"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
by Smitty
In remarks to supporters on 01 October, Patrick Murray offers some biographical detail about working with Ambassador John Bolton, and then offers praise and admiration for VA-8’s incumbent Congressman, Jim Moran. For ‘heaping abuse’ values of ‘praise and admiration’.
Jim Moran is the only human on record to get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield.
by Smitty
Last night I had the privilege of listening to remarks from one of my heros, Ambassador John “the ‘Stache” Bolton. If you only have time for one clip, the second one offers a Bolton’s professional overview of just how jacked up BHO’s foreign policy is.
Jim Moran is fit for the ‘Drunk Uncle’ role on SNL’s Weekend Update. Barely.
by Smitty
No time for a transcript on this gem:
What’s fascinating about Moran’s remark is that it means Moran is a co-member of the No-Junk Brotherhood with Harry Reid. Maybe Reid’s inability to secure an NRA endorsement in 2010 is why Moran is allowed to mumble against them in public.
It’s time VA-8 traded Moran for a Congressman who is, you know, packin’ the gear.
by Smitty
Must see video that I can’t embed. Hard to tell when on Tuesday this was shot, but the possibility of immediately after a hydraulic lunch comes to mind*:
“People like Mr. [Allen] West, and Governor Brewer and so on, particularly Mr. West, is not only not representative of the African-American community or of the Republican Party, let alone of the American public. So what he says really is of little or no consequence, but it’s unfortunate,” Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) said about Rep. Allen West telling liberal leaders to “get the hell” out of the country.
“He just seems clueless not that he has climbed abroad ship. He’s climbed this ladder of opportunity that was constructed by so many of his ancestors’ sweat, sacrifice, blood, you know they did everything they could for his generation to be successful. But now that he’s climbed abroad ship, instead of reaching down and steadying the ladder, he wants to push it off. ‘I’m up here. If you’re not with me, too bad.’ And President Obama, fortunately, is the kind of guy that says ‘I was very fortunate to get where I am and I’m going to spend my life trying to steady that ladder of opportunity by reducing college tuition and training our workers, trying to get a decent job for everybody. Making sure that while I’m African-American, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is my commitment to public service, my love for this country and I’m going to leave a constructive legacy,'” he said.
Moran says that Obama “doesn’t engage in this nonsense” and calls him our “Lion King” while comparing his Republican detractors to “hyenas.”
Update: now in moving pictures, courtesy of American Glob!
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via email from Patrick Murray.
*Didn’t realize that was a sailor idiom.
by Smitty
Via Big Government we have a throwaway remark from senior #OccupyDC member #OccupyResoluteDesk:
On Tuesday night, the president spoke in no uncertain terms: “Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow,” he said. “Let’s limit any elected official from owning stock in industries they impact.” The remarks were cause for celebration for Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer, who authored a 2011 book exposing Congressional insider trading, and 60 Minutes, which ran a widely-viewed segment based on his book (CBS quicklyuploaded the portion of the speech last night). But early reactions from Congress (Republicans and Democrats) shouldn’t encourage much optimism.
And what did the star of Chapter 2 of Throw Them All Out have to say to BHO’s piffle?
“Easier said than done is my reaction,” Democratic Rep. Jim Moran tells Politico’s Manu Raju on the subject of restricting officials from owning stock they could impact. “Unless you are fairly precise about it, you can conceivably influence almost any corporation.”
You’ve got to go, Mr. Moran. You view Americans as sheep, and yourself as the shearer, judging by your actions.
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by Smitty
Via Patrick Murray, we have this tidbit about ‘Gentleman’ Jim, always looking out for Virginianshimself:
Jim Moran said Northern Virginia was more reflective of the D.C. metro area than the rest of the state.
“We’d all be better off if they took the Virginia and Maryland suburbs and made them part of the district,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen, so we’re dependent on what happens in Richmond.”
So, thanks, Jim. In a twisted sense, Moran is arguably correct: VA-8 residents could be better off grouped in a place entirely without Congressional representation than with Moran providing serial embarrassment. The ironic historical angle on this is that Alexandria, Virginia actually was a part of the District until 1847.
