Obviously it will be cut off so *after* you read, take a look at itHERE and see if you don't feel it.
Ok LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Elton John and his partner have become the proud parents of a son born to a surrogate in California on Christmas Day, US Weekly reported on Monday.
The boy, named Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, is the first for the British rock star and Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, who have been together since the early 1990s.
"We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment," US Weekly quoted the pair as saying. "Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents."
The magazine said the boy weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and it quoted a representative for the 63-year-old musician as saying that no further details about the surrogacy arrangement would be disclosed. John's spokeswoman told Reuters the report was accurate.
The pair, who entered into a civil union in 2005, tried to adopt an AIDS-infected orphan in Ukraine last year, but were thwarted by government regulations.
Glad they're keeping the woman's name out of everything - could you imagine the hounding she'd take the rest of her life? Forget it. And I know he's awfully old but he seems healthy so hopefully he will be around for the little guy a good while.
So me, I'm looking at that 5 part name and thinking - Levon...LEVON?! That's one of Elton's songs! Isn't that kind of like pretentious and self-aggrandizing and annoying, just the kind of thing celebrities do? And feeling annoyed. Then I went and looked at the lyrics and I got choked up as I listened to it - Levon was born on Christmas - see I didn't know that. And he shall be Levon, and he shall be a good man. And he shall be Levon, in accordance with the family plan
Then I just pictured a little baby on Christmas with people who love him and named him accordingly. So anyway now go look at the video with the lyrics ya' hardasses, and go with it eh? A happy New Year to everyone and your families. May the coming year bring you all you hope for it to. And there is much to hope for this year. So keep that hope alive. God bless us all. And Levon ;)
If it's cut off (WHY IS EVERYTHING CUT OFF HERE! I NEED TECH SUPPORT!) view it HERE
I just can't help it; every time I see this, and I know this kid is obviously influenced by the toxic media that hates all things conservative (or even libertarian for some reason), but I just keep liking him more. He's adorable. And hilarious yet sad too. And you can see he means what he's saying. I'm signing up for his youtube channel; that's it. He won me over. Do give it a look; at the very least he really does cover most everything that happened this year :)
So before we celebrate the New Year with something uplifting let's shred some leftism - it took me exactly 7 seconds to type in the address of a popular leftist blog and lo & behold, post #1 was just ripe for the wood chipper, so let's do it. I'm not linking it (no linky love from me! plus I don't want any infestations) but I'll save the link for posterity (if you really want it ask me in private.) The question posed to the posters was "What person/scenes/quotes would you like to see on your country's currency?" Now that's not something you really want the left's opinion on...until you start thinking about it. Why the hell not? At the moment I can still BUY some toilet paper with it but soon I'll be wiping my ass WITH the stuff anyway, since the fed's just printing it out at will, right? So my original horror at the answers quickly gave way to laughter, as I'm sure will yours. Now it's rather new so I'm sure fun new stuff will be added but for now here are some choice tidbits:
First response
Hillary Clinton
And yeah, I laughed right there.
Women poets: "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Ok honestly I'm not a poetry fan but it seems like it sucks to me. Who knows. Bit odd to be putting on a ten-spot, but hey, who am I to complain?
USA -- how about some lines from "This Land is Your Land." And not the first verse. The other verses, the ones that never get sung cause they're all socialist and shit.
These verses --
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tresspassin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Where they gonna fit all that? On the back?
Ellen Page (yes, the little girl from Juno who played a pregnant teenager and also from Hard Candy who played a revenge-seeking little girl against an alleged pedophile) and her quote: "I am a feminist and I am totally pro-choice, but what's funny is when you say that people assume that you are pro-abortion. I don't love abortion but I want women to be able to choose and I don't want white dudes in an office being able to make laws on things like this. I mean what are we going to do – go back to clothes hangers?"
Because that's like, totally what money should, like, say and stuff. Hehe.
Then we get, oh, Georgia O'Keefe (maybe one of her vagina paintings on the back, eh?) and Martin Luther King (no word on whether anything possibly plagiarized should be included) then my favorite so far
Oh, and the US should replace "In God We Trust" with "Property is Theft".
THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT MONEY?!? HAND IT OVER! LOL
I would kind of like to see a ban on white dudes on money for a hundred years or so.
Ah, yes, the white dudes. Gotta ban them. That one also suggests that money be made different sizes for the visually impaired - I would have gone with Braille, but what do I know?
I'd love to see currency with the slogan "From each according to ability; to each according to need."
Well why not? We're all socialists now, right Newsweek? Well, before you sold your magazine for $1 that is.
I'd love to see US currency have actual quotes by Thomas Paine. I wonder sometimes if alot of "patriots" have any idea at all what it was the revolution was fought for. I think they might shit their collective pants.
Well...considering what your friends are suggesting, I kinda doubt that we'd be the ones shocked, but ok...
