This week's Weekend Caption Contest™ was another heaping helping of fun. The assignment this week was to caption the following picture of Anderson Cooper:

Here are the winning entries:

1) (Gmac) - "Suddenly, it dawned on him that he was to late to the TEA party."

2) (Pretzel Logic) - "Anderson Hopper"

3) (Jeff) - "Okay, I'll be safe as long as some SOB does not show up with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch..."

4) (IowaRight) - "Okay let me get this straight - Apes FROM IOWA, SPOKE to you and ASKED YOU TO DRESS LIKE A BUNNY, and you JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE THE COSTUME, Ya know, this does not help the feeling that many of us have that you just make sh*t up...."

5) (jbw) - "I think my ratings and my dignity took a left turn at Albuquerque."

6) (zipity) - "Anderson prepares to go undercover for a hard-hitting expose on 'Furries'..."

The Readers Choice Award this week went to Gmac's winning entry. In its place we offer one more tastelessly excellent caption:

(Hawk777) - "No that's chocolate egg on my nose, really!"

That's all for this weekend. A new edition of the Wizbang Weekend Caption Contest™ will debut Friday morning.

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Weekend Caption Contest

... which leads to less than clear thinking:

 At a Saturday-evening fundraiser held in the home of a wealthy Massachusetts hospital executive, President Obama suggested Democrats are having difficulties in midterm campaigning because Americans simply aren't thinking clearly. Seeking to explain his party's troubles, the president focused not on controversial legislation like national health care and the stimulus but on evolutionary psychology. "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared," Obama told the assembled Democrats, who paid $15,200 a person to attend. "And the country is scared."

To "break through the fear and the frustration that people are feeling right now," Obama told the crowd, will require high-end donors not just to "write checks" but also to "lift up people's spirits and make sure that they're not reacting just to fear."

The country isn't scared Mr. President.  The country is pissed.  And thinking clearly has led to that anger.

Thinking clearly about your inability to lead in a crisis, thinking clearly about your governing against the will of the American people, thinking clearly about your bending over (literally) to those who stand against this country, thinking clearly about your mishandling of this economy, thinking clearly about your broken pledge to foster unity and bipartisanship, thinking clearly about those you choose as czars, thinking clearly about how your promised race transcendance is a complete joke.

The only ones who are fearful Mr. President are those in your party who are about to be shellacked in about 10 days... largely because they're in one way or another connected to you and your policies.

Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Asshats, Barack Obama

Well, once again Barack Obama is directly facilitating some gross misconduct in his name. Organizing For America, the heir to his presidential campaign, is running a phone bank for Obama supporters to call voters and urge them to keep the Democrats in office (because, after all, it's worked out so well so far).

There's nothing wrong with that -- both sides do it. But what OfA is doing is a bit dumber than usual (and for them, that's a lot). They've provided their unvetted volunteers with access to some rather sensitive information about voters, including name and phone number -- which could make them vulnerable to unscrupulous Obama volunteers (not that that would ever happen -- we all know what fine, upstanding citizens they are).

So, what ties this to the president? After all, it isn't his campaign that's doing it, it's the organization he built and then walked away from -- they renamed themselves and are carrying on without him.

Because, as I've noted many times, he left them with a parting gift -- his personal web site. And it's through that web site that they're running this phone bank.

Looking to do some harassment, stalking, casing out potential burglary victims, or do some digging for identity theft? Go on over to barackobama.com, register, and sign up for the phone system.

Several PJ Media readers have already done so, and had a bit of fun with it, informing callers just how their personal information was obtained so easily. Others have been sabotaging the efforts, irritating voters or listing them as unhappy with Obama.

I'm tempted, but I think I'll pass.

But remember, this is all quite literally being done in President Obama's name. He could put a stop to it at any moment, by demanding his domain name back, but he doesn't. Which puts everything they do firmly on his doorstep.

