Click and tell Doug how smart he is.
Click and tell Zilla the same.
A Halloween "treat" only Michelle Obama could love:
Meet Scarrots -- baby carrots in a Halloween-themed bag. They're a treat perhaps only Bunnicula could love. You might as well put a sign on your house that reads: "Please egg us." This may be worse than giving out pennies or a toothbrushes.Yup. Kids who get baby carrots have a legal right to vandalize your house.
I don't really have anything that could top last year's humiliating dog costume post, but we carved a couple of pumpkins yesterday:
No time this morning so enjoy Doug Ross's photo essay of yesterday's, er, Sanity Rally.
Most recent posts here.
Read your Mark Steyn. It's so good and so good for you. From Sovereignty and Territory:
What Judge Bolton in Arizona and Judge Walker in California have in common and share with Mayor Bloomberg’s observations on opposition to the Ground Zero mosque is a contempt for the people. The rationale for reversing the popular will in all three cases is that the sovereign people are bigots. In Arizona, they’re xenophobic. In California, they’re homophobic. In New York, they’re Islamophobic. Popular sovereignty may be fine in theory but not when the people are so obviously in need of “re-education” by their betters. Over in London, the transportation department has a bureaucrat whose very title sums up our rulers’ general disposition toward us: “Head of Behavior Change.”!
What is happening on the southern border is the unmaking of America. And if a state under siege cannot pass even the mildest law of self-defense, what then are its options?Americans need to think about where this is all heading. Read the rest.
The president was a lot quicker on the draw in responding to this terrorist attempt than he was last year to the underpants bomber. Do you think the impending election might have anything to do with the new attitude? Message: I care about national security.
This statement may rub long-term unemployed Americans the wrong way:
Going forward we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Yemeni government to disrupt plotting by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to destroy this Al-Qaeda affiliate. We’ll also continue our efforts to Yemen so that terrorists groups do not have the time and space they need to plan attacks from within its borders.Well, if they're anything like his efforts "to strengthen a more stable, secure and prosperous" US, may heaven help us all. (How do you say "create or save" in Arabic?)
But he certainly finds the voters revolting. The Boston Herald on HRH John Kerry, who's beginning to feel the ground beneath his feet trembling:
Yes, the commonwealth’s senior senator engaged in what can only be described as a 40-minute whine-fest at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce appearance yesterday, customizing congressional Democrats’ pre-election talking points for a local audience.It's just too vulgar.
He complained at length that his party isn’t getting the credit it deserves for rescuing the economy - indeed the very nation - ever since a “pale and agitated” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson came to Democrats begging for a Wall Street bailout in the fall of 2008. [. . .]
“It’s absurd. We’ve lost our minds,” Kerry said. “We’re in a period of know-nothingism in the country, where truth and science and facts don’t weigh in. It’s all short-order, lowest common denominator, cheap-seat politics.”
Well knock me over with a feather. Who could have known that fearful, fussy, sensitive babies need their mothers?
NEW YORK — Day care may prevent certain children from establishing a healthy relationship with their parents, a new study suggests.Daycare workers are hirelings who neither love nor know their charges. That's not their fault; they aren't their parents. Some daycare employees like kids a lot, which helps, and others aren't crazy about dealing with kids all day, but prefer it to the alternative: manning the fry machine at MacDonald's.
The results show the more time fussy, irritable infants spend in day care, the less likely they are to develop a so-called secure attachment with their mothers. A secure attachment means babies are at ease exploring their surroundings, but can still seek comfort from their mom when they need to — they are not clingy or aloof.
From a glass half-full perspective, the findings also mean irritable infants do better when they're mostly cared for by their parents or other family members.
"People have always thought of irritable, difficult babies as being more likely to have poor outcomes if they have stresses," said study researcher Beth Troutman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa.
"But the other side of that is that they're more likely to have good outcomes if they have more positive supportive environments," Troutman told LiveScience.
"So it's not just that having them in day care is a risk, but also that irritable babies really benefit from spending time with family members.
You couldn't find a better cause. From Cassy Fiano:
So far, Project Valour-IT has provided over 4100 voice-activated laptops to wounded veterans. They also provide Wii game systems to help build motivation and speed recovery through whole body game systems, and handheld GPS devices to help wounded vets regain confidence and independence.She's biased, being married to one. My late father was a Marine, too. But if that's not enough, see Cassy for ten more reasons to give to the Marine team. You can use the handy Give Now button on the right sidebar. Thanks in advance.
This is truly a great charity that deserves our help. So won’t you please donate a little to give to the warriors who sacrifice so much for us? Our goal this year is for each team to raise $15,000 by the end of the campaign, which is November 11th.
And of course, if you do decide to donate, you should of course donate to the Marine team. We’re usually one of the smallest teams, but we have the most heart!
The Troglopundit has kindly warned me that I might want to purge my little blog of incriminating links: it seems that bloggers link to Mark Steyn at their own risk. In Canada, that is. BlazingCatFur is being sued and could use your support. I can't very well de-Steyn this blog; I'm afraid there wouldn't be much left. And anyway, it's a hard habit to break. So I'm linkin' again:
Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt:
MS: . . . What is at issue at this election, I think, is whether the people are still sovereign, whether they can still, through…whether the system is still responsive to change through the normal democratic means, or whether, as in, and this is where the Juan Williams bit comes in, we now live in a more conventional Western society like they do in Continental Europe, where the elites simply decide what the acceptable positions are, and issue their instructions to their knuckle-dragging electorates, and say take it or leave. That’s what’s going to happen. And I think in that sense, the Juan Williams thing does play into a lot of what’s going to be happening on Tuesday.On this year's Christmas record:
HH: Now that knuckle-dragging electorate, if we judge by the collection of polls, not any particular one, is going to turn out en masse on the conservative side. But we’ve already heard this narrative begin, it’s about the money. But Mark Steyn, it’s not about the money, and it’s never been about the money. And in fact, the left is outspending the right again.
