Sharp Knife

"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."--Paul Johnson

J. Christian Adams in The American Spectator:

"The Great Illusion" advocated for a system of international interdependence and a world where large powerful nations did not have greater international relevance than smaller weak nations. Obama's address to the United Nations tracked Angell's philosophy so closely it would be surprising if the similarities were accidental.

Angell wistfully advocated for "relinquishing the principle of isolated national defence…and erecting an international authority" to replace "the self interest of individual nations." The Nobel Committee described Angell as "cool and clear," and that he "spoke to the intellect." Most notably, Angell argued, "you cannot kill ideas with bullets." He believed that an enlightened citizenry, once someone or something enlightened them, would render war obsolete.

[Sir] Norman Angell won the Nobel in 1933, a most dangerous year for his ideas to gain currency. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. And in the following years, Norman Angell's ideas flourished and were adopted as policy by a British Government unwilling to acknowledge the Gathering Storm. Winston Churchill, however, regularly and vociferously opposed Angell and his allies. It took Churchill's courage to stand against this national naïveté throughout the 1930s, usually alone, and always jeered in the House of Commons. The British government followed Angell's model for international relations and ignored Churchill, adopting timid diplomatic and defense policies.

The 1933 Peace Prize winner profoundly influenced British policy in ways that led directly to German tanks rolling into Poland in September 1939. War did not break out because nations ignored Angell's advice; instead, the ensuing carnage in Europe happened because European democracies made Angell's ideas government policy. Europe gambled that Angell's model would ensure peace, and by the time everyone saw that the gamble had failed, it was too late.

"RUBBERBAND MAN"

Just kidding; it was "One of a Kind (Love Affair)". But that's not important now.

And neither is this, the latest piffle from Senior White House Whiffle-izer Valerie "Executive Vice President of Grove Parc’s management firm Habitat Company when federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex a bottom-of-the-barrel 11 on a 100-point scale" Jarrett:

"It’s rather telling when the Republican Party forces out a moderate Republican and it says, I think, a great deal about where the Republican Party leadership is right now. I think it’s becoming more and more extreme, and more and more marginalized."

Exactly backwards.

The Party supported Dede Scozzaflewoverthecuckoo'snest. They didn't "force her out". The voters did that with low poll numbers.

Listening to voters is "marginalizing" and "extremist" according to Jarrett.

But this is worse:

“What the president has said consistently is, he is going through a very rigorous process. George, before he puts our men and women in harm’s way, he wants to make absolutely sure that he has a strategy. This isn’t just a matter of how many troops are sent over, although that is a very important component.”

"before he puts our men and women in harm’s way"?

He already did, lady. Wake up:

March 27, 2009

Good morning. Today, I am announcing a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This marks the conclusion of a careful policy review that I ordered as soon as I took office. My Administration has heard from our military commanders and diplomats. We have consulted with the Afghan and Pakistani governments; with our partners and NATO allies; and with other donors and international organizations. And we have also worked closely with members of Congress here at home.

The situation is increasingly perilous...Many people...So let me be clear...a return to Taliban rule would condemn their country...women and girls...blah blah blah...So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved.

I have already ordered the deployment of 17,000 troops that had been requested by General McKiernan for many months.

He told us he already had a "comprehensive, new strategy". That was over six months ago. Was he "unsure" when he sent those 17,000 troops "into harm's way" previously?

He said he had all the answers when he was campaigning in the primaries. He said he had all the answers when he was campaigning in general election. He said he had all the answers six months ago when he "concluded a careful policy review".

And now you say he needs more time just to figure out what the questions are? What's next? A pr campaign of "new and improved" strategies cobbled together from Billy Mays outtakes? "But wait...there's more!"

As Steyn said, the Drifter-in-Chief is not denouncing the "long years of drift", but his own long months of drift. He's essentially calling for "do-overs", a concept for children's games, not adult geopolitics. I'm not talking about the reconsideration, but his failure to accept responsibility.

And his top advisor still thinks she's a rebel, an outsider, transgressively "Speaking Truth to Power". It's nutty. It's flaky. It's juvenile. And mostly, it's dangerous.

Stop it. Stop campaigning. You won, just like you said, and just like you wanted. Grow up. In a hurry would be nice.

And please stop the Brutal Spinning. America comes first.

"Then Came You".

"...IT'S A STEYN, STEYN GLOBE!"

"We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen," remarked professor Flannery. "We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the Copenhagen agreement are in effect diplomacy at the most profound global level. They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society."

Hold that thought: "They deal with every aspect of our life." Did you know every aspect of your life was being negotiated at Copenhagen? But in a good way! So no need to worry. [...]

Two-ply bathroom tissue, according to Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "is the Hummer of the paper industry." Oh, and blame Canada, as that’s where most American two-ply comes from: this decadent Dominion is apparently the House of Saud of toilet paper. [...]

At their Monday night poker game in hell, I’ll bet Stalin, Hitler and Mao are kicking themselves: "'It’s about leaving a better planet to our children?' Why didn’t I think of that?" This is Two-Ply Totalitarianism—no jackboots, no goose steps, just soft and gentle all the way. Nevertheless, occasionally the mask drops and the totalitarian underpinnings become explicit. Take Elizabeth May’s latest promotional poster: "Your parents f*cked up the planet. It’s time to do something about it. Live Green. Vote Green." As Saskatchewan blogger Kate McMillan pointed out, the tactic of "convincing youth to reject their parents in favour of The Party" is a time-honoured tradition.

Don't miss "The Trash Can Who Loved Me" and the Butt-Zapping Toilets--Say, aren't they opening for Dave Matthews now?

Anyway, read it all from Canada's noted human rights violators and climate deniers at Macleans.

What-the-hell- UPDATE: Lileks reviews the Butt-Zapping Toilets' latest album:

[T]his is the last time you will hear about Surinam for a year, unless our stringer is kidnapped – but it’s the one time in the day I listen to music. Loud music. Dare I say crude music. On the way home it may well be a Brahms adagio, but if you want to start your day with enthusiasm, 80s hair metal works. If you enable the “guilty pleasure” mental filter that allows you to simultaneously enjoy it as the elemental ravings of the id and a pre-fab howl crafted by conglomerates to safely channel aggression into the desired consumer behavior.

Plus "House of Frankenstein" movie stills--the perfect compliment to our Halloween hangovers! And by "our hangovers", I mean, of course, "your hangovers".

I do, however, have a Sugar Rush.

Say--aren't they touring with Five For Fighting?

...what Wisconsin is to cheese."

More menacings from Dennis Miller:

The waiting room outside Dr. Obama's Snake Oil Emporium is populated by the likes of General McChrystal, the Dalai Lama and Fox News, meanwhile Kadaffi, Chavez and Aqua-velvajad are walking around backstage with All-Access laminates. Not since Lana Turner hooked up with Johnny Stompanato has a great star exhibited such poor taste in men.

Obama's play is to downsize as far as American chest-thumping goes. I happen to believe we have oodles to be proud of, he feels the nation would be better off as the lion that squeaked. But if in lieu of engaging our actual enemies, he believes he'd rather pick a fight with a straw man, he has definitely misidentified the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Fox News, Roger Ailes.

You see, a straw man is a straw man because he usually has no spine. Ailes has a spine made of a substance that they use to cut titanium. Ailes makes Rahm Emanuel look like an Amish Lamaze instructor and if they're gonna lock antlers with Ailes, they'd best wear a cup.

In other offerings from the Washington Examiner (which has really come on strong);

POLLSTER: IT'S NOW OKAY TO CRITCIZE OBAMA BY NAME

Byron York:

"In the spring, we counseled strongly that you should avoid direct confrontation with President Obama," Luntz writes in the new memo. "That has changed." The "thrill is gone" from Obama's relationship with the American people, Luntz writes, and it's now OK to go after the president's proposals with the president's name attached.

I dunno.

That's a pretty big step. Criticizing the president? And by name?

Frankly, I just don't know if I'm ready to go there yet.

BYE BYE

PRESS: "What about your meeting with Tutu?"
REAGAN: "Tutu? So-So."