As long as Organizing For America holds the barackobama.com domain name, then Barack Obama owns everything they do through that web site. And that fact needs to be hung around his neck at every opportunity.

Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Asshats

In our local paper Friday, news of yet another suicide on the campus of William and Mary, the third this year:

A College of William and Mary sophomore was found dead of an apparent suicide Friday morning in the Lake Matoaka area.

The body of Whitney L. Mayer, of Plano, Texas, was found by another student who contacted campus police Friday morning, according to a campus-wide e-mail to students sent by Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler.

Her body was found around 8:30 a.m., said university spokesman Brian Whitson. No details on the circumstances of Mayer's death are being released by the university, Whitson said.

"Whitney was a Sharpe Scholar who had tremendous academic talent," Ambler said in the e-mail. "Her faculty have described her as having a particular passion for biodiversity and for exploring the relationship between the environment and quality of life issues.

"She also had a keen sense of community and gave of herself to others. Although Whitney had yet to declare a major, much of her coursework reflected that commitment to the environment. She was also learning to play the mandolin."

...

Mayer's is the third suicide of a William and Mary student in 2010. Ian Kramer Smith-Christmas, 21, a junior from Stafford County, was found dead inside a vehicle in a Virginia Beach parking lot in April. Dominique T. Chandler, of Portsmouth, was found dead in her on-campus dormitory room in February.

Two days earlier, I'd received an email from Tom Graffagnino, pointing me to his latest post.  He makes a strong case for what leads to despair:

The trajectory of the physical sciences, stripped of all transcendent and spiritual considerations, has painted itself into a nasty metaphysical corner. Like the serpent devouring its own tail (the mythical Ouroboros), Idol Scientism continues to gnaw away, unable...and/or unwilling.... to recognize the self-negating and destructive end-game it has embarked upon. Self-annihilating Nothingness, craftily disguised as "wisdom", hisses temptingly from the darkness.

Indeed, modern Science, chained as it is to unforgiving, self-imposed Materialism and to the unstoppable theoretical "force" of Naturalism, has reached the unsettling conclusion that while there may appear to be some sort of design around us, there is in fact no "Designer". There may appear to be some sort of "plan"about us, but there can be no "Planner". Design and Plan (and Purpose) are simply illusions to be dismissed, foolish, pre-Enlightenment "myths" to be shrugged off and forever done away with.

After all, Scientism tells us, facts are facts and that is that. Consequently, there is no "God".
End of discussion.
No debate allowed.

And so, we, the cudgelled subjects of our post-modern Sovereign, must accept the default position of Idol Scientism's Commandment: that we (and everything else) sprang into existence, quite accidentally, from Nothing at all. We were created, our new and improved "Sovereign" tells us, by Nothing and for Nothing. That metaphysical "bottom line" is conclusively drawn for us simply as a matter of fact. And then,.... just as conclusively and for added emphasis... even that line is "scientifically", matter-of-factly and magically erased.

This is the tragic lesson and legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren today. This is the 21st century's version of the "wisdom of the age". It is a challenge as old and as persistent as that encountered in the shade of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And just as deadly.

Philosopher and theologian, Francis Schaeffer, put it well when he said that post-modern man has both "feet planted firmly in mid-air."

The tyrannical presuppositions of post-modernist "Science" have brought us face-to-face with the disquieting specter of ultimate Meaninglessness and her naturally morbid stepchild, Despair.

We may never know what drives a young person to end his or her life... but Tom's point is cogently relevant and the timing of this latest local suicide and Tom's piece in my world is hard to overlook.

There are consequences for propagating false hope... and more deadly ones for promoting the idea that hope doesn't exist.

In my view, liberalism promotes both.  Our young people are paying the price.

Permalink | Comments (20) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Life Issues, Religion, Science

Play the "If George W. Bush had" game with them:

If George W. Bush had doubled the national debt in one year, would you have approved? 

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within ten years, would you have concurred?

If George W. Bush had criticized a state law that he admitted he never even read, would you think he was just an ignorant hothead?

If George W. Bush joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration, would you question his patriotism and wonder whose side he was on? 

If George W. Bush had put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling merely because one company had an accident, would you have thought this was disproportionate and harmful to American workers?

If George W. Bush had forced a change in your health care coverage even though the majority of people did not seek or approve of these changes, would you begin to worry about an abuse of power by the executive branch of the government?

If George W. Bush continually bashed the United States and seemed to side with known dictators, would you feel comfortable?

There's more... and the concluding question is most pointed.

Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Barack Obama, George W. Bush

This one from Bookworm needs to be read in full, more than once, and passed on with the same advice.  What follows is but a small teaser:

Modern so-called liberals, of course, would never dream of saying that the brown people of the world are less than fully human because of their race.  May's point, however, is that, when it comes to Muslims, we still manage to treat them that way.  (I'll add that the same holds true for the low, low standards so-called liberals establish for black people.)

Sure, we in the West treat women well, but we certainly can't expect that level of sophistication from the brown people.  And sure, we treat gays well, but we have to understand that the brown people haven't evolved to that point, and we should therefore just ignore their sins.  And sure, we can tolerate free speech (or, at least, if we're a so-called liberal, we pay lip-service to the notion of free speech), but we're big enough to recognize that the brown people haven't matured enough as a race to handle it.

The exceptionally low standards we allow for Muslims and blacks are always phrased in terms of "respect" for the "other" culture.  "Respect," however, is a misnomer.  True respect is impossible if we consistently assert that the "others" (who invariably have skin darker than ours) cannot hold themselves to the normative behaviors of which we're most proud.

...

I don't see any of our liberals recognizing in Muslims the common humanity that the more enlightened English and Christians saw in the East Indians or Native Americans.  Instead, our cultural relativists glory in their own superiority.  Sure, they'll bad-mouth their own culture left, right and center, but they know that their respect for women, for gays, and for other people who have traditionally been oppressed, makes them better than other cultures that continue to oppress those same people.  In other words, cultural relativism is a fancy phrase for what is, in practice, smug racism.

You have to read the whole thing.  You just do.  And then pass it on.

Permalink | Comments (28) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Islam, Race

Well, the Obama regime's attack on the Chamber of Commerce (lifted entirely and unquestioningly from an leftist extremist blog) is turning into a remarkable own-goal for them.

But let's take a look at the "foreign money" accusation, and run with that, shall we?

The accusation against the Chamber is that they're taking foreign money to funnel into American political campaigns. The Chamber has quite a few foreign corporations as members (those who have American subsidiaries) who pay their dues, but the Chamber has said that it strictly segregates those monies away from its political activities.

According to the Obama administration, though, that segregation is a scam. Money is fungible; just because "foreign" money is used for say, rent and utilities, it frees up other money for things the foreign money couldn't be spent for.

An interesting theory. Let's run with that for a moment.

One of Obama's biggest supporters are unions. And the biggest unions are international -- they have members and collect dues and contributions from other nations as well. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The SEIU -- the Service Employees International Union. The AFL-CIO lists several International unions among its membership.

Another of Obama's supporters has been Planned Parenthood, which in turn gets hefty amounts of money every year from the federal government. Federal law prohibits public monies from being spent for abortions, so Planned Parenthood tightly segregates its federal funding from the abortions it provides (in excess of 250,000 a year and rising). But according to the Obama administration, the fungibility of money makes such segregation utterly meaningless; the use of federal money for non-abortion expenses just means they can spend more on abortions.

And then there's the 2008 Obama presidential campaign itself. The law here is even tougher; zero foreign money allowed. All contributions must come from American individuals and organizations. Period. No exceptions, no segregating, no loopholes.

