Sunday, September 30, 2012

College Football Hammaramathon: Week 5

    This game was on one of the more obscure channels on satellite last evening. As you can see it was played in standing water on artificial turf, not the best conditions imaginable. But I like to see this kind of stuff, football has become so pussified these last few years, and I'm sure Ray Nitschke would agree with me.
    Anyway to the business at hand. No big surprises this week. Northwestern is 5-0 having beaten Indiana yesterday; isn't that special? The Virginia X's nemesis Va. Tech is looking shaky having lost to Cincinnati, Pitt and barely beating a rotten Georgia Tech squad. I'm sure CW is pumped especially since the X had a magnificent but ultimately futile effort against a powerful La. Tech (gave up 35 unanswered points). When the X take to the gridiron against the Hokies this year maybe we'll actually get a game. One can only hope.
    The most entertaining league (ACC) game was NC State and Miami down in Miami Gardens. Entertaining as in watching a house burn down sorta way. NC State gave up 23 points in four minutes and fumbled like a one armed Chuck Muncie. How the Pack was even in the game (final 44-37) is beyond me. But, as usual the cry of WolfPack Nation is "well if we beat Carolina...". We get Florida State next week, can't wait.
    For PURE defensive incompetence we must travel to Morgantown, WV where the Mountaineers and Baylor scored a combined 133 points. WVU quarterback Geno Smith threw 8 touchdown passes for 656 yards with a .834 completion percentage. Good Lord these are xBox numbers, and what really stinks is Baylor did nearly as well. This is just pathetic. If I were coaching these teams I would have fired my defensive coordinator at halftime.
    Boise State (my west of the Miss. favorite) had a surprisingly tough time with New Mexico, Arkansas got whipped again (tough year for the Razorbacks) and Bama phoned one in against Ole Miss. My next county over, close enough, kinda, sorta, hometown team the ECU Pirates thumped The University of Texas at El Intercepted Paso 28-18 in Greenville (hot dumb women, the FSU of NC).  All in all no great shockers.
    I don't know about you but I just can't get used to all this shuffling in these mega-conferences. Nebraska in the Big Ten? Missouri in the SEC? Boston College in the ACC? It's just too much. I'm not necessarily opposed to change or expansion but there has to be a vision other than everybody else is doing it and we don't want to get left behind. But it's all about the money these days.

Potential Election Night Preview

Friday in St. Louis an 18-year-old named Anthony Jamal Lee shot at a vehicle, hospitalizing a 13-year-old and grazing a 17-year-old with bullets, before shooting at another vehicle and grazing someone else in the back.   

Why is this news, you ask?  Young Mr. Lee was a documented member of the Obama Boyz Gang.

What a positive influence this President has had on inner-city youth!  And here's a glimpse of what ugliness may await us late in the evening of November 6th.  

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The No Consequence Administration

Egypt is turning into a nightmare before our very eyes, and we are getting ready to pay good money to help this nightmare on its way.

Our Acting President Secretary of State had this to say, presumably about events that encompass Egypt: 

“The recent riots and protests throughout the region have brought the challenge of transition into sharp relief,” Mrs. Clinton said, without mentioning the assistance to Egypt specifically. “Extremists are clearly determined to hijack these wars and revolutions to further their agendas and ideology, so our partnership must empower those who would see their nations emerge as true democracies.” 

No Mrs. Clinton.  The "extremists" are the people we're getting ready to hand $450M over to.  

Storm our embassy, raise the Al Qaeda Flag, take our money.  When will we learn.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Reason Tells Samuel L. Jackson to Wake the F**k Up

This is not safe for work, unless you work somewhere in which the "F Bomb" is thrown around a lot, which includes most of the places I've worked before.

It comes from the Libertarian viewpoint of our Friends at Reason--Nick Gillespie, to be exact.  Nick can be devastating in sarcastic moods, and this is a triumph.

Enjoy.


How Do You Even Respond to This?

 
Check out this brutal (and fantastic) ad that Allen West is running:
 
                               

Viva La France!

France is in economic freefall.  So to combat the decline, new President Jacques Hollande has instituted a 75% 'super tax' on earners making over a million Euros.  SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT, people.  It's touted as a temporary measure.  How many people think it will actually be temporary? 

And how many people think this is our future?  I'm concerned: what if we run out for money to pay for the Obamaphones???

Friday Again? Must Be Time For Donatiing To CW for Mitt!

 Game on next week--first debate.  The next six weeks are going to be fast, furious and EXPENSIVE.  Let's all dig deep and see if there is another donation left in your piggy banks.  Maybe that $53 donation I suggested earlier in the week?  We had a couple of takers on that including Norfolk's biggest Romney fan and the Gran Prix King of Central N.C.

Just $424 to get to $19K.....will you put us over?

Please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  It is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Big Fat Friday Free For All

Well folks, I'm still fat as a house, but down about 8 pounds so far in THIS edition of the Big Fat Bryan Weight Loss Plan (start:  Sep 11, 194 lbs).  We'll see how it goes.

What's got the rest of you excited?  Anything worth sharing with the crowd/getting off your chest?  Well, then--do so!


Thursday, September 27, 2012

47%er Surfaces in Cleveland

A grown woman who appears not to be disabled and who loves her free Obamaphone protests at a Romney rally in the middle of the day.   You know, when most people are at work. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Debates Will Decide It

It's pretty clear the media has been making a big push for Obama lately. We've been inundated with bogus poll after poll nearly all indicating that "The President is starting to pull away". Since the conventions I've seen polls with Obama up 6, 8 or even 10 points and today I think the Real Clear average is 49/45 Obama. Of course we know better but this kind of misinformation can have an impact, especially in a close race. That's why the debates are all important.

