POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Serr8d’s Cutting Edge on SOTU

Serr found a little info that I didn't see anywhere else, and his comments section's opened up, so check him out. He's one of the members of my League of Largely Ignored Bloggers.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Pushback

As a companion piece to Andrew Breitbart drubbing Shaved Douchester, here's Judd Gregg whaling on TV newsmoron Contessa Brewer.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Send Da Techguy to CPAC

I think I've mentioned a couple of times what a great guy and exceptional host Pete is. Stacy's agitating him to get down to CPAC, and I hope he can go. He's also quite a talented blogger. So, go check him out.

Not that I get a lot of readers (I think of them as choosy), but if you've got a post that you'd like me to flog, please let me know. And thanks to Enoch and the gang for getting us ported over to a new server, even if it has introduced some Mayan hieroglyphs into the blockquotes.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Uncool

Hackers infiltrated the Web sites of dozens of House members overnight, replacing their usual pages with attacks on President Barack Obama.

Taggers for the cause, huh?

Cool: Blogger awarded Mellow Felonship.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Mermarry Glance

Sorry for all the politics. Below is a NSFW mental palate cleanser.

Ladies, send in your beefcake, if you like.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The SOTU Fallout: Rage Against “False Consciousness”

I didn't listen to the whole thing, because I had to help my daughter with some geometry, but I heard a lot of it, and hung out on the comments thread at Stop the ACLU (who weigh in on the absurd hypocrisy of denouncing the perpetual campaign), hosted by Jay.

As I mentioned in Twitter last night, perhaps the most surreal moment of the SOTU was Obama telling Congress that he'd veto their spending bills if they were pork-enlarded---with Congresscritters responding with applause. He reiterated the promise that he'd made on the campaign trail to go through spending legislation line by line, which should have gotten bigger laughs after the so-called Stimulus package, aka Recovery Act.

He did manage to avoid some of the familiar formulas, such as "inherited" troubles, but the ideas were the same. He just used other circumlocutions and passive constructions to blame Bush, which was fine by most in Congress, who have yet to be held account by the MSM for their fiscal insanity, but whom we hope will be held accountable by voters nonetheless in the next few elections, no matter what party they represent. As was anticipated, Obama claimed to acknowledge the anger of the electorate, without, however, acknowledging that any of it was legitimately directed at him (outside of a cryptic reference to deserved setbacks he'd suffered). He did say that he'd made mistakes, that his ambition to make government more transparent and accountable hadn't materialized, but didn't specifically acknowledge that he really had done very little to uphold that campaign pledge, beyond making available the names of people visiting the White House, without indicating which people going by those names actually had visited, except for denying in certain instances that the names weren't attached to the people some assumed that they were. So even that undertaking has been of minimal value, although he can claim that he is keeping his promise in a lawyerly fashion. He reiterated his bullshit about posting bills online, without owning that so far he has done so only when it suited his purposes. He noted that people were upset about the way in which Health Care Reform negotiations had been conducted, whilst nevertheless suggesting that they mustn't go back to the drawing board.

And here is where things got really interesting. Because if you read between the lines, what he's saying in effect is that the American people elected him to enact measures they oppose for their own good, as they are incapable of identifying what is good for them. This is the same idea as was forcibly and repugnantly articulated by Joe Klein in his last Time column. The lecturing---for that is what it amounted to and how it was instantly recognized by many online commenters---of our Schoolmarm Sociologist-in-Chief, was the most thinly veiled statist justification possibly imaginable. If Obama was becoming unpopular, it was only because he was trying to do what was right for people who are, to revert to Jeff Goldstein's formulation, too blinded by false consciousness to know any better. And that observation extended to the Supreme Court, at whom he lashed out for their decision in Citizens United v. FEC, despite his own abuse of campaign collections, his self-reversal on public funding, and all the rest of the electoral shenanigans that he had secured to his cause through organizations such as ACORN, whom he wishes now to deploy in the appalling fashion outlined by Pamela Geller:

Citizen spies?

"At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector. InfraGard is an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States. InfraGard Chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories."

Among the groups reporting to the DOJ, DHS, FEMA and FBI are: ACORN; The ADL; Thousands of Community Organizations; Americorps; Citizen Corps; Militias; Your neighbor; Your family.

Obama's private army. N'est-ce pas?

I wish I could say it is a joke, but if it is, the humor is extremely dark. It's a giant neighborhood watch for those not burdened by "false consciousness," who are coincidentally those who agree with Obama and his policies.

