September « 2010

23Sep/101

GOP releases the text of its “Pledge to America”

Which will be formally rolled out later today at a hardware store in Northern Virginia. Which I must say makes for some pretty good symbolism, not only regarding everyday Americans putting their heads together to "fix" their problems, but also regarding providing the nuts and bolts to fix our current national one. Listen to some of the document's preamble:

America is more than a country.

America is an idea – an idea that free people can govern themselves, that government’s powers are derived from the consent of the governed, that each of us is endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America is the belief that any man or woman can – given economic, political, and religious liberty – advance themselves, their families, and the common good.

America is an inspiration to those who yearn to be free and have the ability and the dignity to determine their own destiny.

Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course.

These first principles were proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, enshrined in the Constitution, and have endured through hard sacrifice and commitment by generations of Americans. In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.

An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down long-standing laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people.

An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.

Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment are fraying the bonds among our people and blurring our sense of national purpose.

Like free peoples of the past, our citizens refuse to accommodate a government that believes it can replace the will of the people with its own. The American people are speaking out, demanding that we realign our country’s compass with its founding principles and apply those principles to solve our common problems for the common good.

The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated.

With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.

Pretty good stuff, eh? Kind of has a familiar ring to it, don't you think? Here's a link to a PDF of the pledge. I'd encourage all conservatives to read and familiarize themselves with it's contents, because you know that the Democrats will hit the ground spinning hard, negatively, about it starting today; trying to integrate it into their mid-term themes about "returning to the Boooooooooooooosh! policies" and "Faux news is teh SUXXOR!11!1!".

But that will be pretty hard to do, at least effectively, on their part. Because, unlike the "Contract with America" of 1994 fame, this agenda doesn't descend into wonkery and minutia in a way that loses everyday voters as well as provide well defined targets. Instead, this document speaks broadly about cutting spending, and adhering more closely to Constitutional priciples. Some of the key points, as summarized by CBS:

Jobs:

- Stop job-killing tax hikes

- Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income

- Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit

- Repeal small business mandates in the new health care law.

Cutting Spending:

- Repeal and Replace health care

- Roll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone)

- Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward

- Cancel all future TARP payments and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Reforming Congress:

- Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority

- Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote

Defense:

- Provide resources to troops

- Fund missile defense

- Enforce sanctions in Iran

That sounds pretty good to me; how about you? I realize that there are many on the right who will be critical of this pledge since it doesn't incorporate, point-for-point, Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Future". My reply to them would be that detailed legislative agenda is something to take up and debate in Congress after the mid-terms; I have no doubt that it can advance on it's merits alone.

But this pledge is more "broad brush" than Mr. Ryan's detailed plan, and easier for a layperson or heretofore "low-information" voter to ingest and get behind. In fact, there are many provisions that the Tea-Party folks will recognize from their own agenda. And while there will be some on the right and left that will view that as the "establishment RINO Rethugs! trying to co-opt the pure-as-driven-snow Tea party", I personally dismiss that as an excessively cynical, and somewhat paranoid, point of view.

This pledge is about reining in, and reducing the size of, a runaway Federal government. It is about returning to Constitutional principles. It's about ceasing the hoodwinking of the people and thwarting their will; I'm especially impressed by the part about stopping the practice of attaching unpopular legislation to important, unrelated, bills in order to "force" representatives to vote for the frivolous in order to get the necessary. And there'll be no more multi-thousand-page, unread, "we won't know what's in it until we pass it" bills either. It's long on fiscal policy and constitutional principles. In fact, the only thing conspicuously absent, by the usual GOP standards, are any social agenda issues; no abortion talk, or gay marriage, or any of the Social conservative agenda items that the Democrats use as wedge issues to divide us.

I'm pretty excited about it myself (I know, that sounds geeky-may be also) and would urge all to get to know it. Not only to defend it during the 2010 campaign, but in order to hold the elected Republicans to their pledge after November 2.

