Healthcare is in peril. Whether it is from spiraling costs, the effort to curb same; a vicious program of exclusion or a dunderheaded attempt to baby-proof the globe we can all agree, the benefits of our current system and whatever medical promises held in the future all hang by a thread. Here agreement ends, however. The concept of polarization doesn’t begin to describe it. The Arctic and Antarctic have more in common than the warring factions that promote and oppose the thing we are not supposed to call Obamacare. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, on the law, politics & government by Ken Watson
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There has been a lot of talk lately, mostly on the political right, about the U.S. Constitution. You may recall that the entire document was read in Congress a few weeks ago, a few sentences per member, like schoolchildren at an assembly proving their patriotism. It seems the Constitution is especially popular these days with conservatives and Tea Partiers. I’m not sure why. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, on the law, politics & government by Jeff Scheuer
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“It’s the economy, stupid.” This was Carville’s version of Reaganism. Talk jobs, talk prosperity. Talk up enterprise. Talk down “Big Government”.  Painting in this limited palette with a canvas supplied by the shallowest recession in economic history allowed Bill Clinton and Ross Perot to decisively defeat the hapless Elder Bush who may have then regretted his own tactical distancing from Reagan.

Or perhaps not. It takes great effort now to understand the despite and ridicule that met Reagan whenever he reared his Brylcreamed-head among the governing elite of whatever party. Dick Cheney, we are recently reminded, as a toddler was tasked with casting Reagan (to his detriment) as a second Goldwater. Not Goldwater the man, dedicated friend of liberty and very fine Senator, but rather Goldwater the electoral event which saw a shellacking not yet repeated until, maybe, 1984. One could wonder now how such a program could be possibly entertained, especially when the contest was a Republican Primary, but that is because we now, apparently, are officially unanimous in our respect and affection for Ronald Wilson Reagan. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Ken Watson
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 Congress passed a law. A biggun. I won’t indict the methods employed, the simple fact is they got it passed. But this was an unusual critter. First off titanic in size and scope. Also as opaque as a public document could be. As Nancy Pelosi informed us so elegantly, we would have to pass it to see what was in it. Weeks after the vote the first reports from Reality returned. They were bad. Oh, so bad. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, on the law, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Like many of you, I’ve been following the Egyptian uprising on The Drudge Report, Instapundit, and the major network websites like Fox News and CNN.  I’m totally in support of the populace to rise up and overthrow the existing government, if that’s what they so choose to do.  This is a basic American Ideal, laid out since the Declaration of Independence first offered up the words “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

What I find interesting though is not the political upheaval, but the response by the powers that be and its relation to current US policy.  Namely the idea that they tried to turn off the internet.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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I think the following statement from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, reported just a moment ago on CNN, is worthy of note:

“Iran expects Egyptian officials to listen to the voice of their Muslim people, respond to their rightful demands and refrain from exerting violence by security forces and police against an Islamic wave of awareness that has spread through the country in form of a popular movement.”

This statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, as simple and plain-spoken as it may be, is nonetheless an inadvertent masterpiece of irony that, I think,  deserves to live on for all eternity in the annals of insincerity.

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Michael Antman
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Here is what you call a “non-story:” The upcoming film “Captain America: The First Avenger,” will be dropping the “Captain America” part of the title when it is released in South Korea, Russia, and Ukraine.

The choice was made by Marvel, Paramount Pictures’ international team and distributors in those three countries based on market research results. Those involved in the decision are being careful to frame the move as a matter of brand management and consumer awareness and not as a decision tilted by cultural or political winds.

In private, Marvel insiders said that early on in the project’s planning there was talk that the title might need to be changed in numerous international markets but that there was a ”pleasant surprise” — the brand recognition of the comic-book superhero was so strong that it overrode those considerations in many places. That was not the case in Russia, South Korea and the Ukraine.

Most Americans don’t care what happens in any of those three countries, anyway. I’m not entirely sure that “Ukraine” is even a real place. Show it to me on a map. I’m waiting. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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Many of you may accuse me of hasty floccinaucinihilipilification for this, and claim that I’m being harsh, but…

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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So I’ve had a very hard time trying to write about politics for the last two weeks.  The whole response to the Gifford’s shooting has really ticked me off.  The left’s attacks on conservatives are, in my mind, an effort at the censorship of free political speech, and I don’t see the assault on a conservative’s right to say what he/she thinks coming to a stop anytime soon.

This upsets me because we have large problems to deal with in this country, problems like the nation’s debt, a struggling economy, the Federal Reserve dropping depth charges on the value of the dollar, why, I could write for a month solid on all the things we’re not getting done because we’re having to defend ourselves against trumped up accusations of murder.

I think the best piece I’ve read so far on the subject comes from Don Surber at Daily Mail.com, which I found thanks to Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit.com.  It’s entitled “I do not want civil discourse”.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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The Greek Tragedy has become Comedy, then Absurdity and somehow has come full circle to Normality… Our New Reality; which evidence says is the repetitious behavior emblematic of Insanity. All the things the “bailout” was meant to avert are at the door. All the things it was meant to promote have whithered. Of course the prescription can only be more of the same. More borrowing. More spending. More taxing. It is far from over and it is far from just Greek. The Greeks are merely carrying the banners in this parade. Every nation whose name you know is on the program. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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10. When Sarah Palin said U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should be “targeted,” she meant targeted with a surveyor’s scope

9. Sarah Palin used the term “blood libel” in a completely non-Jewish Christian context, referring to people who claim that wine in church isn’t really the blood of Christ

8. When Byron Williams, who got into a gunfight with police trying to attack members of the Tides Foundation in San Francisco, said he had been influenced by Glenn Beck, he really meant the singer Beck (“Odelay”)

7. When Sarah Palin complained that the shooting in Arizona had been unfairly politicized, then suggested that the gunman was perhaps a “left-leaning criminal,” she meant one of his legs was shorter than the other

6. When the mother of Gregory Lee Giusti, who was convicted of threatening former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, blamed Fox News, she actually meant the news that Redd Foxx had died

4. Tea Partier Sharron Angle’s suggestion of “Second Amendment solutions” for an out-of-control Congress was a misquote; she actually referenced the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments

3. Sarah Palin’s use of the phrase “don’t retreat, reload” was a reference to wash loads

2. When a relative of Charles Wilson, who was convicted of threatening Sen. Patty Murray, said he was “under the spell that Glenn Beck cast,” he really meant he’d been drinking Beck’s beer.