Well, the Obama campaign, when it set up its web site and opened up for donations, deliberately turned off several standard features that would have assured compliance with the various laws. And the foreign money just poured in. We have no idea how much it was, as the Obama campaign made damned certain it was untraceable, but it was significant -- Obama's illegal alien Aunt Zeituini boasted of giving money to her nephew, two Palestinian brothers in Gaza shelled out over $30,000, and other foreigners boasted of having helped "bring about hope and change" in the US.

Note that not only were the donations illegal, but so was the deliberate obfuscating of the funding sources by the campaign -- the law requires them to exercise due diligence and take all reasonable precautions to comply with the law, and they actively worked very hard to do just the opposite.

So, let's consider this: let's throw the Chamber of Commerce under the bus. Let's let them get slapped down for participating in domestic politics while accepting foreign money. As long as the rule is applied across the board, and it also takes the unions out of politics, guts Planned Parenthood's federal subsidy, and cripples Obama's re-election campaign, it's more than a fair tradeoff.

But that would involve the left actually playing by the rules they want to impose on others, instead of profiting from the very behavior they denounce in others. They don't recognize their hypocrisy. And they certainly won't demand their own allies and supporters live by the same rules as they demand of their opponents.

So the only real reason to bring this up is for entertainment value. To see just what sort of feeble excuses their shills and whores will spout to rationalize and justify their rank hypocrisy and transparent double standards and faux hysteria.

(Cue the resident detractors to jump to the Obama regime's defense here -- galoob, Bruce Henry, Jerry Chandler, I'm talking to you!)

So, that sound fair to you folks?

Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Money

Wow, the California Senate governor's race is getting interesting. Last week, an audio tape was leaked showing an unidentified aide to Jerry Brown suggesting that they label their Republican rival, Meg Whitman, a "political whore."

This, predictably, had feminists outraged.

Well, maybe not outraged. But displeased.

So displeased that they said "this is bad, but we'll let it slide. But the next time someone uses the word 'whore,' they need to be fired."

But giving the girlie-man Jerry Brown campaign their one free bite of the apple wasn't enough. After reconsidering, Patty Bellasalma, the president of California's chapter of NOW pussied out and decided that yeah, calling Whitman a whore was fair game.

What a bitchy thing to do. Normally, when someone prominent says something that could even remotely be considered a sex-based attack on a woman, they get their panties all knotted up and go hysterical like they have sand in their knickers and their tits in a wringer.

Not to paint with a broad brush here, but it's just more affirmation that the mainstream feminist movement is more concerned with political ideology than actual women. They are bought-and-paid-for concubines for the left, more than willing to let the most disgusting sexists hide behind their skirts as long as they push the liberal agenda. Hell, forget the "political" qualifier -- one noted feminist was more than willing to literally whore herself out, trading sexual favors for political advances.

If you're female and you don't toe the liberal line (especially on abortion -- that's the 100% litmus test), then counting on the feminist movement for any support is a frail reed, indeed. Those chicks will ignore you, run you down, even deny you your identity as a woman in general, act like real douchebags.

In conclusion, let me say this to Patty Bellasalma, president of the California Chapter of the National Organization of Whores: stop being such a cunt.

Continue reading "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" »

Permalink | Comments (35) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Feminism

You know, in the aftermath of the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners this week, it's clear why that nation is a third-world hellhole and not part of the developed world. The reasons are legion, but one of them stood out in stark relief over the past few months: their president simply doesn't know how to manage a major crisis.

I mean, look at this comparison with how El Presidente Sebastian Pinera handled that situation with how our own President Obama dealt with the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Not once did President Pinera talk about how he was going to make certain that the mining company was properly brought to account for their misdeeds, promising to hold his boot to their throats.

He didn't demand an end to all mining everywhere.

He didn't snub offers of assistance from other nations.

He didn't vow to "not rest" until it was over, then take off on vacations and go golfing at the drop of a hat.

He didn't try to demonize the mining company.

He didn't use the crisis to advance his political agenda.

