We really do need a “Bein’ President for Dummies” book. Now, more than we ever did under Mister Wonderful’s predecessor.

He just doesn’t get it.

Hat tip to NoisyRoom.Net, via Rick.

Oh, holy CRAP. Say what you will about Rush Limbaugh, but boy howdy do I ever agree with this:

I penned a message to Obama that I would like to deliver now. Because Mr. Obama, I think it’s time we had a heart-to-heart talk. Let me be the father that you never had or never really knew, because I think you need some guidance. It’s time to man up. It’s time to grow up. That speech last night was an embarrassment. You couldn’t focus, you lashed out in all directions, you refused to accept responsibility for your own actions, and you were angry.

And he was, folks! He was mad. Being president is a big job. It’s a big responsibility. You wanted the position, Barack. You campaigned for it. You told the public to trust you with it, and they elected you — and you’re now president of the greatest country mankind has ever known, and yet you act like this was all coming to you, like you deserve it, that you’re better than the people you are supposed to serve and that you have no tolerance for debate or dissent. That’s not the way it works as president, Barack. We have a Constitution, we have checks and balances, we have separation of powers, we have states — and most of all, we have the people. You don’t get to impose your programs and policies on the nation and the people without our consent.

This is a representative republic, not a banana republic, and let me remind you: Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky are not our Founding Fathers. This is a nation built on individuality, built on liberty, free markets, and faith. Yet you, Barack, demand fidelity to a different belief system: A system that crushes individual initiative and free will. The president does not berate Supreme Court justices who are guests of the Congress and who have no ability to respond to your attacks. You’ve made such a mess of things, Barack, and it’s time to stop deluding yourself. It’s time to stop blaming others. You are delusional. You are delirious. It’s time for you to assume the responsibilities of a president rather than pretending to be one.

You’ve driven the nation’s debt over the edge. It is your responsibility to fix it now. Otherwise, our young people will have no future. You were wrong to grant terrorists constitutional rights. Even the libs in New York don’t want the trial there now! You, Mr. President, are endangering the security of this nation. Now fix it! Reverse course, and end the terrorists — all of them — back to Guantanamo Bay, where they belong. You are wrong to nationalize one industry after another from automobiles to banks. You are destroying competition and jobs. You need to stop what you were doing before millions of more families go broke from your misguided policies. It’s not too late to stop this. I know you’re not going to stop it because last night you said you don’t quit, and I know what you mean.

Isn’t it funny?

You drag a country into capitalism from socialism…and the populace of that country shows some reluctance. You have to drop it like a hot potato and then probably apologize.

You drag a country into socialism. The populace says no. And…you just say you’re not going to quit, and keep on keepin’ on.

Even though, if you live in America but you really want to be a socialist…as we’ve noted before…there’s upward of a hundred other places you can go.

Of all the opinions about last Wednesday’s speech…and Lord knows, there’ve been bushels of ’em…this one, in my humble opinion, nails it better than any other.

Hat tip to Linkiest.

I find this to be so rewarding. “Progressive” causes are rather like adorable doe-eyed woodland creatures out of a Disney cartoon movie: Here and there, someone might be up to saying “Let’s not allow them to win every single time,” but nobody, at all, anywhere, ever, ever, ever, ever, seems to want to nip that jugular and go in for the kill.

Until freakin’ now. Huzzah. Yeah, club that seal.

The holier-than-thou amateurs who flouted man-made warming based on shoddy math and unproven theories have a lot to explain. But those who believed them should not be responding to these revelations with a ’so what, I am still going to save the world through CO2 reductions’.

Why not? Two reasons: (1) no one needs to repeat what the ’scientist’ involved in the IPCC did, which is promote wild speculation as fact, and (2) it won’t do anything but hurt the ecology of nature, not save it. CO2 is not a poison – it is a beneficial and important part of our world…
:
CO2 gas is one of the primary mechanism for recycling and distributing carbon around the planet. What happens when we burn carbon and release it into the atmosphere? It is taken up by plants, which are then consumed to build the body structures of all living organism. Without carbon dioxide, we don’t harness the sun’s energy and live.
:
So when we find alarmists are reaching into articles of pure speculation, political propaganda and a student dissertation to weave their lies, we are not required to take them seriously anymore. [emphasis mine]

It’s anti-achievement, anti-individual, anti-America, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist bullshit.

Got some evidence that it’s any more than that? Some untainted evidence? Something that doesn’t rest on “this guy says X, this panel of anonymous busybodies has designated him as really smart so therefore his opinion means everything”? Something that’s somewhat…oh, I dunno…really scientific? Something based on a genuinely open debate and a trustworthy process of real peer review?

I’m all ears.

Meanwhile, stick a snail darter in it.

Just a shout-out to all these folks who have (knowingly or not) thrown these invitations my way to do this-or-that on FaceBook. And a warning, I guess…albeit, not a very informed one, and I fully intend to keep it that way.

I just went through a malware adventure at the beginning of the year. What was plaguing me, I found out, was — for that instant — virtually unsolvable. It’s an arms race; from time to time, it’s gonna be that way and the bad guys are going to be winning. My victory announcement was premature. And what’s even worse, the beastie was engaging all kinds of impressive features to dodge countermeasures and hide itself. I don’t really know with any confidence when & where I picked up the damn thing.

