I'm Sure Hammer Has Some Suggestions

The DSCC is trying to come up with a new car magnet slogan for the 2012 election. Here are the lame options:

'We've got your back, Barack'

'Repeal Republicans in 2012'

'Had Enough Tea?'

'Brick by Brick, We're Building a Firewall'

'Hey GOP? You're Firewalled!' (Seriously)

NRO's Jim Geraghty suggests the following:

'My Other Car is a Volt, and You Paid For it'

'My child is an honor student, despite his unionized teacher leaving to protest all the time'

'United We Stand Against Those despicable Teabaggers'

They're welcoming suggestions. Let's help them - let's hear your ideas for a slogan!

Bush III (cont.)

President Obama--he of the "I will close Guantanamo in one year" promise (whoops), is now going to resume military tribunals there.  It seems George Bush and his staff may not have been so dumb after all, huh Mr. President?

The arrogance of the Obama team and their apologists is startling.  The new narrative on the Arab Spring--that it started with the President's speech in Cairo in 2009--is loony.  Their sense that they would renew America's standing by walking away from GWB's policies in the war on terror has been replaced by sheepish retractions and continuations of virtually all important Bush policies.

This is amateur hour, ladies and gentlemen.  We're watching them learn their jobs in front of our eyes.  I would say that we deserve better, but that's not true.  We got what we deserved.

Another Senator to Retire

Scandal-plagued John Ensign will not run for another term upon the completion of the present one. No need to revisit the scandal...he made the right decision. Let's all say a silent prayer that Sharron Angle does not attempt another run.

In announcing the news, he gave us a fabulously memorable line: there are consequences to sin.

Agenda for Tonight's Conservative Wahoo Live! Internet Radio Program

Tune in tonight at 8PM for The Conservative Wahoo Live! where our agenda for discussion will be:

•    The New Liberal Talking Point:  Obama as Reagan: Speech Ended Arab Dictatorships
•    What are US options in Libya?
•    Muslim Radicalization Hearings:  Is Rep. Peter King’s past IRA boosterism an issue?
•    The GOP Field for 2012
•    Rising Fuel Prices—Drill, Baby, Drill?

Call in and join the fun at 347.637.2203 or just listen on your computer through the link above.

Shocking: Hip-Hop Awards Show Turns Into Violent Brawl

I love the tone of this article--the writer is trying SO HARD to treat "Hip-Hop" seriously, protect its reputation and at the same time, report a newsworthy event.  It seems a DC area "Hip-Hop" awards show degenerated into a full scale brawl, which is of course shocking coming from a musical genre (can I even call it that?) that glorifies violence--against cops, women, the establishment, each other....etc.

Catch the video here, if you are so inclined.

Big News From A Great Ship

USS BULKELEY (DDG 84) had a good weekend, having broken up a pirate attack on a Japanese merchant vessel.  Nice to hear that name in the news....here's a pic of me and big brother Tom on BULKELEY....

David Ignatius Gives Barack Obama The Credit for The Freedom Agenda

In a breathtaking example of Greek chorus politics, David Ignatius--no friend of George W. Bush--writes the following of the policies of the Obama Administration in the restive Arab world:

"In supporting the wave of change sweeping the Arab world, despite the wariness of traditional allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, Obama is placing a big bet that democratic governments will be more stable and secure, and thereby enhance U.S. interests in the region"

Um--isn't this what used to called the "Freedom Agenda" under President Bush?  Wasn't HE the one who suggested that there was a yearning for freedom in the heart of every human being, the political representation of which is more democracy rather than less--which ultimately brings human nature and human politics into closer alignment?

You can see the fingerprints of the Obama National Security Council staff all over this one.  "Hey David, come on over to the White House Mess and have lunch.  I can show you "Presidential Study Directive 11" which shows how prescient we were in seeing this unrest coming, and how successfully our "No Drama Obama" approach mirrors that which we were always planning to do when these events transpired, which we of course always predicted."


