My feelings on the outgoing administration are rather mixed to say the least. His actions have left us with a large deficit, a huge government intrusion into the private sector (though in fairness he did try to prevent the financial debacle, and was ignored).and he expanded government more than any president since Johnson.

He also was dealt several terrible hands which he played as well as could be expected. He did not have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when making tough decisions with no happy solutions available. He recognized that a huge part of Americas vulnerability stemmed from the fact that we had given the impression that we had a glass jaw or would not fight at all. He has put that at least to rest.

I am largely alone amongst conservatives in concluding that Bush was right on the immigration reform idea and path to citizenship for those illegals willing to learn the language and integrate. (Where he failed on immigration IMHO was not there but in border enforcement.)

Bush also did more on the soft power front than any previous president, ranging from fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa to sending Hospital ships and Amphibious ships around the world to provide aid. He gets no credit for this as he is one of the most unfairly maligned Presidents in history.

There is much to disagree with this guy about, but the venomous, insane, fanatical hatred and contempt directed at him by the left is disgraceful, and very nearly as creepy as the near cultlike adoration and worship many of these same people have for his successor.

A mixed bag indeed but his failures can be fixed. If , on the other hand, he had not kept the country as safe as he did these last 8 years the cost would have been far greater than any of his missteps have been.

More thoughts, some rather less qualified in their praise, from the Anchoress, AJ Strata, CDR Salamander, Gay Patriot and....the Dali Lama.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 341 words, total size 3 kb.

Fabius Maximus has a bleak series of posts on the deteriorating situation in Mexico.
http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2008/06/mexico-failed-statefailed-poli/

The prospect of a failed state on our southern border is a grim one and is going to require considerable attention as this is a huge potential security as well as humanitarian problem.

Worse, there is little proactive we can do...The incoming administration is going to be faced with a series of choices that are  pretty much all varying degrees of bad. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

Several people do a Sunday funnies bit where they pic a political cartoon for the week. Over at Flopping Aces, they've carried this to the next level.
Which political cartoons you ask?
As the great John Connor once said,"....all of them I think."

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 45 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:55 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 1311 words, total size 8 kb.

1 I can usually find a bright side to things and I'm not a righty or a lefty.  The future is unwritten and always full of potential. 

Posted by: Marina Anne Lemar at Wed Nov 12 01:40:00 2008 (S2qjO)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

No kids...it is not yet the appropriate time to resort to cannibalism...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 287 words, total size 3 kb.

Congratulations! President Elect Obama!

Update: McCain has given one of the classier concession speeches ever.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

I voted.

Being pressed for time, and a bit curious,  decided to use the lonely, shunned touch-screen machine in the corner of the Palmer Elementary school gym.

The layout was....interesting.

The first screen has one choice in big bold letters

BARAK OBAMA

Now it is not at all clear from the first screen that there are any other choices, but, if you look closely, there is a "next" button. In order to see the other presidential candidates. One must click the little touch button marked "next"...which adjoins the "vote" field. If you do not fumble finger the vote/next field and vote for Barak Obama you are taken to the next screen the POTUS wannabe ghetto which contains the 4 other presidential candidates in smaller type.

The Senatorial and House fields are laid out the same as the mere non-Obama contenders.

As we have a secret ballot (until at least January 20th) I will leave you guessing _{( yeah right)} and refrain from disclosing my choices, except to say I voted for whom I intended.

This touch screen may be as bad as the butterfly butterfly ballots of Boca Raton.

12 hours & this horrid election will be over.

Now go vote...and stay away from  the touch screen machines!

_{UPDATE: Well, I've left E-mails and comments with a couple of A and B list bloggers, and called the McCain-Palin fraud hotline (it was busy...which bodes ill I suppose )
Also called a local news channel (busy) and tried to use the "ureport" function on  FOX...but it seems to have crashed. (update..successful )
This is, of course really, really small potatoes compared to the Black Panthers taking over the polls in Philly, but it's just sleazy and passive aggressive enough to have really pissed me off.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 298 words, total size 3 kb.

Governor Palin has been cleared of ethics charges in the firing of that child abusing, poaching, drunken cop. 

