The ShamWow guy was arrested after a fight with a hooker.

Details at the Smoking Gun.

Now that he's not spending "twenty bucks a month on paper towels" I suppose he has more money for ... uh, entertainment expenses.

Not to be nasty, but I'd think that a guy who'd been going through twenty bucks worth of paper towels each month was dealing with his sexual frustration independently.

Labels: Links, Media

This is just amazing. How did this f---ing DOLT ever make it eight years in the White House?

Addressing the divisive topic of stem cell research, our beloved former President said:

"...we’re not taking embryos that can - that under any conceivable scenario would be used for a process that would allow them to be fertilized and become little babies..."

Of course, you know and I know that embryos are already fertilized. But, then again, you and I have at least half a brain between us, right?

We're not even talking about the issue of embryos already being baby humans. I don't think ANYONE argues that they haven't been fertilized.

But that's really what Clinton thinks. It wasn't an instance of misspeaking. Because he KEPT. HAMMERING. THE. POINT.

..."(Obama) he has apparently decided to leave to the relevant professional committees the definition of which frozen embryos are basically going to be discarded, because they’re not going to be fertilized..."

"...I believe the American people believe it’s a pro-life decision to use an embryo that’s frozen and never going to be fertilized for embryonic stem cell research..."

"...any of the embryos that are used clearly have been placed beyond the pale of being fertilized before their use..."

"...these committees need to make it clear that they’re not going to fool with any embryos where there’s any possibility, even if it’s somewhat remote, that they could be fertilized and become human beings..."

We used to call this moron Slick??

Labels: Media, News, Politics

I finished 11 to 7 yesterday; man, I hate that shift. I live like a zombie when I work graveyard.

Now I'm playing catch-up and I have a ton of things to do today. But first, morning coffee, blogs, etc.

So what's on the pile for today?

• New year, new schedule of surgical processes ... worst of all, the deductible starts all over for the year. I had surgery in January, I'm having another procedure next month, and damn! I'd just finished paying off last year's medical bills!
  
  I think David summed it up up adequately when he said "Is this real life? Why is this happening to me? Is this gonna be for EVER? AAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!"
  
  But enough bitching about my personal junk.

Some of the internet junk from the past days/weeks that I've wanted to link to and/or comment on but just haven't bothered ...

• Good stuff from Scrappleface:
  

  President Barack Obama has reportedly written another private note to his Russian counterpart offering to halt deployment of a defensive nuclear missile shield in Europe, this time in exchange for Russia’s help in dealing with U.S. talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.



• I've written before about how much I dislike Rush Limbaugh, but the way the liberals and RINOs are piling on him is triggering a bit of a personal backlash.
  
  I've been praising Mike Steele for ages, but no politician is perfect and I guess it was inevitable that even he would put his foot in a pile of bullshit.
  
  How, Mike, did it make even a little bit of sense to deign to wade into this anti-Limbaugh flap? And to do so from the leftist point of view? You blew the call on this one, buddy... and you handed the left a great stick to beat you with.


• Zo puts the recent Limbaugh BS in perspective, and does a better job than anyone else. Zo always puts it all in a nutshell better than anyone else, so it's not like it's anything new. I've mentioned that Zo rules, right?

  You know what a truth rush is? It's when you hear the absolute truth spelled out in simple, understandable terms that make you feel excited and energized. Whenever I listen to Zo I always get a truth rush.
  
  Rush WHO? When will Zo get a talk program? I'd listen every damn day.



• Comedian Louis CK tells Conan that today's young people are "the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots.... non-contributing zeroes." And he's right. I hate to generalize ... well, no I don't. I do it all the time. And I really tend to believe that damn near everyone born after 1975 or so is a whining, self-absorbed, unrealistic, childish, spoiled moron. (You know who you are.)
  
  Of course I also tend to believe that the baby-boomer generation is just as bad. So, yeah, basically everyone should always ignore everything I ever say because I'm a bitter, miserable old bastard.
  
  Give this clip a couple of minutes to really get going, it's well worth it and it's funny and dead-on. This had me laughing really, really hard and I'll be looking out for this guy from now on. Check it out:

  HT: BlackFive.



• I haven't mentioned the Octomom here because the story just disgusts me. But it ain't going away and more stuff comes to the surface every day. So here's my one Octomom post, let's get this over with.
  
  What do we know about Octomom so far? Well, in no particular order...
  
  
  • She's a psycho who has children by the litter.
  
  
  • She's obsessed with Angela Jolinie (or whomever) and has had her face carved and injected so she can look like her favorite movie star.
  
  
  • She's trying to sell the videotape of the birth of her litter.
  
  
  • She flips out and calls 911, threatening to kill herself in front of her children.
  
  
  • The cops have repeatedly investigated reports that she neglects her kids.
  
  
  • She says she might do a porn move, "maybe in a year, when the baby-fat goes away."
  
  Now, we all know weirdo moms ... flake-jobs who breast-feed in public (and sometimes until their kids are in middle-school) and have their kids sleep in the same bed with them and give their kids names like Armani and Timberland. But this woman is beyond weirdo mom. This woman is a dangerous nut.
  
  My take on it is that the doctor who performed her artificial fertilization ought to be held accountable for the well-being of those children. He knew that this woman was insane and he enabled her in the worst possible way. A responsible medical professional would be advocating that this woman be forced to have her tubes tied. And that's all I got to say 'bout that.

Labels: Links, Media, Michael Steele, News, Politics, You Tube, Zo

Over the course of a remarkable career he developed the ability to evoke common sense and reason with just the sound of his voice.

RIP, Paul Harvey, he was 90 years old.

Labels: Media, News

OK, times are tough right now. The economy sucks. Everyone is feeling it. Even the labor unions are feeling it; last week the USW had to lay off six congressmen. (Rimshot!)

But the present looks pretty amazing when you go back to the past and look at today as the future.

That might not make sense, but it will. Check out this video of a local newscast clip from San Francisco in 1981.

This harkens back to a time when simply being a "home computer owner" was rare enough to get you identified that way on the local news ... when the only way to get on line was to physically put your rotary phone's handset on top of a modum ... and when a total of eight newspapers were on the internet. Watch the whole thing, it's really pretty funny and gets funnier toward the end:

My favorite quote in the whole thing: "We're not in it to make money."

This video has been posted at a number of blogs, including Hot Air, where I saw it.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, You Tube

Wendy is finally watching the season premiere of Lost. I'm aware that it's on, but I'm not watching it. I'm websurfing.

At one point a moment ago I heard Wendy say "Oh, now that's just not realistic."

I'm peripherally aware of some of the plot elements that Lost has introduced over the years. Polar bears on tropical islands, gigantic monsters, time travel, conspiracies, magical healings, etc. But Wendy has never blanched at anything they've thrown at her before. So I just had to turn around and ask what had finally impressed her as utterly implausible.

Her response: "Someone just opened a dishwasher and the knives where in there blade-up. Nobody would put knives in a dishwasher blade-up."

I guess there's only so much of this farfetched crap that one person can swallow.

Labels: Humor, Media, Personal

Isn't our new President just dreeeeeamy?

Then, with a wave of that very same hand, he turned the National Reflecting Pool into wine. And oh, how they danced, the little children of DC.

Gimme a f----ng break.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

The legacy of Christine Chubbuck:

Britain's obsession with reality television reached new heights — or depths — Wednesday night with the broadcast of the assisted suicide of the 59-year-old terminally ill American at a Swiss clinic...

"There is a growing appetite from the British public for increasingly bizarre reality shows," said (an anti-euthanasia) group's director, Peter Saunders. "We'd see it as a new milestone. It glorifies assisted dying when there is a very active campaign by the pro-suicide lobby to get the issue back into Parliament."

(British Prime Minister Gordon) Brown did not venture an opinion, saying only that the government's "television watchdogs" will scrutinize the show after it is broadcast.

Next, we'll be broadcasting executions.

Watching "reality TV" is like throwing raw meat to the ugliest things hiding in the human psyche. How long until movies like this one and this one and this one are seen as prophetic rather than satirical?

Labels: Links, Media, News

No time to blog today, but I'll remind you that the really good stuff is in my Google Reader. You can pick a headline from the blue box to the left or click here for the latest and greatest.

I will post this, though, really quickly. I always think it's a riot when one of the talking heads at Fox puts some leftist moron on blast. Like this, a few days ago, from Shepherd Smith:

Labels: Blogs, Links, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

• Just a reminder that I really do believe that, nowadays, the best reason to visit this blog is to see the awesome stuff I share from my Google Reader. The box o' links is at the top of the column to the left.



• Keith Roy Weatherley was sitting in his car when the police tried to arrest him.
  
  He was pleasuring himself with a jar of spaghetti sauce.
  
  It took four officers to remove him from his car. While wrestling with those officers, Weatherley continued trying to pleasure himself.
  
  Afterwards, when the police searched his car, they found pornography, a home-made sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier.
  
  I DID NOT make any of that up.
  
  You know, I think that the best thing about having a physical relationship with spaghetti sauce is that you can't get it PREGO! HA!
  
  I also want to say that it's high time these simple, small-minded Republican bigots stop preventing marriages between people and pasta toppings.



• Yep, that's about it:

  

  HT: The Ol' Broad.




• It's turkey! It's food! Darn near all of you will be eating turkey next week, and that turkey will have been slaughtered in the exact same way! Get over it, geeeez, ya friggin' crybabies!



• The movie I now officially want to see more than any other movie is Darren Aronofsky's Mickey Rourke vehicle, The Wrestler:




• Hey, whattaya know! George Dubya ChimpHitler somehow managed during his administration to end global warming! Now, I know that it would just be FAAAAR too much to ask for you leftists to give him credit for his amazing feat, but can you at least quell the alarmist crap for now?
  
  HT: Instapundit.



• My non-blogging friend The Governor brought my attention to the following:
  

  Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif,), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee, with oversight of missile defense programs, said missile defense programs will receive hard and long scrutiny next year.
  
  No rogue nations have been dissuaded by formation of the U.S. missile defense shield from continuing to develop long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, she commented.
  
  "The truth is, is that it hasn't caused anybody to stop doing what they're doing," she said. "And if it hasn't done that, then holy moly, what's the point" of developing missile defenses?"

  
  Rogue nations are still developing long range missiles and nuclear weapons ... therefore, US missile defense programs are useless. Yep, makes PERFECT F&%$%NG SENSE to me.

Labels: Blogs, Links, Media, Movies, News, Obama Watch, Politics

You may have heard it said about someone who has unquestioningly swallowed some line of inexorable, uncompromising propaganda ... that the person in question has "drank the KoolAid."

It's possible that younger bloggers might not know about the origins of that phrase.

This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre. In the mid '70's, self-proclaimed messiah, socialist leader and clergyman Jim Jones brought his more than 900 followers, people of mixed ages, races, nationalities and abilities, to his compound in Guyana. Jones followers embraced him as their new Messiah, the one man who could save them from America's wickedness and intolerance. On November 18th, 1978, Jones convinced over 900 of his expatriate followers in Guyana to commit suicide by drinking a flavored drink mix spiked with cyanide.

First the children (over 300 of them) at Jonestown were poisoned, then the adults poisoned themselves. Over 900 people died on that November day because they chose to believe what they'd been told. They saw Jones as "The One," and they were ready to give the whole of their lives to their savior, leader and teacher:

Thankfully, the lessons of Jonestown are seared into our collective memory, to paraphrase John Kerry.

Never again will Americans look for someone to believe in, just to get caught up in the empty glitz of some charismatic new "messiah-figure."

Never again will we fall for the hustle when some flashy young man with a bright smile promises that yes, we can have the happiness we deserve if we just give him the power to create it for us.

If this new "messiah" condescends to us, just as Jim Jones did, by challenging the religious beliefs that we "cling to," we'll recognize him as a charlatan.

And we'll never again accept some self-styled savior's personal new vision of socialism as the secret to happy, productive lives.

Right? Never again, right?

Hello?

Oh, I'm sorry, 52% of America ... I didn't mean to interrupt you while you were enjoying that fruity, mixed beverage. Who mixed that up for you? Your friends over at NBC? How nice of them.

Looks tasty. I bet it goes down smooth.

You'll have to let me know if you notice any aftertaste.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Remember when society didn't encourage and celebrate people turning themselves into androgynous, discombobulated freaks?

Language warning for this clip. Content warning, too. And I don't even know how else to warn you about the whack-job bizarreness of this clip. It features that senile old turd Larry King interviewing the "pregnant man" and her wife about their "sex life:"

Credit (blame?) to Newsbusters for the video.

The more I actually pay attention to the world around me, the more I agree with one of my favorite bands when they say:

"Some say a comet will fall from the sky
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.
Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this
Stupid shit, silly shit, stupid shit... "

Labels: Media, Music, News, You Tube

Wendy and I are both big fans of Megyn Kelly. I like her because of the way she goes after weasels in interview segments:

The fact that she's clearly conservative (if I read her correctly), smart as a tack and friggin' gorgeous doesn't hurt, either.

Today Drew at Ace Of Spades HQ reported that Maxim had named Megyn the second hottest news anchor on TV. (The first hottest is some lady named Amy who is kinda cute. You'll have to go to Maxim yourself to see the list.)

Wendy and I were talking about that a little bit ago and one of us said "I wonder how old Megyn Kelly is, anyway..."

So we went to Wikipedia and looked it up, and whattayaknow? Today is Megyn Kelly's birthday. She's 38 years old today.

So happy birthday, Megyn Kelly. Keep goin' after the weasels and you'll always have a couple of fans in Virginia.

Labels: Links, Media, Megyn Kelly, Trivial Matters, You Tube

I'm sure there are those who'll call this "hate speech." I'm fine with that. Call it what you want. I don't hate homosexuals, I'm just disgusted by them. They inspire in me the same feelings that I feel about cockroaches. And this is why ...

The queers (it's still a derogatory term when I use it, and it's intended to be) seem to want a full on war over Prop 8:

At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like “haters” and “bigots”...

Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us...

Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said “Hey, that’s not yours, can you please give it back?”. He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said “No, tell him I forgive him.”

Congratulations to the woman who offered forgiveness to her attacker. She really embodied Christianity. I'm incapable of that kind of grace. I'd have tried to beat the son of a bitch to death with my bare hands.

This is how leftists (in this instance, gay leftists) respond when Democracy doesn't go their way.

And can we please go back to calling them "queers?" The word "gay" doesn't fit them. They're not "gay," as in happy, joyful, care-free. They're "queer," as in abhorrent, unnatural, substandard, wrong.

Again, this is the way that queers behave toward Christians because they know that a Christian who truly follows his or her faith is going to respond with patience, non-violence, forgiveness and love.

They won't take their fight to the Muslims, the real gay haters, because the homos lack the courage of their convictions. These "militant" gays are really spineless cowards.

And that's probably why the military has never wanted them among their ranks.

Will I regret this post? Probably. Almost certainly. But not for a long, long time. I've seen too much of this in the past week to feel anything right now other than contempt and red-eyed anger.

Labels: Media, News, Politics

This is from How Obama Got Elected . Com:

Who voted for Barack Obama ... and just how much do those voters really grasp about the issues of the day? John Ziegler spent some time with some of Obama's supporters and got some interesting answers:

They can't tell you who Harry Reid is, they don't know who Barney Frank is ... but they by God know which candidate has a pregnant teenage daughter.

Congratulations, America, you've elected your first Reality TV Show President.

And he won the immunity challenge, so he doesn't have to leave the house for at least four years.

Ziegler has some interesting data from a Zogby Poll to back up his assertions:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

Emphasis above is mine. Palin gossip is entirely the MSMs.

In the words of Albert Camus, "Stupidity has a knack for getting its way."

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I didn't feel that there was any need for me to watch all three Presidential debates this year. So I only watched the last one ... but I saw all three of them. This video is both funny and frustrating:

One more illustration of some of the reasons that I'm disgusted and disillusioned with American politics.

More so than ever, that is.

HT: Hot Air.

Labels: Humor, Media, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I read about this at Wizbang:

A radical gay rights group is claiming responsibility for a protest Sunday at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township.

Protesters who entered the Creyts Road church along with worshippers surprised the congregation when they stood up during the service, threw fliers at churchgoers and shouted slogans such as "It's OK to be gay," and "Jesus was a homo," according to David Williams, communications director at the church. His father, Dave Williams, is the church's longtime pastor. He was not preaching at the church Sunday.

The gay agitators have been all to hell about the Prop 8 issue for a week now, and they've been attacking Catholics, Mormons, Evangelicals, etc. They've been showing up at churches and freaking out like this to express their displeasure.

I've really had enough. So here are just a few things, in the form of an open letter, from me to the hell-raising homos:

Dear Militant Homos,

One, here's a hypothetical for you. How many legs would a dog have if you called it's tail a leg? Well, the dog would STILL HAVE FOUR LEGS. Because it DOESN'T F--KING MATTER what you call it's tail. It's still a tail, not a leg. Just like two gay guys living together IS STILL JUST TWO GAY GUYS LIVING TOGETHER, not a MARRIAGE.

Two, this is a democracy. The people of California voted. You lost. That's how it works in a democracy. GET OVER IT.

And, three ... if you want to protest against a religious faith that is REALLY intolerant toward homosexuals, try taking your protest to a Mosque. Given their propensity toward hanging and beheading gays, I'd say the Muslims are pretty thoroughly homophobic. Oh, but what's that? You won't go near a Mosque because you're F--KING COWARDS? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

And while I'm at it, since you're so fond of having things shoved up your asses, how about sticking your rainbow stickers up there.

Sincerely,
Darrell at SouthCon

Labels: Media, News, Politics

Bobby Jindal talks to one of the Obamabots at MSNBC about an upcoming conference of Republican governors. Sarah Palin is going to have a high-profile role in that conference, and the MSNBC ObamaZombie tries as hard as he can to provoke Jindal into giving him an anti-Palin soundbite. Jindal is a pro, he knew how to steer the conversation. He stayed on message and stayed clear, simply praising GOP Conservative Governors (including Palin) as people who get things done.

I really like Jindal, and I can see me backing him in four years. This guy has that all-important ability to relate policy to the people in immediate, meaningful terms. He also has the ability to grab the media by the horns and by-God steer the conversation. Jindal is a real pro. Check him out:

Labels: Bobby Jindal, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

Now that it's too late to make any difference, NBC has decided to do an interview with Sarah Palin in which she's treated with some modicum of respect. When she's given a chance to simply hear questions, think about them and answer them (rather than dodging attacks disguised as questions), Palin handles herself very well:

Again, I'm still not 100% sure I'll support her hypothetical campaign. But damm, I really like her and her husband and their family.

And, again, I'm tagging this with my "YouTube" tag. I'm not going to create a separate tag for every possible source of embedded video.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

• A month or so ago (I think?) Rhodester suggested I check out Google Reader, a very handy tool for coordinating, organizing and reading blogs. I filed the advice away in the back of my mind, but I never bothered to really set it up for myself until last night. (I'm never the first to check out something new.)
  
  Well, I've ended up really grateful that Dave suggested Google Reader. I have 40 or 50 blogs that I try to check once a day, and Google Reader makes checking them much easier, much quicker and maybe more fun. So take Dave's advice, I'm glad I finally did. Google Reader is awesome.
  
  If you want to see how Google Reader looks, you can check this out: One option once you set up your reader account is to share things that catch your eye with ... well, with whomever. My shared page is right here.



• A couple of people have told me that they're surprised that I'm in relatively good spirits, considering how things went Tuesday. And here's the truth of it: Tuesday night wasn't a loss for me.
  
  Tuesday night was not a loss for conservatives.
  
  Tuesday night was a loss for liberal Republicans. Why should I give two s#!ts about liberal Republicans? Why should I care that they lost elections? They don't represent my views. Screw 'em.
  
  Richard Viguerie sums it up to my satisfaction:
  

  "Conservatism did not lose – big government Republicanism lost..."

  
  Let's hope that the GOP is paying attention now and that Tuesday's drubbing will yank their asses back into gear. Give us conservative choices and conservatives will put them in office.



• I can't get over this silly crap:

  

  The OFFICE of the PRESIDENT-ELECT??
  
  Have you ever heard any elected candidate refer to himself as the "President Elect?" It's just killing him to have to wait until mid-January to be sworn in, isn't it?
  
  This goes beyond affectation or pretension. This is just silly. This is just childish.
  
  Oh, and what did he do while standing there at his snazzy, all-official-looking new "President-Elect" podium? He mocked a sickly, 87 year old widow.
  
  You stay classy, now, Mr. Big Shot.




• DJ Drummond at WizBang shoots holes in the talk about Obama's election being historic:
  

  "...let's start with the notion that a black man winning election makes that election 'historic'. Really now, by that logic we have had a lot of 'historic' elections. George Washington was the first president, John Adams the first president not named Washington, various presidents were the first to be elected of their party, Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be elected in a contest decided by the House of Representatives, Martin Van Buren was the first natural-born American to be elected president, John Quincy Adams was the first president elected in an election where citizens voted for their states' electors, James Buchanan was the first and so far only bachelor to be elected president, John Kennedy was the first Catholic president, and so on and so on...
  
  What is strange about Obama's focus on being the first black president, is that he started his campaign claiming to be beyond that."

  
  I see where he's going with that. I won't say that I agree with him, not completely, but I concede the point that simply being an "historic" President isn't good enough.

Labels: Blogs, Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

Man, what a week, huh? My head is still spinning.

Here are some videos to close out a week's worth of fairly active blogging on my part.

This first video is political AND personal. It's a little long, like six minutes, so I understand if you don't want to watch it. My 9 year old stepson, Liam, really followed the Presidential election this year. He watched and read a lot of news, and he asked me a lot of questions about it. And he and I had a number of conversations about Obama and McCain. So I got out the video camera:

Of course, he's been influenced by my conservative perspective. The day will probably come when he and I don't see eye-to-eye on any number of political issues. But I go out of my way to make it clear to all of our kids that agreeing on everything isn't what's important. What's important is that we keep talking and keep listening to each other, and that we share our opinions with love and with respect. We're a family. That trumps everything else. You can disagree with someone in your family on political matters and still love and respect them.

This next one is the latest from the Mighty Zo Rachel. I've been following his YouTube channel for only a few weeks now and I check it daily to see if he's posted anything new yet. In this video Zo talks about the aftermath of Election 2008 and offers some good advice to his fellow conservatives:

Man, we need to goad Zo into getting into politics. I don't know where the hell the man lives, but he needs to start out running for city council or the school board or whatever. And then work his way up to state office, and then on to Federal office and then the White House around 2020. I'm dead serious, dude. He strikes me as a communicator, a leader, and a man with a clear, conservative vision. That's what we need. Zo Rachel For President.

OK, check this next bit out: Presidential dog Barney is taking some hate for having allegedly bitten a reporter:

It looks to me like Barney might have gotten a little snag on one of this guy's fingers. But that ain't the point. Here's the point:

If you know anything about dogs, you already know what this reporter did wrong. A dog is a living animal. An animal, not a toy, and as an animal it has to be approached in a certain way. That reporter didn't know a damn thing about Barney. All dogs are different, some are jumpy, some are territorial, some are nervous, some are just mean. You have to know what kind of dog you're approaching and you have to approach him properly.

Never just put your open hand on a dog. Don't offer your open hand to a dog, either. He might respond well to that, or he might feel threatened by it. Barney seemed to have felt threatened. And he did what dogs do when they feel threatened.

The reporter is lucky. Had Barney been a moody Mastiff or a St. Bernard, he might have taken the ends of two or three of those fingers.

When you approach a dog you don't know, first of all, ask it's owner or guardian if you can pet the dog. If you're given the go-ahead, the first thing to do is to offer the dog the back of your closed fist for the animal to smell. If he doesn't like what he smells, or just generally doesn't like you, he'll let you know with a growl or a snort, or he'll back off. If he accepts your fist with a tail-wagging and general happiness, that would be the time to go ahead and give him a little scratch.