I ended up formatting. Go scorched earth. By the time it came to that, the problem had morphed into an obsession. Think of Richard Dreyfuss building a big clay replica of Devil’s Tower. Hey, I’m a computer dude. Have been my whole life. I spent a lot of years being a computer security dude. It was my first experience running into something in the malware world “unsolvable.” Ultimately I had to come to terms with the fact that the world is generally becoming a more complicated place.

And in complication, chaos wins out over order.

And then Hector Owen steps forward with his report about receiving Koobface spam through the e-mails:

It’s the Koobface worm, it says here: Koobface Re-Activated! and here, and here, and here, and other places, no doubt.

In my case it was an email that seemed to be from Facebook announcing that a friend had sent a message, but the style was unfamiliar, which should have been the tip-off.

Subject: Firstname Lastname sent you a message on Facebook …

Firstname sent you a message.

——————–
(no subject)

youtube
poison url goes here

(The url is disguised by having www.facebook.com at the beginning, but in my case at least continued to bit.ly as the real destination, which, of course, was not the real destination.)

That’s it. There is usually quite a bit more stuff in one of these message notifications. When I took a look at Facebook, I saw the message in my inbox, but by that time, I knew not to click it.

You can find out more about Koobface over here. If you’re a Facebook apps fan, I strongly suggest you read up.

And I then see see — speaking of Facebook apps — bullshit like this…

From the beginning, the profitability and viability of popular Facebook social networking games Mafia Wars and Farmville were predicated on the backs of scams, boasts Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in this video. “I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues,” he crows in the clip to a gathered bunch of fellow scumbag app developers.

In games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, YoVille and Vampires Live, you know, some of the major sources of all those garbage announcements cluttering up your Facebook, players compete to complete missions and level up. By leveling up, you can complete more difficult missions and fight off weaker opponents. You can wait for your various energies to regenerate naturally over time, or you can purchase with real money in-game boosts. Or, you can complete various lead generation offers, many of which are of the “answer page after page of questions and opt in and out of receiving various kinds of spam” variety. Some of them install malware and adware that is impossible to remove. And some of them secretly subscribe you to monthly recurring $9.99 credit card charges.

Video contains (like my own scribblings) some language that is not safe for a work environment or a mixed audience:

Bottom line?

I’m going to go ahead and remain anti-social on these social networking sites. No, I’m not clicking on your link. Nothing personal.

Tom Schaller at 538 does some grumbling:

Progressives must win repeatedly and at every stage, whereas those opposed to change typically need to win but once, at any stage…
:
Consider, for example, that Republican George W. Bush was able to push not one but three far-from-popular income tax cuts through a Congress boasting smaller Republican majorities than those the Democrats enjoy today. Thanks to the Republican voting tendencies of smaller states, the GOP’s Senate majority at the time represented fewer Americans nationally than did the Democratic minorities.

What this and other juxtapositions tell us is that a supermajority is needed to govern from the center-left, whereas a simple majority or even a minority is capable of governing from the center-right.

Naturally, I have a different take on it.

“Progressive” is a buzz word for liberalism, and when liberalism is cloaked behind the P-word it is bait and switch. You act like you’re going to restore power, wealth or both to the “Middle Class” — middle class being an imprecise term that generally refers to the income and property bracket of the person who is listening to you.

As soon as you build up a self-delusional groundswell of populist support, you do this hairpin turn and start parceling out the power and wealth to your friends. Leaving the middle class to twist in the wind. Consider the health care debacle we just saw. Choose your doctor. Keep your health care plan. “Public option.” Provide coverage to the uninsured. Cut the deficit in the process.

It all turned out to be a big ol’ crock. At the end, it was really all about power and control. In the last three or four months, hardly anybody was talking about improving services or making them more available, it was all about winning, winning, winning. Make things the way “we” want them to be. Lock it in so it can’t ever be undone.

The American People love freedom. Kinda-sorta. Enough that when someone is taking their options away, they can smell that one a mile off. And you’ll notice, this is usually the point of abandonment — when the progressive says “Oh by the way, once you go in on my plan, I’ve put some safeguards in so you can never, ever, ever change your mind. For your own good.” That’s when the American hops off the trolley.

Hat tip to William Teach at Pirate’s Cove.

Fox News, reporting from Ohio:

Robert T. Jenkins, 21, of Canton, Ohio, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. local time on Friday morning, Lt. Linda Brown of the Canton Police Department told Fox8.com. Jenkins was charged with felony vandalism and disorderly conduct.

Jenkins was arrested after police responded to a call from an employee at the Wal-Mart store telling authorities that a man walked up to the meat counter and began urinating on the steaks, police told Fox8.com. The disorderly conduct destroyed more than $600 dollars in meat.

This calls for an update to the list of rules that would/will be handed down When I Start Running This Place. Although I must confess, I am unusually speechless about what exactly the punishment would be. Whatever I decide to do in response to this kind of crime, I’m pretty sure Red Cross International wouldn’t like it much.

Pissing in beer would be worse, of course. But only just barely. Crapping onto Hooters’ hot wings…hmm, not sure. Vomiting on fish? Uh, the sentence for salmon would be about twice as much as for Tilapia I think.

…really likes to write lots of letters to the editor. Of this paper, that paper, that other one over there.

Obama is wonderful!

We’re going from one to the other today. AM…PM…coffee…beer. Because we can. Just had some Mister Fixit stuff to do around the house, and it’s mostly done.

As for the mug, yes, I did order it (click to embiggen). Stole some of Mr. Adams’ intellectual property I did, but he stole some of mine first.

That’s probably a good headline to repeat a few times with some roman numerals after it, if ever there was one. After all, the old tried-and-not-quite-true “What the hell is the matter with you people, why do you hate America and manhood so fucking much?” hasn’t yielded much by way of results, nor is it likely to.

Here’s an argument that’s proven quite effective though:

Think back on the behavior of our democrat leaders these last few months, particularly the ones that want to nationalize our health care system. Obviously, they don’t just kinda-sorta want to nationalize our health care system; they want to do this really extra bad. If they could piss rusty nickels and that would get the job done, well, what are we waiting for and hand over that can of rusty nickels.

Now, why do they want to do this? Is it to get health care services and other resources to “the thirty million uninsured”? Or is it 37 million? Forty-to-forty-five million? Well, this is a little bit of a problem, that the number keeps changing, because last I heard they were estimating after all the dust has hit the ground this wonderful health care plan would only cover about half of those who are uncovered right now. So we’d still have tens of millions of “uninsured.” We can’t even nail down how many we have before the bill, so how do we look backward after the bill, and declare the effort a success?

Is it going to be like the Stimulus Bill, in which nobody can really nail down how many jobs were “created or saved”? But when nine pairs of shoes get sold that must represent nine jobs? Creative accounting like that?

But that’s not the point, really.

The point is that this stuff hasn’t been discussed in a very long time. I mean, like since about Labor Day. Yeah, I just got a letter from one of my hippie liberal aged wrinkly female senators, telling me what to think about health care, in response to me telling her how she should vote on health care (which is the way I think it should work). She made some vague, unenthusiastic rhetoric about providing health care to millions who don’t have it…but it was all passionless boilerplate. Probably written a year ago.

I see one of these new-age blowhards on the teevee, I don’t hear a single word about providing coverage to people. Haven’t you noticed this? I’ve mentioned it many times since Thanksgiving. It’s all about winning; beating those “other guys.”

Making sick people well hasn’t had anything to do with anything for a very long time.

And I see this right now. Scott Brown just got elected to the Senate and this scuttles, or at least body-slams, the prospect of passing anything that has been churning around under the capitol dome with regard to health care. So what do we — “we” meaning democrats — do about this?

Well, let’s see. The democrats still have 59 seats in the Senate. Here on Planet Earth, if you want to provide coverage to uninsured people and you think yet one more leviathan of a federal program is the way to get it done, you start over. And your goal will be to produce something appealing to a majority of the House, all of the democrats in the Senate, and maybe one or two Republicans in the upper chamber. Maybe three or four to be extra safe about it.

That is what you’d do if it was about health care and not about grabbing power, making the citizenry of the USA more dependent on the few anointed luminaries who happen to be sitting in elected and appointed seats. If it was really about the first of those rather than the second, that is what you’d do.

That is not what they’re doing.

Struggling to salvage health reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun considering a list of changes to the Senate bill in hopes of making it acceptable to liberal House members, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The changes could be included in separate legislation that, if passed, would pave the way for House approval of the Senate bill – a move that would preserve President Barack Obama’s vision of a sweeping health reform plan.

But the move comes with political risk, because it would open Democrats up to charges that they pressed ahead with roughly the same health care bill that voters appeared to reject in the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday. Republican Scott Brown won on a pledge to try to block Obama-style health reform.

The effort also puts Reid and Pelosi on the side of giving a sweeping reform bill one more try, instead of adopting a course being floated by some Democrats in Congress and at the White House of adopting a scaled-back bill including popular reform provisions.

This is not about getting people the medicine they need, or the services they need, or “providing” any kind of a “public option.” It is about changing the tenor and tone of a country. It is about breaking the spirit of that country, as if it was a horse.

It is about quitting your day job as a representative in a constitutional republic, and taking out a sinister new job as a creepy feudal overlord. Just like an apparatchik of the old Soviet Union, or a thuggish dictator like Hugo Chavez. A master who presumes to tell his “subjects” how to eat, how to walk, when to go to the bathroom, what they like, who they hate, what their favorite color is.

It may not be an effective argument to point out that this country was started precisely to put an end to that kind of slavish dependency.

But it certainly does work, to point out the evidence that clearly indicates: This is not about providing you affordable health care.

Mr. A lives by Aristotle’s code, as do we all, that reality is reality and A is A. Dial B For Blog looks into his secret origins.

Pretty fascinating read. And Spider Man, the compulsive whiner, actually fits into it. Who’d a-thought that? The web-head must have changed his character between his first appearance, and the mid-seventies when he came to my attention.

Can’t stand that guy. A thought bubble out of Superman, on average, has something to do with whether he can stop the meteor in time…whether the rocket will strike the building…whether the train has fallen off the cliff…

…Spider Man typically does a lot of worrying about whether he’s still popular. Outcome versus public-reaction. Whines like a freakin’ Skywalker. So which one is a step-cousin to Atlas Shrugged? Surprise.

Anyway, that’s what I got out of it. See what you can make out.

Hat tip to Gerard.

Peggy Noonan makes some sense, more than she’s made for quite awhile now:

President Obama carried Massachusetts by 26 points on Nov. 4, 2008. Fifteen months later, on Jan. 19, 2010, the eve of the first anniversary of his inauguration, his party’s candidate lost Massachusetts by five points. That’s a 31-point shift. Mr. Obama won Virginia by six points in 2008. A year later, on Nov. 2, 2009, his party’s candidate for governor lost by 18 points—a 25 point shift. Mr. Obama won New Jersey in 2008 by 16 points. In 2009 his party’s incumbent governor lost re-election by four points—a 20-point shift.