He didn't make sure that federal government officials were overseeing and micromanaging every aspect of the disaster response, keeping outsiders and other levels of government didn't get in the way.

Nope, El Presidente Pinera did just what you'd expect from any two-bit jefe from a two-bit backwater banana republic. He marshaled his nation's resources; requested and accepted aid from anyone, anywhere; kept the spotlight focused, laserlike, on the actual immediate crisis; ignored such matters as blame and responsibility who to punish; and most critically, failed to shore up the critical golfing industry by keeping his tee times.

Poor, poor Chile. Yes, your miners were rescued, alive and mostly healthy, but that was not because of your El Presidente and his response to the crisis, but despite it. The silly Chile-pepper simply doesn't have what it takes to be the leader of a modern, advanced nation.

Maybe some day, you will. Maybe some day you'll be as good as we are. But right now, you ain't there -- and you ain't headed in the right direction.

(This article is also instructional on how the rescue played out.)

Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Politics

It's Friday, which means it's time for the Wizbang Weekend Caption Contest™. Enter your best caption for the following picture:

Winners will be announced Monday morning.

Update: Winners announced. Click the link to read the winning entries. The contest is now closed.

Permalink | Comments (105) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Weekend Caption Contest

Which would also then mean that many leftists, especially in the media, are liars... but you knew this:

A new analysis of political signs displayed at a tea party rally in Washington last month reveals that the vast majority of activists expressed narrow concerns about the government's economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events.

Emily Ekins, a graduate student at UCLA, conducted the survey at the 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington last month by scouring the crowd, row by row and hour by hour, and taking a picture of every sign she passed.

Ekins photographed about 250 signs, and more than half of those she saw reflected a "limited government ethos," she found - touching on such topics as the role of government, liberty, taxes, spending, deficit and concern about socialism. Examples ranged from the simple message "$top the $pending" scrawled in black-marker block letters to more elaborate drawings of bar charts, stop signs and one poster with the slogan "Socialism is Legal Theft" and a stick-figure socialist pointing a gun at the head of a taxpayer.

There were uglier messages, too - including "Obama Bin Lyin' - Impeach Now" and "Somewhere in Kenya a Village is Missing its Idiot." But Ekins's analysis showed that only about a quarter of all signs reflected direct anger with Obama. Only 5 percent of the total mentioned the president's race or religion, and slightly more than 1 percent questioned his American citizenship.

Ekins's conclusion is not that the racially charged messages are unimportant but that media coverage of tea party rallies over the past year have focused so heavily on the more controversial signs that it has contributed to the perception that such content dominates the tea party movement more than it actually does.

"Really this is an issue of salience," Ekins said. "Just because a couple of percentage points of signs have those messages doesn't mean the other people don't share those views, but it doesn't mean they do, either. But when 25 percent of the coverage is devoted to those signs, it suggests that this is the issue that 25 percent of people think is so important that they're going to put it on a sign, when it's actually only a couple of people."

So the next salient question is... what other lies are leftists telling us?  And what other lies are their willing accomplices in the media telling us?

And even more importantly, how long have they been telling us these lies?

Thank God for the rise in alternative media.

Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: In The Tank For Obama, Media Whores, Meme Watch, Tea Party Movement

... when Bill O'Reilly had the audacity to say that Muslims were behind 9/11:

Of course, it was Joy Behar who led the walk-off, the same Joy Behar who's said some pretty crappy things about Christians, as Laura Ingraham points out quite clearly below:

The absolute idiocy exhibited by Behar and Goldberg will be hard to top... though give them time and I'm sure they'll each do exactly that but it's Behar's hypocrisy that's most telling. Here's a woman who takes umbrage at the notion that Muslims were responsible for 9/11 (which is completely true) yet made these statements a couple of years or so ago:

I have a theory that you can't find any saints any more because of psycho-tropic medication. I think that the old days the saints were hearing voices and they didn't have any thorazine to calm them down. Now that we have all of this medication available to us, you can't find a saint any more."