Robert Stacy McCain is reporting De De Scozzapalooza has dropped out of the NY23 race.

Many national Republicans had endorsed the Conservative--maybe that beast is teachable after all. Now let's win/win, chop-chop.

heh heh.

Update: "Mornin'" Joe Scarborough 'members, and he 'members it differently than Newt; Robert Costa reports:

"Republicans will elect conservatives when given the chance. Even after I won the primary, I was told by the PAC community in Washington that I was too conservative to win the general election, that I was a radical extremist and only cared about abortion, cutting taxes, and smaller government. It was impossible to raise money since they had so poisoned the well for conservatives. They said I couldn’t win the general election in a district that no Republican had won since 1872. I ended up winning with 62 percent of the vote.

Almost all of the ‘moderate’ candidates that Newt and the NRCC were racing around trying to find in 1994 ended up losing. It was the conservatives who won. The same thing is happening now in upstate New York. I’m really stunned that national Republican leaders didn’t learn from 1994, 2006, or 2008. Time and time again, the GOP has lost not because it was too conservative, but because it was not conservative enough.

It used to infuriate me when Republican leaders from the House and Senate would come on television and defend President Bush for spending too much money, only to complain about Bush’s big spending and recklessness off-air in the green room. They were blindly following. That’s why we got destroyed in 2006 and 2008.

Even if the rest of America forgets about this race in a couple weeks, I hope that the Republicans in Washington are watching closely so that they can finally learn their lesson. If they want to gain power in 2010, they need to be more conservative and support candidates who want to balance the budget and cut taxes. If the Washington establishment says that you can’t win like that, just look to the class of ‘94. We did it."

It Never Stops UPDATE: So I'm listening to the radio news, ABC, I think, and the gal says something like 'For the first time in memory, this upstate New York district will not be represented by a Republican,' clearly trying to spin this as a Republican defeat.

In fact, this is a victory for Republicans, at least Reagan Republicans. And Reagan Republicans are the Victory Wing of the party. Also the Victory Beak, Talons, Tail Feathers, Beating Heart and Eagle Eyes.

It would be cool, though, to have a Conservative Housemember, just to force reporters to say the word, and proving that not all "independents" caucus with the Dems.

And thanks to Kos for the Scozzafava endorsement--finally, a Kos endorsement makes a difference! He says this wasn't really an endorsement:

"...So it's official, I'm rooting for the Republican to win."

When he realized he was helping conservatives, he issued a retraction which he calls a "steaming pile dogspile dog**t." Agreed. Just like the original endorsement.

Onward...

JESUS SAVES AND GOD CREATES

Obama only shuffles.

Ace:

At no point in all of American history has the metric ever been what jobs a president has "saved or created." The metric has always been the concrete, easier-to-determine number of how many jobs were lost and how many were gained. There has never before been a "saved" category, ever, and yes, all other presidents in an ailing economy would of course like to shift focus from the jobs lost to those they can claim were "saved."

It is only Obama -- special rules for special people! -- who has ever been so shameless as to attempt to shift the terms of debate to something so favorable to him (and so hard to determine), and it is only in Obama's case has the media been so compliant they went along with the charade.

They think "saved or created" sounds better than "Please grade us on a curve."

But I think "Please grade us on a curve" sounds better.

Manuel Zelaya gives them an A+; Obama saved and created his job.

Update: Just for, you know, the record: As well as being destructive and stupid, this is all entirely unnecessary:

Cato Institute:

When Reagan took office in 1981, the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. In the recession of 1981-82, that rate peaked at 9.7 percent, but [once his policies took effect] it fell continuously for the next seven years. When Reagan left office, the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent. This reduction in joblessness was a clear triumph of the Reagan program.

Heritage Foundation:

President Ronald Reagan's record includes sweeping economic reforms and deep across-the-board tax cuts, market deregulation, and sound monetary policies to contain inflation. His policies resulted in the largest peacetime economic boom in American history and nearly 35 million more jobs.

That's what real Hope and Change looks like. Just in case it ever comes up again.

AND THEN MIX ME ONE

but I preferred the good old days of journalistic integrity, when CBS news anchors would limit their cross-dressing to weekends, and not let it bleed over into the work-week like Harry/Julia does here.

Mr. Smith waits all year to pretend this is just about Halloween. Sure. Whatever you need to believe, Harry. But could you put down the allegedly rubber chicken long enough to file a story about the 30 congressmen on the take?

Speaking of real journalistic integrity, however, here's a two-fer: David Pryce-Jones quoting Malcolm Muggeridge:

"There were earnest advocates of the humane killing of cattle who looked up at the massive headquarters of the OGPU [the secret police at the time] with tears of gratitude in their eyes, earnest advocates of proportional representation who eagerly assented when the necessity for a Dictatorship of the Proletariat was explained to them, earnest clergymen who walked reverently through anti-God museums and reverently turned over the pages of atheistic literature, earnest pacifists who watched delightedly tanks rattle across Red Square and bombing planes darken the sky, earnest town-planning specialists who stood outside over-crowded, ramshackle tenements and muttered: 'If only we had something like this in England!'"

The credulity of these fellow-travellers, Muggeridge recorded, astonished even hardened Soviet officials.

This anthology passage has come to mind several times recently in connection with present-day fellow-travellers visiting Iran in just that same spirit of willing self-deception. Here are advocates of human rights enthusing over the general happiness of Iranians even while disgusting crimes of murder and rape are routine in the prisons. Here are ecologists promoting windmills everywhere at home, obsessed with their carbon footprint while oblivious to the Iranian nuclear program. Socialists and Leftists in a permanent fury about American foreign policy have nothing to say about Iranian sponsorship of terror far and wide. Pacifists and aesthetes are so eager to see the splendours of Qom and Mashhad that they are oblivious to the Islamist Republic's testing of long-range missiles and repeated threats to exterminate its enemies. Feminists eager to uncover gender discrimination in their own sphere respond to the plight of Iranian women by praising the attractive colours of their clothing.

That's a lovely pink blouse you're wearing, Harry--but here's what real journalism looks like:

Overweight, he waddles. His face seems designed to be incapable of smiling, and he has no humour, no powers of persuasion, no gift for repartee. This glum figure is undoubtedly a racist, an anti-Semite, an ignoramus, and a liar about the unsavory things he has done and said on his way towards the top of the BNP. [...]

Griffin has only one point to make, namely that immigration is out of control and British people no longer feel that this is their country. He hasn't the intelligence to make this point very well, but it resonates with the people who find themselves living amidst the immigrants. Nobody seems to have worked out that mass immigration and the welfare state are incompatible. British people see immigrants receiving benefits, housing, and the rest of it on a scale that is neither deserved nor available to them. Post-war governments, whether Conservative or Labour, have created this confusion and taken every measure to pretend either that it is not happening or that it doesn't matter. In short, these politicians have been effective fascist-spawning agents. The BNP and Griffin are monuments to their incompetence and cowardly dissembling.

As though on cue, a speechwriter for Tony Blair now reveals that the Blair government had a deliberate policy of encouraging mass immigration while ensuring that the electorate was told nothing about it. As the well-known columnist Melanie Phillips has put it, here was “a deliberate and secret policy of national cultural sabotage.”

The English people used to dissolve governments and elect new ones. Now, their governments dissolve them, to elect a new people. I'm sure it will all work out fine.

Their multi-cultural cross-dressing has bled over into their national life and is threatening the very idea of a British nation. As they say on CBS, "What a drag."

NIXON WUZ ROBBED!

Obviously we cannot give allegiance to the criminal regime in Washington until such time as Presidente Richard Hussein Nixon is restored to the office which was stolen from him in a illegal coup by Democrats in 1974.

And since Nixon, Agnew and Ford are all gone now, power must devolve to a remaining high-level member of the Nixon Administration.

Hmmm...let's see...who could we get?...got it!

Welcome back to the White House...President Rumsfeld!


Outrageous, you say? Well, that's what we just did to Honduras.

This is President Obama's first foreign policy triumph, if you don't count bowing obsequiously to a Mecca-sized Potentate of Pedastry.

