Wow! 😯
Ed Morrissey cracks:
A CNN commentator cheerleading Republican victory in the midterms? Jack Cafferty calling Barack Obama a liar on national TV? Are cats and dogs raining from the sky today?
Heh! No, it’s just snow, I checked… and man are we ever getting it here! Four to Six inches expected today here. I wanna go to Florida or even Hawaii. 🙁 😥 😛 😉 😀
Countdown to the liberals calling Cafferty a evil white Raaaacist in 5….4….3…2….
The Video:
The Story via ABC News:
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Rick Klein report: RNC Chairman Michael Steele is lashing out his critics, with a series of blunt messages for prominent Republicans who have blasted him over his leadership for the Republican Party.
“I tell them to get a life. That’s old Washington, that’s old ways, and I don’t represent that, and that kills them,” Steele told ABC News Radio in an interview today.
“I’m telling them and I’m looking them in the eye and say I’ve had enough of it. If you don’t want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.”
Steele was responding to a series of reports — most recently in today’s Washington Times — where prominent GOP operatives and fund-raisers have criticized Steele for seeming to focus more on his own image (and pocketbook) rather than the good of the party
Ed Morrissey weighs in here:
Shut up? Maybe Steele hasn’t noticed, but America is a place where we hold our leaders accountable, or at least attempt to do so. While the GOP should be focusing on holding Democrats accountable, Steele argues that we treat him like a dictator, given the keys to Rome for a year in order to rout the barbarians. At the very least, Steele should familiarize himself with Harry Truman’s famous maxim: if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
[…]
For the year in which he agreed with D.L. Hughley that the 2008 GOP convention looked like a Nazi rally and his opinion that Republicans aren’t ready to lead? Er, sure. He could give himself that “good, solid B-plus.” And it would have much the same meaning as the one Obama assigned himself — a great argument against self-evaluation as a technique.
I agree with Ed here on principle. However, I will simply add this. While I believe that criticism is totally legitimate. Anonymous criticism towards someone, is just cowardly. My feeling is, if you have a beef with Steele, say it to his face, write him, tell him about it. Don’t act like a coward and do it behind his back. If you have a beef with Steele because he is too black or because he is black, period; be a man and tell him about it, and tell Steele or the GOP how you feel about how Steele is doing his job. Own up to what you feel, don’t nuance it, don’t play stupid, speak what you feel! Oh, and before anyone screams, or before Ed Screams! No, I am not calling Ed a racist. I know that is NOT where he is coming from. But there are those that do. Hence the point. 😀
I will admit it, Steele acts like a clown, he gives the Black Liberals what they want; talking points. He tries to say, that the G.O.P. is racist. He does not actually come out and say it. But it is a nuanced message. I agree with Ed, Steele’s agreeing with D.L. Hughley was a huge blunder, it also made him look like a Identity Politics type. Which is all sorts of wrong within the Republican Party, hence the uproar towards him. However, I think if party bosses have an issue with Steele, they need to call a meeting and confront him, otherwise, they need to just zip it and let the man do his job.
Just my thoughts. 😀
Update : As a rule, Tbogg can be quite the liberal a-hole, but I found this to be quite funny 😀 😆 —:
Michael Steele goes all Kathy Griffin on Republicans
HEH!
Update: Whoa Boy… I do believe Mr. Steele might be getting the ol’ Heave Ho, before he knows it, Via CQ Politics: (H/T AP)
Although RNC Research Director Jeff Berkowitz originally defended the campaign committee and Steele, aides ultimately acknowledged that they have little control over the former Maryland lieutenant governor and that they are not in charge of lining up his media appearances while he is promoting his book.
“Their response was, ‘We’re not booking the book stuff,’” a second GOP Senate aide said. And while RNC staff said they would try to get Steele “back on message,” this Senate aide said the frustration goes well beyond Steele’s latest statement [that the GOP can’t take back the House this year], charging that he is using his position at the RNC to line his own pockets rather than raise much-needed campaign cash.