You don't lay your open hand on a strange dog. You just don't do it. You might get bitten. Let's hope that reporter has learned and will remember one of the basic lessons of human - dog interaction.

OK, let's wrap this up with a little raw Anthrax, "Caught In A Mosh" and "Got The Time", recorded live in Sacramento in '98. This was back when 'Thrax had their best vocalist ever, the mighty John Bush. The technical quality of this clip just ain't all that happenin' ... but the energy is there and I'm sure it was a great show.

Coming Tomorrow ... SouthCon presents me hosting my own made-up version of an episode of MTV's Headbanger's Ball. It oughta be a lot of fun.

Labels: Dogs, Media, News, Personal, Politics, You Tube, Zo

• Apparently the Obama campaign has stiffed some of it's employees in Indianapolis. Stop complaining, Obama campaign workers. All that's happening is they're taking your money and spreading it around elsewhere, right? What's wrong with that?

  
  HT to Bob Parks for the story.
  
  By the way, Fairly Conservative points out that the Obama campaign spent about eleven bucks per vote.




• Rush Limbaugh has bought a new car for one of his listeners to cheer her up after the election.
  
  I know there were times in the past when I wrote at this blog that I think that Limbaugh is an a-hole. Well, I'd like to take this opportunity to assert that I must have misquoted myself. At the very least I took my remarks out of context. What I was trying to say is that Limbaugh is a hero of mine and probably the greatest and most generous radio personality who's ever lived. There's nothing that I'd rather do than listen to the EIB while driving around in my brand new Dodge truck. You know, if I had a new Dodge truck. Which would really cheer me up.



• John McCain showed himself to be graceful in defeat Tuesday night. Not everyone who's worked for him can do the same. Sarah Palin has responded briefly to the McCain campaigners who've been smearing her since the election:

  Look, here's where I stand on Palin. I like her. I am still a little reluctant to call myself a Palin supporter in any political sense, but I agree with her on a great number of things and I really like her.
  
  And as these disgruntled, bitter, failed, anonymous McCain campaign staffers continue to prove the quality of their characters with this sniping, it makes me want to defend Palin. The conservative blog Red State is behind an effort to identify and out these people who're attacking Palin anonymously. I like that. I hope they are able to ID some of these people and I hope that future political campaigns remember what they've done and think twice about hiring them.




• Scott Ott at Scrappleface usually writes hilarious political satire. But he occasionally posts something serious, such as this video about Reagan's response to losing the GOP nomination in '75.

  Dutch would NOT give up and he never lost his focus. Stay hungry, my fellow conservatives.




• A McCain supporter writes to CNN that he or she is gonna do everything he or she can to trip up Obama:
  

  "We have to watch this guy and not give him an inch," one McCain supporter wrote. "The same way he criticized every move of President Bush. We have to make things as difficult for him as he did for Bush."

  
  That's the wrong approach. That's the kind of thing the liberals have done to Dubya for eight years. And I admit that I've not always been above that kind of personal stuff when it comes to politicians. But we're stuck with this guy for four years, so we should probably focus on trying to help the next President do the right things and trying to discourage or prevent him from doing the wrong things. The man himself isn't important. Policy is what matters.
  
  And, no, liberals. Right and wrong are not subjective concepts. We're not going down that relativism road.



• This cartoon from Town Hall hits the nail on the head:

  

  It's really that simple. Look, if you call yourself pro-life and you voted for the most dedicated abortion booster to ever run for President, you are completely full of shit. Period. You can't be both pro-life and an Obama supporter. But then, you already knew that, didn't you?




• Little Green Footballs reports that Seattle radicals are waving the flag this week. I'm not surprised by that.
  
  One way to interpret this is that these radicals are suddenly patriotic because they think they've gotten what they want. My understanding of this issue is a bit more ... well, nuanced.
  
  In his book The Enemy At Home, Dinesh D'Souza argued convincingly that radical leftists really are patriotic, as they understand patriotism. They do love America in their own way.
  
  The thing is, Conservatives love America for what it really is, warts and all. We're honest with ourselves about our country, it's flaws, what's good here, what's great here, and what needs improvement.
  
  Radical leftist Americans love a hypothetical America. They love what this country might be, if only people would do things their way. So when they say that they love America, they aren't telling a lie. They love America by their own understanding of that concept.
  
  The problem with leftists isn't that they're unpatriotic. The problem is that they're irrational, incapable of empathy, and spend most of their time with their heads in the clouds. They don't love the real America, not even the one that elected Barck Obama. They love the hypothetical America that they think Obama is going to create for him. And when he doesn't, they'll be more bitter than ever.



• Here are two articles worth reading:
  
  I've been saying that the GOP needs to return to the policies of Reagan. George Will gets even more old school, asking what would Goldwater do?
  
  And Joan Vennochi ponders closing the door on victimhood.
  
  Vennochi concludes:
  

  With Obama's victory, the torch is passing to a new generation of black leaders. But they still face some of the same old challenges.

  
  
  I'd agree. But I'd assert that many of those "same old challenges" are presented by the lingering, backward-thinking anger of many of the previous generation's "racial leaders."

Labels: Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

• I'm thinking Bobby Jindal in 2012.



• The backlash begins. Apparently Obama's campaign is trying to deal with all the unreasonably high expectations people have for the President Elect.
  
  That's funny. Unreasonable expectations are what got this guy elected. Unreasonable expectations are what he campaigned on! Unreasonable expectations are the foundation of Obamamania. Too late to try to get a handle on that. That ship sailed a long time ago.



• Rhodester pointed out in a recent comment that only a few days ago I said I was going to take a break from blogging. And then I started posting one or more posts a day. Dave is probably right not to take me seriously when I say it's time for a little break. Apparently nothing makes me want to ramble like saying I'm trying to quit.



• Now that the election is over I finally figured out a way to express what it is that bugs me about all this talk of "unity." Seems that's all we've heard about, the need for this country to be united. Well, here's the thing: "Unity" has always struck me as a code-word for "conformity." I cherish my right to disagree, even to disagree with the majority ... maybe even to be the only person I know who holds a particular opinion. I'd rather continue not fitting in, thank you very much, if "unity" means I have to become pro-abortion ... or that I have to believe everything some politician tries to sell me ... or that I have to let anyone else ever do my thinking for me.



• I've been seeing Karl Rove on Fox News regularly lately. He's hardly made any impression on me at all. He seems smart, restrained, thoughtful and really pretty bland. I honestly can't understand why so many people hate Karl Rove. I can understand disagreeing with him, but hating him? What's to hate? The guy is milquetoast.



• The Onion, as usual, is soooo funny and soooo dead-on:

  
  

  Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
  
  Best quote: "Worst case scenario is that someone with evil intent seizes control of them. They've proven their minds can be taken over by empty rhetoric."




• Tonight I saw a montage of clips from the concession speeches of a number of politicians who've run for President. It's true that nothing tells us more about who a man really is than seeing how he handles failure. My gut reaction was that we've had a string of graceful, thoughtful and likable guys from both parties lose the race for the Presidency in the last several years.



• If what I've been reading is true, there are members of the McCain campaign who blame Sarah Palin for their defeat. I think that's foolish. I can't imagine that there was any really significant number of people who were swayed to vote for Obama because of Sarah Palin, Dennis Hopper not withstanding. I suppose that people who advise politicians for a living have to cast around for someone to blame other than themselves when their campaign tanks. Some of these accusations are ugly and simply impossible to believe. And considering that these things are being said anonymously, there's no reason to take them seriously. Either own up to your claims, make them publicly and attach your name to your statements, or shut the #%@# up, you cowards.
  
  It may be safe to assume that some of these McCain campaigners have already burned bridges with Sarah Palin and they're trying to preemptively taint her prior to 2012.
  
  Of course, if any of these accusations about Palin really are true, she'll probably fade into a footnote without any help from McCain's failed staff.



• I was sorry to hear that Michael Crichton died amid all the election excitement.

Labels: Bobby Jindal, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

• Judging by the venom and spite they continue to throw her way, it looks like some of the leftists are still all to hell about Sarah Palin. Might they be bracing themselves for 2012 already?



• If you were one of those who suffered from the delusion that the "Arab Street" would drool all over itself with affection for the US after the election of Barack Obama, it's time to wake up:
  

  The Saudi daily Al-Watan stated in an editorial: “There is no significant difference between Obama and McCain. They disagree only on the means to achieve America’s chief goal, which is to rule for another hundred years.”

  
  And this is from a fatwa from Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, issued right before the election:
  

  “The Democrats kill you slowly without you noticing it - and therein lies the danger. They are like a snake whose touch is not felt until its poison enters your body.
  
  “Therefore, I hope that McCain comes to power, so that the motivation for jihad remains in our hearts, and so that we do not [begin to] rely on the infidels - [which will cause us] to be struck by the fire [of Hell].”

  
  Hey, it looks like Islamic Extremists hate the Newly Anointed One as much as they ever hated Bush! Gosh, how'd that happen?



• Look, I don't begrudge Obama's supporters their celebrations. God knows the campaign was hard-fought and they deserve to be happy that things went their way. But what in hell were some young Obama supporters doing waving a USSR flag out in front of the White House last night?

  I'd like to be able to attribute this to the fact that most young people are stupid, drunk and confused. But who knows?




• John Kerry has admitted that he'd consider a position in the Obama cabinet.
  
  Some insiders claim that he's practically begging to be Secretary of State.
  
  That's pretty funny. It must be really interesting to see John Kerry from his own perspective. I'd like to buy him for what he's actually worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.



• The Sun tabloid in London usually runs a photo of a topless young woman on page three of every issue. Thus the famous Page 3 Girls. This morning, however, they dropped the cheesecake in favor of a photo of Barack Obama.
  
  I think we can all agree that the preemption of boobies is simply taking the media bias too far.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Time to spread the wealth and slaughter the goats! Election 2008 is in the books.

So, for starters, what is there to be happy about? I can think of something:

I never thought I'd be able to say it, but I lived to see the first non-white guy elected President of the US. If I put aside all of his policies and all the things about him that I dislike, I have to admit ... this one aspect of his election is pretty darn cool. Racism will probably never totally disappear from the human mind ... but America's specific and unique style of racism took a major kick in the stones just now. I gotta admit, that makes me happy.

If I were still working in radio I'd play my favorite Fishbone song and dedicate it to Barack Obama tonight.

Oprah says she hasn't seen this kind of unity since 9/11. Come, now, Oprah, the Obama election isn't a disaster on quite that level, is it? Ha ha.

And there's this: Guys like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have made careers of talking about how racist American society is. What are they going to say now? That in America a black man can never possibly rise any higher than ... President? Time to look for new jobs, Al and Jesse.

I also want to say that you're not going to hear too much doom and gloom from me. We elected a President who's policies I oppose. OK, fine. My fellow conservatives, it's time to regroup, think about what we did wrong, think about what we can do from here, and get on with it. I've never had any respect for all the left-wing crybabies who threatened to leave the country after Bush was elected in 2000 and 2004. What is that crap? "Play my way or I'll take my toys and leave?" Conservatives, now is our chance to really demonstrate the differences between us and them. Liberals can't even be gracious in victory, much less defeat. We hold ourselves to a higher standard. Don't forget it.

This is still a great country. We survived the Presidencies of Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson. We can survive this guy, too. Remember, conservatives, we're the optimists. We talk about how strong, generous and free our country is, right? We gotta mean that. We're proud of our country, right? Don't forget that ... even when things don't go our way.

And the thing is, Barack Obama seems pretty optimistic, too. He's just optimistic for the wrong reasons. We're gonna have to out-optimistic the guy. ;)

Now don't get me wrong ... there are things to worry about. I think the real problem here is that the Democrats have picked up a bunch of legislative seats. My biggest fear is that President Obama will manage to get one or two extreme leftists appointed to the Supreme Court, and with little resistance from Congress. Hopefully we can swing both houses of Congress back the other way in 2010. And then elect a real President (black, white or otherwise) in 2012.

So what are the lessons we can take away from Election 2008?

Here's my list:

• Republicans Can't Beat Democrats At Their Own Games ... Part 1
  
  George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" turned out to be a code word for "liberalism." His second term was especially disappointing. Bush's 2004 pronouncements about working toward an "ownership society" proved to be empty promises. Instead, he's increased the size of the government, he's created new entitlement programs and he's spent money like John Edwards at a beauty salon.
  
  Bush's push to get the recent bail-out bill passed was probably the last straw. That bill was unpopular with the vast majority of Americans, and it remains so. If it looks like corporate welfare, walks like corporate welfare and talks like corporate welfare, dammit, it probably is corporate welfare.
  
  Bush had only two conservative successes in his second term, and those were the appointments of Judges Roberts and Alito to the SCotUS. And even the Alito selection was a last-minute save after the disastrous Harriet Miers washout.
  
  When Republicans govern like Democrats they give us very little reason to keep electing them.



• Republicans Can't Beat Democrats At Their Own Games ... Part 2
  
  Hey, let's face it, John McCain hasn't really been any better. We all knew he was too liberal from the get-go. And towards the end he got even more liberal. I think his proposal to have the Treasury Department buy up all the crap mortgages was probably the death nell for his campaign.
  
  Why should voters elect a pseudo-socialist when they had a real one available?
  
  So I hope that the lesson the GOP learns is that they have to "dance with who brung 'em," as they say. Clearly Mitt Romney would have been a better choice. And if we'd still lost with Romney, at least we'd have known that we retained our principles in the process.



• What Would Reagan Do?
  
  Look, the neocons have had their shot. And they've cost us an awful lot. You know, eight years ago I didn't even really know what "neoconservative" meant. After the past eight years I've come to believe that a "neocon" is basically a liberal who's pro-Israel and believes in the preemptive strike.
  
  Nothing wrong with loving Israel ... but it ain't enough.
  
  It's time for the GOP to get back to real conservatism. To heck with "compassion." I don't look to the government for "compassion." That's what our families, friends and churches are for. Our government, dammit, is supposed to LEAD US, KEEP US SAVE AND SERVE OUR INTERESTS.
  
  The GOP should, in all things, reference Reaganism. When it comes to policies, candidates, positions and ideology, Reagan is the touchstone. It's not enough to just talk about how awesome Reagan was. The Republican party has to go back to promoting his kind of governance.
  
  And that means decreasing the size of Government, not increasing it.
  
  That means a return to good-old-by-God Trickle Down Economics. The American people won't need the government to take care of them if you free up the marketplace to do what it naturally does, and that's create prosperity.
  
  That means being ready to strike fear in the hearts of those who'd even kill a couple of Americans in a disco in Germany ... much less actually attack us on our own soil.
  
  What would Reagan do? That's what we should do.



• Don't Let The Democrats Co-Opt Conservatism
  
  I saw it in '96 and to a large extent I feel like I've seen it again.
  
  Bill Clinton got elected to a second term by coming to the middle, as the phrase goes. Obama has gotten elected by doing much of the same.
  
  In 2006 Obama was saying that he wanted us out of Iraq immediately. RIGHT NOW. His policy now isn't significantly different from the current administration's policy. He even admitted that the surge worked "beyond our wildest dreams" in September.
  
  He also ran as a tax-cutter, promising lower taxes for "95% of Americans." Look, you know and I know that the math on that doesn't work. It's nonsense. The point, though, is that he ran as a tax-cutter. In spite of his occasional, candid admissions of his socialist ideology, Obama ran ads promising to cut taxes.
  
  He even posed as strong on national defense when he talked about invading Pakistan.
  
  What's that all about?
  
  Clearly the guy said what he had to say to get conservatives to vote for him. Maybe the GOP spent a little too much time focusing on Bill Ayers, ACORN and Joe Biden's gaffes and too little time focusing on Obama's policy inconsistencies.
  
  Yeah, I knew he was inconsistent and you knew he was inconsistent ... but it doesn't look like the message was significantly delivered to "Joe Six-Pack."

So there are my ideas, you can take them for what they're worth. The ramblings of a fat ol' conservative redneck from newly blue Virginia probably don't mean a whole heck of a lot at this point.

I'm gonna wrap this up now. Obama is giving his victory speech and I don't want to miss it. It is, after all, history. And the good Lord knows that the guy gives amazing speeches.

So congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama. Enjoy your first term ... I'll be doing what I can to make sure it's your only one! ;)

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

I didn't see this story from Halloween night until now. A McCain supporter refused to give Halloween candy to kids who wouldn't tell her that they don't support Obama:

A whole slew of little kids who've NEVER been effected by politics before will have this as their first political memory: "The mean old Republican lady wouldn't give me candy on Halloween."

Do all us conservatives a favor, Shirley Nagal: Start supporting Democrats.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

The Black Panthers are practicing a little bit of good ol' fashioned voter intimidation in Pennsylvania. On the off chance that someone reading this doesn't know what the Black Panthers are, the explanation is simple: The Black Panthers is a terrorist organization. They're analogous to the KKK or skinhead nazis. Subhuman shit, in other words.

An army vet had this to say about his experience while trying to vote at a Philadelphia polling place:

"As I walked up to the door, the two gentlemen in Black Panther garb, one of them brandishing a night stick, standing immediately in front of the door... As I walked up they closed ranks next to each other. You know, I'm an army veteran. That doesn't scare me. So I walked directly in between them, went inside and found one of the poll watchers. They said they'd been here about an hour. And they told us not to come outside because a black man is going to win this election no matter what."

Watch the Fox News story, complete with the quote above, right here:

Here's some cellphone video another person shot:

My favorite part is when the guy with the camera phone says that brandishing a night stick is intimidating and the moron with the night stick says "Who are you to decide that?"

Apparently you don't have to be all that smart to join the Black Panthers. There's a shock.

From what I've seen, this is a fairly good representation of the mentality that's about to put an unqualified, shady socialist in the White House.

But of course those of us who aren't voting for Obama ... We're the real racists, right?

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I wrote the other day that I wasn't gonna take time to blog for a while. But today I saw that Zo Rachel has a new video posted. And I watched it, and as usual, it's brilliant, insightful and funny. Zo kicks all the ass, man. So I wanted to log on and post it, and here it is:

Zo is hugely quotable: "Obama and the Democrat party are the ones who stand above you holding up the heads of the rich, as you work yourselves into a frenzy, so they can toss it to you. Now, I'm just wondering, how does this make your life better as you destroy the ones who could give you jobs?"

Zo also does a great job in this one of blasting the whole argument about how "Obama is a community organizer, just like Jesus!"

And he talks a little bit here about the attacks he gets for being a black man and a conservative. And his observations are so good and so smart, and he presents them so well, that he left me wanting to pump my fist and yell "Yeah!" ... and I'm not even a black guy.

The point is, Zo is an awesome communicator. Not just a "good speaker," but a communicator. There's a difference. A "good speaker" can talk for a long time and sound really cool, but never really say anything. (As in "Hope, change, hope, change.")

A great communicator can say incredibly important things in very few words ... and say them clearly, directly, concisely and creatively ... and say them in a way you instantly understand and relate to and will remember. (As in "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.")

Obama is a "speaker." Zo is a communicator.

You guys enjoy him on YouTube while he's there, because he's headed for a much bigger future than this.

But, anyway, I got to thinking about the race issue as Zo addressed it. One of the good things about the Obama candidacy is that it's interjected the subject of race into the national conversation ... as it relates to ideology and politics.

It seems to me that number of people who "aren't supposed to be conservative" have been speaking out lately, "outing" themselves as conservatives. A great many people who are minorities and/or women are refusing to pack themselves onto the bus with Obama and Hillary (remember Hillary?), where the Democrats seem to think they belong.

The Democratic party has claimed to hold the monopoly on "diversity" for a long time. But it's always been obvious that Democratic "diversity" is a very stifling kind of "diversity." After all, liberals and Democrats don't believe in ideological diversity. You must agree with them on every topic ... abortion, taxes, the environment, civil rights, the war, etc ... or you're out in the cold.

Meanwhile, among conservatives, there's plenty of room for both ideological AND cultural diversity. Plenty of conservatives disagree on any of the topics listed above, and on other topics. My opposition to the death penalty, for instance, doesn't make me a "fake conservative." And my fellow conservatives never tell me that I don't really understand that issue, or that I'm a "sell-out," or that I'm deluded.

Differ from the Democratic party on any issue and you'll find out quickly how little tolerance they have for ideological diversity:

• Have doubts about the specifics of climate change? Then you're a "global warming denier," kinda like a "holocaust denier."


• Have concerns that abortion on demand might be irresponsible at best, or maybe murder at worst? Then you're some kind of monster who wants to oppress women.


• Oppose the Obama campaign? You RACIST!


• Support the troop surge and the successful result's it's generated? WARMONGER! NEOCON!


• Insist that immigration be a legal process? You're a racist and you're ignorant.

And as Zo has pointed out, if you're a black man and you hold any of these opinions, you can expect to be labeled an "uncle tom," too.

So if you're going to be a liberal Democrat, good luck. You better get a copy of the approved liberal positions and adopt each and every one of them. There's no room for individual thought. Thinking for yourself, after all, is divisive. Shut up. Be happy. Vote Obama.

Meanwhile, the real diversity can be found under the great conservative umbrella. The ideological diversity has always been here. And more and more, the real cultural and constructive diversity is obviously here, too.

Conservatism: It's what America looks like, it's what America thinks like. It's the foundation that keeps America great. Great enough to withstand anything, even the coming four years of Obama socialism.

Here's a snapshot of what Conservatism looks like in America in 2008. Click the pictures below and get to know some of our very best (especially that dude on the bottom, pimpin' out with the fuzzy pink hat.):

Labels: Blogs, Links, Media, News, Politics, You Tube, Zo

Not your father's Democratic Party...

Maybe the problem isn't Obama ... maybe the problem is the modern electorate:

HT: Ol' Broad ... the cartoon is from Chuck Asay.

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Pretty Lady, Fancy Clothes

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid:

The Republican Party has spent $150,000 in upmarket designer stores on dressing Sarah Palin for the part of vice-president...

The party also spent nearly $5,000 on hair and makeup.

It would have been easier, cheaper and quicker to let the Obama campaign make "Out Of Touch" signs for the Palins to wear on their foreheads.

Who authorized this spending and what the hell were they thinking?

---

Tightening up?

Polls are all different, and none of them are really a solid indication of exactly what's going to happen ... but the AP reports that Obama and McCain are virtually tied in Virginia ... and everywhere else, too, for that matter.

Your guess is as good as mine.

---

Good Ol' Joe (The Plumber)

The new McCain web ad is really a good one:

---

Good Ol' Joe (The Senator)

Blogger Jim Treacher has Joe Biden's "clarification" of his remarks about the "international incident" that's sure to follow Obama's first days in office:

"Ya know, I kinda put my foot in my mouth the other day... [chuckle] You folks know how I can get, with the words and the talking and the babbling and the yammering and so forth. But I just wanted to clarify those remarks. I know I speak for Obama when I say that we are ready to lead. Come what may, we are gonna be out there in front. Because I gotta tell ya, when this great man, this fantastic young African-American kid who I'm proud to call my closest friend, when he becomes president, the American people need to know that you are all gonna be grabbin' your ankles every April 15 for the rest of your probably-shortened lives.

Yeah, it's satire. The whole thing is funny. go read it.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Update: I'll apparently be blogging a lot today, I keep finding stuff I want to post. So I'll just update this post occasionally rather than throwing together a heap of little posts.

Update 2: Post surgical pain has just kicked in, pretty damn hard, and mostly out of the blue. The pills ain't touching it right now. The only thing that doesn't hurt at the moment is standing, leaning against a wall. So I'm gonna go do that for a while ... I'm done adding to this post.

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Speaking In Tongues

So now we can't say that socialism is socialism without being racist??

