They believed in him. They REALLY believed. He was going to ride into Washington on a white steed and undo all of the evil things perpetrated by their enemy, King George the Dim. He was their candidate. He was their guy.
Funny how "change" (or, as I called it during the election cycle, the DoublePlusGoodHopeChange) didn't change a thing.
The Justice Department's decision to subpoena a New York Times reporter this week has convinced some press advocates that President Obama's team is pursuing leaks with the same fervor as the Bush administration.
James Risen, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for disclosing President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program, has refused to testify about the confidential sources he used for his 2006 book "State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration."
"The message they are sending to everyone is, 'You leak to the media, we will get you,' " said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In the wake of the Bush administration's aggressive stance toward the press, she said, "as far as I can tell there is absolutely no difference, and the Obama administration seems to be paying more attention to it. This is going to get nasty."
Waaaaa! The nerve of Il Duce! How dare he and his dastard administration investigate a member of the Fourth Estate for something as petty as the exposure of classified information!
It's no secret that I am no fan of Il Duce. But he scores a win here. I've been waiting for years for SOMEONE in Washington to take leaks of classified information seriously. It started with Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers and has continued unabated since. And never, EVER, has the Justice Selective Prosecution of Only Those We See Fit to Persecute Department had the cojones to prosecute. If you or I...you know, the mundanes, as William Grigg has aptly named us....were to leak classified information, we'd spend the rest of our lives in Leavenworth sharing an intimate cell with a guy named Bubba who considers himself our "boyfriend".
But the press, the Sainted Protectors of our Nation, THEY can leak classified information with impunity and, rather than receive punishment, they become famous.
I, for one, hope that has changed. Congrats, Duce. You got this one right.
And, to Big Media, let me just say, "Bubba says hi."
I've been awarding a Wiener of the Week since November of 2007. I've been awarding a Wiener of the Month nearly as long. I've awarded a Wiener of the Year three times as well. Now, in the year 2010, with the end of the nameless decade I'll call 'The Aughts', I'm presented with a rare opportunity for a new, first-time award: the Wiener of the Decade.
So many things happened during the course of The Aughts that negatively impacted our lives.
9-11 was an attack on America; what our President and Congress did in its aftermath -the Patriot Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHSS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSSA) [two S's required in each name, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S] - was an attack on Americans and American freedoms. That last sentence is sure to inflame True-Believer Republicans who are convinced that the aforementioned affronts were an important concession necessary for a nation at war with radical Islam. I dispute the benefit. The detrimental aspects of those actions, however, are beyond dispute. The worst part is that we've yet to see the Patriot Act exercised to its fullest by a mendacious, cruel ruler of the type that Il Duce has the potential to become.
The fraud that is AGW began to gather a head of steam in The Aughts. Al Gorebells, the chief propagandist for Big Warming, actually won a Nobel Peace Prize for his fraudulent over-the-top propaganda movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It was the single most outrageous example of the politicization of the Nobel Prize until 2009, when Il Duce was awarded his Nobel for.....uh....well, no one has figured that one out yet.
Two wars raged throughout the decade, in Afghanistan and Iraq. While American popular support for the war in Afghanistan was justifiably high, that support fell off in a hurry when the Iraq conflict because a quagmire where our men and women in uniform were left in an untenable situation.
Pop culture became more and more debased. The "reality show" became a staple of network television. Janet Jackson flashed a nipple. Bono dropped an F-bomb. The government responded to those two events in the only way government knows how: by further restricting freedoms.
Technology, particularly the exponential growth of the Internet, has made it possible for more and more voices to weigh in and, to a small degree, has broken the grip of Big Media (the BM for short) regarding "truth". The Dan Rather forged documents scandal was an example of bloggers - simple citizen reporters and opinion writers - fighting the BM and bringing out the truth. Rather was forced out by CBS as a result. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Okay, enough with the history lesson. Let's review the also-rans first.
Al Gorebells. Very few people had as much impact on the world in the past decade than Mr. Gore. His bald-faced propaganda, coupled with complicit "science" and an even more complicit media, have led to treaties and legislation designed to create global governance and to tax away the wealth of the West. Mr. Gore is a hypocritical enemy of freedom and a scumbag. Wiener-worthy, to be sure. But, alas, he's just an also-ran.
Alan Greenspan. Mr. Fed fed the dot-com boom-and-bust, then turned around and drove interest rates lower and lower, creating first a credit boom, then a housing boom, both of which went bust. The current economic woes we are experiencing would have occurred sooner and would have been less severe had Mr. Greenspan just done...wait for it....NOTHING! Wiener-caliber? No doubt!
Big Media. The BM called King George the Dim everything but a Child of God during the course of his presidency, then has the audacity to grumble about the "incivility" of politics now that their guy, Il Duce, is running things. And make no mistake, he is THEIR GUY; the love affair between Il Duce and the BM during the 2008 election was absolutely appalling. What occurred in that election cycle was nothing short of journalistic fellatio. Were they capable of shame, I would say that they should be ashamed. I wish I could give them the Wiener, but, alas, they too are also-rans.
John McCommie. Not since Bob Dole has there been a Presidential candidate less appealing or more curmudgeonly. Not even the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket could make a silk purse out of this sow's ear. And let's not forget First Amendment-shredding McCain-Feingold! Definitely a Wiener; just not the winner.
Team Elephant. A dispassionate observer might well conclude that the Republicans threw the 2008 election by pumping a 70-something, nasty, borderline Socialist candidate as the "conservative" alternative to Il Duce. In my opinion the Republican party has spent the last 20 years trying to pay penance for Ronald Reagan. True Wieners, this crowd.
