Category: Hot Air

Worship Teaching Friends About Heavenly ObamaCare

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by Smitty

Interesting, given our separation of church and State that the State is comfortable asking churches to spread the word, as reported in Politico, via Hot Air.

“Get out there and spread the word,” Obama told leaders from across the religious spectrum on the conference call, organized by the Health and Human Services Center for Faith-Based and Community Partnerships…

Obama instructed faith leaders to treat the new law as settled fact and use their perches of power to convey that message to congregants and friends.

An oddly asymmetric tack. Were the pulpits to come out against the un-Constitutional political colonoscopy, past behavior indicates that, say, those zany Southern Baptists might get something other than the Bible thrown at them, yeah, verily, even as much as the tax code iteslf.

The chutzpah on display is astounding, given the substantial legal questions unresolved.

Some think that Woodward’s new book will spell his Waterloo. Others that the PantherGate coverup could be a Little Big Horn moment. I think that the dread of the November election, itself, will devastate the President like the Japanese did the Russians at Tsushima. Yes, it’s an obscure reference, but, if you study the event, you’ll see how like that Russian fleet these Democrats are. So hapless as to border on pitiful, without meriting pity.

October surprise?
Thoughts tantalize.
Truth scrapes away falsehood,
Like beard below eyes.
Burma Shave

In Desperate Effort to End Flame War Between Allahpundit and Dan Riehl, Former Playboy Model Karissa Shannon and Boyfriend Agree to Release Sex Video

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Blessed are the peacemakers, who figure they might as well cash in on their D-list notoriety:

Sources close to the couple tell us they both agreed to a deal with Vivid Entertainment when the offer hit the “six-figure range.”

What? You wanted pictures? Continue reading In Desperate Effort to End Flame War Between Allahpundit and Dan Riehl, Former Playboy Model Karissa Shannon and Boyfriend Agree to Release Sex Video →

Allahpundit, It Was Blatantly Obvious To Even The Most Casual Observer

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by Smitty

Allahpundit may be losing his touch, as he cannot come up with a metaphor for this:

The helicopter represents the Ruling Class, leaving the man with the Sword of the Constitution and the hot chick on the ground to represent the Tea Party. The vehicle is the November elecion, the last chance to do anything about the Ruling Class, before the Tea Party is vaquished. The helo gets taken out, but a red-garbed RINO wants to take the hot chick and deny the Tea Party the fruits of good conservative hotness, in a spirit of pure Cornyn-ism.
The Tea Party throws the Sword of the Constitution at the red coated RINO (for the words of the Constitution are written on his heart; the blade can be replaced, the chick, not so much) cleaving the RINO’s arm asunder, leaving him to fall into the Chasm of Progressivism.
Remember, Allahpundit: The Other McCain has always got your back.

Allahpundit: We Have To Work On Your Rock’N’Roll Picks

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by Smitty (h/t HotAir)

One is tempted to move off the anti-triumpnalism stance on the news that, apparently, the Lefty think-tanks are nearing acceptance of that which we knew all along about ObamaCare. Our blue state Col. Jessup overlords figured we couldn’t handle it, though: the truth.
When you look at the ultimate slide in the presentation from the Politico link,
…the first thing to come to mind for the Dems is:

The Edge’s list of don’ts is far more helpful and comprehensive for Nancy and the Gang:

Don’t move Don’t talk out of time Don’t think Don’t worry Everything’s just fine Just fine
Don’t grab Don’t clutch Don’t hope for too much Don’t breathe Don’t achieve Or grieve without leave
Don’t check Just balance on the fence Don’t answer Don’t askDon’t try and make sense
Don’t whisper Don’t talk Don’t run if you can walk Don’t cheat competeDon’t miss the one beat
Don’t travel by train Don’t eat Don’t spill Don’t piss in the drain Don’t make a will
Don’t fill out any forms Don’t compensate Don’t cower Don’t crawl Don’t come around late Don’t hover at the gate
Don’t take it on board Don’t fall on your sword Just play another chord If you feel you’re getting bored
Don’t change your brand Don’t listen to the band Don’t gape Don’t ape Don’t change your shape Have another grape
Don’t plead Don’t bridle Don’t shackle Don’t grind Don’t curve Don’t swerve Lie, die, serve
Don’t theorize, realise, polarise Chance, dance,dismiss, apologise
Don’t spy Don’t lie Don’t try Imply Detain Explain Start again
Don’t triumph Don’t coax Don’t cling Don’t hoax Don’t freak Peak Don’t leak Don’t speak
Don’t project Don’t connect Protect Don’t expect Suggest
Don’t project Don’t connect Protect Don’t expect Suggest
Don’t struggle Don’t jerk Don’t collar Don’t work Don’t wish Don’t fish Don’t teach Don’t reach
Don’t borrow Don’t break Don’t fence Don’t steal Don’t pass Don’t press Don’t try Don’t feel
Don’t touch Don’t dive Don’t suffer Don’t rhyme Don’t fantasize Don’t rise Don’t lie
Don’t project Don’t connect Protect Don’t expect Suggest
Don’t project Don’t connect Protect Don’t expect Suggest
I feel numb

That’s 90+ Don’ts, but who was counting?

Something slightly more up-tempo might help the situation a bit more.

And who could capture the moment more cheerfully and appropriately than the Presidents of the United States of America?

I will now retreat into my dour, wet-blanket mode.

The land is in the middle of a full-on disaster. When your Congresstool arrives and (s)he opens the piehole about, well, anything, just laugh. Loud guffawing will do. Speaking from personal experience, the effect, while mildly rude, is not lost.

Allahpundit Mentions Me By Name

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OK, he didn’t actually link me, but the acknowledgement of my existence is not a trivial thing. On the 4 millionth hit post, Smitty’s buddy Jeff Weimer commented:

Now if we can get Allahpundit to start linking you, we’ll get that slump licked. You may be getting close – he actually mentioned you by name a couple days ago in a comment.

To which I replied:

What? When? Where?
Please send me the link, that is, if you can get your team of legal experts to authenticate it Will Folks-style.

And Jeff directed me to the Wednesday post in which Allah took on Larry Marchant’s claim of a sexual affair with Nikki Haley and received blowback from commenter “WoosterOH”:



Allah’s comment reads:

You’re sick of my “garbage” in scoffing at a story that’s already been scoffed at by Red State and R.S. McCain, among others? Either you’re too dumb to understand the posts or you’re such a blind troll that you’ll complain even when I’m on your side. Regardless, though, I have great news: You’re not required to read the site. Find another.

Which is an excellent chapter in How To Deal With Trolls. There is such a thing as honest disagreement and such a thing as constructive criticism, and then there is trolling, wherein the commenter is essentially engaged in bandwidth piracy.

Life Is Too Short

It’s like when you get one of those annoying hostile guests on a TV talk show who start interrupting the host and trying to filibuster, so that there’s a lot angry crosstalk. The hostile guest has forgotten that he is a guest — he has been invited on by the host, whose show it is and who can invite on anyone he wishes. So the hostile guest is trying to usurp the host’s prerogative, to hijack the discussion and get across his own talking points without regard for the fact that the host doesn’t want to hear that crap.

Such rudeness spoils the show and embarrasses the host — which is, after all, the bad guest’s objective.

So, too, with the troll who, ignoring the fact that his comments are appearing on someone else’s bandwidth, attempts to sabotage the very purpose of the blog or begins derogating the blog itself. The regular readers of any blog — and especially the commenters — generally share some commonality of viewpoint, and their most important shared belief is that the blog itself is a worthwhile endeavor.

If you think the blog sucks and the bloggers is an idiot, why even bother to read it? Life is too short, and it is especially too short to waste your time putting snarky derogatory comments on someone else’s post, arguing to the effect that their work is completely worthless.

If you’re such a damned genius connoisseur of blogospheric excellence, get your own damned blog!

Call your blog “Allahpundit Sucks” or “Banned Hot Air Troll,” if that makes you happy, but don’t hang around spoiling the fun for everybody else. Allah puts up with a lot of snarky grousing in the comments — about his atheism and his fondness for Meghan McCain, among other things — but leniency ought not be mistaken for license, nor should mercy be mistaken for weakness.

Blogging involves an implicit fee-for-service contract between writer and reader. The writer is providing not merely his own work, but linking to the work of others and, by allowing comments, provides a sort of community forum wherein the readers can extend the discussion.

Stomped in the Parking Lot

While I despise the pompous expression “online community,” it nevertheless contains a truth. The relationship between a blogger and his regular readers (many of whom, it should be noted, are also bloggers in their own right) is like the relationship between a bar owner and his clientele. The bar is open to everyone, but if someone starts making a scene that spoils the fun for everyone else, the unruly patron will be shown to the door (and customarily stomped senseless in the parking lot by the bouncers, as was the policy at one nightclub where I worked as a DJ many years ago).

Or, to employ another analogy, think of a Protestant church. The doors are open to all sinners who seek the Lord. But the church has a membership — it is a community of believers — and a Baptist church won’t put up with someone whose only purpose for attending is to scoff at the doctrine of salvation by faith or to derogate the divinity of Christ.

Baptists don’t usually stomp non-believers in the parking lot, however.

At any rate, Allah’s response to the troll was altogether righteous. I don’t know who “WoosterOH” is, and he might actually be a nice guy, but if he doesn’t like the blog, why is he reading it?

As for Allah’s invocation of my name, it’s pretty cool to be cited along with Red State as a bellwether of what is acceptable subject matter for conservative bloggers.  And the controversy in the South Carolina GOP primary is can’t-look-away fascinating. At first, I treated it as a joke, but then it became more and more serious.

