spitzer's love of hookers.

i like the caption on the video: "jim cramer: eliot screwed up".

no, a "screw up" is when the barista at starbucks accidentally puts whip on my coffee lite frapuccino. a "screw up" is forgetting to set your alarm for work int he morning. hell, a "screw up" could even mean forgetting your wife's birthday.

what eliot spitzer did is about as far from a "screw up" as one could get.

*i was going to say that he took a break from creeping me out but, alas, i watched the video and it creeped me out.

hmmmm...what's the good mayor up to?

the mccain campaign issued the following press release this afternoon:

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will hold a media availability in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on Thursday, March 13th.

the hotline speculates that mayor giuliani will be announcing that he is the vp selection committee chairman.

i had been a rudy guy from january 2007 until the bitter end, but i'd be the first to say that if sen. mccain wants to reassure social conservatives, he should pick someone else to head this committee.

one last, short, lethargic post before work...

doubleplusundead: linking the links i'm too lazy to link.

they're all good, check 'em out.

mr. ogonowski goes to washington

here's a new ad form the ogonowski for senate campaign. i can attest to the fact that things aren't that much different in the house offices:



if you are the type of person who has any disposable income (unlike me), why don't you kick a few dollars his way?

maybe in 2008 we can relive the thrill of defeating sen. john kerry at the polls.

song of the day

i've really been feeling the need to watch death proof lately, but alas can't afford to buy it. eh.

so the song of the day is "chick habit" by april march, from that movie's soundtrack.

flashback time

i think that when one looks back on this election cycle, one will see that hillary hedging on whether or not she supported gov. eliot spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens was the turning point in the democratic nomination.

i don't think this is entirely accurate, because if one remembers, the benefactor of this slip up, sen. barack obama, fully supports this measure. more than that, he seems to see it as a non-issue:

hillary faltered by not fully rejecting the rule of law in front of a democrat audience. that is what could have cost her this election, not her support of spitzer's licensing measure.

shocka!

director and screenwriter david mamet says that he is no longer a "brain-dead liberal". in addition, he is also questioning the efficacy of government:

What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.

But if the government is not to intervene, how will we, mere human beings, work it all out?

I wondered and read, and it occurred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just seem to. How do I know? From experience. I referred to my own—take away the director from the staged play and what do you get? Usually a diminution of strife, a shorter rehearsal period, and a better production.

my guess: mamet will identify himself publicly as an "independent", since thats the cool thing to do right now, and it will allow him to keep working in hollywood. but he'l probably be voting for more republicans.

old white dude-white old dude '08!

i hate identity politics and i have grown fond of mitt romney, but i'm still very hesitant about this:

Mitt Romney said in his first interview since departing the GOP race that he would accept the number two position on the ticket and that there is no lingering bitterness between him and John McCain.

“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included," Romney told FOX's Sean Hannity in a broadcast set to air tonight. "Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.”

eh. mccain has hinted that he is only going to be a one-term president, and logically his age would lead some to consider running against him in 2012 primary even if he were to try to be re-elected. i have been unabashadly shilling for sen. mccain to pick alaska gov. sarah palin as his running mate. however, i would still be happy if mccain chose someone else who was younger and had at least a bit of experience.

let mitt romney be the secretary of treasury, commerce, or something else along those lines. give the vice presidency to the future faces of the party.

rep. virgil goode, call your office

voters in indiana's 7th district handed a andre carson today, in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of his grandmother, julia carson. naturally, since the younger carson is a muslim, it's time for some identity politics:

Indiana voters on Tuesday elected a Muslim to Congress, only the second of that faith chosen in U.S. history.