MS: Yes, that’s true. And I think this is what’s fascinating. And the voter fraud is already underway, soldiers serving overseas have been deprived of their ballots, all the usual stuff is going on. The attacks ads are going on. The only difference is that this time, to use a certain book title that somebody once wrote, if it’s not close, they can’t cheat. And your book title is even more relevant this time than it was last time around, Hugh, because the victory on Tuesday has to be beyond the margin of lawyer, not just for the good of the Republican Party, but for the health of American democracy. I seriously do believe that what a lot of events have in common, a federal judge striking down Arizona law, another judge in California striking down a ballot initiative by the Californian people. Now, we’re seeing attempts, in effect, to insulate the Democratic Party and the establishment from popular accountability by whatever means necessary, even if it comes to faking the poll results. What all these issues have in common is that they cumulatively, they’re telling the American people that the system is not responsive to democratic change, is not responsive to the popular will to the sovereignty of the people. And if you do that often enough, you are in big trouble as a stable, functioning society.
HH: I have not yet seen the release, Mark Steyn, of the Christmas album.Now who's teasing?
MS: Oh, you keep teasing me about this, Hugh. I may have had no time for it this year. I mean, I may have been too busy working on my Groundhog Day single. You never know.
At about 5:30 in:
Oops. Obama didn't laugh along with Stewart and his audience.
The Right Scoop has the entire interview.
Most recent posts here.
HuffPo reports:
The invitees fall more under the rubric of ideological or issue-oriented activists as opposed to online reporters, though the names are familiar to most political junkies. An administration official confirmed that Joe Sudbay of AMERICABlog; Duncan Black ("Atrios"), who runs the site Eschaton; Barbara Morrill, who writes for the DailyKos; Jon Amato, who is the founder of Crooks and Liars; and Oliver Willis, who runs an eponymous site, spoke with the president on Wednesday. [. . .]Emphasis added. Obama continues to make his priorities clear. And they don't mesh well with the priorities of the majority of Americans.
Obama's outreach on Wednesday could be about ginning up enthusiasm in the closing days of the election. But it also seems likely to be an effort at pre-scripting the online narrative about the election's fallout.
President Obama has been running around the country trying to reelect Democrat members of Congress.Obama's not listening. He's too busy trying to mitigate and spin his own political failures. (H/t: J-Ru)
But if the conversations I’ve had with voters are any indication, the president should spend less time campaigning to save the jobs of Democrats in Congress, and more time trying to create jobs for the American people.
From The decrepitude of liberty:
The other day, in a strikingly whiney speech even by his recent standards, Obama pleaded that he was merely the President, not the King. Well, how did large numbers of people such as young Miss Bethea get so confused on that point? For both the ruling class and a huge number of its subjects, it is not just routine but (as Obama suggested) somehow admirable to look to central government to supply your basic needs – shelter, sustenance, clothing, medication, painless sedatives both pharmaceutical and figurative. To Ty’Sheoma Bethea and her school chums, it sounds liberating: If the benevolent state takes care of all your needs, you’re free to concentrate on “changing the world”. In reality, you’ve already changed it – from a state of raw, messy liberty to one on the path to despotic insolvency. What would be the price of a gallon of paint once it’s been routed through a massive federal education bureaucracy?Emphasis added. Read the whole thing.
Good morning. I've written something on parenting for RightNetwork:
Still Using "Carrot and Stick" Parenting? And . . . is it working yet?
So take a break from politics and come argue about discuss the best way to raise kids.
Previous RN pieces:
On Civility
Raising Children to be Readers
Most recent posts here.
A prediction from a reader/friend:
Short of election fraud, free dinner coupons at Red Lobster for democrat voters or a free ticket to Patriots football games I think Bielat pulls it off, Jill.http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/
"But Bielat, a retired Marine, led among independents, 41 percent to Frank's 26 percent. Almost half of Bielat's supporters, 46 percent, said they were "excited about November," compared to just 33 percent of Frank's backers who gave the same answer."Bielat predicts victory, too, pointing out that the Globe showed Scott Brown down 15 points a week before his 6-point win. Bielat is a practically perfect candidate. And there must be more than a few Massachusetts voters who wouldn't mind seeing Barney go away, though they may not be inclined to say it out loud. Stay tuned.
Laura Bush on life after the White House:
"When you're married to the President of the United States, you don't worry too much about him leaving his wet towels on the floor," Mrs. Bush said. "But in Dallas, things are different. Memo to the ex president, turmoil in East Timor is no longer an excuse not to pick up your socks."It's hard not to like Laura Bush, isn't it? Then there's Joy Behar, whose recent vulgar attack on Sharron Angle seems to have backfired: “We had a major fundraising surge today. I can only imagine it was directly in response to Joy Behar’s comments,” said an Angle campaign spokesman.
Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine screen displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked. He cleared the screen and tried again with the same result, he said. Then he asked for and received help from election staff.See Nice Deb for a collection of similarly disturbing stories, including a report that teachers unions are offering gift cards for Reid votes in Nevada. And see RedState for how they do it in Illinois.*
“They pushed it twice and the same thing happened,” Laughinghouse said. “That was four times in a row. The fifth time they pushed it and the Republicans came up and I voted.”
There’s no greater compliment you can pay to chefs than by talking about dog s*#t just before everybody eats and then skipping out on the meal they cancelled their prior engagements in order to serve you.He got what he came for and it wasn't a painstakingly prepared dinner showcasing locally grown food, something the White House loves to pay lip service to.
Let’s read that line again: “The Hill’s data confirm other public polling and expert predictions, some of which put the historic wave even higher than the 52 seats Democrats lost in 1994 and the 71 they lost in 1938.”And also via JG, the weather forecast for election day calls for rain in the eastern half of the country, giving the apathetic (read "democrat") another excuse not to bother showing up at the polls.