Billie Holliday, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Janis Joplin, Katharine Hepburn, Sylvia Plath, Betty Friedan, bell hooks, Abigail Adams, Kate Chopin, Flannery O'Connor, Margaret Sanger, Mae Jemison, Margaret Mead
Does Rosa Parks come with a NAACP sticker on the back? Does Margaret Sanger get a token quote about eugenics? Or Margaret Mead about the hoax that was perpetrated on her by the Samoan girls? So many possibilities.
Well, on a fun note, the Ronald Reagan Commemorative Postage Stamp (his second) just went on sale, and the nice thing is they said they're replacing the "44 cents" with "Forever" so if you stock up now you can use them when the rates go up! I was gonna put a pic but my keyboard is sticking; it's on google. Enjoy!
I wish I could give it away to entice you to watch, but if I do, most of the buildup is lost. I was literally cheering as it went on, and if you have watched SNL or politics for the past 36 years as I have, you will be too.) It just keeps getting better and better and better. HOW did they get this CAST???? Holy shit! Let's just say you're about to see the most amazing sketch that SNL would never have the balls to do anymore. Oh, I don't care about the message (or the fact that SirObin bravely ran away from his own press conference rather than actually, you know, get to WORK or anything, highlighting the most shameful moment in presidential history in my lifetime. And I watched Nixon resign and the Clinton impeachment, so what does that tell you?) but trust me - watch and be taken back...back...back...and laugh your ass off!
Ok this is gonna be a long one, but I assure you it's worth it. Liz at rightnation.us braved the cesspool that is KOS to bring it to us and I'ma rip it to shreds one delicious bite at a time.
As the last election cycle demonstrated, reckless government has awoken the sleeping giant at last (boy was he sleeping hard) and while it must NEVER be pleasant to be a leftist, it's about to get one hell of a lot harder for a long time to come. Too many years we had to be "above" their sleazy level, be the better person, compassionate conservatism blahdeblahdeblah. The bashing was ceaseless, constant, it became like white noise and Bush for all his faults didn't crumple under it and have a mental breakdown. Sure some of us have been angry for a long time, but now millions upon millions more are angry and what's more they're done playing that game. The one some of us knew they could never win anyway. Ok, on to the KOS post that so inspired me - because the taste of their tears is sweet like candy, like sugar, like milk and honey. KOS - you EARNED this and I'mma give it to you.
I watched some of President Obama's comments in his press conference today, one day after I sent him a letter in response to an Organizing for America email, expressing my disappointment in some of his policies and his proposal to extend all of the Bush tax cuts.
I'm sure he'd already received it and it was his number one priority to address your letter. He didn't have anything better to do that day anyway. Not even a golf game in sight. Now what are we talking about - HIS proposal to extend the tax cuts? HIS proposal? No, honey, let me explain this to you - our guys were not going to play ball on that one, no way no how. And apparently with Obama you don't even have to be in your seat yet; you just have to not blink. They didn't blink. See, it was all or nothing on that one - let the taxes increase for *everyone* - including you leftist bloggers and the people barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck (not that you'd know about THAT; that involves WORK) - or leave the tax rates as they are across the board. He knew how you'd scream if your paychecks (those of you who get them) got smaller and frankly, he also knew it would be wrong to do that to them. He doesn't get why it's wrong to do it to the richer people, but he got that it would be wrong to do to the poorer among us. You didn't get that memo or didn't understand it. Moving on then, since you're a wordy fucker.
Today I saw a president openly mocking and disparaging the principled activists of his party. He sounded like he didn't want my support or the support of any progressives -- that he is done with us and plans to make no attempt to woo us by embracing any of our principles and policy preferences as he has done so frequently and self-abasedly with conservative Republicans.
First of all...WOO you? What are you, 14? An idiot? It is not the president's job to "woo" you - that's called campaigning. See, he's got the job now and he has to, like, DO it. I know, foreign concept. He doesn't have time to KEEP stroking your schlong for you anymore every second of every freaking day - not if he wants to get anything at all done; you people are ENDLESSLY greedy for stroking and you expect it from the guy as your birthright; well grow up.
Second of all, I watched the thing, and what I saw was a man who was TRYING to explain this all to you in very simple terms why it had to happen this way. They weren't lobbing softballs or writing puff pieces this time; this was his time to "get even" with the GOP and you were thirsty for conservative blood, and you thought he could get it for you. He couldn't. And you were galled. Surprisingly enough, not at them for being so insistent, but at HIM this time. I don't think he saw that one a'comin'. Because you built this man up to be a God...well he's a God who BLEEDS! (5 pts for reference.) The FIRST TIME he meets up with the new folk, he strikes a pretty even compromise (you know, that thing you're always telling conservatives to do?) and you call that "frequently and self-abasedly with Republicans"??? Are you kidding me? What in the hell are you going to do for two years when he's forced to make bigger compromises and take bigger losses? Do your heads go 'splodey or what? Because even Olbermann went on an unbelievable rant already; spewing the same shit he always does, only this time at his own guy instead of teh ebil Bush. My God, when it comes time to defund Obamacare and actually make cuts, what happens to you? I can't wait to find out.