Andre Carson, grandson of the late Democrat Rep. Julia Carson, was elected to serve the balance of her term in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election.

i hate to break it to the deciders, but indiana's 7th district has a cook partisan voting index of dem +9. the democratic party of indiana could have nominated julia carson's frankensteined corpse and gotten it elected.

what could possibly be the motivation...

in a post today on schtupergate, reason magazine senior editor kerry howley opens by saying:

I’m fascinated by the Spitzer-inspired discussion of prostitution on blogs that identify as feminist, most of which seem to be conflicted but marginally pro-decriminalization.

i, for one, am assuming that those feminists in favor of decriminalization are doing so because a liberal democrat is feeling the heat, in much the same way that they turned a blind eye to pres. bill clinton's serial abuse of women.

lurleen wallace II: electric boogaloo!

there is an interesting, albeit forgotten, historical connection between alabama's 1968 gubernatorial election and the 2008 democratic primary:

In 1966, after failing to get the legislature to amend the constitution to allow governors to serve consecutive terms, George [Wallace] announced the candidacy of his wife Lurleen for governor. The couple admitted frankly that if Lurleen was elected, George would continue to make the administrative policies and decisions. Mrs. Wallace won the May Democratic primary with 54 percent of the vote which assured her election in November.

remind you of anyone?

blogroll update

doubleplusundead - because the world can't get enough zombie wilford brimley.

(if it weren't for copyright infringement laws, i would have put the clip of jerri blank from "strangers with candy" listening to the audiobook retardation: a celebration, as narrated by wilford brimley.)

UPDATE: i'm also adding nice deb, 'cause i'm feeling nice.

it's high noon time in albany

sleazebag gov. eliot spitzer has been given an ultimatum. he has 48 hours, or until early thursday, to resign, or face impeachment proceedings:

New York Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco said: "If he does not resign within the next 24 to 48 hours, we will prepare articles of impeachment to remove him.

"We need a leader in place that has the support of people on both sides of the aisle," Mr Tedisco told reporters.

The assemblyman's spokesman told the BBC that the business of state government would be paralysed until Mr Spitzer left office.

over at hotair.com, ed morrissey wonders if spitzer will try to ride out the storm, in the model of pres. bill clinton and sen. larry craig.

inside word is strong, however, that spitzer will be out of dodge in pretty short order.

either way, i don't think trying to eat your own lips is a good way to relieve the situation:

as much as i hate creeping facism...

...i almost hate axe body spray more. still, this is ridiculous:

A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.

Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.

maybe she can think up a ban for teenage whining while she's at it.

gop vs. reagan conservaties

in a microcosm of what goes on in nearly all gop primary fights, the republican national committee is fighting the re-election of rep. paul broun (r-ga):

Broun won a special election to fill Congressman Charlie Norwood’s term in 2007. No one thought Broun could win. The entire Republican establishment was opposed to him, he was out fundraised, out spent, and out campaigned. Painted as a fringe Christian whose only support came from evangelicals and home-school students, Broun went on to trounce the establishment’s candidate with a narrow 50.4% victory.

The day after Broun’s election, the party establishment set out to find someone to run against Broun. Since that time, Broun has shown himself to be exactly what the GOP needs. Broun has managed to re-forge the Reagan alliance between evangelical social conservatives and hard core fiscal libertarians. Opposed to the drug war and in favor of allowing parents to get their kids out of government schools, Broun has consistently fought to restrict the federal government’s incursion into our lives and, most troubling to the GOP establishment, Broun has worked to turn off the earmarks spigots that have caused so many of his fellow Republicans to go on a perp walk.

compare this with the party injecting itself in the 2006 republican primary to save literal RINO lincoln chafee against conservative primary challenger stephen laffey.

the national republican party does not have the interests of conservatives in mind. this is why, when i donate to gop causes, it always goes to candidates i support, not the party establishment.

if you're in dc tomorrow...

reason magazine is hosting a free event from 6:30pm - 8:30pm wednesday at their dc offices. rep. jeff flake (r-az) will be speaking on trade normalization with cuba.

more event and rsvp information at the link.

pot meet kettle

i got news for you sista, if you weren't a woman, you wouldn't've been on the ticket either.

all my childhood (and adult) nightmares are coming true, v. 2.0

if wes craven directed travelocity commercials i'd have to imagine they'd be a lot like this.

guess...that...party!

cnn's article on the scandal involving democrat new york gov. eliot spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring fails to identify him as a democrat.

now there's a surprise.

(h/t ace)

gov. spitzer resigns due to prostitution scandal

i hope new yorkers are happy. a little less than six months after drawing fire for offering driver's licenses to illegal aliens, gov. eliot spitzer is again in hot water, this time for being linked to a prostitution ring.

he is expected, according to the drudge report, to resign:

Spitzer, who is married with three daughters, was scheduled to make an announcement Monday afternoon. Spitzer officials wouldn't immediately comment on the story.

The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor's role believes the governor is identified as a client in court papers. Four people allegedly connected to a high-end prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP were arrested last week.

UPDATE: his resignation has now been confirmed. his lt. governor is a former member of the new york state senate named david paterson. his official site is here.

looks like mr. hertzberg had a deadline...

...so he just typed out the most retarded scenario he could possibly think of: sen. mccain naming secretary of state dr. condoleezza rice. ah, and just listen to mr. hertzberg:

Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost McCain the votes of his party’s hardened racists and incorrigible misogynists. They are surely fewer in number, though, than the people who would like to participate in breaking the glass ceiling of race or gender but, given the choice, would rather do so in a more timid way, and/or without abandoning their party. And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama with far less restraint.

emphasis mine. he certainly has his fingers on the pulse of conservatism, doesn't he?

the votes she would lose from those in the conservative movement would be from people who felt she hasn't been hard-nosed enough against the enemies of both america and israel. this would also give more fodder for those who claim that electing sen. mccain would be like giving pres. bush a third term.

who ya gonna call?

sen. jim demint has offered up an amendment in the senate to oppose all pork-barrel earmarks for one year.

so far, seven senators have signed up as co-sponsors to support the measure including one democrat:

Jim DeMint (R-SC)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

sadly, neither of kentucky's senators are on the list. perhaps you should give their offices a call?

sen. mitch mcconnell
phone: 202.224.2541
fax: 202.224.2499

sen. jim bunning
phone: 202.224.4343
fax: 202.228.1373

UPDATE: sen. majority leader harry reid (d-nv) has ruled out democrat support of the measure.

oil hits $107 a barrel

i can't help but realize that oil prices were seeming (at least in my area) to go down until the democrats regained control of congress.

thanks nancy!

blogroll update

is barack obama the messiah? - this one will probably only be on the blogroll as long as obama is relevant (meaning the dem's presidential or vice presidential nominee).

song of the day

"don't stop me now" by queen



on a related note, if you've never seen shaun of the dead, you're missing out.

cash on hand

democratic national committee: $3.7 million
republican national committee: $25 million

nice.

i can see how that could happen.

from the daily telegraph: John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree.

guess that collectivist!

i failed, horribly. it's amazing how they all sound the same.

(h/t michelle malkin)

bush to veto waterboarding bill

the story is here. i feel that if waterboarding was really torture, you wouldn't have leftists volunteering to have it done to them all the time:



but i guess logic and reason have never applied to liberal political thought.

and, of course, if conservatism is behind it, sen. john mccain is (at least somewhat) against it:



however, i think that if it came down waterboarding a known terrorist or having a large explosion in downtown los angeles, a president mccain would choose the former over the latter.

out of control judges, part 23747236872

shawn sage, a 17 year old foster child in california, wants to become a marine. it seems, however, a california judge is denying him that right:

In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military.

"The judge said she didn't support the Iraq war for any reason why we're over there," said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.

"She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.' She said she didn't want him to fight in it."

typical.

this judge is denying sage his rights because he has the misfortune of having a different living situation than most, and that's just wrong. luckily, in less than a year, this judge will have no say in what he does with his life.

bughhh...

...i need a category for "just plain gross" news. more about mayor ray nagin (d-new orleans) than i wanted to know.

the future is NOW

headline: Homegrown security bot heckles vagrants, longs to be a real cop.

(h/t ace)

and now for something completely different

george mcgovern, yes that george mcgovern, authored a column today that is in favor of free markets and chiding the nanny state. read the whole column, but here is a section where he speaks on health care reform:

Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned: Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states.

Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all.

i never thought i would say this, but i wish that mcgovern were advising the democrat candidates right now.

quote of the day

I watched the original "Dipdive" video after reading numerous hysterical reports on blogs about how the video was so moving that it made them cry. And yet, I watched the same video and its Riefenstahl-meets-Gap-ad aesthetic made me want to perform an impromptu lobotomy on myself with a screwdriver that's accidentally been dropped in the toilet.

- mark hemingway on the pro-obama music videos i posted earlier.

more veepstakes discussion...

over at the campaign spot. geraghty spends a good deal of time talking about govs. bobby jindal and sarah palin. worth a read.