In each race, the president’s party lost independent voters, who in 2008 voted like Democrats and in 2010 voted like Republicans.

Is it a backlash? It seems cooler than that, a considered and considerable rejection that appears to be signaling a conservative resurgence based on issues and policies, most obviously opposition to increased government spending, fear of higher taxes, and rejection of the idea that expansion of government can or will solve our economic challenges.

Yes, The People are upset, The People are grumpy. Peggy reads a lot into emotion: “It seems cooler than that.” Perhaps it seems cooler than that because there’s no evidence of actual anger, at least no more than there always is. Certainly no more than there was two years ago. After emotions — or perhaps before — there is evidence. The evidence says, the people of Massachusetts were asked if the current policies were working, and it was like asking a competent eighth-grader if two and two add up to nine. In other words, it is what it is; getting mad at someone doesn’t have to enter into the process.

Harold Ford says moderation is the answer:

“The lesson from last night is to reset the priorities in Washington,” said Mr. Ford…”The next elections are in November, so the president and the Democrats have a few months to get this right. But we will forfeit our majorities in Congress in November if the American people don’t feel more economically secure six months from now than they do today. And Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts is just the latest indicator.”
:
To address the anxiety Americans are feeling, Mr. Ford thinks that the White House needs to focus squarely on the economy. “First we need to cut taxes for businesses in the country, small and large,” he says. “We ought to provide a six-month exemption from the payroll tax for all firms less than five years old. We ought to extend the current capital gains and dividend tax rates through 2012. We ought to make permanent all the research and development tax credits for businesses making those investments. And we ought to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%.”

It all echoes a recurrent tone in the online-front-pages this weekend: Half a loaf is better than none, moderation this, moderation that, blah blah blah.

Prediction: That which the public most loathes — now that the public has been forced to pull its head out of its ass — will be the last to be pitched overboard. You know what I mean. The anti-American, anti-capitalist bullshit.

How did I describe it in my letter to my two oh-so-full-of-themselves wrinkled-up hippie liberal female senators? Ah, yes: “Our approach to any problem that comes up, is to make sure no one can make a profit from solving it.”

Sorry, Harold. The good ship Liberal doesn’t see that as ballast, it sees that as the hull of the boat. It won’t be pitched. It’ll go down, and the crew along with it, from Captain to deckhand’s-apprentice’s-apprentice.

Victor Davis Hanson says the bloodletting will continue, and I agree.

Says It All

1) A new poll revealing a vast majority of investors see Obama as anti-business.

2) Obama declaiming on what he has done and what he will do to create jobs.

3) After a year Obama still has not yet figured out that his promiscuous talk of higher income, payroll, health care, and inheritance taxes, serial demonization of finance and business, and all sorts of new regulations, create a psychological climate in which the employer pulls in his horns and decides to ride things out — and this individual reaction is being repeated millions of times over, energized by the pique at everything trivial from Van Jones to apologies abroad to “Bush did it.”

Harold Ford says take the corporate tax rate down from 35% to 25%. Won’t happen. It shows far too much promise of actually solving something.

The election slogan for the midterms is going to be “Well then, how would you like a teaspoon of the stuff you and we know damn well isn’t going to fix anything?” And the voters will say “but it doesn’t fix anything.” The democrats will say “but it’s a teaspoon.” The voters will say “we’ve tried it, it’s actually toxic.” The democrats will say “but it’s a teaspoon.” The voters will vote, and then the late night comedians and so-called “news” anchors will villify, denigrate, ridicule and excoriate the voters because, hey, that was only a teaspoon, what was the big deal? You must all be afraid of a black man. Guess racism is still with us after all.

What the country really needs is an honest, open debate about the petulant, festering, bubbling, anti-business bile. It will be a very long time before we debate that honestly. Those who embrace it and continue to vent it, will see to it the debate always shifts to something else, so that the bile can continue to bubble away without being discussed too much.

You knew all along, somewhere there was a simple explanation, just waiting for someone to come along, measure and document it.

(Click the pic to view the story.)

Newsbusters:

Amidst the innumerable excuses we’re bound to hear for Martha Coakley’s defeat, credit Keith Olbermann with likely the most loathsome. The Countdown host would explain away the Scott Brown victory by accusing his supporters of . . . racism.

Olbermann floated his despicable theory to Howard Fineman: “the Republicans and the Tea Partiers will tell you what happens with Scott Brown tonight whether he wins or comes close is a repudiation of Obama policies. And surely one of Obama’s policies from the viewpoint of his opponents is it’s OK to have this sea-change in American history—to have an African-American president. Is this vote to any degree just another euphemism the way ‘states rights’ was in the ’60s?”

HuffPo:

It took more than half a decade, countless American and Iraqi deaths in a war based on lies, a sinking economy and the drowning of an American city to finally kill Bush-Cheney-Rove’s dream of a conservative realignment.

Democrats, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, have managed to kill their own dream of dominance in 12 months.

How did it happen?

Theories abound, but two diametrically opposed narratives have taken hold:

The first, promulgated by conservatives, is that the new administration has moved too far to the left and alienated a large swath of independent and moderate voters.