Congress. What a collection of elitist, out-of-touch, officious douchebags. These collectivist bastards wipe their collective fat asses with the Constitution daily. Their contempt for ordinary Americans is breathtaking, particularly Nancy "Air Force 3" Pelosi. Bastile Day would be too good for those scumbags. Definitely Wieners. Definitely.
The Supreme Court. Talk about judicial malpractice! These clowns actually ruled that McCain-Feingold was Constitutional! Are you effing kidding me?!?!?! WHAT is more indicative of the founders' insistence on free speech than POLITICAL SPEECH?!?!? Yet these fossilized crypt-keepers turned their backs on the Constitution and upheld that completely absurd and freedom-limiting POS. Wieners for sure!
That's quite a collection. I grudgingly omitted additional candidates such as "Judge" Barbara Walther and Prosecutor Mike Nifong since they were previously named Wiener of the Year. Their Wiener-worthiness is indisputable.
The Wiener of the Decade is the man who stood largest, for better or worse, throughout the decade. Indeed, one cannot think of The Aughts without thinking of the biggest ZERO of a decade of zeroes: George W. Bush, AKA King George the Dim.
If you look at the events of The Aughts, GWB's fingerprints are all over everything. While he was borderline brilliant in the aftermath of 9-11, pretty much everything he did thereafter was cover-your-eyes awful.
He was the force behind the Patriot Act and the creation of the DHSS and TSSA. He and his Neocon cronies pushed and pushed to get us a war with Iraq, and disingenuously made Iraq an extension of the war on terror.
He pushed for yet another government-provided "entitlement" with the Medicare prescription drug benefit. I said at the time that the Medicare legislation was the camel's nose in the tent, that King George had set the table for Hillary Health. Little did I know how right I was.
He pushed for the gigantic 2008 bailout of the financial sector ("They're too big to fail!!!"). He tried to appoint Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. That woman isn't qualified to be a CLERK of the Supreme Court!
But the worst thing he did was to make Il Duce possible. It has been said for decades that it took Jimmy Carter for us to get Ronald Reagan. Conversely, it took 8 years of King George the Dim to give us Il Duce. Of all of the unforgivable things King George did, THAT is the most unforgivable.
Congratulations, GWB - you're the Wiener of the Decade.
Team Elephant has been WotM before. Team Elephant will, no doubt, be the WotM again. And again.
The elitist snobs currently at the helm of the party just don't get it. We the people want a Congress and President that respect and abide by the Constitution of the United States. We do NOT want "Democrat Lite", which is what they insist on force feeding us.
In a New York House special election, a nobody running under the banner of the Conservative party nearly beat a well-funded liberal who was, in fact, endorsed by Team Elephant's own candidate!
Democrat Bill Owens has captured the special election for a New York congressional seat that became a fight over the identity of the Republican Party.
Owens defeated Conservative Doug Hoffman and Republican Dierdre Scozzafava (skoh-zuh-FAH'-vuh) in the heavily Republican 23rd congressional District in rural northern New York. Scozzafava abruptly withdrew Saturday and supported Owens.
Hoffman has conceded the race.
With 88 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens had 49 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Hoffman. Scozzafava had 6 percent.
Hoffman got 46% of the vote in spite of the fact the the Team Elephant elite essentially sabotaged his campaign!
Remember last Fall, when I was excoriated for refusing to vote for McCain? What I told you then, I'll repeat now. If you keep holding your nose and voting for whatever disgraceful human being the Team Elephant elite foists upon you, you'll continue to get candidates that require that you hold your nose when you vote for them.
I applaud the run of Mr. Hoffman. I hope that Team Elephant gets the message, but I don't think they will. The right message is that we want conservative candidates from them. The message they'll probably come away with is that they have to work harder to shut up those stupid conservatives in flyover country.
Team Elephant, you're the Wiener of the Month for October.
John McCommie lost the 2008 election the old fashioned way: he earned it. The campaign he ran against Il Duce was Bob Dole '96 redux. But what could he have done differently? After all, when everything is said and done, there's only about a dime's difference between him and Il Duce. If that.
So why bring him up now? Here's why.
Sen. John McCain is lamenting the latest report of a baseball player linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
[...]
McCain sent a message on his Twitter account that read, "David Ortiz tested positive for steroids, 'where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?'"
McCain says the situation in baseball makes him sick. Even more bothersome, he says, is the idea that someone in a laboratory somewhere is trying to develop a substance that tests can't detect.
Pardon me while I projectile vomit!
First, what the deuce is a fossilized tool like McCommie doing with a Twitter account in the first place? Isn't Twitter a vehicle for middle school girls seeking relevance or for fanboys of various ages to chase celebrities?
Second, the whole steroids "scandal" is complete horse-mierda. People have REALLY short memories, it seems. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were the kings of the world in 1998, and nobody -- N-O-B-O-D-Y -- gave a rat's ass that they were the size of small planets or bothered to mention that people don't get that large w/o steroids. NOW - only now, because Big Media (the BM for short) has decided that it's a scandal - everyone is shocked - SHOCKED! - that steroids were being used by baseball players.
Everyone turned their backs to the issue in '98 because baseball was trying to recover its fan base after the disastrous strike of 1994-95. Baseball NEEDED the giant men hitting prodigious home runs in unbelievable numbers to win back fans jaded over a strike pitting billionaires against millionaires. Now everyone wants to crucify anyone who ever used or was suspected of using steroids (Note that Mark McGwire has NEVER been linked to a test proving that he used - NEVER. Yet Hall of Fame voters - BM all - refuse to elect the man who is 6th on the all-time home runs list to the Hall simply because "he is linked" with steroids).
Third, and perhaps most importantly, who gives a flying f*** what that old tool McCommie thinks about ANYTHING?!?!? Why is his opinion about a manufactured baseball scandal the least bit relevant?