Herseth Sandlin and Pomeroy are each at 45 percent, and Hill is at 46 percent. They may lead in these polls, but I wouldn’t have their Washington office staffs buy too many green bananas.
The North Dakota Democrat, unable to defend his record, goes for the pity vote:
Just sad.
See Jim G for commentary.
Most recent posts here.
Here's Obama trying to get out the hispanic vote, using a combination of self-exculpatory excuse-making, malicious distortion of the motives of his opponents, and condescension toward his audience. Unreal.
Obama on Univision:
But the most important thing that we can do is to change the law because the way the system works -- again, I just wanna repeat, I'm president, I'm not king. If Congress has laws on the books that says that people who are here who are not documented have to be deported, then I can exercise some flexibility in terms of where we deploy our resources, to focus on people who are really causing problems as a opposed to families who are just trying to work and support themselves. But there's a limit to the discretion that I can show because I am obliged to execute the law. That's what the Executive Branch means. I can't just make the laws up by myself. So the most important thing that we can do is focus on changing the underlying laws. That requires Congress to cooperate. As I've said before, I've got the majority of Democrats who are ready to make those changes, but we are gonna need some help from the other side and that's where our focus has to be. [. . .]I've got no time to comment but would appreciate yours.
And so the problem that we have is, is that until I can get some cooperation from the other side, then people who are anti-immigration reform can continue to block it. And that's why this election coming up is so important because we essentially have to say that those who are politicizing the issue, who are supportive of the Arizona law, who talk only about border security but aren't willing to talk about the other aspects of this, who don't support the Dream Act, who are out there engaging in rhetoric that is divisive and damaging that -- those aren't the kinds of folks who represent our core American values. [. . .]
And if Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, we're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us, if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2.
Busy morning here, so I'll just throw out a few things:
Another cheery piece from Mark Steyn, who asks, "What if we’ve run out of “next”?"
Nicole Russell on Michelle's Freedom Fries:
None of this is of any concern to Mrs. Obama, who proceeds directly from the fact that obesity is unhealthy to the notion that government officials -- and their hectoring wives -- should regulate our diets accordingly. To a certain extent, however, her pet crusade is more overblown than young people are overweight. According to the National Institutes of Health, malnutrition and health maladies among young people aren't among the top killers of infants to 24-year-olds. Instead, accidents, cancer, and homicide are the three biggest culprits.
In the final week of the campaign, the Democrats are reduced to a series of Hail Marys and a string of unbelievable claims, one wackier than the next. The campaign “suddenly” went south for them when Karl Rove’s anonymous donors showed up. Next we heard that the voters were ”scared” and not thinking straight. Then we learned that Democrats don’t really support Democratic leaders. Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor revealed he didn’t even vote for Obama . . . .Can't wait.
It’s somewhere between comical and insulting. The voters can figure out which are the D’s and which are the R’s. And they know that for all their protestations, the “moderates” and the “Blue Dogs” are simply Democrats who rubber-stamped the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda. And many of them are going to lose because they were led around by the nose by their liberal leaders and ignored their constituents. The aggrieved voters will exact their revenge next week.
Sanity? Really? They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
You've got to wonder whether the rally's planners are frantically looking for a way out right about now. One Jon Stewart fan, at least, is begging him to reconsider:
Call in sick. Say you couldn't get a sitter. Even better, say it was all an Andy Kaufman-esque spoof, a multilayered joke-inside-a-joke not only on the politicians and blowhards who hold rallies but on your own audience, which should have known better, and on Oprah and Arianna and even President Obama, who were all so quick to jump on the bandwagon. That would be gutsy -- and funny.Carlos Lozada's advice for Stewart -- Shut up and satirize:
But when you actually announced the rally nine days later, I started worrying. There you were, claiming leadership over 70 to 80 percent of America, calling for solutions that we could "agree to try and could ultimately live with." Criticizing "the loud folks [who] over the years dominate our national conversation on our most important issues." Your delivery was hilarious (as were the rally signs), but your words were those of a politician. The whole time I was half-expecting you to suddenly meet us at Camera 3 and whisper that, of course, this wasn't real, this wasn't you. . . .Via the Washington Post and Jennifer Rubin, the mock-but-real rally meant to mock the Beck rally and its attendees threatens to be a lefty freak show:
If satire is the art of saying something fake and pretending it's real in order to make a point, you seem to be doing the opposite with this rally: Doing something real and pretending it's fake in order to make your point.
Still, groups ranging from PETA to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws are preparing props and making snarky signs in preparation for the event, and more than 200,000 people have said on Facebook that they will attend.Toss in NARAL, Code Pink, and a few pumped-up anarchists for a really memorable -- and sane! -- event.
Really — have these people learned nothing? Stephen Colbert’s performance on Capitol Hill seemed to personify Democrats’ fundamental unseriousness and disregard for the public’s concerns. Now the same comic, with Jon Stewart in tow, is going to mock and sneer at his fellow citizens as “snarky” (read: obnoxious) signs display the views of the liberal “cool” crowd. It is a disaster waiting to happen — and will fill the cable and network news shows on the weekend before the election. Great going, fellas.The liberal media will try to salvage something worth spinning from the event, but there may not be much to work with. In that case they'll do their best to pretend it never happened, just as they do with the March for Life every year.
How nice to wake up to some fresh Mark Steyn. But don't be fooled by that innocuous heading; this will give you a jolt. It's now or never, America:
So we’re not facing “decline”. We’re already in it. What comes next is the “fall” – fast, sudden, off the cliff. That’s why this election is consequential – because the Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree made what was vague and distant explicit and immediate. A lot of the debate about America’s date with destiny has an airy-fairy beyond-the-blue-horizon mid-century quality, all to do with long-term trends and other remote indicators. In reality, we’ll be lucky to make it through the short-term in sufficient shape to get finished off by the long-term. According to CBO projections, by 2055 interest payments on the debt will exceed federal revenues. But I don’t think we’ll need to worry about a “Government of the United States” at that stage. By 1788, Louis XVI’s government in France was spending a mere 60 per cent of revenues on debt service, and we all know how that worked out for the House of Bourbon the following year.How would Americans feel about this fact, if they knew it?
