Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

The fedoras have landed

Posted: September 9, 2010 by datechguy in personal, special events
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Had an early breakfast with my pal and am already checked into the Hotel, the Fedoras are ready to rumble!

The full Fedora Monty

The room doesn’t seem to have MSNBC available on the TV so although it means I will miss Joe & Mika tomorrow it shows great taste on their part.

There is a lot of news out there. You have Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, Pam Gellar on the same page concerning the Koran stuff: Palin briefly

Our nation was founded in part by those fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty. We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn’t that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?

And Rightnet via Glenn comes to the same conclusion as me.

But the Democrats that use these . . . people . . . are the ones who are really playing political games with our soldiers’ lives and their well-being—because they are the ones who enabled the antiwar movement’s behavior, for eight long years. And now that the Democrats have been in charge for two to four even longer years, they would now like to pursue a grown-up (i.e., Republican) stance on the Global War on Terror (GWOT) — because, contrary to progressive belief, the American public tends to react badly to political parties that actually lose wars.

I’d end by asking rhetorically whether the Democrats expect to get away with trivializing the antiwar movement now, and then seamlessly reactivating it later. Except that I already know the answer: they do expect it, and they’re right to expect it. The antiwar progressive left has nowhere else to go, so it might as well get on with the business of rubbing the lotion in its skin.

But you know what, this is my third trip to DC and I have yet to see a single monument, so I’m going to do that now while I have a chance. I’ll be back blogging in a bit.

Airport Bloging as Democrats legislate jobs away

Posted: September 8, 2010 by datechguy in business, congress, opinion/news
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It looks like I should have bid lower on this flight rather than just looking for a good price since with under 45 minutes to its departure the gate area is practically empty.

The free Logan wi-fi for the price of watching one 70 second ad is a deal to my liking as is the pleasure of viewing humanity. I finished Pam’s book on the drive and am now starting The Man who shot the Man who shot Lincoln. I suspect I’ll finish this before the week is through.

Meanwhile while I wait for a plane yet another factory closes thanks to democrats and their green friends:

What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.

The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences.

Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.

Gateway pundit gets to the raw numbers:

212 democrats voted for this bill. 178 Republicans voted against the bill.

With those kind of numbers the attempt to generate fear of a “tea party congress” is unlikely to work. Particularly if Republicans promise to repeal this nonsense, that’s called actually saving jobs.

We get the government we deserve, right now the people believe they deserve better.

Memeorandum thread here.

Yes Plouffe is trying to spin at 70, but they were spinning at 50 too

Posted: September 8, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news, politics, tea parties
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Today on the Hill Obama partisan Plouffe is trying to set unrealistic expectations to give the left the chance to say: Republicans fell short.

White House senior adviser David Plouffe — Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign manager — said that a bevy of races were in play, from the national to local level.

“There are a lot of competitive races out there. There’s going to be at least 70 House races in play, about 15 competitive Senate races, a couple dozen tough gubernatorial races,” he said in a video to supporters of Organizing for America, the president’s political arm.

Plouffe painted a picture of a dire electoral landscape in which, if Democrats were to lose the majority of those races, their losses would be massive.

Plouffe is trying to scare the troops into action and paints the most dire picture you have ever seen. Glenn Reynolds (by who I first saw the story) asks if he is inflating. The answer is he THINKS he is. Certainly on the senate side 15 is unrealistic, but the dynamics are very different.

For example Ma-1 is not on a lot of people’s radar, but Sitting congressman John Olver has challenged Bill Gunn to 3 debates. Think about that a second. A sitting congressman with nearly two decades in the house has been reduced to challenging a political newcomer to debate him on the issues in MASSACHUSETTS. And the 1st district includes the Berkshires, I guess the ‘Bama redneck area is now extending to the mountains.

This is likely being repeated all over the country. Plouffe is trying to spin but once people believe they can win they work harder. Once people are convinced they can make a difference it gets them off their rears and into the fight.

Plouffe is trying to reset what a “win” is just as the media and democrats. He is instead creating a self fulfilling prophecy it’s isn’t just money candidates need but willing workers. This speech is going to provide workers for republican candidates all over.

Remember congressional democrats, you did this to yourself.

memeorandum thread here

Fidel Castro and Pappy McDaniel

Posted: September 7, 2010 by datechguy in media, opinion/news
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In 1941 Governor Lee “Pappy” McDaniel ran in a special election for an open Senate seat created by the death of Senator John Sheppard (an interesting fact is that a son of Sam Houston the 1st president of Texas born in 1793 was appointed as a “placeholder” senator during the time between the death and the election). His primary opponent was Lyndon Johnson then a congressman from the 10th district. The two primary candidates fought it out and both were involved in some underhanded tactics however at the end of the day it looked like Johnson had the game won until (According to Robert Caro in his book The Years of Lyndon Johnson the Path to Power) O’Daniel’s enemies contrived to steal the election FOR him to get him out of the governors office.

It turned out that Pappy although corrupt had one “virtue” and that was dislike for alcohol. Convinced it was the devil’s brew he was prepared to keep “dry” zones around military bases and his foes in the liquor industry wanted him out.

I thought of Pappy O’Daniel when I read this surprising quote from Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with Fidel Castro:

Over the course of this first, five-hour discussion, Castro repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism. He criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained why the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the “unique” history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.

It was quite a shock to hear one of the monsters of the 20th century excoriating a modern monster for antisemitism and going on about the long history of Jewish suffering, that’s when I remembered Pappy.

Pappy was an opponent of the dangers of drinking, but it didn’t make him any less a corrupt pol.

Castro if this interview is to be believed believes that antisemitism is a centuries long disgrace and that Israel has a right to exist, that doesn’t make him any less of a murderous thug. I’m not going to fall for his pap any more that the Babliu blog guys will.

As the Doctor once told Margaret the Slitheen it doesn’t matter, you can oppress millions because every now and again you can speak up against an injustice that has nothing to do with you.

memeorandum thread here

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