The Democrats and their lap dogs in the media are well aware their boy is in a precarious position. And even though those shellshocked muppets running Romney's campaign allowed the moderators to once again come solely from the liberal media (conservative moderator? forgetaboutit!), if Romney is well prepared and aggressive he can win this race outright. And having all lefty all the time moderators ain't all bad. In case you're wondering Jim Lehrer PBS will do the first one followed by Martha Raddatz ABC, Candy Crowley CNN, and our old friend Bob Schieffer at CBS. Apparently the selection criteria to moderate is you must be politically liberal and if you happen to be male you must not have had an erection since Hilary Clinton was shaggable.

Obviously Romney is going to be asked loaded questions premised on leftist doctrine. He should do what Newt did; attack the bias of the moderator, point out why the moderator is a presumptive ass for even asking such a ridiculous question and proceed to answer the question from the conservative perspective. Then Romney can get into left/right issues with Obama and this time put him on defense because he has a sordid and profuse record to target. We conservatives are dying for the ideological argument to be made. We want a defense of Reaganomics. We want to point out Clinton would not have had a surplus but for a Republican Congress. We want to talk about how Democrat meddling in the housing markets precipitated the crash and how it all started under Bill Clinton. We cannot concede the absolute lie that George Bush created this mess! We want to go there and we want to make Obama defend where we are now. If Romney does this he'll be our next President.

The difference between Romney and Obama in this campaign, the reason Romney isn't up by 15 points nationwide, is that Obama is an amateur handled by pros and Romney is a pro handled by amateurs. They need to turn Mitt Romney loose because this it, this is the Super Bowl, get it done now or go home.


Bias, Maybe?

Here is the WaPost site's Opinion Lineup as of 7PM:

Republicans’ real problem

Republicans’ real problem
Romney can’t be competent without enraging the party’s base.

David Brooks on the Conservative Mind

This David Brooks column showed up two days ago, and I have waited for elite Conservative thinkers to take a look at it and render their judgment.  Alas, I can find none who have risen to the challenge.

Brooks as you know, has earned high praise from me on more than one occasion for his clarity of thought, his common sense, and his uncanny ability to comment on modern American society.  His place on the New York Times Editorial Page as one of the in-house Conservatives gives him a perch from which to opine to a wide audience, and he is fast becoming the Conservative liberals love to love.  Brooks' affinity for Barack Obama is well known.  I come not to praise or bury Mr. Brooks with this post, simply to analyze this column and ponder whether he hasn't missed the mark.

In the column, Brooks gives his view of the tense partnership in modern conservatism between what he calls "economic conservatives" and "traditional conservatives".  He defines the two groups thusly:

On the one side, there were the economic conservatives. These were people that anybody following contemporary Republican politics would be familiar with. They spent a lot of time worrying about the way government intrudes upon economic liberty. They upheld freedom as their highest political value. They admired risk-takers. They worried that excessive government would create a sclerotic nation with a dependent populace. 

But there was another sort of conservative, who would be less familiar now. This was the traditional conservative, intellectual heir to Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Clinton Rossiter and Catholic social teaching. This sort of conservative didn’t see society as a battleground between government and the private sector. Instead, the traditionalist wanted to preserve a society that functioned as a harmonious ecosystem, in which the different layers were nestled upon each other: individual, family, company, neighborhood, religion, city government and national government. 

Brooks tells us that when he showed up as a young man at National Review, these two groups existed in  fine tension creating a brand of conservatism with which we can infer that Brooks was quite comfortable.   Here is Brooks' assessment of the modern conservative movement, and presumably, why it isn't his cup of tea:

In the polarized political conflict with liberalism, shrinking government has become the organizing conservative principle. Economic conservatives have the money and the institutions. They have taken control. Traditional conservatism has gone into eclipse. These days, speakers at Republican gatherings almost always use the language of market conservatism — getting government off our backs, enhancing economic freedom. Even Mitt Romney, who subscribes to a faith that knows a lot about social capital, relies exclusively on the language of market conservatism. 

It’s not so much that today’s Republican politicians reject traditional, one-nation conservatism. They don’t even know it exists. There are few people on the conservative side who’d be willing to raise taxes on the affluent to fund mobility programs for the working class. There are very few willing to use government to actively intervene in chaotic neighborhoods, even when 40 percent of American kids are born out of wedlock. There are very few Republicans who protest against a House Republican budget proposal that cuts domestic discretionary spending to absurdly low levels. 

The results have been unfortunate. Since they no longer speak in the language of social order, Republicans have very little to offer the less educated half of this country. Republicans have very little to say to Hispanic voters, who often come from cultures that place high value on communal solidarity. 

Do you notice anything missing from Brooks' analysis? How about this.  How about a sense of proportion, and a sense of just what it is economic conservatives and traditional conservatives were up against?  How about recognition that as noble as the ends and views of traditional conservatives were, the march of history in the past fifty years has been one in which American society has moved away from the traditional conservative view, to some extent, solidly repudiating it?  Traditional conservative thought depended on a shared sense of culture and society.  Such simply does not exist anymore, at least not to the degree it once did--even to the degree it did when young Mr. Brooks strode into the NR offices.  Every battle lost by the traditional conservatives created a bill for the economic conservatives to pay.  The wages of illegitimacy?  The explosion of middle class entitlements?  The vast transfer of wealth from the young to the old?  All done with the tacit if not explicit permission and support of traditional conservatives.  So when we as a society are handed a new bill by the likes of Sandra Fluke, why should we be surprised?  