You want something to Twitter about, you old desgraciado? Twitter about how easy it was for you to sell out your party over a 20+ year Senate career in order to win over your core constituency, the New York Times.
The peacenik moonbat wing of the Far Left was absolutely beside itself following the 2008 elections. Why, with a Team Donkey majority in Congress - maybe even a SUPER-majority in the Senate! - and His Royal Holiness Barack 'Il Duce' Obama seated upon the Abraham Lincoln throne, there seemed to be no doubt that there would be Peace in Our Time.
You know what I'm talking about, right? The DoublePlusGoodHopeChange!
The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The proposal being floated with members of Congress is another indication of President Barack Obama's struggles to establish his counter-terrorism policies, balancing security concerns against attempts to alter Bush-administration practices he has harshly criticized.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
I was among those who hammered King George the Dim for his cavalier attitude towards due process, habeas corpus, and various suspensions of person liberty (think: TSSA). But at least he was consistent! Il Duce careens from one position to another based on which way the wind is blowing. A megalomaniac is bad enough. But a megalomaniacal economic Fascist equipped with the arbitrary powers established by King George and his Neo-Conmen?
From time to time I like to highlight the work of my favorite bloggers and columnists, particularly when they've hit upon something important or administered a particularly good beatdown on some asshat who desperately needs one.
Andrew Bolt is Australia's preeminent libertarian columnist. In this column, Andrew takes on the shrill crowd of politically correct yentas doing their damnedest to take down Miss California for the "sin" (read: thought crime) of making an anti-gay marriage statement.
While he does his usual admirable job of applying the beatdown to the appropriate parties - particularly drama QUEEN Perez Hilton - he also hit upon something that I had missed in my prior assessment of this sort of Leftist elite feeding frenzy.
You see, defending the tribe counts more than defending a principle. That is why the people tearing into Prejean refuse to say that Obama, who shares her opinion on gay marriage, is also a bitch, boob and moron who has buttock fat for brains and needs a heart transplant, the dumb bastard.
(Actually, I suspect these people excuse Obama as a liar, just saying what he must. And a liar is good, but an opponent of gay marriage evil.)
So what is this tribe that's being defended so viciously, and with such hypocrisy? It's the tribe of the Left. Of privilege, too. And patriarchy.
It's also a class - the kind of people who'd look down on a Miss USA audience, and would use the weapons of power, sex and caste to crush them in precisely the ways the Left once claimed to oppose.
We've seen this phenomenon played out before, of course, and recently.
Last year it was the turn of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, to be monstered for being a conservative woman from small-town, Christian USA.
Palin, although a successful and popular corruption-buster and Governor of Alaska, was pilloried by the largely Left media as some thick hick, with white-trash morals and ideas above her station.
Class! Of course. The snobbery of the Left knows no bounds. But Vulture! Bill Clinton was a small-town rube, and the Left LOVED him. Ah, grasshopper, but Bill Clinton also attended Georgetown, Yale, and even Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar! That's cachet, people. And Sarah Palin? A degree from the University of Idaho? And JUST a BA at that? What a rube!
Never mind that the UI educational experience is probably every bit as good as Georgetown's (I'm talking the actual classroom instruction; you don't think Georgetown's prestigious professors actually teach, do you?). It just goes to show you how shallow and petty the Left actually is. If you're (a) from money or (b) have attended one or more "prestige" universities, and you embrace the Leftist catechism, you're a member of the club; nothing you do is worthy of criticism, except, perhaps, the occasional rebuke to placate the rubes from time to time. If you do not embrace the Leftist catechism, but satisfy requirement (a) or (b), you will be criticized, perhaps even rudely, but you will not bear the full heat that those who satisfy neither (a) nor (b) will.
Oh, and don't think for one second that top-level Republicans and their spokesmonkeys in the neocon commentariate are any different. They are every bit as shallow and petty. After all, some of the most scathing criticisms of Sarah Palin came from the likes of Peggy Noonan! The Left-Center neocon wing of the GOP (you know, the group that is killing the party) is every bit as snobby as the Left.
Great catch, Andrew. And create article, as always.
It may seems like it happened months ago, but the elections of 2008 occurred a paltry 29 days ago. During November. And I'm naming a WofM. For November. So how much you wanna bet that the Wiener has something to do with the election?
This month's WotM is the Team Elephant elitist establishment. It's bad enough that they rammed an unpalatable candidate like John McCommie down our throats. But then, after throwing conservatives a bone by selecting Sarah Palin as VP on the ticket, they proceeded to trash the woman every bit as much as Big Media (the BM for short) did, and the BM was demonstrably in the tank for the opposing candidate!
The Team Elephant elitist establishment has mismanaged, misread, and bungled every opportunity to reach the American people. Just think -- in two short years Team Elephant has gone from holding the Presidency and both Houses of Congress to losing the Presidency, losing both Houses, and, if events play out right in Minnesota or Georgia, creating a Team Donkey-run filibuster-proof Senate.
You guys keep ramming "moderate" (read: socialist lite) candidates down our throats. Maybe then you'll be able to achieve what the Federalists, the Whigs, and the Bull Moose party achieved -- extinction.
Team Elephant establishment: you're the Wiener of the Month for November.
I'm currently accepting nominations for Wiener of the Year. I welcome all nominees.
Report the truth, bear the wrath of the PC Police! Reuters found that out the hard way when they published the results of a Ziegler poll that pretty much confirmed something I've already alleged: most of those who voted for King Barack (cue choir of heavenly voices) know absolutely nothing about him.
Zogby and Zeigler have endured an excrement storm for DARING to poke their thumbs in the eye of Big Media (the BM for short) as well as to question the integrity and intelligence of those who voted for their lord and savior, Barack Obama (cue choir).
Here's the high-level results of the offending poll.