What does that mean? In 2009, the US spent about $665 billion on its military, the Chinese about $99 billion. If Beijing continues to buy American debt at the rate it has in recent times, then within a few years US interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese military. This summer, the Pentagon issued an alarming report to Congress on Beijing’s massive military build-up, including new missiles, upgraded bombers, and an aircraft-carrier R&D program intended to challenge US dominance in the Pacific. What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it.Enough excerpting. Go read the whole thing.
Answer: Mr and Mrs America.
By 2015, the People’s Liberation Army, which is the largest employer on the planet, bigger even than the US Department of Community-Organizer Grant Applications, will be entirely funded by US taxpayers. When the Commies take Taiwan, suburban families in Connecticut and small businesses in Idaho will have paid for it.
The existential questions for America loom not decades hence but right now.
That's PJ O'Rourke. Read the whole thing.
Most recent posts here.
Literally. Plus parts of a couple other hotels. And they're bringing an enormous posse along. Who they all are or why they need to be there, I can't say. But I think we need a new word; "tone-deaf" doesn't begin to describe the Obamas' disconnectedness from the American people.
The Times of India reports:
To ensure fool-proof security, the President’s team has booked the entire the Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants. Since his security contingent and staff will comprise a huge number, 125 rooms at Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and The Oberoi hotels. The NCPA, where the President is expected to meet representatives from the business community, has also been entirely booked.Well, he is a pretty good president. But the costs of this trip must be astronomical.
The officer said, “Obama’s contingent is huge. There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets. There will be 30 to 40 secret service agents, who will arrive before him. The President’s convoy has 45 cars, including the Lincoln Continental in which the President travels.”
Adding to the Obamas’ busy schedule is Michelle’s likely visit to Kamathipura, where she will meet commercial sex workers on the invitation of an NGO. The highprofile visit is likely to inconvenience the citizens, as there could be a complete clampdown on traffic on some main roads of south Mumbai and sanitisation of buildings flanking them.I wonder whether she'll wear her $600 food bank sneakers so as not to lord it over the prostitutes.
Meanwhile, over 200 chief executives of US companies in the Obama entourage, including Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi and Wal-Mart’s Mike Duke, will interact with CEOs of top Indian firms, both in Mumbai and Delhi.Why isn't the "next generation" using technology instead of costly, risky, old-school travel for their meeting? Maybe they could brainstorm about that.
On November 8, captains of the US industry will get a chance to interact with senior representatives of the Indian government during a day-long summit in the capital, which will be jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and US-India Business Council (USIBC).
During that summit in the capital, [various Indian ministers] are expected to share their views on government plans and policies with the American and Indian industry honchos. A networking reception will follow the day-long brainstorming.
As reported earlier, industry leaders from the two countries will hold panel discussions and interactions on various issues in Mumbai on November 6.
The issues will revolve around ‘innovation that will shake the economic destiny of the 21st century’, ‘next generation leadership’, and ‘leap-frogging technology through collaborations’.
Who's crying now? Via Smitty, we hear that Dana Milbank's book, a hit-piece on Glenn Beck, is selling very poorly. Milbank disputes that:
The Washington Times’s Jennifer Harper reported Wednesday that the sales of Dana Milbank’s new book on Glenn Beck, “Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Teabagging of America” were “tepid” and “in the hundreds” two weeks after publication.And certain meanies are having fun on with it on Twitter: #sellingbetterthanmilbank
A source in the industry gets specific with POLITICO about just how tepid: 914 copies the first week, and 663 copies the second, according to Bookscan. (Bookscan accounts for about 70 percent of books sold, and does not count e-books.)
That’s around 5 percent of the 38,700 books printed. Milbank told the Times that reports of weak sales were “absurd” and pointed out that he’s been on The Washington Post political best-seller list and was leading a couple Amazon categories. “That said,” he said. “I highly doubt it’s selling like a Glenn Beck book.”
But he has been employing a nearly Beckian knack for cross-promotion, with the Washington Post excerpting, reviewing and nodding to his book frequently over the past few weeks.
I sure hope he means it.
What Carol said:
Just when I was feeling more than a bit dejected by Mitch McConnell’s willingness (eagerness?) to waffle on Conservative values along comes Rep. Mike Pence to save the day:I like Mike. Read the whole transcript here.
Look, the time to go along and get along is over," said Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference. "House Republicans know that. We’ve taken firm and principled stands against their big government plans throughout this Congress, and we’ve got, if the American people will send them, we’ve got a cavalry of men and women headed to Washington, D.C. that are going to stand with us."It is nice to know that even if Sen. McConnell doesn’t get it, and he obviously doesn’t, that Rep. Pence understands what he is in Washington to do. The idea that candidates can claim to uphold Conservative values on the campaign trail and then throw their constituents under the bus once elected is no longer viable.
Pence said his party wouldn't compromise on issues like spending or healthcare reform, two of the weightiest items on Congress's agenda next year, when the Republicans could control one or both chambers.
"Look, there will be no compromise on stopping runaway spending, deficits and debt. There will be no compromise on repealing Obamacare. There will be no compromise on stopping Democrats from growing government and raising taxes," Pence told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Thursday evening. "And if I haven’t been clear enough yet, let me say again: No compromise."
Via Ed Driscoll, Tom Shales tells us that we won't have him to kick around much longer. Driscoll quotes TBD:
Beneath the bravado in the Facebook posting is a fairly serious set of personal circumstances. The lump sum he took from the buyout is gone, Shales says Thursday night, on the phone from his house in McLean. "I either frittered it or the stock market ate it." And his contract, Shales says, isn't nearly as lucrative as his former salary.I've kicked him around a bit myself. But I appreciated his recent column about too much sex on TV. And I think he's at his best when he writes about TV's golden age. Even then I don't agree with all his judgments, but his columns on Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best, the latter of which includes some heartfelt thoughts about his own mother, are well worth the read. I wish him the best.
"Now they have said they can’t afford me anymore, even though I’m making a lot less than when things were all ducky," he says.
Is he negotiating with the paper?
"In a way, but then again not," he says. "I mean, I’m gonna sign the document that says I’m going to be leaving on Dec. 31."
Leaving the Post will be hard — not only has he been there since 1971, but there's not exactly a booming newspaper business to absorb him should he get cut loose. "It’s scary, damn scary," he says. "Plus I’m so heavily in debt and my house is underwater. Suddenly I'm a cross-section of the American public." [. . .]
"I'm just older than just about everyone in Style," Shales says. "It’s just weird, but I’m the last of the institutional memory, at least in the Style section. I can’t imagine those people being sentimental about me leaving."
The Facebook posting, Shales says, was a way to send out a smoke signal to his supporters, including Graham, that he thought his time at the paper was ending. "I was feeling ignored, I guess," he says, "and I just wanted there to be some notice that I was headed for the last roundup."
It's funny and the back story is interesting. But boomers will notice a familiar face playing Chief Red Cloud:
Call Me Senator from RightChange on Vimeo.
Ed Ames!
For you younger readers, this isn't the first time Ames has played what we once so quaintly referred to as an Indian. He can sing, too. But what might have been his most memorable TV moment occurred on the Johnny Carson show. That pushed the envelope in those days.
Most recent posts here.
A little walk down memory lane. Husband sent me this SNL video, vintage 1979. Enjoy.
I had forgotten that Teri Garr played the waitress.
Here she is back in the day when Dave was worth watching, if only to see Teri, who was always engaging.
Most recent posts here.
Charles Krauthammer does scathing justice to Obama's remarks of last weekend:
Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science — liberal psychology — Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., to vote Republican. [. . .]Read the rest. Dr. Krauthammer references what's going on in France as a cautionary tale that American voters are heeding. See his recent take on France's national tantrum:
Faced with this truly puzzling conundrum, Dr. Obama diagnoses a heretofore undiscovered psychological derangement: anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome, wherein an entire population is so addled by its economic anxieties as to be neurologically incapable of appreciating the “facts and science” undergirding Obamacare and the other blessings their president has bestowed upon them from on high.
If you look at what happens in France, you see the second effect of generation after generation of a nanny state which provides all of one’s needs. It’s essentially a spiritual collapse — a country in which you have millions in the streets rioting, attacks on police, shutting of the refineries — over the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62! — is a country you can only describe as decadent, after all the years of being infantilized. It doesn’t have the spirit to actually rise and say there are things that we have to do.Eventually they'll die out completely. Infantilized adults aren't keen on reproducing; kids are way too much trouble.
And that I think are the two effects that people living here see abroad. In the end, the social democratic state is unsustainable because the public sector, being parasitic, is too large and the private sector is unable to sustain it. And secondly, it changes the spirit of the people in a way that in the end can be irreversible.
Via Kevin McCullough, this is what now passes for family entertainment:
Then last week while my new five month old was devouring a bottle in our living room, the shot of Santana and Britney (two female cheerleaders) came on screen, making out in bed, that was the last straw.Read the rest. The pornification of American culture proceeds apace. How easy it is to get kids to see this behavior as cool. All it takes is a popular TV show and no resistance from parents.
No children, being front of a television in the 8pm hour should be exposed to that kind of pornographic stimulus. None.
And ladies, before you question whether or not it IS pornographic to have two completely clothed size 2 cheerleaders, (one of whom had a breast enlargement procedure), one on top of the other kissing passionately, on screen. Ask your husbands, regardless of what they say, watch the look on their face – it will tell you all you need to know.
The point is, this kind of show is nothing new to television. The naked breasts and butts of NYPD Blue, broke the barriers to “R” rated sexual content on television years ago.
But it is NOT appropriate for the family hour, or the hour following (8-10pm EST) in America’s prime time.
From Strictly Right:
On Tuesday, I received a phone call from the LCC telling us that our venue had been pulled, and that Mark Steyn would not be permitted to speak there. The reason offered by the LCC was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients.What Mark says:
So I was reading about Oskar Freysinger of the Swiss People's Party and the curious difficulty he was having in getting a hotel in Brussels when I got the news about certain, ah, last-minute changes to the venue of my speech in London, Ontario on November 1st. As The London Free Press puts it, "Author Denied Hall Rental"Extended remix?!
Controversial author Mark Steyn may be too hot a potato for one city-owned London hall...
Non-controversial reporter Kate Dubinski seems to have learned only one adjective at journalism school. Either that, or while I was sleeping some wag had my name legally changed to Controversial Author Mark Steyn. Whatever the reason, this is the way it is. All London taxpayers pay for the London Convention Centre, but the London Convention Centre apparently does not serve all London taxpayers. It won't be too long now and, like Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, we'll be having to hold our get-togethers in a clearing in the forest on the edge of town.
[. . .]
It's fascinating to me how little you have to do to be a Controversial Author. Still, pending the next move by the Islamic supremacists, we're booked into Centennial Hall, which is a 1,400-seater. What do I have to do to fill that? Deliver an apocalyptic head-for-the-hills speech and sing "Marshmallow World" (the extended remix)?
. . . but stubbornly out of touch with reality.