Whatever your opinion of the controversy, this unruly tumult in South Carolina is unquestionably newsworthy, and a current-events blog can’t be expected to ignore a big story just because it may be bad news for the good guys. Frankly, however, my optimistic hope is that South Carolinians are sick and tired of these slimeball mercenary consultants trying to play kingmaker in the state GOP — which is the real backstory of the Will Folks saga — and will vote for Nikki Haley in a resounding rejection of the disgusting smears against her.

And guess what? Nikki’s surging in the latest poll:

Nikki Haley hasn’t suffered any damage whatsoever after accusations of multiple extramarital affairs and is headed for an easy first place finish in Tuesday’s Republican primary for Governor of South Carolina.
Haley has a 20 point lead, getting 43% of the vote. Gresham Barrett looks like the favorite for the second runoff spot. He’s at 23%, followed by Henry McMaster at 16%, and Andre Bauer at 12%.
Two weeks ago Haley held a 21 point lead in the race. Since then she’s gained 4 points . . .
Only 13% of voters believe the allegations about Haley’s marital infidelity. 54% flat out do not believe them and 33% are unsure.

STAND UP FOR NIKKI HALEY!

Summarizing Morrissey’s
DNI Replacement Post

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by Smitty

Ed offers some fine detail on why Dennis Blair ejected:

The problem stems from a poorly designed reform of the American intelligence community, provided by the 9/11 Commission and adopted by a too-credulous Congress under political pressure. Prior to that, the CIA director was the head of all non-military intelligence, both gathering and analysis. The 9/11 Commission decided not to streamline intel by putting all of it in one structure but to create another two levels of bureaucracy and put the DNI in charge of the entire mess.

However, in charge turns out to be something of a misnomer. The DNI is nominally in charge of the national intel center created in the overhaul, but as Blair discovered, not much else. Blair famously lost a power play with Leon Panetta last year after Blair wanted to reassign some of the positions in the CIA, laboring under the delusion that Panetta worked for the DNI. Panetta, a long-time power player in Washington DC, ended up winning that battle at the Oval Office level, leaving Blair emasculated. He wound up in charge of just enough to take the blame for the failure to stop three terrorist attacks in the last six months, but not quite in charge of enough to have prevented them through his own efforts to remake US intelligence.

Under those conditions, who in their right mind would want to replace Blair? It’s not just thankless, it’s powerless as well. The Obama administration should rename it the Scapegoat Secretary for some honesty in advertising.

The Obama administration gets the blame for putting itself in this position, but they shouldn’t get all of it. Congress needs to revisit its poorly-conceived reform of the intelligence community and start over from scratch.

Here is the rub:

BUDGET

We have 16 entities within the Intelligence Community. If the DNI doesn’t own the SIS and SES weenies at the tops of those 16 outfits, and the DNI does not, then DNI means “Demonstrates Negligible Influence”.

Part of the challenge here is that, unlike much of the function of the Department of Education, the IC is a legitimate Federal task, and among the original self-licking ice cream cones.

For the DNI to be meaningful, he has to be given the capacity to trim budgets and staffs at the various IC outfits, the POTUS has to be willing to offer the high cover, the Congresscritters can’t dictate via appropriation/authorization committees, and the voters have to support reductions in Federal IC money, call it “spooky bacon”, coming to their districts.

So, I’ve laid out roughly four overlapping impossibilities for you; such commitment and leadership are not to be found at any level.

You’re welcome.

Wishing AllahPundit Could Be Less Gushing

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by Smitty

AllahPundit is entirely too optimistic about YouCut. Not everybody shares your passion for auto-budgetary-circumcision, man.
Eric Cantor is also just a bit too happy about “Putting Uncle Sam on a diet.”
But let’s consider:

  • The notion that individual citizens can take an active roll in budgetary decisions is worth fostering. As long as the 16th Amendment gives DC eminent domain over every American wallet, making a bad idea bi-directional is an improvement.
  • The GOP takes the lead in exposing a half a dozen Really Dumb Ideas every week. If Cantor can get DayByDay to provide some cool art, as in for the Obamaturism of the Day/Week, that would be a good thing.
  • A few billion here, a few billion there, and the amounts involved depart human imagination and enter the divine realm of Real Money.
  • The Left, ever incapable of real ideas of their own, could accidentally co-op the concept of fiscal responsibility, in a show of one-upmanship. OK, that’s a stretch.
  • The phone company will make a killing on text messages. That’s the real point of this exercise.

From little saplings grow mighty oaks, he said, studiously avoiding the use of the word ‘acorn’. It’s starting small and a trifle gimmicky, but, if you don’t overplay it, AllahPundit, it could be another brick in the wall of recovery.

Allahpundit Now Seriously Considering Endorsement of J.D. Hayworth?

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He is shocked — shocked! — to discover that John McCain is a lying two-faced backstabbing crapweasel:

Pandering is one thing, shameless careerist pandering is something else, and then there’s John “Goddamned Fence” McCain marching along the border in a badass Navy baseball cap looking like he could choke out a coyote with his bare hands.

In response to this pathetic travesty:

To which I can only reply: