So, you’ve stumbled onto my humble little blog. Perhaps you are a Millenial wondering why most of your friends aren’t fully employed. Or wondering why ObamaKare is being shoved down your throat. Or why your generation is on the hook for a national debt that stands at $17 $18 Trillion and counting. Maybe you are scratching your head wondering why your President thinks Global Warming the weather is more worrisome than Islamic Terror. And perhaps you’ve started to become aware there might be something the corrupt and biased lame stream media isn’t telling you. The answer, to these and other existential questions, is ... the Left - specifically, the modern American Progressive. Think of this site as a portal to a richer understanding of this answer, a portal purposely designed with a consciously cock-eyed bent to keep it entertaining. Because the First Amendment is forever and the Internet never forgets. (Plus you better figure out FICA isn't the name of a Swedish bikini model, before she eats your entire paycheck.)

How to use the portal? You could dive into my archive*. I was most active here 2010-2012, but that matters not. How many times do I need to demonstrate the central point? To wit, the political / ideological Left is a menace to the constitutional republic and must be resisted lest the American experiment in liberty devolve into socialist dystopia. If it's the more pointed hand-to-hand combat of the comment board that whets your appetite, click the 'My Disqus Comments' widget. I continue to visit that world from time to time as a light diversion. Or you could browse through my blog roll. It's a very representative collection of center-right blogs, though hardly exhaustive. I can't do the political / ideology thing 24x7, and you probably can't either. Leave that to the hysterical, talking point chanting, mob agitating, race baiting, election stealing, gaia worshiping, straw man torching, Islamic Terrorist appeasing, organized Left (aka OFA, MSNBC, UAW, SEIU, Think Progress, Media Matters, most of legacy media, the politically correct faculty lounge, anybody who belonged to Journolist, anybody connected to Occupy Wall Street, anything funded by George Soros or Tom Steyer, their paid Internet trolls, and the rest of the usual Team Leftie suspects).


*Re-posting encouraged. No need to ask for permission. Just follow the commonly accepted convention of acknowledging this site as original source with a link back. That way, you leave the asking for forgiveness to me.

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The MIGJAM Tapes

(AP) – Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

Our cracker-jack investigative journalism team is unable to take part in this week’s journalistic scrum over WikiLeaks. You see, our sources at the Pentagon are busy chasing down the treasonous bastard responsible for leaking the documents, and there is a lot of running room and a lot of places to hide in the Pentagon, so it could take a while. We will report on the slow and painful death meted out to the treasonous bastard as soon as it occurs.

Instead, our sources at CNN have something for us to put into “context” the now famous beat down Ann Coulter gave to Rick Sanchez on his show last week. They have provided us with off-air audio tape from both before and after the beat down.

==

{Ann Coulter enters CNN “Green Room”}

Coulter: Hmmmm, only crumbs in the peanut bowl. Bob Beckel must have just been here.

CNN minion #1: Welcome, Ms. Coulter. Is there anything we can do for you?

Coulter: No, I’ll just relax until I’m on with Rick. What are we talking about again?

CNN minion #1: That Diary book thing, of course. It went to #1 on the Times Bestseller list today. Congratulations.

Coulter: Uhhhhh, I think you meant to call Laura Ingraham.

CNN minion #1: Oh, oh, I better go find Mr. Sanchez!

==

{Rick Sanchez enters his personal dressing room}

Sanchez: Man I’m great, just ask me.

CNN minion #2: I’m askin’!

Sanchez: The hair helmet needs some attention.

{five minutes of Sanchez lightly humming and singing the chorus to “Everybody Loves Me”}

Sanchez: That hair right there …

CNN minion #2: Got it. Perfect, Mr. Sanchez. Man, you're great, just ask me.

Sanchez: You know I will.

{Sound of door opening}

CNN minion #1: Rick, Rick, Rick, wrong blonde wing nut!

Sanchez: Huh?

CNN minion #1: Coulter didn’t write the book! It was Abraham, Beckham, Oh I don’t know!

Sanchez: Shit! It was Ingerhamm. Damn speed dial. Get me the smart guy!

{20 seconds of silence}

Sanchez: The guy who does opposition research watching Fox all day!

CNN minion #2: Oh. Yes, right away, sir!

==



==

Sanchez: She thinks she’s so smart!