The "socialist" label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, used the term liberally to describe African Americans who spent their lives fighting for equality...

McCain and Palin have simply reached back in history to use an old code word for black.

AAAAGGHHH! I'm ready to start pulling my hair out.

Do me a favor, leftists. Shut the f%$# up. For ten minutes, please, if you can't come up with something useful to say, just shut the f$%# up.

(HT: Ace.)

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Mike Steele on Values

Man, I love Mike Steele. This guy ROCKS. Even when I'm good and pissed off about politics, Mike chills me out by putting it all in perspective:

"Become the blueprint for those who are trying to find their way to the American dream."

I'm telling you, this guy is the new Reagan. I just wish he'd get back into politics and leave the cushy job at Fox News behind. We NEED you, Mike!

---

The Emperor's New Smears

Batton Lash gets it right:

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Riot!

Paul the Regular Guy contemplates the threat of "urban unrest" if Obama loses the election ... and remembers the horrific violence that we experienced in our inner cities and metro areas following other recent Presidential elections. (Snicker, snicker.) It's good stuff, go read it.

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Joy Behar calls Limbaugh a "terrorist"

If you don't know, Behar is one of the hysterical old biddies who makes up the panel at The View. I don't watch the show (unless clips on The Soup count), but from what I've read, there's one sane woman on the program (the young hot one, Elizabeth Hasselbeck) and three neurotic old hens.

Apparently one of the hens has proclaimed that Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist.

Like Joy Behar, I'm no fan of Rush Limbaugh.

Unlike Behar, I'm not a stark-raving, confused old loon. Calm down, Mrs. Behar. Limbaugh isn't a terrorist. He's just one more blowhard with his own personal soapbox who likes to spew his weirdo opinions all over the place. Like you.

Like me, too.

Labels: Media, Michael Steele, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

... presented, admittedly, from a voter who opposes most of Obama's policies adamantly.

But don't just take my word on these issues. I've rounded up some resources. People who argue for the things I believe with much more clarity, style, good humor and optimism than I'm capable of.

Especially this guy:

Obama: Wrong On Healthcare...

Zo Rachel has a new video up , featuring his usual spot-on analysis (this time he looks at the last PotUS debate.) Zo also presents some ideas about where we are and where we're goin' in terms of ObamaCare. Listen carefully, take notes if you need to. Use your pause button. As usual, Zo seems to have damn near everything down to a science:

A message to the "undecideds" out there, if such things really exist: When in doubt, go Zo.

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Obama: Wrong (And Radical) On Abortion...

Gloria.tv has a great capsulization of of the John McCain and the Barack Obama positions on the abortion issue. This video absolutely sums it up. There's just nothing else to say beyond this:

I know a few people who say that they agree with me that abortion on demand is murder, but are planning to vote for Obama. Well, it's time to put up or shut up. Make your choice: It's either Obama or protection for the unborn. You can't have both.

And when all is said and done and you've voted for Obama, the most radically pro-abortion candidate ever nominated by the Democrats, don't be telling me about how pro-life you are. I'll shut that shit down right quick. If you vote for Obama, you have supported abortion-on-demand. You have used the political power allotted to you, the power of your vote, to advance the cause of those who believe in unrestricted abortion, no questions asked. Period. That's what you've done, that's who you are, and that's all there is to say about it. So don't try to explain your reasoning to me. You don't owe me an explanation. You know when you'll have to account for that act, and to Whom you'll make that accounting.

So pick one. Babies or Barack. If you've got love for one, you've got no love for the other.

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Obama: Wrong On Everything Else...

Some folks at Hot Air have put together a comprehensive argument against Barack Obama. In fact, they're billing it as THE Comprehensive Argument Against Barack Obama, and it's really pretty thorough.

Packed with quotes, news stories, videos and all kinds of valuable information, if you want to know why the Obama presidency is going to be bad for America, go to Hot Air now and read that post. At least you'll have some opportunity to brace yourself for the coming problems by being well informed.

---

Meanwhile, the Moonbats at the Daily Kos seem to have surrendered that one last working braincell to the Kool-Ade. They're contemplating the possibility that Obama really is the savior. I kid you not.

I really don't see any way we can stop the Obama Juggernaut at this point. And McCain is too busy playing the nice guy to try. But if we keep trying to get the information out there, I guess there's some hope. Maybe.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube, Zo

Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 09:32 --  0 Comments -- Links to this post

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This is from the same YouTube user who's video I embedded on Monday:

It's hard to decide what part of that video is my favorite. There are so many classically liberal moments:

• There's the guy who keeps yelling "Joke the Plumber!" at the mention of Joe the Plumber. He seems to be under the impression that Joe himself is the reason for Joe's celebrity. I think most people would agree that Obama's unguarded confession of his socialist world view was the real focus of that incident.


• Then there's the guy who shoves a sign in the questioner's face rather than try to somehow coherently defend the socialized health care he supports.


• Then there's the woman in the red sweatshirt and glasses. The questioner asks her if Obama's health care plan is socialism and she responds "Pretty much. I don't know ... we're done here." And then walks off waving her Obama sign. Classy AND smart.


• Then there's the genius who calls himself a scientist ... and who says that one or even five babies left to die after they've been born is acceptable. Oh, sure, there's a line that shouldn't be crossed somewhere ... he just doesn't know where it is. (Hint: Allowing even one person to die needlessly is not OK, Einstein.)

This is a good cross section of the people who'll be putting Obama in office. Obama's philosophical predecessor, Vladimir Lenin, is said to have called them "useful idiots."

I understand why P.T. Barnum supposedly said that nobody ever went broke by overestimating the stupidity of the public.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Just stuff...

• How they do that?
  
  Watch this video, it's just over a minute long:

  How in the world did they do that? It looked totally real. We're really at the point now where even seeing video of an event isn't necessarily proof that it actually happened.




• Failed talk-show host: "Blah, blah, blah."
  
  Chevy Chase is one of the most outspoken liberal has-beens in Hollywood. And he's unhappy that Sarah Palin generated record-breaking ratings for Saturday Night Live this weekend:
  

  “Quite frankly, it’s a big mistake to let her go on,” Chevy told Access Hollywood at the Give Food a Chance benefit in New York. “What was brilliant about [‘SNL’ chief] Lorne [Michaels] was that he had nothing written for Sarah and that apparently she cannot improvise herself out of a paper bag!”

  
  And after all, the most important skill a VP candidate can bring to the White House is a capacity for improvisational comedy.
  
  I'd mock Chase some more ... but he's been over for ages and I just feel sorry for him.



• Left-wing political figure endorses left-wing political figure
  
  Colin Powell has been known as many things over the years: General, National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of State ... and just lately he's been known as an improvisational dancer:

  One thing Powell has never been known as, however, is a conservative.
  
  Powell favors abortion-on-demand, affirmative action and gun control. In 2001, he joined the ACLU in working to block a flag protection amendment. He's served as an advisor for Barack Obama (and he'll continue to do so). Sure, Colin Powell is a Republican, but he's part of the Republican Party's small left wing ... with the likes of Lincoln Chafee and Michael Bloomberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  
  Yesterday, Powell endorsed Barack Obama. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone was surprised by this; and I can't figure out why the MSM is trying to sell the notion that this is a big deal.
  
  A leftist endorsed a fellow leftist. And?




• Sony crumbles under Muslim pressure
  
  Little Big Planet is one of the year's most hotly anticipated video games, an exclusive title for the PS3. And the struggling PS3 needs all the positive hype it can get.
  
  But Little Big Planet won't be in the hands of gamers as soon as it was supposed to be ... because some Muslims have balked at the game and Sony is cowering before them:
  

  The "social platforming" game is already gathering rave reviews, but it hasn't proven popular with one Muslim group, which issued a complaint to the game's publisher Sony concerning one background music track. Performed by award-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabate, the song quotes two verses from the Qur'an. Many Muslims consider the mixing of music and scripture to be deeply offensive.
  
  Although the game is already pressed, packaged, and reportedly sitting in the back rooms of many worldwide retailers awaiting its original Oct. 21 debut, gamers eager to get hold of it will have to wait at least another week while the offending content is expunged.

  
  I expected the world to change after 9/11. But one change I didn't expect was for everyone in the world to suddenly start quaking in their boots every time some Muslim got his feelings hurt.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, Video Games, You Tube

I'm recovering from surgery ... again ... and I'm awake in the middle of the night. Again.

I'm not sure if it's the meds keeping me awake or the spasms I'm having in my bladder in spite of the meds. Either way, I can't sleep. And I've found some neat stuff to read and watch:

• An October 17th news story shows that, with the election about two weeks away, the Democratic candidate is ahead by as much as ten points in thirteen key swing states ... and is poised to take the White House.
  
  Oh, wait... that story is from October 17th, 2004. I'd forgotten how it looked like a sure thing that Kerry was going to win. Just like it looks like a sure thing that Obama is gonna win this time. Hmmmmmm....


• Sarah Palin spoke in North Carolina and said that she always enjoyed the chance to speak in the "Pro-America" parts of the country. Joe Biden took offense at that, saying
  

  “It's disappointing, and I hope it's a slip of the tongue and she doesn't mean it, but she said it, it was reported she said that she likes to visit – quote – 'pro American' parts of the country..."

  
  I don't think it was a slip of the tongue. Governor Palin was probably thinking about San Francisco and Portland, for instance, in contrast to the small towns in America.


• Rey has clips of Obama and McCain speaking at a charity dinner. Both of them delivered very funny monologues. Here's a clip of McCain's best stuff:

  Rey has more, lots of laughs, go check it out.
  
  It's fun to watch these two guys share big, belly-bustin' laughs together. And it reminds me how much I used to like Obama before I knew anything about him. I still think he probably will win, even though he's not the guy I'm voting for, so I guess I better find stuff to like about him again. After all, we're probably gonna have to live with him for four years!



• A twelve year old girl wore a pro-Palin shirt to school and was branded a racist by some of her classmates. WTF?


• MCF has made one of my dreams come true: Finally I can fly and shoot lasers out of my butt.


• I have a new hero: The guy who ate the fifteen pound cheeseburger...

  



• The Democratic Party is the party of tolerance. That's why some Obama supporters threaten and beat up McCain supporters. (HT: Ace.)


• Rhodester got a lot of 'splainin' to do. Click right here and he'll explain dogs to you.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

This is the first of the presidential debates I've watched. I didn't see any need to watch the last two, I've already made up my mind who I'm voting for ... and I'm already convinced that the other guy is gonna win.

Nonetheless, tonight was McCain's last chance to really shine ... and I think he has. I'm turning in, I've got a big day tomorrow ... but as of 10:15 I think McCain has won the debate thus far. He's beat Obama on substance, hands down.

The best line of the night: "If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have done it four years ago." Boo-Yah!

I think the "Joe The Plumber" stuff is working in McCain's favor, too. I don't think it'll make a lot of difference in three weeks. Too many people will vote based on infatuation.

But don't blame me ... I'm voting for McCain.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

First of all, I'm not a Stern fan.

But this clip from Stern's program, which I found by way of Bob Parks, is REQUIRED LISTENING regarding the 2008 election:

Look, I know a few whites who're gonna vote for Obama simply because "it's time to have a black president."

I guess the black people interviewed in the clip above must feel the same way.

Throw in the "youth vote" (as capsulized yesterday) and we're really getting ready to elect our first pure-celebrity president ... and for all the wrong reasons.

Have you seen Mike Judge's film Idocracy? We're getting ready to elect President Camacho ... except in real life:

And if we're stupid enough to put this guy in the White House, then he's the President we deserve.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Perfect. The only way this video could have been more perfect is if it had ended with the sight of John McCain being forced into a giant wicker statue and set on fire.

We're gonna have four years of this guy, man! FOUR FRIGGIN' YEARS! Once he's elected I expect the entire crew at NBC news to make their own version of the creepy kids video.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

My post about the YouTube video of children being made to sing for Obama has inspired some good conversation in the comments. And, for once, I think I've actually presented my position fairly well.

Please stop by, if you haven't already, and contribute your opinion.

And while I'm recycling past content, I'll post my Obama Zombie video again:

I posted it yesterday ... and I'm posting it again because, hey, I think it's funny.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Palin did fairly well. I'm still not convinced that she's exactly what we need on the ticket. But I'm still convinced that she's got a great personality, which is more important than it ought to be. She did no better, nor any worse, than I'd thought she would.

Biden was polished, an old hand at this kind of thing. I was really surprised, though, at the number of flat-out lies that he told. I caught him in quite a few myself. He misrepresented his votes on the war and McCain's stance on funding the war, and he got fast and loose on Obama's tax policy. I noticed that, during some of Biden's most blatant lies, Palin would kinda grit her teeth and shake her head. She knew that he was lying, too. But she never called him on any of it. I think she was mostly focusing on getting the McCain talking points out there.

I'd call it a tie. Most liberals aren't going to do the research to find out that Biden was lying about so many things. They'll take him at his word and think that he's strengthened their positions. And I don't imagine that anyone who wasn't already predisposed to vote for McCain/Palin would be swayed toward the ticket by Governor Palin's performance.

Did you notice Gwen Ifill telling Biden afterwards how well he'd done?

I just looked around before hitting the "publish post" button and found this: Ace lists fourteen lies that Joe Biden told during the debate.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

One time a few years ago I forgot to carry the one ... or something ... and I screwed up the math in my check book ledger. I ended up with an overdraft on my checking account.

Thankfully, though, the government came to my rescue and enacted an emergency measure to bail me out.

HA! HA HA HA F&%$!NG HA! HA HA HA!

I don't know about you but I oppose this bailout, period. Let the chips fall where they may. I didn't make this mess. I didn't buy a house I couldn't afford. I didn't loan money to people without checking to see if they had any chance of paying it back. I didn't force banks to make risky loans by giving rights and privileges only to the banks that made such loans. I didn't shut down any efforts made by McCain or the Bush administration to prevent the collapse. And I DID NOT SCREW UP THE MATH.

I resent having to send in a dime of my tax money to fix a mess made by irresponsible agencies, lenders and borrowers. I still believe in an outdated, antiquated concept, I guess.

But for whatever it's worth, I know who tried to stop this from happening ... and I know who made the mess in the first place:

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

On Friday the 19th, my unseen friend drew our attention to Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Some people are dragging it out and simply taking this pirate thing too far. Some people are acting like pirates.

My friend the Governor, who refuses to start what would be a wonderfully readable blog, no matter how I prod and poke him, sent me these two stories. So since he ain't postin' 'em, I'm stealin' 'em:

Mystery Surrounds Hijacked Iranian Ship:

A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents...

Suspicion has also been cast on the ship's crew, half of which is almost entirely staffed by Iranians - a large percentage of Iranian nationals for a standard merchant vessel...

... Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died..."

(Puntland Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan) Osman also confirmed to The Long War Journal that during the six days he negotiated with the pirates members of the syndicate had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he said. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."

Why isn't the MSM covering this? It seems really important.

Then, there's this:

Somali pirates seize Tomex of Odessa owned carrier with 30 Soviet-era T-72 tanks

The carrier is owned and managed by Tomex of Odessa. On board the ship were 21 people on board: 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian. The ship was shipping military hardware, including some 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for armored vehicles for the troubled government of Southern Sudan...

Insurgents might pose the biggest threat ever to the Ethiopian soldiers supporting the TFG government. If they seize and use the arms which have been the case with some ships seized by the pirates, they will form a very powerful front and certainly overrun the government and the Ethiopian forces. This will lead to the return of Islamic courts Union which have been ruling the country before the Ethiopians came in.

All the emphasis in those two stories was mine.

I'd really like to have some idea why the MSM doesn't make an effort to really bring these things to our attention. This is a very unpredictable series of developments in very dangerous areas involving a number of warring factions.

It's important. Isn't it?

Labels: Media, News

Gene Simmons is an awesome guy. Along with being a founding member of Kiss, he's unabashedly patriotic and hawkish on foreign policy.

I don't think we need to worry about Kiss doing an Obama fund raising show.

Gene was recently on NBC's Today show talking about his new non-musical, non-political role as the spokesperson for the AARP. That's right, Gene Simmons is the spokesperson for the the AARP. Eat your heart out, Madonna.

He also manages to slip in a quick salute to the veterans at Walter Reed and takes a cellphone call from his mom:

By the way, Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent are also conservative, thoughtful and charming in interviews.

And I've suspected for a while now, based on the way he bashes hippies and pop culture in his lyrics, that Marilyn Manson is a little bit of a closet right-winger. And the guy is outstanding in interviews. He always seems composed, reflective and very smart. He and I would disagree with regard to the method of his critique of religion ... and yeah, his image is over the top ... but the guy is really smart and I agree with more of what he says than not.

At any rate, each of these guys is a lot more interesting and seem a great deal smarter than the typical left-wing crybaby singing monkeys you see on television.

Take that, Dixie Chicks.

Labels: Media, Music, Politics, You Tube

Senator Tila Tequila is really worried about November. His most recent attack ads and stump speeches are among his most deceitful ever. When the going got tough, the Chosen One revealed himself to be just another politician.

Even some notoriously liberal "news" sources feel compelled to speak out about Obama's current low-blow tactics.

All of the emphasis below is mine.

Newsweek calls Obama out on his lies about social security:

In Daytona Beach, Obama said that "if my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week." He referred to "elderly women" at risk of poverty, and said families would be scrambling to support "grandmothers and grandfathers."

That's not true. The plan proposed by President Bush and supported by McCain in 2005 would not have allowed anyone born before 1950 to invest any part of their Social Security taxes in private accounts. All current retirees would be covered by the same benefits they are now.

The Washington Post must have felt that Obama's lies about health care, immigration and racism are too contemptible to ignore:

On immigration, Obama is running a Spanish-language ad that unfairly lumps McCain together with Rush Limbaugh -- and quotes Limbaugh out of context. On health care, Obama misleadingly accuses McCain of wanting to impose a $3.6 trillion tax hike on employer-provided insurance...

To Democrats who worry about whether their nominee is willing to do whatever it takes to win: You can calm down.

New Hampshire's UnionLeader has gone after Obama, too, over his lies about John McCain's economic policies:

On Thursday, Obama said of McCain, "He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis." That's entirely untrue.

As The Washington Post pointed out in an editorial on Friday, McCain in fact has supported many new regulations of financial institutions, including some that Obama opposed. "In 2006, he pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- while Mr. Obama was notably silent," The Post wrote.

Obama has gone so far as to accuse those of us who've quoted his record on abortion of lying. Sorry, Barak, but your legislative voting record speaks for itself, as does your history of shockingly radical public statements in defense of your votes.

Paul, the Regular Guy has pointed out that some Daily Kos style leftists defend lying, cheating and stealing in the name of Obama's campaign, saying that "...times are too tough, and Palin/Cheney's view of gov. is too extreme to play by the rules."

It's a genuine comfort to see that there are liberals who don't feel that way.

You know, maybe Obama actually is capable of bringing Americans together.

Nothing unites like a common enemy.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

(With apologies to Disposable.)

I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh much because the guy is an asshole. I do agree with a number of his opinions, but he always makes people who believe the things I believe look bad. I can't stand the guy.

Yesterday, though, I decided to turn on Limbaugh's show on the way home from work because, you know, it's close to election day and news stories break every couple of hours.

Anyway, Limbaugh mentioned that the Grateful Dead are going to be doing a reunion show as an Obama benefit and that their guest musicians at the show will include Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Marc Quinones, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti.

Limbaugh couldn't even properly pronounce Oteil's last name. Oteil, by the way, is a great bass player. And you might already know how I feel about Warren Haynes and his band Gov't Mule.

Limbaugh dismissed the concert and called everyone involved a bunch of "has-beens."

I'm not sure how Limbaugh defines "has-been," but musicians in the prime of their creativity don't qualify as "has-beens" in my opinion.

I guess you can get away with dismissing the surviving members of the Grateful Dead as "has-beens" because, well, Garcia was the only member of that band with any real talent, anyway. The rest of the band was only good for grating vocals and seven hour drum solos.

But Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and Oteil Burbridge are at the absolute TOP of their game. Those guys are amazing. Dismissing them as "has-beens" is just another instance of Limbaugh running his mouth about something he doesn't know anything about. I've noticed that he almost always does that when he talks about music or movies ... or anything other than sports or politics.

Besides, 99.999% of the rock musicians in the world are liberals. That's just how it works for some reason. And how much Ted Nugent can a conservative guy listen to before you just never want to hear Stranglehold again? If I wanted to listen to music by reliably conservative musicians I'd be stuck with modern country radio. I'd rather gouge my eyes out.

Oh, and about that bumper-music clip from the Pretenders that Limbaugh has used for years ... I'd bet you anything that Chrissie Hynde is an Obama gal.

I never really liked My City Was Gone, but now it's worse because every time I hear it, about fifteen seconds in I expect to hear some douchebag start ranting about having half his brain tied behind his back.

So I turned off Limbaugh out of disgust and heard on the news how Michelle Obama is urging people not to vote for a candidate just because "she's cute."

A clear swipe at Sarah Palin. Mrs. O tried to say that she was actually referring to "herself," but that means that she's either a transparent liar OR she actually thinks she's on the ticket.

Either way, Michelle Obama is vacuous and obnoxious. I've disliked her for a year and a half now and every time she opens her mouth publicly she gives me yet another reason to dislike her.

Boy, I just can't friggin' wait to hear four years of news stories about this biddy's shenanigans while she's the First Lady.

So then I get home and log onto the net and find out that R. Kelly has been acquitted of the charges against him. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? The guy VIDEO TAPED HIMSELF having sex with underage girls. That video tape WAS EVIDENCE IN THE TRIAL, and he was ACQUITTED? Who was on the jury? Michael Jackson and Jerry Lee Lewis? I guess that would be a jury of his peers, wouldn't it?

Somebody wake me when it's 1986.

Labels: Media, Music, News, Obama Watch, Politics

I still think that Obama is gonna win the election. 2008 can't give me everything I want, can it? This year has already handed me this and this. There's no way things can go my way in November, too.

Still, I'm enjoying watching the Obama campaign's scramble to get back on top.

"Change isn't about slogans. It's about substance," Obama told a crowd in Grand Junction, Colorado. I wonder if he realizes how funny that is, coming from him, to those of us who realize that his "substance" is slogans. And empty bluster. And faulty thinking.

This, from the most prompter-dependent candidate to ever grab his party's nomination. Geez, those big, impressive speeches aren't really so impressive when you realize that he's just reading. I mean, damn. Even Slick Willie memorized most of his speeches, didn't he?

This from a guy who went to Germany and announced that he was a "citizen of the world." . Apparently this Ivy League lawyer doesn't know what the word "citizen" means:

Cit-i-zen: Noun. a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection.

So, see, right there ... you can't be a citizen of the world. You can only be a citizen of a nation, state, city, etc.

This, from a guy who's most recent campaign ads are vacuous and dishonest.

I have to love being hectored about "substance" by a guy who gave his very symbolic acceptance speech on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech. Especially considering how some of Dr. King's family feels about this less than remarkable politician:

“Senator Obama’s answer to the ills of society, of higher government spending, weaker national defense, continued tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, and support of gay marriage, are diametrically opposed to everything African Americans truly believe and an anathema to the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

So says Dr. Alveda King.

Substance? We're talking here about a guy who promises to bring sweeping change to DC. But when you read the fine print, Obama's promised foreign policy is essentially the same as the policies of George W. Bush.

I think that the panic is setting in because the Senator's campaign realizes that having the Olbermann-watching far left slobbering over their guy isn't going to be enough. Having the MSM ready to cover up your every misdeed isn't enough, either. In the end, it has to "play in Peoria," as they say.

Really, it's pretty funny. The far left has spent the past six months strutting around like roosters, absolutely convinced that their guy was going to win. Now they've hit the panic button. They're already accusing McCain of stealing the election. More than a month early!

And as far as the MSM goes, you'd think that Sarah Palin were running unopposed for PotUS. It's gotta be killing Senator Tila Tequila not to be in the spotlight anymore.

And what's with those polls? A month ago Obama was up by a zillion points. Now McCain is pulling ahead in some places and running in a dead heat elsewhere.

And Barack's campaign barely has time to figure out how to spin one slip when they're hit out of the blue with something they simply can't respond to. And that would be Obama's support for having babies killed if they survive abortion:

HT on that clip to The Ace Of Spades.

Yeah, I still think Obama is going to win in November. People love the guy for some reason. But he's not going to skate into the White House unscathed. And that's enough to put a big grin on my face and a song in my conservative heart.

They're scrambling on the left. I'm diggin' it.

Labels: Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

You can expect this to continue until the election. I promise that as soon as it's all over I'll write something innocuous about my dog pooping on the rug or something. But for now:

• Can we stop it with the pig-lipstick bullshit?
  
  I said it before, I'll say it again ... I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm a conservative and there ain't a conservative running in '08.
  
  But I would like to see the liberal Senator John McCain win the election, rather than the far left Senator Tila Tequila (or whatever his name is). Recent polls have given me the impression that there actually is a ghost of a chance ...
  
  the REASON that McCain has done well in the polls is because SARAH PALIN THREW A LITTLE GENUINE CONSERVATISM INTO THE MIX. Don't lose track of that. Sarah Palin was like a breath of fresh air and she got people paying attention again. USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, McCAIN!
  
  If you McCain supporters keep ranting and raving because Senator Tila said "lipstick on a pig" you're gonna eff it all up. You're playing the Democrats game. Get back to playing the GOP's game.
  
  McCain can (maybe, possibly) win if he sticks to the issues. The GOP position is superior to the Democratic position on the issues that rule the day. And people know that.
  
  In spite of his liberalism on Gitmo, global warming, campaign finance, torturing friggin' TERRORISTS that we've caught RED HANDED, etc ... McCain actually HAS put forth fairly conservative positions on the major issues.
  
  You remember those issues, right?
  
  01 ... Drill here, drill now. That's what voters want. McCain has warmed up on that issue, Obama continues to lose support because of his rigid far-left position.
  
  02 ... Use the free market to improve health insurance. That's McCain's plan and it kicks the snot out of his opponent's weak-ass plan.
  
  03 ... The surge in Iraq worked and McCain knew it would all along. McCain is stronger than ANYONE on this issue. Senator Tila still won't even admit that he blew the call.
  
  04 ... And then there's abortion, an issue that McCain owns over his opponent.
  
  Hammer those issues, McCain campaign. Hammer 'em, hammer 'em, hammer 'em. Leave the reality TV type he-said-she-said crap to the Democrats. Or you are going to lose.
  
  McCain will not win if he runs on style. He has to run on substance. Otherwise, the McCain campaign is wasting all of our time.
  
  So don't say I didn't tell you.



• Charlie Gibson to Sarah Palin: "Get your fat ass in the kitchen and make me a pie."
  
  Well, no, not really ... but he might as well have gone for it. During the course of his interview with Palin on ABC Gibson hardly held back:
  
  
  • He accused her of "hubris." Classic. Has anyone in the media dared broach the topic of "hubris" in an interview with Chicago law professor, Senator Tila Hussein Tequila? Nope. But let some woman from Alaska suggest that she might have some ideas worth considering and, POW! It's all about the hubris.
    
    Not for nothing ... but can ANYONE, Republican, Democrat, man, woman, black, white or otherwise, think themselves good PotUS material without being guilty of a bit of hubris?
    
    Not that Gibson and his cohorts in the MSM have time for banalities like common sense.
  
  
  
  • Gibson distorted and misrepresented Palin's words in prayer about the troops being sent to war in Iraq. Gibson quoted Palin as having said "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." What she actually said was that we should Pray that our leaders are sending US soldiers on a task that is from God. Get rid of that first bit and you totally change the context, huh?
    
    Palin gently protest this mangling of context, but she didn't push it too far. Maybe because at that point she was concerned that Gibson might smack her.
  
  
  
  • My favorite bit from the interview was when he hit her with "Do you support the Bush doctrine?" Man, I just LOVE those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't questions:

    Palin seemed to know what Gibson was trying to get her to step into ... and she kinda hemmed and hawed and didn't really do well with this question other than the standard GOP responses.
    
    I wish she had said "If I say yes you'll edit this interview to create the appearance that I support a narrow, ugly interpretation of the 'Bush doctrine.' If I say no you'll play it up as a difference between myself and Senator McCain. So just to be clear, here is where our campaign stands on terrorism here and abroad..."

  
  Overall I'd give her a B minus. Like most politicians she's better at giving speeches than interviews.
  
  Except, of course, for Senator Tila Tequila, the Chosen One. Every word that ever drips from his lips is good and pure and holy and sacred.
  
  That's why his admirers in the mainstream media listen intently to his pronunciations ... and why they experience simultaneous climax every time he uses the word "change."



• Congressman Steve Cohen: "Vote for Barack. He's just like Jesus!"
  
  What cabinet position is this nobody bucking for?

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Matt Damon isn't happy about the idea of Sarah Palin in the White House. Oooooh, no. He's not happy one wittle bit. He's been up waaaay past his bedtime worrying his pretty little head about it. Matt says:

"I think that’s a really scary thing because I don’t know anything about her ... You do the actuary tables and there’s a one-out-of-three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn’t survive his first term and it will be President Palin . . . It’s like a bad Disney movie ... ‘I’m just a hockey mom from Alaska.’ And she’s the president ... And it’s like she’s facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It’s absurd. It’s totally absurd.”

He went on to say "And what if she got knocked on the head and forgot who she was? I did an Excel spreadsheet and there's a 44% chance of that happening. And what if she had to fight her way out of a room full of Russian spies using only her subconsciously remembered little-league hockey mom skills? Could she, like, use lipstick as a weapon? Or whatnot? Because I just don't know if she could. It's like a bad Paul Greengrass movie."

Damon has stared in a number of hit films during his days off from his regular job as an actuary for Nationwide. "I just don't know about Palin," he reiterated, and then wandered down the hall to stare at the pretty blue water going swirly-swirly in the toilet.

Labels: Humor, Media, Politics, True Hollywood Report, You Tube

The McCain campaign has taken the bait. Their new ad goes after Obama for the lipstick on a pig remark:

This is a mistake. This reminds me of the ads that George Allen ran here in Virginia, during his last Senate campaign. He attacked Jim Webb over trivial things, like the perceived sexism in some of Webb's novels.

Allen ended up losing that race. Badly. Partly because his own base (and I'm part of it) perceived him as having lost the ability to stick to the real issues.

I didn't actually watch video of Obama's remarks until this morning. Here's the one thing about his remarks that genuinely is offensive:

He was speaking here in Virginia and he feigned this insulting, childish "southern accent" that just makes me want to smack the guy. Since when does a Chicago lawyer pronounce the word "policy" as "Paul-a-seh"??? Come on, Barack. I've heard you use that word a thousand times and you've never done a damn Foghorn Leghorn impression before.

Honestly, I'd like to punch Obama. He just makes me sick with his affected bullshit.

But here's a clip of Barack's remarks ... complete with his faux-southern shuck and jive ... juxtaposed with Dick Cheney using the same "lipstick on a pig" expression. This is going to come back to haunt the McCain campaign:

Not only that, but do you think that Katie Couric is gonna be happy about her guest-starring role in a McCain ad? Come on. Watch for her to custom-craft a soundbite for Obama's response in the next day or two.

Like I said before, McCain is not going to win a bullshitting contest with the world's champion bullshitter. Bad move, John.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I think I should apologize to the handful of people who do the the honor of checking this blog out fairly frequently. I know that you guys mostly stop by for my "Dave Barry Wannabe" stuff, like when I write about my dogs or tell old drinking stories or embed good stuff from YouTube.

But you had to know from the very name of the blog that I'm a politics addict. Politics is to me what sports is to normal guys. And an election year, especially the last couple of months of an election year, is Superbowl time. Right now I'm having a blast.

Some of the folks who stop by here are in the same boat as me. Like Cube and Unseen and Paul. They're conservative political junkies, too, and I know they can relate.

But most of the folks who're kind enough to read some of my junk and leave comments are looking forward to me getting back to adolescent jokes. I promise, mid November is coming. The anti-Obama bumpersticker (and link) in my header will be gone shortly after the election and I'll get back to writing about Metallica and movies and such. You know, doing what I do best: the blog equivalent of funny armpit noises.

I think that part of the reason I'm having so much fun with politics this year is that I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm a conservative and there isn't a conservative running this year. (Hell, the last time there was a conservative running was in '96 ... but that's a whole nuther.) No matter who wins, I'll be stuck trying to make the best of a crappy (or crappier) choice ... so it's nothing personal.

I have developed some affection for Sarah Palin ... and that could translate into political loyalty if she walks the line. But right now I'm just not that vested, personally.

Anyway, once this thing is wrapped up and either the unsatisfactory candidate or the utterly inept candidate get in there, I'll get back to my usual mundane irresponsibility. I promise.

Meanwhile:

• I've been trying to get up to date about the situation in the Caucasus. The more I read, the more I wish I hadn't read anything. This is some scary shit, man. And Georgia is just the tip of the iceberg. This is from the current issue of the only news source I trust, the National Review. The emphasis is mine:
  

  As with Georgia, Putin did everything he could to derail Ukraine’s democratic revolution: Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko Suffered dioxin poisoning, possibly at the hands of Russian agents. The agreement that the Russian fleet may use the Black Sea port of Sevastopol runs out in 2017, and senior Russian officers have already declared that this is an interest they will never give up.
  
  In a dramatic display of solidarity—and alarm—Yushchenko, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland, and the three Baltic presidents flew to Tbilisi for a joint press conference. Determined to defend their independence, Ukraine seeks NATO membership while Poland has hastily concluded an agreement to have an American missile-defense system on its soil. Russian spokesmen threaten both countries with nuclear strikes. Marxist ideology may be missing, but the intimidation hews to the familiar Soviet style.




• I spent some time thinking about all of that tonight and pondering the next few years. Given Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, etc ... I asked myself if there was really anyone I trusted to lead the US over the next few years. Only one name came to mind: Thomas Sowell. You may be aware that my opinion of Thomas Sowell is damn near worshipful.
  
  So I reminded myself to google the phrase "draft Thomas Sowell" when I got home and see if there were many other like minded people out there. I was a little surprised to see that there isn't that much of a "draft Sowell" movement on the net. I did discover one like-minded blogger (I see another addition to the blogroll coming up) and I found some "draft Sowell" comments here and there, but there really isn't much noise being made about the idea of a Sowell presidency. Pity. The guy is a genius. And he's not a politician.
  
  Of course he'd never run, but it would be cool if there were a draft Sowell source out there for his fans to use for social networking. Or whatever.



• Oh, yeah, speaking of Russia and Georgia, this bit from an item in the National Review put a smile on my face:

  Vesti FM, an outlet of Russian state radio, has been broadcasting that Vice President Cheney set these events (in Georgia) in motion in order to prevent the election of Senator Obama.

  I had to chuckle. Pity the poor neocons, I thought. They're so crippled by democracy that they have to arrange an international crisis in order to influence an election. It's bound to be simpler to do it the Putin way and simply rig the thing from the get-go.



• A great many of the blogs I read are upset about Obama's pig in lipstick remark. My take: we're wasting our time with this. If anyone ever asks Obama about it he'll simply say that he was being colloquial and that he'd never stoop to calling Governor Palin a pig. It's beneath him, he'll assert, and the right-wing blogs who called him on it are just being paranoid. He'll come out smelling like a rose and make the right-wingers look childish.
  
  He didn't make the phrase up, after all. Google it.
  
  We've got to pick our fights better than this, people. You can't win a bullshit contest against the world's champion bullshitter.
  
  Besides, he probably really didn't intend it as a veiled reference to Governor Palin. Could this the kind of hysterical over-reaction that we've come to expect from the left-wingers? We're better than that. Right?



• I tried to leave a comment to that effect at Newsbusters, a conservative blog dedicated to following the leftist media. But first I had to register and then I had to log in and change my password, and the log-in page wouldn't load and yadda yadda yadda.
  
  It reminds me of Little Green Footballs, a conservative blog that I absolutely love ... but that requires a vetting process for potential commenters that's probably tougher than the screening process to join The Avengers. It just ain't worth it.
  
  Come on, people! It's just the internet! When did we start taking ourselves so damn seriously? 90% of the people using this particular medium are just looking for porn and MP3s. None of us are crafting Plato's Republic, here.



• One of the reasons I love LGF, by the way, is that Charles occasionally turns up tidbits I might have missed from some of my favorite writers. Like this one from P.J. O'Rourke:

  Ann Coulter to me is someone who says things that I say all the time, but I say them at three in the morning when I’m drunk as a monkey. She says them at three in the afternoon stone sober in bright daylight.

  That's just awesome. P.J. Rules.
  
  By the way, Fox News doesn't do itself any favors by allowing Coulter on in prime time. That woman is the right-wing version of Keith Olbermann. Can't we all do a little better than that?

Labels: Blogs, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

There are some vicious lies circulating through viral e-mail about Sarah Palin. Snopes does a great job of refuting two of them:

• One of them involves a number of quotes attributed to the Governor of Alaska. Snopes identifies the source as a satiric blog. The blogger responsible for those "quotes" has actually had to make it clear that he "made them up" for the benefit of readers who don't understand the concept of satire.



• Another viral e-mail purports to list a number of books that Palin tried to "have banned" from the local library when she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Snopes reveals that list as a total fraud. In fact, some of the books on the list hadn't even been published during Palin's time as Mayor.

There's also an old clip of Sarah Palin doing sports stories on a small-town local news show. I have no idea why that clip is considered scandalous or detrimental to Palin's political career. All I see when I watch it is a fairly hot newscaster. I do note from the clip that her abilities as an orator have improved greatly. Still, I don't think that clip of Palin is anywhere near as embarrassing as this:

So Senator McCheese dances like a nerdy white guy and allowed his three year old daughter listen to Snoop Dog. Weird, man. But, hey, that's just me.

There are, of course, a number of vicious lies circulating the net about every public figure out there, including Barack Obama. Obama, for instance, isn't really a Muslim ... he doesn't really hate all white people ... etc. I could get specific and site articles at Snopes, but I'll leave that to his supporters. I'd imagine that there's a blog or two out there dedicated to defending Obama's record.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

I wrote something Friday to the effect that I might look forward to voting for Sarah Palin for PotUS in 2012. Well, whattaya know, I might have to wait for 2016 to cast that vote. McCain ain't dead yet:

McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

A post-convention bounce is to be expected. This is the exciting part:

McCain has narrowed Obama's wide advantage on handling the economy, by far the electorate's top issue. Before the GOP convention, Obama was favored by 19 points; now he's favored by 3.

Maybe people are starting to see through the Obama BS. He really hasn't got any ideas. Well, other than bad ones.

A year ago I suggested that the McCain campaign should adopt Black Flag's "Gimme Gimme Gimme", or maybe Darth Vader's "Imperial March" from Star Wars, as it's official theme song.

But I gotta admit, the old dude has impressed me. His campaign has been stronger, smarter, and more politically courageous than I'd ever have predicted. Maybe a better theme song for the McCain campaign would be Metallica's awesome new song Broken, Beat and Scarred:

"You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again.
What don't kill ya will make ya more strong.
Through black days, through black nights,
Through pitch-black insights.

Until the last, broken beat and scarred,
We die hard."

Oh, and hey, check this out ... I don't watch MSNBC (and you don't either, nobody does) ... but there's been some buzz among the blogs and on YouTube about what a circus their political coverage has been:

That's so funny.

Apparently MSNBC is getting tired of being a laughing stock:

NEW YORK — MSNBC said Sunday it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators...

Throughout the primaries and summer, MSNBC argued that Olbermann and Matthews could serve as dispassionate anchors on political news nights and that viewers would accept them in that role, but things fell apart during the conventions...

All the drama made MSNBC a punch line when top NBC anchor Brian Williams appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show last week. "Is there no control?" Stewart asked him. "'Is it Lord of the Flies? "

A sheepish Williams said that every family has a dynamic of its own.

"But does MSNBC have to be the Lohans?" Stewart said.

It's not often that I agree with Jon Stewart, but he nailed it. MSNBC = Lord of the Flies.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

I wouldn't call myself a big Opie & Anthony fan, mostly because I've only heard them a few times. Some of what I've heard from O&A has made me laugh hysterically. Other stuff has left me thinking "Geez, come on..."

One thing I do apparently have in common with them, though, is that I absolutely hate that steaming pile of affected hypocrisy known as Keith Olbermann...

No idea what the graphics in this video are all about. The clip is from the O&A radio show. After a minute I just minimized the window and listened. They really nailed Olbermann here.

Labels: Media, News, You Tube

Stuff I read, stuff I thought:

• "Fact" checking...
  
  You've no doubt seen the Chuck Norris Facts website and it's Chuckarific pronouncements such as
  
  
  • Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits.
  
  
  • Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill.
  
  
  • Chuck Norris does not love Raymond.
  
  
  • The principle export of Chuck Norris is pain.
  
  
  Well, two similar websites have sprung up just in time for this November's election.
  
  From Sarah Palin Facts:
  
  
  • Sarah Palin is the reason compasses point North.
  
  
  • In 2003, the US considered deploying Sarah Palin to Iraq as a 1-woman commando squad, but wanted to make it a fair fight.
  
  
  • As head of Alaska’s Nat’l Guard, Sarah Palin taught troops in a training exercise to scare a grenade into not exploding.
  
  
  And the following is from Best Obama Facts:
  
  
  • When Obama rids the world of nuclear weapons, the red button in his office will control the thermostats in American homes.
  
  
  • Every now and then, Obama opens his eyes and the world springs into existence.
  
  
  • "Obama" is the very first word in the English language to be a verb, adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, interjection, superlative and pronad. (Pronad is a new category made specifically for the word "Obama" so its power can be fully realized).
  
  
  
• From the baby seat...
  

  

  HT: Ol' Broad





• The left: "Sarah Palin is a bad, bad, mean, bad person!!!!"
  
  
  So do you think that the leftists (on the net and in the Lamestream Media) know just how silly they look with the pitiful, comical list of complaints they have against Sarah Palin?
  
  Let's see ... so far we've been told that Palin is unfit to be VP because
  
  
  • "This one time, back in Wassila, she tried to fire a librarian!
  
  
  
  • "She's a member of a church with some odd beliefs! And everyone knows that nobody who ever attended a church with odd beliefs is fit to be Vice President. That person can be President, sure ... but not VICE President!"
  
  
  
  • "Her hairstyle isn't trendy enough! Anyone who doesn't sport a $400 haircut is clearly out of touch!! I mean, her whole family knows nothing about hair care!"
  
  
  
  • "She's racist, sexist, vindictive ... she's just a big meanie and people in Alaska are afraid of her!"
  
  
  
  • "She killed Bambi's big brother!!"
  
  
  The left has made up lies, they've demeaned her as a mother, they've attacked her family ... and it's all backfired.
  
  If they weren't repugnant, I'd kinda feel sorry for the leftist scum.



• Barack HUSsein Obama
  
  I don't mind that Us Weekly is an Obama fanzine. I just wish they'd admit it and cop to their bias so there won't be any reason for anyone to expect objectivity:

  

  HT: The American Papist.




• The John McCain Deathwatch...
  
  No link here, but you've seen or heard the hand-wringing, I'm sure. "What if McCain dies? He's OOOOLLLD! What if he dies in office? Then this inexperienced woman will be president! She has NO FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE! She's a heartbeat away from the Oval Office!"
  
  This from the people who want us to put an inexperienced man directly into the Oval Office.
  
  Just a couple of observations:
  
  One: in '96 everyone told us that Bob Dole was too old to be President, that he could drop dead at any moment. In a perfect world, right now Bob Dole would be enjoying his fourth year of retirement after finishing his second term as PotUS.
  
  Two: Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska. Of course she has no foreign policy experience. No Governor has foreign policy experience. George W. Bush, who was the governor of Texas, had no foreign policy experience when he became PotUS. Bill Clinton, who was the governor of Arkansas, had no foreign policy experience when he became PotUS. Ronald Reagan, who was the governor of California, had no foreign policy experience when he became PotUS. Jimmy Carter, who was the governor of Georgia, had no foreign policy experience when he became PotUS.
  
  Governors don't have foreign policy experience. And we've put scads of them in the White House.
  
  So, note to the Palin haters: You're stupid. Shut up.



• Woodward: Bush failed to lead.
  
  Bob Woodward's new book accuses Dubya of failing to lead in his second term:

  At 487 pages, "The War Within" is the fourth installment in Woodward’s series of books on the president. Its release is embargoed until Monday...
  
  "President Bush has rarely leveled with the public to explain what he was doing and what should be expected," wrote Woodward, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, in "War Within." "He did not seek sacrifice from most of the country when he had the chance. He did not even mobilize his own party...

  After the GOP convention in 2004 I was excited about the prospect of a second Dubya term. I thought that he'd explained the rationale for not leaving Iraq very well. I bought into the "ownership society" stuff, I loved the idea of having some privatization of Social Security, I was totally on board.
  
  The surge in Iraq worked, no doubt ... but it just illustrates how badly the Bush administration mismanaged the war initially. The ownership society stuff? Total bluster. I feel like a fool for having bought it. And Bush just dropped the ball on Social Security accounts. He encountered a little resistance and folded up like an accordion.
  
  Woodward is right. Bush failed to lead. I've been disgusted with him for a while, and I've lately said so. I'm grateful to Dubya for Justices Roberts and Alito, and I'm glad we live in a Saddam-free world now... but, overall, Dubya's second term was an abysmal disappointment.
  
  But that doesn't mean I'm ready to turn the reigns over to a total zero.

Labels: Blogs, Links, Media, News, Politics

Sarah Palin, where have you been all my life?

Or, at least, where have you been for the past two years? And why haven't you been running for PotUS?

I get it now, Obama supporters. I understand. All this time I've been talking about how creepy it is that you've been swooning over your guy. But then I finally found time to sit down with the Tivo ... and I saw this:

... and now I totally get it.

When you find a politician who seems to represent your values and your priorities, and when that politician is attractive, charming, smart, funny ... when that politician delivers a speech and you feel like you've just seen a rock concert ... man, that's friggin' awesome.

Not a week ago I was wondering who the hell Sarah Palin is ... and now I'm ready to sign up to join her fan club. Obama supporters think they've found the new JFK ... and here I sit wondering if Sarah Palin might be the next Reagan.

I'm trying to remain objective, skeptical, etc. But, man, what a speech.

Some of the reaction:

• Hugh Hewitt: The contest has changed. Her character and candor have changed it, and John McCain's judgment is vindicated.



• Ted Nugent, who knows a thing or two about rockstars: With grave suspicion and reservations, I nonetheless rejoice that the fading embers of conservatism may have indeed caught fire once more ... Now I know why I have seen no one with any guts in the Republican Party in so long: the governor of Alaska has them all.



• Rich Lowry: She may have given the best speech of either political convention. She delivered a brilliantly written text flawlessly. Politicians who've been on the national stage for decades could do no better, and usually do worse.
  
  Miss Congeniality isn't afraid to administer an old-fashioned beat-down. Annie Oakley brought a gun to a knife fight and made like the Obama-Biden ticket was a moose lazily meandering into her gun sights.
  
  She was merciless on Obama's elitism, scoring him for saying one thing about working-class voters in Scranton and another in San Francisco. By the end, you began to feel sorry for him for having been so thoroughly eviscerated by a woman and to wonder - how are Obama and Biden possibly going to handle her?