But you know, if you had any sense at all, you would have actually listened to his explanation. He even did it your way - he blamed the Republicans for it (you say blame, I say credit - potayto potahto) - and you still wouldn't listen? Why? He was telling the truth (loosely defined) and in all likelihood he did his best (he did come out with a few things of his own, you know) but his best isn't going to be everything you want it to be - nobody's best could be, and this time he's up against real competition for the first time. This time he didn't have an entire congress and senate full of supporters to ram it through without reading it first. (Well...technically he DID, but whatever. I'm not really sure why he had to do this.) And you take his explanations as mockery of you? Get over yourself. He read your fucking letter and he did the best he could about it!
He sounded like he would not even try to "earn back my support and the support of the millions of progressive Democrats, especially young people like myself who invested so much hope in your candidacy two years ago," as I asked him to do in my letter.
Like I said, he read it first thing, and he really tried, my darling. Earning your support is his #1 priority. Along with his 8 thousand other number one priorities.
Then, this evening, I got another email from OFA, asking me to watch a video of President Obama promoting the Republican tax cuts for the rich and to leave a comment as feedback to the Obama campaign. I watched the video and left the following comment:
Whoah whoah - back up there, buddy boy. There were no tax cuts involved here - not for the wealthy. What was on the table was maintaining current tax RATES, not making cuts. Please do get your facts straight on this because it's rather important. Tax cuts come later. Coming soon to a district near you!
* Eric Stetson's diary :: ::
*
I think President Obama is making a big mistake by moving so far to the right and essentially doing exactly what Republicans want, a tax policy that will increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars and necessitate deep spending cuts that will be devastating to the economy.
Ok, how can I explain this one. First of all, the guy couldn't be more leftist if he were Stalin. He REALLY IS on your side. He studied and believes in Marx. He was raised into Islamicism. He finds it beautiful. He makes grandiose speeches to Middle Eastern Islamic leaders about how wonderful they are and bows to them when he can. This "move so far to the right" was an ever-so-slight swerve to avoid a massive pothole - if you think this is moving to the right, you are in for a VERY rude awakening. He hasn't even thought of coming close to the middle yet, and he's going to have to (or he'll have to use his own unemployment plan).
Second of all snookums, the Republicans did NOT get exactly what they want - not by a long shot. They made what is called a compromise wherein each side gives up something and try to come out fairly even. It was too soon for cuts, and continuing unemployment was not a bad one to compromise on for the Rs. With all due respect to Mark Levin, my favorite, this was not at all a bad deal for either side. Certainly not this early in the game.
Lastly, maintaining tax rates does not devastate the economy - tax hikes do. To stimulate the economy you make tax CUTS. You see, the government doesn't CREATE wealth and as Obama found to his chagrin, there are no such things as "shovel-ready jobs" like he thought there were. You make a couple trillion dollars fiat money and that doesn't put everyone to work building highways, unfortunately. All it does is create enormous debt. If you want the economy to grow, government has to GET OUT OF THE WAY of business so it can DO business and put people to work earning sweet sweet dough. That's how the real world works.
I was an enthusiastic supporter and volunteer in Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign, but I am very disappointed with his presidency so far. I was disappointed that he did not fight for a public option in the health care reform bill. I was disappointed that he did not close the Guantanamo Bay prison. I was disappointed that he did not allow investigations of high ranking Bush administration officials who authorized the use of torture. I was disappointed that he escalated the war in Afghanistan.
Ok you mixed them in together but let me pick 'em apart for you. He DID fight for a public option and wasn't able to get it if he wanted his health care plan to go through at all. I don't know why since he had both houses firmly stacked, but that's just how it went. They had to pick something out of that monstrosity, and that was the bit that got taken out of that MASSIVE chunk of bill. He got the rest of it through, or did you miss that part?
Now, Guantanamo Bay - you see, I know he WANTED to do that and YOU wanted him to do that but that was never going to happen. Because once he got there, you see, he found out that you really CAN'T do that. You really CAN'T, as we've tried to explain to you for YEARS now, simply let terrorist enemy combatants loose in the world, and the civil court is certainly not equipped to deal with them. So there has been a stalemate, or another sort of compromise - you don't set them loose or bring them through civil court, and we won't put them in front of a tribunal as SHOULD be done. See how that works? They get to live - in comfort - but they don't get OUT. Until we can get them properly before tribunals, that's how it's going to have to be, and Obama had to face this hard REALITY pretty quickly. You haven't caught on yet is all.
