TheTalkArena.com

I know you have all heard about this, and seen the pictures, and all of that…

I don’t buy it. I’ve seen the pictures as well, and someone wasn’t nice at all for her. But I want to state now that I don’t buy into the “carved a B into my face” story. First, the B is a mirror image of a B. Let me repeat in Biden-esque style- it is a MIRROR image. And it’s a pretty good B.

TTA officially declares this a hoax with little or no use, and won’t comment further on it for at least 2 hours. At this point the official position of TTA is that this story is bunk, and this woman did it to herself, and she needs to find some help for her problems.

And she needs to comment here so whoever beat her up can be placed on the official TTA Whoop Ass list. There is one, and JEG can explain it almost as well as I can.

UPDATE: Ace has some valid points on the whole “B” thing, and I must leave to officially eat some crow. There are valid possible explanations for the orientation of the scar. My apologies.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Told ya. Smelled fishy right from the start, and for once I called it. And, by the way, that doesn’t negate my apologies before. I just said that the B thing was iffy, and valid explanations had been offered. But the whole thing stank to me from the beginning.

If Obama is such a fan of spreading the wealth to help the less fortunate why hasn’t he shared any of the 650 million he has raised to buy this election with McCain ?

Not fair, because McCain is a serious threat ? Why hasn’t he shared any with Bob Barr or Ralph Nader ?

Because he’s a fucking socialist dictator wannabe, that’s why. Yeah, I said it !

I hadn’t even really thought about this, and I won’t comment on it much, but it’s gonna happen either way. This is what happens when you raise two generations on grievance politics. This is the liberal education system coming back to bite these big-city liberal politicians right in their stupid asses.

Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.
Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.

Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.

Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly.

Cities that have suffered unrest before, such as Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Philadelphia, will have extra police deployed.

In Oakland, the police will deploy extra units trained in riot control, as well as extra traffic police, and even put SWAT teams on standby.

Hope. Change. Riots in the streets regardless of what happens. If he loses, we burn shit up. If he wins, we celebrate….. and burn shit up.

Thanks Barack and liberals. We appreciate your efforts with screwing up kids and the innercity for the last 40 years. Someone keep an eye on William Ayers. He likes to blow up really big stuff.

UPDATE: Let me state now, for the record, that I am VERY happy I don’t live in the Washington DC area anymore. M street will be in cinders before November 5th is over. Anacostia will be a war zone. I know this because I have it on good authority that Marion Barry is buying a month’s worth of crack across the river on November 3rd. He lives as he leads…. the city can burn around him, but Marion needs his rock.

I used to follow Politico many times a day. Now I check it once a day, if that. It has become as much of an Obama-booster as the rags the others used to work for. But I did like this, that- yes, HotAir again- picked up on….. Politico is giving McCain advice on how to win Pennsylvania.

In the spirit of comity I will offer Obama some advice how to win also.

• Have your VP candidate question your credentials every few days.
• Have a surrogate in Pennsylvania call his and your constituents racists, and then rednecks.
• Have your VP candidate declare to the country that as soon as you are elected we should all get ready to be killed.
• Have your former employer start trying to steal votes in Ohio and around the country, and have their general counsel admit as much.
• Have your media surrogates write in national journals how they had dreams of killing your potential opponents.
• Get some friends who like to denigrate America at every opportunity, and maybe a few who had- as a long-term goal- the murder of a few dozen/hundred/thousand.

Oh. Wait. You’ve already done all of that, and much, much more.

I guess I wasn’t a helluva lotta help. Guess I’d better get in line….

Long Live The Obama !!

Having Politico give campaign advice to the McCain campaign is kinda like me giving PETA advertising advice. Talk about subversive !

HotAir has, as usual, ripped this to shreds, but what is amazing to me is that the American public can even see it with the thick, heavy, choking cloud of the media smoke screen that has been floating around this election cycle. I mean…. it’s so incredibly obvious that it amazes me people still write about it.

The roux of the story ? The media likes Obama more than McCain, and has acted and reported as such. Shocker !

This is an issue that has been driving me nuts for years. This year- I think Hannity may be right… The media is dead after this. How can anyone with any objectivity take them seriously. I know that you will all hate me for the mental image, but Andrea Mitchell and Olbermann and all the rest have all been dressed up in their little skirts and waving the pompoms for well over a year. There is no journalism. There is left-wing propaganda.

And it reaches over into entertainment. Letterman. Jon Leibowitz-PLEASE-CALL-ME-STEWART. (Way to embrace your Jewish heritage there, Jon…. afraid being a descendant of Hebrew would hurt you in Hollywood ?)

How can anyone at all take these people seriously ? Too many of the American people seem willing and wanting to vote an avowed socialist into the presidency. There has never been an election like this. It’s weird. It’s beyond weird.

As Jon Stewart would say if he had any balls, Oy Vey !

From what I will dub a “who gives a flying frock ?!” file, the media are having a itshay itfay about the RNC supposedly buying Sarah Palin some new “style”. I guess she could have worn her normal attire, but I think it would probably suck to be standing in an airport hanger in Tampa wearing a parka and snow pants. Anyway…

To me this is such a non-story it barely deserves mention, but it points to a larger issue: once again the media has made a non-story page one, and has ignored every item on the litany of comparable ‘offenses’ by the Obama campaign. ACORN, which has received almost a million Obamabucks. Oprah “volunteering” her time to produce his “coronation”, which is a contribution-in-kind. How much has the O’paign spent on his and Michelle’s wardrobe and bauble ? Did anyone ever ask ?