I’ve got a splendid idea: let’s give Jim Moran to the District, and remove a sad little stain from the fabric of Virginia.
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by Smitty
Regular readers of the blog know that I’m a firm believer in the Constitution, American Exceptionalism, and the Enlightenment that informs the better aspects of Western culture. One exception to my generally positive view of all things American, from military service to Virginia residency, is my Congresstool, ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran. If you follow the links below, you’ll see that I have a good running string of apologies to the country for the outrageous piece of work that is my Congresstool.
For the PMA scandal, which was kind of like Solyndra only smaller, Jim had made Judicial Watch’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” list in previous years. This year, the competition for the bottom of the infamy barrel has been so atrocious that not even raking in fat profits off of the 2008 housing crisis could make a dent. 
As of this writing, there are two Executive Branch entries in the list, owning 86% of the ~1,600 votes for Most Corrupt. That’s a bit of an indictment.
Still, we should not let the survey, and the indication that #NationOfCowards and #OccupyResoluteDesk are hogging all the scum, dissuade us from acknowledging our local pieces of work. Virginia’s 8th district is nestled in the shadows of Mt. Vernon. Thus, there is a special poignance to Moran’s career, which alludes to the kind of Old-World aristocracy that George Washington himself fought against. In my mind’s eye, I can see Washington ripping Moran’s face off and kicking it down the Potomac for being such a pathetic worm.
In the meantime, we do have an excellent candidate in Col. Patrick Murray, and I submit that in some sense it is a patriotic duty to support his candidacy against ‘Gentleman’ Jim.
via Big Government
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by Smitty
Keith Olbermann lives! The story picks up at 5:13 into the clip. #Occupy protesters (the ‘99%’) laid on the ground and covered themselves in a red carpet for the people leaving the Christmas party (the ‘1%’) to walk all over:
In attendance was retired Army Colonel Patrick Murray, who sent the following email:
Last night I had the honor of attending the annual U.S. Chamber of Commerce Christmas party. Walking up, we were accosted by an angry, snarling mob of protesters, courtesy of labor unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and some of the “Occupy” rabble. All of them were screaming the now stale “Pay your fair share,” and “You walk on our rights, now walk on us” (daring us to step on protesters lying underneath a red carpet painted with “99 %”). As we waded through the rabble, I stopped to soak it all in, whereupon the protesters speculated about my heritage as well as offering some recommendations that I’m pretty sure are anatomically impossible.
I spent 24 years serving my country in the Army and defending the Constitution (or as Jim Moran calls it: “meaningless”). That includes our 1st Amendment rights of freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble. But what I witnessed last night was chilling, because these aren’t the first such protests I’ve witnessed, albeit in faraway lands.
While serving in places like Belgrade, Moscow and Minsk, places that had strong Socialist movements and totalitarian regimes, I encountered the exact same thing, often in front of the American Embassy where I worked. The slogans and the signs were in different languages, but the methodology was the same (in the aforementioned locations, the AstroTurf mobs arrived in busses; SEIU just happens to have mountains of cash from taxpayers and forced union dues that they can fly their mobs in). But the Socialist, anti-American undercurrents were eerily similar, such that standing there last night I suddenly got an odd sense of deja vu. It was like I was back in a totalitarian state, except that I wasn’t. Instead, I was standing on H Street NW, right in the heart of our Nation’s Capital.
The more I think about it, the more disturbing it becomes. First, consider the inanity of supposedly jobless people out protesting against the Chamber of Commerce, a stellar organization that exists to create jobs and support small business. It’s also troubling that the protests here mirror those I’ve seen in remote places where there is no culture of individual freedoms or the concept of private ownership, much less representative government. But most troubling is that the goals of the anti-American mobs are shared by the leaders of the current Democrat Party. Massive income redistribution and ever-higher taxes to feed an enormous federal nanny state from which all blessings flow is the utopia of Jim Moran, Tim Kaine, Nancy Pelosi our current president. All wrapped up in the innocuous, poll-tested jingle of “pay your fair share.”
In defense of the #Occupy protesters, at least they were clever enough to frame their sad little stunt as an AC/DC reference: