Math v. Vitriol

With Wisconsin lost, all that is left for the Left to do is mewl and spit vitriol.
This is the perfect time for Conservatives to take the high ground, and win the day with calm, common sense, and actual honest-to-God numbers.

As Matt Welch argues over at Reason, "No amount of crying over evil Scott Walker will help governments fix their bleeding balance sheets."

Get Serious About Governing, Democrats

  [...]   Wisconsin has been the front line of America's Democrat vs. Republican, blue vs. red rhetorical war for 16 months now, ever since newly elected Republican governor Scott Walker pushed through a budget repair bill that withdrew government from the union dues-collecting business for public employees and removed the collective bargaining power of most government unions, an act that triggered historic public protests. So on the morning after Walker survived a labor-led recall election by a higher margin than he originally won office in 2010, there were plenty on the left grumbling darkly about the Dark Lord rising over our once-free country. 

At The American Prospect, Harold Meyerson compared Walker's actions to a "jihad" and suggested (paradoxically) that a post-union labor movement might just resort to rioting. Walker "wins one for the plutocrats," Joan Walsh lamented at Salon, without really explaining how the monocle-wearers could win 38 percent of the union vote. 

Such demonization was of a piece with leftish commentary in the run-up to the recall. Esquire's Charles P. Pierce described Walker as a "goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage its midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin," which would now be subject to "the habits of oligarchy." Even more grossly, The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote in The Washington Post that Walker's policies were intended to "cleanse the electorate of people who don’t look, earn or think like him."    

[...]    

So, progressives: What is the right percentage of a government budget to be spent on public sector pensions? If this requires that cities and states simply need to come up with bigger budgets (through increased taxes) precisely how much bigger would be appropriate? If you don't want to increase overall budgets, what other government services are you willing to cut?    

[...]    

As long as Democrats keep dodging these questions, no amount of plutocrat-baiting will reverse their political fortunes. Governments at all levels are out of money. Progressives are going to have to come up with a better response to that than saying "we were robbed."

Indeed....

Democracy Sucks!

To quote Bill Hobbs, "Democrats believe in democracy - except when they lose". This is evidenced most blatantly by Wisconsin's run-away Senators.

But I particularly like this pair of Democrats who apparently are disaffected with the form democracy they live under:

Lets follow the logic here...a Governor who won a legitimate, regularly scheduled election by 6 points and has been in office just over one month, is somehow comparable to a military strongman who ran his country virtually unopposed for the last 30 years by putting most political opposition in jail or worse? Sure...

To take it one step further, these geniuses are suggesting that a recent legitimate election be invalidated because they are unhappy with the result, and....what...have the Wisconsin National Guard take over the state government??

And I wonder how the protesters in Egypt feel about folks with pretty well paying jobs (or any jobs for that matter) appropriating the Egyptian cause for their own selfish ends?

Adios Ciro....

My absentee ballot is in the mailbox.

Adios Ciro Rodriguez! Holà Quico Canseco....and one step closer to taking back the House of Representatives!

Press' Predominating Storyline About Beck Rally

Jim Treacher has ferreted out the MSM's "un-diverse" implications about a rally held in the capital city of this predominantly white nation....

Presented without comment:

“Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King’s message.” — Associated Press

“Attendees at the rally Saturday largely honored organizer requests that they not bring banners or political signs. Instead, the predominantly white crowd, many seated on folding chairs and accompanied by their children, wore t-shirts with slogans including ‘Got principles?’ and ‘Restoring Honor.’” — AFP

“Meanwhile, many in the predominantly white crowd bent over backward to insist that they are not racists and to note that the crowd was courteous, despite heat and density.” — James Hohmann, Politico

“Beck says he and his overwhelmingly white followers ‘are the inheritors and protectors of the civil- rights movement.’” — Ben Adler, Newsweek

“Though the audience at the event was overwhelmingly white, many of the speakers were African-American, including a woman who sang a song about unity.” — Brian Montopoli, CBS

“Claiming the legacy of the nation’s Founding Fathers and repeatedly evoking civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., the speakers at the ‘Restoring Honor’ rally exhorted a vast and overwhelmingly white crowd to concentrate not on the history that has scarred the nation but instead on what makes it ‘good.’” — Philip Rucker & Carol Morello, Washington Post

“A relatively dense and overwhelmingly white crowd stretched from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial out past the Washington Monument.” — Mark Benjamin, Salon.com

“The speaker list was diverse, including African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans; Jews and Christians; clergymen, military veterans and sports stars, including Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. The crowd, however, was overwhelmingly white.” — Michael A. Memoli and Kim Geiger, LA Times

“Out in the overwhelmingly white audience… politics was everywhere, with Tea Party supporters describing the damage they envision for President Barack Obama’s Democrats in upcoming midterm elections in November.” — Mitch Potter, Toronto Star

What are they really trying to say?

