WaPo: FAA approves Stimulus funds for Murtha Airport.
It’s almost like the Feds want more and bigger Tea Parties…
Updates from May, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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Talk about pulling a Perez. Would MSNBC’s David Shuster feel better if the country’s most prominent gay marriage opponent resigned from the exalted position said opponent occupies? I gotta say, I’d love it if that were to happen! But I don’t get into fits of nausea knowing that it likely won’t. What a crybaby…
UPDATE: Ed Driscoll links. Thanks!
MORE: Related content at American Power.
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Jehuda
The WaPo‘s Richard Cohen asks “What if Cheney’s Right?”; and Michael Goldfarb concludes the Left has lost its grasp on the torture issue.
I think Pelosi might agree…
UPDATE: The Obama White House isn’t quite helping matters: Instapundit has much more: “Don’t all you people who told us it was a moral imperative to support Obama over this issue feel kinda silly now? You should. . . .” Plus, administration to backpedal on releasing “torture” photos?
It’s complicated. Jon Stewart must be doing a double take right about now…
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TNR’s The Plank: Obama ensures unreliability of America’s nuclear arsenal.
Wow. Well, elections have consequences.
(H/T: Instapundit)
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Letter of Amends from a Recovering Liberal in Berkeley.
H/T: Ed Driscoll.
UPDATE: The Other McCain: Fortune Favors the Bold.
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CBS News EconWatch Blog: It’s a Good Time to Work for Uncle Sam.
You don’t say. With the government taking on more and more of the national economy – and raising taxes ever higher – I guess that money has to go somewhere.
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I take it that Oprah would like more Americans to experience the joys of owning a private jet. That’s really cool on her part, but if she really feels that way why did she urge so many people to vote for a president who is putting the brakes on wealth creation? Reminds me of another promiment Obama supporter.
UPDATED: Related: No Vegas Partying for Thee (via Instapundit).
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Ben Shapiro just made me realize: Wanda Sykes – who is proudly gay – gave Obama a pass a la Perez Hilton, but more subtly. She had the opportunity to make fun of America’s most prominent gay marriage opponent. And yet, “she said precisely nothing. Instead, she chose to gently stroke his ego with jokes about his pecs, his dog, and his basketball skills.”
UPDATE: Ed Driscoll links. Thanks!
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What does a 9/10 mentality look like yukking it up? Might need a visual aide to answer this question.
At the L.A. Times site, the White House says 9/11 is not comedy material. Of course, as with so many other things, what the White House says is one thing and reality is another: “Watch the president [on the first] video [at the link]; see if you think he disagrees with Sykes at that moment…Then watch how Gibbs puts it today in the second video [at the same link].”
UPDATE: Related content at Instapundit.
MORE: As usual, Moe Lane gets to the heart of the matter (and offers some sci-fi esoterica): “[Gibbs] didn’t bother explaining why his boss expresses displeasure via laughter.”
It’s indeed very creepy and inappropriate from the President to laugh like that at such jokes. He should know better. Even Carter didn’t do anything as in poor taste as that.
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NYT: Women bullying women at work.
Related content at American Power.
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Rasmussen: Only 24% of Americans Know What Cap and Trade Involves.
For starters, how about we illustrate what Cap and Trade is about using just a few words? Cap and Trade means Obama wants to turn the U.S. into Haiti (h/t: Instapundit).
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Should the Right fight as dirty as the Left? Professor Douglas comments.
I think political tactics and rhetoric – short of actual criminality or other harmful conduct (defamation) – should be as rough as the occasion reasonably requires. After all, our values as political tacticians are not necessarily our values as political thinkers.
To the Left, the personal is political and vice versa, so every realm of human activity and every aspect of humanity can be and is politicized. That means that they can come at you from everywhere and when you least expect it. On the Right, we should at least be willing to fight on those terms and to use Alinksy’s Rules against the Left in the measure that we can.