• Michael Barone: Sarah Palin's speech to the Republican National Convention last night was a home run. A star was born. While the Obama campaign has attempted to disparage it by saying that it was written by a former George W. Bush speechwriter, Matthew Scully—and thus link it to the McCain=Bush meme that was one of the chief ideas thrust forward in their convention in Denver last week—it cannot be dismissed as such. Scully reportedly had written a generic draft that could have been used by whichever vice presidential candidate McCain had chosen. But once Palin was the choice, she and Scully reportedly worked together and produced a draft that was brilliantly designed to promote the McCain-Palin ticket...



• Stephen Spruiell: If you watched MSNBC on mute Wednesday night after Sarah Palin’s speech, it looked like the top story was that a hurricane swept through the North Pole and killed Santa Claus, so crestfallen were the network’s stars. It was the same with the sound up. Keith Olbermann’s first words after the applause in the Xcel Center finally died down were, “That appears to be the end of it.” He sounded relieved...
  
  After he’d had a moment to compose himself, Olbermann tried to come up with a better reaction. Of the speech, he said there was some “condescension in there towards Obama.” Condescension is an interesting word. Here’s a woman who was belittled for being a small-town mayor by a guy who described small-town people as clinging to their guns and religion because they’re bitter. And yet, when she hits him back, she’s the condescending one.

At this point I feel good about November no matter what happens. I'm starting to think about Palin 2012 or Palin 2016.

Labels: Media, News, Politics

If I hadn't heard it with my own ears I'd not believe it.

I just heard Sally Friggin' Quinn, one of the matriarch battleaxes of the liberal elite media, tell Bill O'Reilly that there is a difference between mothers and fathers and that children need both parents.

Of course, she said it as an argument against Sarah Palin's hypothetical vice presidency ... but she still said it. Man, I hope somebody uploads that clip to YouTube. What was she thinking?? When she sobers up from her emotionally overwhelming Sarah Palin hatred Quinn is going to feel like a fool.

I mean, after all, it is the truth.

Labels: Media, News, Politics

Just watched Thompson's speech. Loved it. But now I can't concentrate on Lieberman, and I love Joe Lieberman. It's just that Thompson handed me a totally full, totally delicious plate!

We were promised a heapin' helpin' of red meat, and Fred came through. In spades.

If he'd had that kind of spirit some months ago maybe we'd have heard McCain throwing the read meat before the GOP nominates Thompson.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, Thompson 08

Language warning: The closer I follow the news, the crankier I get.

• Barack Obama: Elitist Douchebag
  
  Obama seems to have forgotten who he's running against. I thought McCain was his opponent in the general election ... but he's campaigning against Sarah Palin. Quoth the Chosen One:

  “My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.
  
  Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”

  OK, one sentence at a time ...

  "Wassilla has I think 50 employees..."

  Yadda yadda yadda, we all know the contempt you feel for small-town America, Barry. Spare me your bullshit.
  

  "I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month..."

  Oooooh! Look at Mr. Big Political Man strut around! Just like a big ol' banty rooster! Does this guy have any clue how his pronouncements play in the heartland?
  
  Sarah Palin, as governor of Alaska, has been responsible for at least fifteen thousand state employees. That's well over three times the size of Obama's campaign. And Alaska's fiscal year budget for 2008 is more than eleven billion dollars. So let's do the math: Twelve million dollars for Wassilla's budget, times three for one month of Obama's campaign, divided into eleven billion dollars, equals shut the f@#& up, Barack.

  "Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years..."

  Oh, absolutely. In terms of manufacturing a successful brand-name you've left Coca Cola and McDonnalds in the dust. But you ain't no leader. You spent twelve years in the Illinois state legislature voting "present" and you've spent most of your time in the US senate out campaigning for President. So, once again, shut the f@#& up.



• Steele on Obama...
  
  My longtime personal pick for PotUS, Michael Steele, says that the media coverage of the Obama campaign is "a joke" and calls it an example of "white liberal guilt."

  The money quote: "If (Obama) wins, he's a media creation. He's a brand. America doesn't need a president who's a brand. America needs a president who can lead."
  
  America needs you to run for President, Mike. Quit screwing around on Fox News and get back out there into the political arena. Please?




• Google Chrome
  
  A few days ago Microsoft debuted IE 8. I downloaded it and it sucks. Now Google has debuted their own browser, called Chrome, which you can download at this link.
  
  I downloaded it and tried it today for an hour or so. Miraculously, it actually runs in Vista. It runs much better in Vista than Microsoft's own sorry browser does.
  
  I won't be switching from Firefox to Chrome, but I'll use Chrome before I'll use IE whenever possible.
  
  Kick ass, Google.



• Firearm Education
  
  There are two things you need to know about McKenzie: One, she's eleven years old. Two, she's awesome:

  This is one child who'll never be involved in a tragic accident because she "finds her father's gun." And I bet you that she has more self confidence and better self discipline than most people twice her age.
  
  HT: Geekologie.





• Scott Ott rules
  
  From Scrappleface:
  

  As news broke of the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s eldest daughter, Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama pleaded with the GOP vice presidential candidate...
  
  “Gov. Palin ... you tried to teach your daughter about morals and values, but she made a mistake, and she shouldn’t be punished with a baby.”
  
  As a goodwill gesture, Sen. Obama offered to pay for Bristol Palin’s abortion “at any time between now and the scheduled moment of birth.”

  
  
  And, hey: If the child manages to be born in spite of an attempted abortion, good ol' Barry will still arrange to have it rubbed out.
  
  After all, nobody should have to deal with the cruel and unusual punishment of accountability.



• Please just stop...
  
  I liked Jamie Lee Curtis a whole lot more before she became obsessed with bowel movements:

  This commercial runs at least twice an hour on the news channels. Game Show Network is popular in this house and, I swear, I hear Jamie Lee telling me how much this yogurt will help me poop about twenty times a day. Please, just stop. Just stop.

Labels: Links, Media, Michael Steele, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I don't do celebrity news, it's not my thing. I just don't care. But I did think that Morgan Freeman's accident was startling enough to warrant a mention earlier this week. The latest on Freeman is that he's out of the hospital and recovering, and I'm glad to hear it.

As to the other news about Freeman that came out this week, I won't comment other than to say that I don't think it's anyone's business.

I was sorry to hear that Bernie Mac passed away this morning. To be honest I wasn't a Bernie Mac fan. Not that I had anything against him, I just never watched his show and he never made an impression on me one way or the other in the movies. Still, I feel bad that he died ... especially considering that even very shortly before his death he seemed to be getting better. The guy was only 50. That's too young to die from pneumonia. It really sucks.

The third celebrity story that caught my eye today was this one, and it caught my eye because it's the creepiest thing I've seen in ages. I mean really creepy. Michael Jackson level creepy. Mick Jagger in bed with David Bowie level creepy. Creepy beyond belief. I'm talking about Clay Aiken...

... and the baby he conceived through artificial insemination with his platonic baby-making partner.

Is it just me, or does Clay Aiken look like a lesbian? I'm not trying to mock lesbians ... heck, I don't even mean to mock Aiken himself ... but the guy looks like a lesbian. He has a real k.d. lang quality going on:

And for what it's worth, k.d. lang (who spells her name without capital letters, in case you didn't know) has a few songs I like. I'm not trying to knock her. I'm not trying to mock Aiken for looking like her. I'm just sayin', you know?

But this whole platonic artificial insemination baby making partnership thing ... man, it's just creepy.

Labels: Links, Media, News, Trivial Matters

Man, I just LOVE political sanctimony. And the kind we get from Democrats here in the US borders on acrobatics. I don't particularly care that John Edwards had an affair and fathered a child out of wedlock ... but I get a huge kick out this clip of him going out of his way to explain that (counter to what we might believe) his family is not to blame for his affair:

Boy, I'm glad he cleared THAT up. Because ever since I heard that Edwards had a mistress I've been blaming his family, specifically his eight-year-old son Jack. Rotten kid. He DROVE his father into that affair!

Gosh golly gee wiz, it's sooooo brave and selfless for Edwards to take the blame for his own extramarital affair. I mean, who would have expected accountability from a trial lawyer?

I hope you'll excuse me for a moment; I have a giant wad of phlegm-like SARCASM stuck in my throat. HHHMMMMGGGHHHGGGHH! There, all better.

Edwards is downright Clintonian in that clip. He comes off like a cross between Bill Clinton on a denial binge and Tom Cruise on a Scientology rant. Johnny Lover-Boy is so full of himself it's almost artistic. Like an expressive dance or some kind of performance art. Man, the air must be pretty thin up there on Planet Edwards.

The following is from Mary McNamara, LA Times blogger:

(Edwards) got a little slippery when asked about the photo the Enquirer had printed, which they claim is Edwards holding Hunter's baby daughter. The picture is blurry and Edwards says he has no idea who it is. Fair enough, but when Woodruff asked him if he remembered holding Hunter's baby, his answer was just plain squirrelly.

"You asked me about that photograph. I don't know anything about that photograph," he said, as if taking his cues from the Watergate hearings. "I don't know who that baby is.... I was not at this meeting holding a child for my photograph to be taken, I can tell you that."

That's awesome. That's just AWESOME! I wish I could have found a clip of that part of the interview. Can you imagine him saying that? With a straight face? That had to be hilarious.

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

Someone from the Annenberg Public Policy Center called tonight with a list of survey questions regarding the 2008 National Election. I wasn't sure if I was up to the survey and asked the lady how long she thought it would take. "That depends on how long your answers are," she said.

So an hour later I got off the phone. What can I say; she started asking me for my opinion. She was a nice lady, though. She remained as objective as a survey taker can be, but the question-and-answer session was still a friendly one. And she was patient and tolerant while I ranted and raved.

I went to the Annenberg website after I got off the phone and looked around a bit. This caught my attention:

18- to 29-year-olds more likely to be liberal and less likely to follow presidential campaign very closely, Annenberg survey shows

Young adults 18 to 29 years of age are more likely to describe themselves as liberal in comparison to other age groups, according to recent data collected by the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s National Annenberg Election Survey. Thirty-four percent of 18- to 29-year-olds called themselves “liberal” or “very liberal,” while only 27 percent of 30- to 44-year-olds, 25 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds, and 18 percent of those 65 years and older described themselves the same way.

The youngest cohort of potential voters is also less likely to describe itself as following the 2008 presidential campaign “very closely” in comparison to older cohorts. While 24 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said that they are following the campaign very closely, 33 percent of 30- to 44-year-olds, 44 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds, and 48 percent of those 65 years and older stated that they are following the campaign very closely.

There is a correlation, of course. The more closely you actually pay attention to what's going on around you, the harder it is to remain a liberal.

But that's just my opinion, of course.

Labels: Links, Media, News, Politics

I don't do an extreme amount of bitching here at the blog, but I do get a good whine on from time to time.

This is one of those posts, so you should stop reading it now.

Really, you'll wish you had. So stop reading it now. You have better things to do.

Anyway...

I am SICK TO DEATH of having tubes coming out of my body. Latex, plastic, etc, etc. Catheters, IV lines, etc, etc, etc. Ever since the first surgery for bladder cancer last month I've been hooked up to one device or another. And I'm sick of it.

I'm trying to stay positive, trying to focus on the fact that this isn't lung cancer or prostate cancer or pancreatic cancer ... one of the really ugly ones ... but it's hard to stay positive 24/7. I'm not really positive right now and haven't been for a few days. I'm sure I'll regret posting this shortly after I post it, but f%&@! it. This is what I feel like writing right now. And it won't be the first time I posted something I later regretted ... this blog is riddled with four years worth of regrettable writing.

I want a cigarette SO DAMN BAD that I think I'd KILL for one. I haven't had a cigarette since July 9, but it was a 25 or 26 year addiction, and it's going to take a while to get over it. Going back to work is going to be the real challenge. I don't smoke around the kids (as far as I know, they didn't know I smoked) and I don't smoke in the house ... but at work I have always smoked constantly. So going back to work and not lighting up is going to take a lot of focus.

Chantix, by the way, sucks. It's no better than the patches, the gums, etc. The only way to quit smoking is to just quit. I think it's like that with any addiction.

Hopefully, from now on, every time I see a cigarette I'll think about bladder cancer, and that'll be enough to keep me from smoking.

I'm sick of missing work, too. Not that my job is anybody's idea of a dream job. My job pretty much sucks. But I do miss the paycheck. (Boy, do I EVER miss the paycheck.) And I miss the regular routine. And I miss the friends I have at work.

What else to bitch about while I'm on a roll? OK, there's this: I'm sick of Barack Obama acting like he's the Second Coming of Christ and I'm sick to my stomach of his supporters swooning over him. This McCain ad says it all:

Also, I'm sick of Ubisoft CONTINUING to push back the release date for the new Splinter Cell game. Splinter Cell is the one video game series that I enjoy. I can live without the TV otherwise. I really don't like TV, I don't watch any specific shows, I don't buy or play other video games, I generally don't think any game is worth the price. Except for the Splinter Cell games. Boy, I love those games. And God only knows when the new one will actually come out.

What else? Let's see, I'm sick to death of seeing this crazy skank pop up on every news source imaginable. I think it's pretty obvious that Casey Anthony has caused the death of her daughter, either through neglect or abuse, and she's just leading everyone on a wild goose chase, trying to hold out another day before there's something solid to pin on her. Man, I hope they find something soon. It'd be great if the little girl turned up alive, but I don't see that happening, and I'm sick of every news outlet in the world passing on the lunatic mother's latest outrageous lie.

And I guess that's all I'm going to bitch about now. And that's by far enough.

Labels: Bladder Cancer, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, Video Games, You Tube

• ...for some really cool looking desktop wallpapers.


• ...for seventeen free, downloadable graphic novels.


• ...to get, uh, Kiss-rolled?


• ...for the weirdest news item you'll probably read today.


• ...to revisit your first computer.


• ...directly below, to see what happens when you leave your parrot in front of the TV with MSNBC left on:

Labels: Links, Media, Trivial Matters, You Tube

I've been saying for a long time ... and for four years in blog form ... that Spike Lee is an asshole. And it isn't really necessary for me to make that point, since Lee makes it himself constantly.

Here's the scoop on Spike's latest blather-fest...

It seems that Spike has issues with the two movies that Clint Eastwood has made about The Battle of Iwo Jima. And ... brace yourself, this is gonna be a huge shock ... Spike's issues with the movies revolve around race. According to Spike

"There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint.... That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version.

"It's not like [Eastwood] could say he didn't know. It was a conscious decision not to have any black people."

Eastwood, as I've noted a number of times here at the blog, is a hero of mine. And not just because he makes good movies. Eastwood is a pretty damn smart guy:

Speaking about black troops on Iwo Jima, Eastwood said, "But they didn't raise the flag. The story [was] ... the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, ‘This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate. ... When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people.

"A guy like [Lee] should shut his face."

BOO-YAH! You gotta love a guy who makes a lifetime of great movies, threatens to kill Michael Moore and tells that idiot Spike Lee to shut his face.

Of course, Lee has continued to twist words and history, still insisting that there should have been black actors in a story about people who weren't black, but Eastwood is adamant that historical accuracy trumps political correctness in his films:

"What are you going to do, you gonna tell a f***ing story about that?" Eastwood ranted. "Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is."

At first, Lee said he'd take "the Obama high road" and not respond with anger. ("The Obama high road?" That alone is worth a laugh.) But, of course, a guy like Lee can't hold back his spite for long. So he let loose:

"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," (Lee) told ABCNEWS.com. "He's a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn't personally attack him. And a comment like 'a guy like that should shut his face' -- come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there."

Ah, damn. Where do I begin?

• Spike, not everybody who tells you to shut your face is trying to put you on the plantation. Clint didn't say "Shut up, boy" or anything like that. Quit looking for racism in your bellybutton, you f***ing imbecile.



• And what do you mean "on the plantation?" Unless you're 170 years old or so, you've never been on a plantation. What the hell do YOU know about plantations? Quit co-opting the experiences of people who've been dead for decades and decades. No matter how hard you might have had it, you've never had it as hard as someone who was forced into slavery. You f***ing imbecile.



• You're damn right Clint came off like an angry old man. He's 78, so, yep, he's an old man. And he was angry because a f***ing imbecile named Spike Lee criticized him without having any understanding of the issues at hand.



• Spike you've made two ... exactly two ... movies that qualify as great. Eastwood has made more genuinely great films than I can begin to count. So once you actually shut your face you should open your ears and your mind and try to learn something from Eastwood. There are too many crap movies like Inside Man, She Hate Me and Girl 6 on your resume for you to be critiquing Eastwood. You. F***ing. Imbecile.

I guess that about does it.

See, I just gotta rant about these things from time to time. I'm glad I rediscovered blogging!

Labels: Media, Movies, News, Politics

Synopsis

Random, frequently vulgar sketch comedy that satirizes the news, the media, and American culture.

Pros:

• Much of the same smart irreverence that makes The Onion the funniest site on the internet.


• Several big, BIG laughs.

Cons:

• A number of sketches fall flat.

Generally:

Two and a half or maybe three stars on a five scale. Fans of the website will enjoy much of it.

Extended Review:

As I recently mentioned in a comment to Rhodester, I can't imagine going back to life without the internet if only for two reasons: my addictions to the IMDb and The Onion. The IMDb, of course, is the Internet Movie Database, a film-lovers invaluable resource. The Onion, a news-parody website, is consistently the funniest, best written humor site on the internet.

In 2003, the good folks behind The Onion website made The Onion Movie, a sketch comedy film in the meandering, crude tradition of films like The Kentucky Fried Movie or the mid-80's cult hit, Amazon Women On The Moon. Like those movies, The Onion Movie is extremely adult fare, with most of the sketches involving crude language and/or visual gags. And, like those two older films, The Onion Movie doesn't have quite enough good material to stay consistent for it's entire running time. It's a little better than either of those films, though, because the parts that are funny are howling, knee-slapping, tears-streaming funny. Credit the writers who make the website such a consistent joy.

The film sat on a shelf from 2003 until earlier this year (when it was released on DVD), apparently because it's distributors had no idea what to do with it. The movie is said to have offended a number of test audiences, and I'm not surprised by that. Much of the humor here is intended to fly in the face of political correctness. Gags involving minorities, women, terrorism, religion and even the handicapped are here by the ton.

Like 2006's Borat, another crass and random comedy that I loved, The Onion Movie holds nothing sacred. Anything and everything is plucked for parody, especially those people and institutions that take themselves very seriously. The Onion Movie doesn't deliver as much yuck-for-the-buck as Borat, but when this movie made me laugh, it made me laugh really, really hard.

Some of the sketches are dead-on. One of my favorites involve an armed gunman who goes into a bank to steal a job. Then there's a young pseudo-urban white guy who wants to come off black, until he's actually mistaken for a black man. I laughed at a parody of Stephen Seagal films (staring Seagal himself). Best of all, a running segment during which film critics dissect the movie itself while it's in progress really takes the vinegar out of movie critics. Even amateur ones like me.

Other sketches don't really work. A Britney Spears send-up is soooo ten minutes ago. A sketch about home computers just seems as outdated as the older PCs it mocks. A running gag wherein the Onion's TV news anchor does battle with his parent company, ala Network, is just a reminder that the classic Network is a MUCH smarter, MUCH funnier film. And, to be honest, even that funny Steven Seagal sketch is revisited a few too many times.

The movie's big ending, an attempt to tie all the disparate elements together into something that makes sense, doesn't work very well either. But the film's brief running time (about 80 minutes) didn't give me time to really get bored, and the brilliant sketches are spaced fairly evenly, insuring a big laugh every ten minutes or so. If you're a fan of the brilliant Onion website, this one is worth a rental. It's not as good as the Onion website at it's best, but it's probably better than whatever sitcom you might otherwise watch tonight.

Trailer:

Labels: Media, Movie Reviews, Movies

Sometimes you're better off knowing next to nothing about your heroes.

Like a lot of people, especially those of us who live remotely close to Washington DC, I was obsessed with the news during the beltway sniper killing spree in October, 2002. I followed the story compulsively, and I got used to seeing Montgomery County Maryland's police chief, Charles Moose, on television.

Over the three weeks of the hunt for the sniper, I became a fan of Chief Moose. There was something about the guy that struck me as very genuine. I sensed a weariness about him whenever he gave statements to the press, and I had the impression that the guy was just living on the job, day and night, until the sniper was caught.

I remember seeing him tear up when he announced that the sniper had shot a child. That moved me. And I liked that he was willing, on more than one occasion, to chastise the press for broadcasting and/or printing stories that could have jeopardized the investigation. Charles Moose struck me as a no BS kind of guy. I liked him.

You can watch a short clip of one of his statements to the press at the beginning of this episode of the Charlie Rose Show:

So I was pretty enthusiastic when I recently bought a paperback copy of Moose's book, Three Weeks In October, his highly autobiographical account of the search for the Beltway Snipers. I read the book ravenously at first, and then with increasing distaste and unease as, over the course of the work's 300-or-so pages, Charles Moose revealed himself to be a real butthole.

Moose has had his detractors since the days when the manhunt for the snipers was still ongoing. I've always been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with regard to his police work. For one thing, anyone leading that kind of investigation is just bound to be scrutinized beyond belief. Even if he'd handled the case perfectly, there would have been those for whom his work wasn't good enough.

What bothered me about the book ... and came to bother me about Moose himself ... was the book's focus on Moose's obsession with race. Moose is, unfortunately, apparenlty one of those guys who could find racism in a can of iced tea.

Now, when a black person makes a charge of racism, I'm inclined to give them some benefit of the doubt initially. I've never been black, I've never been a minority of any kind, and I don't know what it's like to be a victim of race-based oppression. Lots of black people have been oppressed over the years, and racism continues to be a serious problem in the world ... and in more ways than one.

But Moose talks about finding racism in every little inconvenience in the world. If he has to wait in line, he's a victim of racism. If someone cuts around him in line, he's a victim of racism. If someone chastises him when he shows up at the station out of uniform, he's a victim of racism. This is the kind of guy who makes Nat X look like a pussy cat.

And as I found out after I finished the book, by reading another review, this dude is seriously sue-happy, too.

And it gets worse. Moose's accounts of his actual police work left me scratching my head, too. Moose talks about posting police officers at schools, knowing full well that it wouldn't make any positive difference, purely as a matter of PR. Wouldn't that resource have been better used in the investigation itself? And when the two snipers, John Muhaamad and Lee Malvo, were finally arrested, Moose talks about how he took the calls with that information from his bed and chose to stay in bed. He justified that by saying that it would have been insulting to his force if he'd gotten up and came in during the arrest. Whatever. All I could ask myself was "How the HELL does the leader of that investigation just STAY IN BED when the arrest is finally made?"

Granted I'm not a cop, and I don't pretend to believe that I could have done a better job than Chief Moose. Still, I have to think that it speaks to a serious defect in his leadership that he worried about PR during the largest manhunt in American history. Finding out about his thought processes and legitimizations made me seriously doubt that he's the no BS guy I thought he was.

Later in the book, Moose devotes an entire chapter to his ruminations on the fact that the two snipers were black men. Moose has bought ... and even promotes ... the hype that black people are somehow mostly immune from the evil that causes people to become serial killers. It's not true, and a police chief should know better. Any one of us, regardless of race, religion, creed, etc ... might be capable of tremendous good OR unspeakable evil. It's part of the human condition.

If you're looking for a book about the demanding, exacting police work that eventually lead to the arrest of the Beltway Snipers, keep looking. Three Weeks In October is not that book. The book didn't satisfy any of my own curiosity about the case. Instead, it tainted my appreciation of a guy I'd once admired quite a bit.

Labels: Books, Media, News

• Scary Regional News
  
  There are concerns that there might be a new serial sniper in Virginia:
  

  A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 64 was closed overnight because at least four cars were struck by bullets, injuring two people. The highway reopened Thursday morning.
  