Obama's only similar triumph was when he was still a senator and he helped campaign for his Communist cousin Odinga, who lost the Kenyan election, but went on an ethnic-cleansing spree and was rewarded with the Prime Minister's office.

Ray Walser:

The Obama team did an excellent job of undermining the Honduran economy by cutting off economic assistance, throttling tourism with travel warnings, yanking visas away from Hondurans, and creating a climate of massive uncertainty that spooked U.S. investors and businesses. The U.S. embassy in Honduras did yeomen’s work watching out for the interests of the Zelaya clan, leaving many to wonder which side it was pulling for. In short, against a small, friendly, anti-Chávez ally, the administration mustered the sort of muscle it would never dare use against Iran, Russia, or Venezuela.

The accord requires implementation by the Hondurans, good behavior by Zelaya, and a quick infusion of international support for the elections. It requires hands-on U.S. diplomacy, not pre-June 28 complacency, to make sure Zelaya doesn’t yet derail the electoral process and steal Honduras from under the eyes of the Obama administration.

You had me right up until the end, Mr. Walser; stealing Honduras for socialism is the entire purpose of the Obama administration.

The hope is that Zelaya will soon slink away into the night. Hot Air:

He gets to return home, but essentially gets to sit in an office for a few weeks and do nothing. Assuming he doesn’t lead some sort of coup d’etat himself on his return to Honduras, which would make the Obama administration look even more inept in this circumstance, Zelaya is out of power for good.

But Castro, originally a Peronista, was arrested for his coup attempt against Batista. He was released and became much worse than Batista. Same with Chavez. Ortega got a second bite at the apple and just held a secret Supreme Court session with his own personal justices. You're not going to believe this, but the Court/Fan Club ruled that he could keep running for office forever, despite the Constitution, just as Zelaya sought.

As Ed Morrissey noted this summer, the era of the Man on the Horse is returning to Latin America. Honduras was one of the few countries to stand up to it, and for their trouble, Obama just kicked them in the teeth. This aggressive socialist hegemony by Obama can only hasten that trend.

Some say we shouldn't be too hard on Roberto Micheletti for signing this deal, to which I say "Excuse me? You're joking, right?"

Of course they couldn't stand up to both their Communists and ours. That's too much for anyone. It was a tag team effort, and it has succeeded for now. I hope they're not too hard on us. If we hadn't foolishly chosen a socialist in November, Hondurans wouldn't have been forced to choose between coercive imperial blackmail and their own Constitution today.

Forgive us, Hondurans; we lost our way.

President Obama is known for his perma-pologizing for America.

SOMETIMES THE MOUNTAIN SHOULD MOVE MOHAMMAD (D.-Chicago)

"Federal employees—federal employees number two and a half million; and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the nation’s work force employed by government. These proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man’s property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? And they can seize and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of that fine."--Ronald Reagan, 1964

Anna Quindlen of NEWSPEAK is sad.

And mad.

But more sad than mad.

She's been talking to all her dinner party friends, and they just don't know anybody who didn't vote for Obama, just like movie critic Pauline Kael and Nixon:

Kael: "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them."

Anna and her feeling-people-in-theaters -friends can't understand why President Zeus can't simply wave his mighty scepter and enact all manner of radical change. Whether or not the remaining un-felt People in the theater want it or not.

She can't even grasp why, even if he could, it might not be a good idea:

History will judge Barack Obama over the long haul. But we've learned something in the short term that is simple, obvious, and has less to do with him than with the Founding Fathers. This is a country that often has transformational ambitions but is saddled with an incremental system, a nation built on revolution, then engineered so the revolutionary can rarely take hold.

Checks and balances: that's how we learn about it in social-studies class, and in theory it is meant to guard against a despotic executive, a wild-eyed legislature, an overweening judiciary. And it's also meant to safeguard the rights of the individual; as James Madison, president and father of the Constitution, once said, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." But what our system has meant during the poisonous partisan civil war that has paralyzed Washington in recent years is that very little of the big stuff gets done. It simply can't.

"In theory"?

She thinks that "a despotic executive, a wild-eyed legislature, an overweening judiciary" is some distant, hypothetical scenario. I think it's a clinical and dispassionate assessment of current reality.

Those aren't theories--they're facts. And when Government can't just ram the "big stuff" down our throats, that IS "safeguarding the rights of the individual." That's what it means. That's the very definition.

You don't have to have a mustachioed-Dear Leader and be sending political opponents to the Gulag to have a state-run state. Ronnie:

Now it doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the—or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

Our revolution wasn't France's Revolution. Theirs was a half-turn of the wheel, a radical throwing-off of traditions ...and heads. Ours was a complete turn of the wheel, a return to the old order, a restoring of our ancient rights as Englishmen in a new world in a new way.

Ironically, England is adopting the Quindlen model. That's why, for example, the State decreed that British parents/suspects are not allowed to accompany their own children to the playground anymore.

They may observe their children only from behind the barb-wire security perimeter Happy Fence, but only the Block Police-approved council-vetted Camp Guards 'play rangers' will be permitted access to their precious Property of the State little tow-headed tykes.

And Ms. Quindlen will be glad to know that it was instituted as easily as Zeus waving his mighty scepter.

Zeus had his winged goddess of Victory Nike.

But that doesn't mean he can "Just Do It".

AND OTHER SCARY ENERGY STORIES

"...the Environmental Protection Agency has put the brakes on 79 surface mining permits in four states since he was elected. The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water Act and warrant “enhanced” review. But the agency went even further last week, announcing plans to revoke a permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia..."--Washington Times

"The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan." ..."His New York-based hedge-fund firm, Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the company’s U.S.-traded preferred shares."--The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News

Some dude:

Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. ...coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum...I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table...So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

Some chick:

One of the efforts that will assist in securing our energy future is the development of clean-coal technology. And here we have another big disagreement with our opponents. Last month Joe Biden told a voter -- and I quote -- "we're not supporting clean coal." He says clean coal's a good idea for China -- but sorry, Ohio, Joe Biden says it's not for you.

That's just nonsense, and there's plenty more of it in Senator Biden's record. He's against drilling off our coasts, for environmental reasons. But he says that offshore drilling holds real promise for the island nation of Cyprus -- as if the environmental safeguards of the Cypriots are more rigorous than our own. And so far as he and Senator Obama are concerned, nuclear power's okay, too -- but only for France and other European nations. Our opponents seem to have all sorts of solutions for the energy needs of other nations -- now if only they'd focus more on what America needs.

As for our coal resources, America has more coal than the oil riches of Saudi Arabia. Burning coal cleanly is a challenge of practical problem-solving and human ingenuity -- and we have no shortage of those in America either. ... We will deliver not only electricity but jobs to some of the areas hardest hit by our economic troubles.

And in the end, with or without the green light from Joe the Six-Term Senator, we will make clean coal a reality. For the sake of our nation's security and our prosperity, we need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.

On energy policy, our opponents are always talking about things we cannot do, because our own government won't let us. When you look over the energy plans of Barack Obama and his allies in Congress, it's just a long, labored agenda of inaction. And it's the same agenda of inaction we could expect under the one-party rule of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. They're always talking about things we can't do in America, energy we can't produce, refineries we can't build, plants we can't approve, coal we cannot use, technologies we cannot master... for a guy's who's slogan is "Yes, we can," Barack Obama's energy plan sure has a whole lot of "No we can't."

Who's gone "rogue", really?

UPDATE: Obama has been offering Republicans new nuclear energy plants if they will sign on to Cap & Tax.

But the second the ink dries, he'll order the EPA to withdraw permission, just as he did with the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia.

Yes, Virginia, it's true; we're all West Virginians now.

BUSH CENSORS LIBRARY TO COVER-UP COUP ATTEMPT! DEMANDS 2nd, POLITICIZED LEGAL OPINION!

Oh, wait--it's John Kerry, not Bush? Nevermind, then.

“Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth."--Ronald Reagan, 45 years ago today.

Fresh from trying to re-live the glories of his youth and engineer yet another "helicopter-off-the-embassy"-defeat in Afghanistan, John Kerry has demanded that the Law Library of Congress change its legal opinion about Manuel Zelaya's coup attempt to become a "President-For-Life", and his subsequent impeachment.

The Law Library said it was indeed a lawful impeachment, despite the Obamanistas siding with the Communist Zelaya. Kerry wants the opinion to comply with Chairman Obama's wishes.

Ed Morrissey:

The US has rejected the one real solution to the problem, a national election that had already been scheduled before Zelaya’s removal and one in which Zelaya’s own party wants to participate.

That's why this is so boneheaded; even if this were a great tragedy, voters can easily re-install Zelaya's party shortly if they so wish. Obama fears they will not, hence the thuggery. As Rahm says, "A good strongman is a terrible thing to waste."

If Kerry and Berman want a resolution to the Honduran crisis, then they should be demanding changes from Obama and his team, not silence from the Law Library of Congress.

Instead, they're Speaking Power to Truth.

We were warned. Here's why Honduras clings to its Constitution despite the bullying and coercion from the Yankee Colossus of the North:

Last week, President Ortega inadvertently provided the best defense yet of the Honduran decision this summer to remove Manuel Zelaya from the presidency. Nicaragua has a one-term limit for presidents, and Mr. Ortega's term expires in 2011. However, the Nicaraguan doesn't want to leave, and so he asked the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional ban on his re-election.

Last week the court's constitutional panel obliged him. The Nicaraguan press reported that the vote was held before three opposition judges could reach the chamber in time for the session. Three alternative judges, all Sandinistas, took their place and the court gave Mr. Ortega the green light. Mr. Ortega has decreed that the ruling cannot be appealed.

This is classic strong-man stuff on Hugo Chávez's Venezuela model.

Shhhh.

Quiet.

I'm trying to hear the sounds of the administration calling this a "coup" as they did in Honduras. Or denying the Sandanistas visas. (*crickets chirping*) Nope. Nothing. Nada.

(They can't cut off aid--that was already done because the Sandanistas were stealing all of it.)

Since he's such good friends with Danny Ortega from way back, maybe Kerry and Tom Harkin could visit Ortega in Managua again and have a word with their pal. Sen. Harkin is the guy in the middle who looks like Carlos Santana groupie stoned on Ecstasy.

If Ronald Reagan were still in office, Ortega wouldn't dare. But these Cardboard Men are team-mates. Say hallo to your leetle fren, senators, your freshly-minted Presidente-for-Life Danny Ortega.

The Examiner:

Ortega called the court's decision "indisputable" and asked his opponents to have faith in the electorate.

"The people will decide at the election. Why deny them the right to choose whomever they want for whatever post?" Ortega said at a rally broadcast live on radio and television.

Latin American leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe also have maneuvered to extend their terms in office.

In Central America, leaders of the interim government of Honduras have accused ousted President Manuel Zelaya of attempting to undo presidential term limits through a referendum on whether to revise the constitution. Zelaya vehemently denies the accusations.

Ortega left office in 1990 after opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro defeated him in nationwide elections. He was re-elected in 2006.

Monday's ruling also would allow consecutive re-election of the country's mayors, roughly two-thirds of them Sandinistas.

Nicaraugua is back to the classic "Free and Fair Elections," Commie-Style: One Person, One Vote, One Time...And One Time Only.

It's bad enough Honduras has to fight their own communists to remain free.

They shouldn't have to fight ours, too.

"Won't you help to sing
This songs of freedom-
'Cause all I ever have:
Rendition songs;
Rendition songs;
Rendition songs."
--Deep cover CIA operative Bob Marley

"We have ways of making you sing!"

Yes--but do we have ways of making you stop?

David Paulin:

The Freedom Of Information Act request was made in behalf of what the Security Archive's website called a "coalition of U.S. and international musicians, including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Jackson Browne." In all, the group includes dozens of top recording artists and bands.

According to the Post, some of the songs played at Guantanamo may have been Don McLean's "American Pie"; Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A", the "Sesame Street" theme song; and even the "Meow Mix" jingle from the TV commercial for cat food.

The Security Archive's executive director, Thomas Blanton, said: "At Guantanamo, the U.S. government turned a jukebox into an instrument of torture. The musicians and the public have the right to know how an expression of popular culture was transformed into an enhanced interrogation technique."

The public has a right to know, alright; exactly when did pop stars turn their jukebox jumper-cables into musical instruments of torture?

A: 1962.

As the Barenaked Ladies said back before they could afford clothes, "It's All Been Done".

In 1962's "One, Two, Three", director Billy Wilder had the East Germans torturing a false confession out of a young communist by repeated exposure to "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." The song, not the bikini.

While I cannot support Nancy Pelosi's call to have Mr. Wilder exhumed and put on trial for BushCrimes, there are some differences:

1.) Waterboarding as we did it is still not "torture".
2.) We didn't seek false confessions.
3.) We didn't seek any confessions--we wanted information. To save your life. And we got it--you're reading this, aren't you?
And,
4.) In America, we punish young communists by electing them president.

Which brings up an interesting point; if Nancy got her Truth-y Commission and someone lied--someone besides Nancy, I mean--would we torture them to get the truth? Noted National Security analyst Elton John put it well:

"Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You're a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly, fly away
If, however, you were to place the insect in the box without informing him that you are doing so, then, in order to not commit a predicate act, you should not affirmatively lead him to believe that any insect is present which has a sting that could produce severe pain or suffering or even cause death. So long as you take either of the approaches we have described, the insect’s placement in the box would not constitute a threat of severe physical pain or suffering to a reasonable person in his position."

Eddie Vedder is gonna start worrying about torturing innocent people now? I think I speak for all right-thinking people when I say Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne were torturing us with their music for years before Bush came along.

It's a death trap, a suicide rap--I had to get out while I was young. "Doctor, my ears have heard the tunes and the and the endless whines of loons--and Doctor, my nose and throat are full of water from the water-boarding. What's the cure, Doc?"

The cure is to not blow up buildings, Abdullah Madonna Montana. Then you don't get waterboarded. And then you don't have to listen to rock stars whine about how Bush subverted their "art" for "torture", when in reality it is a desperate attempt to remain relevant, claim valuable victimhood status and eke out a few more Greatest Hits-sales in time for Christmas.

Jackson Browne hasn't been this relevant since he stood up and fought the evil dictator Daryl Hannah. That was on "Jackson Browne Sings Ike Turner". He was just upset because the "Meow Mix" jingle sold more copies than "El Salvador".

Instead of complaining, rock stars should be proud; they haven't been this helpful since Bob Marley singlehandedly stopped the flow of illicit drugs into America. by smoking them all himself.

Feel free to add your own favorite Top Ten Torture Songs in the comments. They broke me long ago with "Desperado", "It's a Third World After All" and "We Built This City" (No--you wrecked it--and me, too.)

But there still may be hope for you. Just wake me up before you go go.

ON THE WAY TO TEH FUNNY

This is funny. And this.

Also this--good punchline and anecdote.

This is clever and guerrilla-funny. Even funnier; Politico calls it a "Republican dirty trick". Which is true, except it's not Republican. Or dirty. Or a trick.

This is so pathetic it's funny.

These guys--always, always.

And this is deep, grasshopper.

And no humor round-up is complete without Poodles Playing Cards.

MORE, FOR FIGHTING

You know the story of the five blind men who each describe their part of the elephant correctly, yet miss the big picture? Well, here are five Americans who see the Big Picture well, describing our Beloved Behemoth with clarity. Excerpts:

Doug Hoffman:

We see that the danger to our nation posed by unrestrained government has become fiercely urgent, and we have stopped accepting excuses from those who won’t stand strong to stop it. We have declared independence from party politics because too many people in both parties either have been complicit in creating the danger, or have shrunk from challenging it.

Republicans and Democrats alike seem content to keep playing this game, but people who work hard to build a living — as we must in upstate New York — are appalled to see our politicians playing games while our debt mushrooms, unemployment looms, and our nation’s security is neglected. We want our children to inherit a better country, not a flood of debt; we want them to be confident in their nation, not afraid of its shadow.

Our goal should not be a Republican majority. It should be a conservative majority. If the Republican party will not be conservative, then we are going to run against them ...and we’re going to win.

I admire this Normal-American for stepping up.

Gene Healy:

Federal law has become incomprehensible because Congress has inserted itself into every area of American life. As James Madison explained, though, Congress's constitutional powers are "few and defined.... [to be] exercised principally on external objects," like foreign policy and international trade.

Read the bills? It's more important for congressmen to read the Constitution. They'll be pleased to learn that it's short and written in plain English.

These laws are a perfect metaphor for the Behemoth they serve;

They are dense. Heavy. Oppressive. Impenetrable. Lawyered up. Written in a foreign tongue. Expensive--astronomically so. Unfathomable--purposefully so. When their purpose is ascertained, they're horrifying. And they have special interests inserted deep within their bowels.

Thomas Sowell:

Does any of this sound like America?

Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to “change the United States of America,” the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles, and the people of this country.

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: “G** damn America!” Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community-activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans to a captive audience of children.

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama’s own contempt for American values and traditions as trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year — each bill more than a thousand pages long — too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question — and the biggest question for this generation.

Rush: Why NY-23 Isn't a Third-Party Race

I really do not know what Newt Gingrich was thinking. Maybe he hasn't gotten over the budget battle of 1995. I don't know, but this is stunning. I ruined two hours of my day when I saw that the Republican Party was running ads against Hoffman. They have a death wish. The Republican Party has a death wish. Gallup: 40% of Americans now say they are conservative, 20% say they're liberal, 36% say they're moderates. And of those three groups, which one is being ignored -- not just ignored -- which one is being attacked by the Republican Party? The conservatives!

It's worse than I thought. I thought this was just based on elitism and Northeast moderate liberalism, and embarrassment of the people that the social issues attract to the party. But now it's just plain stupidity. The Republican Party, as constituted is as dangerous to this country as the Democrat Party is. "But, Rush, party loyalty is party loyalty, and the local Republican committee up there has endorsed Scozzafava." So? I'm saying the two parties are the same. I guess I need to amend it a little bit, but, man, when I saw that they were running ads, as I say, ruined two hours of my day.

...You have to understand that the Conservative Party does not look at themselves as a third party. Only do they get in gear when the Republicans nominate some liberal.

Ronald Reagan opposed third-party races because he believed that conservatives needed to take back the Republican Party and not surrender it to liberals [as does Hoffman-ed.]. He told the liberals, "Go your own way." He didn't go his own way and form a Republican Party. It took a while. He narrowly lost to Gerald Ford in '76. He was the most popular Republican emerging from that convention, but Ford, the establishment Republican, the fix was in. Reagan didn't slink away and start a third party. He began to take over the Republican Party.

Third parties lose. Speaking personally, I am not interested in creating another Reform Party like Perot did, like Buchanan did. It's a losing proposition. I want to defeat what's going on.

The Republican Party did not want Ronald Reagan in 1980. People have forgotten this. I have not. They didn't want him in 1976. They didn't want him in 1980. ... And had there been no primary system, George Bush 41 would have been the nominee.

And we would have had the "Bush 41 Revolution"? I doubt it.

The Republican Party is big enough for a Jerry Ford. But not in leadership. Ford gave us Justice Stevens, who is still assaulting the Constitution. And he lost re-election. George H.W. Bush was better, but he raised taxes, gave us Justice Souter and lost re-election. Bush 43 barely squeaked by both times. By contrast, Reagan soundly won elections twice, first knocking off an incumbent, and then winning even stronger the second time.

Yet Americans never gave him a 60/40 Congress. We hadn't yet learned every last one of their Stupid Liberal Tricks. We have now. I hope.

Anyway, when a Rush Limbaugh says, even with huge caveats, "The Republican Party, as constituted is as dangerous to this country as the Democrat Party is," you know something big is roiling.

Doc Zero:

The task ahead for American voters is nothing less than reversing the momentum of history. This will not be an easy task… and it will not be simple.

No one on the Left even bothers pretending their agenda consists of selfless dedication to the poor any longer. It’s all about desperate grabs for gigantic amounts of power over an increasingly impoverished and dominated middle class.

The madness of launching new trillion-dollar programs on top of a madly inflating deficit has become accepted as reasonable discourse. When Nancy Pelosi made her infamous comment that the constitutionality of individual health insurance mandates was not a “serious” question, she was committing a horrible offense against her office, but also providing an accurate description of the current atmosphere in Washington. We’re twenty years past the point where such an outrageous statement could even shift the tracks beneath the Crazy Train of her political career.

Many factors combined to bring us to this moment. One of the most important is the blend of pragmatism and romanticism which characterizes the moderate American voter. They are easily excited by heady talk of “change” and “new ideas,” but they don’t want to be swept up into ideological crusades, or suffer any of that “change” within their own lives. They don’t want to take risks with their jobs, or the financial future of their families, but they want to be told they’re part of a bold new initiative that’s changing the world.

A truly transformational moment is upon us. The old game is over. The mad spending spree of 2009 has left America mortgaged to the hilt. The money is all gone. There are no more ways to pinch a few billion more out of the upper class, without destroying the middle class lifestyle. The Right has always been correct in its belief that tax-and-spend liberalism would not work. Every available dollar has been taxed and spent, and not one single problem the Left demanded the sacrifice of our wealth and freedom to address has been resolved. Not one of their programs has worked, and none of their cost estimates have been accurate, to within an order of magnitude. Tax-and-spend is over. The new coin of the realm will be control. A swarm of czars is already hard at work, minting these coins… and behind them, the momentum of history pushes a pendulum that has become a wrecking ball.

I don’t think the answer lies in confronting Republican candidates with non-negotiable lists of positions they must vow to uphold. The problem with this approach is that it focuses too much energy on compelling politicians, instead of persuading voters.

And for good luck, our sixth Sith, Canadian Mark Steyn:

Unlike those excitable countries where the peasants overrun the presidential palace, settled democratic societies rarely vote to "go left." Yet oddly enough that's where they've all gone. In its assumptions about the size of the state and the role of government, almost every advanced nation is more left than it was, and getting lefter.

Even in America, federal spending (in inflation-adjusted 2007 dollars) has gone from $600 billion in 1965 to $3 trillion today. The Heritage Foundation put it in a convenient graph: It's pretty much a straight line across four decades, up, up, up. Doesn't make any difference who controls Congress, who's in the White House. The government just grows and grows, remorselessly. Every two years, the voters walk out of their town halls and school gyms and tell the exit pollsters that three-quarters of them are "moderates" or "conservatives" (i.e, the center and the right) and barely 20 percent are "liberals." And then, regardless of how the vote went, big government just resumes its inexorable growth.

If you went back to the end of the 19th century and suggested to, say, William McKinley that one day Americans would find themselves choosing between a candidate promising to guarantee your mortgage and a candidate promising to give "tax cuts" to millions of people who pay no taxes he would scoff at you for concocting some patently absurd H.G. Wells dystopian fantasy. Yet it happened. Slowly, remorselessly, government metastasized to the point where it now seems entirely normal for Peggy Joseph of Sarasota, Fla., to vote for Obama because "I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage."

That is the death of the American idea – which, after all, began as an economic argument: "No taxation without representation" is a great rallying cry. "No representation without taxation" has less mass appeal. For how do you tell an electorate living high off the entitlement hog that it's unsustainable, and you've got to give some of it back?

At that point, America might as well apply for honorary membership in the European Union. It will be a nation at odds with the spirit of its founding, and embarking on decline from which there are few escape routes. In 2012, the least we deserve is a choice between the collectivist assumptions of the Democrats, and a candidate who stands for individual liberty – for economic dynamism not the sclerotic "managed capitalism" of Germany; for the First Amendment, not Canadian-style government regulation of approved opinion; for self-reliance and the Second Amendment, not the security state in which Britons are second only to North Koreans in the number of times they're photographed by government cameras in the course of going about their daily business.

While we were defeating the Soviets overseas, the Left was winning here at home. We need our own Long March through the Institutions. We need to win the war here at home; not the Culture Wars, per se, but the War against Culture, the Suicide Cult of Culture. Where we're told to stop having children, kill our dogs, trust Mohamed ElBaradei to protect American families from Iran's nukes and applaud as Federal judges release Gitmo killers into America. That Suicide Cult.