The simple truth is that the traditional conservatives Kirkians represent a wonderful and respected view that was once far more consistent with mainstream America.  Brooks has written before about the Protestant elite that once ran our country, and what it meant was that THEIR morals and THEIR approach was the accepted mainstream.  They simply don't exist anymore.  The cultural elite who now run our country put forward policy ends that are diametrically opposed to the interests, philosophy and ideology of the economic conservatives.  Our loss in the culture war has created a battle on the economic front.  If Brooks and others find themselves wondering where their old conservative coalition went, wistfully yearning for the day when Daniel Patrick Moynihan could decry an out-of wedlock birthrate in the African American community of 25%, the answer is that it went down in flames.  The only Army left on the field is the economic conservatives, and it is their battle--won by the founders originally--that gave "traditional conservatives" the running room over the past two centuries to refine and extend their influence. 

Put another way, no group should be rooting harder for the ascendency of the economic conservatives than the traditional conservatives--because only by a victory in the battle of ideas against the modern collectivist state can the softer, more communal mores of the traditional conservatives be accommodated in a democratic system.  

Brooks et al should cease immediately with their rambling reminiscences and grab an oar.  There is a lot of rowing to be done. 

Romney/Obama and Reagan/Carter

Here's a great post from The American Spectator that looks really hard at the last six weeks of the 1980 election, and how NYT reporting on the state of play compared with the actual outcome.

Friends, the media circled their wagons then, and they're doing it again.


The 10 Per Cent President

A version of this article appeared September 25, 2012, on page A18 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The 10% President.  

The 10% President - WSJ 9/25/12

A question raised by President Obama's immortal line on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday—"I think that, you know, as President, I bear responsibility for everything, to some degree"—is what that degree really is. Maybe 70% or 80% of the buck stops with him? Or is it halfsies?

 Nope. Now we know: It turns out the figure is 10%. The other 90% is somebody else's fault.

This revelation came when Steve Kroft mentioned that the national debt has climbed 60% on the President's watch. "Well, first of all, Steve, I think it's important to understand the context here," Mr. Obama replied. Fair enough, so here's his context in full, with our own annotation and translation below:


"When I came into office, I inherited the biggest deficit in our history.1 And over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90% of that is as a consequence of two wars that weren't paid for,2 as a consequence of tax cuts that weren't paid for,3 a prescription drug plan that was not paid for,4 and then the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.5
"Now we took some emergency actions, but that accounts for about 10% of this increase in the deficit,6 and we have actually seen the federal government grow at a slower pace than at any time since Dwight Eisenhower, in fact, substantially lower than the federal government grew under either Ronald Reagan or George Bush.7"
***

Footnote No. 1: Either Mr. Obama inherited the largest deficit in American history or he won the 1944 election, but both can't be true. The biggest annual deficit the modern government has ever run was in 1943, equal to 30.3% of the economy, to mobilize for World War II. The next biggest years were the following two, at 22.7% and 21.5%, to win it. The deficit in fiscal 2008 was a mere 3.2% of GDP. The deficit in fiscal 2009, which began on October 1, 2008 and ran through September 2009, soared to 10.1%, the highest since 1945. Mr. Obama wants to blame all of that on his predecessor, and no doubt the recession that began in December 2007 reduced revenues and increased automatic spending "stabilizers" like jobless insurance. But Mr. Obama conveniently forgets a little event in February 2009 known as the "stimulus" that increased spending by a mere $830 billionabove the normal baseline.    The recession ended in June 2009, but spending has still kept rising. The President has presided over four years in a row of deficits in excess of $1 trillion, and the spending baseline going forward into his second term is nearly $1.1 trillion more than in fiscal 2007.  Federal spending as a share of GDP will average 24.1% over his first term including 2013. Even if you throw out fiscal 2009 and blame that entirely on Mr. Bush, the Obama spending average will be 23.8% of GDP. That compares to a post-WWII average of a little under 20%. Spending under Mr. Bush averaged 20.1% including 2009, and 19.6% if that year is left out.
Footnotes No. 2 through 4: Liberals continue to claim that the main causes of the current fiscal mess are tax rates established in, er, 2001 and 2003 and the post-9/11 wars on terror. But by 2006 and 2007, those tax rates were producing revenue of 18.2% and 18.5% of GDP, near historic norms.
Another quandary for Mr. Obama's apologists is that he has endorsed nearly all of these policies. The 2003 Medicare drug benefit wasn't offset by tax hikes or spending cuts, but Democrats expanded the program as part of ObamaCare. The President also extended all the Bush tax rates in 2010 for two more years in the name of helping the economy, and he now wants to continue them for people earning under $200,000, which is where 71% of their "cost" resides. The Iraq campaign was won and beginning to be wound down when he took office, and he himself surged more troops in Afghanistan. 
Footnote No. 5: Mr. Obama keeps dining out on the excuse of the recession, but that ended halfway through his first year. The main deficit problems since 2009 are a permanently higher spending base (see Footnote No. 1) and the slowest economic recovery in modern history. Revenues have remained below 16% of the economy, compared to 18% to 19% in a normal expansion. The 2008 crisis is long over. The crisis now is Mr. Obama's non-recovery. 
 Footnote No. 6: Even at face value, Mr. Obama's suggestion that he is "only" responsible for 10% of what the government does is ludicrous. Note that in addition to his stimulus, what he calls "emergency actions" include his new health-care entitlement that will cost taxpayers $200 billion per year when fully implemented and grow annually at 8%, even using low-ball assumptions. But the larger point concerns executive leadership. Every President "inherits" a government that was built over generations, which he chooses to change, or not to change, to suit his priorities. Mr. Obama chose to see the government he inherited and grow it faster than any President since LBJ. The pre-eminent political question now is whether to reform the government we have to make it affordable going forward, or to keep growing the government and raise taxes to finance it, if that is even possible. Mr. Obama favors the second option, though he pretends he can merely tax the rich to do it. Nobody who has looked honestly at the numbers believes that—not his own Simpson-Bowles commission and not the Congressional "super committee" he sanctioned but then worked to undermine. At every turn he has demagogued the Romney-Ryan proposals to modernize the entitlement state so it is affordable, and he personally blew up the "grand bargain" House Speaker John Boehner was willing to strike last summer.
Footnote No. 7: Mr. Obama's posture as the tightest skinflint since Eisenhower is a tutorial in how to dissemble with statistics. The growth rate seems low because he's measuring from the end of fiscal 2009, after a one-year spending increase of $535 billion. That is the year of his stimulus and thus spending is growing off a much higher base. The real annual pace of government growth is closer to 5%, and that doesn't count ObamaCare.
***
In another news-making bit with "60 Minutes," which the program decided not to air, Mr. Obama conceded that "Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, mistakes that are made, areas where there's no doubt that somebody could dispute how we are presenting things, that happens in politics."
Note the passive voice, as if the President's re-election campaign is disembodied from the President. If Mr. Obama's campaign seems dishonest enough that even Mr. Obama is forced to admit it, this is because it's coming from the top.