Meet the Queens of Denial, Valerie Jarrett and Nancy Pelosi. First the once and future Madame Speaker:
Well let me say why I believe that it would be very difficult for the Republicans to take over the House of Representatives. Let me tell you right here and now that I would rather be in our position right now than theirs.She positively babbles nonsense in the next clip:
This is not a national election; it is district by district. . . . People say, I'm going to vote. I'm not enthusiastic about it, but I'm going to vote. It's not a question of enthusiasm, it's a question of who is going to vote?Can't you just feel the groundswell of liberal voter apathy gathering strength? Yes, we'll take tepidity over enthusiasm any day!
We are confident with that focus we will retain both the House and the Senate. . . . The fact is that people are frustrated and angry, we completely understand because of what happened before the president came in and so it's going to take some time. (Video here.)Riiiight. We're mad at Bush or something.
One female supporter then yelled out "the best president on earth" and Obama replied, "Well, I won't say that, but we got a pretty good president."Yup. Everything's coming up roses. Allahpundit notes more modest answers the president could have given. But I think Obama was being remarkably modest, toning down his true assessment of himself -- super-mega-awesome! -- enormously.
Belittling military service doesn't strike me as a winning strategy, but who knows? Northern Virginians keep electing him in spite of his Moranic record.
H/t: Beltway Confidential
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Slapping, choking, and now threatening and "knuckle-punching." These arrogant Dems can't face the prospect of losing their power. Gateway Pundit:
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Now there are new allegations… According to a local reporter Hoyer actually knuckle punched Charles Lollar in the back during the debate.
Video of the Lollar for Congress press conference on Tuesday where Charles Lollar addresses his allegation that Steny Hoyer threatened him last Wednesday. A new allegation that Hoyer “knuckle punched” him in the back starts at 4:55 in the video.
Just got this note from my husband:
Our health (bi-weekly) insurance premiums are rising from $110 to $160. That's a 45% increase. To be fair, to balance that out, the benefits are decreasing (higher co-pays, etc.).That Obamacare is pretty awesome, isn't it? How irrational of us not to be grateful to Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and company for shoving this down our unwilling throats. I guess we're just not thinking clearly.
You are actually lucky compared to me. I can no longer purchase my policy, as it is not "obamacare approved". I officially got the letter on Monday, but knew already that my insurance company will no longer carry my policy because the new mandates have made it too expensive. I asked if they thought anyone else would sell me the same policy and they told me that they are now illegal and I wouldn't be able to get that policy again. They gave me three options, the least expensive of the three almost doubles my costs. It will go up about 85%. To make matters worse, I am losing all the money that is left over in my HSA, unless I use it up by the end of the year. Something that won't happen unless there is a medical emergency that is major.Obama lied, her coverage died.
Wesley Smith, who knows the enemy, makes it his business to warn the rest of us about the encroachment of the culture of death.
And this is just pure evil:
And now Dignitas’ owner, Ludwig Minelli–who has already permitted his suicide clinic to be used for double suicides–has publicly supported the idea. From the story:"Gravity will take care of the rest." You know it's true. Read the rest.
I don’t think these advocates are fringe. I think they are candid. At the very least, their views are the logical outcome of proclaiming a right to assisted suicide as the “ultimate civil liberty.” I mean, if we have a fundamental right to be made dead, if it is tyrannous to prevent people from “choosing the time, manner, and method” of their own death, who can gainsay the reasons why someone might want to be made dead.Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas has called for the healthy partners of chronically ill euthanasia patients to be allowed to kill themselves too. Clinic head Ludwig Minelli has called for suicide drug cocktails to be made legally available to the heartbroken relatives who have just helped their loved ones end their own lives. ‘Relatives should also be allowed to have a prescription for suicide drugs even when they are not terminally ill,’ Minelli told Swiss newspaper Blick Sonntag.
This is the debate we should be having. The stuff about restrictions to terminal illness and guidelines to protect against abuse (which are never enforced) are mere sops to convinced people to accept the principle that suicide is a liberty. Should that happen, gravity will take care of the rest. Culture of death, Wesley? What culture of death?
So, I’m listening to the Dennis Miller Show on my computer, as I do every morning. I like Miller. He’s not angry. Doesn’t yell. Has a human touch. And punctures.Much more at Secondhand Smoke. Check it out.
Someone asked him, “How are we going to pay for Obamacare?”
Miller’s pithy reply: “With crappy health care.”
Yes, sometimes saying it simply, says it best.
Barney Frank: Save abortion by saving me!
My opponent, Sean Bielat, supports the reversal of Roe v. Wade. When asked by a reporter whether he would allow abortion in the case of rape or incest, he refused to answer. On a questionnaire by the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, he agreed with every position taken by that organization.Go Sean!
"Overturning Roe vs. Wade would turn women and doctors into criminals," Boxer said. "The most extreme anti-choice groups have found their candidate in Carly Fiorina, and the pro-choice groups who are here today — they know that I am their voice."Okay, ma'am. Thanks for making the choice clear.
Those sexy stimulus-funded weatherization projects in Cook County are found to be riddled with waste and fraud. Luckily, no one has been killed from improperly vented furnaces or other safety lapses.
What a horror story:
The findings are grim. "Our testing revealed substandard performance in weatherization workmanship, initial assessments, and contractor billing," the inspector general report says. "These problems were of such significance that they put the integrity of the entire program at risk."Sure, the program is a complete disaster; but dishonest, incompetent contractors need work, too.
The work was not just wasteful; it was dangerous. Department inspectors found "heat barriers around chimneys that had not been installed, causing fire hazards." They found "a furnace [that] had not been vented properly." The found "a shut-off valve that had not been installed on a gas stove." And they found "carbon monoxide detectors, smoke alarms and fire extinguishers had not been installed as planned."Your tax dollars at work. Appalling but not surprising. Read the rest.
And then there was fraud. At ten of the 15 homes visited, Department inspectors found examples in which "a contractor had installed a 125,000 BTU boiler, but had billed CEDA for a 200,000 BTU boiler costing an estimated $1,000. more."
