The errant and undisciplined ruminations of a Conservative public interest attorney, GOP activist, and father of two sons. Nothing herein should be confused with tolerance of folly, RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), sufferance of fools gladly, or endorsement of perversion.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Yes, Exactly
Of course, he's precisely right.
Except for, you know, the nearly 3,000 dead people.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Interesting Data
Interestingly, seventeen of the twenty most economically stressed are in states which permit forced-unionism agreements, which unions euphemistically label "union security" agreements. The remaining three are in Nevada, which may go far to explain Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) difficulties in his re-election bid.
All of least economically stressed counties are in Right to Work states, which protect workers from being forced to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of employment.
H/T to Drudge.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Scandal Engulfs Virginia Attorney General
It seems that Virginia's Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli (R) has issued a lapel pin which features a twist on the common state seal: in his version, the torso of the female goddess Virtus is completely covered up. Virginia's actual state seal depicts Virtus with one of her breasts exposed. Cuccinelli jokingly told employees that he wanted to clothe the figure more completely.
As usual, the real scandal is that the pin quotes a presidential assassin. John Wilkes Booth famously yelled "Sic semper tyrannis!" ["Thus always to tyrants!"] after shooting President Abraham Lincoln on 14 April 1865.
There is no word on whether the Secret Service as been contacted about this scandalous action by Attorney General Cuccinelli, but the threat to President Barry is obvious.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Why Vera Baker Is Not Monica Lewinsky
Without doubt, President Barry's myrmidons will dismiss it on a number of grounds. It's the National Enquirer, after all. And we all know it never gets this kind of gossip right. Well, OK, there was John Edwards/Rielle Hunter ....
I have my doubts about this story. Not that I have any use for President Barry (hence, the moniker "President Barry"), but whatever his lack of qualifications for the job he holds, and ideological incompatibility with the United States Constitution, he simply does not have a reputation as a satyr.
Like, say, Slick Willie, whose reputation as a user and abuser of women preceded his tenure in office, and required a campaign official whose role was to tamp down "bimbo eruptions."
And whatever her flaws, my impression of Michelle Obama is that she would have little tolerance for that kind of behavior.
But I saw one comment which suggested that this is some sort of "scandal." If it is, it is not one which should constitutionally threaten his presidency, based upon what we know at this time.
Only those who have bought into their own rhetoric about the Clinton impeachment could possibly believe that.
Of course, Slick Willie was impeached because he committed perjury, and because he obstructed justice in the Paula Corbin Jones lawsuit. It was never "just about sex," as his myrmidons suggested. It was all about the Chief Executive --- and hence, chief law enforcement officer --- of the United States corrupting the justice system he was sworn to uphold.
There is no indication that President Barry has done any of those things. And unless there is, anyone who calls for any kind of investigation or official legal action would lack a reasonable basis to do so.
Nevertheless, I suspect that, if this story has any basis in fact, we will see many people suggesting that impeachment is a possibility.
Of course, they will almost certainly be far Left types indulging their continuing desire to re-write the history of the well-justified Clinton impeachment.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Today's Question
It's not the question you think it is.
As this video demonstrates, the only question to be answered today is whether Charlie Crist is a liar?
We shall see.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Trying To Cast Idiocy Down The Memory Hole
Fortunately, the original post was preserved on Waldo Jaquith's indispensable Virginia Political Blog Blogroll. Here's the post, titled "Cuccinelli too Busy with Tea Parties to Defend Constitution," as it appears on Waldo's blogroll:
Virginia’s Attorney General has been so busy making public appearances with tea parties and gun rights groups this week he seems to have totally missed that James Madison University’s newspaper room was raided y local police.
Intimidation of any newspaper office by local police raises some significant constitutional questions and since JMU is a state school you would think the Attorney General might come to the aid of the press office. He has not.
Suggesting how much confidence the Breeze Newspaper has in the Attorney General, they have announced they are now consulting with the Student Press Law Center in Arlington.
Watch the story unfold in the voices of students.
Now, never mind that Doug Smith over at that site has apparently missed Cuccinelli's attempt to defend Virginians against unconstitutional "health care reform," pursuant to a statute passed with bipartisan support --- as opposed to BarryCare, which enjoyed bipartisan opposition --- by the Virginia legislature. No, wait! He trashes that.
And never mind that legitimate questions can be raised over whether a publication of the Commonwealth --- which any student newspaper at a state institution of higher learning is --- enjoys First-Amendment protection against another instrumentality of the Commonwealth, i.e., law enforcement.
No. Instead, Smith suggests that the Attorney General has some obligation to "come to the aid of the press office" raided by local law enforcement authorities.
Of course, Virginia's Attorney General has few, if any, law enforcement powers, and even less authority over local law enforcement officials.
And, of course, the Democrat candidate for the office waived his experience as an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney, even though Virginia's Attorney General has few, if any, law enforcement powers, and --- as a Democratic member of the House of Delegates reminded me last night --- ran worst among Democrat statewide candidates in 2009.
But why should a partisan Democrat let the facts get in the way of an ill-informed (and ill-edited) far-Left rant against Attorney General Cuccinelli?
And why was that ill-informed far-Left rant removed?
Could it be because it revealed its author as ignorant of the matters about which he presumed to comment?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Barney Frank: Fair Game
So enough already about whether or not he was called a "faggot" when he decided to get in the face of TEA Party protesters a day before voting on final passage of so-called "Health Care Reform." Barney Fag set the terms of the debate months ago. And since it is likely that he has participated in the activity he uses to smear the TEA Party activists enough times to know that it's both a smear, and more applicable to him than it is to them, the outrage of both him and his defenders about having the "faggot" epithet hurled at him is feigned
TEA Party protesters were --- even if true --- merely fighting fire with fire. And if Frank can't take it, perhaps he shouldn't have dished it out.
New Group Formed To Smear TEA Party Activists
Its stated goal is "to dismantle and demolish the Tea Party movement by any non-violent means necessary."
They claim to be "A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are all sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself 'The Tea Party.'" Interestingly, no one has honestly identified themselves with the group, as far as I can tell. Certainly, no identifiably Republican has been so associated with the group.
Nevertheless, to this stated end, the group promises to "act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV interviews, etc.) to further distance them from mainstream America and damage the public's opinion of them."
No word on whether "Crash the Tea Party!" will likewise use an appalling lack of ability to use appropriate punctuation (i.e., "misspelled protest signs; wild claims in TV interviews; etc.";"that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons who constitute....") or the English language (i.e., "that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons [which] constitutes....") to the same end.
For those who need a translation, a more honest statement would be "We are a bunch of far Lefties who, fearful of the power and influence of the Tea Party, will be attempting to infiltrate it and act as agents provacateur to convey our own false and libelous caricature of members of the group." More information to this end appears here.
Pathetic.
One wonders how quick Virginia's moonbatosphere will be to attack this effort at provocation?
Monday, March 29, 2010
Democrats And Double Standards
Today, word comes of a threat serious enough that Federal charges have been filed. A threat against a Socialist ... er, Democrat voting for BarryCare?
No. It was against Republican Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA), prominent opponent of BarryCare.
Curiously, while in high dudgeon over what may be simple vandalism with no apparent connection to the TEA Party movement, Virginia's moonbatosphere has thus far remained silent about this actual threat of politically-motivated violence.
To his credit, Doug Mataconis --- who parroted the far Left line on the Perriello story --- has reported with equal prominence the real threat against Cantor.
H/T to Drudge.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
This Must Be A Mistake
These are, of course, along with accusations that the movement is racist to its very core.
Certainly, this post must be a mistake. For those not interested in going through the advertisements to get to the substance of the video, it shows a decidedly African-American Mr. Coleman apologizing for his post. Which, by the way, still has not been demonstrated to have anything more to do with the vandalism at the less-infamous Mr. Perriello's home.
Of course, why should the far Left let facts get in the way of a good smear?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Contrived Outrage
Witness a few weeks ago, when the estimable Ben Tribbett AKA "Not Larry Sabato" decided to attack Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for answering a hypothetical question about how to mount a challenge to President Barry's legitimacy, based upon the dubious theory that he is not a "natural-born citizen" of these United States.
I said in comments on various moonbat blogs who picked it up that it was clearly the type of hypothetical question that lawyers answer all the time, and both the Jaded JD and AG Cuccinelli addressed the "issue" with that explanation.
And no one plays the victim card better than the moonbat far Left. Witness those currently in high dudgeon because some TEA Party activists over the weekend purportedly called civil rights hero and Georgia Democrat Congressman John Lewis a "nigger" (I refuse to use the preferred politically-correct euphemism for this ugly word, and as I am not directing it at anyone or any group, it is not offensive), and Massachusetts Congressman and former owner of a bawdy house specializing in male prostitutes Barney Frank a "fag."
Now, never mind that notwithstanding the presence of many media cameras and tape recorders, and doubtless the presence of dozens of personal recording devices, no one has managed to produce an actual recording of the offending and derisive attacks. That lack of any real evidence hasn't stopped Virginia's moonbats from attacking TEA Partiers here, and here, and ... well, you get the point. Even Doug Mataconis claims that it happened, because, after all, far-Left TPM (Talking Points Memo) said so.
Sure; if it happened, it is wrong, and allows enemies of the movement to smear it. But given the race-hustlers' and Lavender Lobby's penchant for simply making things up to advance the myths of victimhood, it's hardly wise to take those running with this at their word. Particularly given the utter absence of real evidence (i.e., not the claims of the alleged targets of the epithets) that it actually happened.
It is, of course, part of the far-Left meme that opposition to BarryCare is "racist." It's all over the far Left sites.
Today, the smear shifted to ascribing actual acts of violence to those associated with the TEA Party movement (full disclosure: I've never attended a TEA Party rally or any other event, though I'm certainly on their mailing list; but then again, I'm also on homosexual Delegate Adam Ebbin's e-mail list, and have no idea how I got on that one, either) or, at least, holding TEA Party activists responsible for possible acts of violence because they ... well, used one of the tactics of the far Left.
In this case, it seems that someone with TEA Party ties published the address of a Perriello in Charlottesville, but not Congressman Tom Perriello. Turns out, it was his brother who --- we are repeatedly informed --- has "four young children." And today, it is reported, his gas line was cut. And the far Left wants to smear the entire TEA Party movement with it.
I'm just wandering what standard (I know: juxtaposing far Left and "standard," ha ha) is motivating them? After all, the Supreme Court will, on 28 April, hear argument in Doe v. Reed, No. 09-559, in which the Court will consider efforts by the radical homosexual lobby to secure the names and address of citizens who signed a ballot proposition to defend traditional marriage. Their avowed purpose in doing so was to place the names and addresses of R-71 petition signers on the Internet to encourage “uncomfortable conversations.”
Similar tactics were used by partisans for the Lavender Lobby in response to the victory for Proposition 8 in California. During and after the campaign, Proposition 8 opponents publicized on the Internet the names, employers, and contact information of Proposition 8 campaign contributors from public filings harass and intimidate them. See, e.g., www.eightmaps.com;
www.californiansagainsthate.com. Death threats were made; families and businesses were threatened.
And yet ... those in high dudgeon over the actions of a few, isolated TEA Party activists (whom some would say are merely exercising their right to petition government for a redress of grievances) have said utterly nothing about the actual actions and threatened actions of the Lavender Lobby against those who defend the standards of all major religions and five thousand years of civilized society regarding marriage.
Oh, and all of these activities and facts pre-date the public revelation of Congressman Perriello's brother's home address.
No one endorses violence in this regard. But it is curious indeed that the far Left has become so exercised over this event, but those same commenters have remained silent in the face of violence and intimidation perpetrated by their political allies.
Double standards: if the far Left didn't have them, they'd have no standard at all.
And They Wonder Why...
Putting the name and face of an obscure state Secretary of Transportation on your masthead?
Pathetic.
In fact, though I support Keith Fimian for the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional District, it's really an overstatement to put him there, too. It's at best premature.
And why isn't Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli there?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
None Of The Above
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!Today, President Barry signed a bill mandating socialized medicine, and answered "None of the above."
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Isn't This Treason?
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.Today, 222 members of the House of Representatives, all Democrats, violated this elementary requirement for lawmaking in the United States.
Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have been asked by a woman, after the close of the Constitutional Convention, "What kind of government have you given us, sir?" Franklin replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Apparently, we cannot. I weep for the future.
Are There Any Honest Democrats Left?
But to the first question, there may happily be an affirmative answer, and this guy seems to be a likely candidate.
That he is the only possible candidate of whom I currently am aware, and who seems to have any interest in defending the constitutional process for considering and passing bills, speaks ill of the modern Democrat Party.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A Crime
Monday, March 15, 2010
Asshats Attack AG (Alas, Absent Alliteration)
Witness the recent controversy, in places like Politico, Huffington Post, Politics Daily and the Talking Points Memo, over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's rather pedestrian answer to a hypothetical posed to him during the campaign.
As I said when I first read this, AG Cuccinelli's comments had all the earmarks of a response to a hypothetical question in an oral argument. Late this afternoon, AG Cucinnelli confirmed it.
It would be quite refreshing if the moonbatosphere would grow up. Then again, they would have to change their basic character, or lack thereof.
President Barry: Comedian
Mr. Obama laughed about it afterward. “I generally wouldn’t take advice about what’s good for Democrats” from Mr. McConnell, he told an audience in Pennsylvania.Now, that's hilarious. Democrats lecture Republicans virtually non-stop about what's good for the GOP, yet when the tables are turned, President Barry laughs it off.
Yet like the stopped clock (that's right twice a day), President Barry manages to get this one right. Democrats shouldn't be taking advice about electoral wisdom from Republicans. I'll be the first to confess: we don't have their best interests at heart.
It would be so much better if certain spineless Republicans out there would recognize that the obverse is equally true.
It is the sure and certain knowledge that those spineless Republicans are out there that President Barry doesn't discourage the efforts of Democrat/Liberal commentators who offer such "advice."
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Is This Satire?
I guess my first reaction to an ideologue like Raines was "Well, on the issue of 'unfair, unbalance, unchecked,' Howell Raines certainly knows from whence he speaks." And when I saw the online title, I had to ask whether Raines even knows any honest journalists (certainly he didn't hire many), or would recognize one if he tripped over him.
But the funniest parts of the article were Raines protestations about his perceptions of bias in Fox News reporting.
For instance, Raines proceeds from the assertion of Fox News' "endless repetition of its uber-lie: 'The American people do not want health-care reform.'" Note that it's in quotation marks. Followed by "Fox repeats this as gospel." Not that Raines bothers to cite the date, or time, or anchor who uttered such an uber-lie. No. He just asserts that it's endlessly repeated. But doesn't bother to tell us of even one occasion when it's been uttered. Or by whom.
And never mind that it's rather silly. Even Republicans concede that some reform is in order. Just not the scheme for socialized medicine advocated by President Barry, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-People's Republic of San Francisco), and Senate Majority Leader "Dingy" Harry Reid (D-Nevada). Just not the "Holy Grail" of government-controlled health care inherent in every far-Left scheme to control of our lives.
But then there's the endless sanctimony that one would expect of someone associated with the New York Times:
1) the condemnation of "the world of Foxian reality, whose actors are brought on camera to illustrate a preconceived universe as rigid as that of medieval morality";
2) the caricature that "when Fox does trot out a house liberal as a punching bag, the result is a parody of reasoned news formats," as though the New York Times, with its well-documented history of Liberal bias, holds a monopoly on "reasoned news formats," apparently defined by Raines as one in which the only Conservative views which are acceptable in polite company are those that concede the far-Left premise, and merely want to slow down the inexorable march of history to the Socialist Utopia;
3) the implication that Fox News does not present "information free of partisan poppycock," or --- incredibly arrogantly --- that Raines has ever been responsible for providing such information;
4) the notion that "Fox legitimize[s] a style of journalism that is dishonest in its intellectual process, untrustworthy in its conclusions and biased in its gestalt," again, as though the New York Times represents "a style of journalism that is []honest in its intellectual process, []trustworthy in its conclusions and [un]biased in its gestalt"; and
5) the accusation --- more indicative of the psychological condition of "projection" more than anything else --- that Roger Ailes and Fox News are "responsib[le] for creating a news department whose raison d'etre is to dictate the outcome of our nation's political discourse," as though Raines' New York Times were utterly innocent of the same offense.
Perhaps most outrageously, however, is Raines' accusation that:
For the first time since the yellow journalism of a century a,go, the United States has a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party.Who does Howell Raines think he's kidding? Does anyone out there believe that Raines' New York Times has been, for decades, "a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party," specifically, the Democrat Party? Or that Fox News is even alone? Well, perhaps has a promoter of the GOP, if promoter is it, then it might be alone. But certainly not as "a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party," a capacity in which many of our "major news organization[s]" have enthusiastically served for years. Only they have done so in service to the "right" (to Raines) political party: the Democrat Party.
But it's not as though Raines relies wholly upon his own opinion. Instead, he offers evidence published in --- you guessed it! --- the New York Times:
This year, Freud, a public relations executive in London and Murdoch's son-in-law, condemned Ailes in an interview with the New York Times, saying he was "ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard" of proper journalistic standards. Meanwhile, Gabriel Sherman, writing in New York magazine, suggests that Freud and other Murdoch relatives think Ailes has outlived his usefulness -- despite the fact that Fox, with its $700 million annual profit, finances News Corp.'s ability to keep its troubled newspapers and their skeleton staffs on life support. I know some observers of journalistic economics who believe that such insider comments mean Rupert already has Roger on the skids.Raines is certainly entitled to his opinion. But his charges have the overwhelming stench of one complaining of getting caught at his own game. For what Raines practiced for years as an executive with the New York Times, well, Raines is guilty of his own charge: he "dare not call it journalism."