$53 For Mitt!!!

You, faithful reader are not one of the 47% who will vote for President Obama.  You come to this election knowing that change is necessary, and knowing that it will take more than hope to bring it.

Show you are among the 53% that Mitt WASN'T talking about!  Show that you want change, and you want it now!  Show that you believe in free people and free markets.

By sending a donation of $53, you will send a message that Mitt is right and you're not ashamed to say so.  If HALF of our daily readership responds to this request, we'll smash through the $25,000 goal for CW for Romney

Please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  It is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Even if you've donated already, consider this symbolic $53 donation.  Send the message.  Start the fire.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Lull In Fundraising---C'mon Folks---Pony Up for Romney!

It's been a slow week folks, which makes me think some of you are getting a little down.  Rubbish.  Romney's in this thing, it is tight, tight, tight, and the next six weeks are going to be a sprint to the finish.


Make a donation, friends.  Put your money where your mouth and your ideology are.  You know who you are--you who read this blog every day, knowing that me, or Mudge, or Sally or Hammer will deliver the good word.  You know that we can't have four more years of Mr. Obama.  You know it, and yet you've not done anything about it yet.

Grab that credit card and donate now!

Please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  t is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

You Miserable Tax-Cheat!

"(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, gave about 30 percent of their $13.7 million in 2011 income to charity, but did not take the full write-off, making their effective tax rate higher."
Who does this guy think he's fooling? See how this works? Moneybags Romney made a boat load of cash and cynically gave 4.1 million to charity and didn't even take the full deduction so it would appear he paid his fair share. He only paid a paltry 2 million in federal taxes, the cheapskate. And he pulled the same con in 2010! 
Thank God Reuters and AP and all the rest of the main stream media are getting this point across and even mentioned that President Obama paid 22% (actually 21.7%) on an income of $789,674 ($400,000 salary, 390k "other sources"). Robert Gibbs said yesterday that Romney needs to "explain" the details of his "investments". RIGHT! There's something fishy going on here!    

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Week 4 of the college football season had a couple of marquee games, a couple of upsets but no big surprises. The big news was how easily the Oregon Ducks absolutely manhandled a fairly good Arizona squad. The Quack attack showed the Wildcats much the same respect the Einsatzgruppen showed the Ukrainians at Babi Yar, going for it on 4th and 2 on their own 39 yard line; their FIRST possession of the game! If that don't say "I own you bitch" I don't know what does. They had about 500 yards in total offense pretty much equally divided between passing and rushing. As the final score was 49 zip I see no need to mention the defense. This is a good football team and the word around the duck-blind is these guys are ready to challenge the mighty Crimson Tide. We'll see.
The Tide looked good, FSU finally pulled ahead of Clemson due in part to a ridiculous holding call on the Tigers (Herbstreit called it "interesting") and a "I see nothing" pass interference that should have gone against the Seminoles. But FSU would have probably won anyway. Clemson still covered the spread. Kansas State opened up a can on Ok in Norman (I hate Bob Stoops) and LSU beat undoubtedly the best 1-3 team in the country, the Auburn Tigers.
Now for the really bad news. The Virginia X were shocked down in Fort Worth by an obviously inferior Texas Christian team. The Horned Frogs laid a Deliverance style humiliation on the visiting X who's fingers must have been coated in some sort of lubricant as they fumbled the ball four (4) times. But UVA's starting quarterback Mike Rocco was insistent that the X could play with any team in the country...THAT is how good we are! OOOOOOO!!! Unconfirmed reports have NC State attempting to cancel their Nov. 3rd. contest with Virginia due to a team outbreak of gingivitis.
     

Yep. About Covers It.

A sign at 58th and Blue Star, Holland, Michigan:


In Which I Envision The WaPost Obama Endorsement


Sometime in very late October or early November, the editorial board of the Washington Post will sit down and decide who the paper should endorse for President.  Their endorsement of President Obama will be written in a manner suggesting that his opponent may actually have had a chance of earning the endorsement; that the Board underwent a tortuous process in trying to decide between these two men, and that there cannot possibly be even a hint of media bias in their selection. 

Their endorsement of President Obama will be delivered in almost a tone of regret, that he has not lived up to his promise, that he hasn't made things better, that he poorly prioritized his administration's plans, that he has not delivered on Hope and Change, that he made reckless promises about job growth that he has not delivered upon, that he has alienated our ally in Israel without any real change in affection in the Islamic world, that he has not bravely tackled the systemic entitlement issues that underpin our debt crisis, that he failed to act on a sweeping deal with Speaker Boehner that he had in his hand to address our out of balance ledger.  The Post will criticize him for the sloppy manner in which stimulus dollars were distributed to the noble green energy industry, it will point out the fact that Obamacare does not effectively address the rising cost of healthcare to the 85% of Americans who already had it, it will question the much ballyhooed "open-ness" of the Administration and it will chide the President for his ducking of the White House press pool in favor of lesser, more pliant media outlets (dare it mention "The Pimp with the Limp"?).