Just 2% of voters who supported Barack Obama on Election Day obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on a post election test which gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.
Only 54% of Obama voters were able to answer at least half or more of the questions correctly.
Wait. Did I read that correctly? Just over half of the respondents were able to answer half of the questions? That would mean that 46% of those who voted for Obama (cue choir) were pretty much voting for the DoublePlusGoodHopeChange, and not for the actual person who represented those things.
Quoth Ziegler:
After I interviewed Obama voters on Election Day for my documentary, I had a pretty low opinion of what most of them had picked up from the media coverage of the campaign, but this poll really proves beyond any doubt the stunning level of malpractice on the part of the media in not educating the Obama portion of the voting populace.
Amen, brother! Preach it!
Obama supporters might not have known much about Obama, but they knew PLENTY about Sarah Palin and McCommie.
Ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter
86% correctly identified Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party
81% chose McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned.
When asked which candidate said they could "see Russia from their house," 87% chose Palin, although the quote actually is attributed to Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey during her portrayal of Palin during the campaign.
Isn't that amazing?!?!? Especially in light of these numbers.
83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot
88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry
56% were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground
72% did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech
47% did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President.
57% were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate
All Zogby did was publish the results of a poll. The questions weren't slanted in a way that would elicit a predetermined response. The questions didn't employ inflammatory language or buzzwords. They were just simple questions designed to test the knowledge of the voter.
This poll and the resultant fallout are yet more evidence of something I harped on throughout the campaign: the BM was beyond "in the tank" for their candidate. They were actively steering the result through a premeditated campaign of impugning one side while heaping adoration on the other. The fallout is also proof of another truth: if you expose facts that buck the prevailing societal 'truth', prepare for the worst, because you're gonna get it!
I think I made it quite plain during the course of the election cycle that I was thoroughly disgusted with Big Media (the BM for short) and their relentless campaign to see to it that their lord and savior Barack Obama would be elected as our next president. I guess their consciences must be bothering them now that the election is over. The Washington (Com)Post has printed the first of what I believe will be many articles in which the BM admits the obvious.
The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts. The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32), and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement. Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted to McCain. McCain clinched the GOP nomination on March 4, and Obama won his on June 4. From then to Election Day, the tally was Obama, 626 stories, and McCain, 584. Obama was on the front page 176 times, McCain, 144 times; 41 stories featured both. Obama was in 311 Post photos and McCain in 282. Obama led in most categories. Obama led 133 to 121 in pictures more than three columns wide, 178 to 161 in smaller pictures, and 164 to 133 in color photos.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spare me the numbers. Where's the beef? Where's the admission that (a) you were in the tank for BOH, as your own readers decried?; (b) How many of the overwhelming number of stories on BOH were journalistic fellatio and how many of the stories on McCommie were hatchet jobs?; (c) What about the glaring difference between your handling of Sarah Palin vs. your handling of "Hairplug" Joe Biden? Ah, they're glad I asked.
One gaping hole in coverage involved Joe Biden, Obama's running mate. When Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated for vice president, reporters were booking the next flight to Alaska. Some readers thought The Post went over Palin with a fine-tooth comb and neglected Biden. They are right; it was a serious omission. However, I do not agree with those readers who thought The Post did only hatchet jobs on her. There were several good stories on her, the best on page 1 by Sally Jenkins on how Palin grew up in Alaska.
"Several" good stories on Palin. Uh huh. Don't try to sell that manure to this Vulture. I'm not buying. Your readers are right, again. You set out, like every other organ of the BM, to destroy Sarah Palin, because she doesn't worship at the shrine of abortion and isn't part of the New York-Washington elites club.
As 'mea culpas' go, this one was lame. "We sorta admit we were biased because the numbers are skewed" doesn't go far enough. The truth is the (Com)Post and most other BM fish wrappers weren't "reporting" on the election, they were trying to influence its outcome.
But that's one admission you're not going to get out of anyone in the BM.
The WotW has seen some real asshats in its time. But this week's winner is one for the ages.
It seems that the Team Elephant establishment (you know -- Biff, Buffy, Chauncey, et al.) is determined to destroy Sarah Palin. She has been alternately described as (a) dragging down the ticket, and (b) a prima donna diva, impossible to work with, a loose cannon.
Hey assclowns! Time for a reality check! Your hand-picked candidate for president, the completely unpalatable John McCommie, would have lost the election by double digits were it not for the presence of Sarah Palin on the ticket. Double. Frickin'. Digits. The only drag on the Team Elephant presidential ticket was the surly old fart at the top of the ticket.
And as for the prima donna part of your whining, let me say this -- out of the four individuals on the two (well, one bipartite) party's tickets, only Sarah Palin came across as a genuine human being. She may be a lot of things behind the scenes that we don't see, I'll grant you that. But no one can pull off the genuineness she projects for any period of time without actually BEING genuine.
But you're bound and determined to destroy that lovely lady because she's not on board with the ridiculous Team Donkey Lite direction in which you're taking the party. You're smearing her as stupid and difficult. You're calling her everything but a white woman. And you're doing it anonymously! Such courage! [/sarcasm]
Team Elephant is a party is a suicide spiral. Liberty-loving Republicans have left and are leaving the party in droves. And yet, they not only fail to read the writing on the wall, they are trying to move even FURTHER to the left into the mushy middle as opposed to distinguishing themselves as the party of small government, personal liberty, and Constitutional principles. How's that working out for you? So far, in 2 short years, you've gone from possessing the Presidency and both branches of Congress to having none of them -- plus, to add insult to injury, the Senate is almost veto-proof for Team Donkey! Good job, clowns!