He hasn't brought the troops home and he's escalating efforts in the worst possible area (Afghanistan isn't worth it and doesn't need it) because the man has no foreign policy or military experience, which we told you in the first place. You knew that's what Biden was there for, but Biden is busy eating burritos or something, faking an Indian accent to get into the 7/11. So Joe's a little busy to help with foreign policy decisions. Actually, the man was such an embarrassment they had to shut him up permanently, but we won't talk about that. Many lulz have been denied us that should have been ours from Biden, so I will hold that against you.
At any rate, while he WANTS to simply bring the troops home and declare the Iraq efforts over and done, he was faced with another harsh reality which we have tried ENDLESSLY to explain to you - you SIMPLY. CAN. NOT. DO. THAT. It doesn't work that way. I'll leave it to our friends with military experience to explain to you why this is so. But trust me, it is.
As to "investigating" Bush's policies and trying to prosecute a defunct administration, that was never going to happen. I don't even believe he made any promises to that effect, either. You see, that takes years for one thing. For another thing, he actually has access to the information now, and he knows your rhetoric was mostly all bullshit and there's nothing to prosecute. Caterpillars do not equal torture no matter how you spin it. And while he was wasting his time dicking around trying to find something and prosecute the previous administration, he wouldn't have had a single moment to ram through all the pork you demanded. Which he DID. So you ought to be really, really glad he didn't waste his time on that bullshit.
Extending the Republican tax cuts for the rich is the last straw for me. I can no longer call myself a supporter of President Obama. I hope he will step aside at the end of his term and let other Democrats who actually believe in Democratic principles and policies run for president in 2012.
Slight correction - maintaining current tax rates for everyone. There, fixed it for you. Step aside for another Dem? Who in the hell else do you think is going to be able to A) win and B) get what you want done? You fool! But OK; I have no problem with him stepping aside. Bring it on; whoever you want.
And then I clicked the link to unsubscribe from the Organizing for America email list. I didn't do it lightly. I have thought of doing it before, but never actually did it.
You're gonna...un...un...unsubscribe??? Shit just got real.
Maybe it was my memory of the weekends I spent walking neighborhoods, knocking on doors, passing out literature and attempting to persuade people to vote for this man in the crucial swing state of Virginia.
Yeah I remember that to. He told you to "get in their faces", remember that? He told you to go to the barbershops and beauty shops and your neighbors and get in their faces and tell them who to vote for. And you did it. Seems a little funny now, doesn't it? Yeah, we thought so too.
I was always hoping that at some point, President Obama would surprise me by restoring the hope I had invested in him in his campaign.
Problem with that, dollface, is that "Hope and Change" were a campaign slogan. There was absolutely no meaning behind it. You can't just say "Hope! Change!" without defining your terms. See, we were real specific with our candidates about what they need to do when they're there, or at least try to do. You voted for an empty suit with an empty slogan with no definition. But I'm sorry your poor little hope was just dashed against the rocks like seafoam. Oh, wait. No, I'm not. You're a filthy hatemongering KOStard and I hate you back.
There is such a deliberate finality about taking the action of unsubscribing from the mailing list of an organization that one used to support strongly and in which one made a significant investment. Finally I did it.
ZOMG YOU DID? Cue up the violins, I think he's gonna solo! Then what happened, Eric?
I felt a sick feeling in my stomach and found tears welling up in my eyes. I don't cry easily. I certainly didn't expect that the simple act of unsubscribing from a political mailing list would have such an effect on me, but somehow it did.
Yeah, I think that's the definition of "crying easy." But hey, that's just me. I was sorely disappointed when Fred Thompson dropped out because no one else was suitable, but hey, life goes on. I didn't, like, cry over it.
I think my tears came because of a realization that suddenly hit me full force like a punch in the gut: that Barack Obama will go down in history as a tragic figure, a classic, archetypal example of a man who had so much potential to be a great, transformational leader at a time when the society in which he lived desperately needed such a leader and actually elected him to lead our country in a new direction.
Oh, please. You guys are constantly writing and rewriting and rewriting history before it even happens. You were never taught so you don't have the vaguest concept of history. If the grownups hadn't come in to save him midterm he COULD have gone down as another Carter - an utter failure who led us into some of the deepest misery seen since the Great Depression. Ever hear of the Misery Index? Gas lines? Look into it sometime. But now he won't even get that chance. If he's lucky he'll go down like another Clinton - saved two years in by the efforts of others that he took credit for and got rewarded with a second term for. That's gonna take a hell of a lot of luck, though. Because, see, you didn't count on us. You thought we'd NEVER strike back in significant numbers. You didn't know you'd awoken a sleeping giant with your constant streams of daily invective and utter, mouth-foaming hatred. But you did. The giant am awake now, and he's PISSED. We're done playing pussyfoot with you people. Oh you had it so easy with mild-mannered Bush...you just don't know what's coming your way this time.