The second, pushed by progressive activists and bloggers, is that the administration hasn’t been true enough to fundamental Democratic principles, has embraced some of Bush’s worst excesses on civil liberties, and has ditched popular ideas (like the public option) in favor of watered down centrist policies, thus looking weak and ineffectual.

Five Thirty-Eight:

When a Democrat loses a federal race in Massachusetts, the default assumption ought to be that several factors are to blame.

Clearly the national environment has gotten worse for the Democrats since Barack Obama’s inauguration one year ago. This has been obvious from Congressional generic ballot polling, Presidential approval polling, early polling of 2010 senate races, the number of Democratic retirements, the outcomes of New Jersey and Virginia, the tenor of the political discourse in the country, and so forth. But perhaps it is somewhat more bad than we had previously realized.

Clearly also, the quality of the candidates and the campaign matters a lot, especially in open seat races. Although it might seem strange to have a Republican Senator from Massachusetts, it is not dramatically more strange than having a Democratic Senator from Alaska or Nebraska, or a Republican Representative from New Orleans, all of which our Congress already had before tonight. Martha Coakley, needless to say, was not a good candidate and did not run a good campaign.

Finally, there is a third category: contingencies specific to Massachusetts, but not specific to Coakley. This was a state in which Democrats had twice changed the rules governing Senate succession, first in 2004 to prevent then-governor Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican to take John Kerry’s seat (should he have been elected President), and then again last year to allow Deval Patrick to appoint an interim appointee. Moreover, because it was a special election, the time frame of the campaign was dramatically compressed, making it harder to define the Republican opponent or to recover from any initial missteps in the campaign. Lastly, Massachusetts is unusual in that it already has universal health care and the Democratic health care plan would not do it much good, which allowed the Republican to promise to oppose it without looking like a typical partisan hack.

TPM:

Message of the day to all Dems, Coakley, Rahm, Celinda Lake, national Dem committees, Axelrod, whoever, whatever: Shut the *$%& Up! I don’t know how else to say it. I’m watching MSNBC and hearing all the key players dumping on each other. As I’ve said, the Coakley campaign seems to have been run just terribly. And that’s just the beginning of it. But really, with all that’s at stake, the White House political office left this to Coakley, unsupervised? Really? I just have very little patience hearing all the people who are by definition all to blame have an argument about who’s most to blame.

What I’m seeing — and this isn’t just based on public comments but our reporting behind the scenes — is that there’s a lot more energy going into dodging blame for this unforced error of galactic proportions than there is going into the real issue: closing the loop on the health care bill. Which is the only issue in policy terms and political terms. That’s it. Everything else is water under the bridge.

I’m loving that last one: “The American People detest our plan. Let’s stop trying to figure out who’s at fault, and get it passed.”

Their vision of humanity is not fundamentally incompatible with the human race, but it damn sure is fundamentally incompatible with America. And they’ll never, ever see it. Ever. The idea that The American People figured it out for themselves, and showed sufficient independence to make up their own minds…it’s just inconceivable. Must be Coakley. She must have screwed up. Or maybe it’s Axelrod, or Emmanuel, or the Massachusetts democrat Party, or…or…or. Couldn’t be the riff-raff out there, they obviously can’t think for themselves.

“4. Speaking of Palin, she will stump for five GOP candidates, four of them will win, everyone will talk about the one who didn’t.”

— from Morgan’s predictions for 2010.

Behold, it is coming to pass:

Former Gov. Sarah Palin will announce today that she’s hitting the campaign trail for Republicans — including her former running mate John McCain.

Palin, who did not campaign in last year’s governor’s races or in yesterday’s Senate race in Massachusetts, has committed to contests in three states, including two Republican primaries, an aide said.

She’ll campaign in Texas for Gov. Rick Perry, who faces a primary challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison; she’ll appear in Arizona for Senator John McCain, who faces a challenge from the right; and she’ll appear in Minnesota for Rep. Michelle Bachmann, a conservative firebrand who has emerged as a national figure.

In a statement set to appear on her Facebook page, Palin promises to campaign “FOR the people and AGAINST politics as usual.”

Everyone tremble in fear and awe at the amazing prescience of The Blog That Nobody Reads. (Insert Dr. Evil laugh here.)

FrankJ talks some more about his wonderful world:

This blog post was written in real time.
Barack Obama walked into the Oval office and turned on the lights. He then heard the door slam behind him. He turned around to see a grizzled-looking man. “Who are you?”

“Mr. President, I am former CTU agent Jack Bauer.”

“Oh, thank me,” Obama sighed. “I thought you were a teabagger.”

“I’m here to tell you about a grave threat to this country.”

“Why did you have to sneak in like this? Couldn’t you have gone through official channels?”

“Sir, I didn’t have time.”

“Couldn’t you have texted me?”

“I didn’t have time — I’m really bad at texting. Takes me like ten minutes for a simple reply.”

“Then how do you update your Twitter feed?”

“Sir, we’re getting off topic. There is a threat to this nation from either nuclear or biological weapons… or possibly biological weapons that are radioactive.”

Obama gasped. “That sounds bad!”

“It is very bad, sir.”

“Any idea where this attack might take place?”

“Usually, terrorist attacks occur in the LA area, but that’s started to change in the past few years.”

Obama shook his head. “I don’t like going to LA; I always get attacked by cougars there.”