So, what we have now is a party of the squishy middle, signifying nothing, and a party of the über-Left, representing the principles of Big Government, collective identity, and collectivist economics. What's a freedom loving American to do? Follow the example of Toes, and leave the Republican party! Send a message with your feet!
Team Elephant, for showing yourselves to be cowardly elitist snobs determined to excise all remnants of libertarian or conservative thought from your party, you are the Wiener of the Week.
(Image borrowed from IBDeditorials. Kudos to political cartoonist Michael Ramirez for capturing the Big Media/Obama relationship just as it is. Click on the image to see it full-size at the IDBeditorials web site).
What will be the easiest job in Washington come January 20th? Why, that's easy! Press secretary for Barack Obama! So who's the lucky guy who gets to serve as Aaron to Barack Obama's Moses? Robert Gibbs. Robert who?
Robert Gibbs, a top aide to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on his campaign and in his Senate office, will be named the White House press secretary, a top Democratic official said.
Gibbs was usually the senior official on Air Obama, the campaign plane. As communications director of Obama's Senate office, Gibbs was a key strategist in Obama's rapid move to the national stage.
Transition planning is still at an early stage and the job has not been formally offered or accepted, officials said.
The announcement is likely to be viewed favorably by reporters because Gibbs has unquestioned authority, access and institutional memory.
No, the announcement is likely to be viewed favorably because the so-called "reporters" who will be covering the Obama White House are a bunch of lickspittle sycophantic fawning toadies who worship Obama.
What I don't understand is this -- why wasn't Chris Matthews offered the job? He'd gladly fall on his sword daily for his idol, Obama. Maybe he's being considered for the Monica Lewinsky position on the White House staff. I mean, that's figuratively where he spent the entire campaign anyway...
Uh.....Vulture? Why are you congratulating Team Elephant? They got their collective asses kicked last night. Why, yes they did! There's no wound as painful as a self-inflicted wound -- that is, unless there's a chorus of 'I told you so!' salt to be rubbed into it. And I'm rubbing.
You sold us the Contract with America. Then within 10 years you were worse drunken sailor spend-a-holics than the Team Donkey congresses had ever been!
You sold us King George the Dim as a 'compassionate conservative'. He turned out to be a stateist thug with a Jones to avenge daddy in Iraq.
You rammed the completely unpalatable John McCommie down our throats this election cycle, believing that the threat of a neo-Communist like Barack Obama or a strident Marxist true-believer like old Slewfoot Hillary Rodham Satan Clinton would be enough to scare the credulous into continuing to vote Team Elephant.
You have molded the party into a sort of Team Donkey Lite in an attempt to....what? Gain acceptance from your friends on the Upper East Side? Garner the approval of the New York Times? Deny power to the unwashed Bible-believers who vote for your team but embarrass you to no end?
You elitist snob bastards! We're now doomed to at least 2 years of the closest thing to one-party rule that has existed in this country since Roosevelt. You did this. You need to own this. Americans need to have a party that stands in REAL opposition to Team Donkey's now-unopposed march towards One-World Socialist Dystopia. We don't have that now. And we don't have that now because of YOU.
You want to regain power? (What a stupid question! Of COURSE you want to regain power! That's all you're about, really, in the end.) You need to get back to the Ronald Reagan/Barry Goldwater roots. Better yet, you need to start listening to Ron Paul and other defenders of the Constitution and start to make those principles part of your permanent platform. You need to offer a distinguishable difference between yourself and Team Donkey. Team Donkey Lite isn't a viable option. It's a recipe for party suicide.
But, hey....it's your funeral. At least you'll go down knowing that your friends on the Upper East Side approve of you.....
Coming later today...What kind of president will Barack Obama be?
Vulture droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.
It's finally here. Thank God! I couldn't take much more of this election BS. I've already voted today, tallying my vote for Ron Paul, thank you. If you haven't voted yet, please consider reading from these past links before you do.
Okay, now on to the last minute election-related tidbits that will be stale and unusable tomorrow. First, there is a myth that I wish to squash, posthaste. That myth is that it is important for everyone to vote. I wish to register my contrarian answer to that myth.
Everyone should NOT vote. Why not? Because "everyone" includes people who aren't paying attention! Because "everyone" includes people who think it's important to vote for the candidate who promises the most "stuff" for them. Because "everyone" includes people who know more about Madonna than they do about Barack Obama. And because "everyone" includes people sucking on the government teat, draining our national vitality and sapping the resources of the middle class. If you don't know who the candidates are, don't vote. Please. If you don't know how the candidates stand on issues that are important to you (or you don't even have a clue what the issues are), don't vote. And if you're voting for a candidate based on the color of his skin or the "stuff" they've promised to give you, please FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T VOTE!!!!!! There's an email going around that purports to prove that BHO is the Antichrist. One of the "proofs" of this assertion is this.
According to The Book of Revelation:
The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.
There's just one problem with that. IT ISN'T TRUE!!!
The Book of Revelation doesn't say jack about the age or ethnicity of the Antichrist (though some have come to the conclusion that he would be Roman or Italian). As a point of fact, Islam wasn't established until about 600 AD, so John the Revelator wouldn't really have a term for a Muslim nor any kind of context of who they are, now would he?
If you're going to malign a candidate, at least get your facts straight! One final item. This is the text of an email from Pastor Richard Fredericks I received just today. It's wise council for all of us, regardless of how the election turns out.
Dear Family and Friends,
Tomorrow the election is over and the country has decided. May I make a few post-election observations, not about the candidates (who cares what I think), but about our processing of politics as Christians.
For the record, I really admire both McCain and Obama. To last through the gauntlet of a presidential campaign takes an exceptional person, and the strength under fire and tenacity of both candidates deeply impressed me.