  The four cars were hit along an 11-mile stretch of highway starting around midnight Wednesday. Virginia State Police were trying to find the gunman.
  
  Sgt. David Cooper ... said he didn't know if there was more than one shooter or what type of gun or guns were used.
  
  I-64 was closed about 6 hours between Charlottesville and Waynesboro.

  
  Using a phrase like "serial sniper" is probably premature, but memories of Muhammad and Malvo are still pretty fresh. This new story scares me because I drive that stretch of I-64 all the time. I just hope that the local authorities are able to get some guidance from Chief Moose.
  
  Police are looking for multiple suspects in the incident.



• Monks Up In Arms
  
  We're going to see more and more stories like this as we get closer to the Olympics in China:
  

  
  A group of monks shouting there was no religious freedom disrupted a carefully orchestrated visit for foreign reporters to Tibet's capital Thursday, an embarrassment for China as it tried to show Lhasa was calm following deadly anti-government riots...
  
  "Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!" yelled one young Buddhist monk, who started to cry.
  
  They also said the Dalai Lama had nothing to do with the (mid-March) riots by Tibetans in which buildings were torched and looted and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked. The government has said the March 14 riots were masterminded by "the Dalai clique," Beijing's term for the Dalai Lama and his supporters...
  
  "They want us to crush the Dalai Lama and that is not right," one monk said during the 15-minute outburst.

  
  
  I don't follow the Olympics, so I'm unsure how the brutal Chinese government was ever granted the international games in the first place. If nothing else, it's good that the Olympics are focusing some degree of attention on China's barbarous rule of Tibet.
  
  You know, it always bugs me when I buy something and realize that it was made in China. I've heard so much from so many sources about the pitiful state of human rights in China ... about the terrible working conditions imposed on workers in state factories ... and I've come to believe it. The Chinese government is monstrous and the Chinese people are suffering. That belief is by and large accepted and promoted with bipartisan zeal. So why do we import plastic junk from China?
  
  Wouldn't it be worth going without a $30 DVD player if it helped bring down communism's last inhuman stronghold?
  
  Just thinking out loud, that's all I'm doin'.



• Ferraro Freak-Out
  
  People are still freaking out about Geraldine Ferraro's so-called "insensitive" remarks regarding Barack Obama's race. Here's what she said, in case you hadn't heard:
  

  "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."

  
  So what's the big deal? Obama's schtick is not substantially different from the John Edwards act. His methods and manner aren't far removed from Hillary's. What he does have going for him, though, is the promise that his Presidency would put one last, huge nail in the coffin of American racism. Anyone who thinks that his race isn't the biggest factor in his success is fooling himself/herself.
  
  And I don't really intend that as a slam on his supporters. Look, I like the idea of a black President as well as anyone. I like the idea of a female President, too. If I had my way, our next President would be both female and black: I'd like to see Condi Rice in the White House.
  
  But I don't want her there simply because she's female or because she's black. I want her in the White House because she's tough, conservative, brilliant and trustworthy. More so, in fact, than anyone who recently ran for President from either of the two major parties.
  
  I'd support Condi enthusiastically because she's the right person for the job. Her race and her sex are not factors.
  
  Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton are substantially different from John Kerry, John Edwards ... or Jimmy Carter, for that matter.
  
  Except in terms of race and sex.

Labels: Media, News, Politics

• Anybody Seen Jeremiah?
  
  Barack Obama's controversial pastor has canceled the first speaking engagements that he had scheduled after the recent controversy:
  

  Wright was scheduled to speak at three services Sunday at Houston's Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. But the Rev. Marcus Cosby, the church's pastor, said Wright decided to cancel the appearances amid safety concerns.
  
  "He canceled for largely personal reasons," Cosby said, adding that recent uproar has led to threats against Wright, his family and his church -- the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

  
  I gotta wonder if those threats against Wright came from the Obama campaign. ;)



• Huckabee Makes Some Good Points
  
  For what it's worth, I thought that Mike Huckabee's recent remarks about Pastorgate were smart, thoughtful and ... well, downright Christian:

  
  The only thing I disagree with him about is his feeling that Obama has handled the scandal as well as anyone could. Not at all. Obama's constant refrain of "I didn't know about it" is hard to believe. Barack would do well to explain to the average American how he can both be a good potential President and a member of a group that cheers phrases like "God-damn America."




• Well, Her Last Name IS Clinton.
  
  At a recent event, Chelsea Clinton was asked if she believed that her mother's credibility was damaged by the way she responded to the Monica Lewinski scandal (remember the infamous "vast right wing conspiracy" remark?) With her response, Chelsea showed herself to be a true Clinton by, a, not answering the question ... and, b, behaving as though she'd taken the moral high-ground:

  I'll go out on a limb here and guess that Chelsea has been groomed to respond that way at the mention of the name "Lewinsky" since she started campaigning for her mother. It probably never crossed her mind to consider that the question itself was neither improper nor irrelevant. In fact, I doubt she heard anything other than the L-word.




• McCain Makes The Choice Clear.
  
  While the Clintons and Obamas try to recover from their latest missteps, John McCain is out there behaving like a President. I saw his speech on Iraq today and I thought that he presented the pro-surge argument as well as anyone could have. If nothing else, we'll certainly have some clear contrast between the two parties and their candidates this November.




• "Gimme A Call When I Can Rob You."
  
  Some people just aren't cut out for crime:
  

  At about 9 a.m. Monday, Ruben Zarate, 18 years old, allegedly went to a Mufflers for Less, and held up the place at gunpoint, insisting that the employees hand over the money. He was told, however, that there was no money in the store at the moment, as the manager was the only one with access to the safe, and he was not present.
  
  Furious, the thief reportedly left his cellphone number to the employees, and demanded that they contact him when the safe could be opened.

  
  Zarate came back and was greeted by the police, who ended up shooting him in the leg when he wouldn't drop his gun. He's currently in a hospital awaiting arraignment, recovering from his injury and saying "Doh!"




• Shut Up, Axl.
  
  Axl Rose has stated that the long delayed "new" Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, is finished and will be released this year. In case you don't know, Chinese Democracy has become synonymous with washed-up rock-star posturing. The album has been delayed for so long now that I don't think anyone believes that the album actually exists.
  
  The good folks at Dr. Pepper certainly don't believe it. They've challanged Axl to put up or shut up by promising to give a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America (except for certain former G N' R members) if the album actually shows up in stores this year.
  
  I'll go one better than that: If an album named Chinese Democracy, credited to the band Guns N' Roses, is released this year, I will personally go to China, overthrow the communist government and establish democracy. I'll use my sword and magic helmet.

Labels: Media, Music, News, Politics, You Tube

As a conservative, I do find some humor in the hubris as the Democrats spin towards the upcoming disaster in Denver.

It's hard to know ... in fact, it's hard to care ... what impact Pastorgate has had on Barack Obama in the polls. You can pretty much search Google News with any result in mind and find date from some source to support your own beliefs about how the controversy has effected the Senator.

USA Today has Obama slightly ahead of Hillary, other sources call the same numbers a tie. Jim Geraghty at NR looks at some of the poll numbers and scratches his head:

First, 82 percent of respondents are aware of "the situation regarding Sen. Barack Obama's church pastor and the past public remarks he has made," and somehow, 83 percent are aware of "Obama's speech on Tuesday, in which he addressed the issue of his pastor." (Okay, who's the one percent who knew about the speech but not the 'situation'?)

Asked of all voters, "taking all this into account, are you more likely or less likely to support Obama for president" — 20 percent more likely, 49 percent less likely, 27 percent about the same.

Among those who answered that they were "aware" to the first two questions, 19 percent said they were more likely to support Obama, 52 percent said they were less likely, and 27 percent the same.

Among whites, the "less likely" answer came from 51.3 percent. Among blacks, it was 56.2 percent. (!) Among Hispanics, 54.5 percent. (The sub-sample sizes for blacks and Hispanics were 85 and 46, so it's possible that maybe it's too small a sample to get a really good reading on these demographics)...

Is it possible that some folks don't want to admit to a pollster that Obama's speech made them less likely to support him?

Emphasis in the last paragraph was mine. And it's a very good question. As Victor David Hanson points out, Obama's supposed recovery speech actually made things worse in the eyes of many people:

The more the pundits gushed about the speech, the more the average Americans thought, “Wait a minute — did he just say what I thought he said?” It’s not lost on Joe Q. Public that Obama justified Wright’s racism by offering us a “landmark” speech on race that:

(1) Compared Wright’s felony to the misdemeanors of his grandmother, Geraldine Ferraro, the Reagan Coalition, corporate culture, and the kitchen sink.

(2) Established the precedent that context excuses everything, in the sense that what good a Wright did (or an Imus did) in the past outweighs any racist outburst of the present.

(3) Claimed that the voice of the oppressed is not to be judged by the same rules of censure as the dominant majority that has no similar claim on victim status.

What is happening, ever so slowly, is that the public is beginning to realize that it knows even less after the speech than it did before about what exactly Obama knew (and when) about Wright’s racism and hatred.

And the more we learn about Obama's "church," the harder it is to see it as a church. This is, after all, an organization that printed an Israel-bashing article from Hamas in it's bulletin. Of course, Obama says he didn't know about that, either.

Is there anything that goes on at Trinity United that Barack Obama does know about? And if not, why does he call it his church?

Not that anyone in the MSM is gonna put that question to him. The MSM is, by and large, doing everything they can to help Obama spin his way out of this mess.

I thought that passportgate would provide the distraction that Obama needed to try to get past the Jeremiah Wright controversy, but it's hard to deny that the passport scandal was a political fart in a wind tunnel. Oddly, the CEO of the company that employees the contractor who peeked at Obama's passport is an Obama consultant. It still strikes me as dumb to allow contractors access to that kind of information, but seems undeniable that the guy was just a snoop and not a GOP black-opps agent.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Democratic divide, Hillary Clinton finds herself trying to spin her way out of one more lie:

Hillary Clinton's campaign acknowledged today that she may have misspoken when she described a harrowing visit to Bosnia while first lady.

"I remember landing under sniper fire," she said last week as she sought to burnish her commander-in-chief credentials. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

Really? Landing under sniper fire? Running with your head down? Let's see, does any video exist of your visit to Bosnia? Oh, there is video? Let's look at it, shall we?

What is it with Democrats and lying? Can they breathe without lying? And do they have to do so much of it while campaigning (remember Christmas in Cambodia?), making it all so transparent?

Jeez, what a national embarrassment the Democratic party is ... and has always been. I agree with Bob Parks that America is more than ready for a black and/or female President. But I also agree with him that there's no way that President will be a Democrat. The Democratic party's history precludes that possibility:

Labels: Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

So the passport files of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have been breached by a state-department employee and/or employees:

There were three breaches in recent weeks involving the files of Sen. Barack Obama, at least one involving Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, and one involving Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he said.

The breaches involving Obama and McCain were by three contractors, two of whom were dismissed and the other disciplined. The incident involving Clinton was a training mistake, McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today apologized to Obama for three State Department contractors who delved into his passport file in recent weeks.

Somebody screwed up.

It looks like at least one incident here was frivolous, a trainee was allowed to wander beyond the limits that should be imposed on a new hire. The others, involving contractors, were probably simple matters of snooping for the sake of snooping. Corrections need to be made.

Of course, the leftists are spinning like crazy, focusing on the passport files of Obama and Hillary and, of course, not noticing that somebody peeked at McCain's passport files, too. And there are plenty of reminders of how the first Bush administration peeked at Bill Clinton's passport files back in the early '90's, and insinuations that this kind of peeking must be a Bush family thing.

And, of course, it's all BS.

Democrats need to remember that the real champ of file pilfering and record plundering is Billary Clinton.

Lest we forget this story from 1996:

TO hear President Clinton tell it, it was "all an innocent bureaucratic snafu," this seamy saga of the White House gaining access to confidential Federal Bureau of Investigation files on prominent Republicans -- files it had no business seeing. "I'm sorry that it occurred," Mr. Clinton said.

Or this one from 1993:

The State Department has begun an internal investigation into why a Clinton Administration official ordered the retrieval of sensitive personnel files of Bush Administration appointees and how that material was given to The Washington Post.

And, oh, yeah ... Billary's Whitewater mess, which was never resolved but just seemed to somehow fall down the memory hole:

My favorite two quotes from that YouTube clip are when Bill says that his administration is the most ethical ever (and he said it with a straight face, no less) ... and when he slips up and says how he really feels; that people shouldn't be allowed to raise questions and erode his authority. Classic Clinton.

So who stands to gain from Passportgate? Oh, clearly Obama. Nobody else. Billary can't successfully spin this because everyone knows how corrupt, dishonest and flat-out incompetent they are. Besides, their supporters have been abandoning them like rats from a sinking ship. McCain doesn't stand to gain anything; he'll do the responsible thing, I bet. He'll say something like "Somebody screwed up. I hope this is corrected so it can't happen again."

That leaves Obama.

The only person with a political dog in this fight is Obama. And he'll use this distraction as his way out of the Jeremiah Wright mess. Just you wait and see.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

I've just watched The Last King Of Scotland and thought it was very good. My intentions when I logged on were to write a review of the film, but first I decided to read about Amin a bit and I ended up finding a short documentary on YouTube that captivating me.

So, in short, I won't be reviewing The Last King Of Scotland just now, other than to say that the movie was a bit too long and I found some of the violence to be very hard to watch, but I felt that Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy both gave performances that were strong and compelling. I suppose I'd give the movie three and a half out of four possible stars and recommend it to film-buffs, modern-history-buffs and Forest Whitaker fans ... with that qualifier that, yes, it is a bit long and, yes, it has some disturbing violence.

Anyway, the three YouTube clips that make up the short documentary that I enjoyed:

On a personal note: I'm a huge fan of imported gourmet coffee. Kenyan coffee, for instance, is a favorite of mine. I enjoy Tanzanian Peabery, too. During the documentary, when the narrative mentioned Amin's control of the Ugandan coffee trade, I thought about my taste in coffee and the imported beans I buy. By buying the coffee, am I doing more good than bad or more bad than good? I can't help but wonder about the role my purchases play in African economies and lives. I looked around on the net and read a bit more specifically about that topic, but you know how it is. Every bit of information you find is spun one way or another by someone with an agenda.

Typically, the word "boycott" never crosses my lips. I think boycotts are silly. I will occasionally make an effort, though, to avoid certain purchases for moral reasons. I've become aware, for instance, of the role that gum arabic plays in the stability of a murderous regime in Darfur. (Read this) No, I'm not suggesting a boycott. But I will admit that I've lost my taste for Coca Cola lately.

Of course, gum arabic is in everything for soft drinks to shoes ... sigh. It's complicated.

So, anyway, what I'm saying is that I really hope I don't stumble across a reason to stop drinking my African coffee!

Labels: Entertainment, Media, Movies, News, Politics, You Tube

The other day I posted a link to the NewsMax website, referencing Ronald Kessler's claim that Obama was, in fact, in the pews at Trinity United when Jeremiah Wright gave one of his hate speeches about America. Apparently the Obama campaign has been able to prove that Obama was not there on the date in question. The NewsMax story now contains a clarification to the effect that Kessler got the date wrong, but that he is certain he remembers seeing Obama at the church during one of Wright's hateful "sermons." Nonetheless, Kessler's credibility on the issue is severely damaged.

It appears that Kessler printed his account of the sermon without sufficient research and without being sure of his own memory. What we're left with now is a writer claiming "I'm sure I saw Obama there on SOME occasion," which is something else altogether. Kessler has made himself, NewsMax, and each of us who linked to his story look bad. I'm glad I tried to qualify my link slightly by writing that evidence had come to light to indicate that Obama was lying, rather than dogmatically proclaiming Obama to certainly be a big liar.

In a fairly funny sidenote, Scott at Spitball Politics chose to link to my post, only to have Patrick (apparently the guy in charge of the blog) strike out the entry and post details about Kessler's gaffe. Patrick went on to write:

...and yes, Scott used a CONSERVATIVE BLOG as his ht on this. Something akin to placing an anti-environment lobby-monger like Dirk Kempthorne to head the Dept of Interior.

So apparently all conservative blogs are unreliable, simply based on the conservative perspective of the author. I'm glad I hadn't gotten around to blogrolling Spitball, I'd intended to as a courtesy to Scott. I do, however, encourage you to read Patrick's stuff if you're in the market for unequivocal generalities about conservative blogs. Meanwhile, this is my second and last reference to that particular blog (although the comments section at SouthCon remains fair game for anyone).

More opinion on the issue: it's rare that I agree with Pat Buchanan, his brand of conservatism always strikes me as rather unconservative. He usually seems like an extremist to me. But I do agree with much of his take on the Obama/Wright flap:

What is exceptional is that Wright is the spiritual father of Barack Obama, the pastor, teacher and mentor who brought Barack into the church, married him and Michelle, baptized their children and has been a confidant to the man who would be America's president.

For 20 years, Barack has attended Wright's church, listened to his weekly sermons, entertained him in his home. Yet, says Barack, he never heard any racist rants at church, nor was he aware that Wright held so poisoned a view of his country.

Sorry, that is not credible. Wright is a famous preacher in black America, and Barack's denial he was aware of his views marks him down either as a dissembler or a man so obtuse he ought not be a security guard at Wal-Mart, let alone president of the United States.

It is easy now to understand why Michelle Obama, before Barack began to win, had never once been proud of her country. Who could be proud of the America that lives in the malignant imagination of the Rev. Wright?

Exactly. And speaking of Michelle Obama, it occurred to me when I heard the recording of her own clarification of her remarks about America ... one of the things that she said was that opportunities were available to her when she was a child that aren't available to kids today, and she was now proud to see America working to get those opportunities back.

Hmmm. Michelle Obama and I are about the same age. Which means that she, like me, grew up in Ronald Reagan's America. So I agree with her, we really did have more opportunities when she was a child. You know, I do have to admit that I like it when the Obamas directly or indirectly praise Reagan.

Labels: Blogs, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics

Just a video-recap from What's-His-Name's show, in case you haven't heard any of Jeremiah Wright's controversial remarks:

That's Jeremiah Wright, the "preacher" who has been a close adviser of Barack Obama's. This is the "preacher" who presided at Obama's church, who married Barack and his wife, who baptized their children. I'm qualifying the word "preacher" because it sounds to me like he's more of a politician and a troublemaker than an actual "preacher." He sounds like the flaming-leftist version of Pat Robertson.

Obama has claimed to denounce "Reverend" Wright's ugliest examples of hate-speech, and he's claimed that he wasn't in the pews when those remarks were made. But evidence is coming to light that indicates that Obama is lying about that:

Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks...

If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.

In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama.

Oprah Winfrey is often sited as another member of Wright's congregation... but it turns out that Oprah had sense enough to get out of that scene some years ago:

Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”

It's not surprising that Obama lied about sitting in the pews and quietly taking in Wright's hate-speech. But it was a mistake. He could have said something like "Reverend Wright has often made me uncomfortable and I'm glad for this chance to do what I should have done long ago..." It would have been a great opportunity to make a clean public break from this hate-monger. Obama chose not to take it.

It's no wonder that this scandal has really been the first thing to damage Obama's standing in the polls. Obama has even gone as far as claiming that Wright's views don't even fairly represent the views of the average church member. As though we can't see all those people screaming with excitement in those videos.

And, hey, God knows I'm conservative when it comes to Church services. I'm Catholic. I like classic liturgy, classical music, restraint, submission, contemplation. So maybe it's simply a matter of personal taste that makes me wonder how in the world you can call that romper-room scene a "church service" anyway. You got a preacher screaming and cursing and a bunch of people jumping around like lunatics? Come on. That's church? And don't tell me it's a race thing, either, because I've sat in Mass with blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, etc, and I've never once seen anyone jumping around like a crackhead. It's a matter of reverence. Reverence just isn't a factor when "Reverend" Wright "preaches."

Obama keeps referring to Wright as something like an "old uncle" who often says things that he doesn't agree with. That makes sense, too. We all know what it's like to have family members that say crazy stuff. But we're stuck with them; they're family. Obama wants us to feel some empathy for his situation. There's a problem here, though: Wright is not a member of Obama's family. He is not an old uncle. He's an associate, a guy Obama chose to have a close relationship with. That doesn't display very good judgment on the candidate's part.

Obama is planning to deal with this crisis by doing what he does best: making a speech. I'll be interested to see how well he can talk his way out of this. This is a PR nightmare. His whole campaign is about PR and nothing else. Wow, what a mess.

---

I suppose Hillary is sick of being out of the headlines. These past few days of Obama/Wright mania have to have been hard on her. So she's back to saying dogmatic stuff like that the Iraq war is a war that America "cannot win."

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton is going out of his way to make it clear that he hasn't said anything bad about Barack Obama. And of course he hasn't. The only person Bill Clinton ever talks about is himself:

Meanwhile, John McCain hasn't been in the news much lately. Which is fine. With Jeremiah Wright and Bill Clinton out there giving us all reasons to vote for the Arizona Senator, McCain can afford to lay low for a while.

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Obama has fairly forcefully rejected Jeremiah Wright's most hateful remarks:

"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," Obama said. "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 Reverend Wright that are at issue."

Good. That's what I thought he should do, and he's done it and I give him credit for it.

I stumbled across this today ... and if Wright had me scratching my head, this guy has my head spinning while I scratch it:

Various bits and pieces of what that guy had to say just keep swirling in my head: "Your health is in my mouth! Egg shell soup! Big breasts! Obama is a long-legged mack daddy! Piss in a boot!"

WTF???!?

Labels: Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

• What's Up With Hillary Clinton's apology extravaganza?
  
  Hillary Clinton isn't known for apologizing for anything ... so I suppose that her current whirlwind apology tour is a sign of just how desperate she is to hold on to whatever chance she might have of being the Democratic Party's nominee in November. Hilary has apologized for remarks made by Geraldine Ferraro and then apologized for remarks her husband made in South Carolina. She'd do well to apologize for her husband's hideously irresponsible eight years in the White House, but I don't see that happening.
  
  Look, I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton. I've made that clear. But the more I learn about Barack Obama, the more I realize that I was foolish to think of him as a slightly better choice than Hillary. I guess here's where I stand on the two of them now: We're going to have to deal with Obama as a presidential contender at some point. There's no getting around it. The guy has a huge fanbase among the many, many people who don't really understand anything, and it's probably enough to get him elected. So I hope he goes ahead and gets the nomination and effectively ends the Clinton-era of national politics forever. I hope he doesn't win the Presidency, but I really think he's going to be President eventually, so maybe the sooner we get his term in office over with, the better.



• What's up with the upcoming Metallica album?
  
  The band has been pushing the release of this album further and further back, and now it's tentatively scheduled for release in September. Metallica doesn't have a title for the album yet. I call it Chinese Democracy 2 because I'm starting to doubt that it actually exists. And I'm kinda dreading it's release. I can't wait to hear it, I'll get it the day it comes out, and I'm sure I'll be totally disappointed in it for one reason or another. I've said before that for the past few years I've come to feel like Metallica's battered wife. They mistreat me, they never live up to their promises, but I stick with them because they used to be soooooo good to me! If you could only see what they're like when nobody else is around! Really, they're not who you think they are. Besides, we've been in therapy.



• What's up with Eliot Spitzer's call-girl?
  
  Hey, not for nothing, but the girl really isn't all that hot. And I wouldn't make mention of it, except that in her role as a call-girl I'd say that her looks were entirely relevant. It's not that she was ugly, it's just that she kinda reminds me of a poor man's Daisy Fuentes. And that can't have been worth it. If I'm the Governor of New York and I'm gonna risk losing everything and spend ... what was it? $5,000? On one night with a call-girl? Come on. She's gonna look a whole hell of a lot like Rhianna or Katharine McPhee and not a little bit like some washed-up former VJ from the '80's. (Preferably Rhianna ... 'cause ... damn.) This is gonna have to be a memory that'll last a life-time for my five-large. You know what I'm sayin'?