1. Whenever Sarah Palin uses the term ‘Democrats,’ she of course means ‘shitheads who should be taken out’
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: black helicopter watch, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, damned lies, politics & government by Bob Sullivan
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10. “I’m a Tea Partier. By definition, we don’t like thinking things through.”

9. “The NRA told me it would be okay.”

8. “It’s not like I was targeting Republicans!”

7. “I can’t be responsible for every crazy person out there, just myself.”

6. “It was a joke!”

5. “I’m a mama grizzly, and I believe in the Constitutional right to arm bears!”

4. “Guns don’t kill people; bullets do. Guns just make ’em go real fast.”

3. “I have an endorsement deal with the Target retail stores.”

2. “Thinkin’ gives me a headache.”

1. “I’m a heartless bitch with no regard for human life — unless it’s a fetus.”
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, politics & government, trusted media & news by Bob Sullivan
1 Comment »

Watching President Obama’s speech at the University of Arizona Wednesday night, I couldn’t help wondering how it will be remembered a year, or a decade, from now. I sensed in it a defining moment of his presidency. I am not for a minute forgetting the plight of Congresswoman Giffords or the other victims of the Tucson tragedy. Surely they deserve our thoughts and our care. But, like it or not, this was a national event, not a local one, and it will have national repercussions beyond the death and destruction in a shopping mall. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, politics & government by Jeff Scheuer
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The Exorcist was based on a true story. Did you know that? It’s true – the author of the novel, William Peter Blatty, said so.

It is the electrifying – and true, remember, the author says so – story of an otherwise delightful little girl whose body is taken over by the devil.

The devil is a malevolent supernatural creature who comes from Hell, which is the place where bad people go when they die. He works in direct competition with God, who is good except for all the disease and war that He allows to happen. But that’s a discussion for another time. For right now, just remember that the devil can take over peoples’ bodies.

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Tags: ends & odd, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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For a long time now I’ve been wondering: who the f*ck is Paul Krugman? Now of course, I know who he is supposed to be: a Nobel prize winning economist, a professor at Princeton, and multi-purpose talking head whose principal media platform is a column in the New York Times.

But seriously — have you read that shit? For a supposedly deep thinking intellectual, Krugman just churns out nothing but boiler plate bien pensant waffle, week after week. There’s no thinking involved. It’s more like a stimulus response: add Sarah Palin here and watch the head spin. Add Tea Party here for instant spittle- flecked rant.

Most of the time — like most people — I simply ignore this Krugman freak. But this weekend he kind of pissed me off. His instant blog on the Arizona shootings was exactly what you’d expect from an angry wee man with a hate-on for the hoi polloi.You know, evil Republicans and Tea Party types creating a climate of violence etc. His column a day later expanded on the theme — Krugman’s people, the virtuous “left” would never do anything like that. But it wasn’t the blog that pissed me off so much as the thought of tiny little Krugman rushing to his computer within seconds of hearing of the attack to exploit it for political ends. Even as the bodies of the dead were still cooling, he already knew everything, without actually knowing anything. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, politics & government, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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This weekend saw a heated, angry debate on the amount of vitriol in American political discussion.  With so many on the right and left cutting political hay over the actions of a certifiable nut job and trying to use an insane tragedy as a political tool with which to attack their opponents, we missed one of the really “feel good” stories that helps reaffirm your faith in the inherent goodness of mankind.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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One of the things I’ve often wondered is why the left sometimes seems to be against technological progress.  In my short lifetime, I’ve seen leftist movements against all sorts of technological innovations that have absolutely changed the world.  Stretching from the Luddites of the early 1800’s to today’s Green movement and its war on just about everything, the liberal left has displayed open hostility towards much of the technology that I think has made the world a much better place, but the why of the problem is never mentioned.

Why do “progressives” hate planes, anything bigger than a Soapbox Derby car on the highway, Wal-Mart’s efficient and low cost management plan, incandescent light bulbs, and just about every other major modern marvel or innovation?

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Tags: politics & government, technology by Mike McGowan
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Recently while trying to sign in to my yahoo mail account I was greeted by this image:

That is an advertisement for a television program called “Southland,” which is apparently about Los Angeles police officers, and the difficulties they face in their jobs (actually, its official website bills it as a raw and authentic look at a police unit in Los Angeles. From the beaches of Malibu to the streets of East Los Angeles, “Southland” is a fast-moving drama that will take viewers inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families). Just look at those statistics: 11.9 crimes per officer! That’s a lot of crimes. Los Angeles must be full of, well, criminals.

It is. But mainly because Los Angeles has so many laws to break. And they’re about to get a whole lot more. 725 of them. Or, more than 730 of them. Depends on the source. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, television by Ricky Sprague
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The current White House occupant triumphantly reigns over the United States like no other. He succeeded in accomplishing his agenda while simultaneously leaving his opponents dazed, confused, and delusional. Is there anything that can stop him now? It seems unlikely. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Daniel Putkowski
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Tags: money, politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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