No doubt there will be extensive coverage on Wednesday.

(Asshats!)

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

Day after tomorrow the election will be held. Silly season will be over.

There is very little to cover that hasn't been said already. For those who still look at me like I've grown a third eye, then point and screech when they find out who I'm not voting for I suggest looking in the politix category .

There are a few points of interest concerning recent news.....



more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 495 words, total size 4 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1019 words, total size 10 kb.

...to express our profound and sincere joy that the Secret Service thwarted an attempt by two walking, talking colostomy bags to assassinate Barak Obama.

Yes 2 Goddamned Nazi thugs were trying to kill the first serious black candidate for president of the United States.

As others have pointed out they are awfully pretty for Nazis. One wonders if they are part of the Ernst Roem wing of the party or perhaps some new, horrible type of Emo Nazis.
_{( I think Frank Miller foresaw this)}

Their plan was almost funny....

Cowart and Schlesselman “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”

“Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 179 words, total size 2 kb.

Gets beat down.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 299 words, total size 3 kb.

In this post, I mentioned, in passing, a story that has been circulating that claims  Øbama has campaigned for a Kenyan politician who later had a non-trivial role in the ethnic strife that befell that country earlier this year.

Upon reflection it seemed a bit sketchy and tenuously sourced so I contacted the go-to-blogger for matters Kenyan ( Baldilocks) and today she graciously replied.

According to her,  the story is true to the extent that Obama traveled with the Odinga as part of an anti-AIDS initiative, but he was not in any way campaigning for the fellow.
She also pointed that this story actually grew out of the "Obama is a closet Muslim" smear which surprised me. This is because the Marxist Odinga  made some non-trivial concessions to Muslim interests regards Sharia Law amongst other things and that THIS was the angle pushed when the story was first broached....I'd missed it then, perhaps because the Obama as Muslim story is SO silly and dumb that I'd tuned it out.

It appears that unlike ACORN, his Marxist tendancies, and all the other crap in the above linked post, Obama did not in any way support a Marxist who had a hand in the long simmering Colonial blowback that erupted in Kenya in January. In fact given that he was there supporting an anti HIV initiative his Kenyan adventure comes off as pretty laudable.

The Senators  candidacy troubles me to say the least. However, while there are plenty of reasons to vote against Barak Obama. They do not need to be conflated with exaggerations.

I apologize for the error.

Teh crow..it is gamey.

UPDATE:  Juliet Ochieng kindly  gave permission to post her Email so I've pasted it below the fold unfiltered by me, in its entirety...

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 809 words, total size 7 kb.

.....but with rather higher stakes.
_{(As usual,the politics are below the fold....)}
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 1082 words, total size 12 kb.

...er...wait..that's not right.

So...what law IS this violating?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

Russia bought Iceland.

OK not quite...but damn.

From Stratfor...

Iceland straddles the key Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap, likely the most strategic thoroughfare of the Cold War and of the North Atlantic in general. Soviet (and now Russian) nuclear submarines departing Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula to threaten Europe or United States would have to pass through the GIUK gap. The U.S. presence in Iceland was therefore considerable during the Cold War. The United States maintained a Naval Air Station in Keflavik as well as an extensive anti-submarine hydrophone sensor system, called the Sound Surveillance System, lining the seabed in the area. With the end of the Cold War and changes in the U.S. military’s priorities, the GIUK gap was abandoned, and the Keflavik base closed in September 2006.....
....At the very least, the United States will regret ever having abandoned Keflavik.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 200 words, total size 2 kb.

Ace has brought out the Flaming Skull....

....to highlight the fact that he's discovered Øbama is a ...wait for it....socialist.

gasp!

Yes, there is more (do read the whole thing). However, given his general creepiness and his association with murderous leftards like Ayers and Dohrn...I hardly think this warrants a Flaming Skull moment.

_{. I can't claim credit for the shameful and indeed blasphemously disrespectful use of Ø..that originated at Machine Overlords.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:34 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 78 words, total size 1 kb.

OK, it wasn't quite all that.....but damn that was a relief.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 405 words, total size 4 kb.