Life, Liberty, and Whatever - The Sequel

While we are on the topic of sequels today...

Here is a post of mine from almost 3 years ago, discussing the relative ignorance of people [read: political grandstanders] when using quotes from the Constitution:

Life, Liberty, and Whatever

Instapundit subtly points out that the NYT editorial writers (and their overseers) need to go back to school and re-take U.S. History 101.

THE NEW YORK TIMES' EDITORS think that the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is in the Constitution. But then, they believe many things that are demonstrably untrue.

Imagined NYT response:
"Constitution, Declaration of Independence...whatever. You are taking my words out of context, and missing the bigger point....blah, blah,blah."

Fast forward to present day, and we find example of a poor helpless Democratic lawmaker cornered by a dastardly Tea-partier attempting to impugn his honor by asking where in the Constitution exists the "right" to health care.



Interestingly, Congressman Phil Hare (D-Ill) tries to dance around blogger Adam Sharp's (Sharp Elbows) questions by stating:

"I believe it [The Constitution] says we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."

I am so glad that yet another one of our indignant elected officials wants to lecture us, when he doesn't even know the basic differences in our two most important founding documents. I suppose it is not a surprise, given his earlier statement "I don't care about the Constitution on this...." Sadly though, this is fairly indicative of American society, as most people wouldn't know enough to call him on it.

But I bet most Tea Partiers could (as Sharp does during his interview with Neil Cavuto)....

Lets keep those sharp elbows flying!

America, The Gulliver of Nations

Powerline posts a keen insight on how Great Britain's present, may become our future:

Once the federal government becomes so deeply involved in allocating health care, it will come to be a dominant focus of political discourse.

Over the years watching on C-Span the British Prime Minister's Question Time, I've observed that a large portion of this exercise is devoted to specific questions about the quality care provided by The National Health Service in members' districts. A question on the terrorists threats to the UK will invariably be followed by a passionate query from a Member asking the PM if he's aware of nurses being re-assigned at a hospital in Sheffield. The PM seems to spend as much time on parochial health care issues as on national security.

The politics of deciding who gets what in the way of medical treatment doubtlessly will push aside traditional affairs of state. Every member of Congress will need to hire several staff members just to manage constituents' complaints about their care. Elections will be won and lost on the basis of who can get the most in the way of health care for their districts.

We will become the Gulliver of nations, a great power whose leaders are tied up in strings as they spend much of their time addressing the medical complaints, valid and imagined, of their electorate.

We *will* become the Gulliver of nations. And it will not just be due to healthcare. The more our Federal government becomes so deeply involved in the regulation of anything and everything (education, the environment, banking, retirement, fishing, car manufacturing....etc), the more we tie ourselves down. The more the Liliputians UN bureaucrats will take advantage of us. The more we will make ourselves irrelevant.

Tales From The Echo Chamber....

More developments out of the 'Coffee Party', or as I coined them, the 'Latte Party'

Coffee Party is a no-show on Fox and Friends
They did not accept the interview invitation because it would be "focused on fostering ongoing political divisions..."

In other words, we don't what any differing opinions from entering our liberal echo chamber...

News flash for the 'Coffee Party' crowd...there will always be "ongoing political divisions". That is how liberty and democracy work. People have free and differing opinions, they debate..they disagree...

I suspect that what this collectivist coffee klatch really means is that they only want to be interviewed by those who will tell them how courageous they are and won't challenge their sensitive ideals.

Thus if all they ever hear are supportive and re-affirming voices (hence the echo chamber), then they can convince themselves that they are the real voice of the American people, and not those racist, red-neck fascists and their Tea Party....

[Hat Tip: Instapundit]

Worst. Decade. Ever.

"Any time Dennis Kucinich is the voice of reason, you know you are really screwed..."




I vote for seeing more Al Gore impressions by Nick Gillespie

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

Democrats are getting what they asked for

I believe that this is one of the best summations of why we find ourselves where we are, and why the honeymoon is obviously over.

"The Democrats are getting what they asked for.....They had on their hands an inexperienced, recently minted US Senator from Illinois....Never mind, they thought, Obama's long-standing connections with William Ayers, the unrepentant mastermind of a domestic terrorist bombing campaign in the 1970s. Never mind Obama's close association with the racist demagogue Jeremiah Wright. Never mind his lack of executive experience, his unfamiliarity with the private sector, and his ignorance of the ways of Washington. With the help of the pliable press, he could be sold -- and Americans would congratulate themselves on their lack of racial prejudice if they voted for him."

Those words come from Paul Rahe via Powerline Blog.

Hillsdale College Professor Rahe's insights into our new 'Soft Despotism' can be found in last week's edition of 'Uncommon Knowledge' interview videos by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institute. Chapter 1 of 5 can be found here.

A final thought from Rahe: "Now comes the reckoning. For Barack Obama seems to be a one-trick pony."

Yes indeed. We do get what we vote for....

Tyranny of the Minority Majority

#hhrs #tcot #rs
Some prescient thoughts on the results of last night...

Jennifer Rubin:

If Pelosi gets her 218 votes, it will be unprecedented. It is fair to say that never will a piece of legislation this sweeping (and damaging) have been passed over the opposition of so much of the electorate and on the votes of such a narrow ideological slice of the governing class.

'A Senate Friend':

If the only thing bipartisan is the opposition, and a party with an overwhelming majority is scrambling to get it over the first hurdle, it sure says something about the bill.

I believe that this is what might be called the 'Tyranny of the Minority Majority'...

Nanny State Weekend

Congratulations America, this is what you voted for.... View how little the left thinks of you...

Taxes:
On whether the Obama Administration will break its pledge not to raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to pay for Trillions in new spending, Tim Geithner said:

"We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”

That's reassuring! I think that this can be translated as "We are going to do whatever we want to get the money", since most Americans don't see all the spending as "necessary".

Health Care:
With public opinion turning against the health care proposals in Congress, the left reveals that they think they know better than everyone else.

"47% of people who have coverage don't want change, they don't like what they are hearing. Now, they may not know what is good for them..."

Thanks Andrea. There is an executive position waiting for you at the HHS Public Affairs office...

Personal Freedom:
Individual liberties? Personal responsibility? Anachronisms of a different era. Welcome to the age of the coddling Nanny State in New Hampshire....

"Our State portrays an unfriendly message that every individual has to succeed on their own, rather than count on a support system for assistance (Live Free or Die is not a friendly, supporting message that appeals to young people)."

Hmmm....if the message is considered "unfriendly" by government bureaucrats now, I wonder how much longer it might be before expressions of personal freedom could be considered hate speech? Or at least incompatible with the common good....

This is the Nanny State you voted for. Revel in it....but not too loudly, or by consuming anything with transfats...

That Troublesome Constitution

Instapundit:

ANOTHER “CRISIS” REQUIRING EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES! US-Russian Arms Negotiators “Under the Gun,” Might Temporarily Bypass Senate Ratification for Treaty.

Here’s a hint — if you bypass Senate ratification, it’s not a treaty.

Funny, in an administration filled with lawyers and led by a former CONLAW Professor, there is a surprising ignorance about the Constitution.

Or perhaps it is just the opposite...perhaps they are *soooo* smart about the Constitution, that they have all sorts of nifty ways to get around it when it is an inconvenience.

Of course neither option is very comforting....

233

Tea Time in Georgia

Some shots from the Tea Party in Warner Robins, GA....

A couple of hundred "extremists" milling about. Looking to do no good, no doubt...


They must be "extremists", since there are two 'Don't Tread on Me' flags in one picture...


These guys are carrying some less extreme flags. They might be OK....


Honk if your paying someone else's mortgage....


Even Union guys want to hang with pretty "extremists"

Video Stimuli

Feeling a weight of dread in these dark hours, before our political betters impose upon our children and grand-children unending seas of debt?

Well, sit up straight, and watch this inspring video of free-thinker and a small-minded blowhard.



Thanks to Jack Dunphy, guest posting over at Paterico's, for this great find. I am off to youtube to find more similar inspiration.

Over the past two weeks, I have re-read Animal Farm, and am working my way through the second half of Atlas Shrugged. I think my next re-read will be Friedman's Free to Choose...

Wild Dreams and Military Strategy

Instapundit has linked to a disturbing quote from Obama, which reveals much on what we can expect from his prospective administration's national security strategy.

“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

This quote is absurd on many levels, but here are two thoughts:

1 - The surge did not "[succeed] in ways that nobody anticipated". It in fact succeeded in the ways that the military strategists who devised it had anticipated. The goals (broadly) of the surge were to reduce the internecine violence that was rife, and set the conditions for democratic governance. When Petraeus et al set forth with the "Surge", this is the result they "anticipated". Had it not been, then they probably would not have executed the plan. Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Obama that you only execute a strategy with the anticipation of success, not with the anticipation of failure.

2 - Military and National Security strategies, when properly done, are not based upon "wild dreams". Perhaps this best demonstrates the difference on how the two ends of the political spectrum devise these strategies. On the left, strategy is often based on "our wildest dreams". This "peace-in-our-time", "can't-we-all-just-get-along approach". Somehow this is now referred to as "realism". Unfortunately, "Hope" is not a strategy. The surge was not based on the hope that we could be victorious, or the wild dream that we could succeed, it was built on many hours of sober and realistic assessments of the existing situation, and study of what had succeeded in the past.

Unfortunately, our future may hold security strategy that is based on the "wildest dreams" that the Iranians will give up their quest for nuclear weapons based on our newly installed, and ever so hopeful Ivy League diplomats. Or based on the "hope" that Russia will play nice if we simply ignore their attempts to re-annex portions of other sovereign nations.

A sober review of history will reveal that this sort of approach does not have a record "[succeeding] in ways that nobody anticipated". But rather it has a disturbing tendency to "fail in ways that many anticipated", except for those who were implementing the approach.

Once again, Hope is not a strategy.

Foresight is 20/200

After getting off shift today, I went over to the US morale area to poke around, and see what might be on AFN.

I happened upon a copy of the 2007 'Man of the Year' edition of Time Magazine. Given the events this week, perhaps this would be a good time to review that decision.



Now Time does throw out the caveat that "TIME's Person of the Year is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse", but I remind people once again that they had a chance to pick this man.



Maybe this year he will get recognized for his actions in 2007.

Other notable items from a look back at the Putin spread:

- The title of the Putin article "Choosing Order Before Freedom". Hmmmmm, I guess Time was right on this one. The Georgians chose freedom instead of the order of their former Russian masters, and they ended up getting the Budapest treatment.

- "Russia needs Putin -- His firm hand will smooth the transition to democracy..." - Mikail Gorbachev. Good call Gorby....Vlad is doing wonders for the democratic ideal this week.

Maybe Putin is just flexing his muscles this week as he has realized that he is far behind Barack Obama in this year's MoTY race. Because of this, if I were Obama, I'd be wary of getting the Litvinenko treatment. When Putin wants something...he takes it.

Ken & Natasha?

There has to be some delicious irony that a dyed-in-the-wool Communist from a western democracy has been bested in a free election by a conservative named Boris.

Perhaps Red Ken will blame it all on "Moose and Squirrel", and will be heard yelling "Raskolnikov!" as he rides off into what is sure to be temporary retirement.

Let It Begin Here

"Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

232 years ago, a group of bitter men clung to their guns and religion, driven by their antipathy towards people who weren't like them. It the end, I think it worked out OK.
[Update: Someone has pointed out that this was actually 233 years ago. They are of course correct. Ironically, I had done the math correctly, as the year that was running around in my head was 1776...instead of 1775. Damn that public school education....]



For a more than complete send up of this historic event, please go and read Jules Crittendon's posting, 'April Morning'.

To this day, the man below stands resolute, clinging to his gun, under the flag of a free and democratic country.

Selective Ignorance on Human Rights

A man is held in a military prison for decades and subjected to abuse, humiliation, and lack of needed medical care.

What do the great liberal newspapers of record (New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, and SF Chronicle) have to say about this to their readers who more than likely care greatly about human rights?

Zip, Zero, Nada, Niente, & ничего.

Why would they turn a selective blind eye to this? Because it happened on the wrong side of a fenceline in Cuba.

You can damn well bet that if this happened at Guantanamo Bay, this would have been above the fold....again. Instead, it puts their Caribbean Comandanté in a poor light.

Omar Pernet Hernández spent a total of 21 years as a 'guest of the state' in Fidel's Cuban prisons, and suffered untold abuses. Yet he gets ZERO column inches from the finest bleeding hearts in journalism.

Read about Hernández and 3 other thankfully former Cuban prisoners...in a European newspaper.

Four dissidents freed this week after five years in inhumane conditions in a Cuban prison have revealed the dark side of Fidel Castro’s regime.

The four - José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Omar Pernet Hernández, Alejandro González and Pedro Pablo Álvarez - described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds.

You would think that the aforementioned news organizations would want to trumpet these sorts of abuses.

Here is the sad gallery of their search results:











The shame...the shame.

(Hat tip: Powerline)