Month: January 2014

It is official: Chris Christie is done

This is not really shocking, but sad to see. (Via the Corner)

The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge in the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Friday that the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening, and that he had the evidence to prove it.

In a letter released by his lawyer, the official, David Wildstein, a high school friend of Mr. Christie’s who was appointed with the governor’s blessing at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the bridge, described the order to close the lanes as “the Christie administration’s order” and said “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference” three weeks ago.

“Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some,” the letter added.

The letter marked the first signal that Mr. Christie may have been aware of the closings, something he repeatedly denied during the news conference.

via Christie Knew About Lane Closings, Ex-Port Authority Official Says – NYTimes.com.

I agree with the guy at the corner; Christie is done in politics. Sad thing too. 🙁 Anything that I wrote about him in the past, and there has been a few things, is now null and void.

 

MSNBC’s Phil Griffin is full of it

As you all know, since the 2012 elections, I have been in a bit of a funk, when it comes to blogging about politics. Well, this little story here has, at least for a few moments snapped me out of that funk. In other words, put your seatbelts on; because I am about to let it rip!

MSNBC’s Phil Griffin is so full of crap, that it literally should be oozing out of his ears! Check out what this douche canoe said in an interview with the New Yorker: (H/T HotAir.com)

In his office Griffin insists: “I think we’ve never had an ideology. An ideology is a single thought across all programs. We’ve never had that.” As evidence, he mentions the spirited on-air debates in 2010, pro and con, concerning whether the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire. “Obviously I hire people who fit the sensibility,” Griffin says. “We do stay true to facts. You have to build your argument. That’s why I call it a sensibility.” …

As for Fox News, “I think they do have an ideology,” Griffin says, “because every Republican who’s in trouble goes on that network to be taken care of…They’re owned by News Corp., which is Rupert Murdoch. Roger Ailes runs it, and he comes out of the Republican Party.” Griffin adds: “That’s fine. They’ve done an incredible job over there. They’ve been very successful. They drive a lot of the conversation.”

They must pay that man a whole bunch of money to sit there and lie like that with a straight face. Here is the straight truth about that they are biased, a good deal and they proved it in 2008 and in 2012. I know this for a fact; because I used to watch that network, back when it had a shred of credibility.

As most people know, that read this blog on a regular basis; I was not always a Paleoconservative. I, at one time, was a left-of-center and pretty much a Democratic Party voter — albeit a very skeptical one. I voted for Gore in 2000, I voted for John  Kerry in 2004. My Dad is a retired general motors employee and a card-carrying member of the UAW. My family basically would be considered Roosevelt/Truman/Kennedy Democrats. Although my Mother did vote for Reagan the first time in 1980.

After a year of basically writing as a left of center, and admittedly carrying water for the Anti-Bush movement on my blog called the Populist; I really began to see that the Democratic Party was, quite frankly, losing it’s mind. The whole anti-Bush movement was becoming a parody of itself and quite frankly, accomplishing nothing at all.

Furthermore, I began to see in 2008 that MSNBC, a network that I watched regularly, go straight into the tank for Barack Obama, when he was running for President. In fact, this became such an issue for me, that it got to the point where I could not stand watching the network any longer.  This was right around the time of Keith Olbermann’s infamous “Shut the hell up!” moment.

My questions for Phil Griffin are these:

  1. If your network is not following a political agenda, why did they cancel Tucker Carlson’s show?
  2. If your network is not following some sort of a political agenda, why did you sack Keith Olbermann for continuing to pursue in getting the Iraq War stopped and for criticizing the Obama Administration’s continuing of Bush polices that do trample on civil rights?
  3. If your network is not pursuing a political agenda, why did Pat Buchanan get sacked from your network as a commentator?
  4. If your network is not pursuing a political agenda, why is there not a Conservative with a show on MSNBC?

I have a shiny dollar bill that says that Mr. Griffin cannot and will not answer these questions.

The truth is that after Tim Russert died, MSNBC went from a mildly passive left of center stance to an “All-in” proactive, progressive stance with little or no objectivity at all. Anyone who believes anything other than this, is either an idiot or wildly misinformed. I ought to know, I used to watch that silly network.

Patrick J. Buchanan writes the real reason why the GOP is failing

Quote of the week:

To understand why and how the Republican Party lost Middle America, and faces demographic death, we need to go back to Bush I.

At the Cold War’s end, the GOP reached a fork in the road. The determination of Middle Americans to preserve the country they grew up in, suddenly collided with the profit motive of Corporate America.

The Fortune 500 wanted to close factories in the USA and ship production abroad — where unions did not exist, regulations were light, taxes were low, and wages were a fraction of what they were here in America.

Corporate America was going global and wanted to be rid of its American work force, the best paid on earth, and replace it with cheap foreign labor.

While manufacturing sought to move production abroad, hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, farms and construction companies that could not move abroad also wanted to replace their expensive American workers.

Thanks to the Republican Party, Corporate America got it all.

Head on over to Pat’s site and read why “The GOP lost middle America.” It is sad, but true, account about what really happened to that Grand Old Party.

 

 

AFL-CIO Posts tribute to Pete Seeger, screws up photo

d’oh!

I tend to think that Pete would get a kick out of it though.

I let them know about it:

 

Oy! They need to hire me; I would at least get the tributes right! 🙄

Update: Can’t be no worse than me. In the process of writing the post, I posted embed code in the visual editor! I think me and the AFL-CIO both need more coffee! 🙄

In defense of Erick Erickson

I know, I know, I am not supposed to support the guy; for some pretty darned good reasons. But, when he is right, he is right.

You know, broken clock right once a day and all that. 🙂 😉

In response to Greta Van Susteren‘s freak out over some of Erik’s tweets about Wendy Davis and Abortion, Erik wrote the following:

Greta Van Sustern wishes you to know I’m a creepy jerk. She does not know who I am and thinks no one should listen to me. I appreciate her letting someone she’s never heard of who she thinks should not be listened to live rent free in her head.

But I must sincerely thank her.

Wendy Davis believes it is perfectly acceptable to crack open a child’s skull, inject her cranium with saline, vacuum out her brains, then tear her limb from limb unstitching her from her mother’s womb even though a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or a month later she could survive outside the womb. Wendy Davis has staked her career on the right to chop a child to bits, no matter how viable the child is. The media prefers to ignore that to which Wendy Davis staked her career. They’d prefer to focus on her, as Vogue described her, “Barbie looks” and pink sneakers.

In Greta’s diatribe against me, she only used the word “Abortion” once and that was noting me calling Wendy Davis “Abortion Barbie.”

In fact, I appreciate Greta focusing on my tweets and find it instructive she chose specifically to not make it about Wendy Davis. Wendy Davis is a one issue wonder heralded by the press because she is a high priestess of the secular religion’s sacred sacrament — slaughtering children on the altar of Moloch. That Greta Van Susteren is offended by me, thinks me creepy and a jerk, and thinks I should not be listened to is of no harm or consequence to me.

I applaud her willingness to give greater exposure to my tweets because it causes more people to dig into Wendy Davis. And the more they dig the more they find her only issue is abortion. Single issue candidates whose only issue is abortion do not do well.

Spending all this time and energy making it about me, not only reinforces Wendy Davis’s single issue, but distracts the Democrats from the negative attacks they’ll eventually launch, too late, on her Republican opponent.

I have helped define Wendy Davis by a moniker that sticks, describes, and makes her the butt of jokes, while drawing out the shrill hysterics of her supporters. And there’d be more supporters of hers except for her and her supporters declaring open season on people under 40 weeks of age.

Thank you Greta for putting this issue in the spotlight. I will never win the admiration of affection of the secular set, kid killers, and their supporters — and abortion is killing children. If I was getting praise from them, I’d have to reconsider my priorities. There will always be those who stand with Wendy. But there will be plenty, in the din of campaign rhetoric, who hear “Abortion Barbie” and dig into caricature to find the terribly truth of a one note media created wonder. That someone is offended by me, thinks me creepy, or thinks me a jerk is fine with me as it continues to force them to talk about Wendy Davis, defender of the right to tear children apart.

And if you don’t believe me, I would encourage Greta and others to read the comments to her post.

Thank you Greta very much for writing this post and shedding more light on Wendy Davis by making her campaign about me. I do sincerely appreciate the exposure that it might, even indirectly, expose the Cult of Death’s latest champion.

Put me down as someone who happens to agree with all the above. I might not be a huge fan of Erikson. He can be a bit of a jerk, like me. But, when the man is right, he is right. Abortion is a barbaric practice and should be outlawed — on the STATE LEVEL! The quicker, the better if you ask me.

Others: Riehl World News, Mediaite and The Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and americanthinker.com, Riehl World News, Mediaite and The Raw Story

Pete Seeger RIP

Some of you might be shocked that I would remember this man. However, as you know, I was not always a Conservative. Furthermore, Pete Seeger stood up to, and won out against the McCarthyism of the 1950’s. Something that I, as someone who believes in freedom of thought; believe was wrong-headed.

Peter Seeger — May he rest in peace.

My Favorite of his:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b24Ewk934g

Repose en paix. Bon homme, vous avez plus de gagné.

Update: Ann Althouse remembers Seeger:

“I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this,” said Pete Seeger, in 1955, subpoenaed to testify before a thing we used to have called the House Un-American Activities Committee. They thought he was a Communist, and he was a communist. “With a small ‘c,'” he liked to say. He’d been a Communist with a capital C too, but he’d quit, and he said he should have quit earlier. 

[…]
Much more in the long NYT article at the link, including his education at Harvard; his encounter with the folklorist Alan Lomax, and, through Lomax, Lead Belly; his alliance with Woody Guthrie, traveling around playing for migrant workers in 1940; his WWII-era group the Almanac Singers, who played anti-war and then antifascist songs; campaigning for presidential candidate Henry Wallace in 1948; his central place in the great folk music revival circa 1960; playing “We Shall Overcome” at Civil Rights Movement rallies; and getting betrayed by Bob Dylan.

Imagine experiencing nearly a century of American history from such a central place. What a lucky man. Pete Seeger lived to be 94.

Amen.

Related:

Others Remembering: americanthinker.com, NPR, Althouse, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press,American Power, Liberaland, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Week, Sky Dancing, The Agonist, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Maggie’s Farm, Daily Dot, The Political Carnival, The Agonist and The Moderate Voice, alicublog and The Jawa Report

On Trey Radel’s resignation

Some interesting news to wake up to today:

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.

Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility. He returned to Congress after the winter recess.

Radel sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announcing his resignation, saying it “is my belief that professionally I cannot fully and effectively serve as a United States Representative to the place I love and call home, Southwest Florida.” He said that 2014 has already “been tremendously positive as I focus on my health, family and faith.”

via Trey Radel to resign House seat – POLITICO.com.

Of course, some bloggers are griping about it. Gateway Pundit:

Democrats may be found guilty of perjury, statutory rape or running a prostitution ring from their home – yet they never resign.

Republicans, on the other hand, are expected to resign for their sins.

HotAir’s Ed Morrissey has the answer to that:

Most Republicans wanted him gone after the arrest. Instead, Radel insisted that he would hold his seat after going through rehab. Unless I missed a memo, there hasn’t been any unusual events surrounding his return this month. Perhaps Radel found his welcome back to the caucus chillier than Polar Vortex I or II.

[….]

I’m still not sure what changed Radel’s mind. His return was about as uneventful as he might have hoped. Unless more revelations are on their way, he had a pretty smooth glide path to obscurity in 2014 already.

Furthermore, let me add to that to answer Hoft’s complaint; who is Anthony Weiner, chopped liver?!?!? He resigned his office, after the revelations about him. This is why I am not a regular reader of Gateway Pundit or Breitbart; because:

  1. Both are confirmed neoconservative blogs that are not above propaganda
  2. Both sensationalize their headlines to the point of fudging the truth

This is why you do not see them in my blogroll or in my rss feeds in the sidebar. Some people believe that there is no difference between paleoconservatism and neoconservatism; I disagree and the above is a perfect example why.

Now back to the matter of Radel; he most likely went back to Florida and was greeted with the icy reception from hell; and quickly decided that his future in politics was basically over. There is a reason for this, it is because Conservatives, especially social conservatives, do not want some coke headed buffoon representing them in Congress. Unlike the Democrats who could honestly care less about such things. It is called morality; and some Republicans and Conservatives, at least some of them anyhow; still care about such things.

So, to the bloggers on the right; no there is no conspiracy here. Nor is there any sort of double standard. It is simple the Republican base wanting a true, moral, Conservative in D.C. and not some two-bit coke head living a lie.

…and that, is all.

Others:  CNN, Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, New York Times, BizPac Review, Scared Monkeys, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Roll Call, Taylor Marsh, Business Insider,  Talking Points Memo, NBCNews, Tampa Bay Times, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, National Review

Wal-Mart lays off employees, possibly union protesters?

This is an interesting headline:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it’s eliminating 2,300 workers at its Sam’s Club division as it reduces the ranks of middle managers in a bid to be more nimble. 

The layoffs, which cut 2 percent of the membership club’s U.S. employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010 when the Sam’s Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores. 

The cuts come as Sam’s Club strives to compete better with Costco Wholesale Corp. and online players like Amazon.com’s Prime membership service. They also follow layoffs announced by several other major retailers in recent weeks that include Macy’s Inc., J.C. Penney and Target Corp. 

Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam’s Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers. The cuts are also eliminating some hourly workers. He says that each of the clubs had roughly the same number of workers regardless of how much revenue each store generated. 

“We felt this was the right move to make sure we are positioning ourselves for growing in the future,” said Durling in an interview with The Associated Press. “We are trying to rebalance our resources in the field to make sure we are investing in the clubs that have the higher growth potential and balancing resources across the chain.” 

via Wal-Mart to cut 2,300 workers from Sam’s Club stores – NBC News.com.

I would be willing to bet a shiny dollar bill that the company went around and found out, who, that were employed by the store; was protesting the store for the unions and laid their butts off. Serves them right for doing something so darned stupid, as trying to get a union in a place like Wal-Mart.

Service sector unions are good for one thing and one thing only. Causing hate and discontent among employees and putting a burden on business owners and sometimes employees too. I ought to know, I worked for Meijer’s back in the 1990’s and you talk about an abortion job of a place. You could not do anything without management’s approval and the union’s approval. It was terrible and I was happy the day that I told that crapola of a place, to take that silly minimum wage job and shove it.

I ended up going to a place that paid twice as much and did not have nearly as many problems as Meijer’s did. Needless to say, I was quite happy to get the heck out of that place! In fact, the only reason why I shop at this local Meijer’s here near my house; is that it is the closest place to shop; not because I happen to believe that the place is really that great.

You go in there on a Holiday and shop? You will wait for two freaking hours to get to a register. Why? Because the unions force Meijer’s to pay their employees higher the minimum wage; despite the fact that most of them are dumber than a box of rocks and that they are the slowest bunch of employees; who really do not get in a hurry to do anything at all. Anyhow, the managers will only open like 4 or 5 checkout lanes, instead of opening all of them. Why? Because they know they will have to pay all of them employees, despite their lousy job performance.

If you work in a steel mill or an automotive factory; then yes, have a union. But, if you are working in a service industry, like Meijer’s, Wal-Mart or some other retail or fast foot outlet; do your job, shut the hell up and be glad you got a damn job — and don’t whine about it either or go find a better job! That’s how America works, been that way since I was working and was that way long before I ever started working.

….and that — is all.