John McCain is not only a true war-hero, he is a stamina super-hero. When most 72-year olds with a 401K only dream of their well-earned retirement, Senator McCain is energetic and proved he could shoulder the weight of the presidency. He ran a campaign schedule that would kill most young men—including clear, rousing speeches in SEVEN states on the final day: try that sometime. He is a model of making your whole life count for the things you care about.
Barack Obama brought an eloquence of communication to this race unseen since John Kennedy, and his position papers on race and religion (the two hot buttons of his candidacy) are, in my opinion, must reads for their thoughtfulness—especially if he emerges as the winner.
Finally, the fact that we had: the oldest presidential candidate ever, the first black (bi-racial) candidate ever and that two strong women (Senator Clinton and Governor Palin) played central roles in this election definitely marks a new era of maturity and openness in American politics.
Now three observations about us:
Once we decide for a candidate and against the other, based on their positions (a good thing) there is a tendency to impugn the motives and character of the candidate we did not chose. Fiery zeal and words like idiot, crazy and dangerous get applied to both. I would be willing to wager a year’s salary that if you spent a long weekend with either candidate (and with an open heart) you would leave with great respect—perhaps not for their positions—but for their character and sincerity.
Second, my prayer for the American church is that we always respect the political process but stop believing anything other than the church sharing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord can transform America. Political leadership matters, especially in a crisis (as Lincoln and Roosevelt demonstrated). But throughout history, whenever Christians believe their political party will usher in God’s righteousness—without exception—things have gotten corrupt at best and deadly at worse. Our hope is God’s grace alone, shared by Christians who believe Jesus alone is the answer, not legislation. I think perhaps Christians bent on political salvation may be the new legalism.
Third, God’s Word calls us to be “completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2. There is no clause that says ‘except for politics.’ Christians should be marked by passion for beliefs coupled with an equal dose of civility because of genuine humility about our own sinfulness and lack of infinite perspective on what God is up to. NOW—let’s pray for our new president—whoever he is. Love Ya, R
Thank God there are still some honest journalists left! Michael S. Malone of ABCNews.com has restored my hope that someday a career in journalism can be something more than that of pro-government propagandist.
Mr. Malone had the courage to take on his peers in this article posted on ABCNews.com on October 24th. From the opening paragraphs to the end of his essay he expresses deep concern for the future of his craft in light of the fawning obsequiousness of Big Media (the BM for short) with regard to their lord and savior, Barack Hussein Obama.
The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game -- with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.
The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.
But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist.
This is a man who is obviously concerned not just for his craft's deviation from its natural calling (to factually report on what is happening in the world), but the impact this could have on our nation long-term. After describing at length his journalistic background (4th generation journalist!), and exploring how we got to the point where journalists have gone from observer/reporters to cheerleaders, he drops this nugget.
But nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign.
Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press.
And then, the coup de grace.
[W]hat I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.
If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.
That isn't Sen. Obama's fault: His job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the whole issue, summed up, rung up, and tied with a bow. The BM has systematically refused to cover Barack Obama. They've been happy to fawn over him with sycophantic exuberance. They've been happy to serve as his propagandists. But they haven't offered so much as a peep about the multitude of peripheral issues surrounding Obama that might serve to indicate what kind of person he is and what kind of president he might be.
His latest little hissy fit, throwing reporters from the Washington Times, Dallas Morning News, and New York Post off of his campaign jet because their papers have endorsed John McCain, has completely disappeared from view already -- and it just happened on Friday! Don't say I'm exaggerating! I checked AP National, AP Washington, Reuters Politics, and UPI, and there was squadoosh, nada, nil. I don't know what's on TV right now, since I'm at work, so, for all I know, the airwaves could be all abuzz about it. But my experience is that where the print media goes, there also goes the TV coverage.
"So what", you say? "So the press is in the tank for BHO. Does that REALLY hurt anything?" Uh......YEAH! Without a free press serving as a watchdog, an ambitious politician like Obama can really cause some major damage to this country, damage from which we may never recover.
The BM should be ashamed of themselves. That is, if shame is an emotion they're still capable of.
I've become immune to it, but apparently it still works. "What?", you ask. Scare mongering, of course! I've never in my life seen anything like this. Oh wait, yes I have...just 4 short years ago! Remember how, if John "Frankenstein" Kerry were elected president, the radical Islamists would celebrate in the streets and we'd all be individually attacked by terrorists? Only King George the Dim could save us!
This go-around has had more than its share of fear mongering. Some of it is downright comical. I'll start with the anti-McCommie scare tactics (age before beauty, you know).
If McCain is elected...
It'll prove that this is a racist nation!
He'll invade Iran & Syria!
He'll tax your health care!
Corporations will:
Use his election as an excuse to cut commissions and overtime!
Stop providing health care!
Downsize to take advantage of tax breaks!
Deaths from terrorist attacks will skyrocket under McCain!
Women will be forced into lesser lives!
The US will become a 3rd-world nation!
He'll start a new Cold War with Russia!
It'll be economic suicide because he thinks the economy is sound!
African Americans will riot!
There'll be a full-fledged race and class war!
We'll become a deflated and depressed country!
Crime will soar!
Homelessness will increase!
The country will succumb to hopelessness!
He'll die in office and Sarah Palin will prove just how unprepared she really is!
He'll cut social welfare but increase corporate welfare!
He'll return the southwest US to Mexico!
He'll ruin the Supreme Court for generations with ultra right-wing appointees!
He'll revoke Roe v. Wade!!!
He'll re-institute slavery!
That last one is my personal favorite. Thanks, Whoopee, for trying to lend credence to the stupidest scare tactic yet!
Now for the other side. I actually left out a bunch of stuff I heard on the radio because I just couldn't recall the exact verbiage. There's some lulus in here.
If Obama is elected...
He'll destroy the Constitution!
The stock market will crash!