CNN minion #3: That kiddie porn stuff was so out of line.

Sanchez: Never speak of that again!

CNN minion #3: [sounding cowed] Yes, sir.

Sanchez: {mutters something under breath}

{sound of something slamming down}

==

Coulter: Hey, can I get somebody to validate my parking?

Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Contemporary Politics and Newton’s Three Laws of Motion (Part 6)

Man, I’m good! Just ask me. You might say I think of myself as a MIGJAM. ;)

When I started the series of posts under this title, I openly declared the inevitability of a massive defeat at the polls for the Progressives now in power - to be visited upon them by the great majority of conservative American citizens – awakened by the abuses of power and outrageous governance visited upon them during 2009-2010. To highlight the inevitability of this collision, I framed the situation as a (verifiable) scientific formula; F = m * a.

In part 2 of the series, I introduced the woefully inadequate (as it turned out) measuring tool I called the Conservative Ascendancy Thermotron 2010. I broke down the Thermotron’s moving parts into three inter-related and equally weighted measures: events affecting the news, alignment (i.e. comity) between the GOP and the TEA Party movement, and Leftie Lunacy (the propensity for Leftist ideologues to form circular firing squads being nothing if not predictable.)

By the time Part 3 of the series was being posted, comity between the GOP and TEA Party movement was coming together. The ever growing number of (R)-labeled politicians signing the Contract From America is the product of this comity. Part 4 highlighted Arizona’s S.B. 1070, which has sparked a fusillade of overheated rhetoric and hyper-partisan law suits in the historic conflict I call Liberty vs. Tyranny USA 2010. Part 5 highlighted five distinct events – Times Square car bomb, S.B. 1070, BP oil spill, Wall Street takeover bill, and phony deficit reduction commission – any one of which could have the biggest story by a mile in any normal year. But not this year – the poor Thermotron was already creaking under the weight of 2010’s unprecedented political chaos (brought to you by BHO and the Progressives). The distinction between the Events and Leftie Lunacy meters was becoming hopelessly blurred by the governance of BHO and the Progressives. Within a couple of weeks, I was compelled to retire the tired old Thermotron, with full honors and benefits (gratuitous Christmas Story reference).

This news of this past week has brought another extraordinary pair of events rooted in the intellectual chaos that is Leftie Lunacy. There was a second round of revelations from Ezra Klein’s JournoList archive, terribly embarrassing to the liberal media, broken by the Daily Caller (DC). No doubt Eric Holder’s DOJ spent this weekend standing up a special investigative unit dedicated to finding something – anything - on Tucker Carlson, Jonathan Strong, or anyone else working at the DC. There was also the Shirley Sherrod affair - a moraility tale with high drama, low comedy, and lessons on restraint learned the hard way.


The Sherrod slapstick and the JournoList flap have much more in common than initially meets the eye.

They are both are about spinning facts and events for strictly political reasons. They are both also about how karma has a way of dispensing justice with its ruthless boomerang effect.

In the case of the Sherrod flap, at least the people doing the spinning have been openly acting as partisans. Breitbart posted the original video excerpt as a partisan attempting to turn the tables on the NAACP’s nakedly partisan attack charging the TEA Party movement with racism. The Obama administration’s knee-jerk firing of Sharrod was in their usual fecklessly partisan tradition – it was an merely an attempt to distance themselves from a politically damaging news story. Neither Breitbart, nor the administration, is guilty of omitting or twisting any part of the originally available record. At this point, all either of them had was the shortened excerpt.

The next couple of movements in this farce are where I started to piece together in my mind what was probably really happening here. Almost as if in coordination (hmmmm) - the NAACP beseeched us all to judge Sherrod on the “full context” of the entire tape, which (interestingly) the NAACP had in its possession all along; and Ms. Sherrod went on the liberal talk circuit and starting opening her mouth. Apparently she has yet to seek counsel.

Well, many of us who viewed the entire tape decided it put Sherrod into a worse light. Her line in the full context was basically “race based politics misses the mark, class based politics are the answer.” The black conservative Alan Keyes captured this point on his blog. Then she went on the talk show circuit in an apparent attempt to cash in the “15 minutes” Andy Warhol had told her she was entitled to, and began talking like a partisan foaming at the mouth. She called Out Fox and the TEA Parties. She threatened to sue Breitbart. Huh?  D'ya think this is somebody with an axe to grind?

