A very nice article on the decline of the left

This comes via InstaPundit.

An article by Walter Russell Mead in the American Interest on decline of liberalism in America; some highlights:

“The blue model is breaking down so fast and so far that not even its supporters can ignore the disintegration and disaster it now presages. Liberal Democrats in states like Rhode Island and cities like Chicago are cutting pensions and benefits and laying off workers out of financial necessity rather than ideological zeal. The blue model can no longer pay its bills, and not even its friends can keep it alive. Our real choice, however, is not between blue or pre-blue. We can’t get back to the 1890s or 1920s any more than we can go back to the 1950s and 1960s. We may not yet be able to imagine what a post-blue future looks like, but that is what we will have to build. . . . There are a lot of reasons to be nostalgic for the old days (especially for the white males who were, far and away, the biggest beneficiaries of the old system), but there are also good reasons to bid the blue model good riddance.”

Please, go read the rest of that; because in a sense, this article says much of what I have written in the past on my old blog. Basically, that the left went off the rails years ago; along with organized labor, when they shifted from offense to defense. Since then, they have gotten worse and worse.  A perfect example was in 2008, that whole thing with Hillary and Obama was a perfect manifestation of the class warfare between Man and Woman, Black and White; it all got to be a bit too much for me. Which is why I left them.

The sad thing is, the left, as it were, got even crazier after Obama was elected. It was as if the arrogance of the left went through the roof; they had the media, the white house, congress —- everything — and what did Obama do with all that favoritism? He blew it! I believe the grassroots left knows they were played; the establishment left does not really care, they are getting paychecks; but the people I know, the bloggers, are not happy.

Which brings me to my last point; I really wish this process between Newt and Romney would finally end and the Republican Party would get behind one of them. This whole populist versus establishment fighting is wearing very thin with me. It has nuances of the left’s class warfare; which I really do not get into at all. Do not misunderstand me here; I am all for airing someones dirty laundry and misdeeds, but to wrap it up in a package that the left would approve of, is not a way to fight a battle.

In other words; Florida’s primary cannot come quick enough!

 

Video: Charlotte Bergmann takes a verbal berating from a racist black radio host

This comes with a Hat Tip to Smitty over at The Other McCain.

First of all here is the Billboard that she dared to put up:

The video:

I am going to write over here, what I wrote on Stacy’s blog, in the comments section:

If I were that Woman’s hubby….That would be a dead black man. Quote me on that. That was bullshit. That was NOT an intelligent black man, speaking to a black woman; that was a feral NEGRO asshole being a dick to a black lady.

….and they wonder why I won’t vote Democratic Party no more. It is the same mentally that those corrupt Detroit Police officers carried that shot my cousin Michael Hill on July 11, 1994. That whitey is evil…

Why don’t want them around me, ever. 😡

In case you are wondering, I’m talking about this Cousin here:

My Cousin, Michael Hill -Mowed down by three corrupt Detroit negro cops in 1994.

So, yeah, I have attitude towards blacks, especially liberal black Democrats. 😡

Charlotte’s running for Tennessee’s 9th district, help her win and put people like this asshole in check.

 

Breaking News: Rick Santorum’s daughter Bella admitted to hospital

My Jesus be with this sweet little one.

Video:

Story:

The three-year-old daughter of Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has been admitted to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the candidate has cancelled his Sunday morning campaign events to be at her side.

Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Saturday night that the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife, Karen, were with Bella at CHOP. Gidley said Santorum planned to return to campaigning as soon as possible in Florida, where the Republican primary is Tuesday.

Bella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition in which a child has a third copy of material from chromosome 18, instead of the usual two, causing a wide array of physical and mental problems.

Bella was not expected to survive until her first birthday – half of infants with Trisomy 18 do not survive their first week, according the National Institutes of Health. Some children have lived to their teenage years, but with significant medical and developmental issues.

The Santorums have been frequent visitors to CHOP with their daughter, and concerns over Isabella’s health have canceled previous Santorum campaign events.

During his campaign, Santorum and his wife have spoken openly about the challenges and rewards of raising a child with such a condition.

The Santorums have six other children; they lost a baby boy, Gabriel, shortly after his birth in 1996. Bella was born in 2008; two years later, Santorum wrote about her in an Inquirer column.

“All children are a gift that comes with no guarantees,” he wrote. “While Bella’s life may not be long, and though she requires our constant care, she is worth every tear.”

via Santorum daughter admitted to hospital | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/28/2012.

Of all my criticisms of the GOP field, this is not one of them. Rick Santorum is a good father to all of his children; especially Bella.

The only thing I will say, because I am fair and balanced type of a blogger; is that Rick Santorum should be grateful that he actually has healthcare to help take care of his daughter. Because there are many, like myself, who have no healthcare insurance at all. Not that I believe that it should come from the Government. However, I believe that Mr. Santorum should be a bit more mindful that there are some, that are not of his financial status, and their children would most certainly not be as lucky as Bella.

Having said all of that; My prayers go out to the Santorum family during this difficult time.  May the Lord Jesus hold Bella in the palm of his hand.

Others: Michelle Malkin and Atlas Shrugs

Video: Friday Evening Thoughts

Just a video of my thoughts.

Please note: In this video, I mistakenly refer to the Washington Times; I meant Washington Post. Oops. 😳

References:

Quinnipiac University: Romney Pulls Ahead In See-Saw Florida Gop Primary, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Men Shift From Gingrich To RomneyMemeorandum thread

Washington Post: Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online: No One Left to Lie To

Jeffrey Lord / American Spectator: Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt

Roundups: Washington Wire, Outside the Beltway, NationalJournal.com, The Caucus, M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD’S …, Sunshine State News, Washington Post, Firedoglake, Don Surber, Florida Times Union, The Strata-Sphere, The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, American Spectator, Presidential Power, Hot Air, Mail Online, Reuters, GOP 12 and Post on Politics, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, Little Green Footballs, The Political Carnival, US Politics, Hit & Run, Boing Boing, Gawker, Daily Kos, Hot Air, YID With LID, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Dish, The PJ Tatler, GOP 12, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Political Mojo and Shakesville, National Review, Riehl World View, Guardian, Big Journalism, The Atlantic Online, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Eunomia, RedState, Power Line, The Reality-Based Community, The Daily Caller, JOSHUAPUNDIT and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Nitpicking Megan McArdle a bit

Megan McArdle is a good writer that makes a whole bunch more money writing than I do.

She writes a very good blog entry about the President’s State of the Union address. In it, she writes the following, that I feel the need to comment about:

The harsh way to put it is that the speech was an extended whine about how all the rich bankers and George Bush have screwed everything up.  That was fine campaign rhetoric when he was a Senator.  But it’s pretty weak when he’s been in charge for most of a full term–two years of that with a majority in congress.

You see this is the entire problem; the Democrats lead by President Obama, continue to perpetuate the outright lie that the President George W. Bush and the cabal of rich bankers caused the Wall Street crisis and that drove our economy into the ground.  This is nothing more than outright historic revisionism.  The truth is the so-called “bankers” took advantage of the situation.  As I have written on this blog and my previous blog, in 1973, the Democrats passed the community reinvestment act.  In 1993, the Democrats added the subprime clause to that act, which created the ability for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack to sell high-risk, adjustable rate mortgages to those who, under normal circumstances could not even remotely be qualified to get them.

There was one thing that did exacerbate the situation, that was the removal by Congress and not by Bush; the regulation that was supposed to prevent predatory lending conditions.  Furthermore,  The Republicans in Congress at the time, can be blamed for backing off an investigation, when the then President of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played the race card in response to a warning from the Bush White House that the housing market was about to crash.

Now the question as to the morality of the bankers is another story entirely.  However, the very idea that somehow a cabal of banks actually brought the economy down is weapons grade conspiracy theory nonsense.  The only thing that “The Bankers” and Wall Street did was take advantage of a situation created by the very socialists who are blaming the banks for the situation in the first place.

 

Videos: Pelosi “I know something about Newt” — Newt: “Spit it out!”

I find this to be mildly amusing; for the record, Pelosi did this about month ago and basically got told the same thing then, “Either put up or shut up.” So, this is just more of the saber-rattling from the left.

Here is Pelosi rattling her sabers: (Via TownHall – H/T HotAir.com)

…and here is Newt telling Pelosi, “Spit it out” (nice nuanced sexual metaphor there Newt! 🙄 ) (via Taegan Goddard – H/T HotAir.com)

Money Quote:

She lives in a San Francisco environment of very strange fantasies and very strange understandings of reality. I have no idea what’s in Nancy Pelosi’s head. If she knows something, I have a simple challenge: Spit it out.

Again, the nuanced sexual metaphor aside; I cannot honestly say that I really disagree with his assessment of Pelosi really. However, I do believe he just lost the San Francisco voters. Either way, I believe is Pelosi does actually have anything, that she should dish; because I would like to know what it truly is myself.

Also, Byron York reminds everyone that the IRS did investigate Newt and he came out looking rather nicely:

Nothing happened with the Justice Department and the FBI, but the IRS began an investigation that would stretch over three years.  Unlike many in Congress — and journalists, too — IRS investigators obtained tapes and transcripts of each session during the two years the course was taught at Kennesaw State College in Georgia, as well as videotapes of the third year of the course, taught at nearby Reinhardt College. IRS officials examined every word Gingrich spoke in every class; before investigating the financing and administration of the course, they first sought to determine whether it was in fact educational and whether it served to the political benefit of Gingrich, his political organization, GOPAC, or the Republican Party as a whole.  They then carefully examined the role of the Progress and Freedom Foundation and how it related to Gingrich’s political network.

In the end, in 1999, the IRS released a densely written, highly detailed 74-page report.  The course was, in fact, educational, the IRS said. “The overwhelming number of positions advocated in the course were very broad in nature and often more applicable to individual behavior or behavioral changes in society as a whole than to any ‘political’ action,” investigators wrote. “For example, the lecture on quality was much more directly applicable to individual behavior than political action and would be difficult to attempt to categorize in political terms. Another example is the lecture on personal strength where again the focus was on individual behavior. In fact, this lecture placed some focus on the personal strength of individual Democrats who likely would not agree with Mr. Gingrich on his political views expressed in forums outside his Renewing American Civilization course teaching. Even in the lectures that had a partial focus on broadly defined changes in political activity, such as less government and government regulation, there was also a strong emphasis on changes in personal behavior and non-political changes in society as a whole.”

The IRS also checked out the evaluations written by students who completed the course. The overwhelming majority of students, according to the report, believed that Gingrich knew his material, was an interesting speaker, and was open to alternate points of view. None seemed to perceive a particular political message. “Most students,” the IRS noted, “said that they would apply the course material to improve their own lives in such areas as family, friendships, career, and citizenship.”

The IRS concluded the course simply was not political.  “The central problem in arguing that the Progress and Freedom Foundation provided more than incidental private benefit to Mr. Gingrich, GOPAC, and other Republican entities,” the IRS wrote, “was that the content of the ‘Renewing American Civilization’ course was educational…and not biased toward any of those who were supposed to be benefited.”

The bottom line: Gingrich acted properly and violated no laws.  There was no tax fraud scheme. Of course, by that time, Gingrich was out of office, widely presumed to be guilty of something, and his career in politics was (seemingly) over.

So, having said all of that; if Pelosi has something of moral or ethical interest, she should dish on it or otherwise, shut up.

 

Sounds like a winner to me.

Peter Ingemi AKA the Da Tech Guy has purposed a GOP debate with Ed Morrissey as moderator.

Sounds like a winner; I’d watch it! 😀

Others:

John Kerry’s injury is symbolic of his party.

Ouch.

Alternative Headline: “Why old people should not play rough sports.” The real kicker or punchline here? Kerry was playing the position of “Right Wing.” Oof.

The Story:

WASHINGTON — The secret is out: John Kerry is a right winger.

The Globe uncovered the news after inquiring why Kerry was sporting two nasty black eyes today at a White House ceremony in which President Obama feted the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

It turns out he got whacked playing hockey. And his sporting position might come as a surprise to the constituents who elected the senior Democrat from Massachusetts to his fifth term in 2008.

Kerry’s office said the pair of shiners were the result of a busted nose that the 68-year-old politico sustained on the ice when he was smacked in the face with a hockey stick during a game with friends and family over the holidays.

“A broken nose, two black eyes,” his spokeswoman Whitney Smith confirmed in an e-mail.

Of course she couldn’t resist taking her own partisan slapshot in this highly competitive political season.

“He must feel like Mitt Romney after South Carolina,” she quipped, referring to the former Bay State governor and now-embattled GOP presidential contender.

via John Kerry, on the right wing, breaks nose – Political Intelligence – A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe – Boston.com

Poor man, I will refrain from the silly puns and such as  to the hockey position he was playing.  I have to tell you, I have been whacked in the nose before; and that stuff hurts like bloody blazes.  🙁 I never broke my nose; but I have come close to do doing so.  So, I feel for the man.  A note of personal disclosure: I voted for John Kerry in 2004.  Of course, that was back in the day when I still rooting for that team.  I have changed my views much since then.

Which brings me to my point, I always hear and read about people asking, “Where did Barack Obama come from?” and “Why did the Democrats put Obama out front?”  Well, to answer that question you have to know your history; and I happen to have a rather long memory.  President Obama was pushed out front, by the Democratic Party leadership —- because of what happened in 2004.  In 2004, the Democratic Party pushed out an out of touch, elitist, slightly aloof, and very rich white person and expected the grass-roots to fall in love with him.  In short: The dude was stiffer than a board.

The results were, of course, disastrous and Bush beat Kerry by a country mile.  At the time, I was heartbroken.  I remember thinking, “Four more years of Bush?”  Looking back on those four years, compared to what we have now in the White House; I would say those years were pretty darn good.  Sure, the economy was lousy; at least around here.  However, with President Bush, as a Nation, actually knew what kind of a President we actually had and we, always where he stood.  In other words, Bush was a leader.  This is more than I can say for that piss poor excuse for a President that we have now.  Just to put a finer point on it; I would rather have a neoconservative war hawk in the White House and know that he is a leader, than to have an internationalist Democrat who is afraid to even stand for America In addition, this has nothing to do with race, this has to do with leadership.  President Barack Obama has proven himself a lousy leader. Because of it, our nations standing in the world is greatly diminished —- and that my friends, is a problem.

Of course, I should be fair and point out that my personal political positions have changed greatly since I was rooting for people like John Kerry.  To be fair, I do not ever recall actually “rooting” for the man.  I just did what every other working class person around here did.  I pulled the level and went back to work.  Honestly, before my tenure as a blogger, which started in 2006 originally, my “involvement” in politics was going to vote on Election Day.  I did not even vote in the primaries.  I figured what was the point; the party was going to select whom they wanted anyhow.

My politics changed for the most part, because I came to realize that the Democratic Party was all about strife and resentment among the races and classes of people.  They proved that when Hillary and Obama had their little battle in 2007.  Furthermore, the Democrats wanted to blame Bush for everything.  Bad economy — blame Bush.  Kid got a cold, blame Bush.  In the democrat’s eyes, everything was Bush’s fault.  This at some point started sounding very ridiculous.

I hope that when the Democrats lose this time around, they will have learned their lesson.  That choosing race over common sense is not always a good idea.  I mean, I am quite happy that America finally elected a black President.  I am not happy that his polices that were supposed to put people like me, back to work — failed.  In addition, I am not saying that a white person could have not been any better either.  Hillary would have done some of the very same things and they too would have failed.  I tend to believe that Hillary would have straightened out the economy first and would have waited to see if it rebounded or not.  If not, she would have not pursued healthcare reform.  This is where Obama missed the ball; he pursued healthcare and did not do the economy first.  This is why we are in the place we are in now.  I hope that the Democrats will learn also that overreach does not work and because of it, you pay the price.  However, with this current crop of Democrats, I doubt that lesson will be learned at all.

In a sense, Kerry’s nose is a representation of his party.  As they have cut off their nose, in spite of their face.

 

There is a very good reason why I loathe Rick Santorum

…and this right here is it….:

SANTORUM: Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I’ve always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.

via Santorum To Rape Victims: ‘Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation’ | ThinkProgress.

I want it to be publicly known; that I as a Conservative Christian, albeit a moderate one —- do not support this sort of extremist tripe at all. What kind of tone-deaf jack ass is this man? This is the reason Rick Santorum will never, in a million year, be President of the United States of America. Let alone anything else, because just as America is not a extremist left wing Country, it is also not an extremist right wing Country either. The American people are just not too keen on extremism of any kind; and this is sort that they shrink away from; which is why this man is doing horribly in the polls.

I just wonder, if Rick Santorum’s adult daughter and wife were raped by a group of large black man anally and vaginally, and turned up pregnant; would be feel the same way? I highly doubt it. This idiotic tripe right here is why I back-away from the pro-life movement.

I happen to agree with this quote from quote from Tanya Somanader at think progress:

The problem with Santorum’s sense of humanity is that it doesn’t seem to extend to the victim. The emotional and physical trauma endured during and after a sexual assault often leaves a woman feeling robbed of any control over her own body and welfare. Robbing a woman of the choice to decide what to do with such “horribly created” consequences only contributes to the victim’s trauma.

What’s more, Santorum’s argument forces a woman in these circumstances to share his religious beliefs and “accept what God has given to [her.]” A woman may very well share his belief and decide to carry the pregnancy to the term, but the fundamental point is that that should be her choice — not the government’s, and certainly not Santorum’s.