But we've certainly found an idiot Ms. Behar... most certainly.

Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Asshats, Attention Whores

A Federal district court judge in Florida has ruled that a lawsuit brought against the Federal government by 20 state attorneys general and governors may proceed. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of ObamaCare's mandatory health care requirement.

In his ruling, judge Vinson criticized the Democrats for arguing during Congressional debates that the fines that are to be imposed by the government on individuals who do not have health insurance are penalties, not taxes, while Obama Justice Department officials argued that the fines are taxes and therefore not subject to Commerce Clause constraints.

"Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an "Alice-in-Wonderland" tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check," he wrote.

Vinson ruled that the fines are indeed penalties, and therefore their constitutionality under the Commerce Clause must be demonstrated in court.

Just last week, a Michigan judge struck down a similar challenge to the reform law, arguing that Congress was well within its constitutional authority when it crafted the law. There are several lawsuits against the health law that are working their way through the court system, but the attorney general suit is the highest-profile challenge.

Vinson dismissed three of the states' challenges, including complaints that the law interferes with state sovereignty as to whether employers must offer insurance; that the law coerces states into setting up insurance exchanges; that the individual mandate violates the states' due process rights.

The states argued in September that the law violates the Constitution by requiring an expansion of the Medicaid program that's funded in part by the states and for penalizing people for not purchasing health insurance.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican who lost the state's gubernatorial primary this summer, filed the suit minutes after President Barack Obama signed the health care bill into law in March.

It is expected that this lawsuit will end up being argued before the Supreme Court. Hopefully a Republican Congress can work to have the mandate repealed (candidate Obama opposed a mandate, remember?) but at least it is comforting to know that a lot of state officials are prepared to fight this unpopular and unconstitutional embarrassment of a law.

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Health Care

Why does this simply not sit well with me?  Why am I troubled by what she's saying?  One of you explain the unease... please...

Permalink | Comments (35) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama

I usually don't get interested or involved in individual Congressional races; I'm more of a "big picture" kind of guy. But I am the type to draw connections, and one name has sprung up once too often for me to keep quiet.

Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).

Grijalva has represented Arizona's 7th District since 2003, and he's done an outstanding job.

Remember, though, "outstanding" is a value-neutral word.

In 2004, representatives of Code Pink and other associated nutjobs wanted to travel to Fallujah (then the hotbed of the anti-American insurgency, where American contractors had their corpses hung from a bridge) and give the "people" of Fallujah a little token of apology -- $600,000 in aid and comfort. They achieved this because they had the support and sponsorship of several members of Congress -- including Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Grijalva.

During the fuss over Arizona's controversial plan to actually enforce immigration laws, a lot of people called for an economic boycott of the state. That ended up doing exactly squat to the state, but one of the louder voices calling for the boycott was... you guessed it, Raul Grijalva.

He had some "questions" about the 2004 elections, and was so troubled that he wanted to invite the UN to "supervise" Americans elections.

He is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the current nom-de-guerre of the socialist/Communist faction.

Finally, I was reading (and getting more and more disgusted and furious) about the stunts pulled by Democratic activist and scumbag (but I repeat myself) Neal Rauhauser. This guy does pretty much everything the Left accuses the right of doing, but since he's on their side, he gets a pass.

Right smack dab in the middle of the accounts of Rauhauser's alleged scumbaggery is a reference to some of his Democratic clients -- and rather prominently was one Raul Grijalva, who was so satisfied with Rauhauser's firm's efforts.

Force yourself to watch that video. That, folks, is the face of the contemporary Democratic party. That's what the Progressive Movement is all about.

Now, I'm not saying that Grijalva is as big a scumbag as Rauhauser -- that's a nigh-impossible standard. But it's clear that Grijalva is an enabler of Rauhauser's -- using his campaign and his office to raise money to pay Rauhauser -- and that's almost as bad.