And who took the rare opportunity given to him and threw it away, becoming just another typical politician making backroom deals for less than half a loaf -- mere crumbs, in fact, and crumbs spiked with poison -- becoming an accessory to the continued decline of American civilization, shattering the hopes of millions. When he could have been so much more.
First of all, no he couldn't have. He hadn't the vaguest notion of what being president would mean and he had no experience whatsoever. The guy was in way over his head from day one. Second of all, spare me the damned melodrama - the guy did one HELL of a lot more damage than "crumbs" (poisoned ones! Oh noes!) in the last two years. He and Pelosi rammed through MASSIVE expansions of government and extreme levels of unprecedented debt. Trillions of dollars in fiat money. (By the way, something like 100 billion of that was misprinted, or mixed with properly printed and misprinted...so that money's tied up - it would take them 30 years to sort it by hand, but the machines they figure on something like two years. So some of that sweet sweet stimulus money won't be going to Obama's big business friends for a while.) Obamacare. HUGE expansion in governmental power and damage to the insured. The guy even tried to explain THIS to you - he tried to explain that all the massive government entitlements we have today - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, etc. etc. etc. started out one hell of a lot smaller than they are now - it takes time for them to grow you know; but once you start them, unless you defund them immediately they never go away; they just grow. He TRIED to tell you this and you just kept pounding and pounding your drum and wouldn't listen. Remember when he said the Tea Partiers should be thanking him? YOU should be thanking him. He's done every fucking thing you wanted except the things that there is no way to do (like closing club Gitmo and releasing the rats from their tropical cages) and do you thank him? No, you ungrateful sacks of shit.
Instead what you do is scream and cry and throw a big fat tantrum like children who have to go to bed early or can't get that piece of candy RIGHT NOW. And you know why? Because ALL YOU KNOW HOW TO DO IS HATE AND SCREAM AND TEAR THINGS APART, and it's too old to keep doing Bush now, so you stoked up your hate machine again (because life's no fun without it) and threw Obama into it instead this time. Because this time there was no one else to throw in. The guy is one unlikeable, angry, Marxist, lying sonofabitch, but you know what? He didn't deserve that. Not from YOU. He really HAS done his best by YOU.
But you know what, my friend? That empty feeling in your gut? Those bitter tears that taste like sugar to me? Get used to them. Because we're angry now. And we're not playing your reindeer games anymore. For reindeer, see Sarah Palin's last television show. That's what reindeer get, you Socialist, anti-Semitic, race-baiting scumbags. They get EATEN. What's that? I hear the sound of a shotgun being cocked...oh cry, baby, cry...cry...cry. Damn, that's some tasty caribou. It's gonna take years to clean up your mess and wipe your shitty diapers up but the grownups are going to do it. Just cry it out; it's good for the lungs.
Now, for my readers I have an AWESOME bonus, as promised - with major hat tips to my good friend clambake - GET THIS MAN OVER HERE STAT!!! REALITY CHECK! I was *cheering* as much as the crowd after this one; it's better than your morning coffee, I assure you. And if you can't see it here, go HERE - MUST SEE
This picture kind of blew me away. Yes, that's Obama's chauffeured vehicle leaving, and a homeless man begging for alms. In Chicago. Because after all, Obama did so much good in Chicago. I know he can't stop for beggars on his way to the car, but I have an old book containing representative photos from the first 40 years of Life Magazine, and this is the kind of thing that would have been in there. It's iconic that way.
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek (which recently sold for a dollar - hehe) sez:
But you could argue that the politics on this were conditioned by this election, that the American people were given a chance to speak, and whatever the polls are saying—and the polls show people feel that extending the tax cuts for the wealthy is a bad idea—they had an opportunity to send a message in November, and they didn‘t send it, Ed.
Oh, Jon. They sent the message. And they sent messengers to deliver it in person. Hard. How do you like the message so far?
Tavis Smiley (very nice looking man btw) talking to Dickhead Durbin
SMILEY: I think most Americans agree, although I've not done a scientific poll, but I think most of us would probably agree, Senator - I'm sure you do as well - that deficit reduction is a real issue. [But] The question is when the time for that conversation has come, and whether or not, given the condition of the economy, we ought to change our focus to talking about deficit reduction versus stimulating this economy.
Because the deficit has *nothing* to do with the economy. Does it?
So everybody knows now this commission has come out with their report about what ought to be done with regard to deficit reduction, so I'm asking two questions. One, your take on that report, just a top-line take on it, and your take, more expressly, on whether or not this conversation in Washington is going to shift at the wrong time.
DURBIN: This is a reality. The deficit faces us. We borrow 40 cents out of every dollar that we spend. We borrow most of it from countries like China. They have become major creditors of the United States and have more power over our economy than we want them too. So dealing with this is not only the right thing economically, it's certainly right from a moral viewpoint. We can't leave this debt to our kids and expect them to shoulder that responsibility, but the reality of the situation is if we hit the brakes now on spending and stimulus, right in the midst of a recovery economy, we could plunge this economy back into recession, with even higher unemployment.
(Sidebar: suddenly they're concerned about leaving our kids debt? That's a laugh.) Ok excuse me, a recovery economy??? When did this recovery start? Why didn't anyone tip me off to it? Oh, I forgot...they're citing the likes of Paul Krugman. IOW they don't have a fucking clue what they're talking about. BACK into recession??? Are you freaking kidding me? BACK into recession? Do these people live in jars? Higher unemployment?? Higher than WHAT? Under Bush it rose to possibly 7.6 which is bad enough (though it wasn't the norm) and under Obama - who swore it couldn't go over 8%, it's now risen pretty much to double digits. We're back in the Carter years, and they're talking about going BACK into a recession from a RECOVERING economy with double-digit unemployment??? And we've got Bernanke TheBenbernank promising to raise inflation and printing tons of fiat money (because God forbid DEFLATION! Oh NOES!) and Krugman recommending an inflation rate of an eventual 28%...and extensions of those sweet sweet unemployment benefits of 2 years total (i.e. welfare, duh) and every day I hear from people who can't get a job making more than they are already making on unemployment (and it's unfortunately all too true)...and a recession rapidly turning into a DEPRESSION...and these geniuses are recommending more of the same because it just wasn't ENOUGH the first time. Never mind that if they'd get the hell OUT of Thebenbernank plan, the stimulus, and all this other nonsense, we might HAVE jobs to get if we're willing. The country is in the hands of utter, utter fools. Who have never run an economy before. Who have NEVER shown an ability to make or keep money and who just want to punish the people who could give us employment and stop taking taxes from people who don't really pay taxes anyway. Welcome to the Cloward-Piven strategy of manufactured crises to perform massive takeovers. Greedy, power-hungry little songbirds that they are. And now even Gene Simmons wishes he could take his vote back. If only you hadn't been so fucking stupid in the first place, Gene. Lick it up.
Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/12/05/pbs-tavis-smiley-asks-dick-durbin-and-gary-hart-about-too-much-gop-parti#ixzz17Hs60NdU
I don't know what to say about this "field trip" except holy crap! But this guy tells the story so funny. Props to him for making us laugh. (Shamelessly snagged from That is Racist
"In Indonesia, our stilted professor was replaced with a man at ease who charmed his audience by speaking the local language. Tunku Varadarajan only wishes this could have been Obama’s first major speech to the Muslim world—and that his visit weren’t so short.
It’s a colossal shame that presidential life has no magic rewind button, for if it did—and we could whirr ourselves back to June 2009—we’d have had Barack Hussein Obama skip Pharaonic old Cairo, city of the ghastly Hosni Mubarak and a tightly coiled hatred of the West, and deliver his first major speech to a Muslim nation in Indonesia.."
Oh, if only he could find a FRIENDLY audience, he would SO RULE.
"Why, oh why, did he not come here in June ’09, forgoing the sterility of the Arab world for the tolerant, syncretic Islam of Indonesia? Whoever advised him then should be shot, or fed to crocodiles"
Tolerance.
"for it is in places like Indonesia, where Islam is worn lightly, where Islam is not a bludgeon deployed against the rest of the world, that Obama’s repeated references to Islam as a “great world religion” seem plausible."
So we're admitting it ISN'T plausible other places then?
"Indonesia, as the president also recognized, is a democracy—a democracy of Muslims, as opposed to an Islamic democracy. As such, it is not a place where he will have felt at all awkward extolling the virtues of “open markets, a free press, a justice system, an open society, and active citizens,” as he did Tuesday night. Can you imagine him calling out such things so freely in Egypt, or in any other Muslim country bar Turkey, where it is still possible—just—to identify these features?"
Would be nice if he could identify them HERE, would't it? And are we acknowledging that these thing are NOT identifiable in other Arab-Muslim countries?
"sweetly personal (Obama lived in Jakarta when he was a boy)"
But he wasn't born there!!! He's Hawaiian!
"Why oh why was his visit so short, but his visit there appears to have been as heartwarming to the locals as it was maddeningly fleeting. Judging by the gusher of words in the local Bahasa language at the end of his speech, Obama has deep personal rapport—still—with Indonesia. One wishes that he had stayed longer, and showcased Indonesia to greater effect, introducing the country and its tolerant Muslim ways to America at greater length. Islam is not of the Arab world alone. In truth, our best Muslim allies in the long run will come from places like Indonesia. Which is why Obama’s salutations to Islam—which had grated so harshly in suffocating, Sunni Cairo— sounded so congenial in Indonesia, a country whose president, Sushilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is a Muslim who doesn’t even have a Muslim name."
So I guess we'll call him Bambang from now on. Bambang...that's a cooler name than Obama, isn't it? You can almost hear the Pshew, Pshew! sounds.
"Go back to Indonesia soon, President Obama. The people there get you, and like you. What’s more, they get us, and like us. (What’s “win-win” in Bahasa?)"
Yes, and STAY there. After all, us bitter clingers don't "get" you - we just didn't GET your awesomeness, which is why the GOP swept the house, the governorships, and the state legislatures - we just didn't GET your awesomeness; we're too stupid. Go rule where you're wanted!
From The DC - "South Carolina Republican Tim Scott made history Tuesday night by becoming the first African-American Republican to be elected to Congress from the Deep South since Reconstruction and the first African-American Republican congressman since J.C. Watts in 2003.
Elected to South Carolina’s First District — a coastal area running from Charleston to Myrtle Beach — Scott is a veritable Tea Party representative, not only receiving endorsements from Sarah Palin and Tea Party activists, but also telling The Daily Caller in July that he was more inclined to join the Tea Party Caucus than the Congressional Black Caucus.
Running on a platform of fiscal restraint, repeal of the health care law, low taxes, and smaller government, Scott’s message won the day."
I really feel for this guy. He's got one hell of a battle ahead of him. Instead of being just an evil obstructionist hater, he's also going to be a token, an Uncle Tom, a tool, and a traitor to his race.
He's let himself in for cartoons like this one: and a slew of other racist cartoons that were directed at Condi, Thomas, and others. I wish him all the best in the world. Hold firm, my friend! Oh, and:
Ripping some prior quotes and a little commentary by Malkin, let's talk about Mr. "I Won" Obama's new priority of reaching out to the newcomers.
“I probably should have used the word ‘opponents’ instead of ‘enemies’ to describe political adversaries,” Obama admitted Monday. Yeah, PROBABLY.
“We don’t mind the Republicans joining us,” Obama taunted a few weeks ago. “They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.” The unifier.
“They’re counting on young people staying home and union members staying home and black folks staying home,” the fear-mongering agent of hope and change jeered on the campaign trail last month.
“You would think they’d be saying thank you,” he sneered last April, when millions turned out for the nationwide Tax Day tea party protests. THANK YOU, sir, for waking up the sleeping giant.
“I want them just to get out of the way” and “don’t do a lot of talking,” he scoffed in response to prescient critics of the federal trillion-dollar stimulus boondoggle. Well we just talked at the ballot box. It just isn't what you wanted to hear.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called vocal citizens who protested the federal health care takeover bill during the town hall revolts of 2009 “un-American,” too. Remember? “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,” Pelosi and Hoyer blasted in an op-ed piece for USA Today last summer. “Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.” Funny, I seem to remember SEIU thugs trying to drown out the Town Hall protestors.
Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, whom the president hailed as an “outstanding” member of Congress, accused Republicans of wanting elderly people to “die quickly” and of presiding over a “holocaust in America.” But "death panels" was hate speech, right?
In California, entrenched incumbent jerk Pete Stark derided immigration enforcement activists at a town hall by asking: “Who are you going to kill today?” To an elderly constituent who opposed the health care bill, Stark retorted: “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine.” Holy hell. Could you imagine if Palin dared say something like that to a Democrat??
Remind your representatives as many times as you can that they were elected to be the party of HELL NO. They must endure the jeers of "obstructionists" (I Won, remember?) and suck it up. They had better do their damndest to UNDO the destruction done and DO the good they are supposed to at least try to do. Because they can be out just as well as in. And we have not yet begun to fight.
And let's not forget Leftist Darling faux "Economist" Paul Krugman's wet dream - " …announce a fairly high inflation target over an extended period, and commit to meeting that target.
What am I talking about? Something like a commitment to achieve 5 percent annual inflation over the next 5 years — or, perhaps better, to hit a price level 28 percent higher at the end of 2015 than the level today. (Compounding) Crucially, this target would have to be non-contingent — not something you'll call off if the economy recovers." Yes, Paul, raising the inflation rate to 28%. The guy's a walking billboard for a brand new Misery Index.
Jerry Brown The man's an economic Sooooper-Jeeenyus!
"The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs. Jobs for every American is doomed to failure because of modern automation and production. We ought to recognize it and create an income-maintenance system so every single American has the dignity and the wherewithal for shelter, basic food, and medical care. I’m talking about welfare for all. Without it, you’re going to have warfare for all. Without a universal health care like every other civilized country, without a minimum level of income, this country will explode. You can’t blame the guy at the bottom forever. At some point there’s a reaction and we’ll see that the real criminals are those calling the tune, making the rules, and walking to the bank."