(H/T Ace)

Rocketman

Tagged as: GOP, Obama's going down, Pledeg to America 1 Comment

23Sep/100

Christopher Coates to Testify on New Black Panthers Dismissal

DoJ lawyer breaks ranks, decides to honor Commission on Civil Rights subpoena:

The Justice Department section chief who recommended going forward on a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party, and then was removed from his post and transferred to South Carolina, will testify on the case Friday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Commission officials confirmed Wednesday that Christopher Coates, who signed off on the federal-court complaint saying three party members had disrupted a Philadelphia polling place in the 2008 elections, had agreed in a hand-delivered letter to testify when the panel reconvenes its hearing on the case.

In the letter, Mr. Coates said he wanted to attend the meeting "to present testimony to comply with the outstanding subpoena served on me as part of your statutory investigation."

In December, the Justice Department had told the attorneys who filed the complaint not to cooperate in the commission's investigation. Joseph H. Hunt, director of the Justice Department's Federal Programs Branch, had ordered the lawyers' silence, saying there were "well-established" and "lawful" department guidelines prohibiting them from cooperating with the commission.

Mr. Hunt said at the time that the Civil Rights Commission "possesses no authority to initiate criminal prosecution of anyone" and could only make referrals to the Justice Department recommending that a criminal case be opened. He said the commission did not have the authority to enforce subpoenas.

The commission had subpoenaed Mr. Coates and J. Christian Adams, the lead attorney in the New Black Panther Party case, in December, seeking their testimony and documents to explain why the complaint was dismissed just as a federal judge was about to punish the party members, who never responded to the charges.

An interesting piece of information about the Commission from its Wikipedia entry:

Their first project was to look for evidence of racial discrimination in voting rights in Montgomery. But they immediately ran into resistance. Circuit Judge George C. Wallace, Jr., who went on to greater notoriety as governor, ordered that voter registration records be impounded. "They are not going to get the records," he declared. "And if any agent of the Civil Rights Commission comes down to get them, they will be locked up. ... I repeat, I will jail any Civil Rights Commission agent who attempts to get the records." The hearing nevertheless went forward with no shortage of evidence. Witness after witness testified to inappropriate interference with his or her right to vote. The Commissioners spent the night at Maxwell Air Base, because the city’s hotels were all segregated.

My, how times change.

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/105

Final Countdown

I'd love to write something very witty and interesting but I've got nothing. All I can think about is hunting season. Which, for me, isn't until October 9th.

I thought about writing something about hunting--lessons I've learned, little pieces of advice, crazy stories. But I'm very superstitious and I don't feel comfortable acting like a hunting know-it-all with season looming. Hubris and the inevitable downfall and all that, you know.

So if any of you would like to do my job for me offer suggestions regarding something I could write in the meantime that you would possibly read, that would be super. Otherwise I'll just keep daydreaming about October and hope I have something to offer you all by Halloween.

Falahime

Falahime Blah blah blah, Wyoming, blah blah, massage therapist, details cars, used to sell beer, blah blah, hunts big game. That’s about all there is to me; I’m pretty simple.

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22Sep/101

PwN3vision!

Also, Chris Coons still dabbling in teh stupid.

Fortunately, combat operations are over for TARP, so this rat gets to jump ship. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

John Bolton's moustache makes like Gogol's "The Nose," searches out and destroys Obama foreign policy, must credit Ace of Spades. Ace, too, on Whiny Mike Castle.

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/102

Italian Authorities Seize Explosives Bound for Syria

In case you missed it, Ahmadinejad delivered another insane, America-threatening, anti-Semitic screed. The Canadians walked out, but Hillary Clinton had instructed the US Delegation at the UN to sit through the whole wearisome tantrum.

In a later interview with PBS, he opined: “A Jewish state means a racist regime.”

Now Italian authorities, acting on a tip, have seized a cargo container full of some 7 tons of T4 explosive that they believe was headed from Iran to Hezbollah-backing Syria.

What, if any, reaction do you think Obama will have? Maybe he should start rereading To Kill a Mockingbird.

Not many people will comment on that, I imagine so . . . hey, you know who's da bomb? Sofia Vergara.

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/105

Just call me POTUS….over promise…under produce.

