Author: Patrick

I own the thing...

Video: This is why I like Rick Santelli

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No, he is not crazy……Just slightly animated.

(via Mediate)

Update on Dad

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As I mentioned here before, my Dad had to go in yesterday for a procedure.

Well, they went in and were not able to open his artery in his leg. So, they cut on him…for nothing.

Needless to say; my Father is not happy camper at the moment. 😯

Mom said Dad is going to her heart Doctor. Which if this happens, will prove that there is a God! Because he is not much for listening to anything that anyone tells him; at least here as of late. 😉

Anyhow, I shall keep you all informed of what goes on.

 

 

 

 

President Obama makes some unpopular suggestions in debt talks

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It is never easy being the President of the United States.  There are times, when you have to do thing that you know are going to upset your base.  A perfect example of this would be found here, as reported by the Washington Post:

President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation’s budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

“Obviously, there will be some Democrats who don’t believe we need to do entitlement reform. But there seems to be some hunger to do something of some significance,” said a Democratic official familiar with the administration’s thinking. “These moments come along at most once a decade. And it would be a real mistake if we let it pass us by.”

Rather than roughly $2 trillion in savings, the White House is now seeking a plan that would slash more than $4 trillion from annual budget deficits over the next decade, stabilize borrowing, and defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode as the cost of health care rises and the nation’s population ages.

That would represent a major legislative achievement, but it would also put Obama and GOP leaders at odds with major factions of their own parties. While Democrats would be asked to cut social-safety-net programs, Republicans would be asked to raise taxes, perhaps by letting tax breaks for the nation’s wealthiest households expire on schedule at the end of next year.

The administration argues that lawmakers would also get an important victory to sell to voters in 2012. “The fiscal good has to outweigh the pain,” said a Democratic official familiar with the discussions.

As one might expect, this is not going over well at all with the progressive blogosphere.  In fact, most of them are quite understandably livid at this sort of talk.  Donald Douglas does feel the need to mock them; however, I will not stoop to such antics.  Seeing that I have to elderly parents on Social Security, I will not take a stance as such.

The truth is that President Barack Obama is in one heck of a tight spot here.  No matter what he does, he will be roundly criticized, by the right and the left for what he does.  The right does criticize the President, sometimes rightfully so, for not showing enough leadership in situations like these; and when he does and makes suggestions like these, his base which is represented by the progressive bloggers —- roundly criticize him for making suggestions like this one here.  In short, it is really a no win situation.

The cold, hard truth is this; America is in a very difficult situation.  We are in a huge amount of debt.  This debt was created by both parties over the past eleven years.  It has been caused by one necessary war and another war that many thought to be unnecessary.  Then, as a new President took office, to try to spur the economy; which ultimately failed, this President spent like a drunken sailor; and now, we are in this situation.

The only true hope I can offer is that the President and the members of Congress can come to some sort of agreement — that will not punish the Americans who worked so very hard to get the benefits that they are entitled.  People like my Father, who worked thirty-one years at the same place, every day, played by the rules, and provided for his family.  These people do not deserve to be punished.  I just truly hope that the President and the Republican members of both houses of Congress realize this.

Others: The Politico, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Caucus, Talking Points Memo, Swampland, Gawker, Scarecrow’s myFDL diary, Oliver Willis, Taylor Marsh, TPMDC, AMERICAblog News, Crooks and Liars, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Corrente and FrumForum

The real roots of Richard Poplawski’s rage

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I have wanted to write about this subject for the last few days.  However, because of a freak storm that tore through our area and left our house with “brown out power” for the last few days, I have not been able to do it.

The purpose of this article is NOT to justify the fact that Richard Poplawski killed in cold blood three Pittsburgh, Pa. police officers; no one in their right frame of mind would ever attempt do that; not even me.  However, it will attempt to explain why; and do it without using the spin of the liberal financed, controlled cooperate media.

The cold hard truth is that White Nationalism played no direct part in the actions of Richard Poplawski.  Despite what the liberal media might want to try to report.  I say this, because of a snippet in this article by the Pittsburg Star Tribune:

Poplawski grew up with an alcoholic, deadbeat grandfather, who kept a cache of guns and liked to play Russian roulette with his wife, Catherine Scott, relatives recalled during the trial. They said Poplawski’s father, also named Richard, abandoned his son at a young age. Margaret Poplawski was alcoholic, suicidal and displayed little affection for her only son, who called her “Maggie,” they said.

While deliberating on whether he should receive the death penalty or life in prison without chance of parole, the jury found two mitigating factors — reasons to show mercy — for Poplawski, according to the verdict slip: that he had no prior convictions and that there was testimony demonstrating a dysfunctional and unstable family life with violence.

The aggravating factors — the victims were police officers and Poplawski risked injury to others — outweighed them though, the jury found in sentencing him to death.

“Clearly, there’s no excuse or rationale for killing a police officer,” said Tony Gaskew, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Pittsburgh’s Bradford campus.

“There was a triggering mechanism,” he said. “It may have been a combination of a mental or psychological condition, coupled with a less-than-favorable family environment, these white supremacist beliefs and maybe issues with authority and the police. Somewhere in there was a triggering mechanism, but there was no rationale for what he did.

There it is, the real reason Richard Poplawski murdered those three police officers.   All the rest of that nonsense by the Star Tribune is liberal stupidity and feckless conjecture by people who are supposedly trained to find why suspects do what they do.  The man’s grandfather was a crazy man, and deadbeat, his mother showed no love for the boy and his daddy abandoned him. In short, the man’s home life was a wreck and it drove him to do what he did. Sorry, but the completely stupid argument that White Nationalism played a role in the actions of this man, is simply ludicrous.  This man was going to do what he did; no matter what name he happened to do it in.  The White Nationalism was simply a mechanism for his paranoia of the Government and yes, of minorities; it did not tell him to pull the trigger of that gun.  Richard Poplawski and Richard Poplawski alone made the decision to kill, not Stormfront.org or anyone else associated with White Nationalism.

This is why, that as a born-again Christian; I believe that a strong family presence in the life of a child is paramount.  I had one growing up and I believe that this is why I never was in trouble with the law.  My parents were there for me — all the time.  Now, to be clear, my parents were not of the “Pew Jumping,” “Bible-Thumping,” “In Church every Sunday “stripe.  In fact, I was allowed to make my own decisions about how I wished to interact with religion.  However, my mother flatly refused to allow me to “Run Wild” as the liberal child psychologists believed that she should have.  I believe that is why I am here today, to be able to do the one thing that I love most; and that is to be a writer.

In closing: Let me say this; the only thing more morbidly sad, tragic and sickening, besides the murder of the three law enforcement officers who were simply doing their jobs.  That is the fact that the liberal media insists on laying blame of those three horrible murders at the feet of those who would never justify, in a million years, anything of the sort.  When, in fact, the person of who should be actually blamed is one person and one person alone —- Richard Poplawski.

 

 

Light blogging this week

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I will be busy for the next few days. Dad’s going in tomorrow for a procedure for his leg. Today, me and Dad have a ton of “running around to do.” So, it will be a busy day here. I will be taking the iPod to the hospital and might try to put out a posting or two from there. Otherwise, the posting here will be light.

I have much to write about; but now, I just have other things happening in the family.

Thanks for your understanding.

-Pat

 

 

Where in the World

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To be brief, a major storm blew through here and knocked out power all over the place here. I have “brown out” power. So. Not much blogging going on.

Power should be restored to normal by tonight, hopefully. Needless to say, there’s alot of grumbling in this city, in this neighborhood and in this house!

I will return to blogging and other such stuff, when life gets back to normal.

Until then, pray for my family.

Update on job prospects

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As I wrote earlier, I had a job interview yesterday.

The interview went well, at least, I thought so anyhow.

I will not know anything, until after Wednesday of next week. I have something going on this coming week involving my Dad — Which I will post about here shortly.

So, at this point, it is strictly a prospect; someone who called me about a job.

To give you a little hint: It is a driving job. Delivering air freight. Close to what I was doing, before I became involved in blogging. I have had two good driving jobs in my life. I lasted over a year at both of them. Both companies sadly went under in this tough economy.

The real kicker? The guy pulled my resume, because of something I left in the comments section. He could tell, I was a Conservative. 😀

Stay tuned, as I will know more later, hopefully.

Video: Jack Hunter Says, “Tim Pawlenty is another Big Government Conservative!”

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Transcript Here

Job Interview Tomorrow

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It’s a driving job and it is local.

I’ll be going tomorrow to check it out and see if it’s a good place or a fly by night operation.

Hopefully, it’s something I will be able to do and stay with. As I would really like to get back to work.

I’ll keep everyone posted.

Wish me luck! and if you’re into such things; pray that it works out for me.

 

Mark Halperin suspended for telling the truth about the President

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He called Barack Obama a DICK, which is really what he and the progressives are anymore, in my humble opinion. So are the Neo-Conservative right for that matter.

Either way, here’s the video, via Politico:

The Story:

MSNBC senior political analyst Mark Halperin was suspended on Thursday by the cable network after he called President Obama “a dick” on a popular morning show and then quickly apologized.

“I thought he was a kind of a dick yesterday,” Halperin, who also is an editor-at large for Time, said on Morning Joe, referring to the President’s conduct during his press conference.

A couple of hours later, MSNBC issued a statement, saying, “Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

The cable outlet also put out a statment from Halperin at the same time, saying, “I completely agree with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it.”

Time issued a statement later Thursday calling Halperin’s comments “inappropriate and in no way reflective of TIME’s views.”

The magazine did not suspend Halperin but said, “We have issued a warning to him that such behavior is unacceptable” and noted that he had “appropriately” apologized.

Here is why this bothers me; President Bush was called every last damned name under the sun by the media, the left, the left’s bloggers (which used to include me…) and now because someone dared to tell the truth about this President, he gets suspended. Let me go on the record as say that this man should be promoted a real job and not suspended.

Let me also go on the record as saying, that not only is President Obama a fucking dick; he is also a fucking asshole; who only really gives a shit about anything that promotes a BLACK agenda. Further, he only was elected BECAUSE he was BLACK! That is why the Democrats pushed him out front and made him the new NEGRO progressive Messiah! Because they knew that no white man would win the election! So, ol’ “Bambi Big Ears” was made the BOY for the cause and ended up being our next President.

Now there, assholes, you going to suspend me too? 🙄

Related:

: CNN, Firedoglake, TVNewser, Hotline On Call, Hot Air, Media Decoder, Booman Tribune, Michelle Malkin, Ben Smith’s Blog, Hugh Hewitt’s TownHall Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Scared Monkeys, FishbowlDC, NewsBusters.org blogs, Indecision Forever, RedState, Outside the Beltway, The New Republic, Pajamas Media, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, Ricochet Conversation Feed, New York Magazine, ImmigrationProf Blog, Daily Kos, Hold Fast, The Other McCain, PoliPundit.com and Runnin’ Scared, more at Mediagazer Âť More via Memeorandum

 

We should bomb them and take thier oil

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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:

The London-based World Energy Council says Israel’s Shfela Basin, a half-hour drive south of Jerusalem, holds 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, possibly making the energy-vulnerable country (as expressed by The Wall Street Journal) “the world’s newest energy giant.” With reserves of 260 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia would remain the world’s No. 1 oil country – though not, perhaps, for long. Howard Jonas, CEO of U.S.-based IDT Corp., the company that owns the Shfela Basin concession, says there is much more oil under Israel than under Saudi Arabia: Perhaps, he says, twice as much.