Anything and everything the media can do to win this for Obama, they will do. This election is being thieved by acronyms: NBC, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, the NYT, and ACORN. Newsweek and the Washington Post are just helping because, ya know, ya gotta “spread the waste around”.

h/t Allahpundit and HotAir and a few others

Well, apparently Senator Biden is confused.  Which Joe are we going to see tomorrow?  Or the next day?

Depends upon the day, I suppose. Today’s Denver Post has Biden accusing Senator McCain of “bashing,” whatever that means. Looks like Joe did some bashing of his own not too long ago. Trouble is, he and his advisors seem to have been bashing his potential future boss. Oops.

Just a few excerpts, courtesy of the National Review:

Assessing Obama’s Iraq plan on September 13, 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”

Around that time, Biden in an interview with the Huffington Post, he assessed Obama and Hillary Clinton: “The more people learn about them (Obama and Hillary) and how they handle the pressure, the more their support will evaporate.”

December 11, 2007: “If Iowans believe campaign funds and celebrity will fix the debacle in Iraq, put the economy on track, and provide health care and education for America’s children, they should support another candidate,” said Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro. “But I’m confident that Iowans know what I know: our problems will require experience and leadership from Day One. Empty slogans will be no match for proven action on caucus night.”

Also that night, Biden said in a campaign ad, “When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”

Uh-oh!

Readers of the old TTA site will probably recognize my passion for this issue.  Some will like it, some will hate it.  The former will support me, the latter will likely condemn me.

I took a fishing trip this weekend to one of my favorite campgrounds.  I’ve spend the past few months tying flies on the end of my line and stalking the brown trout that are increasingly rare on the Poudre River just west of my hometown of Laporte, Colorado.  In typical fashion, I caught two…one each day.  Not bad for a flyfishing wannabe.  The trout on the Poudre are pretty discriminating.  They won’t rise on just anything.  Royal Humpee…nothing.  Bitch Creek…nothing.  Elk-hair caddis…there we go.  Nice brown.  Renegade…there we go.  Nice rainbow.  That was it.

Great campsite, though.  Blazing fire, pork and beans for dinner, and Glenn Beck on the radio. 

Shoot, forgot my Glock.  Actually, didn’t forget it.  Thanks to federal and state regulations, I couldn’t bring it with me.  National Forest.  No firearms allowed. 

I was a tad bit freaked out as the night grew dark, cold, and rainy.  I had a tent for shelter - not much, but enough to keep the rain off me.  I had a hatchet for protection - enough for me to hold off psycho humans, but pretty pathetic for holding off a bear, or a mountain lion…or in this case, a coyote.  I’d read the Forest Service’s warnings, posted prominently throughout the campsite:  “Camping in bear country.”  No big deal.  I’d lock my food in the back of my Ford Explorer, and I’d change clothes before bed. 

“If approached by a bear, speak softly and try not to show any fear.”  I laughed inside.  I’m pretty sure there’s not a man alive who could show no fear if approached by a bear.  “If attacked by a bear, fight back.”  I laughed even harder inside.  I played the visual in my head.  Me and a bear engaged in a campground brawl.  Pretty sure I’d lose that fight. 

A mountain jay screamed like a woman.  I jumped out of my sleeping bag and shined my flashlight outside.  A coyote prowled the campground.  I was the only one there.  Normally, several other campers provided safety in numbers.  Not last night.  The coyote was clearly comfortable around people.  As he snarled and paced back and forth, I wondered if I would be able to hold him off with nothing more than a sharp hatchet.   

I’m not a poacher, folks.  I’d no sooner shoot a deer than I would another human being.  But I’d damn sure shoot a coyote or bear threatening myself or my family…if I could legally carry a firearm into a National Forest.   

Support the NRA on this one.

No brain scans in released Biden medical records

Joe Biden has no brain. I’m not exactly sure what one of these “no brain” scans shows, but this should be a bigger story, no ?

I have argued that the officials are becoming much to involved in sporting events lately, but this is a little overboard.

h/t HotAir

That seemed to be a bit brutal, no ? Isn’t forearm to the head a personal foul ? Which raises the question, is it possible to throw a flag on yourself ?

The Washington Post has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

In other news, ice is cold, knives are sharp, and puppies are cute.

Seriously- do media endorsements serve any purpose at all ?

Did any of you know that we had one of these ?

I know I am a mean old conservative. Maybe that’s why when I first glanced across it I read “International Day for the Irradiation of Poverty”. I had to wonder why the UN was an advocate for nuke-ing the poor.

Although….. considering their foot-dragging on Iran and North Korea, maybe I read it right the first time.

Get this guy off script, and he gets funny.

At some concert fundraiser shindig- why is He still raising money ? I thought the election was over already. Anyhoo… At some event headlined by Bruce Springsteen (who hasn’t done anything good since “Born in the USA”) and Billy Joel (who I like, and am very glad he was able to drive to the event without hitting anything), Obama opened his mug again and uttered this troika of gems:

“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” he said, only half in jest. “Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up.”

He added: “I want everybody running scared. Over the next 18 days, other than your family and your job, I want you to make a decision that there is nothing more important than bringing about this change that we need.”

That last part is fun…. notice how it builds up and then deflates into yet another fluffy phrase, “bringing about this change that we need.” This guy really does think he’s the Savior of The World.

Not to mention, I think we have a new slogan for the potential Obama presidency: Don’t underestimate our ability to screw this up.

This should, in a just world, infuriate every person in this country. So the Supreme Court (in a 5-4 decision to follow, I’m sure) has decided that Ohio doesn’t really need to follow their own laws or federal law regarding voter registration veracity. Ain’t that just perfect ?