And Ignatius bought it--hook, line and sinker. 

The WaPost Ombudsman on the Courage of WaPost Employees

I've written many times here of the fascination of the modern press in covering...well...itself, and of the hagiographic coverage reporters get who find themselves on the wrong end of the violence they freely journeyed to cover.  Here's another example of the "look how brave we are" genre, in which the WaPost OMBUDSMAN (new to the job) lauds the bravery and gumption of some Post journalists. 

Journalists getting arrested or injured in political upheaval is not an interesting story to me, and I suspect many others.  Were doctors and lawyers and postal workers and tradesmen not also injured and arrested in these upheavals?  Were the voyeuristic activities of the journalists swept into the violence somehow more worthy than those actually involved in the protests?  I think not, and I will continue to write about this ridiculosity. 

Radio Show Bleg

What do you folks want to talk about tomorrow (Monday) night on The Conservative Wahoo Live!?

George Will--One Shot, Two Kills

George Will delivers a stem-winder here, the kind that will not endear him to some folks on the right--but which of course endears him to me.  Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich  have both spent enough time on the ridiculous Obama history crazy train for thoughtful Republicans to realize that neither of them is Presidential.  Will's gang of five--Barbour, Romney, Daniels, Huntsman and Pawlenty--is a solid group of GOP standard bearers, though Chris Christie would obviously liven things up. 

Notably missing (but predictably missing) from Will's list is Sarah Palin.  This will--of course--be the MSNBC take-away from Wills column. 

Peter King, The IRA, and Islamic Terrorism

Talk about chickens coming home to roost!  New York Republican Peter King is preparing to hold a series of hearings on the "radicalization of American Muslims" in the House of Representatives.  It seems some folks who retain the ability to weigh inconvenient facts find this ironic, given his throaty, active support of the Irish Republican Army. 

King explains away the difference with a precision one might classify as "Clinton-esque", if such a distinction meant anything anymore.  Here is some of that explanation:  "But King sees no parallel between the IRA and violent Islamist extremism, which he describes as a foreign enemy or a foreign-directed enemy. His preferred comparison for the IRA is with the African National Congress led by Nelson Mandela; the IRA, no less than the ANC's military wing, was fighting for community rights and freedom, he says. "I [wanted] a peace agreement, a working agreement, where the nationalist community would feel their rights would be respected," King said in an interview at his Capitol Hill office. "I felt that the IRA, in the context of Irish history, and Sinn Fein were a legitimate force that had to be recognized and you wouldn't have peace without them"

Whether or not Islamic extremism is a "foreign enemy" or a "foreign directed enemy" is interesting, but not relevant--especially if you were in the British Army in Ulster, or were part of the Protestant community there.  What THEY saw was terrorism, flat out. I'm sure the British and the Ulster Irishmen saw PLENTY of foreign influence in the IRA (see connections to other worldwide terror organizations AND financing from the Irish-American community).  As a matter of fact, I was present as a boy of six or seven in a Long Island basement where the hat was passed to SUPPORT the IRA.

Should the Congress look into the radicalization of American Muslims as a threat to national security?  Yes.  Should Peter King lead that inquiry?  No.  He was a vocal supporter of a bloody terror organization and he does not have the moral standing to preside.

Mike Huckabee Demonstrates Why He Is Not Presidential

Natalie Portman seems like a fine young woman.  She's well-educated (dropped out of sight to finish her degree), talented (recent Oscar) and seems to live a relatively sane life.  She is also pregnant, carrying the baby of her fiance. 

Mike Huckabee is a former minister, former Governor of Arkansas, former presidential candidate and possibly a future presidential candidate.  Mr. Huckabee finds himself in a bit of a tempest for having criticized Ms. Portman's single pregnancy, claiming that she is glorifying and glamorizing single pregnancy.

Huckabee is a fool and a scold, and he will not be President.  I wish to go on the record now and throughout the coming election that this is one Republican I simply cannot support.  Putting aside for a moment the likelihood that kabillionaire Portman can probably swing the single mother thing without recourse to state aid, the fact that she is affianced should make SOME difference.  But even more to the point, Huckabee earned his chops as a social conservative sort of Republican, you know, the kind who thinks abortion should be banned.  So lets set up a little thought experiment.  What would YOU HAVE Ms. Portman do with the news of her pregnancy, Mr. Huckabee?  Would you have rather that she aborted it?

He can't have it both ways.  He can't criticize her for glamorizing single motherhood at the same time he damns the act that would have removed that which he believes she glamorizes.  While single-motherhood is associated with all sorts of societal ills, if you're gonna walk the pro-life walk, then you don't get to criticize those who choose exactly what you would have them choose.  And if you REALLY want to protect the lives of unborn fetuses, then maybe prominent women carrying theirs to term isn't such a bad thing.

Healthy Living

Finally.  We should put these scientists on the global warming beat.  A noted cardiologist recommends male readers return to this post several times a day to promote healthy living.  HT: Instapundit

BYU Does the Right Thing

This week the Cougars of BYU saw their NCAA hoop dreams slip away from them when one of their stalwart performers, forward Brandon Davies, was suspended for violating the school's honor code. His specific violation? Having sex with his girlfriend.

While perhaps this would not work on 99.9% of America's college campuses, BYU maintains the strict rule that its students remain chaste and virtuous.

I don't know how many of those students truly are chaste and virtuous. But kudos to the athletic program for standing by their honor code, despite the cost. I'd like to give the kid some props for honesty, but he makes it difficult since his actions will deny his teammates an opportunity to go deep in the tourney this year. Really, though, considering it's nearly tournament time, how many schools would just look the other way?

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Fashionable

Ordered these beauties today......

Big Fat Friday Free For All

Yes ladies and gents, it is time once again for your weekly opportunity to unburden yourselves!  Put it out there for all to see, fly your flag, etc.

The First Chink in Christie's Armor

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is quite a favorite here on the ole blog, and just about everywhere else in Republican-land.  Talk of him as a 2012 Presidential Candidate is ubiquitous, talk that he he himself has assiduously asserted was folly and that he would not run.  This is all well and good, even if he plans to run.  Keep 'em guessing, let them build up their sense of anticipation.

But if you're going to say you're not running--you don't get to say "I already know I would win.  That's not the issue."  If you say you're not running, keep saying it.  Say it as often as you can.  But saying that you're not running--but that you'd win if you did--is the adult political version of a schoolyard taunt, the kind nobody believed in the schoolyard. 

Mark Steyn Returns to National Review

I don't know where he went, but I'm sure glad he is back.

The Westboro Decision

The miserable, execrable, demons of Westboro Baptist Church won a decision in the Supreme Court today that guarantees them the right to continue to mount their loathsome protests in the vicinity of funerals of fallen service members.  The conduct of these hateful lumps of DNA is about as reprehensible as it gets, and there is no place in a civil society for this kind of demonstration.

But the Supreme Court was right to reach the decision it did.

Loathsome, but Legal

By an 8-1 margin (Justice Alito in dissent), the Court (with the Chief writing the majority opinion) ruled that while there was no societal benefit to the speech Westboro practices, its elimination would be injurious to free-speech rights.  It is regrettable that they reached this decision, though the only thing more regrettable would have been for them to rule the other way. 

I am struck by Justice Alito's dissent.  I agree with virtually everything he says on a human level--but when it comes right down to it, there just isn't a reason to prohibit their speech that passes Constitutional muster.

REMEMBER HIM? I TOLD YOU SO.

Where is the breathless media coverage now? (although I couldn't disagree more with the author's apparent notion that we somehow owe this guy more and more help and consideration, I do agree with slamming the media for their rush to turn this bum into an overnight sensation).