Yes, Jerry, because that WORKS. Jerry? You DO know that the money so "spent" becomes worth not even enough to wipe your ass with, don't you? *Crickets.* Don't you???
I don't know what made me think of her. I was just trawling around, and happened upon Ace of Spades Headquarters, and Iowahawk and Jim Treacher and IMAO and all the good, funny, Tea Party/Conservative spots, and I guess I was just reminded of that whiny little blond girl who had so damn much to say that no one ever wanted to hear during the presidential election. Well, she's still saying it and she's still furious that no one wants to hear it, and she can't believe that no one wants to hear it. It's not a trainwreck, it's more like a little pink Hello Kitty round-cornered baby choo-choo wreck. With bubbles. She honestly doesn't get it. Why does she think she gets all these TV spots or anyone published her books? Because she's so interesting? Of course not, it's because she knows Sarah Palin and they're hoping for some dirt from someone who is openly jealous of her. (No, really, she is openly jealous; she doesn't even try to pretend anything else.) When you literally have to tell a TV interviewer that your book is interesting for all sorts of other reasons than Sarah Palin and he should be interested in those other things so please ask about them NOW, you're really a bubblehead.
Let's link up a couple of her recent articles - one is actually called The Palin Girls Don't Share wherein we are supposed to feel righteous indignation at Meghan being forced to do her own hair and makeup one morning when the Palins were hogging all the makeup artists. She actually likens this to taking the Red Pill in the Matrix, as though her reality is more interesting than the Matrix. (In most cases I'd agree, but in her case, the bubbleheadedness is so strong that I just can't - Mary Poppins is meatier than the stuff this girl writes.) She had never seen anything like the instant phenomenon of Palin, even in all her travels with...John McCain. Well, honey, I hate to break it to you but I wouldn't expect to see something like that traveling with John McCain, whose only contribution in 2000 was to scream "Campaign Finance Reform", which no one - absolutely no one in the whole damn world - could work up the vaguest enthusiasm for except him. The words alone are enough to put me to sleep, something that usually requires a double dose of Ambien. I'm glad to see you don't blame your father, though - since the only good thing he did was introduce Palin to the world before dying a rightful and quiet political death, and got the whole Tea Party movement going and all that good stuff - stuff I know you don't understand with your leftist "big-tent Republican" ideas. I mean Palin was even then the anti-McCain, even when she was using his talking points and supporting his stupid ideas; you knew it wasn't what she was really about. If she hadn't been, it wouldn't have been a race at all, but a vulgar humiliation for your dad, who would have gone down in flames far worse than he did.
"I found myself fighting to convince people interviewing me that my book was about things other than Palin and interesting for many reasons." Hehe. Yes, we know.
But then she gets naughty and here I have to correct her and take issue with her poor little baby heart - she then goes on to say that ALL the Tea Party/Conservative women are just knockoffs of Palin and that's plain horseshit. Michelle Bachmann is no clone; she's a bulldozer all on her own. And get serious; how long has Ann Coulter been around? She was working in the Supreme Court before Palin was on the PTA. What kind of disservice are you doing to women like Michelle Malkin to say she's nothing but a Palin knock-off? Honey, it's not the national obsession that's showing, it's YOUR obsession that's the problem here. So go ahead and write your petty little jealous screeds all you like, but next time don't make the mistake of thinking Palin came first and the rest followed like ducks in a row - she made a tremendous contribution and your father did one thing right in his life by giving her a stage to do it from, but the rest of 'em weren't spawned from her; this is individualism, honey - now go put on some makeup and fix your hair and look pretty for the cameras. And don't forget to dish up all the dirt on Palin you can in your next TV interview; it's the only thing that makes you remotely interesting.
Meghan's Palin ProblemBy the way I think comments are finally available again; I don't know where the wires got crossed but please comment if you're still here!
Hiya, folks (if you're still there) - just a brief note to let you know I'm still alive and kicking, but have been avoiding the computer and politics like the plague...just one of those life seasons. As a matter of fact, I logged on to my gmail account to find it had been hacked, and I was getting threatening phone calls from a barely intelligible Indian man pretending to be, in turns, a police officer and a lawyer, claiming I was to be sued for thousands of dollars for internet fraud because of an ever-changing amount of money on a debt that never existed. Show ME to go on hiatus, eh? He had all sorts of frightening information, such as our bank account number, last four digits of social, etc. I finally realized it was a scam after a few moments of panic and told him to find another patsy. But he called several more times until my husband took to reading him the bible - he doesn't call anymore. The number the calls came from is on google with several comments from people who he'd attempted the same scam on; who knows how many more caved in and sent the several hundred they were demanding to make it all go away. Heh.
Anyway, I will eventually get back to following politics and enlightening everyone with my wit and wisdom (haha) but right this moment couldn't say exactly when. It's all been a moment-by-moment thing of late. Best to you all and hope this message finds you all well and hale. Namaste.
