Latte Liberals

First the Tea Party on the right. Now the lefties feel left out....

Furious at the tempest over the Tea Party -- the scattershot citizen uprising against big government and wild spending -- Annabel Park did what any American does when she feels her voice has been drowned out: She squeezed her anger into a Facebook status update.

"let's start a coffee party . . . smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea. geez. ooh how about cappuccino party? that would really piss 'em off bec it sounds elitist . . . let's get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion."

Coffee Party? How about Latte Party? That is more appropriate...

But unlike what is stated, it does not "piss me off because it sounds elitist", it just proves the point that they are elitist....

And they continue to wonder why they are called limousine liberal, gucci marxists, and champagne socialists....

Your Papers, Please!

I do believe that Britain's ride down the slippery slope is accelerating....

Photographer films his own 'anti-terror' arrest
Man held in police station for eight hours after taking pictures of Christmas celebrations in Accrington

Police questioned an amateur photographer under anti-terrorist legislation and later arrested him, claiming pictures he was taking in a Lancashire town were "suspicious" and constituted "antisocial behaviour".

Footage recorded on a video camera by Bob Patefield, a former paramedic, shows how police approached him and a fellow photography enthusiast in Accrington town centre. They were told they were being questioned under the Terrorism Act.

[...]

Patefield declined to give his details and, after asking if he was free to go, walked away. However the PCSO and a police officer stopped the men in another part of the town. This time, the police officer repeatedly asked him to stop filming her and said his photography was "suspicious" and "possibly antisocial".

Patefield asked if the officer had any "reasonable, articulable suspicion" to justify him giving his details.

She replied: "I believe your behaviour was quite suspicious in the manner in which you were taking photographs in the town centre … I'm suspicious in why you were taking those pictures.

"I'm an officer of the law, and I'm requiring you, because I believe your behaviour to be of a suspicious nature, and of possibly antisocial [nature] … I can take your details just to ascertain that everything is OK."

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. " - George Orwell

CPAC Videos to Watch

Brown & Romney:



Liz & Dick Cheney:



Marco Rubio:



Andrew Breitbart:


John Bolton:



Newt Gingrich:



LTC Allen West (Ret.):

"US Airways Hates Families and Kids"

Methinks I won't be taking my family on US Airways anytime soon....

"If you have kids, don’t fly on US Airways. We were on three flights of theirs yesterday as we slowly made our way from Boston to Tucson. Not once was I assigned a seat near my kids.

Now, I confess that when I saw I had a boarding pass for seat 5D and my kids both had seats in row 26, I was delighted. Who wants to sit between a two-year-old and a 5-year-old on a cross-country trip? Not me.

When I approached the gate agent to point out the error, I said, “Hey, I’m perfectly happy not to sit anywhere near these kids on the plane, but I’m sure you won’t really let me do that. Here’s my boarding pass, change my seat assignment.”

The joke got a lot less funny when he said, “Sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Just get on the plane, and maybe some passenger will be generous enough to switch seats with you,” he advised me."

Definitely some interesting reading on the customer service levels in today's air travel.

The follow-up post on the conversation with US Airways Customer Relations is even more instructive:

"US Airways seating policies:
-They are in fact first come first served, with no preference given to parents traveling with young children
-When parents are not assigned seats with their children, they are expected to deal with it by getting on the plane with the unacceptable seating and asking other passengers to swap with them.

[....]

I asked the obvious question: What if they don’t cooperate? Would US Airways really let a two-year-old fly by herself, sandwiched between two strangers on a long flight?"

On the past two flights I took with toddler in tow, I was certainly willing to suck up the seat-selection fee in order to assure that we had a block of 3 seats. $18 per leg ensured that we weren't risking unleashing Mr. Bossy on some unsuspecting fellow travelers....

Global Warming Snow Job

It was reported today that Lake Erie has complete frozen over for the first time in 14 years:

Following a cold snap in the Northeast, Lake Erie's surface is virtually frozen over for the first time in about 14 years.

The ice ranges in thickness between paper thin along the northern shore and several inches along the southern shore, where many people are ice skating.

GoErie.com reports that the lake hasn't completely frozen since the winter of 1995-1996.

[…..]


Lake Erie, with an average depth of 62 feet, is the most shallow of the five Great Lakes, which is why it is the only one that completely freezes over.

Since lake-effect snow depends on warmer lake temperatures compared to the air, the frozen lake will deter large amounts of snowfall to the lee of the lake.

The current cold snap will keep the lake mostly, if not completely, frozen for at least the rest of the month.

Hmmmm…. This is concerning.

Cold air has led to a frozen-over lake, which will in-turn cause less snowfall, which we all know is an indication of Global Warming®.