Ohio is in the middle of what could be the most corrupt voter registration process in free-world history. There are approx. 666,000 (interesting number) new registrations in the state this cycle. And by the SecState’s OWN ADMISSION almost 1/3 of those are fraudulent. 200 THOUSAND fake registrations. You’ve got out-of-state kids- I’ve read reports of as high as 40 in one house- registering and then voting and then leaving. How bizarre does this have to get ?! And the remedy sought the Supreme’s shoot down quicker than a 14-pt buck on the Palin front yard.

I hope- I really hope- that this sort of blatant fraud pisses off every thinking person in this country, not only to the dishonesty that is the Democrat party, but also to the judicial philosophy of Obama. If he is given even 4 years it is quite possible that he will be able to stack the court to make things like this travesty even more frequent.

Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. [DEMOCRAT Secretary of State Jennifer] Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.

No, Jenn. The GOP doesn’t want to disenfranchise any voter. But illegal aliens can’t be voters. Nor can dead people, pets, Santa Claus or Disney characters. Why is that so f’ing hard for these people to understand ?

It’s amazing. And sad. No wonder all the justices are always dressed in black. The sorrow.

…or Id.  Or Super-ego. Or whatever I was on the old TTA site.  Any which way, JB has graciously allowed me to start spouting off on the new TTA.  Actually, we agree on most stuff, but I’ll keep him honest, and vice-versa. 

Ain’t it cool to have old friends take you back after relocations, job changes, and self-absorbtion? 

Buckle your seatbelts, friends.  You’ll probably get sick of me after awhile, but we’re about ready to have some fun.

You can still see me over at www.correctanatomy.com, but JB got me into this blogging stuff, and TTA is a lot better caliber than what I can pull off on my own.  It’s a lot more fun with someone who knows what the heck he’s doing.

TTA is back with a vengeance.

I will have more later. I need to take care of a few things real quick. But my first reaction: That was, without a doubt, a McCain knockout. Grand slam. Hat trick. 3-pt technical play. Trifecta.

McCain had not impressed me a lot in the last two. In this one…. wow.

This occurred to me the other day….

When Bill Clinton left office he signed a bunch of pardons on his last day. Some ok, I’m sure, some really bad. Think Marc Rich, FARC, and- oops- some Weather Underground folk. That really hurt Hillary in the primaries. Anyway.

Has there ever been a presidential candidate before that we wonder- Who among his close friends will pardon on his FIRST day ? Ayers. Rezko. That Greek dude with all the ‘oulitis’ stuff in his name ? (not in the mood for research- you know who I mean)

Obama is a blank slate with a bunch of really dubious friends. And vapid. Obama is vapid. I have a few issues in my life that I am not exactly proud of, and a lot of things I wish I could change. Maybe you were right Dad- I can grow up to be president one day !!

Relax kids. I know you have all been waiting for it. It’s coming.

Ya know how it is when you eat something and it’s wonderful, and you know you’ll regret it ? I made the mistake of praising Paul Krugman a few days ago, and the Nobel committee went and gave him the prize for economics. Completely on my pseudo-recommendation, I’m sure.

But Paul Krugman isn’t an economist anymore, he’s an in-the-bag Obamaite, and a neo-socialist. (if they can call Whittaker Chambers a neo-con, I can call the waste of space that is Krugman a neo-socialist)

Until I get my thoughts in order so it doesn’t run for a hundred pages, read this. Don Luskin is a genius.

This is the kinda BS that we can get used to, if Obama is elected. And it just makes me really sad. And pissed.

I live in a small town, with even smaller people sometimes. We have a few council races coming up. YOu don’t care about that, and really neither do I. But I want to show you what the Democrat linguistical gymnastics over the last few decades have wrought.

I’ll provide this link, but you have to register to read it, and trust me- after 10 minutes you’ll never want to read this paper again. Short aside….

I used to amaze my grandparents- Pop and Grandmother- in two ways: First, Pop was always amazed that I could change a light on the ceiling without standing on anything. (I’m a little tall) Second, Grandmother was always amazed that I could read the newspaper mentioned above in about 2 minutes. “How did you read it that fast ?” “I read everything interesting, and a few things that weren’t. Doesn’t take that long to read the good stuff.”

So… Emphasis is mine:

A West Memphis City Council member does not live in the ward where he claims residency and should be removed from the ballot, one of his challengers claims in a complaint filed on Friday.

[blah blah blah]

Brown maintains that Carter actually resides at a house on North Colonial Drive in Ward 1.

State law requires city council candidates to reside in the ward where they file for office.

Carter is listed in property tax records as the owner of both properties.

[blah blah blah- here comes the 'money shot']

The councilman said the challenge represented the “politics of fear.”

“I don’t think it’s a crime for a young black man to own multiple properties and live the American dream… They want to divide and conquer, but not this time, not this year,” Carter said.

[blah blah blah]

There is a lot more, and if you wanna read it from the link, knock yourself. When you are done, you will want to knock yourself out for real. (Call 911 before picking up the hammer)

The “politics of fear”. Now look, I must admit that I don’t know either of these men, and I have ABSOLUTELY no desire to head down to 21st street and hash this out with the participants. But trust me on this- both of the men in this argument are of the non-Caucasian persuasion. I’m not a racist, and don’t really care who wins in that contest, but as maybe the honky-ist guy on the planet (when my white friends play a game of HORSE I get picked to keep score) I can bet ya a dollar to a donut that both of these fellas are black. (And probably figure out the odds for the dollar/donut ROI while I’m at it.)

Point is this- two guys running for a seat on the city council in a city of little consequence, to see who can be the biggest idiot. Wherefrom the “politics of fear” ? Politics of fear. OF FRIGGIN FEAR ?!