Grijalva's opponent is the kind of candidate that makes the Looney Left's heads just asplode all over the place -- she's a Tea Party activist, a mother, a born-again Christian, and a genuine rocket scientist. Ruth McClung has been endorsed by both Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, which oughta make a few heads on the other side asplode a bit, too.

You know what? I don't care that much about whether or not McClung would make a good Rep. (I think she would, but I'm speculating here). But she would have to work like hell to be worse than Grijalva.

And she's having a money-bomb today, too!

Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Asshats

I take a bit of pride in being, largely, level-headed as a blogger. I don't get truly worked up and outraged and furious around here, preferring calm reason (or, far too infrequently, sarcasm or other forms of humor). It takes a lot to get me spitting mad.

Well, I've found something.

Continue reading "Molon Labe" »

Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Economics

It's not about  him... but if I donate $3, I might get to meet him:

Rick --

Two years ago, I met 10 of you.

Just before I accepted our party's nomination in front of 80,000 people in Denver, I spoke with 10 grassroots supporters who had won a trip to meet me backstage.

I still remember the time we spent together -- because these are the people, like you, who stood with me in 2008, and got me through the tough fights since.

But we face another test on November 2nd that will say a lot about our future -- and I need you by my side again.

A Supreme Court decision I strongly disagree with has shifted the balance of power in our elections from folks like you to giant corporations. Their massive spending on attack ads could have a real impact on who represents you at all levels of government. Only supporters like you -- and all the work you are doing -- are standing in their way.

This may be our toughest fight yet.

So next week, just 11 days before the elections, I want to meet three supporters like you backstage at a rally in Las Vegas -- one of the last big rallies of this campaign.

Please make a $3 donation now to be automatically entered to win a trip to be at my side at the rally in Vegas.

This movement has always been about more than me. It's about change, and the kind of future we envision for this country.

The folks I met backstage in Denver told me they wanted health reform, a clean-energy economy, and a resolution to the war in Iraq. They wanted a new kind of politics, and a new kind of leader.

It was their hope and expectation that together we would move beyond the status quo, that we would counter the special interests and corporate influence in Washington -- that we would do what was right and necessary for all Americans.

With your help, we have made historic progress, but there is much left to do -- and it will not happen without your involvement. I need strong allies in Congress who will stand with us in the tough fights ahead, and I need you to give it all you've got through November 2nd to make sure they can.

Your donation today will provide critical support to our Vote 2010 campaign as we reach out to millions of voters who will decide the closest races across the country.

It will determine if we pass this test, and win our toughest fight yet.

Please donate $3 or more to be automatically entered to win a trip to Las Vegas to meet me backstage:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Backstage

I hope to see you out there,

President Barack Obama

P.S. -- Making a donation automatically registers you for the sweepstakes. You may also enter the sweepstakes without making a contribution either online or via text message -- click here to enter online or here for instructions on how to enter via text message. No minimum contribution is necessary to be registered.

No purchase or contribution necessary to enter. Void where prohibited. You can enter the contest without making a contribution by clicking here. Only U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents over the age of 18 who are residents of the 50 states or D.C. are eligible to enter. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on 10/15/10. Three winners will receive one round-trip ticket within the continental U.S. to Las Vegas, NV; hotel accommodations for one; and a meeting with President Obama at a rally event on 10/22/10 (approximate combined retail value $1,200.00). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Promotion is subject to Official Rules, available here, including restrictions on eligibility.

I can't describe adequately how unseemly this is to me.

Why in hell would anyone want to buy what this guy is selling?

Slimy. Just slimy.

Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Barack Obama, Scams

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the 44th President of the United States. At that moment, the instantly held the allegiance and loyalty of every single man and woman in the United States armed services. He became their Commander In Chief, the highest link in their chain of command.

Sadly, it appears that he has forgotten (or, more likely, never learned) that loyalty -- true loyalty -- is a two-way street. Because he is breaking faith with the United States military. And he's doing it in such a way that undermines the very foundations of our system of government.