“Republicans at all levels have been working day and night to build a wave, and every time we turn around the guy standing on the surfboard is busy trying to collect admission to watch him ride,” the aide said, arguing that “he has an agenda of his own that isn’t reflected by the goals of the party as a whole.”
Republicans said there’s a growing concern that Steele is catering to conservative activists and others who may not have the party’s best interests at heart. Steele mounted an unsuccessful bid for Senate in 2006, running as a moderate.
“He’s talking like he’s some kind of tea partier … when [in 2006] he was THE most moderate candidate we had in the field. That was his whole thing, and he had no problem trashing [former President George W.] Bush and others for being too conservative,” one GOP aide said.
I just hope that the RNC thinks loooooooooooooooooong and hard before they give Steele the boot. The backlash could get ugly.
Oh good lord. 🙄
The Toledo man who Wednesday yelled racial slurs and caused a Detroit flight from Miami to turn around is being held in a Florida jail today.
Mansor Mohammad Asad, 43, has been charged with threats against a public servant, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after the incident aboard Delta Airlines flight 2485, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Witnesses told investigators that Asad yelled anti-Semitic references such as, “I’m Palestinian and I want kill all the Jews,” in Arabic. The pilot turned around as the plane was taxiing for take-off at 6:35 p.m., according to police.
Officers then escorted the Asad off and performed a safety inspection of the plane before it continued on to Detroit.
But Asad charged officers while he was in custody, using racial slurs and threats while he chanted, leading police to use a Taser to subdue him.
via Toledo man charged in flight fracas – Detroit Free Press.
Wow. Looks like the crazies are out in force. Wonder if President Hussein is on top of this one too?
Can one be charged and imprisoned for being a FUGLY Arab too?
Ship ’em to GITMO, water board his ugly ass. Better yet, just shoot the asshole between the eyes! One less terrorist, one less Arab, one less of “THEM“.
Others: Atlas Shrugs
Remember what I wrote here? Scratch that. They’re still idiots… sigh… 🙄
WASHINGTON – The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats did not cut short his ski vacation after the underwear bomber nearly blew up an airliner on Christmas Day, the Daily News has learned.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.
“People have been grumbling that he didn’t let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation,” said one of the sources.
The NCTC, the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., is under intense scrutiny for failing to “connect the dots” on Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Leiter’s spokesman declined to say when the terror-center chief returned to Washington and fully retook the helm of his analysis agency, which is near CIA headquarters just outside the nation’s capital.
“It is our policy to not make our director’s schedule available to the public,” center spokesman Carl Kropf said in an e-mai
via NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.
Indeed the monkeys are running the zoo! Psychos are running the nuthouse, ect… and so on.
I ask you all publicly, where the hell is our leadership in Washington D.C.?
Remember this come 2010 and 2012.
Others: JammieWearingFool, Another Black Conservative, Hot Air, ThreatsWatch and Gateway Pundit
(Fixed stupid misspelling in the headline…I need more coffee….)
Looks like John McCain is running radio ads out in Arizona.
Click here to take a listen to them.
He says he is Arizona’s last line of defense, and is going to stop Barack Obama’s socialism. 🙄 Yeah, like he stopped George W. Bush’s spending during that era too, right?
As always, McCain tries to cash in on his Military record, in order to get elected. I wonder if it will actually work this time, or not? Hopefully not. The late Senator Barry Goldwater could not stand McCain, called him a phony; and I can totally understand why.
It is a plausible question, and an interesting one at that. Are the Democrats now jumping from the bloated ship of socialist waste ever known to humankind? Are Democrats preparing themselves for the “Nuclear Option” on healthcare? The questions abound, the speculation is running rampant, and internet meme’s are burning up the bandwidth. I, on the other hand, will tell you what I do know.
First off, let us start with the local story; Michigan Lt Governor John Cherry was expected to be the person to succeed Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at the helm of Michigan Governorship. However, Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm’s performance as Governor of this state has been less than stellar. I ought to know this, I have lived here all of my life. Double-digit unemployment, a one state recession that towered over the national recession for many years now; put quite bluntly, there are no jobs here in Michigan. Sure, there are jobs, if you want to work in a fast food joint, making minimum wage. However, if you happen to be a 37-year-old man, looking for a decent paying, full time job, with health insurance — you are frankly out of luck.
However, to be fair, some of Michigan’s woes cannot be laid at the feet of the Democratic leadership. GM’s credit crisis cannot be blamed entirely on the Democrats, at least not the current ones in office here in Michigan. GM and Chrysler’s troubles are a direct result of the mortgage crisis, which was caused by President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton and that idiotic piece of legislation that opened up the mortgage market to high-risk individuals. When the credit markets froze up, due to the stock market crash and subsequent credit freeze, the big three found themselves in the middle of it. This is my biggest issue that I have with the “Republicans” or those within the Conservative movement. They always, without fail, blame the unions for the troubles of the big three; when in all honesty, unions had zero to do with the meltdown or its effect on the automakers. The entire mess was, in fact, lack of proper regulation in the mortgage industry and the stock market in regards to credit swaps that caused this whole mess in the first place. Sorry to my fellow Conservatives, but I am just not buying that talking point.
However, it would be fair to mention that the unions did play a role in the financial woes of the big three, as did the big three’s failure to listen to the automotive experts, who saw what Japan was doing in the 1970’s and their arrogant attitudes. The big three could have saved themselves much heartache, by building smarter, higher quality vehicles. However, by the time the big three got around to embracing the ISO standards, it was too little, too late. As for the talking point of Union workers making too much money, I find it amazing how many Conservatives have axe to grind with those who simply want to make a decent working wage. Most of the people that make these idiotic claims are those who are making more than two hundred and fifty thousand a year and have no financial worries at all; but they want to rip away the comfortable living of others. Do you see now why I have not voted “Republican” yet?
Another point that I feel that is important to make, is the fact that the big three are just designing some of the most god-awful looking car nowadays. Heck, even the trucks are now getting just plain butt-ugly. Does it make any damned sense to build cars for every day Americans that look like they taken from the pages of a twenty fifth century comic book? Whatever happened to graceful, classic designs from the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s? Those were real cars back then, now all the big three can produce is glorified garbage — and do not even get me started on the idea of an electric car, now that is a idea that is going to go right straight were the Chevy EV1 went, right straight into the scrap heap.
Now back on the subject of politics, it seems that Chris Dodd, going to retire. Getting sweetheart deals on a house mortgage can do that to a fellow, especially when people in your district are losing their houses left and right. I also notice that Bryon Dorgan is also retiring; he supported Obama’s healthcare plan, which made him damaged goods. I also notice that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is withdrawing from that race — corruption will do that to a fellow.
Now what is my personal take on these retirements and how it affects the 2010 elections? My take is this; I believe that there are going to be some very big upsets come election time. Now, I do not necessarily see a Republican wave or anything like that. However, I do see a drastic change in Washington D.C. I do also see a “defanging” of the socialist monster that exists on Capitol Hill right now. As for the Governor’s race here in Michigan, I believe that the Republicans can win Michigan, but they are going to have to work to earn the trust of the American people. It would take some very hard work and some massive breaking of some very established political rules to do it. However it can be done. The people of Michigan want real answers, real results, not political grandstanding, and platitudes.
It is going to be a very interesting 2010. I look forward to writing about it and giving you my take.
As articulated by the Progressive Movement’s resident “John Madden”
The Video: (H/T HotAir)
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Hmmmmm… Someone needs to tell Michael Steele, that the Tea Party Movement is a “Whites Only” Movement, as suggested by Chris Matthews:
(H/T HotAir)
Yeah, Where the hell were you on Christmas Eve? 🙄
An aside, This agency, National Counterterrorism Center, was slated for budget cuts, before this little incident happened:
The highly touted intelligence fusion center at the heart of the nation’s counterterrorism establishment was preparing for deep budget cuts across 2010, senior intelligence officials said. According to one official, who asked not to be identified because intelligence budget matters are classified, the administration and Congress slashed the budget for the National Counterterrorism Center by at least $25 million. Those affected, the official said, included employees responsible for maintaining the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) system, which contains the list of about 550,000 known or suspected terrorists…
“Without question, recent events will cause those proposals to be re-considered,” an intelligence official said.
As I wrote before, “Government Incompetence? Yes, We haz it!” 🙄
Two Words for this video clip…. Holy hell…. 😯
The Video, which comes to us via Olbermann Watch: (H/T to Ace)
No wonder I quite watching that idiotic network. 🙄 As an extra added bonus, a 9/11 truther at the end this video; makes for a great one.
Update: Reader Rich Writes in to say:
I think that Olbermann Watch is connecting dots that aren’t there on this one. Several reasons:
1) The theory is based on Wolffe’s statement about what the White House is examining. Unless you hear this type of claim coming from a White House spokesman, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in it. I’m sure the White House is looking at lots of things but that doesn’t mean they have drawn any conclusions; perhaps Wolffe is hearing only what he wants to hear.
2) Obama calls this episode the result of a “systematic failure.” That sure doesn’t sound like a statement from someone who wants to duck responsibility for it.
3) Does one intelligence agency not share complete information with the other agencies? Probably. But the reason is likely related to competition between the agencies, not any conspiracy plot.
TV, be it Olbermann or Fox, is always looking for controversy; that doesn’t make it true. Same goes for the “Obama wasn’t out there” (after the event) line; I understand that Bush took six days to make a statement after the Richard Reid episode and that, at Bush’s next press conference, the neither the President or the press even spoke about Reid until well into the press conference. It is all about stirring up conflict, which makes for a more engaging story. Unfortunately, doing so only distracts from the genuine problem that we face here, which is best addressed though bipartisan action rather than political bickering. Very sad, IMHO.
BTW, I just discovered your blog; I like to read a wide range of political views, so I will be back!
Best regards,
Rich
(H/T Ed @HotAir)
That’s right, Michael Yon, famed independent war corespondent was detained at the airport, handcuffs and all.
For not disclosing how much money he makes…. 🙄
From his facebook fan page:
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve…ntually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies.
and…:
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies.
and….:
When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.
Jazz Shaw asks, “WTF??!?!”:
Very strange. Even if you’re into profiling, Yon would hardly fit one you’d be interested in. Of course, his passport, by now, doubtless has a list of countries stamped into it which could give an inspector pause, but that’s no excuse. Very, very strange. I expect this one will be high profile enough that you’ll see an apology coming from the government.
Ed Morrissey weighs in:
Unless there is more to this story, an apology would be the least owed to Yon. When an American citizen with a valid passport presents himself for travel, there should be some reasonable screening to verify identity and to determine whether there is a physical risk, ie, weapons and the like. Why should border security be interested in Yon’s annual income? How does that relate to national security and border protection? Unless this is an arm of the Internal Revenue Service, it doesn’t, and Yon was right to refuse to answer the question.
Instead of hassling American citizens about their income or watching the ice melt, how about paying attention to actual security and intelligence issues? Please?
I must say that I agree with both of these assessments, and I personally believe those responsible for detaining Mr. Yon, ought to be fired. I honestly have to ask this question, that neither Jazz nor Ed would even ask. If Michael Yon had been, say, Arabic or even black; would he have been detained? I somehow doubt it. But, because he’s a White American, he gets asked a stupid question and because he refuses to answer it, which was well within his rights; he gets detained. Welcome to Obama’s America people. Where white men are oppressed, interrogated and harassed; by the black power establishment. You say this isn’t about race? I disagree. This is all about race and as long as Barack Hussein Obama is President, you will continue to see this sort of nonsense happening in America. Bank on it.
Others: Michelle Malkin, Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit, Mudville Gazette, The Jawa Report, Atlas Shrugs, JammieWearingFool, Moonbattery
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.