Amen to that. Especially the Federal Government not dolts like Santorum and his pope-worshiping idiotic self. 

Here’s the video, if you care to watch such tripe:

What an idiot, and an extremist idiot at that! 🙄

Again, this man is not just a part of the Christian Right, oh no; he is much more than that — he is a part of the Catholic-lead and financed far, far, Christian right movement in this Country; Rick Perry was too. These are the one’s that President George W. Bush warned about repeatedly.  Thankfully, this dolt will be out of the race after Florida.

Rand Paul: “‘I was barked at: “Do not leave the cubicle!” by the TSA

…and of course, the statist White House sides with the TSA! Hope and Change?!?! Right. 🙄

Just a follow up to a story I wrote on earlier

Over to you Daily Caller:

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul told The Daily Caller that being “detained by the Transportation Security Administration at the Nashville airport Monday was a major ordeal that underscores flaws in TSA’s procedures that affect tens of millions of passengers every year.

“It was a big headache,” Paul said in a phone interview. “I missed my speech here. I was supposed to speak to the Right to Life March, probably the biggest audience I’ll get to speak to, and I missed it.”

The White House, through spokesman Jay Carney, defended the TSA’s actions during Monday’s press briefing by arguing that Paul wasn’t technically “detained.”

“Let’s be clear,” Carney said. “The passenger was not detained. He was escorted out of the area by local law-enforcement.”

But Sen. Paul told TheDC that he certainly felt like he was detained. “If you’re told you can’t leave, does that count as detention?” Paul asked.

“I tried to leave the cubicle to speak to one of the TSA people and I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle!’ So, that, to me sounds like I’m being asked not to leave the cubicle. It sounds a little bit like I’m being detained.”

The incident started after the scanner Paul walked through sounded its alarm. Current TSA rules would require Paul to undergo a mandatory pat-down before proceeding to his plane. But Paul told TheDC that the TSA agents caved in after a two-hour battle and allowed him to go through the scanner again without additional physical screening.

“For an hour and a half, they said ‘absolutely, I would have to [accept a pat-down],’” Paul said. “And, because I used my cell phone, they told me I would have to do a full body pat down because you’re not allowed to use your cell phone when you’re being detained.”

“It’s like, well, I can’t call my attorney? I can’t call my office to tell them I’m going to miss a speech to 200,000 people?”

“In the end, after two hours of this quarreling,” Sen. Paul explained, “they did let me walk through the screener [machine] and it didn’t go off. So what the TSA is not telling you is the screeners are being used as random devices as well. The [mechanical] screeners will go off randomly, and the [agent] screeners don’t know that it’s a random call but it has nothing to do with what you’ve done.”

Of course, the Statist in chief’s staff is defend the entire thing; over to you The Hill:

The White House is standing by the Transportation Security Administration in its standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his father, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

The elder Paul called the TSA a “police state” Monday after Rand Paul was reportedly detained by TSA after he refused to take a pat-down from TSA officials at the Nashville International Airport.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that he didn’t have any reaction to Paul’s “police state” comments.

But Carney sided with the TSA saying, “I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe.”

Ron Paul, who is one of four remaining Republican candidates for president, disagreed Monday afternoon. Paul said after he confirmed the incident involving Rand Paul on his Twitter page that it showed why the TSA should be eliminated.

“The police state in this country is growing out of control,” the elder Paul said in a statement released by his presidential campaign.

“One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities,” he continued. “The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe. That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA.”

TSA has defended its treatment of Rand Paul, saying that its employees in Nashville followed its normal procedure with the senator, who has often sharply criticized the agency’s pat-downs before he refused one Monday morning.

So, there you have it, an out of control organization that is now detaining White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and not the Arab terrorists it was designed to capture. How quaint. 🙄  I have to wonder aloud, if Rand Paul were Jewish or black, would they have done all of this?  It is to wonder.

I am also getting tips from readers that were in the area of the time of the incident and they are reporting that Senator Rand Paul grew very angry and used vulgarities at the TSA staff and made some very nasty racist comments at the TSA staff, who just happened to be black. Nice going Senator Paul; make yourself look like a bigger idiot than you already are. 🙄  Of course, I cannot independently verify the reports, so take them for what they are worth.

Update: Now a huge memeorandum thread.

Update #2: Smitty, who I consider to be a friend; makes some good points.