Ergo…colder temperatures are a positive indicator of Global Warming®!

Of course this is somewhat in conflict with the other current meme that *more* snow is caused by Global Warming®. But who wants to quibble over such minor details when there is leftist policy to be pushed (and $$ to be made!).

As the Heritage Institute aptly put it using their best Homer Simpson impression, "Global Warming – Is There Anything It Can’t Do?"

No snow, too much snow. It does not matter to the enviroleft crowd. For them, global warming always is to blame. That is the whole reason the movement made a deliberate decision earlier this decade to stop calling it “global warming” and start calling it “climate change.” That way they could expand the universe of terrible things they could plausibly blame on global warming.

And it is that continuing overreach that will make the "Green Movement" the butt of more and more ridicule....

® - The term 'Global Warming' is owned in perpetuity by Al Gore. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity FAIL!

Observed this poster yesterday at a large metropolitan Children's Museum....

Hmmmm...perhaps Diversity in 'post-racial America' doesn't require other races....

Obama Photo Caption

Instapundit calls for his flock to 'Caption This Photo'

A few quick takes....

1) "Lincoln Averts His Eyes"

2) "President Obama responds to falling polls by locking his lips and throwing away the key."

3) "Damn, I miss community organizing..."

4) "I knew I should have read Milton Friedman..."

UPDATE: A suggestion from a CF colleague: "Bust of a Colossus... And a Colossal Bust."

Green Police Crackdown

This is a new Audi commercial to run during the Super Bowl.



Note the message is that you will not be considered a criminal if you buy the correct things. Not just the holder of an incorrect opinion, but a criminal. Also note that there is no irony in the presentation of this fact by Audi. They are not trying to produce yet another funny Super Bowl commercial, they are trying to sell us a 'Green' product, by using the message that if you aren't green, you are worthy of arrest by a SWAT team. Nice....

This is our future if the liberals continue to rule and keep driving us down the road towards the full-time Nanny State.

[Hat Tip: Jammie Wearing Fool]

The Pillage of the Future by the Present

City Journal is carrying a good read on the current addiction of the 'modern democratic state' to Keynesian-driven indebtedness, not from the normal American punditry, but in the context of the evolution of European states .

The thesis of German Peter Sloterdijk reminds us that we Americans are not alone when worried about our current 'financial unsustainability'.

The Grasping Hand
The modern democratic state pillages its productive citizens

[...]

The modern democratic state gradually transformed into the debtor state, within the space of a century metastasizing into a colossal monster—one that breathes and spits out money.

[...]

What is new is the gargantuan scale of public debt. Mortgaging, insolvency, monetary reform, or inflation—no matter, the next great expropriations are under way. Today, the state’s grasping hand even reaches into the pockets of generations unborn. We have already written the title of the next chapter of our history: “The pillage of the future by the present.”

Read the whole thing...

Tough Times All Around

"I know these are tough times to hold public office." - President Obama

This is a quote clip of the President talking to Democratic Senators that Hugh Hewitt played numerous times tonight, and is well worth review for how out of touch Washington DC is to what is going on around its country.

These are tough times to be a small business owner.

These are tough times to be a Marine in Helmand Province.

These are tough times to be an unemployed parent with mouths to feed.

But these are NOT tough times to be a United States Senator, with a 6-figure salary, large staffs, gold-plated health care and living standards, campaign war chests, and future retirements as a well-heeled lobbyist/public speaker.

Just because you see your current political fortunes hurtling off a cliff, don't think we have any sympathy for your "tough times", seeing as how y'all are the ones who stepped on the gas and wouldn't turn the wheel.

Sell your sob story somewhere else...

Media Matters Should Actually Listen To....The Media

Yesterday over on Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds noted that he was quoted in an NPR story about Andrew Breitbart. One of his many readers sent in the following aside:

“Listened to the NPR Breitbart report while going to dinner. Was surprised to hear the reporter describe you as the ‘conservative’ blogger Instapundit. It doesn’t use that term in the written version you linked to, but the as-broadcast version sure did. Check it out.”

Reynolds has professed many times (usually after media misidentification like this) to not be a conservative, but more of a libertarian.

Today, Media Matters for America wastes some trons on a deluded rant by Jamison Foser about Breitbart and some cockamamie Vince Foster tangent. Foser is a 'Senior Fellow' at MMFA, which apparently is code for "I am a progressive who couldn't even get a real job in Obama controlled Washington."

Anyhow, shortly into his Breibart rant Foser said:

"Take this week's piece by NPR's David Folkenflik, which quotes Breitbart extensively and includes praise from Glenn Reynolds (who was not, by the way, identified as a conservative)..."

