Rally to Restore Blah Blah Blah

An occasionally effective tactic of the left when race cards, gender cards and sexual preference cards have all been played (yet failed to divert attention from the substantive arguments about their flawed policies) is to assert the lack of intellectual capacity of their antagonists. The left has been more subtle in throwing the intellect card than the aforementioned cards with terms such as "civility" (the Administration actually uses our tax dollars to employ an envoy of sorts to preach civility and "tolerance" in much the same way photographers used to shoot portraits of less fortunate faces through gauze to soften the image. Well, we can now add "sanity" to the words commandeered by the left with the intent of leaving nary a crumb with which non-leftists (you know, those uncivil, intolerant, uneducated, racist, sexist, homophobes who disagree with them) can identify.

You know what? there may be more truth to that one than any of them...I have to admit, this monopoly of leftists in charge right now has contributed more to my own insanity than anything I've encountered in over a half-century of being right.

Anyway, just to see what all the fuss was about, I tuned into the "Rally" for just a few minutes today. It only took a few minutes because I couldn't take another minute of the intermittent fleeting flashes of subliminal suggestion screens saying: "You are not the target audience."

Indeed I am not. (NTS: Add that to list of things for which I am thankful.)

Urban Hipsters To March On The Mall

Proving once again his infinite capacity to make fun of things other people say, do and create, Jon Stewart and his spawn Stephen Colbert are planning dueling "marches" on the Mall on October 30 (damn, I'm otherwise engaged).  I have been amused by the outpouring of support for the Comedy Central publicity stunt by my chic, young, urban hipster friends on Facebook --you know, the ones who secretly (or in one case, quite publicly) wish Jon Stewart were President (come to think of it, he's apparently very well-qualified, if recent election results are a guide).

Suggested Apparel for the Urban Hipster March

How will such a march go?  How will a group of people--whose basic approach to governing, government, politics and ideology consists of  1) we know better, because we're smarter 2) the people are largely incapable of governing themselves 3) we should choose which policy option is coolest, will make us more popular with more people, is most likely to get us laid and 4) the country would be a much better place if we all simply stopped judging each other, paid more taxes, became more reliant on government, stopped fighting wars, read the New York Times and the New Yorker, and avoided serious policy discussion in favor of smarmy, snarky, "we told you so's" and "my goodness, the American people are stupids".

Here are some suggested "themes" for the event:

• "Hey Barack; Stop Doing Things--Just Talk--That's Why We Elected You!"
• "Bush III"
• "Why Patty Murray and Barbara Boxer are Smarter and Better Than Sarah Palin"
• "We ARE the One's We've Been Waiting For--Can't You Stupid Tea Partiers See That?"
• "The Constitution's Just Inconvenient"
• "The Private Sector--Leeching Off The Goodness Of Enlightened Government"
• "We ARE Middle Class--Can't You Tell?  I'm Driving A PRIUS for God's Sake!"
• "Jon Stewart for Czar Czar!"
• "Leave It To The Ivies (and Ivy Wannabe's Like William and Mary)"
• "Experience is SO Overrated"
• "Home-Schooling Is A Threat To The Public Education System:  I Learned This at Sidwell"

 Perhaps CW readers have a few suggested themes of their own! 

John Yoo On The Daily Show

Bush Administration Justice Department official, law professor, and the left's great anti-Christ John Yoo sat down with Jon Stewart yesterday. The three part, uncensored interview is here (about 25 minutes altogether).

Yoo's written a book about Presidential power and he was on the show hawking the book. Yoo you may remember, wrote some of the notorious "torture" memos upon which the Bush Administration based its expanded interrogation procedures. Yoo's basic thesis is that during wartime, the President has enormous (but not limitless) power, and throughout history, our greatest Presidents have exercised that power. Conversely, our worst Presidents shrank from it.

The discussion with Stewart is fascinating, though at times annoying. Let's face it; Jon Stewart is a smart, well-informed guy. He was well-prepared to go to the mat with a constitutional law specialist, and there are elements of a great discussion here. The problem though, is that Stewart insists on asking a question and then interrupting Yoo mere seconds after Yoo begins to answer. It is a pattern repeated over and over.

Yoo remains--dare I say it--inscrutable. He is imperturbable, despite Stewart's best efforts, and he appears to gain some grudging measure of respect from Stewart for it by the end of the interview. Clearly Stewart disagrees with Yoo--but in the end, the discussion was not disagreeable. It's worth watching end to end if you have the time.

HT--Instapundit