Even with a mere 250 billion barrels, the Shfela Basin (or 238 square kilometres of it) would make Israel the third-largest holder of shale reserves in the world – right behind the U.S. with 1.5 trillion barrels and China with 355 billion barrels. Assuming for the moment that Mr. Jonas is correct in his calculations, the U.S. and Israel would together hold shale reserves in excess of two trillion barrels: Enough oil to fuel these two countries (at combined consumption of eight billion barrels a year) for more than 200 years.

And the discovery of further vast energy reserves in the United States and Israel progresses at an accelerated (and now often frenzied) pace. With shale, everything depends on technology – and the prospects are encouraging. In the Texas shale play known as Eagle Ford, for example, 12 companies will drill 3,000 wells in the next year, all of them within spitting distance (as The New York times put it) “of a forsaken South Texas village” notable only for its derelict gas stations and rusting warehouses. Elsewhere in the country, thousands more wells will be drilled with new technology that cuts drilling time, per well, to 25 days from 65.

According to the Times, 20 of these shale oil plays could increase U.S. oil production by 25 per cent in the next 10 years. “This is very big and it’s coming fast,” says U.S. energy expert Daniel Yergin, chairman of the energy research company IHS CERA. “This is like adding another Venezuela or another Kuwait – except that these fields are in the U.S.”

via With its oil treasure, Israel gets a shield from tyranny – The Globe and Mail.

Oh, wait, they’re not Arabs; so we cannot label them terrorists and take their oil. My bad. 😀

Of course, I am being my normal sarcastic self…..or am I? 😯

 

 

Oh my: This could be a bit of a problem for Michelle Bachmann

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Yikes!

Now to be fair to Michelle Bachmann and her Husband; they are Conservative Christians, I get that part. However, I would think Michelle Bachmann would know that she has appeal to independent voters; and this is not a good way to do this at all.

Now, I also know that this piece is a liberal hit job on Michelle Bachmann. However, there is another reason that this bugs me, the same reason that I did not want Mike Huckabee in the 2012 race, it feeds the Meme that Republicans and all Conservatives hate gay people. Something that I know is just plain bunk. I could care less what gay people do in the privacy of their homes. Just don’t try to push your agenda off on me, like the far leftist gays want to do.

Again, while I believe this to be a hit job; sometimes the things that people say to further and foster false narratives should be critiqued.

 

Updated: Deranged stalker bloggers howl

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I have a couple, one of them, in an atheist.

The other one, is this guy.

From what I am told, this guy is a Iraq War veteran and suffered a closed head injury; he takes medication for post traumatic stress syndrome. But there are times, when he strays and then proceeds to write stuff like what you just viewed. — Update: Some might take that is a slam towards the Military; IT IS NOT! I respect this man’s service to our Country. However, it does NOT give him a pass to attack me for stupid stuff that happened five years ago.

For the record, he is rambling on about stuff that happened back in 2006.

That is when I took Michelle Malkin, the neo-con psycho Blogger to the mat and said; “What’s good for them, is good for you!” and posted an address that I thought was hers. I got it from here. Turns out, she had not lived there for like 3 or 4 years; and that old address has long since been removed from that site. I consider this a feather in my cap, she is, as Debbie Schlussel has repeatedly pointed out and exposed, is nothing more than a two-bit hypocrite. Who railed against entitlements, all the while taking advantage of them in college, among other ways. Anyone who reads that blog of her’s knows this. This might explain her reduction of influence in the Blogosphere.

The other, is when another Neo-Con blogger attacked me first. His name is Mike Hendrix (or some spelling variation of that spelling) and I responded; now I will be the first to admit — I wish I had never responded to that first attack, but I did and boy did I go about it the wrong way, and an innocent person, who died in a very tragic way, got brought into it. I will always carry that with me.  🙁 I’ve written and said this before and I will say this again. If I’d known who she was; or my default known Mike’s full name, I would have never made the idiotic comment about her. I swear on my dead grandmother’s grave on that one. 🙁

Update #2: Another thing that this psycho neo-con Blogger is mumbling on about,; is the fact that I have — or at least did have — is an account at Stormfront.org forum. The truth is, it was an account, simply for research, once they figured out, that I was not one of “them”. They removed my posting access. This is because I voiced some dissent to some of the mindless stupidity that emanates from that cesspool of mindless idiots who frequent that forum. Now that group is an interesting crowd. 😯  So, yes, I did have account there — but it was not for what you think it was! 😀 Again as I have said in my videos and said here in writing — if I was even remotely HALF as crazy, Neo-Nazi, racist or whatever — I would not be living here, that is for sure!  Yes, my mother; who is a saint, would toss me on my ear! 😮

The rest of it is just utter B.S. and childish nonsense — written by someone, who is a very sick and mentally unstable person, I’m told. Sad case that is…

As anyone knows that read this blog. I am not a Ron Paul Fan, at all. As many a blogger on the right has said, Ron Paul might have some good ideas on fiscal policy; his foreign policy is just unrealistic.

The accusations of Antisemitism and racism are, in fact, bogus and come right from this School of thought here. Which is, in fact, the playbook that the liberals play from; but these psycho bloggers, are supposedly Conservative. It is because they are Neo-Cons. Neo-Cons and Liberals play from the same playbook. They do it with Debbie Schlussel and they do it to me; because they cannot shut me or Debbie down, and cannot control my thoughts. So, they stoop to stupidity like this and it is so wrong. It makes them look like idiots, and left just looks at it, and says, “Yup, that is the crazy right. Eating their own.”

It is a sad situation. They simply cannot get over things that happened years ago. I have moved on, I have realized that the left is just simply wrong, that mindset of, “I want mine and yours too!” is wrong and I am now on the right side of things. But this psycho blogger and his furry friends simply cannot move on. So, every now and again, he lashes out to try to discredit me. Not that it works, but he does try. But simply makes himself look like the crazy one. Which is about normal, for him and his psycho neo-con friends.

 

 

Detroit’s budget woes

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This first “adult” mayor that Detroit has had in over 30 years or more; and the city still cannot agree on a budget.

The Story via The Detroit Free Press:


Detroit Mayor Dave Bing abruptly ended budget negotiations Tuesday with the City Council, promising to move forward with the elimination of summer festivals, hundreds of police and firefighter layoffs, ending Sunday bus service and closing the People Mover and rec centers. 

Bing said he doesn’t believe the council is earnest about a compromise by the Thursday deadline.

“The time for talk is over,” he said. “It’s going to be painful.”

Earlier in the day, the council voted 7-2 to reject a compromise by the mayor that would have restored $30 million to the 2011-12 spending plan. Last month, the council cut $50 million to pay down the city’s deficit.

Council members expressed shock that Bing wouldn’t agree to a counter-compromise to restore $20 million in cuts to bus service and public safety.

“It’s irresponsible and immature,” Council President Charles Pugh said. “It’s like the mayor is mad and left the marbles at the playground. People in the city are going to be hurt because of these kinds of games. What is so important to the mayor that he can’t get this done?”

Unless the mayor budges or the council gives in to the Bing compromise, Bing will begin making cuts Friday that will affect thousands of Detroiters and many suburban residents.

Popular gatherings at Hart Plaza — the Downtown Hoedown, African World Festival, Ribs ‘n’ Soul and the techno bash Movement — would end. The city would lose homicide investigators and police patrolling the streets; swimming pools wouldn’t open, and park grass would stay uncut, Bing said.

The Detroit Free Press, which is a very liberally biased paper; gives a few son stories of people that will end up moving away, if the council does not get their way. To whom I say, you may as well move anyway, this town’s better days are behind it and it will not get better.

This story here, ought to be a textbook example of full on socialism does not work, at all. In times of economic prosperity, socialism and capitalism can co-exist, when the economy falters, the results are disastrous. In fairness to the City of Detroit, they went through this before; in the late 1970’s, when Coleman A. Young was Mayor of the city. Except, this time, things are much more bleak for the city and our Nation.