“I am not surprised. Anyway, to find the details on this attack, I need to use harsh interrogation techniques against a known terrorist we’ve detained. I wanted to get your permission for that.”

Obama thought for a moment. “Alright. If the situation is that dire, I’ll allow you to loudly shout at him.”

“Sir, this will take more than shouting.”

“You want to slap his belly? I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

“I was thinking of a lot more than belly slapping.”

“If you’re suggesting waterboarding, there is no way I’m approving that.”

“Sir, I warm up with waterboarding.”

Obama frowned. “Torture is wrong; you are a bad man. This is why people like me hate America.”

“Sir, I know there is a lot of pressure on you as this nation’s third black president — and the first who isn’t a Palmer — and it has to be scary knowing the last half-dozen presidents all ended up either dead or in prison…”

“I’m hoping for prison!”

“We all are. Anyway, I know there must be a lot of pressure on you, and this must offend your sensibilities, but there is literally a ticking time bomb out there–”

“I would think time bombs these days would use digital timers.”

“Excuse me?”

“They would use digital timers, so there wouldn’t be any ticking. Thus you used the word ‘literally’ incorrectly. I’m very smart.”

“Sir, once again, I think you’re focusing on the wrong things. Tens of thousands of people could die unless I get the information out of that terrorist.”

“Well, Jack, tens of thousands of people die from car accidents each year, so I don’t know why you want me to get all worked up over that. Here’s what I’ll do, though. I’ll release a bunch of prisoners from Gitmo, and we’ll see if that will impress the terrorist enough to talk.”

“This is a man who thinks nothing of murdering children; I sincerely doubt he’ll talk out of the goodness of his heart.”

Obama rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know; you red-staters just want to hurt all the bad men and think that solves everything. Instead of torturing, though, have you ever tried to be his friend? Maybe give him a hug?”

“A hug will not do anything, sir.”

“Maybe you’re hugging wrong. Here, give me a hug so I can see how you’re doing it.”

“Mr. President, I never put my arms around another man without him ending up dead afterward.”

“I don’t think this conversation is going anywhere. Here’s what I’ll do for you, Jack: I’ll try to make sure you have a fair trial for even suggesting torture. I’ll probably have to make an example out of you, though; I don’t want the rest of the world thinking we let people like you still run around.”

The door opened and Joe Biden walked in. “Hey, I just wanted to–”

Bauer immediately got Biden in a choke hold and choked him unconscious.

“Hey! That was the vice president! And the doctors have already been saying he’s not getting enough oxygen to his brain!”

“I’m well aware of who he is, sir; I just didn’t have time to explain things to him.”

“What’s it with you and not having enough time? Sounds like you just need better time management.”

“I’ll take that under advisement. Anyway, I guess I’ll just have to pursue this without your permission. Before I go, though, I want to warn you that I think there is a mole in your administration undermining you from the inside.”

“Really? I thought that was just incompetence.”

Bauer thought about that. “Yeah, I guess that is the more likely explanation.”

Doing some “research” for the post immediately previous, I stumbled across this gem of a list.

So now maybe you’ll have those TPS reports done on time today?

And they’re both local issues:

On health care, Massachusetts is in a unique position. It already has near-universal coverage, enacted in 2006 by Republican governor Mitt Romney and the Democratic legislature, so a national measure designed to extend coverage to millions of currently-uncovered Americans means little to Bay State residents. But the Democrats’ national health care plan would force Massachusetts residents to pay higher taxes to expand coverage elsewhere in the country — with relatively little new benefits at home.

“In this state, we basically have universal health care,” says Joey Buceta, a Boston independent who attended a Scott Brown rally in the North End Friday. “Why should we pay more money for it? We already have it.”

It’s an opinion heard often in this race, and it unites conservative voters who don’t like the Democratic national health care plan because it is too intrusive, expensive and coercive with independent voters who don’t like the plan because it seems redundant for Massachusetts.
:
On the second issue, one-party government, Massachusetts is also in an unusual position. Often called the bluest of blue states, it is certainly dominated by Democrats. But over the years Massachusetts voters have shown an inclination to elect a Republican to the occasional state office.

That balance has usually meant a GOP governor; four of the last five Massachusetts governors have been Republicans. At the same time, the rest of the state government, as well as the state’s delegations in the House and Senate, have been dominated by Democrats. But even with that lopsided situation, the presence of a GOP governor gave voters a certain sense of balance.

Now, even that is gone. Not only are all other significant state offices occupied by Democrats, the governorship is in the hands of the very Democratic, very liberal, and very unpopular Deval Patrick.
:
“This country was built on debate,” says Diane Anderson, a Brown voter from Swampscott, Massachusetts. “And with the Democrats having 60 senators…just for that fact alone, if for no other reason, we should continue to have debate, and Brown will bring debate, being the 41st Republican.”

Here’s the challenge that confronts Republicans…hopefully: How to properly celebrate if Brown should win. Lots of realistic types are out there urging caution — he might very well lose. They’re right. But the wise Republican also thinks ahead to the other prospect, because careful planning is needed there. With defeat, the only thing that can really ambush them is an emotional letdown, and emotional letdowns become part of history very quickly.

Think ahead. Brown wins — then what? If these two pivotal factors that pushed Brown over the top are both local to the Bay state, how does that get spread all across the fruited plain, sea to shining sea, later in the year? This is the real challenge. Failing that, the attitude in November will be “well now that they’re being checked by the 41st vote in the Senate…democrats are alright. Hopenchange.” And we’ll be right back to letting the kids run the show.