What's wrong with this picture?
D.C. public schools have started serving an early dinner to an estimated 10,000 students, many of whom are now receiving three meals a day from the system as it expands efforts to curb childhood hunger and poor nutrition.My 14 year-old laughed out loud at the illogic of the first two goals:
Officials describe the dinner initiative as having three goals: hedging against childhood hunger, reducing alarming rates of obesity and drawing more students to after-school programs, where extra academic help is available. It is also part of a broader effort, mandated by recent D.C. Council legislation, to upgrade the quality and nutritional value of school food with fresh, locally grown ingredients.Can't they just get the heavy kids to give half their food to the starving kids?
I thought from the headline that this was a joke but apparently it's mere fact: Obama to appear on episode of 'Mythbusters':
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will appear on an episode of “Mythbusters,” a television show that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends.No, the program won't be tackling the myth about a presidential candidate who claimed he could "slow the rise of the oceans." No need: the cult that believed that is dwindling rapidly. Too bad Obama didn't really possess that superpower, cuz a big wall of water is headed his way.
You can't make this stuff up:
October 16, 2010 - Upon exiting the most recent debate with Barney Frank, located at WGBH studios in Boston, MA, Republican Congressional candidate, Sean Bielat, gets heckled by a Barney Frank "supporter" while talking to the media. While watching this video, we realized that we recognized this "supporter". We received confirmation from two eyewitnesses that the mysterious cameraman was none other than Barney Frank's pot-growing boyfriend, James Ready. [. . .]Stunningly stoopid and desperate. Comments welcome but please keep it clean.
We've got to give Barney a break, though, this is the first time in 30 years he's had to campaign and he clearly doesn't know how to go about it.
In Barack Obama's struggle to explain his fall from grace, condescension and self-delusion dominate:
President Barack Obama said Americans' "fear and frustration" is to blame for an intense midterm election cycle that threatens to derail the Democratic agenda.He's working overtime not to get this: The trauma is Obama! And the massive rejection of his pernicious agenda is proof that plenty of responsible Americans are thinking clearly and acting rationally, at last.
"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared,” Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. “And the country's scared.”
Obama told the several dozen donors that he was offering them his “view from the Oval Office.” He faulted the economic downturn for Americans’ inability to “think clearly” and said the burden is on Democrats “to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling.
“You can respond in a couple of ways to a trauma like this,” Obama said, referring to the economy. “One is to pull back, retrench and respond to your fears by pushing away challenges, looking backwards. Another is to say we can meet these challenges and we are going to move forward. And that’s what this election is about.” [emphasis added]
Obama was speaking at a suburban Boston fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which raised an estimated $900,000. His remarks were somber and at times emotional as he tried to make sense of the political climate that changed so quickly since he was swept into office with overwhelming nationwide support.He can't handle the truth. All he can do is philosophize about the childlike electorate's weak-mindedness.
“This is a tough year,” he said at the fundraiser at the home of Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Caritas Cristi, a Massachusetts-based health care system. “Facts, science, truth seem to be significantly absent from what we call our political dialogue. It’s hardly a dialogue. It’s a shouting match, sloganeering.”So ultra-liberal politicians are now the font of "facts, science, and truth"? Like the fact that the stimulus worked, and government created (or saved!) zillions of jobs? Or the fact that Obamacare won't raise our healthcare costs?
DaTechGuy reports from the Obama rally in Massachusetts:
The defining moment of the day for me happened just after that. One of the guys from a comic store in Lowell figured this was a great chance to move some of the Obama hardcover Spiderman comics that he can’t move. Cover price is $30, Amazon sells it at $22, he offered it for $5 and out of a dozen managed to sell…..2.I hope the Dems have their loins very securely girded. WSJ:
Democratic strategists acknowledged they are abandoning a dozen House seats the party now holds, as they try to salvage their majority in the chamber by shoring up candidates with better chances.Triage.
I think I like it. (I know I love those gloves.)
What do you think?
The classic version of Nature Boy:
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You've probably already seen this but I just watched it this morning. This clip of 100% complicit, integrity-free liberal "reporters" and "journalists" in action so perfectly illustrates what's wrong with them that it will live on for years. They couldn't have produced a better teaching tool on the fraud that is the "mainstream" media if they had tried.
My favorite part, in addition to CBS's Jay Levine viciously turning on Kelly, Chicago-style -- "Let him finish or I'm gonna deck ya!" -- is when ABC's Charles Thomas indignantly tells Kelly he's not a "reporter." A "reporter," it seems, is a guy who swans around with the powerful, enabling their ends with utterly non-critical, content-free publicity.
Read Dana Loesch's exactly-right comments, and Big Journalism's follow-up, in which we find Politico's Ben Smith metaphorically digging in William Kelly's garbage for something -- anything! -- with which to discredit him. I guess that's another thing "real reporters" do: attack anyone who asks inconvenient questions of the powerful liberals they desperately seek to advance and protect.
These lapdogs are so contemptible.
Update: And now, via Michelle Malkin, we have this admission from David Brooks -- Obama told him a year ago that there were no shovel-ready projects!
DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Well, I shouldn’t have confessed this. He said this to me off the record about a year ago. But it hasn’t…Oh, ha ha ha! Perpetrating fraud on the American people is so deliciously droll!
JIM LEHRER: Off the record? So, then you can’t talk about it.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, because Peter Baker is a better than I am, because I couldn’t get him to go on the record with that thing.
(LAUGHTER)
JIM LEHRER: He said this to you a year ago?
DAVID BROOKS: It was obvious. I mean, you are trying to build a stimulus package. And when they were trying to build it, believe me, they would have loved to have filled it with infrastructure jobs. But the projects just didn’t exist. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t find them.
Here’s the video if you have the stomach to watch these yammering chuckleheads make excuses for themselves and for Obama on taxpayer-funded public television:Not me. I don't want to lose my breakfast.