There'll be an international crisis! His own VP nominee says so!
God will smite America!
I'll have to quit my job because it'll be more beneficial to mooch off the government than to work!
The KKK will have a resurgence and will attack minority schools!
Taxes will go up and:
The rich won't have any incentive to make more money!
The rich will hide their money in offshore accounts, causing a depression!
There'll be layoffs and an unemployment nightmare!
People won't donate to charities any more!
Israel will attack Iran!
The cost of goods and services will rise!
We'll have an energy crisis of Biblical proportions!
The productive will pull a "John Galt" and everything will go to shit!
There will be a civil war!
There'll be a Muslim takeover and we'll all end up as Dhimmi!
He'll abolish the Boy Scouts!
You'll lose your 401(k)!
Affirmative action will be emphasized and there'll be quotas and fines for non-compliance!
Terrorists will attack us at will!
He'll ruin the Supreme Court for generations with ultra left-wing appointees!
He'll shut down talk radio and Fox News using the Fairness Doctrine!
He'll confiscate everyone's guns!
He'll surrender in Iraq!
He'll give us "Hillary Health" and we'll be forced to use government-provided health care.
His cabinet and advisers will be:
People like Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright!
Black people exclusively!
A dead-ringer for the old Soviet Politburo!
He's a Marxist! A Communist! He'll:
Redistribute the wealth!
Confiscate our property!
Be like Stalin and kill millions of his own people!
The "Stalin" one really made me chuckle. Now THAT'S some quality fear mongering!
Face it, people. We're screwed if McCommie gets elected. We're screwed if Obama the Savior of all mankind gets elected. The government is bankrupt, both fiscally and morally. All we can do now is wait for the inevitable implosion and hope that somewhere there are Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adamses, George Masons, and others who can rebuild this nation to it's original model.
Vulture droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.
My intent had been to treat each of the items in this post as an individual post, but my goodness! My life has been C-R-A-Z-Y lately, with too many irons in the fire and too little sleep. Additionally, the election is less than a week away, and every last one of these items will be stale effective Tuesday evening. This is the most importantest post ever! First, let's talk the about the generation that could end up deciding this election. No, I'm not talking about those bastards in the baby boom generation. They can bite me. Their day is past. No, my friends - this is the dawning of the Age of the Generation Jones!
"WTF?", says you. "What is 'Generation Jones'? Who is 'Generation Jones'?"
Generation Jones (or GenJones for short) is that group of people born between the Baby Boom and Generation X. I couldn't begin to pinpoint when one generation ends and another begins, but trust me, if you weren't in high school by 1970 and graduated from high school by 1982, chances are you're a GenJoneser.
According to Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune and Peter Fenn of The Hill, Generation Jones may have been the deciding factor in the 2004 election (please don't hold that against us!) and will, in all likelihood, be the deciding factor this year.
This is big. For decades we've been lumped in with the Baby Boom a-holes. Now we FINALLY have our own identify and have emerged from the gargantuan shadow of that generation to be a force in our own right! You'd better recognize the power of GenJones! Bwah hah hah! Okay...so where exactly is GenJones leaning this particular election? According to Clarence Page, towards...undecided, particularly the women.
"I think Generation Jones is the most Republican-leaning generation in the electorate," said Pontell, a Southern Californian, in a telephone interview. "We were witnesses, not participants—wide-eyed, not tie-dyed—in the 1960s."
What does this mean for 2008? A lot, especially if the poll numbers tighten, making the still-undecided independent swing voters even more important.
A mid-October Associated Press poll, for example, found middle-age white women to be more undecided yet also more "persuadable" than any other age bracket. Only about 55 percent had made up their minds about who they were going to vote for and they were almost evenly split between McCain and Obama.
Okay, so we're Team Elephant-leaning (count me out on THAT one - my team is neither Donkey nor Elephant!). Our women can't make up their minds. But (and what an amazing but this is) WE are going to be deciding this election.
We'll probably eff it up..... Tip of the beak to xfloggingkylex for pointing out this amazing site - CitizenJane Politics. This is an actual, bona fide BALANCED presentation of election news and information on the candidates, presented ably and with occasional humor. Yes, the site is targeted at women, but don't let that stop you from checking it out. I wish Big Media (the BM for short) would show even half of the even-handedness shown by this site. Hell, I wish the BM would put away the effing Obama pom-poms and start reporting actual news instead of cheer leading for their candidate! MFers! Coming up in future posts that have be to completed pre-election:
Journalists speak out against the overt Obama cheer leading by the BM
Fear-mongering as a campaign tactic. Good Lord, the right wing blathering heads on talk radio are losing their minds right now!
"Is Obama the antichrist?" and other crap found in my inbox
There are days when I have literally nothing to write about. Days when absolutely nothing is happening in the wide world of asshattery. Today I'm encountering a different sort of problem -- I've got more topics in the bin than I've got time to write.
Rather than attempt to tackle one at the expense of others, or tackle all at once in a "Vulture Droppings" post, I'm going to simply post a "Coming Attractions" list. If there's any one topic of interest to you and yours, let me know in the comments and I'll kick it up in priority.
Coming Attractions
The Great Society legacy of "peace" - the growing trend towards violence on the part of the Left towards those who don't agree with them. Tip of the beak to Mark for calling my attention to this lovely story.
The advent of "Generation Jones". No longer must MY generation be lumped in the those 60's maggots. Tip of the beak to WatchingSociety for that tidbit and for links to thesesources.
Fear mongering as a campaign tactic. This topic stems from the steady stream of panic being shoveled on blather radio, but both Left and Right are guilty of this. Examples will be provided.
The advent of the Carbon Police in England. Just what we need: more Überwachenden.
An email is circulating that makes the case for Obama being the Antichrist. I slice, dice, and ridicule said email. Hilarity ensues.