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“Stimulus” was just a word: AP: “Counties suffering the most from job losses stand to receive the least help from President Barack Obama’s plan to spend billions of stimulus dollars on roads and bridges”.
Put another way, if you voted for Hope, you’re gonna need it, ’cause the transparency and intelligence which Obama promised during the campaign (whether implicitly or expressly) are not happening. So keep hope alive! Utopia has to be right around the corner…right?
Or not: “Federal auditors acknowledge they can’t yet track the transportation money that is leaving Washington and there is no single list of the thousands of projects planned in each state.”
Well, that money is going somewhere. We may never learn where, but the mystery alone will be enough to fuel many a Tea Party.
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In keeping with Alinsky’s Rule 7, I think I will make this The Rhetorican’s last Dijon-Gate post. I think it’s safe to say the whole thing developed into Dijon-geddon, to the discomfort and irritation of many.
For the record, I like Dijon mustard, although I haven’t had any for a long time. I’m not much of a condiment man, although I do like salsa and hot peppers quite a bit. But then again, my last name ends in a vowel and it includes a rolled r.
Finally, it’s awesome to see that Dijon-gate became so big that it was worth referencing in a Grey Poupon web ad (via Legal Insurrection where the whole thing began).
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The Other McCain: “The point was not that Obama likes Dijon mustard — I do, too, as does the man who named it “DijonGate” — but rather that MSNBC and other major media are no longer in the news business. They’re doing public relations for the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.”
And the Sorosphere – as expected – hated having its collective face rubbed in the Dijon. But, that’s how it goes, Nutroots. In this media environment it’s easier than ever to point at the man behind the curtain, especially when the curtain isn’t even hanging anymore.
We “wingnuts” may not be really good at implementing all of Alinksy’s Rules yet, but if there’s one we’re really good at is Rule 5. And nothing makes a better occasion for implementing Rule 5 than catching the supine media on Axelrod Duty.
UPDATE: Dijon-geddon! (Thanks for the link, Mr. Stacy).
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Althouse: “I know. I’ve moved into conspiracy theory territory. It’s not my thing, normally. But this is just staring me in the face, and I feel required to say what I see. The pieces don’t fit. I want to know more. The Caldera resignation does not turn the page. Who was in Air Force 1?”
Professor Althouse does raise some very good questions. But would the Obama White House go through all that trouble just to get some VIP’s to ride the presidential jet in a circle for a little while? If they were selling Air Force One rides, wouldn’t it make sense to fly the VIP’s on a longer, more practical trip?
I think extreme incompetence is more likely. So extreme that it just doesn’t make sense even as incompetence.
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Nikki Finke: Wanda Sykes Gives Extremely Partisan Performance at White House Correspondents Dinner. But why are we surprised? Sykes was probably just catering to the bulk of her audience. It’s a White House Correspondents dinner.
Finke is no conservative blogger or journalist. She’s a Hollywood institution. If in her opinion Wanda Sykes’ jokes were extremely one-sided, the bias must have been off the charts.
Some of the comments on Finke’s post are a little bizarre. They imply Wanda’s jokes are the balance our Hannity/Limbaugh-dominated media sorely need. Now that’s funny.
UPDATE: John Romano: Wanda Sykes, Dividing America?
MORE: Instapundit: It was “all about showing off in the classless-thug attack-dog competition, not about speaking truth to power.”
I guess we should have seen this coming. In the era of Gangsterism in politics, the winner of such a competition would earn elite status in short order. Go for the jugular, and you’ve arrived!
ANOTHER ONE: How can Obama laugh at jokes about wanting Limbaugh dead? Must be a Chicago thing.
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No surprises: Star Trek is #1. And, incredibly (for me, anyway), 17 Again remains in the Top 5.
Steve Mason has the figures and lots of analysis.
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American Thinker: Oh, for a Western.
RELATED: Todd Zywicki on David Brooks, Western Movies, and Conservatism.
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NBC News: NYC starts charging rent at homeless shelters. You know an economic system whose central conceit is to promote equality by transferring wealth from the have-more’s to the have-not’s has failed when it seeks to transfer wealth from the poor to government.
I guess it won’t be long before the State of California starts charging a “transaction fee” for every unemployment compensation check cashed (on the other hand, it might just discourage unemployment!).
More at The Other McCain: Tax the poor!
UPDATE: The Other McCain links. Thanks!
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Anne Thompson taped an interview. Plus: $31 million in ticket sales on Friday.
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Legal Insurrection: How Pelosi Tore Her Credibility Over Waterboarding to Pieces.
UPDATE: Related (via Instapundit): Lamar Alexander asks Holder to consider investigating Congress over waterboarding briefings. Nice!
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I doubt it, but I sure as hell will try to earn that mantle if I can. And since two of the biggest topics among the American commentariat this week have been gay rights and the new Star Trek, why not combine the two in a nice 150-second video?
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you ‘Brokeback Star Trek” (NOTE: MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AUDIENCES):
UPDATE: Where does Heidi Klum come into all this? Got to American Power to find out! Thanks for the link, Prof. Douglas!
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No need to play “Name That Party” with this one:
“I’m standing in the street, I took one photograph of him and he charged at me,” Lopez recalled.
“I turned around and ran and he was actually catching up to me. I turned a corner and ran half a block and he’s chasing me the entire way.”
You’d think this is in keeping with the new era of Corleone-ism in government (maybe we should just call it Gangsterism. The Corleones at least sported a patina of classiness), but the Democrat in question actually has been involved in similar altercations since at least 2005.
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THR, Esq.: Lost was the most pirated TV show last week.
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You, too, can become invulnerable to attacks from the Gay Marriage lobby. It’s quite simple. All it takes is a few easy steps.
Well, only one step, really. Ha!
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I know the Political Class expects us to assent to the dictates of our courageous elites; but Michelle Obama needs to make up her mind.
First she urges us “to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry…become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse.”
And then just like that, a few months later, she tells us that “[e]veryone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants”.* I mean, which is it? And isn’t it harder than ever to pull that off, given that wealth creation in this country is getting the short shrift to favor the politically connected?
*No word on whether she was wearing her $540 sneakers when she said this.
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Anne Thompson speculates on how big Star Trek will open this weekend (and alludes to some hard data that seems to contradict expectations). Expectations are indeed high. Metacritic has it scoring in the green zone, at “Universal Acclaim” levels.
Anne suggests – and I agree with her – that for the studio to think of this movie as a hit, it will have to make money. And for that to happen it has to open huge worldwide, not just in the U.S.
However, the Star Trek franchise – if I recall correctly – has never played very well abroad. So it may turn out just like Watchmen moneywise: a Pyrrhic victory of sorts (although definitely a much better movie).
Also: is Star Trek ruined as a brand now that it is cool?
Maybe Star Trek is not cool. Maybe geeks are becoming mainstream. The horror!
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Looks like Arlen Specter’s back to zombie status, with a Senate seat, little power, and poor re-election prospects: Fox News: Senator Leahy has blocked the deal to give Specter a sub-committe chairmanship.
This is almost as much fun as a good basketball game!
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Legal Insurrection: Sorosphere can’t stand Dijon-gate coverage.
Sorosnuts, if scrutiny of Obama’s choice of condiment is really that dangerous to the man and the myth that is Obama, then the whole thing must be quite a house of cards…
I mean, when a website like Change.org sports a headline that reads “Obama Got It Wrong”, you know Obama’s image is vulnerable (via Inside the Asylum).
UPDATE: Moe Lane gets to the heart of the matter:
[T]he fact that the Other Side has some of the most insecure partisans in Western civilization is hardly a surprise. Nor is it that the Online Left absolutely hates the fact that, despite it all… nobody respects them. Heck, not even their own party even likes them very much.
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Just ran into this clip of the young but brilliant Jonathan Krohn:
With Alfonzo Rachel and Krohn along for the conservative ride, the future looks bright. I guess the Left is going to need a bigger Sorosphere!
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Don’t be out-nerded this weekend.
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The Fix: Sounds almost like a case of bad vetting…AGAIN.
A series of odd incidents that have proceeded from Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s party switch last week have raised questions about whether the newest Democrat has permanently damaged himself in the eyes of the state’s voters.
The White House is concerned enough about the developments that deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and Ron Klain, a senior adviser to Vice President Biden, traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and huddled with Specter to try to iron out the problems, according to informed Democratic officials.
I guess Biden didn’t talk with Specter long enough before he finally convinced him about switching teams. But things are not so bad for Senator Specter. Just like with other examples of bad Obama White House vetting, Specter still has the “the support of an exceedingly popular president who commands massive loyalty particularly among the Democratic base”.
Still, things are not that peachy:
What once looked like a huge coup for the White House — and from a governing standpoint remains one assuming Al Franken eventually wins in Minnesota — has quickly morphed into a gigantic political headache that almost no one saw coming.
Just another day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. By the way, what is it about this White House that everything it touches – banks, auto manufacturers, and now a defecting Republican Senator – turns into a zombie?
UPDATE: Looks like keeping Specter viable is very important, because all of a sudden he’s going places: WaPo: Specter gets sub-committee chairmanship.
MORE: Jennifer Rubin: The Horrible Week Continues.
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Can’t wait for Janeane Garofalo’s reaction to these photos of right wing zealots standing up to Congress for pulling the plug on DC’s school voucher program.
More at The Corner (via Instapundit).
School choice is not only a problem in DC, but nationwide. Teachers’ unions and other special interests are getting in the way of a perfectly sensible and legal solution to the problem of low quality public schools: a lack of competition. Hopefully others across the country will take their cue from today’s march and join them in standing up for school choice.
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First came the cheesy topless photo. Now, the serious stuff: NYT: America’s most prominent gay marriage opponent facing increasing pressure to engage on gay issues (via Drudge).
I still don’t get how you can be a “fierce advocate” of gay rights and still oppose gay marriage. And apparently I’m not the only one:
[G]ay activists are beginning to wonder, “How much longer do we give him the benefit of the doubt?”
Don’t count Perez Hilton (and others following his example) among those gay activists, though. He’s already given Obama a pass. Apparently, hating Carrie Prejean is more important than the cause.
But getting a pass from Perez and his gang doesn’t even begin to solve Obama’s problems:
While Mr. Obama has said he is “open to the possibility” that his views on same-sex marriage are misguided, he has offered no signal that he intends to change his position. And as he confronts that and other issues important to gay rights advocates, he faces an array of pressures and risks.
Anything substantive he might say on same-sex marriage…would be endlessly parsed. If Mr. Obama were to embrace same-sex marriage, he would be seen as reversing a campaign position and alienating some moderate and religious voters he has courted.
And if he appoints a gay person to the Supreme Court, he would be viewed by social conservatives — including many black ministers, another of his core constituency groups — as putting a vote for same-sex marriage on the highest court in the land.
UPDATE: Ace links with related content. Thanks!
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Ed Driscoll: Coming soon, government control of the weather?
He’s serious…
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Don’t look now, but Obama is being accused by an international, non-partisan NGO – which once accused the Bush White House of misconduct in Guantanamo – of something that sounds an awful lot like war crimes (via Instapundit, who has more), especially since the U.S. is not at war with Afghanistan.
Jon Stewart now has to deal with reality biting him in real time, after the history lesson (truly epic) he got from Bill Whittle last week. Will he give any credit to the Red Cross’s account of events in Afghanistan? Given his recent encounter with Cliff May, how much you wanna bet he believed everything the Red Cross said about Guantanamo back then?
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Newsweek: Why are big media conglomerates dying?
Meanwhile, some argue the Hollywood studios are stronger than ever.