My strong suspicion is Sherrod and the NAACP were in cahoots to set a trap for Breitbart. They did not anticipate Obama’s thin skinned and feckless reaction (apparently they’ve never met the man), and were forced to play out Act 2 sooner than they wanted to.

Ann Coulter appears to agree with me (hat tip to Newsbusters).




I just love how Rick Sanchez’s CNN minions feed him some partisan crap at 5:50, 6:07, and 6:37 of the taped exchange, and how Coulter slaps him down using nothing but her own memory. It’s easier to remember the truth than it is to remember your old lies. I imagine a moronic MIGJAM like Sanchez goes home at night muttering “she thinks she’s so smart!”


I suspect Sanchez’s IQ is about half of this guy’s IQ. (hat tip to Sharp Elbows)



But I digress. We will not really get to the bottom of this Sherrod thing until we get to the cut out (or series of cut outs) that was used to carry the excerpt to Breitbart. This may or may not happen in due time. What IS perfectly predictable is Mr. Breitbart will learn from the experience and not repeat the mistake. The NAACP and the Obama administration, on the other hand, will continue to act according to form, because they can’t help themselves. Ms. Sherrod’s future depends on whether or not she has sought competent counsel.

The cut out that will bring the JournoList cabal to ruin is easier to identify – it’s called the Internet! How stupid were these guys to have any expectation of privacy on a list serve? Here’s how it works. You type your partisan crap into the list server, where it is recorded electronically. Then a copy is sent to every single other subscriber’s email address, where it is recorded electronically. Along the way, multiple hops across multiple server relays are made, where everything is recorded again to varying degrees of permanence. Good luck covering your tracks, JournoListers. And since your crime (violation of a professional standard) is much greater than anyone involved in the Sharrod flap  – all I can say is I can’t wait for next week’s news cycle. Especially from the Daily Caller. LMAO!

postscript:  I just heard Howard Dean say on Chris Wallace's show that Obama fired Sherrod because he feared the story was headed toward the Glenn Beck show.  Circular Firing Squad given the order to fire.  LMAO!
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

An Insider’s View of White House Campaign Strategy

(AP) – Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

Our cracker-jack investigative journalism team has acquired audio tape from a campaign strategy meeting recently held at the White House. If it were a video tape, or at least a high quality audio tape, we would have sold it to Breitbart. However, the audio recording device was stuffed inside our White House source’s shoe, so this transcript will have to do.

Unidentified Voice: Somebody wake up Harry.

Harry Reid: {snort!} {ack!} THIS WAR IS LOST!

Nancy Pelosi: {sigh} Wrong election, Harry.

Joe Biden: OK, Barack is out on the trail stumping for a candidate, so I’m in charge here.

James Clyburn: [sounding sarcastic] Who’s the lucky bastard? Hope it’s Alvin Greene.

{entire room laughs heartily}

Joe Biden: Gibbsy, you takin’ minutes?

Robert Gibbs: {mutters something under breath}

Nancy Pelosi: You’re lucky to have the job, Baghdad Bob.

Joe Biden: OK, let’s get started.

{Sound of door opening. Sound of ‘Hail to the Chief’ playing from an iPod speaker.}

Joe Biden: What are you doing here?

Barack Obama: Greene couldn’t cover the campaign event, because the Senate didn’t approve his UI check soon enough.

Barack Obama: OK, let’s get started. What are we doing here? Gibbsy, you got the agenda?

Robert Gibbs: {mutters something under breath}

Nancy Pelosi: What did I tell you?

Barack Obama: OK, who do we have on the conference line?

{15 seconds of silence}

Nancy Pelosi: {sigh} Do I have to do everything myself?

Beep! {Dial Tone} Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Machine Voice: Welcome to the White House Live Conferencing System. Press 1 to join a conference, press 2 to manage your personal account, press 3 to replay an old conference recording, press 4 to manage your recording options, press 5 to start a new conference, press 6 for more options.”

Beep!

Machine Voice: Press 1 to enter your White House Live Conferencing System user id.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Machine Voice: Enter your White House Live Conferencing System password, followed by the pound sign.”

Barack Obama: Michelle, that’s your cue, heh-heh.

Michelle Obama: {mutters something under breath}

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Nancy Pelosi: Who do we have on the conference?

George Soros: George.

Andy Stern: Andy here.

James Carville: [sounding agitated] What the hell took you so long! You gotta get somebody on that phone pad, man! You gotta show some leadership!

Bill Ayers: Can we just get started? I have to give a lecture on the history of domestic terrorism soon.

Barack Obama: OK, we got an election coming up and my poll numbers are in the tank …

Nancy Pelosi: [interrupting] Geez, it’s always about you, Barry. You’re not up this cycle, we are.

Harry Reid: Yeah, me too!

George Soros: You people are pathetic. Can I just get a report on what I’m getting for my Astro-Turf money?

David Axelrod: Yes, sir! There’s the Coffee Party …

George Soros: [interrupting] What a joke!

Valerie Jarrett: Well, we also have that “Other 95” thing …

George Soros: [interrupting] DOA! Plouffe, are you on the line?

David Plouffe: Yes, sir!

George Soros: Anything good from the Internet trolls?

David Plouffe: I think we’ve uncovered the identity of that ‘LibertyAtStake’ guy.

Click! Click!Click!Click!Click!

David Plouffe: Ah, here it is. OK, … our man ‘JournoListIsGreat’ has evidence his real name is …

Click!Click!

David Plouffe: Hunter S. Thompson.

George Soros: {sigh} I’m outtahere. Talk to ‘ya next week.

Click.

James Carville: [sounding agitated] You gotta energize the base! Tell the illegal immigrants they won’t be able to get ice cream anymore! Get ‘em out to the polls! Get some Panthers out to those polls! Make sure everybody knows the TEA Party is full of racists! Make sure everybody knows BP is full of British people! Get Michelle out to some NAACP meetings! You gotta show some leadership here!

Andy Stern: I know just what to do. How many buses do you think you’ll need in November? 5, 6 thousand?

Barack Obama: Sounds about right. OK, what’s for lunch?

Michelle Obama: We’re having McDonald’s catered in. The kids wanted Happy Meals.

Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Pollapalooza

Recent polling data validates and extends the thematic framework of my humble little blog project. It also provides an opportunity for me to indulge in one of my favorite all time rants, which might be titled “what the hell are these people thinking??!!” Depending on circumstances, this rant has often been directed at the criminally biased MSM, and occasionally at the American people.

The new raw data is this ABC News / Washington Post poll and this NBC / Wall Street Journal poll. For attribution purposes, below, I will refer to the former as the Georgetown poll and the latter as the Upper West Side poll.

The good news is some of the data indicates the public at large is catching on to the outrages perpetrated upon the republic by BHO and the Progressives.

The Georgetown poll shows the political party they hijacked has lost considerable ground in our two party system, while their regime has been in power. My trend line markups also demonstrate that the upcoming midterms already look much worse for them than the beating they took in 1994.


And when I say “hijacked” – I mean “hijacked”. This Gallup poll I discuss in my 01/11/10 post shows Americans self-identify as “liberal” has been consistently around 20% for going on twenty years now. Yet this 1/5 minority is now calling all of the shots for the donkey party, which is now calling the shots for the rest of us.



 
Precisely because of this profound mismatch between the governing and the governed (in my view), the Upper West Side poll shows Barry’s approve/disapprove spread has gone from +34 to -3 in a mere 16 months.  Didn’t take long for the coattails to turn into radioactive kryptonite for professional donkeys, now, did it?  It's because Barry has been coddled by the 1/5 his entire life, and has no experience that allows him to understand the other 4/5.


Oh, oh, I feel a rant running up the back of my leg….

==

I just love how the Georgetown poll posits an equivalence between Obama’s initial public approval trend and Ronald Reagan’s initial public approval trend.




Then, in a typically biased analysis; (1) these geniuses give us the statistical correlation so far, (it’s .9), and correctly identify a tough economy as the factor the two trend lines have most in common, and (2) they completely leave out, as if afraid to mention it (a common symptom of Political Correctness), the set up for the next two years. Obama is pursuing economic policies that are diametrically opposed to the Reagan policies that turned his economy around.  So, expect the results to be diametrically opposed.

Reagan’s policies of economic freedom and tax cutting launched us into an 18 year cycle of prosperity, as the estimable Lawrence Kudlow wrote for CATO way back in 2000.

One might imagine that the ideologically challenged “compassionate conservative,” Mr. George W. Bush, temporarily absorbed this lesson early in his administration, when he had to deal with the tech bubble crash at the outset of his administration, as documented by the blogger Lonely Conservative here (with chart reprinted below).



Bush's tax policy set us up for another period of growth, except for the economic cancer that was already growing as the housing bubble, which finally burst right as Mr. Bush was preparing to leave office – to Barry’s electoral benefit. Who or what was behind the housing bubble is a topic for another post – but it wasn’t George Bush. Start with the googling acronym CRA, and go from there, kiddies.  And, oh yeah, these tax cuts are due to expire in 2011.  That ought to help Barry with his economic "recovery" (LMAO!).

Unfortunately, neither Reagan nor Bush 43 was able to put a dent in federal spending – Reagan because he had to accommodate a Democrat Speaker named Tip O’Neill and Bush 43 because he didn’t get it, err, was “compassionate” I mean.


Anyway, back to the posited equivalence between Obama’s job approval trend and Reagan’s. What a bunch of crap.

Here’s the data from the rest of the Reagan term, from this 2004 Gallup article.

I think I’ll superimpose my prediction for Barry. Bottom for Barry is around 20%, which approximates the 1/5 minority among us that actually wants his administration to do more damage to the republic than it already has.



So, how can it be that this 1/5 minority can manage to seize power on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue? Answer: they are constantly working, day and night, to seize and exercise the reins of power. So they can impose their brilliant (in their minds) Progressive ideology on you. It is their religion. They are not above using every possible means of deceiving you to get your vote, either. Their water carriers in the liberally biased media (see the Statistical Data section of this wiki for the unrefutable case that makes the point) will use every possible method of deception in their reporting – omission of key facts, insertion of moot facts, repetition of lies – to spin every story in a liberal direction. Some seem to do it intentionally – a transparent dummy like Keith Olbermann (http://www.keitholbermann.com/) comes to mind. Most, I think, do it unintentionally because they are blinded by their ingrained ideology and hang out with no one but fellow travelers.

Which brings me to the other side of my well-practiced rant. Why do you people let them get away with it? All you have to do is pay attention a little. Is it really that hard?

For example, there is this polling data from a Big Government post, which spun me into a brief comment board fit. 






How can any thinking person have a positive view of the terms Family Values, States’ rights, and Capitalism – yet also hold a positive view of the term Progressive. To me it looks like a clinical case of cognitive dissonance that needs immediate intervention.

Which brings me finally to the motivation behind this blog project, I think. It’s a motivation that’s perfectly captured by the Tom Sizemore character (LTC Danny McKnight) in the 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down.” LTC McKnight is the officer in charge of the truck convoy. At the very beginning of the fight inside Mogadishu, one of the enlisted soldiers yells to him something like “Colonel, they’re shooting at us. What do we do?” The Colonel looks back at the soldier with an expression that says “are you stupid?” – and gives him the only sensible order – “Shoot back!”
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Most Racist Administration Ever?

Why in the world would I feel compelled to ask such a question? I mean, weren’t we told Mr. Barack Hussein Obama was the post-racial candidate by the criminally biased (and sometimes government owned) MSM.

Here’s why.

As Ms. Malkin points out (from her uniquely qualified “minority” status), this administration has given us ample reason with its actions to consider this question.

This Department of Justice, under the pathetically clownish leadership of one Mr. Eric Holder, decided to give a mere slap on the wrist to a two-bit unwashed thug carrying a baton and issuing racial slurs at a polling place. For no other reason than because the miscreant was black (or is it African-American now? What is the Congressional Black Caucus position on this vital question?) – you can take that much to the nearest bank that hasn’t been nationalized yet.

This is the same Mr. Eric Holder who told the nation at large we are “cowards” on matters of race at the onset of this administration. Please allow me to address Mr. Holder directly. You, sir, are the coward here. You had the chance to do your job on a “matter of race,” and chose to duck under your ornate desk. Let’s not even get into your unwillingness to say “radical Islamic Jihadist.” Come on, say it with me, jerk – “radical Islamic Jihadist.” Say it again. Come on, don’t be a coward, now … jerk.

No one can say the signs weren’t there before Mr. King Samir Shabazz was caught on tape bearing his racist soul to the world.

During the campaign we learned, no thanks to the criminally biased MSM, that Mr. Barack Hussein Obama had spent nigh on twenty years listening to the racist rantings of one Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I’m not exactly sure, but I think Mr. Barack Hussein Obama’s motivation was “street cred” with a constituency that was majority black (or is it African-American now? What is the Congressional Black Caucus position on this vital question?) – you can take that much to the nearest bank that hasn’t been nationalized yet.

And who remembers the Beer Summit circus? Who remembers Mr. Barack Hussein Obama precipitating this very circus by knee-jerking his assessment the “police acted stupidly.” For no other reason than because the guy put in cuffs was black (or is it African-American now? What is the Congressional Black Caucus position on this vital question?) – you can take that much to the nearest bank that hasn’t been nationalized yet.

===

Now, before I’m tarred by this administration with inciting racism (wait, maybe I already was) , allow me to transition to my real point.

Despite head-faking the entire nation into a false “post-partisan” narrative, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama and his cronies are running the most hyper-partisan administration in history. And the partisanship springs from the well of Leftist Ideology.

Enslavement to Leftist ideology explains why this administration can sue Arizona for enforcing existing federal immigration law, while incongruously not lifting a finger against so-called “sanctuary cities” that openly flout existing federal law.

Enslavement to Leftist ideology explains why this administration will undoubtedly sign off on a “financial regulation reform bill” that deals in racial and gender quotas. (Are you reading this Mr. 41?  Don't take the RINO bait.)

Leftist ideology is all about dividing the masses by race, class, and gender. During the election of 2008; if you were a minority, a woman, or making less than $200,000 annually; you may have been head-faked into believing Mr. Barack Hussein Obama was one of you. Trust me, he’s not – unless of course you are enslaved to socialism, Marxism, communism, Progressivism, or some other variety of Leftist ideology.  Progressivism is my conclusion, but that's immaterial here.
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Michael Steele *and* Ten Buck Fridays


Yes, kiddies, these two things go together. Read on and I shall explain.

Michael Steele, you are surely aware, is the current chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). This is a political fundraising organization of some repute I’m told.

Ten Buck Fridays (TBF) is a brilliant new grassroots fundraising idea that has sprouted up in the conservative blogosphere. Maggie’s Notebook is as good a place as any to learn about it, and begin participating. TBF is an absolutely crystalline expression of the direct action politics made possible by the Internet. The basic idea is quintessentially American – nominate and vote for candidates on merit, then make direct contributions without “expert” middle-men (or is it middle-people now?).

Now, you may have heard Mr. Steele is embroiled in something of a controversy over his recent remarks that (paraphrasing) “Afghanistan is Obama’s War.” Allow me to come to Mr. Steele’s defense on this one specific point. He’s right.

1) Barack Hussein Obama the candidate explicitly stated Afghanistan was the “good” war in contrast to Iraq. You can take this on face value. I choose to interpret it was a cynical political ploy to avoid looking like just another Dem soft on defense. Let’s continue.

2) Barack Hussein Obama the President fired George Bush’s general and gave the Afghanistan campaign to his own hand-picked general. Or so we’re told. The name of the former is meaningless now. The name of the latter is the recently disgraced Stanley McChrystal.

3) When his hand-picked general asked for 80 thousand additional troops to replicate the Iraq “surge” strategy in Afghanistan, President Barack Hussein Obama dithered nigh on 3 months before exercising his constitutionally mandated responsibility to make a decision. You can accept on face value he was weighing the military and geo-political tradeoffs. I choose to interpret he was cynically weighing the domestic political tradeoffs.

4) President Barack Hussein Obama eventually gave his hand-picked general 30 thousand troops, with a ridiculous withdrawal timeline bundled in, to implement the Iraq “surge” strategy.

Yeah, as far as I’m concerned, that makes what’s happening now in Afghanistan Barack Hussein Obama’s war. With luck, Gen. David Petreaus will figure out how to bail his ass out.

==

But I digress. I’m really no fan of Michael Steele. I mean, he’s a Maryland Republican for Chrissake. I just hate to hang a well-meaning guy out to dry for completely the wrong reason.