This is what happens when you allow ridiculous rhetoriticians into open society. The language gets corrupted, and it stops meaning what it should mean. George Wallace was “politics of fear”. Hitler was “politics of fear”. Mao was…. Stalin….. Dude, you are running for a damn city council seat, and your opponent isn’t sure you actually live where you say you live. Let’s leave the “politics of fear” talk for something that may actually matter.

PS: Not sure why I got so worked up about that, but let me pull out the ole’ crystal ball, and predict the future a bit. This clown will get re-elected, and he’ll be even more engaged in attacking Mr. William Johnson, our mayor, who is among the best men I’ve ever met. Bill Johnson can’t take a piss without the city council here calling him a racist because the toilet isn’t black. (weird metaphor- live with it) This city is rife and full of racial politics, and to have one black man accuse another black man of “politics of fear” just reinforces that stupidity. I could go on for hours on this scrapple, but I have beer to drink and debates to prepare for.

This has been a running theme out of the Democrat pie-holes lately, and I really don’t understand it. Here is the jist of it:

McCain wants to alter the health insurance system so that people will get a 5k tax deduction to be able to purchase their own insurance. Let me state now that this should be an UP TO 5k deduction, not some sort of giveaway, like Obama wants to do with his “tax cuts”.

If you buy your own insurance you can take it from job to job without waiting periods and all that. You can also get past the whole “pre-existing condition” bullsnort that is out there. You buy your own insurance, and do what you want with it. He also plans to allow purchase across state lines, which is a bonus for everyone because it creates competition, and competition is good.

Not to mention that if you purchase your own insurance your employer’s costs will go down, helping employment rates and also providing a little buoyancy for wage rates. Potentially. But here is what I don’t get.

The Democrat line seems to be that the bad part of you being able to purchase your own insurance is that McCain will tax your employer-provided health insurance. How does that make sense ? Your employer won’t provide it anymore. What is there to tax ?

This just occurred to me- possibly what they are trying to say is that for people who prefer employer-provided insurance that will be taxed. I suppose that is a somewhat valid argument, I suppose. However, isn’t part of the idea to get past this “your job is your life” socialist crap that the liberals love so much ? Maybe the tax plan is a nudge to get away from that type of coverage, and into a more free market version of insurance. If that is the case, I like it.

Obama wants me to pay for your insurance, and as much as I luv ya all, I don’t luv ya that much.

Life is too short to read bad books. If you start a book, and you lose interest, stick it on the shelf and leave it. There are other, better books out there.

I am a huge fan of Michael Cera. I am a huge fan of Arrested Development. That and Sports Night are the two shows that I wish had been given more of a chance.

I watched Superbad tonight. Part of it, anyway. Let’s just say that the title explained the premise. It was really, really bad. I know every production company in Hollywood is lining up to get on their knees for Apatow, but this movie is just… Superbad.

I know I am way behind the curve on this one…. but it’s just a bad movie. It’s not funny. If you like silly fat kids saying the f-word I suppose it’s funny. There is irony that can be funny. But mostly it’s just not funny.

At all.

Apatow has worked some magic in his career. Plot and character and transition. I watched Knocked Up a few months ago and laughed a lot. But the formula is over.

Jonah Hill saying “fuck” 27 times in two minutes isn’t funny. I’m not sure who thought it would be.

I wasn’t a fan of Napoleon Dynamite. ND was Gone With The Wind compared to this thing.

I’m not gonna quit working for him to win, because I want to plant seeds about how terrible an Obama presidency will be. But McCain said something today that probably lost him the election.

And I won’t post much more because I’m so pissed off about it I can’t even see straight, and I’m out of bourbon. So I’m gonna go to Walgreens and get some brown nectar, and not think for a while.

F’ing McCain.

Actually, not channeling at all- flat out theft. From the “Yeah, What He Said” file:

The Campaign for Real Debates
That’s a lobby group I can get behind. Mark Levin’s point that McCain “doesn’t flat-out lie the way Obama does” is a way of acknowledging that the stilted artificial formats of these debates principally benefits the Democrat. Most electoral seasons the Democrat candidate has to pass himself off as something other than what his record would suggest — tough on foreign policy issues, deeply personally passionately personally anguished on abortion, etc. These stilted non-debates assist the Dem in getting away with it. Mixing it up, direct challenges between candidates, etc would not only make for better viewing but diminish this season’s Democratic northern liberal from passing himself off as a moderate centrist champing at the bit to “kill” bin Laden and “destroy” al-Qaeda.

As for the “town hall” format, no self-respecting Granite Stater would recognize anything approximating a genuine New Hampshire Town Meeting in this horrible travesty.

I just love it when I steal someone else’s work. I feel all Joe Biden-y.

I really want to be in politics. I would be a fantastic campaign manager. I understand this stuff more than most, and a lot more than some of the “elites”. Plus, if you take Bob Beckel and Dick Morris as any indication, ya get hookers and stuff.

I won’t sell my soul for a candidate, no matter how much that candidate listens to me. They don’t have to agree, but they do have to listen and convince me that, even in disagreement, they see my point of view. But I refuse to walk lock-step with anyone besides myself.

I just heard Bill Burton, once again, prove to me that these media shills have sold their souls. There is no cogent discussion, it’s all talking points, and I f’ing HATE talking points. In the world of 24/7 news coverage you would think a few of these people would have an idea in their head.

Which is another reason that I am a conservative. Conservatives seem to be able to bring around new ideas, even if they are variations of the TP’s. The Dems have to spout the same lines, over and over, and they do it without shame. Read Saul Alinsky, or Mein Kampf, and you’ll know where these tactics originated.