Here's a link to an AP fact-checking article on the SOTU. The Hostages have their say, and recount the spending of Stimulus funds in non-existent congressional districts, among other things. At PJM, Andy Wickersham considers how far left the Democrats have become. Blackfive underscores that DADT could be overturned with the stroke of a pen by an Executive Order by Captain Courageous.

Yid with Lid has, in my opinion, the best overview, including a nice dissection of Obama's claims regarding a "freeze" on discretionary spending. It's pretty similar to those tax cuts that he claimed to have created for 95% of Americans by cutting payroll deductions . . . which will be taxed next year. ABC needs to clean up the typos, but gets the salient facts right.

Augustine, somewhat famously, prayed for conversion from youthful sinfulness . . . but not yet. Obama's reliance on beginning the hard steps in the future (such as the delay in HCR provisions kicking in until his presumed second term and renewal of pay-as-you-go in 2011) has become another not particularly funny joke. Obama's forever making hard decisions to make hard decisions later on. I'm not naive, but perhaps it's time to put aside putting aside.

Part of the statist assault on our institutions has to do with trying to justify eliminating them, wherever they interfere with the agenda. Should the Republicans return to power in the House and/or Senate later this year, you can be certain that the outrage about obstructionist mechanisms such as the filibuster will evaporate suddenly; it's important to have those instruments to fight the populist danger of "false consciousness"---unless it benefits One. In bailing out the auto industry and some financial institutions, Obama's bully boys reversed centuries of contract law, but when the Supreme Court finds a seven-year-old piece of legislation unconstitutional, they are undermining the foundations of our democracy, the radical lunatics!

Perhaps the speech will be seen in retrospect as a high-water mark for a certain strain in American historicism.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah does a wonderful job of boiling it all down.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…

...but if you named it shitblossom, it would be more difficult to market.

Come on, Steve -- "iPad"? Just because it's one letter away from "iPod" doesn't mean that was a good idea. Would you have been sold on "iPud"?

And here is where one sees where diversity is really needed - marketing departments. One of my male friends commented on the misogyny on display with all the "iTampon" jokes flying around the internet yesterday, but the misogyny is more inherent in the naming of the product and not realizing the connotations of the word. I think if you said "Let me get a pad" to a woman, she's more likely to think Stayfree than tablet PC. Most of the iTampon jokes I saw came from women, anyway.

Sure, sure "pad" as in "pad of paper". Now, if you need to get a pad of paper, do you say "Let me get a pad"? No, you either say "Let me get some paper" or "Let me get a pad of paper". "Pad" by itself [as a noun] has a stronger connection to feminine hygiene than to computing.

In any case, the item is unlikely to rise and fall on its name [after all, iPod was a goofy name, and iTouch a little creepy, so whatever]. Though I'm a big Mac fan, I am always skeptical on performance in a first release... I'm one of those people who buys the second iteration, about 6 months before the third iteration comes out at a hundred dollars less.

RELATED: Althouse's post on same, bringing up portability issues [among others]... I'm concerned how one keeps the screen clean. It's hard enough with the iPhone...

Best take from FAILblog: Name fail photoshop win

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Tough Guy Is Victim

So disgusting. For the crime of speaking out against Obama---which proves they're racists---the guys at HillBuzz are targeted by Kos douchebag "BigotBasher," who whines that he's the victim when they try to turn the tables. He thumps his chest and yammers about how he's not going to back down in his crusade to expose racism wherever it may lurk. And it lurks wherever someone opposes Barack Obama, for whatever reason at all, QED.

I'm being cyber-bullied! Boo fuckin' hoo.

The guys at HillBuzz are convinced they know who it is, some dude from Birmingham, England. "BigotBasher" claims that they've fingered the wrong guy, but you know, considering the Ellie Light courage of these principled pseudonymous speakers of truth to power, I'm a little skeptical. It's all in the game when you out someone else, but if the tables are turned, it's stalking.

Pseudonymous character assassination and libel is all above board, but publishing truths about people is an invitation to right-wing violence. As far as using information that is in the public domain, it's curious how their positions change.

Strangely enough, the blogger cites a picture of one of the HillBuzz guys with Michael Steele, even as he calls them racists. And he claims to reproduce quotes that establish that they are racist, without any reproduction of context, even while he calls one of these gay guys "Dicksplat." Do I claim that he's a homophobe, based on this info? Nah---hell, he's got Queerty in his blogroll, but he's obviously a complete asshole. In fact, if the HillBuzz information is accurate, we've got a lesbian hating gay guy here.

Anyway, HillBuzz have been doing a lot of digging, and their researches show that at least on of their detractors has been busily attempting to cover his trail. And here's a brief on the MO:

Here are some quotes:

“Show up at his house”

“bloody his nose”

“find out where he lives and teach him a lesson”

It goes on and on and on.