That being said even the Detroit Free Press Editors see that the writing is on the proverbial wall in Detroit:

For employees who have already taken pay cuts and seen the city’s workforce pared back, it must seem like the ultimate unfairness: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he needs deeper union concessions just to keep the state from imposing an emergency financial manager.

The reality is, both sides are right. Many employees can’t afford to pay more for their health care or contribute to their retirement. In a city (and region) already beaten down by the last decade of recession, these kinds of changes won’t help reverse economic trends.

But the city is also broke, and health care and pension costs are among the biggest drivers. Detroit has 22,000 retirees and 11,000 employees whose pension plans require no contribution. Those pension plans also carry steep requirements from taxpayers to maintain them — including unrealistic growth rates set by contract.

The city also pays more than 80% of health care costs for employees, and up to 90% in most cases.

It seems unlikely that the unions will even bargain, let alone give concessions by the Sept. 1 deadline Bing has set. What’s their incentive?

From their perspective, if Bing is telling the truth and the state will have to take over if concessions aren’t granted, it’s better to have an emergency manager impose the changes than to give them away at the bargaining table.

And if Bing isn’t being truthful, then calling his bluff counts as a union victory.

Union leadership can afford, in this case, to stand firm.

But that also underestimates the city’s dire financial situation. Cooperating with Bing, and negotiating around the margins of his proposal, could help put the city back on good economic footing.

Here is hoping that the city council and the city’s many unions leaders listen to this advice; which, by the way, I suggest you read the rest of that, as it is interesting reading.

This writer is old enough to remember the last major recession, which affected Detroit up till the late 1980’s. The last time this happened, Detroit had a “tough-as-nails” Mayor, who took no guff from people who got in his way and was able to pull Detroit out of a full scale nose dive. Here is hoping that bing has that same toughness in him. Because any way you look at this; it is going to be bad for ALL parties involved.

This Posting was crafted on my Apple iPod using WordPress Mobile Admin (Too Cool!)

Keith Olbermann does something right for a change

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Yeah, I know what I wrote about it; I was being partly sarcastic. But seriously, good for Keith.

The video:

To Greg Pollowitz, shut the hell up. Your partisan bullshit is vomit provoking. Not to mention intellectually insulting; and judging from that last name, that should not be to surprising as to why.

Others: Power Line and Pajamas Media

FYI: George Stephanopolous is a tool

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Go Read

What a tool! 😡

I would be willing to bet money Obama ordered that little hit.

This Posting was crafted on my Apple iPod using WordPress Mobile Admin (Too Cool!)

Blagojevich found guilty

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Heh.

Saying he was “stunned,” Rod Blagojevich was uncharacteristically tight-lipped today after a jury convicted him on 17 of 20 counts of corruption against him.

Holding his wife’s hand, Blagojevich spoke in a somber tone to a crush of reporters in the federal courthouse. “Patti and I obviously are very disappointed in the outcome. I, frankly, am stunned. There’s not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them and try to sort things out. And I’m sure we’ll be seeing you.”

The two then walked to a waiting car as some in the crowd booed.

The federal jury found that the former governor brazenly abused the powers of his office in a series of attempted shakedowns captured on undercover government recordings.

Blagojevich showed no reaction as the jury announced its decision. Once the verdicts were read, he sat back in his chair with his lips pursed, looked toward his wife Patti and whispered, “I love you.”

As the first guilty verdict was read, Patti Blagojevich slumped into the arms of her brother, who stroked her head. She kept shaking her head “no” as the jurors left the courtroom, and once the judge was gone, the former governor grabbed his wife’s right hand and hugged and kissed her.

via Blagojevich on guilty verdict: ‘I frankly am stunned’ – chicagotribune.com.

Cue the Music!: (reference point for those who don’t get it…)

For once, I agree with Oliver Willis

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Mark your calendars, because this does not happen often.

Neo-Conservative David Frum has went soft on Gay Marriage.

Well, the left is not buying this at all, especially not Oliver Willis, who recalls that David Frum said back in 2003:

War is a grim thing. But it is sometimes a necessary thing — and very often a clarifying thing. We have learned much in the opening hours of this war. We will learn more in the days ahead. When the Iraqi archives fall into Allied hands, we will learn about the complex structure of international terrorism over the past three decades. We may learn something too about the flow of money from Iraq into France and Germany — not only to French and German corporations, but very possibly to individuals, including senior political figures.

We will learn the full horror of what went on inside Iraq. The perfunctory condemnations of Saddam we hear from so many opponents of the war will suddenly look utterly inadequate in comparison to the nightmare cruelty of Saddam’s regime. Perhaps — is this too much to hope for? — the Arab intellectuals who kept silent about Saddam’s cruelty will be shamed out of nationalist pride into moral awakening; a moral awakening that will at last discredit terrorism and open the way to peace with Israel.

Finally, we will all learn something about ourselves and our political leaders. The months since 9/11 have been a moral test. The Bush administration has passed with flying colours. Its opponents have failed. Politics can be a long, slow business. But in the end, moral failure will be held to account — even in Canada.

To Which Oliver Willis Says:

So guys who enable bloodthirsty warmongering that leads to the deaths of thousands of Americans don’t get a pat on the back, no matter how their new position may be the right one.

Of this point and this point alone; do I wholeheartedly agree. Further more, I do not think people that say this here:

And now it is time to be very frank about the paleos. During the Clinton years, many conservatives succumbed to a kind of gloom. With Bill Bennett, they mourned the “death of outrage.” America now has non-metaphorical deaths to mourn. There is no shortage of outrage — and the cultural pessimism of the 1990s has been dispelled. The nation responded to the terrorist attacks with a surge of patriotism and pride, along with a much-needed dose of charity. Suddenly, many conservatives found they could look past the rancor of the Clinton years, past the psychobabble of the New Age gurus, past the politically correct professors, to see an America that remained, in every important way, the America of 1941 and 1917 and 1861 and 1776. As Tennyson could have said: “What we were, we are.”

America has social problems; the American family is genuinely troubled. The conservatism of the future must be a social as well as an economic conservatism. But after the heroism and patriotism of 9/11 it must also be an optimistic conservatism.
There is, however, a fringe attached to the conservative world that cannot overcome its despair and alienation. The resentments are too intense, the bitterness too unappeasable. Only the boldest of them as yet explicitly acknowledge their wish to see the United States defeated in the War on Terror. But they are thinking about defeat, and wishing for it, and they will take pleasure in it if it should happen.

They began by hating the neoconservatives. They came to hate their party and this president. They have finished by hating their country.

War is a great clarifier. It forces people to take sides. The paleoconservatives have chosen — and the rest of us must choose too. In a time of danger, they have turned their backs on their country. Now we turn our backs on them.

….Should get a back on the back or a pass either. I have not forgotten what this moron said and did to the Paleo-Conservatives and further more, I have no idea, why this man is being taken seriously anywhere, outside of the confines of his own damned house.  Frum is nothing more than a political chameleon, changing his “stripes” and colors to fit the changing political winds.

…and just to be a detestable smart ass, which is what I excel at anymore; did I also mention that this man is Jewish? That, if anything at all, should explain much about him.

Ooops! Bachmann cites the wrong John Wayne

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Oh man….:

Here’s the video:

and the story:

Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne.

The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo’s John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.

Mrs. Bachmann grew up in Waterloo, and used the town as the backdrop for her campaign announcement, where she told Fox News: “Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.” (Someone has already posted the clip to YouTube under the name BachmannLovesGacy)

John Wayne, the movie legend, is in fact from Iowa and the John Wayne birthplace is a celebrated landmark — only it’s in Winterset, which is a nearly three hour drive away from Waterloo.

Gacy, though, had his first taste of the criminal life in Waterloo, where he lived for a short time, and where he had his first criminal conviction for an attempted homosexual assault, which landed him in prison for 18 months.

He would move back to Illinois, where his killing spree started, and lasted about six years. In 1980 he was convicted on 33 counts of murder, and was executed in 1994.

– – – – –

UPDATE:

The Bachmann campaign sent this explanation: “John Wayne is from Iowa, his parents lived in Waterloo.”

And indeed his parents did in fact live briefly in Waterloo — in fact, according to “Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne,” it’s where they met. But soo

via The wrong John Wayne – Washington Times.

Huh, Maybe she is a flake!

I mean, how the heck can you screw that up? 🙄

Others: The Atlantic Online, The Note, CNN, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, TPMDC, Outside the Beltway, Hit & Run, Under The Golden Dome, The Powers That Be, Gawker and Indecision Forever — via Memeorandum

Classless: Chris Wallace asks Michelle Bachmann, “Are you a flake?”

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Funny, I don’t recall him ever asking Obama that at all.

The Video:

Me and Ed Morrissey are on the same wavelength here:

I can understand why Chris Wallace asked this question. Given his guest’s propensity for gaffes, such as picking the name of a dead hero as a live Medal of Honor winner, botching a toast to Queen Elizabeth II, discussing the high points of the Austrian language, and several references to a military medic as a “corpseman,” it might be hard to take the person seriously.

Oh, wait — Wallace wasn’t interviewing Barack Obama after all…

[…]

Jim Hoft calls this “awful,” but it’s just the same old double standard applied to Republicans. We have yet to hear any serious coverage from the national media of Obama’s hundreds of gaffes while in the White House, just as we heard little of his “57 or 58 states” remark and other gaffes on the campaign trail, such as the six-month string that produced these doozies:

Did any of the national media ask Barack Obama in the summer of 2008 if he was a “flake”? Bachmann has not been without her gaffes, although she has improved her media interactions substantially since the “anti-American” comment in November 2008. But given Obama’s track record both before and after his election to the presidency, it would take a superhuman effort to vault into his league. And the media still mainly ignores Obama’s gaffes, which have grown into the hundreds, without a single outlet ever asking Obama if he is a “flake” on that same basis.

It could be that Wallace was giving Bachmann an opening to push back against the “flake” meme, but the fact that Bachmann’s having to respond to this rather than the gaffemaster in the White House is the real problem.

I hated to have to quote that whole thing; but I believe Ed is absolutely correct. Now, for the record, Wallace apologized, and there is video of that; However, I do not believe it is enough to say that he is sorry. I believe Chris Wallace should be removed from Fox News Sunday and someone else be put in his place. Asking questions like this, is unacceptable in professional journalism. Because quite frankly, it shows a sexist bias on Wallace’s part; and Fox News should not be allowed to get away with that sort of nonsense. Ed Schultz did not get away with it, when he called Laura Ingraham a right wing slut; and neither should Wallace.

More TSA woes

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Check the story out over at Gateway Pundit.

Jim Hoft snarks:

It’s an Obama world…

Well, Jim, I’d buy that; but it not the Bush Administration’s failure to protect us on 9/11 that is the root of all of this? Why, Yes, I’d say it was! 🙄

You whiny ass bastards want to be protected from terrorism; but then you bitch when the TSA tries to protect everyone! 🙄

What Hoft and his friends want; is for Muslims to be segregated into one line, and everyone else into another line. There is only one problem with that stupid idea — last time I checked, this is not Israel, this is America and we treat everyone the same. I wonder if Hoft would like to see blacks segregated too? After all, he does link to items by the “White Council.”

This here, is why the Neo-Conservative bloggers hate me; because I call them on their hypocrisy. Debbie Schlussel does it and gets called crazy; and every other slam under the sun — and I do too. Because I dare to call these bastards out, for what they are — racist, Neo-Nazi sympathizing bastards, who would sell their own damned mother up the river to make a cheap political point.