An actual, honest-to-God unbiased site for information on the presidential and congressional elections. Targeted for women, CitizenJanePolitics.com is an excellent source for information regardless of your sex. Tip of the beak to xfloggingkylex for passing this information to me.
More wacky environmental news. Always fun. Always enlightening. News on the subject of man-made global warming is especially fun this week in light of the near-record low temperatures we're seeing right now.
And finally, I'm running in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure 5k tomorrow. It's my first competitive race...and I expected to finish towards the end of the pack. But it's a good cause (to raise funds for breast cancer research), and I'm really looking forward to it.
As someone who has read your WSJ column intermittently for quite some time, I feel compelled to call you out on your treatment of Sarah Palin. Your unseemly displays of scorn, derision, and contempt are most unbecoming, and border on journalistic jihad.
As I recall, in a different time, you were among the hoard of conservatives who circled the wagons in a near-unanimous defense of Dan Quayle, perhaps the single least qualified candidate for the job ever. This man, perhaps the single dumbest individual to ever hold public office (no small feat that!), got the kind of defense from his allies that Sarah Palin can only dream of.
And let's not forget George W. Bush, a man you staunchly defended right up until the last year. You accuse Sarah Palin of being without ideas? This is a man whose next original idea will be his first!
Back to the topic of Sarah Palin being without ideas. Hello? Reality calling. The VP candidate is SUPPOSED to appear to be without ideas! The whole point of the VP candidate, at least in terms of the campaign, is to be the parrot repeating the "big ideas" of the presidential candidate. Last I looked, that was John McCain. I would venture that both you and I would look stupid trying to pass off the steaming pile of "ideas" being offered by John McCain as having any sort of basis in Constitutional government, let alone any sort of relationship with logic or reason. I'm sure that if Sarah Palin were at the TOP of the ticket we'd get a whole different look at her core beliefs and the ideals that form her vision of government.
John McCain's campaign (or, as I like to call it "Bob Dole: the sequel") was in a death spiral until Sarah Palin was added to the ticket. She's the only positive he has going.
And yet, you and other defectors from the so-called conservative commentariat have gone out of your way to heap scorn and derision on this lovely woman. You've questioned her intelligence (and I thought that only the Left resorted to that tired smear tactic). You've accused her of dodging the media, but how much of that is dictated by the campaign? You don't question McCain's misuse of her proven ability to draw crowds to hear the message, you just question HER.
And as far as I can see, that's the whole of it. It's her. You dislike her. Most of the female baby boom wing of the conservative commentariat dislikes her. Coincidence? I think not.
Sarah Palin (and I) hail from the tail end of the baby boom. We aren't mystified by the Beatles or JFK. The first time we had the opportunity to vote, our man was Reagan. We don't belong to your little 60's generation.
I expected the paleo-feminist womyn to reject Sarah Palin. Those calcified old crones, who probably still believe that heterosexual sexual relations is always rape, will only vote for a candidate who (a) supports the holy sacrament of abortion, and (b) got to where she is through "help" from the government or the feminist movement.
But seeing your reaction to Sarah Palin, I'm thinking that the 60's generation women, liberal AND conservative, hate the thought of being surpassed by someone who is not one of them! The night Sarah Palin was nominated, you were seriously bent. Why, it should have been Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Elizabeth Dole or some such! Notice anything about those names? They are women in their mid 60's and up. They're boomers. They're YOUR people. It would seem that your attitude is no one should EVER get picked until YOUR people are picked.
Perception isn't always the truth, but my perception is that you're a disingenuous, bitter woman who just can't STAND the idea of giving way to a younger generation of female leaders. You're disingenuous for representing John McCain as any sort of conservative. And you're a bitter woman for trying to slap down the one person on either of the bipartite tickets whom any American outside of your social circle sees as having any redeeming qualities, simply because the honor didn't go to one of "your kind".
I received an email this weekend that had me shaking my head. You can read the entire text of the email here, if you're so inclined. The gist of it can be derived from this excerpt.
Prayer can move mountains, why not Obama?
Being dismayed recently when a family member of mine said to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency. These words came from someone who in the past has been a great prayer warrior.
What is happening was my question??? Why are we Christians settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and taking our country back?
Yeah, prayer will make McCommie our next president. *shudders*
Sorry, but I fell for this steaming pile back in 2000. I prayed mightily throughout the election process, particularly during the Florida debacle, and look what it got us: King George the Dim.
I'm sorry, but I've got better things to pray for than whether we get a socialist or a communist as our next president. I just pray that neither of them can cause as much ruin to this country as King George did (or, to go old school on you, as Jimmy Carter did).
So, you ask...why is THIS WotW material? Here's why.
George Bush is being buffeted because he has fought a holy war against the evils that attack us and we should not be surprised because a prophet is not honored in his own country. But we should not rest on our laurels and allow ourselves to be taken further off the path of Christianity and to have God removed from our presence in our schools, courts, government and businesses. Invite God into the fray. Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a mighty army to defend us and to protect our country as he did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts in prayer and fasting.
Are you kidding me? A holy war?!?!?!? The asshat in chief goes to war against the WRONG country (Saudi Arabia being the RIGHT country, that is, if you're serious about stopping the spread of radical Islam, Wahhabist SA being the chief exporter of said ideology). He uses the military to babysit a country that resents our presence for 4 years, getting 3,000+ young men killed and countless others maimed in the process. And you want us to pray for....what? More of the same?
Someone needs to take the original author of this email to the woodshed. This was NOT a just war. It was not even necessary! Saddam Hussein had as much to do with the cause of radical Islam as I have to do with the success of the 49ers.
For equating the cause of Team Elephant with the will of God, the email author is my Wiener of the Week.