Bill Burton is a hack, and my fear is that he will become the press secretary or something, and I’ll have to listen to his stupid ass for the next four years. Please, America, vote McCain and help me not have to suffer through that.

First, my thanks to Mr. Jim Treacher for giving me the opportunity to get a few comments in over at his live blog. I am sure I was making him crazy, because if you read the transcript you will see he allowed roughly 25 of the comments I submitted. That’s about 10%. I can be a pest sometimes.

I am becoming more and more aware that these debates are a complete waste of time, as they are currently structured. I am also becoming aware that McCain isn’t good at playing hardball. He’s just too stuck on his own talking points, tired as they are. It’s not a good formula for winning the presidency.

Obama, conversely, is great talking off the talking points as long as it’s still radical left-wing tax/spend, socialist or fascist rhetoric. If he has to get into specifics he bloviates well, but a sober analysis forces all the pretty words to fall apart to dust. I’m not gonna run through the transcript or anything now. To paraphrase Lt. Col. Frank Slade “I’m too old, I’m too tired, I’m too f’in bored.” But I really do wish McCain had taken a verbal flame-thrower to that debate. And he didn’t.

As mentioned before, I participated in the Treacher liveblog, and my score given at the end was a McCain B+, an Obama gentleman’s C-. McCain had the substance, Obama had the fluff. In other words, same ol’ same ol’. I have a few ideas for a way to turn this around that might help.

I’ll return for more later, once I’ve watched it again to absorb a little more. Brokaw did ok, but showed the typical bias. The rest was most fireworks-less.

I’m not gonna do it here, I’ll be joining Ace or Treacher on theirs.

Considering my tremendous wit and delightful insight, I’m sure I’ll become a major player published from their comments. You agree, don’t you ?

UPDATE: I’ll be lb’ing over at Prof. Treacher’s place. With any luck he’ll let me sneak a comment or two by.

Seriously ? This is one of those “why is this a story ?” kinda deals.

Evidently South Africa (or some clown in it) has decided that Jeff Dunham’s character “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” offends Muslins. Well. Yeah ! It’s kinda supposed to. That’s the point. It’s comedy.

It offends me more when Muslims want to kill millions of people (as a few of them do), but I’m kinda sensitive that way.

As noted below TTA will be live-blogging the event, but I thought I might offer a few ideas before we actually get there tonight.

First, I really don’t get the expectations game. The consensus seems to be that this is a make-or-break night for Sarah Palin, but Ole’ Joe can all but punch her in the face and everyone will just grin and say “oh boy, that crazy Joe….” I think this is 100% flipped. Palin needs to be what she is, which is a governor new to the national stage, and Biden is a old worn horse who needs to convince voters why he can even be mentioned in the same paragraph with the new mantra of “change”. Joe is a change only in this respect: the Democrats haven’t nominated another certifiably crazy person for VP since ‘72.

Second, Ifill is a wild card, and a poseur. The more I read about this, between the lack of disclosure about her book deal, to the failure of the debate commission to check this out…. she’s not a journalist, she’s a partisan hack. But didn’t we all know that already ? She works at PBS, for the love of Mike. What conservatives should be pissed about is not that she’s an Obama tank-dweller, but that she gets paid by taxpayers to do the ridiculous garbage she does. Why do we still have PBS and NPR ? I can almost understand government funding for children’s programs and documentary development. Almost. What I don’t understand is why the government should be doing news. Isn’t that the very definition of propaganda ? If Gwen Ifill is so damned good she should go work for a news organization that has a profit motive to provide something necessary and useful, not nestled in the bosom of a government funded monolith. She is nothing more than Bill Moyers with a skirt and I’m tired of these leeches of taxpayer money pretending to be paragons of journalistic integrity. They are a joke, and yet too few seem to know it- chief among those unaware being Ifill and Moyers themselves.

“But but but, what about Jim Lehrer ?”, you will say. “He’s a PBS toadie also.” True, but I think he’s proven his chops over the years as a relatively unbiased figure. Look. Everyone in news, and everyone in every other gig is biased. May I even say that everyone discriminates ? That, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing. The problem enters the picture when you take a job that requires that you be unbiased, i.e. journalism. Opinion columnists are a different matter. Opinion journals are a different matter. PBS and NPR are the equivalent of the taxpayer publishing The Nation. Or, conversely, publishing The American Spectator. It’s just wrong.

So, it’ll be an interesting debate- again, it’ll be liveblogged here at the link at the top- and I think the narrative that has been developed is wrong. I’m looking forward to it. Mucho.

Will begin tonight at 7:30 Central. The link is at the top, and we’re doing it through CoverItLive.com, which is a cool little site. Comments from readers will be welcome, some will even be posted. And if you’re good enough I’ll add you as a “contributor”.

So get here at half-past seven and let’s have a little fun.

Squidoo has an interesting idea. Evidently someone over there came into a little extra scratch- $ 80,000 to be exact- and has decided to give it to charity based on reader poll results. 2 bucks a vote. And no, this isn’t a winner take all. If a charity gets one vote, they will get 2 bucks, two votes, 4 bucks, etc. So when 40,000 votes are in, the project is over. (had about 27k votes a few minutes ago) Quite ingenious, I’d say.

So this is your chance to be a congresscritter and vote to give away someone else’s money. How f’in cool is that ?!

There are some decent outfits available, and if I understand right they are taking suggestions for additions. Most of the Right is pushing for Soldier’s Angels, a fine organization to be sure, but I must admit I leaned towards something with a little more personal gravitas. You can choose any charity you so desire as long as it’s not People for the American Way. (American Institute of Architects ? WTF are they doing on that list ?!)