“The single best decision that I have made was selecting Joe Biden as my running mate,” Obama lied.
Eugene Robinson thinks, like his president, that we should be thanking Obama and his team for gracing the White House with their presence:
Okay, I want to make sure I understand. Two years ago, with the nation facing a host of complex and difficult problems, voters put a bunch of thoughtful, well-educated people in charge of the government. Now many of those same voters, unhappy and impatient, have decided that things will get better if some crazy, ignorant people are running the show? Seriously?Regular readers know that I question, very seriously, the education of Obama and his brain trust.
“These are naive idiots who’ve come out of academia and have never done anything real in their lives, and they are actually in power,” he said. “These are the people we never let in the room when we had serious business to do. Now they’re running the country.”I heart Pat Caddell.
Don't let anyone tell you Obama is out of ideas to rescue the economy. Stilton Jarlsberg reports:
He's directed Michelle Obama and "those fat kids" to plant money trees in the Whitehouse garden... Obamacare dental clinics are collecting teeth to put under the president's pillow for the tooth fairy...Read the rest.
"You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?" the official explained late Thursday. "I mean, she's pretty well liked and probably doesn't know what she's doing."Her kind of town, Chicago is.
We’re now in the territory where we need some new terms. Perhaps we can call it ‘Political Climate Change.’ “Mass Extinction Event” seems to cover it. For a lot of Democrats opening the ballot box is going to feel like opening the Ark of the Covenant, complete with heads exploding and faces melting. Instead of provoking the Wrath of God, they’ve provoked the Wrath of the Electorate.New get-out-the-vote slogan: Now get out there, people, and melt some faces!
Three cheers. There’s a long road ahead, but the first obstacle has been overcome. Florida judge Roger Vinson ruled this afternoon that 20 lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Obamacare mandate can continue:The judge on the individual mandate:
The two parts of the law that will proceed to trial are expansion of Medicaid and the individual mandate that requires qualifying individuals to obtain health insurance by 2014.
In his ruling, Vinson criticized Democrats for seeking to have it both ways when it comes to defending the mandate to buy insurance. During the legislative debate, Republicans chastised the proposal as a new tax on the middle class. Obama defended the payment as a penalty and not a tax, but the Justice Department has argued that legally, it’s a tax.Roger Alt on the Corner:
“Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an “Alice-in-Wonderland” tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check,” he wrote.
Vinson ruled that it’s a penalty, not a tax, and must be defended under the Commerce Clause and not Congress’s taxing authority.
Vinson ruled that it’s a penalty, not a tax, and must be defended under the Commerce Clause and not Congress’s taxing authority.
When Speaker Pelosi was asked by a reporter, “Where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health-insurance mandate?” she responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” By contrast, when the judge today considered whether the states had made a significant enough claim that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to enact the mandate, he found that it was “not even a close call.”Why, yes -- we are serious.
I'm wading through Peter Baker's long NYT Mag piece on the Obama presidency thus far. It has an funereal vibe:
Yet even if the White House saw it coming, this is an administration that feels shellshocked. Many officials worry, they say, that the best days of the Obama presidency are behind them. They talk about whether it is time to move on.Obama's diagnosis of what went wrong is, well, wrong:
“Given how much stuff was coming at us,” Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.”As far as we know, he said that with a straight face, though he was notoriously disengaged with the finer points, and even some larger ones, of his health care reform. He surely never read any of the bills. But he did spend an inordinate amount of time campaigning and shilling for it. Mark Hemingway doesn't know where to begin with that:
Then the idea that Obama neglected “marketing and P.R. and public opinion.” The president gave 54(!) speeches on health care reform, including a special joint session of Congress and prime time infomercial. And yet, he’s still of the opinion he just hasn’t explained it properly or something? We’re gonna like this turkey any day now! (Also, the fact he’s explaining his policy approach in his eleventy billionth magazine profile should tell you something — as president, Obama’s even posed for the cover of The American Dog.)
Obama advisers who left the White House recently have been struck how different, and worse, things look from the outside. As he made a round of corporate job interviews after stepping down as White House budget director, Peter Orszag was stunned to discover how deep the gulf between the president and business had become. “I’d thought it was an 8, but it’s more like a 10,” he told me. “And rather than wasting time debating whether it’s legitimate,” he added, referring to his former colleagues, “the key is to recognize that it’s affecting what they do.”Bit of a contradiction here, between this:
Unlike Clinton, who never met a rope line he did not want to work, Obama does not relish glad-handing. That’s what he has Vice President Joe Biden for. When Obama addressed the Business Roundtable this year, he left after his speech without much meet-and-greet, leaving his aides frustrated that he had done himself more harm than good. He is not much for chitchat.And this:
But as Obama gets back on the campaign trail, aides have noticed his old spirit again. He particularly enjoys the so-called backyard sessions on the lawns of supporters. “That’s the happiest I’ve seen him in a long time,” an aide said. After one, Obama told the aide, “This reminds me of Iowa on the bus.”Perhaps he doesn't mind chitchat with those who might faint at his feet, but dreads it with those who might expose his ignorance.
He told me he was happy with the redecorating of the office. “I know Arianna doesn’t like it,” he said lightly. “But I like taupe.”Good. Grief. Was he expecting a medal for his good taste?
The White House, then, is characterized by habitual vanity, rising cynicism, collapsing morale, and increasing resentment toward politics and governing, itself.Joe Weisenthal understands the Democrats' dismay at the portrait the Obama WH painted of itself:
Remember, in 2008, not only was Obama more popular than McCain, he has the benefit of inciting a movement behind him. That's now totally gone, and rather than exciting anyone, the administration is projecting sadness.It seems they're too wrapped up in their own angst for that. How will they be able to handle what's coming in a few weeks?
So close to an election, the least they could do is fake it.
