Friday, February 27, 2009
More Cake?
goes with your tea
Desiree Rogers, the new White House social secretary, caused a bit of a stir recently when she appeared at New York’s Fashion Week shows, sitting next to Vogue Editor Anna Wintour as she took in the latest from designers Carolina Herrera and Donna Karan.
...New York magazine quoted a White House aide saying, “Desiree was in New York on a fact-finding mission. She’s acting as a cultural liaison for the White House; she’s researching fashion and music.” ...An aide explained that first lady Michelle Obama “has taken a particular interest in showcasing the work of young up-and-coming designers who have chosen fashion as their path and who are artists in their own right and who are introduced at places like Fashion Week."
“Young up-and-coming designers?!?” Donna Karan started selling clothing in 1962 [age 14] and started working for Anne Klein in ‘68. Carolina Herrera [b. 1939] started in the mid 80’s and Marc Jacobs in the early 80’s.
Rogers was also treated to lunch at the chic Four Seasons by the interior decorator Michael Smith. [the man chosen by the now-departed Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Officer John Thain to handle Thain’s notorious $1.2 million office redecoration project] President Barack Obama condemned that sort of excess, but then hired none other than Michael Smith to spruce up the White House. And then Smith honored Rogers at the Four Seasons.
It’s the Circle of Life Bullshit.
And this is the outcome of all that “fact finding?”
Who's Ox is Being Gored?
never admit to ∏eh W∅n that you have an ox
A movement self-confident in its place in American society would not have made Joe the Plumber a bigger story than he actually was. Since its very beginnings as a movement, conservatism has bought into liberalism’s dominant place in the American political process. "
erm, what?
Conservatism [as I understand it—correct me if I’m off nutz wrong] traces its origins back to 1776 and the ideas and, yes, Ideals articulated by the Founding Fathers. The Original Revolution, donchanoo.
...Liberalism’s image of conservatives in the ‘50s and ‘60s as paranoid Birchers gave birth to a conservative movement self-conscious of its minority status. As in any tribe that is small in number and can’t fully trust its most natural allies (i.e. the business community or the Republican Party), the meta-debate of who is inside and outside the tribe is magnified exponentially.
So, really, it’s all about meta-debates, “perception = reality” and inside baseball discussions? No. What it’s really about is that most folks, no matter how they identify themselves ‘politically,’ really just want to be left alone to make their own decisions, run their own lives, raise their families, and have a bit of time and wherewithal to have a little fun now and again.
When it comes right down to the immediate threat of gubbmint intrusion/regulation into the most basic aspects of people’s lives, even those who are all “for” Big Gubbmint “fixing” everyone’s problems get prickly and resist. Hard. It’s all okey-dokey and zippity-do-dah unicorn farts ‘n’ whey when it’s somebody else’s “problems” being “fixed”—when they’re up your sleeve, even the dried-up Earthmothers and Vegan Geldings shout “Whoa!”
So maybe what we need is a flood of EweToob videos of individuals—small business owners, private property owners, working guys, ..., telling exactly how ∏eh W∅n’s “stimulus” package is effecting them.
[eg: Didja know that that whopping $13 a week you get this year is gonna be taxed as income next year?]
Perspective Shift
it’s all in the lens one uses
Laid off? Fired? No worries.
...As bad as it feels to lose a job, temporary unemployment can provide a much-needed intervention to workaholics who can benefit from such a brea
There’s less of a ‘why aren’t you working attitude’ that is giving people some extra space and freedom to explore new directions and just take time off to do the things they’ve wanted to do, whether it’s spending more time with children, taking a class, or traveling around the world,...
As the ranks of the nation’s unemployed grows, more Americans are facing the reality of life without work. Despite the grim task of making ends meet (firing the nanny, bailing on Whole Foods, applying for unemployment), there is a newly forming society of people who are making the best of being laid off. They are rediscovering hobbies. They are greeting kids at the school bus. They are remembering what daylight actually looks like....
...It’s the success syndrome. You work hard, you do well. It’s very satisfying and that gets you more involved to start working even harder,” Hall said. “It’s a success spiral that people get into. And sometimes it takes some extreme experience to get out of that spiral.
O’course without these workaholics so involved in their success spirals there won’t be any money for ∏eh W∅n’s Bailouts, deficit, entitlements, spending or vote buying ... But that’s not important now.
Take up macramé! Maybe ya can sell it by the side of the freeway. Folks will need more knotted-string products as we drive our mules down the off-ramp.