The Constitution is treated as little more than a speed bump now, but the real roadblock to tyranny is supposed to be the attitudes of People themselves. We're in a race against memory, so that Americans will always remember what liberty means.

TO OUR STONY HEARTS?

...for some rock-hard abs?

Men of Marblehead then...

The General entreats his brave officers and soldiers to use their utmost efforts in carrying on their approaches to the enemy's lines. Though a noble spirit of patriotism brought numbers of brave men on the ground whose particular interest loudly called for their presence at home, and though the General is convinced that the public interest will still prevail over every other consideration, yet he wishes to do everything in his power to forward the return of those brave men to their respective families and business; for which reason he exhorts every one to use their best endeavors to make the siege as short as possible.

...the Commander-in-Chief esteems it his duty to return his warmest acknowledgments to the truly spirited Citizens of Salem, Marblehead & co., who so cheerfully turned out to take charge of the boats, and who have hitherto executed their trust to so universal satisfaction..."--Gen. George Washington to Gen. Glover at Yorktown, "A Memoir of General John Glover, of Marblehead"

...and now:

"Are you guys serious about that flag? It’s offensive."

"Its like putting a Jesus cross in my face."

"Its obnoxious. Its blocking the TVs."

RUSH UPDATE FROM THE 18th CENTURY!: As this famous photograph on George Washington's coffee cup shows, it was the men of Marblehead who rowed Washington and our colors across the Delaware.

Now these Marblehead gym-rats are whining from the rowing machines because a flag is blocking Richard Simmon's "Rockin' With Ye Olde Oldies"?

AN ADDRESS TO THE TROOPS, GOOD SPORTS THAT THEY ARE

"At ease, team.

I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way...or of sending you reinforcements once you've already been sent.

Nor will I rush through the sandtraps to send more equipment even though I've consistently said we must win this war. I shall not be hurried through the water hazards to have more helicopters; I will not--no, must not fly through my fairway game to approve more F-22s. That is my pledge to you.

And when I'm attending our weekly parties at the White House with big-name artists, and I'm salsa-dancing like Tom Delay on a Cialis/benzedrine bender, I shall never end the party early, merely to study the briefing books.

And I owe it to the soldiers, sailors and airmen of America not to hurry my half-court press or subtract even one letter from a friendly game of HORSE when I'm shooting hoops with my homies; you see, it just looks like I'm playing basketball. In reality, this is how I plot tactics and troop movements in a fluid and complex battle environment. This is also true of my strategic tennis game and my multi-lateral mountain biking. Don't thank me--you're welcome!

In closing, let me say that I have reached a decision; I will force Augusta to let women play in the Masters like Pinch obsesses about, as long as you don't make me play golf with a bunch of girls.

Thank you, and God bless the Emperor's new putting game."

"CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED" VS. GOVERNOR OF "THE CONSENTED"

Gov. Pawlenty endorses Doug Hoffman:

“We cannot send more politicians to Washington who wear the Republican jersey on the campaign trail, but then vote like Democrats in Congress on issues like card check and taxes. After reviewing the candidates’ positions, I’m endorsing Doug Hoffman in New York’s special election. Doug understands the federal government needs to quit spending so much, will vote against tax increases, and protect key values like the right to vote in private in union elections.”

Some have said Pawlenty is late to the Palin Party, but as a sitting Repub governor, he should be deliberate. The only mark against him in my book is that he's said Global Warming is real, (although he's against Cap and Trade.)

Even as a matter of politics, McCain's bashing of energy companies left the United Mine Workers just enough wiggle room to tell coal miners he was against them. Today's mine closures have proven that it's Obama bent on bankrupting coal miners, just like he said he would in San Francisco--and just like Gov. Palin said he would, too. Bullet. dodged. whatever.

Pretending for just a moment that it is real, you simply can't address Global Warming and still have Limited Government.

Global Warming is Government saying to the Weather "You're Too Big to Fail." That philosophy hasn't been working out too well.

Warming is not like air pollution, where at least there are some scientific metrics. They had to reclassify the CO2 you exhale as a pollutant to get Global Warming on the map. You might as well call oxygen a pollutant, too.

Here's the thing; the "cure" involves resetting the earth's thermostat, a chore for megalomaniacs, Greek gods and noted fantasy authors like Jules Verne, H.P. Lovecraft and Howard Dean's speechwriters. We'll all be living in caves before we ever budge that thermostat.

A Government big enough to Control the Weather is a Government big enough to Control the Weather. And crazy enough to try.

That said, I still like T-Paw much better than some governors I could name...

Reihan Salam:

...[T]he Miami Herald asked Crist about the virtues of [Porkulus], he said, "I think it's fantastic. Are you kidding me? We don't have to raise taxes." Moreover, Crist continued, "we might be able to cut property taxes some more. We have more money for education, so we can increase per-student spending. We can spend more money on our roads and infrastructure. We can provide health care for our people. I mean, it's remarkable." Indeed, something is remarkable, namely Crist's rigid adherence to an ideology more pernicious than orthodox progressivism or conservatism or nudism or anarchoprimitivism. I'm referring, of course, to free-lunchism. [...]

Incredibly, Crist demanded that Florida use one-time funds to pay for 12% of the state budget. When Republicans in the state legislature took the difficult step of passing a budget that included unpopular spending cuts, Crist turned around and vetoed hundreds of millions in cuts, despite the continuing deterioration of state revenues.

Leaving those Republicans out to dry after they stepped up to do the right thing.

It could be that Crist believes that the federal government will simply pass a stimulus plan every year, one that will grow ever larger without consequence to Florida taxpayers. This, of course, can't possibly be true. As a result, Crist has committed Florida to a fiscal nightmare, one that will lead to draconian tax hikes and spending cuts long after he makes a break for the U.S. Senate or finds some other comfortable sinecure thanks to the good graces of his many wealthy friends.

Crist is trying to buy a Senate seat with Porkulus money.

Marco Rubio is far from flawless. He had a mixed record as a state legislator, and he gives the impression of being a better communicator than policymaker. The real struggle for the soul of the Republican Party isn't between Crist and Rubio [in the Senate race]. It is between free-lunchism and realism. If Rubio turns out to be a truth-telling realist, he will do all Americans, Republicans and Democrats and independents, a tremendous favor by bringing Crist's political career to an ignominious end.

That's an endorsement I endorse, too.

"AND TURN THAT MUSIC UP!"

From the Springer-Leakey Auditorium and Gorilla Theater, Dept. of Cultural Anthropology and Doctoral Doctrinaire Drama on the campus of Alinsky U.:

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education:

Bucknell's recent forays into censorship began on March 17, 2009, when BUCC members stood at Bucknell's student center and passed out fake dollar bills with President Obama's face on the front and the sentence "Obama's stimulus plan makes your money as worthless as monopoly money" on the back. One hour into this symbolic protest, Bucknell administrator Judith L. Mickanis approached the students and told them that they were "busted," that they were "soliciting" without prior approval, and that their activity was equivalent to handing out Bibles.

Chairman Mao didn't like Bibles being handed out either. Don't tell me--he's you're "favorite political philosopher", too!

The students protested, but despite the fact that Bucknell's solicitation policy explicitly covers only sales and fundraising materials, Mickanis insisted via e-mail that prior permission was needed to pass out any materials—"anything from Bibles to other matter."

Does anybody believe she'd stop Korans from being handed out? Or condoms?

"Distributing protest literature is an American free-speech tradition that dates to before the founding of the United States," said Adam Kissel, Director of FIRE's Individual Rights Defense Program. "And why is Bucknell so afraid of students handing out ‘Bibles [or] other matter' that might provide challenging perspectives? Colleges are supposed to be marketplaces of ideas, but Bucknell is betraying this ideal."

Bucknell's misguided crusade against free expression continued on April 7, when administrators shut down BUCC's "affirmative action bake sale" protest. Affirmative action bake sales are a widely used form of satirical protest against affirmative action policies that treat people of different races differently. Organizers typically display suggested pricing in which African-American and Hispanic students are asked to pay lower prices than Asian and white students for the same items. The protests are thus intended to satirize and spark debate about affirmative action policies, not to raise revenue.