By law, absentee ballots for military members serving overseas have to be sent out at least 45 days before the election. This is to allow the ballots to find their way to Americans in the furthest-off reaches of the world, be filled out, and returned in time to be counted for the election.

This law -- the MOVE Act, standing for "Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act," one of the less tortuous legislative acronyms -- was passed last year. And in its first year, it's being pretty much ignored.

The Military Voted Protection (MVP) Project has filed a complaint, saying that seven states are at least partially violating it. Their complaint points fingers at Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Further, North Carolina and New York are also apparently assing around with the law.

I recall that the instant I decided that no way in hell should Al Gore EVER be granted any position of power or authority in this or any lifetime: it was during the Florida mess in the 2000 election, when Gore's campaign prepared and sent out a memo to its agents on how to find technicalities and other flaws in military ballots to get them disqualified. The logic was clear: the military tends to vote Republican, so any disqualified ballot would most likely be for Bush.

So here are thousands and thousands of American citizens, serving their nation, making tremendous sacrifices, and being deprived of not only one of the most fundamental rights of citizenship, but depriving them of their only chance to influence the government that commands their loyalty.

And what is the Obama administration doing about it? What is the Holder Justice Department doing about it?

As we've all learned, not a hell of a lot. The voting rights division of the Obama/Holder regime's Justice Department doesn't recognize any threatened voting rights except by certain protected minorities. White people, military service members -- they're simply not important enough to merit protection. So they've granted waivers to Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Nevada, North Dakota, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, allowing them to get around having broken the law. They're also suing New York, Wisconsin, and Guam to get them to get off their asses and let their citizens vote.

Of course, at this point, any settlement or finding will likely come too late for military voters this year. Oh, well. Maybe they'll iron out the bugs come 2012.

And how will the American service members respond to this gross violation of their rights as American citizens? They've already given up a great deal of their rights by agreeing to serve; this one is one of the those they get to keep.

Until now.

I'm not worried about them deciding that since Obama has broken faith with them, they owe him just as much loyalty in return. I have way too much faith in them.

But, dammit, Obama and his cronies ought to. It's only because their arrogance trumps their ignorance.

Permalink | Comments (50) | TrackBacks (0) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Military

So the next question should have been, "Then what the hell is it?":

Viacom networks MTV, BET and CMT are giving an hour of free air time to President Obama less than three weeks before the midterm elections. 

The so-called "A Conversation with President Obama" will be live and commercial-free on six Viacom networks at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The networks will not give equal time to a Republican before the election, according to a spokeswoman.

MTV denies that the Obama hour of TV is political, despite the timing, weeks before the midterm elections.

"We're not giving an hour of free time to the president to freely express his views. We're hosting a town hall with 250 young people to ask questions of the president,"Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said to HUMAN EVENTS.

"This is not a campaign appearance. This is a town hall discussion." 

Viacom, your network for bald-faced lies.

Unbelievable.

Permalink | Comments (28) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: In The Tank For Obama

There's rich symbolism here, so rich:

The Anchoress sums things up nicely:

And then, after a brief wait, the second miner emerges from the rescue capsule with great joy; he embraces his wife and then opens a bag to retrieve...gifts.

For others.

In the midst of all of this drama, all of the lights and excitement and concern, and at a moment when a man could reasonably be excused for thinking only of himself, Mario Sepulveda Espinace thought about others, and he brought them gifts.

Rocks? Rocks containing gold? It doesn't matter. Mario Sepulveda Espinace crested the top of a hole from which he thought he might never escape, and his first instinct was to give. That's a thing worth writing about, and thinking about and praying about. I wish I had a picture of that moment! How huge and resilient is the human spirit?

We were already witnessing something jaw-dropping and near-miraculous. And a man arose bearing gifts, and it got even better, for everyone in the world who was paying attention.

Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1) | Linking Blogs
Filed under: Life Issues