64,500 [and rising daily] Pages That Killed a Nation
a 22-cent tax-compliance surcharge for every dollar the tax system collected, estimated 6 billion hours, *, *
...more than $1 billion a year spent lobbying for breaks in the tax code... a staffer with 8 to 10 years of experience can command a six or even seven figure “signing bonus” when they join a “K Street” tax lobby firm…
This is what we mean when we talk about the FairTax really being a struggle between hometown America and Washington, D.C. To win enactment of the FairTax, one must only believe that the best and strongest power within our Republic still resides with the public--and then act upon that belief.
If we really want a Constitutional Republic, The Constitution and a modicum of Individual Freedom—along with some prosperity—it seems the Fair Tax is the best way.
[Better ideas are welcome.]
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Threat Level
kinda does make Jihad Johnny, wavin his AK and screamin’ like a scalded baboon, seem like a “disaffected ute"
Again, as a Californian, I apologize for this mephitic troll.
Sen. Barbara Boxer is urging the U.S. to ratify a United Nations measure meant to expand the rights of children, a move critics are calling a gross assault on parental rights that could rob the U.S. of sovereignty.
...Critics say the treaty, which creates “the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and outlaws the “arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy,” intrudes on the family and strips parents of the power to raise their children without government interference.
Nearly every country in the world is party to it—only the U.S. and Somalia are not ...
The convention has established a Committee on the Rights of the Child, an 18-member panel in Geneva composed of “persons of high moral character” who review the rights of children in nations that are party to the convention.
Cuz it’s worked out so well for the slumdog children of Mumbai, and the enslaved children in Saud, and..., and… and....
During the campaign last year, President Barack Obama described the United States’ failure to ratify the Convention as ‘embarrassing’ and has promised to review this.
Fighting for Not throwing away your country’s sovereignty and Individual Freedom is “embarrassing” to ∏eh W∅n. Still ready to “give him a chance?”
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Da Wiz Does Have a Point
beside the hat hood
It’s rather a rearranging the order of the deck chairs on the Titanic kind of point - but a point nonetheless.
“Too often, I have seen these lines of authority and responsibility become tangled and blurred, sometimes purposely, to shield information and to obscure the decision-making process,” wrote [Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)], the self-described “constitutional conscience of the Senate.”
Byrd specifically noted the creation of three new White House bodies—the offices of Health Reform, Urban Affairs Policy, and Energy and Climate Change Policy—and complained that “the rapid and easy accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials."
Not to mention the grabbing of the Census…
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Last Man Standing in AZ
last politician standing, that is...
Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is hosting a film screening at the Capitol building on Thursday for ... Geert Wilders,...
Kyl agreed to facilitate the event because “all too often, people who have the courage to point out the dangers of militant Islamists find themselves vilified and endangered,” said spokesman Ryan Patmintra.
...sponsored by the International Free Press Society, headed by Danish activist Lars Hedegaard, and the Center for Security Policy, a think tank in Washington led by Republican Frank Gaffney.
The event is closed to the public and press, but the film is being shown to members of Congress and their staff in the ornate “LBJ room,” a Senate office once used by Lyndon B. Johnson as majority leader and later vice president.
...While it is unusual for U.S. lawmakers to grant Capitol access to such a controversial figure, it was unlikely Wilders’ appearance would produce the same outcry as it did in Britain.
Perhaps that’s so; from CAIR email [kinda wimpy, boyz—no camera?!? No consensusing?!?]
“It seems that Senator Kyl is oblivious to the fact that there are Muslims in his own state who will take offense at this cheap anti-Islam publicity stunt designed to promote a person who is under indictment for inciting religious hatred,” said CAIR-AZ Executive Director Ahmad Daniels. “Geert Wilders is just one of many self-promoting Islamophobes traveling the world in search of attention for their hate-filled views. We ask that Americans of all faiths ignore Mr. Wilders, thereby depriving him of the attention he so desperately seeks. Wilders has the right to spew his hate, but he does not have the right to a taxpayer-funded platform in the United States Congress.”
Daniels urged Sen. Kyl to join the ongoing efforts to end partisan politics in Congress and to reach out to the Islamic world by inviting speakers with a differing viewpoint to that of Wilders.
I hear these guys are free…
Monday, February 23, 2009
I Laff
U?
Chad Carpenter
The Law Dog Files [always worth a read]
"... this guy walks into a bar with a duck on his head ..." • (0) Comments • Link This
Danged Middle-Class
fear us.
[London] Police are preparing for a “summer of rage” as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions,
...Both “extreme rightwing and extreme leftwing” elements are looking to “use the fact that people are out of jobs” to galvanise support, [said Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police’s public order branch].