No, Michael Steele’s problem is bad timing. He took the wrong job at the wrong time. As I pointed out in my (rather lengthy in retrospect) April 6 post – “We don’t need no stinkin’ RNC.” The fact is, centralized collection points to aggregate political donations are just so – well - industrial age.

Which brings me to my now favorite Facebook page - Ten Buck Fridays. This program represents the vanguard of political contribution models for the information age. And I intend to participate enthusiastically. Over the years I’ve given thousands of bucks, in meager increments, to an alphabet soup of GOP organizations; RNC, NRCC, NRSC, god knows what else. This year is different.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have no intention of getting on Facebook. At least not until it ceases to be common knowledge their security architecture sucks. Plus it’s not in my nature to share every lurid detail of my daily life with the entire effin’ planet.

But I will trust the judgment of my fellow patriots across the nation and give my meager contributions directly to the principled conservative candidates they identify for me under the Ten Buck Fridays program. And Sharron Angle because defeating Dingy Harry Reid is symbolically important. And Keith Fimian because defeating Gerry Connolly is personal. These contributions will be under my real name, using my real credit card, with the notation “Ten Buck Fridays.” I leave it to future researchers, or current David Plouffe trolls, to connect the dots.
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Sunday, July 4, 2010

LibertyAtStake 2010: Mid-Year Review

This blog is the result of one man observing, orienting, and acting.


Observation

The observation phase really encompasses most of my adult life. I’m one of those weird ducks who voluntarily pays close attention to the news, politics, and policy issues - even though it’s not really necessary for me to make a living. Putting me in an even smaller minority (I think), in parallel with this pursuit, I have developed a cohesive political and policy philosophy. It is classic American Conservatism: limited government, free market economics, respect for tradition, and strong (but reluctantly interventionist) national defense. I also have what I would call a “disciplined” libertarian streak on social issues. That means, for example, I’m the “tolerance, sure; acceptance, hell no" guy regarding the gay rights agenda.

In short, I’ve always been that guy you saw yelling at his TV at home, or yelling at his radio on the road - especially when Democrats or so-called “compassionate conservatives” have been in office. It’s been a long 21 years since Ronald Reagan left office.

Therefore, I was perfectly equipped to instantly appreciate the potential of the TEA Party movement, from moment I first saw Rick Santelli’s seminal rant on CNBC. Along the way, I’ve been alternately amused, bemused, and contemptuous of the MSM’s abject incompetence in its reporting on the movement.

I started wading into the crowd, even though I am temperamentally crowd-averse, starting with the Tax Day 2009 rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Along the way, I talked to many patriots from around the country at various Capitol Hill rallies. The capstone was the Tax Day 2010 rally, my personal experience with which I chronicled in my 04/12/10 post "Prelude To April 15th" and my 04/16/10 post "April 15: MSM Still Clueless, Party Crashers a No Show."

Orientation

Toward the end of 2009, I resolved to get directly involved in this historic grass roots movement that had real potential to bring the United States back to her Founding principles. The question was “how?” Just schlepping to a meeting in someone else’s family room to write a check for somebody else to disperse wasn’t going to do it for me. I could step up my old game of yelling at the TV and radio, maybe even start yelling at people on the street; but that wouldn’t make much of a difference, except maybe getting me locked up on a public disturbance charge. Running for office, or joining an organization backing someone specific to run for office, all seemed far too quixotic.

I can’t pinpoint when the idea of joining the blogosphere first occurred to me. I do know that when it did, I instantly started thinking about how to design it to be distinctively my own. I came up with the general idea of writing the archive chapter by chapter in a manner that would support it being read front to back cohesively like a book. I don’t think I need to tell you this is a contrarian, maybe even comically absurd, concept given the basic nature of the blog format. On the plus side, it gives me a framework to wrap my head around when I’m writing. This notion of allowing it to read like a book is why the first two posts have the respective titles "Introduction to the Blog" and "Foreword to the Blog."

The thematic framework for the faux “book” was significantly filled in when I wrote the 01/11/2010 post "Contemporary Politics and Newton’s Three Laws of Motion." The spark was a Gallup poll showing the great majority of Americans think of themselves as “conservative.” As this citizenry is now governed by a gang of committed Progressive ideologues, certain political upheavals (yes, indeed, massive Newtonian collisions) are inevitable. This framework also allows me the freedom to make bold predictions no one in the MSM (including Fox) can make for fear of losing professional credibility. I have no such credibility to lose – only credibility to gain as my bold predictions come to pass. For example, I have advanced to openly stating the inevitability of impeachment proceedings during Barack Hussein Obama’s first term. Fox will be the first network to report it to you when it becomes more obvious.

