My Saturday Night in Hell

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The Dam Site Inn in Hell, Michigan

Don’t need reason. Don’t need rhyme.
Ain’t nothing I would rather do.
Going down, party time,
My friends are gonna be there too . . .
— AC/DC, “Highway to Hell,” 1979

TROY, Michigan
We were nearly in Hell when it occurred to me that we weren’t actually on a highway. Rather, we were on a narrow two-lane country road — Patterson Lake Road, to be exact. Having driven more than 60 miles to get there, however, it was obviously too late to turn back now.

Hell, Michigan, has sort of a tourist industry based entirely on the tiny town’s name, with souvenirs available at a local shop that was, unfortunately, closed by the time we got there.

By “we,” I mean me, investigative journalist Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center, Vinnie Vernuccio of Workplace Choice, and Ray Patnaude, a graphic design specialist whose wife Annie was in charge of Saturday’s AFP Michigan forum. Between the four guys riding through western Michigan in my rented Toyota, really, we had the makings of our own think tank. Or at least a decent blog.

Our trip was planned by Vinnie, who has moved to Michigan to pursue his campaign for right-to-work legislation in Big Labor’s backyard, but I first learned about the expedition from Vadum. As the AFP forum wound down Saturday afternoon in Troy, Vadum was signing copies of his ACORN-busting book, Subversion, Inc. When I asked Matthew about his post-conference plans, he said, “We’re going to Hell. Want to go with us?”

Who could turn down an invitation like that?

So I took my laptop back to my hotel, then drove over to the Marriott where the AFP conference guests were staying and, after some discussion as to whether we should take one car or two, everybody loaded into my rented Toyota.

Unlimited mileage. Tax-deductible business expense.  

Thank you, Wonderful Car Rental Agency! Thank you, IRS!

One of the wonders of American tax law is that a freelance journalist can deduct damned near anything as a business expense, as long as he writes about it. (I’ve thought about whether writing about my cigarette habit would make my Marlboros a business expense, but that might be pushing it too far.) At any rate, this trip to Hell was a perfectly legitimate journalistic endeavor, because as anyone can see — hello, Mr. Tax Man — I am indeed writing about it.

Also, there are Republican voters in Hell. Continue reading My Saturday Night in Hell →

Rick Santorum On Meet The Press

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by Smitty

Rick Santorum does a fine job standing up to the job the American media won’t do with respect to any public figures on the Left:

Santorum is using more ‘Teatard’ phrasings like ‘equality of opportunity’. Will the hefty Catholic presence in Michigan make the difference for Santorum on Tuesday? I rather hope so.

One of the great things about the lengthy GOP barroom brawl for the nomination is that the candidates are going to be drawn further to the sane, conservative viewpoint. This is by necessity; where else will fresh troops be drawn to campaign against #OccupyResoluteDesk? The Ruling Class GOP brand is going to die, die, die. And that’s a good thing.

UPDATE (RSM): Meanwhile, interviewed by Neutral Objective Journalist George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, Santorum expressed a common view among religious conservatives:

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum said. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

This was “controversial” for some reason. If Santorum attended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church, Stephanopoulos wouldn’t be offended.

Trifecta Trounces Turbo Tax Timmy’s Tomfoolery & Turpitude

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by Smitty

Whittle’s head is on the verge of ‘sploding here as he tries to get his mind around the blend of idiocy and the diabolical presented to the Congress in the form of this year’s White House budget input.

The question of why we are incapable of coaxing someone like Paul Ryan to run for President is an interesting sidebar.

In response, the American people are reaping what we’ve sown these decades. No real point in blaming the victim, but what we need to understand is that the country is going to have to enter a third, post-Progressive phase that resurrects symbols such as truth, integrity, and sincerity. The last century of Commie crap, resulting in #OccupyResoluteDesk, DELENDA EST.

Bluegrass Pundit Shocked, Shocked! At The Dems Taking Credit Where Not Due

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by Smitty

Who is surprised?

See, when you reject the notion of truth, all numbers are morally equivalent. So it’s no big deal to state facts in such a way as to convey a message that contradicts reality directly.

#OccupyResoluteDesk can argue that we’re producing more energy domestically than when he took office all he likes; the Keystone XL debacle  (via Insty) is all you need to know about the veracity of his claims.

Remember: only conservatives lie, and only white male conservatives are capable of raaaaacism.

Past The Dem Hypocrisy, There Is A Point Being Made

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by Smitty

Another day, another “Dems apoplectic over the same stunts they pulled in 2008” story. This time, the Democrats are whinging at being held accountable for the connection between lousy policy and high gas prices:

The point here is that the Ruling Class model is that the population as a whole is a giant, stupid lump.

That #OccupyResoluteDesk has any support whatsoever sort of bears this theory out. What to do, then? While not snobbishly suggesting everyone go to college, those who care to might consider educating themselves. If we set about redistributing knowledge and power, rather than wealth, then we’re less susceptible to Ruling Class deception.

via Gateway Pundit

Ann Coulter: What?

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by Smitty

Is free speech a bad thing?

The No. 1 conservative talk-radio host in America, Rush Limbaugh, is critical of Romney, and another top conservative talk-radio host, Mark Levin, is adamantly against Romney — though both Limbaugh and Levin supported Romney as the conservative alternative to John McCain in 2008, and Romney has only gotten better since then.
Purely to hurt Romney, the Iowa Republican Party fiddled with the vote tally to take Romney’s victory away from him and give it to Rick Santorum — even though the “official count” was missing eight precincts. Isn’t the party apparatus of a state considered part of the Establishment?

So, Limbaugh and Levin play by the Buckley Rule, and support the most conservative electable candidate. . .even if that means that 2008’s pick is 2012’s pan? Consistency can do that.

And what does ‘purely to hurt Romney’ mean? Does Rick Santorum exist? A reasonable alternative scenario, borne out by irregularities in New Hampshire, is that some state committees are owned by some candidates, and may not have made the initial victory calls in an unbiased way. Ann, you’ve been great in the past, and I hope that the shocking spectacle of your 2012 beclownment is something you can overcome. But the sad truth is that the Romney infatuation is starting to resemble some of the creepy BHO infatuation I’ve seen from a couple of Lefties I know.

Whoever wins the GOP nomination shall have earned it by August, and these over-wrought appeals to end the process now seem more emotionally driven than anything else.

via iOwnTheWorld

God Rest The Souls Of The Dead Service Members In Afghanistan

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by Smitty

What a debacle:

The U.S. commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan pulled scores of advisers from Afghan ministries after two high-ranking American military officers were gunned down Saturday at the nation’s Interior Ministry headquarters.
U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen ordered the unprecedented move after an American colonel and major were both found shot in the head at the busy Interior Ministry compound that is the nerve center for the Afghan law enforcement, according to one Western official in Kabul.

Random notes:

  • General Allen was taking command as I was headed out the door at the end of my tour. The uniformed services, as usual, get stucked carrying out whatever policies the elected officials hand them. He gets the flag, and the weight of a lot of crap landing on his watch. It cannot be fun to be General Allen.
  • To the extent I can say something non-negative about BHO, the Asian imbroglio had to come to some end. Something akin to the Qu’ran burning was simply going to occur; whipping up xenophobia is a 100-level play for any government in that region. Especially at the inevitable end of U.S. involvement.
  • I do think the 2008 talk of Iraq as a distraction and Afghanistan as the correct focus was pure campaign hooey from BHO. When told to put the deployment orders where his rhetoric was, #OccupyResoluteDesk dithered in a way that made Hamlet seem decisive. BHO failed to win the hearts and minds of the military-industrial complex. Thus, the political calculation to bring the boys home in time for the election. Alas, the enemy gets a vote, and they are going to break BHO’s bowing and scraping right off where he sits.
  • If the U.S. can possibly learn a lesson from the last decade: nation-building DOES. NOT. WORK. Anybody putting forth a policy of recreational, open-ended involvement, with blank checks to fund it, is a Total. Flipping. Knob. and deserves to be laughed off the national stage. I’m not going Ron Paul here; think of it as a ninth bullet on the Powell Doctrine.
  • While not intending to make any statement about Islam as a religion, from a Western perspective, it seems to pose significant challenges when Islam informs a government in the Information Age. Outfits like the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA), or Egypt, or wherever can go ahead and succeed, and I will cheerfully admit I was wrong in my interpretation. But there seems little reason for optimism, as ethnic and religious minorities get thrashed, and international investment will, most likely, remain scant. In making the U.S. fadeout so ugly, the GIROA is setting an ugly tone for future relations.
  • If Obama’s voting block ever figures out where Afghanistan is, this news could actually hurt BHO’s re-election effort.

Rick Santorum Hears Hillary Clinton’s Caution About GOP Campaign Rhetoric, Delivers Cupcake And Pony Speech

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by Smitty

Speaking to Tunisians, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, in summary “Pay no mind to those zany Republicans; they’re just talking election-year smack.” Via Alan Colmes, via Tampa Bay Online:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton advised an audience in Tunisia on Saturday to “not pay attention” to the comments made by candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination, saying the often overheated rhetoric of the campaign doesn’t reflect U.S. policy.
Speaking at a town-hall style event in Tunisia, the North African nation that sparked the “Arab Spring” revolts, Clinton said the partisan remarks made during campaign events “certainly don’t reflect the United States, don’t reflect our foreign policy, don’t reflect who we are as a people.”

In a way, one must agree with Madame Secretary: talk of American Exceptionalism, equal respect for religious faiths, liberty, and national sovereignty are not embraced by the American people, as a whole, due to the presence of crypto-Marxists like Mrs. Clinton dragging down the country.
Via Memorandum, we have Politico reporting that Rick Santorum heard the Secretary of State’s words and walked back much of the rhetorical heft of his Americans for Prosperity speech today:

Stepping up his assault on Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum delivered a slashing speech Saturday morning that portrayed the establishment favorite as an elitist and unreliable conservative.
Santorum, appearing before over a thousand conservative activists gathered in suburban Detroit for an Americans for Prospertiy conference, emphasized his immigrant roots, modest background and conservative credentials in an impassioned address that won him a standing ovation.
“I didn’t blow in the wind when things were popular with the elite,” Santorum said. “Because I don’t come from the elite.”

Oh, wait. I may have misread that. I guess we’ll have to wait for Stacy to get some bandwidth and sort out what really happened for us.

Update: linked in a massive recap at The Camp of the Saints.