The MO on these attacks is this:

(1) BigotBasher posts more racist slurs against us on his site on WordPress

(2) Daily Kos then picks up that post and get its members to encourage people in Chicago to find us, beat us, bloody our noses, and ultimately kill us

(3) Next, DemocraticUnderground and the rest run the Kos post, reporting it as news and fact

(4) The Left, thus, has activated its troll and goon squads to commit physical violence against those it has targeted

This has been going on every day since January 20th, the one year anniversary of the beginning of “The Golden Age of Hope and Change”

All of this stuff is directed at attacking PUMAs. Interestingly, it's become virulent in the days leading up to Hillary's announcement that she was going to be a one-term Secretary of State.

Bonus irony: The guy they think is behind the crap from "BigotBasher" uses Balloon Juice as one of his handles. So, see . . . it's only bad to split when you're on the other side. The New Inquisition demands orthodoxy.

The people of Massachusetts have lived under a Democrat Party Machine for a couple of generations. They became so disgusted with it that they sent a Republican to the Senate in place of Ted Kennedy, after truly putrid machinations involving how to appoint a replacement. The bloggers at HillBuzz, who live under their local Democrat Party Machine want to see the same thing happen in Chicago. That's not fair, see? So, they need to be punished for straying out of the Gay Democrat Ghetto, by being tarred as RAAAAACISTS.

Do I agree with everything that the HillBuzz guys say? No. But like John Cole or Charles Johnson, they ought to be able to say it without being subjected to personal harassment. As much as I think, for example, that Charles is a dipshit, I have no interest in calling him at home to tell him so, or encouraging other people to do so. I don't ask them to email Charles to tell him what an ass he is. I don't promote their going out of their way to write about his being a crazy global warmist. I just blog about it. Is it any wonder these charming people make so many friends?

It's an odd thing, too, that someone who lives under the nanny boot in the UK would want to see us go down the same road, particularly when one considers what even soft sharia will mean in the aggregate to gays in the UK. I think, as I've mentioned, that the de facto censorship (and this goes beyond the British tradition of self-repression) that PC has created in the UK has led to the drinking culture getting out of hand. It's okay to say something naughty if you're properly soused; if you're not, it's too transgressive.

All in all, this BigotBasher dude seems like a total pussy, who'd like to throw shoes from across the Atlantic and then whinge when someone offers to do the same.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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EPA Suppresses Report Contradicting Claims on CO2

Obama administration returning science to its rightful place:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that a senior official of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency actively suppressed a scientific analysis of climate change because of political pressure to support the Administration’s policy agenda of regulating carbon dioxide.

As part of a just-ended public comment period, CEI submitted a set of four EPA emails, dated March 12-17, 2009, which indicate that a significant internal critique of the agency’s global warming position was put under wraps and concealed.

The study the emails refer to, which ran counter to the administration’s views on carbon dioxide and climate change, was kept from circulating within the agency, was never disclosed to the public, and was not added to the body of materials relevant to EPA’s current “endangerment” proceeding. The emails further show that the study was treated in this manner not because of any problem with its quality, but for political reasons.

Hope! Change! Totalitarianism!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Andrew Breitbart Needs To Conduct An Investigation

Of James O'Keefe:

MSNBC and other “news organizations” are even billing this developing story as “Watergate”. What do Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow know? And when did they know it?

I’m sure they would like to believe O’Keefe is stupid enough to try to “wiretap” a sitting U.S. senator in broad daylight during office hours, while recording the entire sequence of events on his cell phone camera. And they’d like you to believe it, too.

But there is absolutely no allegation in the criminal complaint that “wiretapping” or “bugging” is any part of this case, just the charge that O’Keefe and the others entered Sen. Landrieu’s office in New Orleans “for the purpose of interfering with the office’s telephone system.”

And yet Carol Leonnig, in a story in Wednesday’s Washington Post writes in her lede:

The conservative young filmmaker whose undercover sting damaged a liberal activist group last year faces federal criminal charges in an alleged plot to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu

In other words, speculation is rampant, but facts are few. And basic logic suggests that there’s much more to this story since there is so little information.

Leonnig, as you may remember, is the reporter who was forced to retract the false and libelous accusation that O’Keefe was motivated by racism in his ACORN sting.

Will Leonnig and the Washington Post be compelled to retract again?

For a very reasonable charge,* I will generate a report every bit as detailed and exculpatory as Harshbarger's, and every bit as objective.

* Discounted rate reflects Andrew Breitbart's attempt to pay TV's Andy Levy enough to bring his comedy from a happy place. I'm a giver.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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