by Smitty

Vadum offers an excellent summary of the news to date:

A Washington Post editorial supports the left-wing Congressional Black Caucus’s wild contention that Republicans are out to get Rice “because she is an African American woman.” Perhaps the editorial writers forgot that President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, an immensely popular figure in the GOP, was also a black woman.

The newspaper then implies that Republicans are secret members of the Ku Klux Klan, citing a recent letter signed by 97 House Republicans questioning Rice’s fitness for the post of top U.S. diplomat. The paper casually opines that “[M]ore than 80 of the signatories are white males, and nearly half are from states of the former Confederacy.”

Like defense lawyers for an obviously guilty client, these left-wing journalists are working overtime to confuse the public about what happened in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration’s role, and what it all means. Democrats and the mainstream media are trying to obstruct progress in the investigation by misdirection, grabbing at any shiny object within reach.

I’d like to think that if conservatives keep the pressure on, #OccupyResoluteDesk’s 2012 re-election could be the most pyrrhic since that of Nixon in 1972.

Alas, I’ve moved to the notion that BHO wins a third term on a write-in, as our entire Constitutional order implodes. [Hint: reverse psychology.]

Meanwhile, where is RSM? And where is Cassone’s video to go with his Benghazi anthem?

by Smitty

I do like the cut of his jib. Seriously, patriots: if you thought unwinding a century of Progressive drift was going to be easy, re-calibrate. We’ve barely gotten into the Sinai, and the deadweight wants to get back to the government handouts in exchange for pyramid work. Stand by for two generations to pass before we can return to being the Promised Land.

But to get there, you have to show up.

One last thing before my next rant, which could be any second: Can we please quit acting like we lost 100-0? We came close & we kept House.

— David Limbaugh (@DavidLimbaugh) November 28, 2012

The only way to restore confidence in elections is overwhelming turnout.

You may have disagreed with Erickson on this or that nuance, but, for the other 99.8% of the discussion, the guy is spot on.

So get recharged over the holidays, and come back in 2013 ready to preach liberty and guys like Erickson in the breadline!

via Insty

by Smitty

I had a good day at work, nerding about on this and that.

The last week has been all about a fiction project of mine, as I’ve been re-writing a 30k word draft. 1/3 through my draft chapters, I’m up to 22k words, and liking my characters/plot even more. So there’s that.

Meanwhile, RSM didn’t answer a cel call, or SMS. No idea about the story with him. Sorry.

Update: sorry, Instapundit. No call, no SMS.

by Smitty

Emphasis mine on James Joyner in The Atlantic:

The Republican Party needs a new message on foreign policy that is true to the conservative principles of the base and yet has a broad appeal to the American public. It so happens that one already exists, has a proven track record of electoral success, and is only slightly used: the “humble foreign policy” that candidate George W. Bush espoused during the 2000 campaign but abandoned with the Global War on Terror and the Iraq invasion.

I’ll be the first to agree that it would be cool if history allowed a fully Paulian ‘non-interventionist’ foreign policy. Joyner’s article, read the whole thing, figures that all would have been more swell if Bush had stayed the HFC course.

That’s a nice counter-factual, but how, given the hegemonic status of the United States, does one avoid the suction of history into events?

I submit that, if you haven’t told me how you’re deconstructing the Military-Industrial Complex, and offloading your hegemonic position to someone else (The UN? That outfit couldn’t lead water to flow downhill) you haven’t told me much. And I submit that the Dovish Democrat who bombed the Balkans and #OccupyResoluteDesk, who bracket Bush historically, are dealing from the same deck.

In review, the Democrats hopped in their gunboat and overtook GOP diplomacy. How progressive of the Dems. The bewildered GOP is going to have to pony up, put some deeds where its Constitutional bleatings are located, and deliver a return to Constitutional, balanced government, or remain indistinguishable from the Dems and keep right on losing elections.

by Smitty

A taste of Jonah Goldberg in the New York Post

Racial slander is like duct tape: There’s no limit to what you can do with it.
But can you imagine how much worse it will get if Republicans actually do reach out to black community (as they should)?
One of the points of racial slander is to signal that only liberal policies are guaranteed to be non-racist (even when such policies were forged with racist intent, like the Davis-Bacon Act). This is why the Congressional Black Caucus insists on calling itself the “conscience of the Congress.”
That’s why policies like school choice are routinely denounced as racist, even though they’re largely aimed at improving the lives of inner-city blacks trapped in bad schools. Teachers unions don’t like school choice, ergo, it’s racist.

The United States is founded upon an Enlightenment approach to rational argument. The myopic genius of the Left has been to rediscover purely hormonal populism, and turn it into political power.

The $16T question is: how do you fight that? Rational argument is predicated upon both parties arguing in good faith. The Left seems to argue from the standpoint of bogging down honest discussion, and running out the clock. Meanwhile, votes are bought on the side with ‘free stuff’, and the Left continues to build the entitled mob.

How do you argue with that? Are there any teachers other than time and pain for these Lefties?

via Insty

by Smitty

It is Robert Jensen’s good fortune to be blatantly, thoroughly, categorically wrong, lest somebody go all self-fulfilling prophecy on him, and drag the stinking carcass of his bogus ideas in the direction of reality:

Forget all that turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, today should be a day of fasting and atonement for American “sin.” That’s according to Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Jensen, known for his hard-left politics, also calls Thanksgiving a “white-supremacist holiday.”
Jensen’s opinion piece “No Thanks for Thanksgiving,” appeared on the far-left, Soros-connected website Alternet on Thanksgiving eve. In it, he wrote how Native Americans suffered because of the “European invasion of the Americas.” He went on to compare the Founding Fathers to Nazi Germany. “How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis?” he asked.

The First Amendment is a beautiful, two way street, and I hope the rest of the country joins me in a finely crafted blend of thankfulness to the Founders, along with forgiveness and laughter directed at Jensen for acting like such a pathetic little crapflooder.

Jensen, a mind is a terrible thing to waste in the manner you seem to choose. Repent, and strive to be less a knucklehead in the future, and we’ll all thank you for it.

via Drudge

by Smitty

Ah, the cultural recovery effort:

Can the natural rhythm of excellent poetry overcome the lack of a rap beat?

Update: thanks, Instapundit!

by Smitty

In this blog’s relentless quest for safety consciousness, we’d like to remind you on this Thanksgiving holiday that too much of a good thing can be fatal:

Man Escapes Death After Wife Tried To Suffocate Him By Motorboating His Face With Her 38DD Breasts

I note that the original story is German, where the word ‘frau‘ can mean wife or girlfriend. A quick Google didn’t turn up the source article, so the whole thing may be some sort of ruse. The ‘victim’ will hopefully avoid Schwarze Witwe dating in the future, although, as fates go, this would be far from the worst.

 

More at JWF.

Update: thanks, Instapundit!

Update II: in other news of the sexually off-beat, the guy’s sentence was reduced to 5 days.

Update III: bodacious investigative reporting to be found at Bob Belvedere’s blog.