Perhaps "one new thing everyday" was a bit of a stretch...I guess you can't turn the whole leaf over all at once. :)

I did, however, promise Falahime a story about my dad....so here it is:

THE GREAT MAILBOX MASSACRE

Picture it...the Summer of 1988, Augusta, Georgia. Teh Father and Teh Mother buy a new house. Prior to the purchase of said house they had been living in an apartment which was nowhere near big enough to hold stuff from 24 years of marriage and travel and whatnot. So, most of their stuff was in storage. Teh Father was still U.S. Army active duty so the Army paid to store their stuff up to a certain point. Important thing to remember......what Teh Parents owed on their own was $149.76.

A couple of days before their stuff was to be delivered, Teh Father built and painted a post for his bright, shiny, new mailbox. He dug a hole for said post and while he was filling it full of cement, Teh Mother leaned over his shoulder and said "honey, do you think you have enough cement in that hole?" Teh Father smiled his "I'm going to humor you because I have to live with you" smile and said "yes dear....it would take a truck to knock this post over." Teh Mother smiled her "aren't you a cute man" smile and walked back into the house.

Delivery day arrives and Teh Mother is standing in the living room looking out the front window waiting for the truck and Teh Father is in the kitchen making himself some lunch. There was the sound of squealing brakes and a loud cracking noise and then Teh Mother said "you were right honey, it WOULD take a truck to knock that post over."

Teh Father goes out the front door to find his post broken and his mailbox in the street, mangled from having been run over. The truck driver looked at Teh Father and said "I can fix your mailbox Mr. Taylor". Teh Father said "no, you can't...now get in the truck and wait there. I'm going to call your boss". Now Teh Father was a Sgt. Major in the United States Army and was used to saying things and them just getting done exactly the way he said them.

But the truck driver wasn't in the Army and therefore didn't understand the mind of a Sgt. Major. So, instead of just getting in the truck, he followed Teh Father across the front yard saying over and over again "I can fix your mailbox Mr. Taylor, I can fix your mailbox." After the third time telling the driver to just get back in the truck and having the guy follow him onto the FRONT PORCH, Teh Father turned to him (and to this day I'm still surprised Teh Father didn't punch that guy off his porch) and said "if you say that one more time, I'm not only going to call your boss, I'm going to call the law.....Now, GET. IN. THE. TRUCK!". The driver looked at Teh Father for a full minute and then........."but I can fix your mailbox Mr. Taylor." (just to give you an idea of the mailbox the guy wanted to "fix" --it looked like it had been in a fire it was so twisted.)

Teh Father went into the house and called the storage place and the Columbia County Police. (it was 1988, phones that fit in your pocket will still a Star Trek dream). The police made us all feel very safe in our new neighborhood (no sarcasm) by sending FIVE sheriff's deputies to our house for a dead mailbox.

The law got there first and breathalyzed the driver...he was drunk (who knew?) and he didn't have a driver's license AND when they ran his name for Wants and Warrants......5 states had warrants for his arrest. The deputy wouldn't tell us for what...but 5 is a lot for one guy. They took him away in handcuffs (Teh Father vindicated) and then the storage place boss showed up. Teh Father explained the situation as the guy held the mangled, dead, mailbox in his hands and not wanting to lose his lucrative government contract said, "so, how much do you reckon a mailbox like this costs Mr. Taylor?" Teh Father smiled his "you'll do it my way if you want to live" smile and said "One hundred, forty nine dollars and seventy six cents." The storage boss agreed.

Fast Forward one week. Teh Father has cleared out the debris from the murder of his mailbox and post, bought a new mailbox, built and painted and new post, and dug a new hole. As he was filling said hole with cement, Teh Mother looked over his shoulder and said "honey do you think you have enough cement in that hole?" Teh Father smiled his "for better or worse, for better or worse, for better or worse" smile and said, "yes dear, it would take a train to knock this post over."

That was 22 years ago and we are still waiting for a train to come and prove Teh Father right.

Dede

Sometimes stuff rumbles around in my brain that's longer than 140 characters and, well......twitlonger just seems like cheating. :)

Tagged as: mailboxes, Murder, stupid people go to jail, Teh Dede's Father 5 Comments

22Sep/100

Awesome: Jason Mattera Tries To Get MedioCre Czar To Answer Questions

See how responsive they are to their clients?