Now I must assume that Foser is an intelligent guy, since he is a 'Senior Fellow', but while he works at a media watchdog organization, he couldn't even be bothered to click on the NPR link that says "Listen to the Story". Having done so would have let Foser hear the words:

"Glenn Reynolds is a UT Law professor, perhaps better known as the conservative blogger, Instapundit...."

Jamison, if you are reading, it can be found starting at the 2:20 mark. There is more to the NPR report than just the web story (which does not use the 'C' word), since as you may have forgotten, 'R' stands for radio. But this may be excusable since the last I checked, there isn't much left on the radio for a devoted Progressive any more.

Lesson for the kiddies out there....if you ever grow up to be a 'Senior Fellow' (or even a happy fellow) at an organization whose stated purpose is to be a media watchdog and critic...perhaps you ought to watch/listen to more than one source before you decide to comment on a story....

TOTUS Strikes Again!

"There's a world of difference between a corpsman and a corpse-man" - Bob Owens



Indeed!

Methinks that someone needs to ditch the dependence on the teleprompter, or at least let your military aides go over military references with you before you give speeches....

AP Tries to Incite Israelis to Hate Silvio Berlusconi

Perhaps the AP couldn't fathom a European leader actually having an affinity for the state of Israel, but for whatever reason, they are trying desperately to put a negative taint on Silvio Berlusconi's trip there.

Here is how their article opens:

Italy's prime minister links Gaza war to Holocaust

By Dalia Nammari
Associated Press Writer / February 3, 2010

BETHLEHEM, West Bank—Italy's prime minister on Wednesday called for empathy for all victims, whether from the Nazi Holocaust or Israel's war in Gaza, drawing a link that threatened to tarnish a visit that has cemented his already warm ties with Israel.

Silvio Berlusconi's comments, while avoiding direct comparisons to the Holocaust, nonetheless could touch a raw nerve in Israel -- a country that was founded in the wake of the Nazi massacre of 6 million Jews and that is home to more than 200,000 Holocaust survivors.

"Could"...."could"...

Is the AP so hard up that they have to try to manufacture a non-existent controversy? Nowhere in the entire article does the AP actually present an Israeli who objects to Berlusconi's statement. They only imply that someone "could". Since when is a reporter's conjecturous implication a substitute for actual news content?How about we wait for an actual uproar before reporting that uproar....

In fact the article does go on to say:

"Berlusconi has been warmly welcomed throughout this three-day visit to Israel, and he has repeatedly spoken of his strong affinity for the Jewish state and expressed sorrow over the Holocaust.

[...]

Throughout his trip, Berlusconi received a welcome afforded to few other leaders. He was wined and dined by Israeli leaders, brought eight government ministers with him for a joint Israeli-Italian Cabinet meeting and got a standing ovation for a speech to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.

With all of the positive things mentioned in the article with regard to Berlusconi, if find it puzzling that the AP would lead with such as forced attempt at manufacturing a controversy.

The AP could have struck the first two paragraphs entirely, and more legitimately opened their story with the headline "Berlusconi Warmly Welcomed in Israel; Warns Against Nuclear Iran".

But I guess that wouldn't have attracted as many eyeballs.....

Blaming Bush v.236

Blowing Cash in Vegas v. Blowing Cash in DC

The President is out with his latest economic advice:

"When times are tough, you tighten your belts," the president said.

Well said Mr President.

"You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage...."

Oh, OK....that must be different than increasing next year's deficit by 36%, and expanding the deficit by an additional $2 Trillion over the next decade? Must be....

"You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."

Again, I guess that is different than all of our cash being blown in the city of Washington DC.

Geez, it has only been a year, but Las Vegas has been replaced by DC as the city with the biggest financial gambles.

Thanks for the economics lesson Professor Obama...I know Harry Reid appreciates it.

How Liberal Big Government Works

Example #1:

Abstinence-only programs might work, study says

Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

[BUT].....The Obama administration eliminated more than $170 million in annual federal funding targeted at abstinence programs.....

Example #2:

‘Head Start’: The $166 Billion Fed Ed Failure

“Head Start,” the flagship pre-kindergarten program introduced in 1965, has been a $166 billion failure. That’s the upshot of a sophisticated multi-year study just released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Budget 2011: With Head Start Failing, White House Proposes $9.3 billion for New Preschool Program

While the federal government already spends as least $25 billion on the existing 69 preschool and child care programs, the Obama administration is calling for #70—proposing $9.3 billion for a new “Early Learning Challenge Grant”.

So....conservative social idea works....cut funding......liberal social idea fails over decades....spend billions more!

Why am I not surprised....