...Hartshorn said he also expected large-scale demonstrations this year on environmental issues, with hardcore green activists “joining forces” with middle-class campaigners over issues such as airport expansion at Heathrow and Stansted. With the prospect of angry demonstrations against the economy, that could open the door to powerful coalitions.
“All you’ve got to do then is link in with the environmentalists, and look at the oil companies. They’re seen to be turning over billions of pounds profit in issues that are seen to be against the environment."
uhm, yeah.
A Firm Grasp of the Obvious is the Cornerstone of Sanity
and a slippery slope for ∏eh W∅n’s administration
Captain Bullshit held a break-out session group grope today.
...the bulk of the guests at Monday’s Fiscal Responsibility Summit are from groups with clear investments in the Obama administration…
[Among the 56 “community leaders and stakeholders” *gah* that word...:] ...the 64 representatives from the Obama administration and Congress, ... seven union chiefs, 10 organizations advancing racial and ethnic concerns, 10 progressive think tanks and advocacy groups, three universities, three health care associations ... six interests groups for women, seniors, disabled and gay rights groups…
Six conservative think tanks and advocacy groups, two health policy organizations and four business associations along with one law firm specializing in Wall Street mergers, one retirement and financial services fund, a John McCain adviser and a representative from the Congressional Budget Office and a partridge in a give-away tree.
“We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end,...We are paying the price for these deficits right now.” ...
“We will reinstate the pay as you go rule ... You don’t spend what you don’t have."
$787bn economic stimulus plan…
$75bn outlay for the housing sector ...
...ok - stop laff-crying.
WASoF
Friday, February 20, 2009
Did we somehow fall into a cheezy sitcom?!?
bad humor man administration
First we got the HIT Squad for “Health” Care; now the RAT Board to watch the Inspectors General?
Who’s writing this bipartisan bovine excrementaganza?!?
DeMinty Freshness!
good move?
[Jim DeMint on the “Fairness” Doctrine]
“With the support of the new administration, now is the time for Congress to take a stand against this kind of censorship. I intend to seek a vote on this amendment next week so every senator is on record: Do you support free speech or do you want to silence voices you disagree with?
Ok - that sounds good. Might even do some good. IF he includes that “localism” dodge. At least makes ‘em come up with another dodge…
But I still can’t figure out what that is over his shoulder on his website pic:
NC historians?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Comin' 'n' Goin' Raaaacist
do/don’t::damned
How-de-do, brand new, brand-spankin’ new Attorney General. Nice ta meetcha.
"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” said Holder, nation’s first black attorney general.
Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but “we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”
...Race “is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given our nation’s history, this is in some ways understandable,” Holder said. “If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."
Well… that’s a fine how-de-doo-doo…
[Al Sharptonrelievesreveals hisownself:] "Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?"
It was my impression they were implying 1,000 monkeys on 1,000 typewriters wrote the “stimulus” bill—but I guess that’s clapping on the 2 and 4.
[It was also my impression that Congressional staffers wrote the bill, each tossing random favorite bits onto the pile, as neither the actual Congress members nor ∏eh W∅n [WASoF], have so much as read the damnthing. But that’s Just Me™.]
Srsly. Isn’t it more raaacist to shepherd every chance conversation with, say, your black neighbor or coworker to issues of raaace [mentioning, perhaps, that some of your best friends are black?] And here I thought, judging by the content of their character, discussing topics like the economy, favorite restaurants or what dumb thing the city council just did was not raaaacist.
Well. I guess they made a monkey outta me.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Hillary!'s "Smart" Diplomacy ?
not so smart...
The United States Tuesday welcomed Venezuela’s “civic" referendum lifting term limits for the president and all politicians, but urged support for democracy and tolerance in the country. ...
The US reaction to Venezuela’s vote comes uncharacteristically before the complete tally has been announced. The country’s electoral board has issued its first, 54-46 percent vote result with only 94 percent of precincts reporting.
“That boy could use a little lipstick.”
--Venezuelan tranny
In these troubled times...
"Contraception is reduced cost to The State."
I wonder what I can best do for my young’uns—to leave them in the best place I can for their future… I look to history, to examples of how someone might have created a ginormous fortune and a whole lot of political power in one swell foop…
Then something struck me:
A Bill in the Oregon House proposes to raise the state Beer Tax by about 2000% House Bill 24-61 would raise the tax of a barrel of beer produced by state breweries from the current $2.50 to $52.00.
Hm....
Statistics
This page has been viewed 10011873 times
Total Entries: 5524
Total Comments: 4058
Total Trackbacks: 714
Most Recent Entry: 07/28/2010 07:15 am
Most Recent Comment on: 07/29/2010 08:35 am
{/if}