• What's up with the fruity-looking new five-dollar bill?
  
  OK, call me old-fashioned. Call me a troglodyte. (Please ... I like being called names.) Call me a curmudgeon .... but I like my five-dollar bills the way they were when I was a kid. Ugly. Green and wrinkled and marked with that simple, thumb-sized picture of Abe Lincoln's ugly mug.
  
  Ever since the government started messing with the money ten or twelve years ago I've had this vague feeling that we're all walking around with wallets full of pretend currency. And the newest version of the five dollar bill is the worst offender yet. It has purple on it. PURPLE! What is that all about? Can we please go back to real money and come up with a better way to discourage counterfeiting? Like maybe the weekly televised beating of counterfeiters. I personally would volunteer to beat a counterfeiter with a rake for ten minutes every week. Or maybe we just catch them and force them to wear purple.
  
  You know, if we all did our parts, we could probably get the government to go back to printing real money. Call or write to your congressman now and say "Yes! I'll beat a counterfeiter with a rake!" Tell them Darrell at SouthCon sent you.



• What's up with Edward Norton and Marvel?
  
  The promotion of ... and possibly the release of ... the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie is being pushed back because of Edward Norton feuding with Marvel over the final cut of the movie. Partly, I blame Marvel. Norton has had a reputation as a real S.O.B. for years ... and as the old Indian story goes, they knew he was a snake when they picked him up. (I'm assuming that Somebody at Marvel had final approval of the cast.) Either way, Norton is a brilliant actor when he gets it right, but Keeping The Faith indicated that, behind the camera, he ain't no Stanley Kubrick. My two cents: Norton needs to shut up and back out. He's done his job, now let those who handle the movie from here do their jobs.



• What's up with black political figures throwing the n-word around?
  
  Two recent instances, one right after the other, really jarred me. One instance involved Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who's being investigated for corruption and lying under oath. Now, to fend off the charges against him, Mayor Kilpatrick has dropped the N-Bomb and started talking about lynch mobs:
  

  
  Woah! Hey, hold on there a minute, pal! Who's been launching racist attacks on your family? Should't those people be prosecuted for making threats and/or for harassment? And what's that got to do with the charges against you, Mayor Kilpatrick?
  
  And then, right on the heels of that, there's this from Barack Obama's minister:
  

  Hey, wait, woah, WHAT?
  
  If I started listing things that are wrong with that I'd have to write for another three hours. And that's only the beginning of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's recent wacky remarks. And, make no mistake, this guy is an official member of Obama's campaign.
  
  Let me specifically mention the use of the n-word by these guys. Can we just stop with that? Please? For ages and ages that word was used by arrogant, ignorant white people as a way to keep black people down. Now we're having instances of certain black guys throwing that word up as a way to shut up scaredy-cat whites, to avoid the real issues, and to cancel all debate. What good does that do? Who benefits from that? Can we please grow the f*&# up, maybe? It's 2008, fer Pete's sake. When white-on-black racism is the actual topic, let's deal with it. But let's not use it as a way to avoid dealing with anything else. Not for nothin', but too many good, honest black people have really been victimized by racists for their struggles to be trivialized as a political bargaining chip.




• What's up with Spitball Politics?
  
  Well, I'll tell ya what's up with it. Spitball Politics is a new political blog that features the writing of (among others) Scott, the Spiritual Tramp in my blogroll. Stop by, check 'em out, leave a comment or two.

Labels: Entertainment, Media, Metallica, Movies, Music, News, Politics, Trivial Matters, You Tube

I haven't (yet) read Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, but it was recently capsulized in an issue of National Review, and I found the article both entertaining and fascinating.

The book isn't the kind of emotional smear that we Conservatives have gotten used to whenever the word fascism is used by liberals. If you oppose abortion, favor private gun ownership, or simply can't figure out how the words "gay" and "marriage" are supposed to be used in the same sentence, the liberals typically can't go two minutes of conversation without calling you a fascist. Goldberg's book isn't that kind of rhetorical hyperbole. It's an in depth, historical examination of the links between the fascism of Europe of the '30's and '40's and the liberalism of America today.

And there are a great many links. The two ideologies are, in fact, of one mind in many ways ... and there are a great many connections.

If you're interested, here are a couple of interesting articles on the book and the topic. It's really pretty cool to see the fascist skeletons hauled out of liberalism's closet this way.

Labels: Books, Media, News, Politics

Hat tip to Brooke, who linked to one of the videos below in a comment at Cube's blog.

Penn and Teller's Bullshit! is a darn good show. I don't always agree with the perspectives that Penn and Teller share on their program, but they always make their points extremely well and usually come up with rock-solid arguments.

Here's an instance where I do agree with them. Conspiracy theories are total bullshit. There are no alien corpses in Roswell ... The moon landing was not faked ... JFK was not assassinated by a cabal of Cubans, FBI agents and military-industrial-complex goons ... and, most importantly, 9/11 was NOT a government conspiracy. And (I do not make this statement lightly) if you disagree with any of that, then you are probably a f*&^%g moron.

The three YouTube videos below comprise the entire episode of Bullshit! that was dedicated to shooting down conspiracy theories. Especially the 9/11 troofers. The language is often harsh, but in this instance, I think that's appropriate.

Penn sums it all up pretty succinctly: The same government that couldn't successfully cover up a break-in in a DC hotel could NEVER manage to cover up any of the crazy crap that the conspiracy theorists believe.

Watch. Learn. Think. Remember. Don't be a f*@$%g moron.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

And hey, for what it's worth, here's what I think: People don't believe in God anymore. They just don't. Something like ... what, 80% of Americans ... claim to be Christian? The claim is nominal. People don't got to Church, don't pray, and really don't think much about God. But we're still hardwired to believe in something bigger than us. So people believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipresent government that really controls everything. Sure, these conspiracy theories seem silly to most of us, but it's a lot easier to swallow than the notion of a loving God. Right?

Labels: Entertainment, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

This is from the piece that Joseph Lieberman wrote at National Review Online regarding the death today of William F. Buckley:

I think it most fitting to end with a quote from President Reagan on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of National Review in 1985. Reagan said that when he picked up his first issue of National Review, he received it in a plain brown wrapper. Later on, he still anxiously awaited his biweekly edition, but no longer in a plain brown wrapper. But this is what Reagan said of Buckley: "You didn't just part the Red Sea. You rolled it back, dried it up and left exposed, for all the world to see, the naked desert that is statism. And then, as if that were not enough, you gave the world something different, something, in its weariness, it desperately needed — the sound of laughter and the sight of the rich, green uplands of freedom."

I've only been reading National Review for five years or so. In that five year period, Buckley's magazine has raised my standards as a reader. Turn to practically any page of any issue of the National Review and you'll find ideas that are worth considering and writing that's worth reading. The National Review is concise, clear, thoughtful, sometimes profound, and frequently funny. It has been the barometer of conservative thought in America since 1955. I don't know of a better publication.

National Review was Buckley's baby. Over the last few years, and particularly since the death of his wife last April, Buckley wrote less and less frequently for the magazine. He died today at the age of 82. I'm sure that his distinctive voice will always have a presence in the style and thought of those he influenced, in the pages of National Review and elsewhere.

Labels: Media, News, Politics

Clear Thinking About Obama

• I started saying that Hillary's PotUS campaign was coming apart back in July, 2005. As of now that's pretty much the consensus. Everybody has abandoned the Clintons. The Kennedy clan. The unions. The left-wing celebrities. The Democratic Party rank and file. They've all dropped Hillary like yesterday's leftovers and made the Obama switch.
  
  I've generally been happy with this since I despise the Clintons and I've thought for some time now that Obama seemed like a decent guy. But since it's become clear that he really is going to get the nomination, I've decided that I better take some time and learn a little more about him.
  
  Here's some of what I've learned:
  
  
  • When a baby actually survives a late term abortion and ends up alive and crying in the operating room, Obama wants the baby to be murdered. As a legislator he's cast three votes to have physicians kill children who survive abortion.
    
    Even Barbara Boxer thinks that goes too far.
    
    It's no wonder that Planned Parenthood loves the guy.
  
  
  
  • His image as a moderate who's tough on crime is … well, a crock:
    

    He voted against a bill that would add penalties for crimes committed as a part of gang activity and against a bill that would make it a criminal offense for accused gang members, free on bond or probation, to associate with other gang members. In 1999, he was the only state senator to oppose a bill that prohibited early prison release for criminal sexual offenders.

  
  
  • Obama has become the darling of the anti-war crowd by reminding us over and over again that he opposed the war in Iraq from the very start. But his opposition to the war wasn't because he saw things more clearly than the Bush administration. This is a passage from his book The Audacity Of Hope:
    

    "Like most analysts, I assumed that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and coveted nuclear arms," Obama wrote. "I believed that he had repeatedly flouted UN resolutions and weapons inspectors and that such behavior had to have consequences. That Saddam butchered his own people was undisputed; I had no doubt that the world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him."

    
    Before the war, Obama believed the same things about Saddam as everyone else, and yet he still opposed taking action. What the hell would it take for this guy to be willing to take military action against someone? I think he'd actually be a more limp-wristed leader than Bill Clinton was.
    
    Is this the guy you want in office if Iraq and/or Pakistan fall to al Qaeda?
  
  
  Some of the rumors going around on the net about Obama are simply untrue:
  

  
  Thankfully, his voting record as a legislator is easy to verify. And the more I learn about him, the more I find out what his principles really are, the more I realize I've been naïve to simply see him as a nice guy. This is a man who stands for a great many things I disagree with adamantly.
  
  Even his most loyal supporters sometimes have to admit that they don't really know what kind of man he is.
  
  I guess I better start getting more energized about McCain.

In Other News

• My friend The Governor hails from Wichita, Kansas. So he keeps me up to date on all the news in that part of the country. The Governor was the first person who ever mentioned BTK to me, and today he filled me in on the latest big story from the Air Capital Of The World:
  

  WICHITA, Kansas, Feb. 20, 2008 -- Wichita police say they’re working a case they don't often see: a man accused of having sex with a dog. And it’s not the first time the man’s been in this type of trouble.
  
  Twenty-year-old Joshua Coman is now in jail accused of having sex with a Rottweiler.
  
  “We don't see any cases like this,” said Lt. Sam Hanley with the Wichita Police Department. “I’d never seen any cases like this and I hope we don't see any more.”
  
  Justen Tracy says Coman lived with his family for a short time.
  
  Tracy says Coman called Wednesday night to say he was coming over to kidnap the dog. Shortly after that, the family caught him in the garage.
  
  "He's doing foul things with the dog and my mom flips on the garage light and he stops,” said Tracy.
  
  Coman was already on probation for similar charges in Reno County. Last September he pleaded no contest in a case involving a Rottweiler in Pretty Prairie.

  
  
  The first thing I thought while reading that story was "He did WHAT to a dog?" Then I read further and found myself thinking "It was a friggin' ROTTWEILER?"
  
  Like somehow that makes it worse. Like, sure, I can see sodomizing a Poodle or a Shar Pei, but not a Rottweiler, man.
  
  Then I read that he'd been in trouble with another Rottie before and I thought "This guy is really specific about what he's doing."
  
  And then I realized how much time I was spending thinking about this and I got a cold chill and felt nauseous.



• Earl Simmons goes by the nom-de-hip-hop DMX, and he's well known for being a pet lover and responsible citizen. Now comes news that he's working on a gospel record:
  
  

  Swizz Beatz recently revealed that DMX has linked up with Neptunes producer Pharrell to work on the gospel portion of his upcoming album.
  
  As reported earlier, DMX's upcoming album will be a double CD titled Walk With Me Now and You'll Fly With Me Later.
  
  Walk With Me Now will be his typical street themed album while Fly With Me Later will be a gospel album with no cursing.
  
  Swizz, who made the revelation to MTV News, will also be a part of X’s double project.

  
  
  Personally, I can't wait to hear DMX soliciting for Jesus. I've thought that he'd make a great gospel vocalist ever since I heard his song X Is Coming, in which he intimates the following:
  
  

  If you got a daughter older then 15, ima rape her
  Take her on the living room floor, right there in front of you
  Then ask you seriously, whatchu wanna do?
  Frustratin, isnt it? when they kill me, but ima kill you
  Now watch me f--k just a lil while longer, please, will you?

  
  
  Earl Simmons …. this generation's Mahalia Jackson.

Labels: Entertainment, Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube

Ted Koppel gave an interesting commencement speech at Duke University some years ago, and someone sent me an excerpt from the speech today. Snopes verifies the authenticity of the following, and you can read the entire speech at MediaWatch. The speech is largely concerned with the Ten Commandments.

I'll bold the good stuff. In part, Koppel said:

Look at MTV or Good Morning America and watch the images and ideas flash past in a blur of impressionistic appetizers. No, there is not much room on TV for complexity. You can partake of our daily banquet without drawing on any intellectual resources; without either physical or moral discipline. We require nothing of you; only that you watch; or say that you were watching if Mr. Nielsen's representative should call. And gradually, it must be said, we are beginning to make our mark on the American psyche. We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. "Shoot up if you must; but use a clean needle." "Enjoy sex whenever with whomever you wish; but wear a condom."

No. The answer is no. Not no because it isn't cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or dying in an AIDS ward -- but no, because it's wrong. Because we have spent 5,000 years as a race of rational human being trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval slime by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In the place of Truth we have discovered facts; for moral absolutes we have substituted moral ambiguity. We now communicate with everyone and say absolutely nothing. We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel and it is a television antenna. A thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy; in which everyone's opinion is afforded equal weight, regardless of substance or merit. Indeed, it can even be argued that opinions of real weight tend to sink with barely a trace of television's ocean banalities.

Our society finds Truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form Truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a hallowing reproach.

What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were.

The sheer brilliance of the Ten Commandments is that they codify, in a handful of words, acceptable human behavior. Not just for then or now but for all time. Language evolves, power shifts from nation to nation, messages are transmitted with the speed of light, man erases one frontier after another; and yet we and our behavior, and the Commandments which govern that behavior, remain the same. The tension between those Commandments and our baser instincts provide the grist for journalism's daily mill. What a huge, gaping void there would be in our informational flow and in our entertainment without routine violation of the Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt not murder.

There have always been imperfect role models; false gods of material success and shallow fame; but now their influence is magnified by television. I caution you, as one who performs daily on that flickering altar, to set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed. There is harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same direction, regardless of fashion or trend.

It's a thought-provoking speech. I'd almost call it a sermon, and a good one. Read it all at Media Watch, at the bottom of the page.

Labels: Faith, Media, News, Politics

Why is Romney out of the race while Obama and Hillary and Huck hang in there? Here's why:

Watch it twice. The second time just to read the crawl along the bottom of the screen.

Labels: Humor, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

Most years I don't really care at all about NFL football until the post season. If then. Frequently I don't care much about the NFL until the Super Bowl itself. This year I didn't care at all until the last 35 seconds of the season.

Congrats to the New York Giants for an amazing upset. I'm happy for 'em and their fans. And the Patriots sure don't have anything to be ashamed of, either. Heck, I like them, too. All around this was a heck of a game, and both teams really gave everyone their money's worth this year.

The best thing about this game was in the post-game stuff, when FOX was running those station promos that said "Congratulations, New York Giants! You just wont the Super Bowl!" I have this image in my head of producers behind the scenes at FOX, dumping the "Congratulations, New England Patriots!" promo and yelling "We need the other one! We need the other one!" That's the kind of thing that used to happen in radio all the time.

I have to work twelve hour shifts this week and won't be blogging much. You guys be good, I'll talk to you soon.

Labels: Entertainment, Media, News

Some of the best / worst / and most weirdest of what's around:

• The Write Jerry has launched a new site, Bent Sense. The new site is dedicated to news stories, products, celebrities and anything else that defies common sense. Stop by and check it out during the launch!



• MSNBC / Newsweek have posted a story advising Hillary Clinton's political opponents on the best ways to beat her. Of course, considering the source, it's no surprise that the story is really a pro-Hillary puff piece. The last piece of advice is to be grateful just to compete against her. After all, if you're gracious, she might invite you to the White House while she's president. Isn't that cute!
  
  I will be the Queen of Scotland before Hillary Clinton will be POTUS.



• Don Imus might be back on broadcast radio this September.



• MCF directed me to the following video: What would happen if Hitler's Xbox Live account were canceled? I apologize in advance for the language. It shouldn't be a surprise, though… after all, it's that a**hole Hitler.
  




• Oh No! Rapper Remmy Ma has been arrested for attempted murder!
  

  At her arraignment on Sunday, Remmy Ma pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other counts and a judge granted the prosecution's request for bail to be set at $250,000, according to The Associated Press. She was released from New York's Rikers Island prison after her manager put up his home as collateral, according to New York's Daily News.

  
  As you might imagine, after reading that shocking story I sat here asking myself "Who in the HELL is Remmy Ma?"



• From the "There Must Be A Better Way To Amuse Bulls" department:
  

  MADRID, Spain—Two American brothers were recovering on Friday from their serious injuries after they were gored during the bloodiest day yet at the San Fermin (Running of the Bulls) festival in the northeastern city of Pamplona.
  
  Lawrence Lenahan, 26, of Hermosa Beach, Calif. and his brother, Michael Lenahan, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa. were gored Thursday by a bull who strayed from the pack, turned around half way and charged the wrong way during the daily morning bull run. Thirteen people in total were injured and seven were gored, including the Lenahan brothers and other two men very seriously.
  
  Michael Lenahan, a sales executive for General Mills, was injured shortly before the bull ring—the end point of the daily runs—after the bulls horn entered beneath his skin in his right shin, causing him to recoil back, jaw open. The moment, caught on film, made the front page of several Spanish newspapers.

  
  
  Look, I recognize that everybody needs to get an adrenalin rush from time to time. Fine. I get it. But this is just dumb. I have a hard time feeling a lot of sympathy for people who get hurt doing something this dumb and dangerous. I get the impression that the Lenahan brothers weren't actually running, though. It sounds like they were just hanging out in close proximity to one of the most reckless, dangerous and stupid displays in human history.
  
  Are people so desperate for adrenalin that they've actually kept this stupid tradition alive this long?
  
  There is a less dangerous alternative: Every summer, usually toward mid August, I get the chance to engage in an annual festival while mowing my lawn. The festival is called "The Running Of The Hornets". Once a year I manage to push my lawnmower into a nest of hornets in my back yard. This always takes me by surprise, since I'm dumb. And since I'm always surprised, I always get a nice adrenalin rush as I dart away from the lawnmower, waving my arms and cursing and running to my basement door.
  
  Yeah, it's painful … but it's a lot better than a bullhorn through the gizzard.



• Go without checking the Onion for a few weeks and who knows what kind of wonderful things you'll miss:
  
  John Edwards Vows To End All Bad Things By 2011
  

  AMES, IA—In an effort to jump-start a presidential campaign that still has not broken into the top Democratic tier, former Sen. John Edwards made his most ambitious policy announcement yet at a campaign event in Iowa Monday: a promise to eliminate all unpleasant, disagreeable, or otherwise bad things from all aspects of American life by the end of his second year in office.
  
  "Many bad things are not just bad—they're terrible," said a beaming Edwards, whose "Only the Good Things" proposal builds upon previous efforts to end poverty, outlaw startlingly loud noises, and offer tax breaks to those who smile frequently. "Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

  
  
  This is the Onion, so it is satire. I think. I'm not sure, though … after all, this is the same candidate who really promised Americans that if they'd elect John Kerry in '04, quadriplegics would be able to walk again.

Wheeee!

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

What is it about cults that makes them so willing to prey on people when they're at their most vulnerable?

As reported elsewhere earlier this week, Scientology's Volunteer Vultures have descended upon the grief-stricken Virginia Tech campus.

VT senior Christie Weaver, a psychology major, confirmed their presence on Thursday, and was kind enough to send us some photographic evidence.

"Yeah, those f-----s are here," she said, noting that she "has not seen anyone speak to them because they wear these bright yellow shirts that say 'Scientology Volunteer Minister.' They stick out like sore thumbs, especially given that they look very LA'd out and we're in the mountains of Virginia."

On Friday, Weaver told Radar, "Yesterday they just walked around campus without being obtrusive, but today they set up a bright yellow tent about 100 yards from the memorial."

The tent, similar to the ones celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise routinely pitches on movie sets, have also been erected right next to the victims' memorial boards, so when aggrieved students come to pay their respects, they get accosted by the culties. "It's sick," says Weaver. "They can leave and take the media with them."

Scientology, of course, is the "religion" practiced by flakes with too much money and time on their hands, and it's based at least partially on the belief that, 75 million years ago, an alien named Xenu came to earth with a bunch of other aliens he'd captured, and that he blew them all up in a volcano with a hydrogen bomb.

So, yeah, I guess you'd need to stalk people while their emotionally vulnerable in order to get them to take you seriously.

Labels: Media, News

Good BYE, Rosie! Barbara Walters finally woke up and fired that overbearing, self-righteous, self-centered, idiotic, paranoid, trouble-making horses ass! Hopefully, that means I'll be able to listen to the radio for more than twenty minutes, or watch the news, or click on Google News now and then without hearing the latest insane prattle she's come up with. I don't give a damn how she's ended up leaving the show ... I don't care if I'm right and Barbara Walters finally got fed up ... I don't care if she's leaving because of a money dispute ... I don't care if the covert, black-ops government website called StopRosie.com finally accomplished their mission. I don't care. I'm just glad that our long national nightmare is over.

How in the world did such a despicable, repugnant, vile and hateful presence ever become a celebrity, anyway? No matter. She's on her way out. Hopefully we'll near nothing out of her for a few years.

Good riddance. Now I can go back to not watching The View in peace.

Labels: Media, News, You Tube

Yesterday I mentioned Joseph Parker, (joep152@aol.com) the ... ahem, entrepreneur, let's keep it at that ... who registered choseung-hui.com and other domains related to the massacre at Virgina Tech. He hopes to turn a profit in the neighborhood of a million bucks for that domain name. 'Round these parts, we call that blood-sucking.

I encouraged readers to send Joseph Parker e-mail (at joep152@aol.com) and let him know what you think about his attempt to cash in on the massacre of more than thirty innocent people ... and I did just that after I posted yesterday's entry. Well, guess what, folks? Joseph Parker (joep152@aol.com) actually answered my e-mail.

Here's the text of the quick note I sent yesterday:

Registering domain names like choseung-hui.com and vtmurders.com in the hopes of making a profit is a soulless, disgusting, reprehensible thing to do. I
wish you nothing but the worst of all possible luck in all of your endeavors.

And here's the response I got from Joseph Parker (at joep152@aol.com):

I know, Me, Time Inc, Forever & Memories, and Kingworld Entertainment are all scum. Now go Purchase a Another Car Magnet, MagnetAmerica's Stockholders are counting on you..

I got a grin out of that. I guess I might have gotten under his skin a bit. So I sent a response:

Actually, I don't own any car magnets, not that I've ever thought about them one way or the other. So you missed your guess in that regard, but I'd say that your assessment of yourself and other vultures is dead-on accurate. How does it feel to look in the mirror every day and see a parasite?

I'll update this post if I get a response.

According to The Roanoke Times, Joseph Parker (did I mention that his e-mail addy is joep152@aol.com?) has a website he's using to try to sell his recently purchased domain names. That site is The E Trader, and as of this writing it's "down for service." Here's hoping the service goes badly and he's never able to get back in business.

Oh, and speaking of parasites ... typically computer viruses are a terrible thing, of course, but I kinda like this one: There's an e-mail going around that promises the reader video footage of people being shot at VT ... and if they open it and try to run the attached program, called TERROR_EM_VIRGINIA.scr, they end up installing a trojan that sends their bank user names, passwords, etc, to the bad guys.

Good for the bad guys.

Labels: Media, News

I wrote the other night that the Virginia Tech killer … he and he alone … was responsible for the lives he took last Monday. I meant that then and I still mean it.

Nonetheless, culpability in the next (God forbid) mass murder might not be that clear cut … and there might be more shades of grey in the Virginia Tech tragedy than I've recognized.

What has me upset is NBC's reckless and irresponsible decision to air the Killer's "Multi-Media Manifesto," as they called it, and the fallout that the broadcast has caused. NBC did not have a legitimate news-related reason to air those pictures and video clips. They aired those clips purely to appeal to what Edgar Allen Poe called "The Imp Of The Perverse" in all of us. That's Poe's phrase for that dark little spot on the human psyche that makes people take a good long look at a bloody car crash, and that keeps websites like rotten.com in business, and that makes "reality TV" a sad reality.

NBC knew that people would tune in to see those clips, and that they could generate big-time advertising revenue by airing them. In the meantime, we learned nothing of consequence about the VT massacre. We already knew that the shooter was out of his mind based on what he did Monday morning. NBC's decision to air those video clips and photographs is the slimiest decision I can remember any TV network having made. Howard Beale himself wouldn't have broadcast that trash.

I think NBC needs to be held accountable. I don't know how, I don't know what method is appropriate, but I think that somebody should have to answer for this. Jobs should be lost, standards should be questioned, and lessons should be learned and remembered. NBC needs a wake-up call.

Just consider some of the following:

From Wired.com... quoting Dr. Jerald Kay, Chair of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on College Mental Health -- "There appears to be more evidence of copycat behavior in incidents such as the one at Virginia Tech than that of suicide contagion, which refers to the potential influence of reporting suicide in evoking similar experiences in others.

"It would be wise, therefore, not to repeatedly air the video tapes that NBC received. The potential gains are clearly outweighed by the potential dangers."

From the Daily Telegraph...even as the images (of the killer's "manifesto" were removed (from the airwaves), schools and colleges nationwide remained on high alert following a string of copycat scares.

Police across the country responded to threats on Thursday made by phone, email and even written on the bathroom wall all threatening a Virginia Tech-type attack.

In California's Yuba City, 36 schools were locked down as police searched for a man who threatened to go on a killing spree.

He reportedly claimed he would make the Virginia Tech rampage look mild and investigators said the suspect had an AK-47, bombs and poison.

From the Denver Post:… experts fear (that) other vulnerable, angry boys may try to copy or surpass Cho's massacre. As of Friday, the FBI counted 35 to 40 mostly school- based threats, with everything from bombs to guns to mere words, some leading to arrests.

"This is serious business. This is not a time for jokes, and it needs to stop," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, who said all must be investigated. "These threats are abhorrent and those that make them are subject to prosecution and serious prison time."

From the Herald Bulletin: “We keep fueling the contagion every time we show footage of Columbine-style kids jumping out the window,” said Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox. He and others also are troubled by references to the Virginia Tech massacre as setting a record for the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

Since then, some of the threats, including one in Yuba City, Calif., have mentioned attempts to shatter the Virginia Tech mark.

“These people are psychologically competing with each other to increase the body count,” Coleman said.

True, other TV news outlets aired the footage, and it's hit YouTube like wild fire, but the buck has to stop somewhere. NBC received the package from the killer, and before they turned it over to the FBI, they made copies of everything so that they could air it and create the most disturbing and macabre version of "news" imaginable.

Am I alone in my opinion, here? God knows I can be a crack-pot. Maybe that's what I'm doing now. Is this another of my nutty notions?

Are there others who agree with me? And, if so, what do we do? I don't believe in boycotts, I think they're silly … but what are our other options? Should we put on pressure for a congressional inquiry? Maybe a Rather-gate type of campaign by bloggers to address this? Or just a good old fashioned pissed-off letter writing campaign? Heck, I don't know. I just can't help but feel that somebody at NBC has some screwed up priorities and, as my grandmother used to say, somebody needs to "jerk a knot in their asses."

Oh, and by the way, there actually is scum out there worse than NBC. Take this guy that I learned about from Andrew Kantor: His name is Joseph Parker. As soon as he could, he jumped on the net last week and registered domain names like vtmurders.com and vtmurders.info with the hopes of selling them for a big profit. By the way, he also registered choseung-hui.com, and he's asking a million bucks for that prime piece of internet real estate. Real lovely guy, right? Here's his particulars:

Registrant:
Joseph Parker
320 Church St
Christiansburg, Virginia 24073
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: VTMURDERS.COM
Created on: 16-Apr-07
Expires on: 16-Apr-08
Last Updated on:

Administrative Contact:
Parker, Joseph joep152@aol.com
320 Church St
Christiansburg, Virginia 24073
United States
(540) 381-3888

Technical Contact:
Parker, Joseph joep152@aol.com
320 Church St
Christiansburg, Virginia 24073
United States
(540) 381-3888

Maybe he needs some e-mail and/or phone calls from those of us who think that profiting off of mass murder isn't so nice.

Labels: Media, News

FRIDAY, APRIL 20: UPDATED BELOW ... SEE SECTION ON WAYNE CHAING (RUSH TO JUDGEMENT).


I basically took SoutCon black for a few days out of respect for those who died at Virginia Tech, but I've been following the story. I'm not really surprised, but I am disgusted by the number of people who want to turn this into a political issue and use it like some kind of trump card for this or that cause. That includes people on both sides of any given political issue, and includes people I'd otherwise agree with. Then there's the media and the politicians. As much as a crisis can bring out the best in people, it can also bring out the worst.

Out Of The Woodwork They Crawled

On the way home from work Monday night, I turned on AM radio in time to hear this brief quip, which was, as best as I can remember it:

"…not saying that the thirty-two people who died at Virginia Tech shouldn't be mourned, but when you compare it to the thousands and thousands of babies who have been aborted in this country…"

I immediately turned the radio back off and just sat there and seethed. Look, you're not going to find a stronger opponent of abortion on demand than me, but hearing some nut on the radio use this crisis as an excuse to trumpet the cause turned my stomach. It's disrespectful and trivialized both the murders at tech and the sad reality of abortion. I just wanted to reach through the radio and smack the guy.

The Media Virus

The broadcast media is an inexcusable, intolerable group of vultures and I'm disgusted with the way they've been trying to wring every drop of blood out of this story.

I can't think of a good reason for the airing of the now infamous cell phone video. It wasn't really news, in that it didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know. Shots were being fired and the situation on campus was chaotic. We knew that. However, there is a huge contingent among the "reality TV" obsessed hordes out there who want to see things like this, just for the quick, dirty, temporal thrill of it. So everything that the news outlets can broadcast that will make us feel like we're "in the middle of the action" makes it to the airwaves.

And I'm just as disgusted with NBC's decision to broadcast so much of Cho Seung-Hui's "multimedia manifesto," as they called it. What did we learn from the rambling, disjointed video clips and creepy photographs that NBC aired? That Cho was a lunatic. After Monday morning, the whole world already knew that. NBC did not broadcast those clips because they were news. NBC broadcast those clips to appeal to the puerile sensibilities of today's "Reality-TV" viewers. NBC's decision was irresponsible and repugnant, and we can only hope that it wasn't an encouragement to some other Cho-like lunatic, just as the media's milking of the Columbine massacre was an encouragement to Cho himself.

Blame Games

Of course, the blame games were taken up before the victims had all even been identified.

It seems like every squawking moonbat with an agenda to pound has someone else to blame for one deranged man's actions. There's always someone else who's responsible; somebody besides the s*n*fab*tch who pulled the trigger.

Of course, the anti-gun lobby, who sit poised in front of the TV waiting for stories like this, couldn't wait to start blaming America's "gun culture." The Unseen Blogger soundly refutes the basics of the anti-gun stance on this tragedy, and I encourage you to read his post. But what it comes down to is this: Cho spent weeks planning to murder as many people as possible, and that can be done without guns. In fact, there are gun-free ways to kill even more people than Cho killed. Just ask Tim McVeigh. Somehow, the "Guns Are The Root Of Evil" crowd, and most of Europe's elites, manage to forget that.

Then there were those who blamed Tech's administration itself. Why was there such a delay in announcing that the first killings of the day had happened? Well, as it turns out, the authorities thought that the were following the correct lead off-campus. Ironically, the innocent man whom they thought might have been responsible for the first killings was targeted by the authorities partly because he is a law-abiding gun-owner.

Then there's Cho's supposed Islam connection, a connection made with the thinnest of threads. In my opinion, emphasizing the "Muslim name" he adopted on the day of the killings isn't appropriate. It trivializes both the war against Islamo-Fascism and the Virginia Tech massacre. Cho was a violent nutcase and he started using what he believed to be a Muslim name simply to be as inflammatory as possible. Simple as that.

Politicians

How about my current candidate for Democratic Party Scumbag Number One, Barack Obama: It's hard for me to believe that he actually had the gumption to say this in response to the Tech tragedy:

"There's also another kind of violence that we're going to have to think about. It's not necessarily the physical violence, but the violence that we perpetrate on each other in other ways...

...the violence of men and women who have worked all their lives and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them because their job is moved to another country."

He also referenced the "verbal violence" of Don Imus.

Word's can't begin to describe the disrespect and the detachment that the idiot Obama showed with those remarks. I can only hope that Virginia's Governor, Tim Kaine, had Obama in mind when he said this:

"Look, I think that people who want to take this within twenty-four hours of the event and make this their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them. This is not a political hobby horse or a crusade or something for a campaign or a fundraising mailing."

I didn't vote for Tim Kaine … but the ol' boy sure made me proud with that statement.

Screw College Sports

And speaking of "ol' boys," let me make this disclosure about Virginia Tech and my own experiences. If you've read this blog before, you know that I've never been a Tech fan. I'm embarrassed by the way that the Tech football team's spotlight players conduct themselves, and I believe that they make all Virginians look bad. I'm also embarrassed by the way the school coddles them and lets them get away with all kinds of stuff. Still, my interest in bashing Tech for those kinds of things has pretty much dissipated as a result of this tragedy.

I work with and know a number of very hard-core college sports fans; people who obsess about college football and basketball. I long ago accepted that college sports is to rednecks what religion and politics are to the rest of us. Fine. Whatever. Nonetheless, I've been surprised this week by the number of people I've talked to who're primarily concerned with how this tragedy will effect the football and basketball seasons and the ACC in general. What has to be wrong in somebody's mind to make them see college friggin' sports as the priority in an instance like this? I've had to quietly bite the inside of my lip several times this week in order to keep myself from shouting "---- you and your football, people have been MURDERED, you moron!".

Rush To Judgment

I also heard about the story of Wayne Chiang, a Virginia Tech student who fell under close scrutiny Monday night when his blog and facebook page were singled out by Media Whore Extraordinaire Geraldo Rivera. At that point, the killer's identity still wasn't known by the public, but Rivera was ready to convict Wayne Chaing because Wayne

• is a Chinese American.


• is an enthusiastic gun collector.


• recently broke up with his girlfriend.


• is a Virginia Tech student.

Geradildo and others on the net were sure that Wayne was the killer, but the were wrong. Wayne is yet another law-abiding and responsible gun collector who wouldn't dream of committing the crimes that Cho committed.

Now I want to know … where's the outcry against racial profiling in this case? Was Wayne labeled a killer simply because of his race? Or was it the continuous and aggressive liberal misunderstanding of the mindset of law-abiding gun collectors that got Wayne accused? Either way, where are the apologies? Why did Wayne have to go public himself to clear his name because of so many people who just couldn’t wait for the official word from the police?

FRIDAY, APRIL 20 UPDATE: The garbage Wayne Chaing has had to put up with continues: CTV News has broadcast not one, but TWO pictures of Wayne, identifying him as Cho. I thought I'd seen the media at it's most irresponsible this week, but this absolutely takes the friggin' cake.

By the way, watch this CTV Interview With Wayne, if you want to call it an interview. It really amounted to a reporter asking variations on the question "Don't you know guns are bad, you dummy?" ... and Wayne responding as intelligently as possible when confronted with such abject ignorance. The real point, though, is this: if this interview was taped (as I believe it was) PRIOR to the story that identified pictures of Wayne Chaing as Cho, how did his real identity slip through the cracks?

Bottom Line

Look, it comes down to this: Cho Seung-Hui's was an insane, creepy, death-obsessed nutcase who scared teachers and students alike, and ultimately lashed out with terrible violence and took many lives. He and he alone is accountable for his crimes. Cho's cowardly suicide robbed us of the cold satisfaction of holding him accountable ... but it isn't necessary to look around and find a living person to take to task. Rest assured, Cho Seung-hui will answer for his actions in a far Higher Court than any on Earth.

------------------------

PS: You can discuss and read more here.

Labels: Media, News, Personal, Politics

Well, it looks like Imus got himself fired, regardless of the Rutgers team having accepting his apology. I think there are some lessons to be learned here, and they would include:

• Just because you've been paid to say outrageous, offensive, idiotic things for thirty years doesn't mean you won't be fired for doing it by the same people who've been paying you to do it. This is, after all, a world that takes Al Sharpton seriously for some reason.



• White men who repeat phrases they probably learned from gangsta rap don't seem "cool." They seem stupid.



• Certain words change meaning, depending on who is saying them. The "n-word" expresses respect and friendship when a black man says it, but it expresses bigotry and hate when a white man says it. The word "Ho" is a slur if Don Imus says it, but high-art when Snoopity Doggy Dog says it. If you ever hear a broadcast or a recording wherein a speaker uses the "n-word" and you're unsure of the speaker's race, the safest thing to do is kill yourself.



• Words can cause a lot of pain. Especially if they're written in one of those giant books that wizards always seem to have and dropped on your head from a great height.

And so, in honor of Don Imus, and as a reminder that there are certain things that you can just never, ever, ever say in public, for any reason, ever, no matter what, I'll wrap up the week with this offensive and crude clip from South Park:

(I gotta come up with a label for embedded video other than You Tube, since this one and others I embed aren't from You Tube. In the meantime, I'll stick with the same old label. Have a good weekend, everyone.)

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

If you don't know, Don Imus is in trouble for an off-hand remark he made about the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team. This remark here, to be specific:

Imus's remark, which was more silliness than anything else, has resulted (oh, joy) in the coining of a new media phrase: Diversity fatigue. Whatever the hell that is.

Back when I worked in radio, I was, for about a year, a local affiliate producer for the Imus program. I listened to Imus every morning for a year, and even talked to him on his program three or four times. I'd upload the one conversation with him that I saved on tape, but I don't know where it is. Anyway, that's my full disclosure. I sorta kinda used to work for Imus.

I'll also disclose that I enjoyed his program back then, and although I haven't heard much of it in the last ten or twelve years, I'm sure I'd still enjoy it. Don Imus invented the "Shock Jock" thing. He's been doing it for forty years, since Howard Stern was still messing in his diapers. What's more, Imus does the "Shock Jock" thing better than anyone else, in my opinion. His remarks are frequently off-color and in bad taste, but with regard to content, his program gives listeners more to actually think about than any of the other similar programs. Imus is rude and crass and idiotic, but he's not dumb, if you catch my drift.

Of course, since Imus's Rutgers remark, there's been a chorus from the left to the effect that he should be taken off the air. For all their talk about free speech, the leftists sure do want to censor anyone they don't agree with. But, then, what should anyone expect from the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Those two idiots have made careers out of perpetuating the myth of current-day black victimhood. If they don't act like Imus's remark was the modern equivalent of a lynching, people might get the idea that it was just (gasp!) an inconsequential, stupid remark. God forbid!

Having said all that, I'll also say that I'm disgusted with Imus because of one single aspect of this whole debacle: Imus actually apologized to Al Sharpton on Sharpton's radio program.


Nobody who wants to be taken seriously should ever apologize for anything to scum like Al Sharpton. Here are a few reasons why:

• Number One: Big Al rose to fame back in 1987 by charging that New York prosecutor Steve Pagones "on 33 separate occasions" had "kidnapped, raped and abused" Tawana Brawley…. Pagones sued and won a $65,000 judgment for defamation. In 1988, a grand jury concluded Brawley "was not the victim of forcible sexual assault" and the whole thing was a hoax. In 2002, when Sharpton was asked if he'd apologize to Pagones, Sharpton replied: "Apologize for what? For believing a young lady?"


• Number Two: In 1991, a 7-year-old black child was killed in a Crown Heights (Brooklyn) traffic accident when a car driven by a Hasidic Jew went out of control. Sharpton showed up to lead protests, calling Jews "diamond merchants" and saying, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."


• Number Three: "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business," Sharpton said in a 1995 Harlem controversy over a Jewish storeowner who had a conflict with a black rival neighbor. A protester in that case eventually shot his way through the store and burned the place down, killing eight people.

For my money, Jason Whitlock says it best:

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.


While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

Look, it's not like there aren't any good black role models out there. Black or white, you'd be crazy not to admire the acomplishments and drive of folks like Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Steele. Meanwhile, who gets all the media attention? Al Sharpton, Allen Iverson and Flava Flav. With help from "brothas" like them, "Whitey" doesn't need any help from Imus to "keep the black man down."

Labels: Media, News, Politics, You Tube

George Allen conceded today, and I'm glad. The election is officially behind us now. I'd hoped that the Senator would offer an apology to all of his supporters, the ones he'd let down by running a terrible, misguided, petty campaign. You know, supporters like me … but he didn't. He did, however, concede gracefully, saying, in part:

"I do not wish to cause more rancor for a recount that in my judgment would not alter the results… I see no good purpose served by continuously and needlessly spending money and causing any more personal animosity…

Sometimes winds, political or otherwise, can blow the leaves off a deep-rooted tree. Stay standing."

There's something admirable about a graceful and upbeat concession speech. I had to admit two years ago that I was impressed by John Kerry's concession speech, when he said:

" Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and Independents who stood with us, and everyone who voted no matter who their candidate was…

So with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I have come to know our vast country so much better thanks to all of you, and what a privilege it has been to do so.

That prayer is very simple: God bless America. Thank you."

It was a rare moment of raw, honest humility from a guy who simply isn't known for being humble, and I appreciated it. It almost made me feel bad for having superimposed his image into Doom 3 a day or two before.

Concession speeches like Allen's, and like Kerry's, make it all the more obvious what a sore loser and big brat Al Gore was in 2000. For starters, he drug us through, what? About 90 pointless recounts? And then, when he finally got around to admitting that his lawyers couldn't figure out a way to finagle him into the White House, he gave a "concession speech," during which he said:

"What now? Let me tell you what now. I'm gonna call a couple of hard, pipe-hitting n****rs who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talking, hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm gonna get medieval on your ass."

Oh, no, wait … I'm sorry. That was actually Marsellus Wallace's concession speech.



What Al Gore actually said was, in part:

"The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College...

I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too...

And now, my friends, in a phrase I once addressed to others: it's time for me to go."

He then sulked off screen in slow, shuffling steps with which his feet never left the ground, head hung as far down as possible, and lower lip puffed out until it was actually touching his tie. Poor, poor, poor Al.

Luckily, he's found a new career in Hollywood. His production, An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, is the most entertaining and important Power Point presentation ever. Many people who've seen it report having watched all of it.

Anyway, goodbye, George. Thanks for the memories.

And you better keep straight, Jim. We're watching you. If you succumb to the liberal culture in DC, we'll remember it in six years.

Meanwhile, if Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, or Michael Steele of Maryland, would like to try their luck in Virginia, we'd be happy to have them.

And now for something completely different. Comedian Brian Posen's ode to modern metal, Metal By Numbers. This comes to SouthCon courtesy of my pal, The Governor:

Labels: Media, Michael Steele, News, Politics, You Tube

9:30 PM or so...

I gotta crash … it's early yet, but I have to get up super mega-early.

Just a few things …

• It looks like Joe Lieberman is holding on in Connecticut. Good. Let's hope it's a message to the Democrats. This far-left crap isn't working. Besides, I like Joe Lieberman and I'm glad to see that twisting the knife into his back has backfired on the Democrats in Connecticut.



• If the projections on Fox News turn out to be accurate, I want to extend my sympathy to my friends in Pennsylvania. You're losing a damn good man in the Senate … but he's also young and he's too tough to wilt and die. He'll be back somehow, someday.



• Fox News, by the way, is making me CRAZY! I hate it when they do the early projections, for one thing. For another, the crawl along the bottom keeps changing. One minute they're saying that it's 1% of the precincts in Virginia reporting … the next minute it's 4% … then, the next minute, it's 1%. WTF?



• Speaking of Fox News, Bill Krystol gave a succinct and perfect explanation of why George Allen is struggling so badly in a Senate race that should have been a cake-walk. He's run a bad campaign. He's campaigned with personal attacks against Jim Webb instead of focusing on the issues and the ideology. It's been painful to watch the Allen campaign struggle this way. As I prepare to hit the sack, it's still neck-n-neck. I have no idea who'll be my Senator when I wake up early in the morning.



• The very sight of Charles Schumer makes me want to punch him.



• Did you know that Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd were up for reelection this year? Did you care? Me neither.



• Howard Dean looked so restrained talking to Chris Wallace! Hillary has him on a short leash. I got the feeling that there were electrodes taped to his inner thigh ... one slightly moonbat phrase and Howard would have gotten a good jolt from the junior Senator from New York.



• I love Michelle Malkin ... but she just isn't that hot when you actually see her on TV.



• Corker looks solid, that's good. The other race I'm following, Michael Steele, is doing well early on. With one or two percent reporting in Maryland, Steele is actually leading. Of course, Fox is STILL calling the race for Cardin based on the polls, which pisses me off and has Wendy yelling at the TV.

Really, I gotta crash.

Dude, for political junkies like me, the first Tuesday in November is the Super Bowl … especially for political junkies who don't care about sports. When it's a Presidential race it's the Super Bowl and the World Series rolled into one. WHEEEEEEEE!

Labels: Media, Michael Steele, News, Politics

• Otis's Stupid Girlfriend
  
  Bad news about the girlfriend of my gay friend Otis: Scarlett Johansson has signed a record deal and may have an album on the shelves by next year.
  
  This puts Scarlett on the list of actors and models who've recorded groundbreaking, awesome, enduring music. I, for one, can't imagine going more than a week without listening to the work of musical geniuses such as Minnie Driver, Naomi Campbell, Eddie Murphy, Paris Hilton, John Travolta, William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy, Jamie Foxx, Lindsay Lohan, Tony Danza, Jennifer Love Hewett, Joey Lawrence, Hilary Duff, Bruce Willis, Patrick Swayze, porno star Tracy Lords, Russell Crowe, Gwyneth Paltrow, Billy Bob Thornton, Tracy Ullman, Kevin Bacon, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr., Steven Segal (really, and his album cover is priceless), Peter Gallagher, Keanu Reeves's and his rockin' band Dogstar, Corey Feldman, and, of course, David Hasslehoff. Whoo hoo. Yay.
  
  What's worse, this empty blonde is recording an album of TOM WAITS material. Tom Waits, of course, is one of the best songwriters ever.
  
  If Scarlett even attempts a single song from my favorite Tom Waits album, Bone Machine, I will track her down and smack her.



• Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Marketer
  
  I also saw this great video at Otis's blog:
  




• Positive Political Ads
  
  Hot Air gives props to a few political ads that are not only positive but actually try to be harmlessly funny. Political ads, of course, usually turn into a mud-slinging competition. Right now in Virginia there's an extremely ugly battle going on between Senator George Allen and his challenger, Jim Webb. It might, in fact, be the nastiest political battle I've ever seen. It's nice to see a few ads that aren't blatant smear campaigns. And it's nice, too, to see my current favorite politician (Maryland's Michael Steele) in the mix as well.



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