(via Steve Gutowski)

More awesome: Iowahawk on The Car, The Ditch, and the Slurpee™

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/108

Lay Off the Marian Robinson Practices Santeria Crap

For one thing, although Obama's mother-in-law might be a perfect Endora, Michelle's not exactly Samantha. There's just no way to fix this analogy. I'm sorry.

For another, it seems to have gained currency by being posted briefly at Townhall, and then pulled down. I don't expect that anyone there was dumb enough to take this satirical (and clearly marked as such) post seriously, from August 2009, so probably someone found someone who'd taken a glance at it and was off to the races. Of course, it would be a delicious rejoinder to those who wish to make much about O'Donnell's dabbling in witchcraft, but as far as I can tell, it's completely unfounded.

The result is this. As far as the racism charge, that's ridiculous. Thus I refute it:

This image (apologies for the fuzziness) is taken from the documentary "Scooby Doo on Zombie Island," released in 1998. As you can see, the evil voodoo practicing cat wenches are clearly white. And kind of hot. I mean, if you're turned on by cartoon chicks who turn into werecats.

Not that they wouldn't be hot if they were black werecats.

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/102

Why Has Obama Spent So Much Political Capital Propping Up Giannoulias?

We've pointed out before how the campaign commercial featuring Obama talking about how Alexi hadn't taken a dime in public funding was patently absurd, given that his failed bank had been bailed out with $400 million, more or less, provided by taxpayers, and renamed. And by "patently absurd," I mean obscene.

I think that yesterday's troubles for Jesse Jackson, Jr., involving both a mistress and testimony reinforcing the allegations that he'd offered to pay Blago for a Senate seat, demonstrate what it's all about.

Obama needs for Rahm to get out there and win the mayorship, so that he can help Giannoulias keep a lid on the revelations that are leaking out of Illinois and finally getting some national media attention . . . now that there's a hot blonde in the mix.

Aunty Zeituni Tunes!

It's pathetic, but that's what it seems to take for there to be any coverage of the declining political cesspool that is Chicago.

Related would be Bob Woodward's new book, which Jimmy Carter will take as a personal insult, because of the timing.

Dan Collins

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

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22Sep/105

Perp To Serve 9-Week Gaol Sentence for Hamstercide

He is also banned from keeping animals for 5 years:

Anthony Parker, 29, of Holyrood Way, Hartlepool, Teesside, was banned from keeping animals for five years by magistrates in the town. [See?]

When police came to his home in the early hours of February 23, he admitted putting his pet in the cooker after a drunken row with his girlfriend.

The court heard he told officers: ''I didn't mean to kill her. She was the best hamster I ever had. She was called Suzie.''

Parker shook his head as he was led away from the dock at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court in handcuffs.

Long ago, we had posted on the unimaginable pain experienced by a microwaved rodent, also in the UK. In this case, the victim seems to have been cooked in a conventional oven, so I'm not sure whether the pain is imaginable. I defer to the opinions of experts, many of whom would probably not object to partial birth abortion.

Oddly, microwaved hamster is one of the more frequent searches bringing people to these pages. Enoch's "tranny game" has attracted a lot of searches from abroad, most recently from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Any reference to beautiful women, such as "Jennifer Connolly nude" or "Rose McGowan boobs" attracts significant attention, obviously. "Sweater puppies" by itself is a frequent search term. Whenever pudding is mentioned at Ace's, we get hits as well.

By the way, were you aware there's a blog entirely devoted to Giada de Laurentiis' cleavage?

I'll try to remember to post some of the stranger ones as they occur.

Correction: It appears this gent also microwaved his hamster, so the pain was likely unimaginable. I'm not sure that the article was written by a Brit, because they generally don't use the spelling "jailed," and because they usually refer to a conventional oven as a "cooker," as opposed to the "micro."

Parker admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a Syrian hamster by microwaving it, resulting in its death.

Considering the possible hate crime implications, it's clear he got off lightly. My prayers are with Suzie's family.

I would like to commend the work of the keen-eyed policemen who spotted Suzie's cute little corpse in the green wheely bin. I shudder to think that if they hadn't found her, those who loved her might never have had closure, which is a good thing, unless it's epistemological.

UPDATE: If you came here looking for Giada cleavage, there's something for you under the fold, because I don't want you to think I'm a tease.