The treachery in which the democrats have engaged for this last year, is the deceit ritually practiced by bad salesmen. They knew exactly what they wanted to sell, and when the dispassionate observer compares that product to what the public really needed and desired, it is charitable to call the resulting mathematical overlap “skimpy.” The overlap was not there at all. In the case of solving our rising public debt problem, it was oppositional — the prescription exacerbated the sickness.

Superpower nations in serious financial trouble don’t need womb-to-tomb government health plans. That’s just plain common sense.

And you go right on down the list of things Obama has promised and delivered…which means, the list of things He has promised. It’s all like this. Problem: The world doesn’t like us, supposedly. Solution: Try Kalidh Shiek Mohammed in a civilian court in New York City. Okay, now how’s that work exactly?

That’s what needs to be pointed out, should things go okay tomorrow night. Martha Coakley lost in Massachusetts for a reason, and the reason was that the democrat party has its agenda, and it bears precious little resemblance to the country’s. When the democrat party “loves America,” they love America the way a man loves his raven-haired wife he didn’t really want to marry in the first place, fantasizing about his buxom blond girlfriend in high school every time he makes love to her. They love the country the way a prospective buyer loves your car…when he’s planning to rip the stereo out of it, put it in something else, and send the balance of what’s left to the wrecking yard. They love our country for the vision of this otherworldly utopia they can make from it, after they’re done changing it, dismantling it. They love everything about it except its spirit, the spirit of 1776.

That’s why we just finished out our first year listening to them make as many speeches as they want to make, for as long as they want to make them — and the word “freedom” was never uttered a single time. Did I miss it somewhere?

That is the third issue that can be nationalized, and the time is right for it.

The Trek 7300 and I were here when I was about to grab my chest and keel over. That’s alright, it just shows I’m pushing the envelope. What’s not all right is that I was 16 miles into my ride. Sixteen…miles…this is beneath pathetic. This is nothing. It is some one-quarter of the distance I’ve gone before. What is this, Christmas “gift wrapping” that needs to be unloaded from my gut and derriere?

Well, perhaps I’d know better if I had more experience with slime tubes. This is the first time I wore one out; it’s lasted me pretty well. I think I snapped it up sometime in August, July maybe. I inflated it at 17 miles according to my bike computer, and at 22 miles I had to inflate it again. Okay, the tube’s gunnybags. And the slimy insides seem to have turned to a green liquid, which further implies impending retirement and decrepitude.

Someone sold me a 43mm tire to fit on a 35mm rim. Said it would work out fine. I can’t remember who this shyster is…but it is now a chiseled-in-granite article in my faltering encyclopedia of bike knowledge, that this is not fine. I just got done staring at the Kevlar bands that were visible to the naked eye…all the way around the rim, 360 degrees, where rubber meets metal. It was clear the fabric was not intended to be bent this way.

Herein lies the appeal. I am not, contrary to what some have said, a “lover of bicycle riding.” It fucking hurts. But the culture in which we live is becoming so anesthetized, that there aren’t that many opportunities left to live & die by your ability to perceive things, and think about what they mean. It’s a puzzle, filled with parts that work or do not work. One must sit in judgment of each of them, and it is not a kid’s game, one must do this competently if one wants to live long enough to reach home again.

The slime tube, I think, should be declared a success overall. You can neglect the thing, and if it’s more-or-less whole, it will keep the pressure. The tire on the other hand is a huge fail. Of course, I had spare tubes — of course! — but spare tubes don’t help you much out there if your tire is killing your tubes.

Another lesson learned is to keep the ear bud charged up. Kid called. Girlfriend called. Kid called. Girlfriend called. We-ell…I spent about six or seven hours out there, and covered a piddly little 25 miles. Felt like I should be checked into intensive care when it was done. I’ve covered between 60 and 70 before, and came out of it in much better shape. You know…still in the mode of “don’t anybody look to me to do anything for the rest of the day,” which is to be expected.

But not “OMDFG I gotta collapse and take a nap or else I’m gonna fucking die.”

I think my equipment needs an overhaul from stem to stern. I know it makes an enormous difference. And I’m not that fat. Yet. I don’t think.

Language is not safe for a general audience.

Hope that made your day. It made mine.

A grateful hat tip to The Conservatives Who Say F*ck.

Click pic to view. SIWOTI.

How’d we come up with this expression? The answer may surprise you.

Get your mind out of the gutter…

Yep, it happened because of global warming.

This is just as risible as anything Pat Robertson said. Both men have their pet cause all picked out, and any remarkable event is just going to provide one more excuse to talk about it. The affliction is the same in both cases. Both of them probably believe the drivel coming out of their mouths, down to the marrow of their bones.

Sometimes, what money can do to a man’s thinking process is not a pretty thing.

Hat tip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who adds:

The Massachusetts race shows fairly clearly that millions of dollars won’t rescue a Democrat from the outrage that the Obama agenda has provoked, and Reid’s continued presence has become an albatross around the neck of his son Rory, who wants to run for governor on the damaged brand of the Reid name. If ObamaCare runs aground, there isn’t much reason to linger to November to take his well-deserved beating at the polls.

…compiled by John Hawkins. All from the last decade. The top five are quite remarkable, packing a pronounced anti-military bent…but do check out the others. Each of them should get the responsible voter’s mental gears spinning, seriously pondering the question of who or what it is we have put in charge.

5) Through every Abu aib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform….We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?…[T]he recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary — oops sorry, volunteer — force that thinks it is doing the dirty work. — The Washington Post’s William Arkin

4) In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation. It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq. — Seymour Hersh

3) Over time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared. — Ted Rall

2) As to those in the World Trade Center…Let’s get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. …If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it. — Ward Churchill

1) The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.” — Michael Moore

The other question that comes up is, now that the inmates are running the asylum, exactly how much power should they have. Guess that’s up to Massachusetts to figure out.

Zombie reports from Pajamas Media:

Obama and the Democrats have not conceded the Massachussetts senate race, as some have suggested. Quite the opposite: This morning, Obama’s national Democratic activist group Organizing for America sent out a mass email to supporters saying they will fight tooth and nail to hang on to “Ted Kennedy’s seat”:

OFA is going all out in Massachusetts — we’re sending organizers, knocking on doors, and making phone calls by the tens of thousands to make sure that folks know how to participate.

Prediction: Scott Brown m-u-s-t win by at least a thousand votes; if the margin is any less than that, expect an Al Gore/Franken “recount” debacle several weeks or months long, followed by a victory for Coakley based on boxes and boxes of “found” votes.

Any election a Republican doesn’t win by at least a thousand votes, goes to the democrat. It’s a rule of Natural Law. They’re whiners and complainers, so they get the benefit of each & every doubt, because that’s just the way it works.

Urmila Matondkar, Bollywood legend. She’ll be turning 36 next month if my math is right. That’s twenty-seven years of acting success, with truckloads of wins & nominations. Three weeks ago, she lost out to Torrey DeVito.

Victoria Silvstedt, Swedish model, same age, Playmate of the Year 1997.

I think Urmila takes this one. I know with the pictures above that seems inconceivable. It’s a distance thing. If you zoom in on both of them, Urmila looks more enticing, Victoria less so. Not quite as wholesome.

That’s how I’m calling it tonight…

Ah-boom boom boom…another one bites the dust…

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) announced tonight that he will be retiring at the end of his term, citing the difficult political environment that he would have faced to win an eighth term in the House.

“2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years,” Snyder said in a statement.

“I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three one-year old boys under the leadership of their three-year old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election.”

Blah blah blah pursue other opportunities spend more time with my family blah blah blah.

Snyder is the 11th House Democrat to announce his retirement. — and Republicans are aggressively contesting nine of those open seats. Griffin, a former U.S. Attorney, was mounting a vigorous campaign against Snyder and had already banked over $300,000 for his campaign, according to a GOP source.

You have to wonder what the democrat leadership says behind closed doors. There is 1933…there is 1965. And then there is 1993. There is, clearly, a decline. There were no “come-uppins” for 1933, although ’33 had to do with tearing apart the very fabric of what makes America. It may be argued that not quite so much the legislation passed in 1965, but the drive to marginalize the opposition that surrounded the activity — brought 1968. Lyndon Johnson’s narcissistic, psychotic personality brought 1968. Earl Warren letting all the murderers and rapists out of jail. “Knowing Where The Bodies Are Buried” politics.

And then 1993 brought 1994. But at least there wasn’t quite as much…well, maybe we should be charitable and call it “foresight.” And, a good democrat legislator was more-often-than-not proud, not ashamed, to climb on board the Clinton locomotive. It was where he belonged.

Today, the democrats need all the stars to line up before they can enjoy an instantaneous shot at pushing through whatever is “good for us.” They have to do it in the dark of night. Sneak around. Crouch and pounce. And it’s still a suicide run. Sixteen years ago, it was more like a gamble; I seem to recall there was just a vague feeling in the air that was only mildly suggestive of a “Republican Revolution,” one that was not perceptible (at least to me) until Election Day eve.

This is more like a slow-moving car wreck. Congressman Snyder joins Larry, Moe and Curly…and perhaps more as events continue to unfold.

Now, this is interesting:

On Twitter, Republicans are absolutely dominant, according to a recent study by a prominent Washington policy analyst. The study found that Republican politicians have far more followers and influence on the micro-blogging site than do their Democratic counterparts.

GOP prominence on online social networks heralds a markedly different trend from the technologically dominant Obama presidential campaign, which outmatched its opponents in virtually every area of online communications. But necessity is the mother of invention, and having been relegated to the minority both in popular opinion and electoral prominence, Republicans have had to turn to alternative ways to get their messages out.

According to Forbes, the report shows that

in the House of Representatives, Republicans are far more prolific, sending out 29,162 Tweets through early January, five times as many micro messages as their Democratic counterparts. In the Senate, Republicans’ 6,310 tweets outnumber Democrats’ by a far smaller 35% margin.

Because Republican Congressmen tweet more often, more people subscribe, or “follow,” their Twitter feeds. Thanks in part to lots of Twitter activity from groups like Top Conservatives On Twitter (TCOT), Republicans occupy 18 of the top 20 spots in terms of followers on Twitter. Republicans “follow” people back, too–or at least more than Democrats. The study says they subscribe to more people’s feeds by a factor of 10.

“Mother of invention” theory. I find this to be an intriguing explanation. It implies this isn’t quite so much a Republican groundswell as a democrat retreat. Like, as soon as they’re done beating that opposition they don’t have a whole lot to say to us.

True of both sides, I suppose.