Action

Obviously, the blog itself is the action. The first order of business was to select a tool. My requirements were simple – it needed to be free, and it needed to be low maintenance for me. It needed to be free not only because I had nowhere to expense it, but to emphatically make the point it could thrive with nowhere to expense it. I needed to be low maintenance for me because my primary source of revenue it was not to be. I did what I often do in my professional life: I surveyed the marketplace, measured the sales pitches against my requirements, narrowed the contenders down to a few finalists, put my hands on demos/prototypes for the finalists, picked one and got on with it. I have not been disappointed by my selection of Google’s Blogger service.

I have purposefully avoided monetizing the blog. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (gratuitous Seinfeld reference) – I just don’t want the extra clutter to detract from the blog’s mission. I see that mission as contributing toward informing the great American majority precisely what it is that makes them naturally conservative – so they never, ever, behave so stupidly again as to give both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to the Progressives. iow - So I can yell at my TV and radio less.

In accordance with this mission, the design lines on the blog are intentionally simple – that is, designed to not distract from the dispensing of information. The archive serves as my “book” in progress, Sites That Make Sense to Me links to other various other conservative information sources, The Blog Roll links to various other conservative bloggers, and the Assigned Reading List is for those of you who prefer to be told what to think in a less self-directed format. The spaces in between will contain video and clickable widgets designed to subliminally instill conservative values while remaining entertainmening. I just added the Simple Chart of the Week(ish) – a picture being worth a thousand words, as they say.

Along the way I’ve toyed with the idea of introducing you to a fictional character who is writing the blog. His name is Francis Charles Hamilton. He allows a few close acquaintances to call him “Charlie,” goes by “Charles” with business associates, and insists on “Mr. Hamilton” from everyone else. Mr. Hamilton is aristocratic, eccentric, and idiosyncratic. He blogs from his well-appointed study, surrounded by shelves full of hardbound classics. He has very refined mannerisms, but would bristle at the thought of being considered effeminate. He has distinctly defined tastes. He says things like “I like my cheese white – never yellow, my beer dark, and my women feisty.” He’s the kind of guy that will silently raise a toast of the finest sherry in his study on the election night Obama loses, and then anonymously join the crowd on the subsequent inauguration day for a rousing and invigorating chant of “Barry, You Suck!” For years now, Mr. Hamilton has every so often gone to the downtown bars to pick fights with liberals – for the sport of it. On the few occasions it has escalated to police involvement, Mr. Hamilton’s interactions with the officers have always been cordial and dignified.

I sometimes draw on Mr. Hamilton as my muse when I go troll hunting on the comment boards – for the sport of it. Click on my Random Droppings feature for the raw data.

My 02/11/2010 post "Sparring in the Dark Alleys of American Opinion" documents the process of me wrapping my head around the tactics of the enemy – the Leftist troll. Deception and Diversion are pretty much it in a nutshell.

The next two posts after that document Mr. Hamilton reaching accord with my now favorite comment board haunt – the Daily Caller. I’ve seen obvious trolls come and go on this board. They have been completely ineffective in their mission of moving the debate leftward. On the evening of June 7, I got into it with a Daily Caller regular who may or may not be troll, having the screen name "anniebanannie." Her comments on the Daily Caller are superficially conservative enough. The thing is there seems to be an “anniebanannie” on virtually every board on the Internet, each with a distinctly different profile befitting that particular board. Hmmmmmm, maybe it’s just a really, really, I mean really, popular screen name.

This is why I always sign my comments with my URL, folks. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why some in the blogosphere frown on the practice as bad etiquette. Of course, the very few times I’ve been told directly it was bad etiquette, the person raising the issue was obviously a Leftie and probably a troll. Hmmmmm, maybe sowing confusion around identity serves the larger agenda of the army of Leftist trolls.

Mr. Hamilton is toying with the idea of underwriting a documentary on Leftist Internet trolls, to be produced his precocious young nephew – Jack Wiley Dithers, currently serving as cub reporter with the AP. For the sport of it.

Happy Independence Day, Patriots!
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