It should, it’s been a trick of the Democrats to pin that label on Republicans for years; “The Party of NO.”
I submit to you that despite media reports and observations to the contrary, that label is now firmly stuck not only to the Democrats, but President Nobama Obama as well.
No Plan
Obama has no budget plan, only a campaign agenda. Long on speeches and diatribes, short on specifics, Obama has been vague on what he’ll actually sign at his desk since the beginning. If he ever actually said what he wanted, he shortly thereafter contradicted himself and went the other way; depends on what group he was reading his teleprompter to at the time.
House Speaker Boehner, in fact, described negotiations with the President as “dealing with Jell-O;”
As the following was written, it appeared the ban hammer was being weilded in all directions without mercy or thought. Erick since posted this, and it’s obvious I don’t know all the facts. Threatening legal action? Against RedState?
So I wrote the following, and as I sit here looking at the publish button…
Well, I do like the music video, and my feelings are genuine; seriously, where do we fit in? We can’t be afraid to cross the line when we can’t even see that sucka. And when we do think we know where it is, it moves, or someone steps over and it’s okay for them, but not someone else.
What a day, huh?
I think back to the summer, the actual highlight of my conservative experience to date was being able to meet all the fine folks at RedState that, online at least, I had been able to call friends, allies, and mentors.
I found I can almost keep up with Caleb in the bar department, that EPU and Vassar had the best idea in heading up to bed early and I should’ve followed suit, and that Neil doesn’t actually carry a hammer around with him, it’s only an electronic thing. Most importantly, I found out I was right in calling RedState my home; the place I could go first if I needed clarification, information, or to share my good news, whatever it might be. A community I was proud to belong to and support.
At the RedState Gathering in Austin, I jumped in and manned the registration desk to give Caleb and his lovely wife a break. I carried boxes for EPU. I generally did what I could to help out, not so much for community as I felt like one of the troops. I didn’t do these things to suck up to anybody, or be able to say “I met so and so, I’m important”. I wasn’t bucking for promotion to FP status; fact is I know my limitations. My writing quality isn’t near the level I would expect to see on the Front Page at RedState.com, and I’ve said as much to Caleb (though I can’t specifically remember what brought the subject up, fog of war is what I’m sticking to). Although I’ll confess here that the few times the moon, stars, and planets aligned and I managed to write something that some editor thought FP worthy I was excited enough to call the wife and tell her, frankly I wasn’t expecting a whole lot except to belong to something that could somehow make a difference in our country.
No doubt today that is still the case, insofar as RedState is getting notice nationwide. Politicians are reading these pages, and I’m quite sure the spats that we’ve had over the years have grown tiresome to those in positions of power here who are looking out for the well-being of the site as a whole. Are the spats today worse somehow than they’ve been in years past? No, I don’t believe so. Not necessarily, anyway. I can remember a few good ‘uns that still shake the internet today, and for those you can just do a Google search with the search string G’bye –nt site:www.redstate.com. No doubt someone was banned in those brouhahas.
Today, I feel empty after seeing what has happened here. It feels like RedState has possibly outgrown the community; that there’s no real place for the disagreements we’ve had in the past. Too many outside eyes looking in to be a free-for-all like the Freepers, but somehow becoming strangling more like Malkin or HotAir where you need to be registered to comment, and no one ever gets to register. For months now I’ve been silent when I felt the need to disagree with someone in authority at RS, because it wasn’t worth the risk of banishment. Just sit there and shut up, it’s not your site, it’s theirs. They pay the bills, you just hog the bandwidth.
Yeah, we can still comment and register, so don’t take the last part of the above paragraph too literally. But my God, say the wrong thing to the wrong person (a stealth moderator perhaps), and blam, the dreaded 601 error. Not even a strikethrough in your profile, you just stop showing up.
Myself, I really don’t have to worry about the fatal error, I know who’s who. I know when to shut up. I’m a “good soldier”. In other words, I may not always agree with the LT, but I know what power he has over me. I just wonder if it isn’t just time for a transfer to another unit, because this one isn’t the same one I signed up for anymore.
When Penguin is sad, something is way wrong. Too much confusion, not enough love. Something.
See, this is why I don’t post as often as I once did, ADD is kicking in and I’m rambling. I’ll just put this out to the ether and take my shots.
Miss you guys. Really. Hope you come back. Or maybe give us RedState Lite, where people don’t take themselves so damn seriously.
Well, Obama and the left must really be happy with the way things are working out in pharmaceutical research. The evil “Big Drug” companies can no longer afford the R&D costs and FDA hoops to bring new life saving drugs to the market – so they are gradually grinding research to a halt. It’s no longer profitable.
“NIH has never done anything quite like this,” Collins said in a telephone interview.
“We are asking how can we improve the success of getting the ideas from an early stage to a successful clinical trial, because there is a terrible failure rate right now.”
The Obama administration has become so concerned about the slowing pace of new drugs coming out of the pharmaceutical industry that officials have decided to start a billion-dollar government drug development center to help create medicines.
The new effort comes as many large drug makers, unable to find enough new drugs, are paring back research. Promising discoveries in illnesses like depression and Parkinson’s that once would have led to clinical trials are instead going unexplored because companies have neither the will nor the resources to undertake the effort.
The initial financing of the government’s new drug center is relatively small compared with the $45.8 billion that the industry estimates it invested in research in 2009. The cost of bringing a single drug to market can exceed $1 billion, according to some estimates, and drug companies have typically spent twice as much on marketing as on research, a business model that is increasingly suspect. More- [my emphasis]
The pieces are coming together. Blow after blow by the left over the years attempting to destroy medicine as we know it, and who comes to the rescue? But of course, the same leftists who destroyed it in the first place, along with yet another billion-dollar agency (on initial start-up) to do its bidding.
NASA has scheduled its last-ever US Space Shuttle mission for 28 June, 2011. Designated STS-135, it will carry a mass of supplies, parts. and whatever they can cram aboard to the International Space Station in advance of the Shuttle program coming to an end. After that, the ISS will rely solely on what can be launched by the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, slingshots, little red wagons with wings, etc.
At last, Obama’s NASA will be able to properly concentrate on it’s new mission, that of making the Muslim world feel better about themselves after some bad press lately about blowing people and things up.
Finally, without all the petty annoyances like messing around in the vacuum of space for no reason that is readily apparent to the Obama administration, money that would’ve been wasted on new discoveries will be more properly spent increasing self-esteem for a people who I guess are lacking.
I’m not exactly sure what other world religions will be targeted [sorry, new tone] slated to have their feelings bettered by the United States space agency, but I’m sure once they’ve been identified they’ll no doubt be added to the list.
Will NASA put people in space again? On its own, that is, or will it be “have thumb-will travel”? Much speculation about NASA’s future, but I’m betting they end up becoming another FAA, regulating private flights rather that taking the lead.
Best video I think I’ve seen so far, MarineGirl85 added this to YouTube several years ago, but it got yanked for copyright infringement until recently when the label figured out it could actually sell songs on iTunes by allowing users to make videos with them and slapping a link up themselves to where one could buy it. So now it’s back up.
The footage was shot during operations in Fallujah by LCpl Jan Bender.
Before joining the U.S. Marine Corps where he was trained as a combat correspondent, Jan Bender, 25, grew up playing football and working on his father’s grain farm east of Poseyville, Ind.
But during a tour of duty in Iraq, he found himself both a rifleman, armed with an M-16 and 9 mm pistol, and a cameraman capturing powerful footage of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines fighting house-to-house during the November 2004 push through the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
His footage was used by nearly every major TV network, but eventually he put a highlights reel to music for the men in his platoon.
“I felt a responsibility. This was their own history,” he said recently from Culver City, Calif., where he’s the host and moderator of “In Their Boots,” an innovative Internet TV series.
Sounds cool, right up till I got to the following part, then I smelled rats [All links added by me];
“In Their Boots” is supported by a three-year, $4 million grant from the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund and is produced by Brave New Foundation.
“When I heard about the project, I questioned it,” Bender acknowledged, “but the litmus test is watching the program and content. We’re not looking through a political lens. It’s purely the human side of the impact at home. We don’t leave you in a rut. Our stories usually have an optimism, the American spirit.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the foundation is headed by Brave New Films‘ producer/director Robert Greenwald, who masterminded “The Real McCain” and other political attack videos on the Internet.
But the Times quotes Richard Ray Perez, co-producer of “In Their Boots,” as saying the series is trying to be nonpartisan and have compassion for the human experience “outside of any political ideology.”
Honestly? I hope he saw the light and ran away as fast and as far away as he could from these guys, they’re bad news – using returning troops to drive a wedge between the public and our military.
The list of Medal of Honor recipients is full of awardees who received their award posthumously, as the Medal of Honor itself as described doesn’t easily lend itself to the living [my emphasis];
Sec. 578.4 Medal of Honor.
(a) Criteria. The Medal of Honor, established by Joint Resolution of
Congress, 12 July 1862 (amended by Act of 9 July 1918 and Act of 25 July
1963) is awarded in the name of Congress to a person who, while a member
of the Army, distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and
intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty
while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States…[More]
Yes, the same left that screamed “Ted Kennedy is still alive! He can represent us!” while he was was “sidelined” for much of his last year is now beginning the chant against Jeff Gorell, (R Candidate for the 37th Assembly District.
His opponent, Saudi born Democrat candidate Ferial Masry, of course “understands” Gorell has a duty to serve when called, also suggested;
…she believes Gorell should consider asking voters not to support him this time around in light of his imminent deployment. “He could say, ‘I can’t serve now. When I come back I will run again.’ You cannot leave the district without representation for a year. It’s honorable what he’s doing, but the district has to be represented, too.”
Masry shows more class than many a leftist commenter at the Ventura County Star.
OPSEC prior to a mobilization and deployment requires the one mobilized jump through many hoops before being allowed to announce to the world at large that one is under pending orders to deploy, and Mr. Gorell as a Lt.Cdr. in the Navy Reserve was restricted for quite some time from making any announcement until just recently.
This isn’t the first time Mr. Gorell had a wrench thrown into his plans to run for office, either;
For Gorell, a lieutenant commander, this is the second time reserve duty has interrupted his political plans. He had announced his intention to run for the Assembly in the 35th District in 2002, but had to abandon those plans after being called to duty in Afghanistan
The son of a career Navy officer, Gorell has been a reservist for nearly 12 years. He could have resigned his commission before launching his campaign, but said he could not do so now with a deployment pending unless granted an exemption from the secretary of the Navy.
“I have campaigned telling people I was an active reservist,” he said. “I’ve always been proactive in talking about it.”
Tomorrow should be telling as the Democrat spin masters have to decide if they should spin up and demonize a deploying reservist to try to snatch votes away, or just tell Masry and her staff “Better luck next time”.
So the Senate GOP thinks that the rise of conservatism in the United States is a cool thing for them. They look forward to all the perks; bigger office spaces, nice committee chairs, all the networks finally coming to them for statements instead of Reid and Pelosi.*
Nice gig if you can get it.
Somehow now the GOP leaders seem to be thinking that this was somehow all pre-ordained; that they should take over leadership of Congress, at least that’s the way it looks.
Not only are they dismissive of the “TEA Party” people who, fed up with the excesses of the new Obama regime, revolted and organized a complete new effort from scratch, yet somehow they don’t think those same fed up people noticed that the GOP was itself complicit in the excesses.
Now we are at the eve of putting the “FIRED” stamp on all those we could on both sides of the isle who were complicit in this mess, and the Democrats are understandably upset and attempting to demonize those in the movement who are threatening their power. So too are the Republicans, who see the conservative activists in the same light as do the Democrats.
Van Tran, who is running against Rep. Loretta Sanchez, sent out a flier to central Orange County voters with the scratch-and-sniff section labeled, “something smells rotten about Loretta,” The Orange County Register reported Wednesday.
“It’s the stench of Washington,” the mailer says.
George Andrews, Tran’s campaign manager, said the scratch-and-sniff section is supposed to smell like trash.
Tonight ABC aired a Diane Sawyer interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger about what he hopes will be “his legacy” (more like “stain”) to California, which will be his kicking us off the Global Warming cliff.
As he bashes the “Evil Rich” and “Big Oil” about their carbon-spewing ways, he hopes you’ll forget or ignore the fact that he commutes nearly daily between his LA mansion and Sacramento on a private jet.
So Arnold goes about setting the stage for what he hopes will be a defeat on Prop 23;
“The same players are back trying to destroy our environmental policy,” Schwarzenegger, a Republican, told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. “Now, the important thing is we push back, wipe out Proposition 23. … It’ll be one of the first times in a long time where oil companies, and the rich people who have polluted the world and have enriched themselves by doing that, have been pushed back.”
The governor also pointed to environmental successes in California, including ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gases, plans to build the largest solar electricity plant in the world and work to develop electric cars.
“The Chinese had outdone us. We built the biggest solar plant in 1980, then the Chinese came and outdid it because they’re always there to flex their muscles,” Schwarzenegger said. “Now, we’re going to outdo them… In California, we’re the biggest solar plants.”
Again, pay no attention to the fact that more jobs will be destroyed by his Global Warming policies and ambitions than would be created.
His use of the military to bash Congress is at 00:55
Oh and by the way, it’s not too late to help Prop 23 (hint hint).
This is about as disgusting as it gets. I’ve never even heard of this Moran guy, so my first impression of him is the lasting impression that my military service isn’t worth as much as Jim Moran’s public service as a leftist politician.
Really??
So I guess in “charging into the breeches” of Congress, Jim Moran got to see friends killed trying to cover his advance to “the front” of the Speaker’s Podium? More likely charging for the last donut at the Cafeteria.
Not sure if his opponent saw combat or not, but dealing with jerks like Moran has to count toward a ribbon of some kind.
Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, D-8th, doesn’t think serving in the military is public service. At the October 6th meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee, Moran was videotaped telling fellow party members:
“What [Republicans] do is find candidates, usually stealth candidates, that haven’t been in office, haven’t served or performed in any kind of public service. My opponent is typical, frankly.”
However, Moran’s opponent happens to be Col. Patrick Murray (US Army-Ret.), who served 24 years in uniform, was deployed to four different combat zones, including Baghdad, as part of the 2007 troop surge under Gen. David Petraeus, and was even shot at by foreign combatants. If that isn’t public service, I don’t know what is.
Paper shuffling in Washington, apparently. And this was not Moran’s only military-related misstep.
An article out today calls the Loretta Sanchez cash advantage “glaring“;
With two weeks to go before the election, Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, still has nearly $1.2 million in her campaign accounts, the most recent campaign-finance reports show. Tran, a termed-out assemblyman hoping to unseat her, has less than $300,000.
The reports, released late Friday, show that Sanchez has already outspent Tran nearly two-to-one in the race for central Orange County’s seat in Congress. One result: She has been able to take her message to television, while Tran has stuck to less-expensive radio and print ads.
In all, Sanchez has raised more than $1.7 million over the course of the campaign – about 56 percent of it from individual donors, and 44 percent from political committees. Tran has raised just under $985,000 – nearly 90 percent of it from individuals.
“All the money in the world won’t change the fact that (Sanchez) has passed only one bill in 14 years in Congress,” Tran campaign spokesman George Andrews said. Sanchez has responded to that line of attack before by reeling off legislative initiatives that she says she placed in bills credited to other members of Congress.
Most people reading this knew Brown would be a socialist-leaning Governor if elected in California. The only thing missing was something recent he might say to prove that point; he’s been playing the center up until now.
Behold, the closet door falls open. Apparently with Bill Clinton and Gavin Newsom by his side, Moonbeam just couldn’t help himself.
She chastised Democratic rival Jerry Brown for suggesting at a recent rally that California is still wealthy enough to allow undocumented workers and their children to attend state universities if they qualify.
“Either (Brown) doesn’t recognize we’re in a budget crisis or he’s pandering for votes,” Whitman said, adding she’d give admission priority at public universities to taxpayers.
As he made clear at his speech at UCLA, Jerry Brown’s top priority is undocumented workers and their children.
So when Jerry Brown says; “We have enough wealth to continue to have a great university and get every kid into this school that can qualify. Now when I say every young man and young woman, I mean everyone – whether they are documented or not. If they went to school, they ought to be here.”, what he of course means is more money California doesn’t have will go to people who shouldn’t be here in the first place, while people who should be given priority in state universities (people who are here legally) are given a lesser priority.
And while on the subject of money California doesn’t have, with billions in debt, Brown says “We have enough wealth…” meaning he’s going to take it from you if you live and/or pay taxes in California. Don’t think he’s just going to “get it from the rich”, because as I mentioned elsewhere, you are “the rich” if you make over $47,055 per year.
The well-meaning liberals as well as the hard-core leftists who drive the liberal’s reasoning are out in mass of late pushing for a “No” vote by Californians on Proposition 23. What is their reasoning? Now that California has been forced to turn to “green technology” to power the engine of the economy (which technology still doesn’t exist in any economical form), there will be a huge prosperous increase in Green Jobs in the state as we Californians scramble to comply with the massive changes their mandates force on us. Proposition 23, which only seeks to push back the mandates until such time as this state has been able to sufficiently recover economically, they see as a threat to their ideology which is people last, planet first. No bending, no compromise.
It matters not at all what damage is wrought to people struggling in an already battered California economy, there’s always supposedly unending unemployment benefits and social programs to handle those who can’t find work and struggle to survive. The evil rich will be taxed more to pay for whatever their little heart’s desire; no problem.
Actually, there are problems with their reasoning, quite a few in fact.
The rich (in California that would be anyone making a little over $47k per year for tax purposes) are leaving the state for saner pastures in other states without insane environmental legislation. Business owners are cashing out in record numbers and relocating just to survive as the leftists running the state legislature find any excuse to hammer them harder to pay for their pet programs; programs they refuse to roll back.
Nevada Senator Harry Reid claims to be a defender of the Second Amendment. Is that really the case? You decide. Here is a list of votes he has cast over the past twenty years in the U.S. Senate:
1. June 28, 1991—Voted for a 5 day waiting period for handgun purchases (Vote No. 115).
2. November 19, 1993—Voted to eliminate the five-year sunset in the Brady Bill’s five day waiting period, which would have made the waiting period permanent (Vote No. 386).
3. November 19, 1993—Voted to end a filibuster led by pro-gun Senators against the Brady Bill (Vote No. 387).
4. November 20, 1993—Voted for the Brady Bill, which imposed a 5-day waiting period before purchasing a handgun (Vote No. 394).
5. August 25, 1994—Voted to end a filibuster led by pro-gun Senators against the Clinton Crime Bill, which contained the ban on many semi-automatic firearms (the so-called “assualt weapons ban; Vote No. 294).
6. August 25, 1994—Voted for the Clinton Crime Bill, which contained the ban on many semi-automatic firearms (the so-called “assault weapons” ban; Vote No. 295).
As the left rallies against one prop in California that could save jobs, Prop 23, they demonize support for 23 by saying that “Texas Big Oil Billionaires” stand to profit from its implementation.
We hear a lot about “vested interests” in America these days.
Here in California – it is the cry of Global Warming alarmists who are opposed to proposition 23 that is to be voted on in the November election.
Prop 23 will suspend a “Global Warming solutions” act that will push up energy prices and drive even more jobs out of the state during one the biggest recessions in living memory.
Understandably there is a lot of opposition to the Global Warming Act and Prop 23 is proving surprisingly popular in a state that practically invented the Green movement. Two Texan oil companies are supporting the campaign which has allowed the environmental movement to keep shouting about “vested interests” who are behind the campaign.
But as usual for environmentalists they are being selective in their concern. Just as they want the rest of us to stop flying but they seem [to] have no problem with the Green aristocrats such as Al Gore and James Cameron flying around the world.
And so it is with Prop 23. The other side has vested interests. The environmentalists have angels on their side. At least that is the narrative being pushed and pretty much accepted by the media.
Of course it is nonsense but it is green nonsense so it goes pretty much unchallenged.
Thomas Steyer owns Farallon Capital Management, a $33bln hedge fund. He’s also donated $2.5m to blocking Prop 23 and has pledged a further $2.5m if needed.
There has been almost no investigation of why this citizen would give so much money and of course no suggestion that these donations would make Thomas Steyer a “vested interest”.
So “The Evil Rich™” only qualify as such when they are not in the Protected Class of leftists, it seems (others include Hollywood celebs, mysteriously wealthy union types, etc).
Even liberal “Republicans” are getting into the act of demonizing opponents of Prop 23 in an appearance with Keith Olberman [WARNING] Link takes you to a video of Olberman-not responsible for monitor damage if you throw something at your screen.
If you want to help stop the job loss, help get Prop 23 passed, the left is now winning this one.
Zoe Lofgren seems to have lost all self-respect or respect for her office by being in office for way too long. This was evidenced by her refusing to listen to reason in inviting Steven Colbert to make a mockery of a Congressional hearing on Friday. I mean, really? It’s somewhat akin to inviting Roseann Barr to sing the National Anthem and then being surprised it went badly.
Well, there is hope for that district, in what will hopefully be a successful campaign by Dan Sahagun to take that seat from Lofgren.
One well respected conservative warrior is Chuck DeVore, and it’s been announced today he’s formally endorsing Dan Sahagun for Congress;
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the editorial board of The Sacramento Bee that he is not morally opposed to the death penalty, even though he said the opposite in 1992.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate made the comment Friday. Brown says he would “prefer a society that didn’t have to use the death penalty” but also has said consistently that he will enforce the law.
He was a vocal opponent of capital punishment as governor from 1975 to 1983, once suggesting that banning it would elevate society to a “higher state of consciousness.”
KnightsofMalta: Liberals implicitly belittle the poor. Apparently they are too dumb or weak to be chaste. Sex without consequences is a human right. #rsrh
Dan Spencer: Obama campaign and the DNC spent $120 million in 2011--twice as much as all the GOP candidates combined. http://t.co/fm7XhsUd #2012 #RSRH
This isn’t the first time Mr. Gorell had a wrench thrown into his plans to run for office, either;
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