And they request that you vote only once, so please, in light of their generosity and benevolence respect their rules and only vote once.

That Reid is wrong. Harry Reid, that is. I am watching him now on C-SPAN2, and ya know… he’s a partisan hack, but he’s not a socialist. He’s just stupid. He’s as dumb as a box of hair. He says one thing one day, or in one sentence, and negates it the next day. He’s just an idiot.

You can almost see the hands of the puppet-masters that are up his ass. Pelosi is a socialist. Most of the Democrat majority in the House is socialist. Reid is just a useful idiot. He can’t make a point unless he reads it from a script.

Watching McConnell now, and he’s talking, not “speechifying”. That is the heart and soul of why America likes Sarah. She talks, she doesn’t give speeches. It’s a difference between being an robotic politician and a real person. And that difference is night and day.

I really, REALLY, wish that Leiberman would switch and start to caucus with the GOP. That would flip the control of the Senate. Not much but it could mean a lot for the next few months.

And now we get Chris Countrywide Dodd. I really can’t….. Ya know, back in 1994 I think, I wanted to be a journalist. Had I done so I would be absolutely ashamed by the way that the current media operates. How Chris F’ing Dodd can be a “leader” on this is absolutely shameful.

Dodd isn’t talking about the economy (not directly anyway), he’s talking about a trade deal with India. Important, sure. But he brought up another bugaboo of mine…. why do the Dems always feel the need to show us charts and shit ? Now Dodd has a map of Asia up. Does he subconsciously realize that his party has so ridiculously dumbed-down education in this country that he thinks he has to point out places on a map ?

I don’t hate Democrats. I despise lock-step liberals. Despise. Them.

There is a post up over in Rachel’s Queendom, and it skewers the venerable genius that is Brian Hackett- AHEM- Steven Weber. Read it, laughed, loved it as I do most of what “Rach” writes, but it got me to thinking.

I just can’t imagine I am the only person that doesn’t watch or read certain celebrity offerings (movies, books, TV shows) because of the asinine statements of their “stars”. And I must admit I am very anti-hype, so sometimes I start from a position of “everyone else has seen it, so I don’t need to”.

Some examples, and I’m not going to offer many links because you all know them already:

Never seen Titanic. Don’t want to. Don’t like DiCaprio because he is a lefty nut-job, and that just solidified it for me. But this started mostly as an anti-hype thing.

Couldn’t drag me to anything audible or visual regarding Streisand. Could. Not. Do. It.

George Clooney is an assclown of near historic proportion. No ER- even now- and certainly not any of his recent movies, although I did enjoy “O Brother” for a while, but won’t even watch it anymore.

Ashton Kutcher ? Come on. Did you see that tirade he went on a few days ago ?

Whoopi Goldberg, I’ll watch some old movies, but pretty much anything beyond Jumpin’ Jack Flash I have avoided like the plague.

Bill Maher. I still remember the old days when comedians were expected to be funny. Evidently Bill missed that memo.

The list goes on and on and on and on. I guess the bottom line is that if you are a celebrity, and insist on also being an “activist”, you won’t get my money. People pay you to entertain, ya putz. If we want political genius we’ll go to Rosie O’Donnell. Oh, wait.

The same follows through the worlds of music, TV, movies…. am I the only one who consciously refuses to watch anything with idiotic celebrities ?

PS- I must admit I have a soft spot for Bull Durham, which co-stars two of the most whacked-out lefties ever to walk the planet, in Tim Robbins and his mom Susan Sarandon. But it’s a baseball movie, and nothing can bring the warring parties together better than baseball.

PPS- I also admit to being a fan of Aaron Sorkin. SportsNight and West Wing are two of my favorite TV programs ever. But I like the writing, and whether you want to admit it or not, for the most part his politics are left-center, and even range into the right-center world from time to time. In other words, his programs are fair. His personal views are WHACKED OUT LEFT, but he understands that to sell a show to an audience ya can’t piss off 50% of the country. Something that a lot of these clowns mentioned about don’t seem to understand.

P^3S: Oh, and I don’t watch Wings reruns either, Brian/Steven. Do you have another character ? You played the same guy in Wings as you did in Studio 60 as you did in…. everything else you’ve done. Tell me again why you are important please.

Ace has the details, so go see it there. I can’t post the screen shot here because it doesn’t fit good in my site here, so go there to see it.

Essentially it is yet ANOTHER Andi Sully post about the parentage of Trig Palin. A topic that has been exhausted for a long time, but AIDS-brain Sullivan just can’t get her long-nailed fingers to stop writing about it.

This is getting silly. Andi, I think, needs to find a way to influence a local hospital so she can get really good psychiatric care. These bizarre rantings have gone beyond weird and lapsed over into creepy and disgusting. She is grabbing onto this story like a dog would a bone (make your own joke) when the rest of the world knew it was nothing and MovedOn.org.

How does she square this with her “bad mom” complaints that Sarah Palin’s water broke in Texas and she spent allllllll that time on a plane to get back to Alaska (and her husband and family), thereby causing a developmental disorder for the infant- refusing to acknowledge that the diagnosis was originally made months before ? Did Bristol give her mom a bottle of…. ya know. Screw it, I’m not even gonna go there.

Andi Sullivan used to be a responsible writer. Now she is just a crazy bitch. And no, I won’t link to her, because she doesn’t deserve it.

This is just scary. A bunch of Obama’s fellow travelers- most notably the head of NBC TV ?!?!- have begun the process of actually brainwashing young children into singing songs about the Dear Leader. I mean…. this is like an SNL parody, except it’s…. real. I really can’t believe this.

