March 18, 2009

How Very Fortunate We Are

For the benefit of those with lives or weak constitutions, the hyper-partisan hyperlinks are below the fold....For the benefit of everyone, there's this...


Artist Unknown

more...

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March 10, 2009

Capitolism

Yes Brickmuppeteers, a new word is born.


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March 08, 2009

OK This Crap Needs to End NOW

  As anyone who has perused this blog at any length is aware, as a citizen I am NOT an advocate, fan or booster for the current President.

However....

He IS the President and he is damned well due the respect, even in disagreement, that Americans who are not hyperpartisan douchebag putzes accord a holder of that august office. (Just as Bush was.)

I was going to do a normal below the fold politics post on the cacophony of fail currently emanating from the oval office when I discovered that this piece of excrement had arrived in my inbox.



The video is short (2:28  ) and purports to show the different level of regard the USMC has for the previous and current Commander in chief.

Two points:
One....It is quite probable that these were cherry picked speeches. No indication is given of what sort of ceremony the two speeches were for, they may have had different solemnity levels and the different commands may have had different standing orders for their troops.

Two...The United States Armed Forces, while in uniform, do NOT, must NOT play politics. That leads down a trail which ends in blood. Happily, we have a pretty damned professional officer corps whose oath is to uphold the constitution, not any party, so I don't actually see this happening short of an actual suspension of the constitution.

While it is perfectly OK (and IHMO right now necessary) to criticize our President. This video manages at a stroke to  disrespect the office, disrespect a man who has taken the weight of the world on his shoulders on our behalf AND dishonor the Marines of Camp Lejune by painting them as disloyal.



This line of attack is libelous, seditious crap and Brickmuppet Blog unequivocally and without reservation condemns it.

UPDATE: I sent this to several Milbloggers a few others.Sent it to some of the Volokh conspirators because I wonder if the  video would constitute a violation of the Hatch Act.

UPDATE 2: I'm behind the curve on this one,  Greyhawk  comments

UPDATE 3: I am off base, this doesn't even come close to a Hatch Act violation. To clarify,
I wasn't concerned that the Marines in the vid were violating the Hatch act in any way, but I failed to make that clear. I thought that the vid might have been produced by a servicemember, but even if it was it is merely in poor taste, not any violation of the Hatch Act. Thanks to all those who responded and set me straight.
My opinion of the merits of the video still stands.

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February 20, 2009

Worry...

While I was focusing on being a good student, any children that I might  conceive* were just  indentured.



This post is a buzzkill and involves the P-word so I've moved it under the fold and put a sad girl in snow in its place...

more...

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February 15, 2009

Oh my....

I'll just leave this here....


...but I probably shouldn't.

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February 09, 2009

Obama's First Press Conference (tentative liveblog)

The speech was decent Obama boilerplate.

The first question was pretty decent, but Obamas answer is astonishing.
He is using Japans failed stimulus plan from the early 90s to SELL the stimulus plan.....making the argument that the Japanese didnt spend enough. He also dismisses the argument that FDR did more harm than good with the new deal saying something to the effect that "I thought these arguments were settled"...well they have been, FDR DID damage the economy.

Update: More here. Buy a good book on the subject  here.

 He is still talking...answering question one.

Question 2:
What is your policy towards Iran.
Answer: Iran is "unhelpful". (duh!)
There is little substance in the answer, but that is not necessarily bad. One does not lay ones cards face up.
Still talking....rambling really. Mainly "We are going to act differently"

Question 3:
Bipartisanship question "Where did you screw up?"....kind of silly question.
Answer : fairly rambling but decent...from a purely partisan perspective.
He does point out that there are substantive ideological differences.
He slams the Republicans on deficits...a fair cop to be sure.
Imperial "I" should be replaced with "We".
His infrastructure speech is still going on...no one is arguing about schools.

Question 4:
What should people do with the stimulus checks...spend or save. (actually a lucid if misdirected question)

Answer: Blames banks.....actually.. Obamas response here is pretty rational so far. If we don't make anything of value...people won't give us money. Of course he is not  answering the question that was asked.

Oh good...he is answering the question now...bad habits like subprime mortages must stop in the long term....(well duh).

Question 4: How much more expensive will this get?
Answer: TARP 1 was underegulated. ramble..ramble...stutter...
Oh here we go..basically... 'We won't know till later'.

Question 5: How will we know if this is working?
Answer: 4 million jobs created...unemployment drops. (straightforward and to the point). Capital will thaw....again a straight answer. Housing values stop falling...again straightforward answer...but blinkered as the housing markets are still overvalued. Timetable...next year.

Question 6: 2 part:Will you rescind the "don't photograph the coffins" policy.
Do you have a timetable for Afganistan.
Answer: He dodges the photo question....
Re Afganistan:
He acknowledges the troops efforts in Iraq...finally. He has a laundery list but no timetable. He points out that Afganistan was a safe haven that brought the attacks of 9/11/01. Finally....He has no timetable...good.

Question 7: the NEXT bailout...what strings will be attached?
Answer: Mainly defers to his tax dodger treasury secretary.

Question 8: Garret reffers to a Bidenism I'm not familliar with. "30 percent likelyhood of failure"(!?!?) What do you do if it doesn't work?
Answer. They are trying to cove all bases and deal with the big complicated tasks.

Question 9: Baseball steroid use...
Answer: Sad...the POTUS is understandably caught flatfooted at first by this idiot question. Recovers quickly  ....don't take shortcuts....(gee that could apply to the stimulus bill too)

Question 10: Helen Thomas.....Is Pakistan harboring "so called" terrorists. Does any nation in the Middle East have nukes?
Answer: Pretty logical and straight answer...no speculation on nukes. More nuclear disarmament.

Question 11: (Huffington Post has a WH correspondent.!?) Will you prosecute the Bush Administration?
He isn't going to answer as he has not seen the legislation in question. The intel community is painted with a broad brush...unfairly.

Question 12: How will you ever get the Republicans on board?
Answer: His answer seems to be its the DC culture...certainly a defensible point....but he is painting the differences as minor...they surely are not.

He is hitting the Republicans where they are  most vulnerable...spending and deficits...but this in essence means that they behaved like Dems for a time.

WOW...he wants to fire bad teachers and use charter schools...we can certainly work with him on that point.

He is painting the economists position as near unanimous....it is not of course. 

Post Speech....
I have to agree with the commenter who posted while I was liveblogging...we are screwed...The stimulus bill is a huge mess and likely to do terrible, terrible  damage. Obama is from a social and educational background that is unable to acknowledge or even comprehend this.  There were bright points to be sure, except for the HuffPo question he was about as straightforward in his answers as one could ask...even if his conclusions are worrisome and his blowing off the Huff Puffy leaves me hope that we will not descend into the politics of blood that the likes of Pelosi seem to want.

My head hurts.

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January 20, 2009

Good Luck and Godspeed President Obama!



Fair winds and following seas President Bush.

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January 19, 2009

Some Quick Thoughts on the Outgoing Administration

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.


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January 10, 2009

Mexico

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. 




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December 21, 2008

Sunday Funnies

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."


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November 10, 2008

Cannibalism, Self Mutilation and Consensus Building


Lord...I wanna break from politics. I've got partial posts in the "tube" on Rocket Girls, Haruhi, Space, water purification,  energy and curmudgeonism. Ubu Roi however, has posted a long and passionate comment on politics that deserves a full response. So...below the fold we go....
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November 05, 2008

Post Election Roundup

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


Seriously guys....

It may surprise some of you that this is almost never an appropriate response to anything...well, at least in politics...
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November 04, 2008

It's Official...(Hail to the Chief!)

Congratulations! President Elect Obama!


Update: McCain has given one of the classier concession speeches ever.
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VOTE! (Bumped)


Image shamelessly nicked from Strata-Sphere.

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Tim Kaine's Home Court Advantage

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.


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November 03, 2008

Well...Nice of them to Quietly State the Obvious Late on Election Eve!

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!)

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Condolances to Senator Obama on His Loss



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November 02, 2008

A Few Quick Closing Points


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...

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October 29, 2008

Put Down that Palantír!!

 The odds are indeed very long. The stakes of this fight are high.....but NOTHING is certain yet...


....except that in despair lies certain defeat.
Do not give up. Victory is not out of reach!      
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October 28, 2008

We Interupt Our Regularly Scheduled Below the Fold Obama Bashing

...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.


Of course then there is the part about them killing 88 children to comemorate their murder of a United States Senator...soley because of the color of his skin. Rot in hell asswipes! I hope your prison experience is deeply unpleasant.


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