After laying down a Declaration of Independence-worthy bill of indictments against the President, one which the average reader would rationally conclude eliminated the President from the competition,  the Post will then have to reveal to us its great disappointment that the Republican was not more worthy of its endorsement.  It will wistfully suggest that it could have heartily endorsed "Governor (of MA) Romney", but that this Candidate for President Romney had simply gone too far over to the right.  It will likely raise the canard that Ronald Reagan could not be nominated in this Republican Party, the old one having been so much more preferable to the Board (except when Reagan was actually governing the country). Nor will it speak to the unlikelihood of that great tax-cutter JFK being nominated by this tax crazy bunch.  It will commend him for the good sense he showed in the Massachusetts healthcare plan and question his judgment in his opposition to imposing it on the rest of America.  It will decry his position on a "woman's right to choose", even when that right includes downright infanticide.  It will accuse him of a lack of specificity in his economic, fiscal, growth, tax and jobs plans, contrasting them with the positions the Administration has taken while it governed, rather than the equally vague positions taken by candidate Obama in 2008.  It will sadly wonder why the Governor's father released 12 years worth of tax returns, while he only released two.  The Washington Post will create in the mind of the reader the notion of "what could have been", if only Romney had been more....well....like a Democrat. 

The paper will conclude its endorsement of President Obama with stern warnings and hectoring, making sure EVERYONE knows it isn't in the tank for Obama.  It will make dire warnings about the state of our fiscal health and the responsibility of the President to work with Congress to fix it.  It will predict decline, and insolvency if we do not address things in a "balanced" way, to include having the "rich" pay their "fair share". 

And when the endorsement is complete, they will not have thanked me for writing it for them. 

Message to Romney Team--Hey, How 'Bout Just Shuttin' Up?

No more strategy in public, no more playing "frag the Lieutenant", no more free-lancing.  Everything you say to the press flows from the top down.  Ok? 

Be Not Afraid

Visualizing Romney's "horrible" September:  HT:  Instapundit


Saturday, September 22, 2012

QE3 Ain't a Boat

Ok, let's start from the beginning. What is QE exactly? QE or "quantitative easing" is the term the Obama administration and Ben Bernanke use to describe the printing of currency (you'll notice I didn't say money). You see the money supply (all the American dollars in circulation throughout the world at any given moment) is very important. The dollar is not tied to any tangible good like gold or silver, or for that matter Hershey bars or jelly beans (Reagan's favorite). Back in the day the dollar was tied to the price of gold. For every dollar in circulation the Fed had a dollar's worth of gold on deposit at places like Fort Knox (you did see Goldfinger didn't you?). This served a few purposes not the least of which it kept politicians from fiddling with the dollar's value. Nixon took us off the gold standard and henceforth the dollar has been backed by the "full faith and credit" of the United States government of the Federal Reserve or some damned body, the point is it's just a promise to pay. So why is quanative easing bad? Simply, if there are X dollars in circulation that have a value of Y, then X2 dollars will by definition have a value of Y/2 if again the dollar is not tied to a known value. Omama and Bernanke are devaluing our currency to the extent they are printing more currency. They are in fact stealing our buying potential without ever going near it like they would with taxation etc.

Ok, let's talk about this in practical terms. Take somebody like me. I have a mortgage at less than 4%. This is ridiculously low in historic terms. One of the consequences of an increase in the money supply is inflation. It cannot be otherwise. Increase the money supply and real goods that have a real value (houses, oranges, hookers in Vegas) will inevitably increase in price. So if I borrow 50 grand at a low interest rate and the value of the money goes down, then over the course of the mortgage I will be paying the loan back in dollars that are worth significantly less than the value of the dollars that I initially borrowed. I will make out like a bandit, but who loses? The bank of course. They stand to lose thousands in real value. Expand this out over the thousands upon thousands of mortgages and it doesn't take a genius to realize the lender is getting hosed. And when you factor in the hard economic fact that when inflation is occurring interest rates must rise to account for the inflation plus a reasonable profit, well it's apparent we have a phony economy (as bad as it is) propped up by phony interest rates. 

The market is, and the market will out. Nobody, not the communists, not the fascists, not Pol Pot, Mao or Kim Jung Il are protected from market forces. If a lid is put on the market it is much like a pressure cooker and woe is the country that keeps the lid on too long. There will be a price to pay for the foolishness of our leaders, and it ain't going to be pretty! Get ready. If Obama is re-elected we will experience an economic Armageddon that could dwarf the Great Depression (and for almost identical reasons). If Romney is elected we can count on four or five years of pain, and I'm not at all sure the American people are smart enough to even understand that this could have been avoided. Regardless who wins the election, in the end Obama may very well win.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Obamacare, In One Sentence. Classic.


Big Fat Friday Free For All

What's got you down, friend?  Turn out your little "internet film" wasn't the cause of the riots you had SO hoped was the case?  Jewish vote abandoning you over your Middle East policies?  Finding it just too darn hard to change Washington from the inside?

Well then, share your pain.  We're here to help.

If It's Friday, It Must Be Donation Day!

Grateful appreciation goes out to my favorite 1992 Wahoo and to a Northern Virginia consultant--both of whom are repeat donors.

That's right folks--if you've made one donation, you can still make more!  How cool is that?

Romney is in this thing--all of the power of the Presidency and all of the power of the BAPF media working against him, and the thing is TIED.

The resources needed to push him over the top are considerable.  We've got to keep the press on and flood the battleground states with our message. 

Please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  t is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

A GREAT Ad Most of You Won't See--Unless You Live In Wisconsin



H/T  Instapundit

Good News on the Election Front

Again folks, be not afraid.  Lots of time left,and Romney keeps fighting back. A couple of interesting tidbits today that ought to energize Romney supporters:

1.  Gallup Daily Tracking tied at 47.  Note the trend.
2.  Obama support among Florida Jews down 7%
3.  The man who promised to change Washington admits he's a failure, undercuts his whole rationale for running.
4.  The White House admitted today that the consulate attack in Libya was NOT a spontaneous reaction to a film, but rather a planned terrorist attack--undercutting its denial of same and its attribution to said film. 

This thing is going 15 rounds, folks.  Both sides will land good punches.  But stay positive, stay faithful and most of all, DONATE!

Please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  t is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Americana Decor: Out. O-Mericana Decor: In

 

We have here the latest item for sale at the Barack Obama store.  A flag print for $35. 
 
Isn't there anyone in Obama-ville who looks at these things and says 'uh, no' ? 

 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Are You Ready To Rumble?

In 1988 when George Sr. was running for President there was a lot of talk about "the wimp factor". There were stories everywhere planted by the Democrats about how GHWB was just a rich guy, "born on second base and thought he had hit a double" to quote Jim Hightower. He had no guts, a company man, Reagan's lap dog etc. Time even had a cover about Bush being a wimp. Well George the first put an end to that line of attack when Dan Rather interviewed him in in January '88 and came out with guns a blazin'. Rather hated the Bush family from way back and he tried to put the V.P. right in the middle of Iran-Contra. It didn't work out so well. The Old Man mopped the floor with Dan's silly ass and laid that "wimp" stuff to rest. Romney has yet to do that.

As you may recall Tina Brown over at that dying rag Newsweek ran much the same cover back in June. "The Wimp Factor: Is Romney too insecure to be President?" Not is he too nice a guy but is he too neurotic? Romney was interviewed by Bob Schieffer, one of Dan's old buddies at CBS that next weekend and he asked the candidate about it. Romney just laughed it off, no sweat ha ha ha. An opportunity missed in my opinion. I wonder if he's laughing now?

Here's the thing. People don't mind a son-of-a-bitch as their President, otherwise Nixon wouldn't have been elected twice. But what they absolutely will not tolerate is weakness. Say what you will about Barack Obama but he has stuck to his guns. He's got balls. So far Romney has failed to display his. The American people are ready, they want a new President. They know Obama is a failure and they are looking desperately for an alternative. But they will not vote for a guy who can't get angry. We are angry. We are angry at the economy, the prospect of war, the debt, our mortgage, our husband's erectile dysfunction and our wife's sagging boobs. WE'RE PISSED! And if Romney can't show a little backbone, a little indignation and aggression after all the stuff they've done to him these past few years then this guy has no soul.

He's got six weeks. He needs to walk up to the biggest kid on the playground and knock the everlovin' shit right out of him, otherwise that what's Obama is going to do to us in November.




Credulity, Strained

Let's review the actions of NBC over the past few months.  In April, they brought you a doctored Trayvon Martin tape designed to incriminate George Zimmerman.  In July, they aired a clip cut short to make Romney look out of touch on Andrea Mitchell's show.  And in the past 48 hours, the caterwauling has been nonstop on MSNBC.   However, they cannot air the video two posts below this one where Obama talks in 1998 about wealth redistribution.  They cannot air it...because they cannot authenticate that the voice on the video is that of President Obama.

Let's review:  this is a VIDEO...his image, his voice...him!  And yet, they cannot authenticate it.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Romney In Death Spiral; Campaign In Turmoil, Up 6 ...

Here is what is happening, my friends.  The prevailing Democratic policy narrative and the shared mainstream media political preference narrative are largely coinciding--not that this is a surprise.  So when something comes up that is anomalous to these narratives, they are seized upon like a virus surrounded by white blood cells. 

Witness last week's incredible Bought and Paid For Media reaction to the murder of our Ambassador to Libya and the storming of diplomatic missions there and in Egypt.  Romney got out front on this, criticized the statements coming out of the Embassy in Cairo and leveled serious charges of malfeasance against the Obama Administration where the conduct of world affairs and the advancement of US interests are concerned.  The media collectively hyperventilated, conspiring with each other to ensure commonality of theme--no focus, mind you, on the substance of Romney's reaction--but on its TIMING.  Romney was accused of being quick on the trigger by the media (and the President) and for firing from the hip.  The din was overwhelming from the BAPF media--that this man CLEARLY is unsuited to be President.

Next, the DNC's newest tool, Politico, published a story excoriating the Romney campaign, citing numerous unnamed sources and generally fanning a fire pushing the notion that the campaign is in a shambles and directionless.

You know what?  America isn't listening.  America apparently likes what Mitt said about Libya --or at least didn't care for the Obama reaction, and it seems to think that Romney's campaign is doing just fine, thank you.  The 7 point bubble The One had after his convention is down to ONE POINT today in the Gallup Poll.  One point.

And now, we have a video in which Governor Romney says what almost every one of his supporters believes in their hearts....that the President comes to the table with a HUGE number of votes (47% by Romney's estimate), and that among them are those who do not pay taxes (and who would then not be terribly interested in his tax plans) , and those who seek to increase the dependency state in the US.  Again--this is anomalous to the tender ears of the Media/Democrat Complex, and they've taken to the barricades to denounce Romney. 

Please--keep it up.  Keep reminding hard working tax paying Americans that you are in favor of taking even MORE MONEY from them and distributing it to others.  Keep reminding hard-working income taxpayers that nearly one in two wage earners isn't kicking in to fund the military, borders, the courts or Solyndra.  Yes, yes, they have payroll taxes--but let us not forget that most will get every penny and more back in benefits from Social Security and Medicare.

I look forward to Gallup's polls next week.  Another disaster like this for Romney, and he can start measuring the drapes....

To help ensure that happens, please click this link to donate...to the CW for Romney Fund.  t is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Obama The Redistibutor

I have a sneaky suspicion that the Romney Campaign has more where this came from.....



Poster Child for Free Stuff Weighs in on Romney

How Dare Someone Suggest People Expect Everything From Government!

A 2008 classic that's worth revisiting in the wake of Romney's 'scandalous' remarks. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

North Carolina Comes Through! Another Donation to CW for Romney

That's right, folks, we received another donation from the South's finest appliance repairman.  Looks to me like The One isn't going to have the time he had 2008 in North Carolina--down by about 7 right now. 

Folks, we're seeing the race tighten back up after President Obama's convention bounce--even as the Bought and Paid for Media are telling us that things are dim for Romney.  Guess what?  They're not.  The country is NOW engaged.  The electorate is coming around to the task of picking their President.  Romney's spending the money we donate on great ads in the right places, designed to remind voters that the President hasn't delivered.

Please click this link to donate...it is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

College Football Roundup: News and Views from a "Hammeratic" Perspective

Week three of the college season produced a few surprises but nothing major. FSU looked deadly against an admittedly inferior but improving opponent in Wake Forest. The Hokies got their asses handed to them by Pitt, and Alabama is starting to scare everybody shitless especially when one considers this is not last year's National Championship team. Clemson is looking good (they usually do early) and the shell-shocked Tar Heels made a pretty good comeback after Louisville started substituting way too early. TCU is looking good coming into their game with hapless Virginia X (please don't refer to them by their "slave" name). Notre Dame slapped around a pretty good Michigan State at East Lansing, could they be back? Of course the big news this week is that USC came up short against the Stanford Cardinal who everybody knows ripped off their helmet logo from NC State.
More good news for you folks from the upper Midwest. University of Minnesota-Mankato (wherever the hell that is?) coach Todd Hoffner was found not to have anymore "kiddie-porn" on his university issued cell phone, or confiscated home computers, or in his nightstand or under the mattress. It seems the coach brought his cell phone in for service and had video of his two toddlers running naked around the house going mad after bath time, he was immediately charged. Can't be too careful these days. Meanwhile Coach Joe Paterno will remain in Brown University's Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Paterno was a 1950 graduate.

USMC Heard From! 80th Donation to CW for Romney

One of the Marine Corps' finest just became the 80th person to donate to CW for Romney.  His generous donation puts us one step closer to $25,000.

Please click this link to donate...it is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Folks--this is serious stuff.  If we want to turn this country around, we have to start at the top.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Woodward's Book

This book isn't getting the coverage it deserves, which isn't really surprising since it makes O look like a totally weak sister.  (Remember the breathless coverage of Scott McClellan's book criticizing the Bush Administration?)    I could hardly put this one down, and encourage you all to read it.

There are some revealing passages on the character of some major players that may surprise you:  Mitch McConnell is not disagreeable, he's open to (and eminently capable of) compromise & negotiation, Harry Reid doesn't have much use for Obama's negotiating tactics, and Joe Biden is pretty skilled at the old-school pol game.  (Biden and Cantor actually have a good relationship...at one point, Biden told Cantor if he were in charge, things would be handled differently.)   Not surprising:  O wildly overestimates his skill in bringing people together, Valerie Jarrett is both clueless and insufferable, and Nancy Pelosi is a total moron (though I almost laughed out loud when encountering instances where both she and Reid completely blew off the President).

It spent a little too much time on the debt debacle, but did offer some background on the construction of the stimulus and some priceless tales on O's tortured relationship with the business community.  You'll find yourself wondering for the millionth time how this man got into this position and how he could have such a deficit of the interpersonal skills required of this job.   You could not possibly be disappointed in this book.

I do wonder how Woodward will fare on the Georgetown cocktail party circuit.

Republicans Fumbling on Energy

A great post here from Walter Russell Mead on an issue the GOP should be hammering away on.  Jobs and gas prices, jobs and gas prices, jobs and gas prices.  Don't stop.  Until you win the election....Oh--and don't forget Solyndra....

So What if They Did?

Obama's response to the atrocities perpetrated against our Embassies in Libya and Egypt can be summed up thusly: It's not me and it's not America, they love us. It's that darned movie! Yeah right. The king of the straw-man argument outdoes himself. A child could see these were coordinated, planned attacks to commemorate 9/11, a near religious holiday in the Moslem world. But for the sake of argument let's say the film was the cause. So what?

The film obviously portrays Muhammad and his dog-breath religion in a bad light. But they do that themselves everyday. I guess when we see beheadings and stonings and women mutilated in full view of the world, we're supposed to feel warm and fuzzy all over for the "Religion of Peace". Moslems complaining about this film because it "insults their prophet" is absurd. If this is the tolerant, peaceful religion they profess it to be, then they insult their prophet everyday and especially with their actions of this week.

Now, according to somewhat sketchy reports, the makers of the film "Innocence of Muslims" are ex-pat Coptic Christians living in the L.A. area. They have since gone into hiding fearing for their lives. And what about the Coptic Christians in Egypt? They have been brutalized, raped, and murdered for 1500 years with very little outcry from anybody. This was in the New Republic a few months ago.
Two Coptic families were attacked in their homes and eleven people, including children, were killed. Four others survived, despite having been shot. The report states that the families knew their attackers, Islamist militants divided into two groups who accessed the Coptic homes through the roofs of their neighbors’ houses. The survivors say the masked attackers of the first home were led by Ibrahim Hamdy Ibrahim. They killed Joseph Waheeb Massoud, his wife Samah, their 15-year-old daughter Christine, and their eight-year-old son Fady Youssef. The other masked group was led by Yasser Essam Khaled. They killed Saleeb Ayad Mayez, his wife Zakia, their four-year-old son Joseph and three-year-old daughter Justina, his 23-year-old sister Amgad, their mother Zakia, and Saniora Fahim.
This kind of persecution goes on all the time in Egypt and throughout the Middle-East, and nobody says a word. These guys were just trying to get a little attention paid to their people's suffering, and a little payback probably. Wouldn't you?

But we should use this as a teachable moment. We know the film is just a pretext for violence against us but we should run with it. We can shame the Egyptians and Islam for their brutality towards Christians and other minorities. We should beat them over the head with this, and it's only right. Egypt is most likely lost as any sort of ally or partner in the region so let's start demanding they act civilized if they want our money and friendship. And if it turns out Egypt is in fact lost to the nut-case Islamo-Fascists, we can thank the Democrats and Barack Obama.

CW For Romney Breaks $18K!

Thanks largely to a kind donation from that girl in high school who wouldn't give me the time of day, we have cracked through the $18K mark. 

Folks, I've heard from some of you, and I know you're beginning to wonder about the outcome of this thing.  You've got to remember, Romney's running against Obama, the media, and pollsters who routinely over-sample Democrats.  The media has an institutional interest in continuing the drumbeat of manufactured bad news in order to tamp down enthusiasm for our candidate. 

This election is damn close, and it will only get closer in the weeks ahead.  The country simply cannot stand another four years of Mr. Obama's brand of leadership, and so we have to send him packing!

Won't you help?

Please click this link to donate...it is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Is it Friday? Must Be Time To Contribute to CW For Romney!

Let's face it folks, the President got a little bump from his convention.  And now he's frittering it away trying to defend an indefensible foreign policy.

Mitt was spot on when he spoke out, and he's continuing to do so every day.

Please click this link to donate...it is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

We are SO close to the $25,000 goal--and only $180 away from $18,000.  Will you be the one?

The President and the White House Press Corps

President Obama has broken up with the White House Press Corps.  He's just not that into them.  Oh yes, he does interviews and he answers questions, but these are with pliant members and coached members of local media, in addition to "entertainment" venues such as the "Pimp with a Limp"

But the folks who go to the White House every day to cover the Administration?  They get Jay Carney.  Including the other day, when President Obama spoke to them about the tragedy in Libya, then turned tail to head to Nevada for fundraising.  No questions.

Because we know the media is practiced in collusion, I have a recommendation for them.  The White House Press Corps should go on strike.  That is, they should simply refuse to cover the Administration--do not interview them, do not write about them, do not give them the reliable megaphone--until the President begins to deal with them in a more equitable manner.

Think we'll see this?  Don't hold your breath.  Most of the people in that Press Corps are doing heavy lifting for Obama's re-election. 

Big Fat Friday Free For All!

Hey folks--what are you thinking about?  What's got your goat?  What's eating you?

Share--here! And share well!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

On Romney, Egypt and Libya

Well, it seems that the Bought and Paid For Media's coordinated attack on Governor Romney is in full swing, as the coverage of his press conference yesterday demonstrates.  It is becoming laughable, the extent to which Romney is running against both President Obama and his sycophants in the Press.

Romney was spot on in his criticism of the Administration; in fact, he did not go far enough.

Anyone here remember the extent to which the Democrats and their toadies in the Press blamed the abuses at Abu Gharaib on Bush Administration policies?  One wonders then why they cannot make the same connection between Mr. Obama's worldview and ideology, and the feckless, ridiculous statement from Cairo as their walls were about to be breached:  ""The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions," the statement read in part. It went on to say that the U.S. "firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

Wonderful.  American free speech is the culprit, not the rioters at the gate.  Classic apolgia, classic Obama.  Yes--he didn't write it.  But can anyone look at those words and not understand the mind from which they emanate?

Romney should have gone further.  He should have said, "I will not apologize for Western Democracy and I will not apologize for Freedom of Speech.  We have two civilizations on display here, one in which free speech has been protected as a matter of course for nearly a quarter of a millenium, and the other in which cartoons, or Youtube videos are seen as the pretext for terrorism and murder.  We will defend our path, we will not apologize for it, and we will ensure there is no rest for those who seek to destroy it."

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Donation from NH! Will You Put Us Over $18,000?

The CW for Romney Fund received a generous donation today from an old friend in New Hampshire.  We're $180 south of $18,000---on our way to $25,000 and Mitt Romney in the White House.

Please click this link to donate...it is essential that you check the box that says you know your referrer, and that when you do so, it brings up two boxes, one with "INT 2012" in it, and the other with the number "4847" in it.  If they aren't there, please type them in.  That's how the blog gets credit.  If you wouldn't mind, please send me an email (mcgcruiser@aol.com) if you donate, so that I can be on the lookout for the donation on my dashboard.

Things are tight--looks like the President has opened a little lead, but the situation is fluid.  We need to keep raising money so that the campaign can target the key states.  Please do your part.

Now It Gets Real

So, now we see what an amazingly talented and insightful foreign policy President we have. All the apologies, all the kissing ass, all the living in denial, all the relinquishment of responsibility finally came home to roost this week. This is the inevitable consequence of amateurs at the State Department and White House.

Four years ago by comparison Hilary Clinton looked like an old salt, ready to step in to arguably the most demanding job in government, Secretary of State. But let's not forget, she was a one term senator just like Obama and learned what little she does know by osmosis rather than experience. She's Madeline Albright without the credentials, but just as disastrous. 

Our foreign policy is a damned joke. We just gave a billion and a half dollars to the Egyptian Brotherhood and then, when they rampaged, Obama apologizes TO THEM just in case their feelings were hurt. I have to say however, I'm glad all this came to a head before the election. I had convinced myself the Arabs had actually smartened up and were just bidding their time so as not to hurt Obama's re-election chances. I guess not.
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