Anyone who knows anything about facism and totalitarianism knows that this is how it all starts. Get ‘em young and have them singing the praises about political “leaders” and…. I really just am almost at a loss for words. These idiots are getting scary, and it’s not even hidden anymore.

Between the press (NBC and NYT chief among them) all but driving this dude’s campaign bus, the attempt of the Dem congress to nationalize the banking system, and this creepy video…. it’s bizarre to me. Let’s just go ahead and get the kids uniforms that have “Obama Youth” patches on them and get it over with. How SICK is this, the way this campaign is turning out ??

h/t to a buncha people, and I hope this gets major, major airplay. I’m sure it was intended to be all Obama-inspiring, but it’s really just a crowd of Stepford children that, were it Jim Jones putting this out, we’d have congressional hearings. Although, with the Stepford Speaker- remember the San Fran ties- probably not. I mean. SHIT PEOPLE ?!?!

UPDATE: Evidently the NBC connection has been debunked, and really I was somewhat dubious about that in the first place. But it’s still wacked-out scary that anyone would find this persuasive.

They vote for Democrats. Seriously, remember that movie, with Steve Martin ? It, like this offering from Iowahawk, is brilliant. Brilliant, I say !

From Amy Holmes over at NRO: (yes, I’m stealing the whole thing, because it’s brilliant and it’s brief)

It seems to me that the real problem with [Nancy Pelosi's pre-vote] speech was its illogic. She stridently attacked George Bush’s “failed economic policies” and then, in the same breath, implored members to support his most controversial, unprecedented policy, yet.

So, her message was George Bush has been an unmitigated disaster for 8 years. He hasn’t gotten one thing right and has plunged America into an economic black hole. But in this case, we need to trust him. Why? Because she says so? They had a huddle?

On what political goodwill was she drawing? The public strongly disapproves of the bailout bill. And to make legislative matters worse, voters have a lower opinion of Congress than a used car dealership. Congressional approval ratings have never been lower.

After eight years of relentless partisan attacks on George Bush, Democrats have not only succeeded in sowing distrust of the administration, but of their own judgment, as well. So, now, when our leaders tell us that we have a genuine crisis, they have no credibility to lead us out. Such are the wages of blind, partisanship. We don’t trust what they tell us they see.

I couldn’t just emphasize the best parts, because it’s all best parts. I would say that you should read it all, but you just did. Thanks Amy !

Literally. Well, kinda. The contributor of so many of the quotes used on this site has disclosed to the world that he has a cancer. Specifically, in his words, “cancer of the ass”.

His funny reflection here.

The good news is that it should be completely treatable, and shouldn’t slow him down much at all. Get well, salty dog.

I must admit that the results of the vote this morning came as a bit of a shock to me. Much has been said about the reasons for/against passage, and what the potential fallout may be. The motives of the votes from various members have also been thrown up, ripped apart, and examined just about every way possible. Never one to relish being left behind, allow me to offer a few observations of my own, won’t you ?

First, the absolute dearth of honest press coverage about this has been astounding. The very pols who are squealing like a stuck pig are the ones who helped create this mess in the first place. Barney F’ing Frank ?! Really ?! How he can be taken seriously on this is just amazing to me. There is ample record out there of he and a litany of other Dems bitching and moaning and defending the very practices at Fannie and Freddie that led to this “crisis” in the first place. Now they claim to have had no involvement, and the lap-dog press gleefully goes along.

Second, from what detail I’ve seen this is still a bad, bad bill. It may be a necessary evil, but it’s still not as good as it could be. Quite frankly I don’t trust that much direct government intervention in the markets, especially with the prospect of a boy-child socialist as president in 4 months. I won’t take this opportunity to go through all the plus/minus bullet points- others have done yeoman’s work in that regard- but I can understand why conservative GOP members wouldn’t support this “crap sandwich”, as John Boehner put it.

Third, I just don’t buy this whole “Pelosi made a mean speech and it hurt our feelings” canard. I don’t know who first said it, but the volume of discussion along those lines is vastly out of proportion to what has to be reality. I think it’s probably Dem/media cheerleaders who are trying their damnedest to try to somehow pin this on the GOP. This is really where I start to shake my head on how silly the coverage of this has been.

This was a bipartisan vote. It was a liberal bill. I don’t know why we have to keep coming back to this: conservatives will not generally roll over and support a liberal bill. And yet the bill got 65 GOP votes. Over 90 Democrats didn’t vote for this thing. If failed by a dozen votes. 12. So lets do a little math.

The GOP gives 34% of its votes in favor, with 66% opposed. The Democrats go roughly 60% for, 40% against. To me that sounds like a pretty normal vote for a liberal bill that the GOP leadership deems “important for the country”. But again, it’s a liberal bill. And Nancy Pelosi can’t deliver any more than 60% of her caucus ? Madame leader, you aren’t very effective, methinks.

Now what’s next ? I think one of two things will happen. When they reconvene after the holiday (gotta love federal holidays) either:

1. The Democrats will cobble together a piece of shit bill that will include all the ACORN stuff, will strip out the free-market measures that have recently been included, and will pass it on a near-party-line vote which will allow them to crow that they got something done, as it moves over to the Senate and is killed deader than Nixon.
2. The GOP alternative, which is almost completely a free-market approach, will be considered and will be passed with overwhelming GOP support and just enough Democrats to get it to pass, where it then goes to the Senate for a fate that I think is uncertain.

Not entirely sure what to make of the market reaction of today, and am not terribly concerned with a one-day drop, historic or otherwise. I think the real interesting thing to watch will be the market moves as the discussion moves forward. If the product turns into a liberal candy store or a market-based approach will be a real test as to what the next few years look like.