A video recording shows that an hour into BUCC's protest, Associate Dean of Students Gerald W. Commerford arrived and informed the students that he had the "opportunity" to shut down the sale because the prices they were charging were different (lower) than what they had listed on their event application. The students offered to change the prices on the spot, but Commerford refused and insisted that they close the event immediately and file another application for a later date.

"Shut up," they explained.
"Because I said so," he elucidated.
"That's how we've always done it," he explicated and interpolated, decontextualizing the pre-postcapitalist discourse in phantasms of paradigmatic hierarchy. Or is it the hierarchical paradigm?

Anyway, all the big words somehow made the hobnailed Birkenstock on the neck seem okay.

Accordingly, BUCC members filed an application to hold the same event two weeks later, but were then told that they would have to obtain the permission of the Dean of Students to hold a "controversial" event. No such permission is required by Bucknell policy. When the students nevertheless attempted to get this special permission, Commerford rejected the request. In a recorded conversation, Commerford said that such a bake sale would violate Bucknell's nondiscrimination policy

Then you had better shut down your Admissions Office, because that's precisely what they do: "sell" admission to Bucknell at various grade point prices, based on a student's skin color.

But you'll still need a Milton/Bradley Scholarship Grant and a Government Monopoly Student Loan.

"If you seek to be a perfect minority, you’ll remain a minority."--Newt Gingrich

If we seek to be all things to all people, we'll remain something worse: an imperfect minority with no credibility or hope of gaining any, doomed to the bayous of back-benchery and left to humor ourselves by mumbling dimly-remembered Reagan quotes to one another, such as "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States before sunsets were outlawed by decree of the Council of Global Warming Czars. Say, kids--throw another piano leg on that fire, would you? It's cold in here!"

A beautiful mind, this Doc Zero:

This race is a microcosm of our strange politics, which have become like a speeding car with jammed door locks, cut brake lines, a dead steering wheel, and air vents that pump nitrous oxide. Everyone is dimly aware the country is heading for the edge of a cliff, but no one can muster the energy to search for alternatives.

The President took time away from his losing wars against Fox News, the Taliban, and economic reality to endorse the Democrat, who would doubtless prove a useful ally in the only war Obama is winning: the war on the American middle class. [...]

At least Obama would have been doing something interesting and unpredictable by endorsing Scozzafava. She clearly shares his views on the use of state power to suppress annoying journalists. Instead, he flew into the district to cough up some more empty rhetoric nobody will remember tomorrow, on behalf of a candidate no one cares about, but who stands a good chance of winning by default.

The other story, playing out in the background, is the second act of one political saga beginning, even as another draws to a close. The rising star of Sarah Palin passes over the melancholy ruins of Newt Gingrich, who spent the last of his credibility endorsing Scozzafava. The Republican Party of Gingrich dies, unloved and irrelevant. Something else is replacing it. [...]

He accomplished some amazing things, in the mid-90s. He’s a smart man who has offered some interesting ideas, in his second life as a conservative intellectual. The problem is that Newt is a political tactician, and in the final stages of a losing war against collectivist ruin, the time has come to focus on grand strategy, rather than tactics. The second decade of this century will be an existential war for the American soul, not a police action.

He spent far too much of his time as Speaker of the House shouting in vain for media referees to throw penalty flags that remained stuffed in their pockets. Meanwhile, the political battlefront has shifted into the fatal terrain of essential liberties and economic freedom. This is the time for courage, conviction, and bold action… not whining about “big tents,” while pushing a product of the Pataki machine with a Margaret Sanger award dangling around her neck. A Republican party that embraces Scozzafava over Hoffman isn’t a “tent.” It’s not even a lean-to. [...]

If no one presents a coherent alternative to socialism, it wins by default, because too much of the political and media culture desires it. We’ve already tumbled far past the point where anyone views the Constitution as even a speed bump, let alone a barrier to socialist ambition. The principles embodied in that incredible document will perish, if they are not respected, explained, and defended.

A party that supports Scozzafava over Hoffman cannot mount that defense. They can’t run candidates to the left of the Democrats, then expect a spellbound audience when they explain why the Democrats are wrong. This is not a question of rigid idealism, or remaining a “perfect minority.” The voters, including the fabled “moderates,” need to be persuaded, not pandered to. Running a liberal squish in a largely conservative district will not cause moderate voters to squeal with excitement over the billowing expanse of the GOP’s enormous tent, and rush to see what other wonders might be hidden inside.

Read it all.

INTERNATIONAL VOTE HARVESTERS

"Frankly, I strongly feel that the world would be a much better place if trees could vote."--Eleanor Emily Lee

Well, then this is your lucky day, lady.

While ex-ACORN employee B. Hussein Obama is whining about stolen elections in Afghanistan as an excuse for his dithering, Democrats are planning to steal even more elections here in America.

The plan is to slam a "universal voter registration" bill through Congress before the next election, warned John Fund on C-SPAN this weekend, and in his new book.

Universal registration would register people who don't even want to be registered so their votes could be harvested by Democrat political machines.

Every existing list of people would be registered. Rahm's Census. Library cards. Tax rolls. Welfare rolls. Drivers licenses. Patients. Customers. Mailing lists. ACORN lists. Gitmo detainees. The Seven Dwarves. Eight is Enough. Nine Inch Nails. Ten Most Wanted. Eleven Pipers Palin-ing. Twelve Angry Men. Santa Claus' list of naughty and nice kids. And he won't be allowed to check it once, let alone twice.

If you own property in more than one place, you're registered in both. If you moved several times, you are registered at all your addresses. If you are a foreign national here legally or illegally, on any list, you're registered. Same with felons. Are you a foreigner who illegally contributed to Obama's campaign last year from your throne room in Saggy Arabica? On the list! Dead? How can you be dead...you're right here on our list! And we hope you feel better soon!

This would doubtless be accompanied by the abolition of ID requirements.

Even Jimmy Carter supports voter ID laws. Know why? His first election was stolen by Democrats!

Fund at Politico last year:

...ACORN had hired 59 inmates from a work-release program at a nearby prison and...some inmates who had been convicted of identity theft had been made supervisors. That led some local wags to joke that at least ACORN was hiring specialists to do their work.

ACORN's second line of defense has been that fraudulent registrations can't turn into fraudulent votes, as if the felony of polluting voter lists was somehow not all that serious. But that defense goes only a short distance. "How would you know if people using fake names had cast votes in states without strict ID laws?" says GOP Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, who this year won a major Supreme Court case upholding his state's photo identification law. "It's almost impossible to detect and once the fraudulent voter leaves the precinct or casts an absentee ballot, that vote is thrown in with other secret ballots there's no way to trace it."

Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. "It's ludicrous to say that fake registrations can't become fraudulent votes," she told me. "I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots." [...]

...[T]here are two civil rights in play here. One is the right to cast a ballot without fear or intimidation or artificial barriers. We fought a great struggle in the 1960s to eliminate poll taxes, literacy tests and pass a Voting Rights Act to protect the right to vote.

But all Americans have another civil right — the right not to have their ballot canceled out by someone who shouldn't be voting, is voting twice or may not even exist. You can be just as surely disenfranchised by someone canceling out your vote as if someone blocked your entry into a courthouse door where a polling place was located.

Via QandO:

... St. Tammany Parish Fire District No. 3...applied for a $120,000 grant to purchase smoke alarms for low-income families after a January fire killed four children in a home that had no working detectors.

“We wanted to buy smoke detectors to spread to homes all over the community to prevent that from happening again,” Chief Charles Flynn said in an interview Tuesday.

“I have no problem with not getting a grant, I’ve lost grants before,” said Chief Flynn, one of the fire officials who complained to Mr. Vitter in a letter.

“My issue is ACORN in New Orleans. Their mission statement says nothing about fire safety or fire prevention. It bothered me that ACORN got $1 million and there are so many smaller and bigger departments that have a need for that money.”

The Monroe Fire Department was the only squad in Louisiana to receive a grant and will be awarded $192,000. The Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office will receive $62,000.

ACORN received $997,402, slightly less than the maximum allowable grant of $1 million.

The real firefighters got a quarter of a million. The guys with their pants on fire got a full million.

Constitutional questions about the Mandated Purchase of Health Insurance were instantly dismissed as "not serious", but Democrat congressmen were even quicker to call cutting off funds to ACORN "unconstitutional".

"Once you're on the federal tit, you're on it forever!"--James Madison

Have you noticed how every Obama Payoff Bill comes in at two dollars and eighty-three cents less than a million? Or a billion? And a trillion?

And that "ban" on ACORN funding?

It expires this week.

ON

the weakened strongman:

Anita Dunn, the Communications Director commending Mao Zedong as a role model [of individualism] to graduating high school students, would seem an obvious loon. But the point about Mao, as Charles Krauthammer noted, is that he was the most ruthless imposer of mass conformity in modern history: In Mao's China, everyone wore the same clothes. So when Communications Commissar Mao Ze Dunn starts berating Fox News for not getting into the same Maosketeer costumes as the rest of the press corps, you begin to see why the Chairman might appeal to her as a favorite "political philosopher". [...]

Who are the real "Untouchables" here? In Moscow, it's Putin and his gang, contemptuously mocking U.S. officials even when (as with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) they're still on Russian soil. In Tehran, it's Ahmadinejad and the mullahs openly nuclearizing as ever feebler warnings and woozier deadlines from the Great Powers come and go. Even Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is an exquisite act of condescension from the Norwegians, a dog biscuit and a pat on the head to the American hyperpower for agreeing to spay itself into a hyperpoodle. [...]

The strange disparity between the heavy-handed community organization at home and the ever cockier untouchables abroad risks making the commander in chief look like a weenie – like "President Pantywaist," as Britain's Daily Telegraph has taken to calling him.

The Chicago way? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight? In Iran, this administration won't bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won't bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won't bring a knife to a machete fight.

But, if you're doing the overnight show on WZZZ-AM, Mister Tough Guy's got your number.

"But today, an extraordinary medical breakthrough was achieved with the stroke of a pen. With today’s executive order, President Obama has righted an immense wrong done to the hopes of millions of patients."--Ted Kennedy, when Obama made taxpayers fund cloning and the destruction of human embryos for spare parts

Michelle Obama turns Breast Cancer Awareness Month into attack on insurance companies
By: Byron York

First Lady Michelle Obama took part in a White House event this afternoon to mark National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. While such events have been mostly noncontroversial in the past, Mrs. Obama used the occasion to launch an extended attack on the insurance industry, the Obama administration's current target in the ongoing battle over national health care legislation. [...]

The First Lady concluded with the hope that daughters and granddaughters of the future will not have to face mammograms and other tests without health care reform. Life will be better for them, she concluded, "because of all the strides that we've made and the work that we've done for this cure and for this reform."

He won't even stand up to the lawyers to ensure your children can get a flu vaccine in time...but he's going to cure cancer?

Colin Powell? Lincoln Chaffee? Christopher Buckley? Nope.

Doug Hoffman:

At this time, three months ago, I was wrestling with a decision. A decision as to whether or not to run in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the new secretary of the Army, John McHugh. If you had told me 90 days later I would be penning an op-ed piece for the New York Post, I would have laughed in disbelief. I would have laughed even louder had you told me that I would be receiving endorsement and support from political leaders like Fred Thompson, former Majority Leader Dick Armey, or Sarah Palin. Or appearing on broadcast media with national audiences, as their hosts peppered me with questions about the future of the GOP and our nation.

You see I’m not a professional politician; I’ve never sought elected office. I grew up poor in Saranac Lake, in the heart of the Adirondacks. My siblings and I were raised in a single-parent household by our mother. We worked to help her pay the mortgage. But, like so many others in this great land, I worked hard, got a good education, did a six-year stint in the military, married, landed a good job with a “big eight” accounting firm and started living the American dream.

It’s funny what can happen in America, when you are able to dream and have the courage to follow your dreams. At 27 I was hired as controller of the organizing committee for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Three years later I bought the accounting firm that employed my mother. Now I have six offices spread across the northern reaches of New York and a dozen other small businesses in the Adirondacks that employ my wife, children and hopefully someday, my grandchildren. I am living the American Dream.

The reason I’m running for office is to ensure that others share the same opportunities.

Sadly, that dream is quickly becoming a nightmare. Unemployment grows, our economy is in crisis, and our elected officials seem out of touch with reality. Government in Albany is a disgrace; it’s the most dysfunctional in the nation. New York has six statewide elected officials, only two of them have been elected by the people. Three of the remaining four hold office as a result of the scandals, sexual and financial, that forced a governor and a comptroller to resign.

It’s just as bad in Washington. The Obama administration suffers from the illusion that the way you solve problems, both social and economic, is to throw money at them. In the meantime, Congress fiddles while our economy burns. They lack common sense.

They don’t seem to get it that increased spending leads to higher taxes and fuels a projected $9 trillion deficit. That earmarks and pork-barrel spending might be beneficial to their political careers, but are devastating to the taxpayers who foot the bill. They are oblivious to the fact that tort reform, cutting of waste, and the introduction of free-market solutions are the ways to lower the cost of health care. That Obama-care will only lead us down the slippery slope to socialized medicine.

They are addicted to spending. When they run low on funds they simply create a new tax or raise an old one.

Taxes, the deficit, red tape and regulation are breaking the back of the nation, mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren.

Americans have had enough and are vocalizing their anger in town hall meetings and on the streets of Washington. They are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore!

That’s why I am running. I am one of them!

Freedom is what Americans want. Economic freedom to reap the rewards of the free enterprise system, personal freedom from the intrusion of big government in our lives, freedom from the nanny state that is being forced upon us.

I’m a lifelong Republican running as the nominee of the New York State Conservative Party. I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the party left me. The GOP bosses in New York and Washington felt the candidate needed to be as liberal as possible. They picked a professional politician, with a voting record more liberal than 46 Democrats in the New York state legislature. They threw principles out the window. Their candidate has voted for increased spending, higher taxes, gay marriage and abortion. She supports “Card Check” (EFCA) and is supported by trial lawyers, gay activists and Big Labor. In 2008 she ran on the line of the radical left Working Families Party, ACORN’s political party in New York.

The battle I wage is not a lonely one. Like-minded citizens in the district, the state and the nation have joined me in this fight.

It is a battle that has been joined by current and former elected Republican officials, conservative activists and members of the ever-growing Tea Party and 9/12 movements. And if the GOP picks liberal candidates for the midterm congressional elections next year, they may find that there are a lot more people out there like me who won’t go along. We are not going to win by becoming more like the Democrats. We’re going to win by standing up for our beliefs.

It’s principle over party.

It’s a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. It’s a fight for fiscal responsibility and the return of common sense to those who govern us.

This is a fight for our children’s future. It’s a fight for America.

Mild-mannered accountant/veteran/ business-owning family man by day, another Mop-Grabbing American by night and by right. Who knew?

(Hat-tip: American Power)

‘Radio Free America’

By Cal Thomas

Tribune Media Services

During the Cold War, the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were among the broadcast entities that effectively penetrated the Iron Curtain to deliver truth to the “captive nations” that were being fed a steady dose of propaganda by their communist rulers. Those dictators did everything they could to “jam” the signals so that their people would only hear what their unelected overseers wanted them to hear. Contemporary versions of jamming and other forms of censorship occur today in Venezuela, Cuba and many other places where dictators believe public ignorance is essential to their unchallenged rule.

While the Obama administration is the product of an election, its approach to Fox News Channel, conservative talk radio and possibly the Internet appears similar to dictators who desire control over the flow of information in order to enhance their power.

The administration’s primary beef appears to be that Fox is doing the job the broadcast networks and big newspapers should be doing were they not still deeply in the tank for this president and his policies. [...]

If the administration is seeking approval for its policies, it should go on the only channel that will confront, examine and question those policies. If the policies are valid, they will stand; if not, they won’t and they shouldn’t. But perhaps, like those dictators, the administration would rather jam Fox’s “signal” because they don’t want the public to know the truth about what they are doing.