Since the media seems so hell-bent on investigating people, let’s spread the field a little. McCain has gotten mired in bad strategy over the last week or so, but has shown a streak open to game-changing ideas, so here’s one. Start rolling out potential cabinet personnel immediately. There are currently 15 cabinet secretaries. I have a list. I reserve the right to revise and extend this list as better names come to mind.

Currently there are 15 cabinet secretaries- I stress “secretaries” because there are other cabinet level positions, but these are the ones who get the most notice. Here are my first choices in no particular order:

Secretary of Defense: Tommy Franks
Secretary of Homeland Security: Frank Keating
Security of the Treasury: John Kasich
Attorney General: Fred Thompson
Secretary of State: John Bolton
Secretary of Energy: John Shadegg
Secretary of Commerce: Mitt Romney
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Bill Frist
Secretary of Education: Laura Bush (heh…. that’ll piss off the left)
Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs: Gary Sinise (seriously…. Gary Sinise. Yes, the actor.)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Eric Cantor
Secretary of Transportation: Fred W. Smith
Secretary of Labor: Meg Whitman
Secretary of Agriculture: Adam Putnam
Secretary of the Interior: Mike Huckabee

Yes, it poaches a few House members, but the GOP won’t win the House back in November, essentially making it a moot organization for conservatives. Get those smart folk into the fold and groom them. And send them all out on the campaign trail as soon as humanly possible.

I want McCain’s administration to have the potential taxpayer downside of having so many star-level public servants that C-SPAN will cause rates in cable TV to increase because they have to have so many TV crews following these people around as they take the conservative message to America and the world.

I will format this a little better for the reading audience, and welcome your feedback of course. But I think if McCain starts rolling these people out as real surrogates he will be doing well.

And it’s not like he’s designing his own Presidential seal, or beginning a transition team or anything.

The University of Mississippi had one helluva week. First hosting the debate Friday night, which by all measures was one of the most informative and well-run debates in recent memory.

Then, on Saturday, they go into The Swamp and beat the #4 Florida Gators in one HELLUVA game. Of course they got beat up on by Vandy the week prior, so we’re not talking about a stellar team here. But it was a good game by a good team beating what is objectively a better team. At least on paper. But, as they say, that’s why they play the games.

Go Rebels !

And now, in celebration of such a momentous victory, a little eye candy for the fellas below the fold.

Continue reading »

This crazy itch-bay needs to stop drinking beer at noon on Tuesday.

Is there anything more vapid than some empty-headed celebrity type trying to cash in some street cred to gain political sway, when the only arrow in their quiver is some idiotic slogan ? (come to think of it, isn’t that pretty much the sum of the Obama candidacy ?)

Besides, ya know what, honey, it kinda depends on what the question is, doesn’t it ?

I gotta say, at this point, I am not feeling optimistic. I think both had good stretches, but overall I think Obama had a better night.

But have no worries, kiddo, I am a geek, so I will watch it two or three more times before I have a full analysis. The lingering feeling I have at the moment is that I may have gotten sucked into Obama’s purty talk more than policy. I’d like to think that is a turnoff for most, but who really knows ?

Kathleen Parker has new fare out that, I gotta say, is just so completely bizarre I am not sure where to begin. Here’s a piece of it:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

The basic thesis is that Palin talks too much and doesn’t say enough, and hence should step down from the ticket. Oh dear, where to begin ?

Palin has done just fine in all of the interviews she has been involved with. I haven’t watched the entire Couric thing yet, but the parts I have seen were chock full of loaded questions. The Gibson thing was obviously a weird mishmash of hit-job/soft-job that would have thrown anyone off their stride. Were there Nobel prizes for vapid oratory and rhetorical flubs Messers Obama and Biden could take up permanent residence in Stockholm.

I think a large part of the problem here is that Ms. Parker has a relationship with the venerable Buckley School of Public Speaking, a dandy outfit I’m sure, but I get the sneaking suspicion that she is placing too much emphasis on poetic speech, and not enough on the way real people communicate in the US.

The VP debate will, I think, remove any doubt of Palin’s fitness for office. And I truly believe that she will make Biden look more foolish than usual, and as we know, more often than not Biden doesn’t need an assist in that regard. Possibly I am wrong, but even if that’s the case the simple fact remains that Palin isn’t running for president. She is needed for counsel and specific expertise, and I have no doubt that she is perfectly capable of serving that role.

Calls for her removal from the ticket are ridiculous, and as much as I am a fan of Kathleen Parker, I think that she is terribly, tremendously, and terrifically off base with that column.

Award winning screenwriter and proud conservative Burt Prelutsky has written a gem over at Townhall.com. Read it all, but here’s the closer:

The brains and values of left-wingers have decomposed to the point where they actually believe Keith Olbermann, Rosie O’Donnell and Chris Matthews make sense and that people like Whoopi Goldberg, Al Franken and Bill Maher, are funny. That is why I say that liberalism is an addiction — and why, as with other addictions, I’d like to see it kicked. Kicked good and hard.

So take THAT !

Mario Lopez is to be reunited with his Saved By The Bell co-star Mark-paul Gosselaar for a one-off reunion of the TV show.

I think I just threw up in my mouth just a little.

After pseudo-praise of Paul Krugman I have to have something to wash the filthy taste outta my mouth. Enter stage left- Joe Klein, about whom it can’t be said to “stick with what you know” because, well, he doesn’t know anything.

From his new blather:

John McCain faced another crisis yesterday–a political one, not the financial emergency he used as an excuse for his rash actions–a