"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
SIOUX CITY, Iowa
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum brought his entire family — his wife, Karen, and seven kids ages 3 to 20 — to Iowa for his three-week tour leading up to the Aug. 13 Ames Straw Poll. After yesterday’s “barn party” in Roland, I caught Santorum for a minute just before he left, running late for his next event:
Clark Griswold, eat your heart out!
You can check out the rest of Santorum’s Iowa schedule here.
by Smitty
Via Memeorandum, this column in the Gray, Room-Temperature Lady is just a thing of beauty, if you find beauty staring down a port-a-john. Crescendo reached here:
Then came the financial crisis. I like to joke that there’s nothing like a good financial crisis to turn you into a liberal. But it’s not really a joke. The more I learned the back story that led to the crisis, the more horrified I became. The lack of regulation and oversight of Wall Street and the big subprime companies like Countrywide, driven by the ideology of deregulation, was thoughtless and irresponsible. The refusal of bank regulators to stop subprime abuses bordered on the criminally negligent. The unwillingness of the Obama Justice Department, even now, to hold anyone to account for their role in the crisis has been disheartening.
Lack of regulation? Isn’t over-regulation the reason that capital is fleeing to England? Or is the anti-business tax climate of the U.S. just another form of patriotism?
Lord, grant this man some grasp of Economics.
“refusal of bank regulators to stop subprime abuses” is gorgeous. The Community Reinvestment Act is a standing 10th Amendment violation, and has been further used as graft machine. Fannie and Freddie created the moral hazard that drove the financial crisis.
Lord, grant this man some grasp of human nature and limited government.
“The unwillingness of the Obama Justice Department, even now, to hold anyone to account. . .” The Obama Department of Justice is a standing oxymoron. If Holder and his clown car load had any notion of Justice, they’d resign en masse.
Lord, grant the suffering people justice with a side of mercy.
You can read the whole thing, and judge whether a slightly liturgical response was better than the napalm shower that initially came to mind.
— compiled by Wombat-socho
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Even Peggy Has Him Pegged. Finally.
When in Doubt, Hot Chicks on Video
Because Democrats Are Liars, That’s Why
Lubricating the Debt-Ceiling Deal
Yeah, It’s Time For The Circle Jerks
Democrats? Cynical? You Don’t Say!
Pelosi to Dems: ‘Vote Your Conscience’
Give An Over-Reaching Government A Sales Tax: What Could Go Wrong?
House Passes Debt Deal 269-161
Who’s Getting Rich in California?
Let’s Celebrate the Debt Deal!
Dow Drops 266 Points, Both Sides Race to Claim Defeat in Debt-Deal Compromise
Preshizzle Brings The Double Dizzle
Higher Education Bubble, IYKWIMAITYD
This Song Is for @AmandaMarcotte
Another Song for @AmandaMarcotte
Forget Analyzing The Left: Focus On Exceptionalism
Patrick Henry Paraphrase Of The Day
‘Neo-Confederate Sex Panic’ Becomes the Biggest Political Punchline of the Year?
Three Big Advantages To Emailing Pictures Of Your Junk
Michele Bachmann Touts ‘No’ Vote on Debt Ceiling Deal in Latest Iowa TV Ad
Pamela Geller Denounced by Notorious Sock Puppeteer Glenn Greenwald
Balanced Budget Amendment Is A Pyle Of S. . .urprise
Fear and Loathing on Highway 193; Pawlenty Aiming at Bachmann?
Cain, Corn and … the Phantom Menace
Fear and Loathing at the Quality Inn
Obama: “You Mean The Economy Isn’t Like Batteries, And AA Is Bigger?”
Top linkers this week:
Honorable mention: The POH Diaries (5)
Hm, bit of a dropoff this week from the non-Wordpress bloggers. Well, that’s okay; makes this compilation business a bit easier/faster. Thanks to all for their linkagery, regardless. To be included in next week’s roundup (if WordPress hates you, as it does all those who use Blogger, LiveJournal, etc.) send your links to me at Wombat-socho by August 12 with “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.
by Smitty
Doug Ross offers an excellent summary of the whole fandango. I still maintain that, as this scandal is rolled out, either it or the threat of it running its course will be the real reason for Obama to resign.
The Dems, especially Invertebrate Harry in the Senate, have got to see BHO as a liability. The question becomes at what point the cost/benefit analysis is such that it’s easier to eat the impeachment than drink the fatal political kool-aid of hanging on to him.
One likely damage control course of action is to highlight the thuggery of Fast and Furious, and tie that to BHO personally, instead of the Dems as a whole. Or not. Maybe the Progressive cult goes full political suicide pact.
This clip is NSFW, but captures the idiocy of both the Dems and, later, Ben Bernanke rather well:
Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal A Prime Example Of Democrats And Democrats Sacrificing For The Greater Good
ROLAND, Iowa
Rick Santorum just finished doing a “barn party” here at the home of Scott and Susan Hurd. While I have no firm estimate of how many eligible voters were in attendance, I can state officially that the number of kids was ginormous. Lots of big home-schooling families showed up — families with seven, eight, nine kids. Santorum is traveling with his own family of seven kids, so the super-size families certainly seem simpatico with the former Pennsylvania senator.
Also in attendance was local Republican Rep. Steve King, who introduced Santorum. The candidate spoke for nearly a half-hour and then took questions. I’ve got video, audio and notes, but that will take time to process, and I’m blogging this from a McDonald’s beside the I-35 exit and just want to get up a quick post with a few photos. Santorum noted that he has visited some 51 different cities in Iowa, with more than 100 stops. He spoke about the need to repeal ObamaCare and – in response to a question about foreign policy – gave a splendid account of Obama’s failures, going into some detail about Honduras. (How many candidates have you heard talk about Honduras? How many of people even know how Obama screwed over Honduras?) He was quite impressive, and I very much agree with Santorum’s complaint that the media has unfairly ignored his candidacy.
Santorum and his wife Karen talk with supporters. You can see Rep. King in the background.
Santorum talks on the phone with Lisa Graas, his No. 1 Twitter supporter, who was positively ecstatic about the chance to talk to her hero — on my cell phone.
Karen Santorum with her two oldest daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth. Right after I took this photo, Santorum’s press aide told me that the family are “off limits” to the media. But, of course, I’m just a friend of Lisa Graas, right? It’s not fair to treat me as “media.”
OK, so that’s it for now. I’ll have more later, but I’ve got to hit the road to Sioux City tonight. And you’ve got to hit the tip jar.
by Smitty
Love it:
Hey, Salon: spending any time denying BHO’s weakness triggers the Streisand Effect, and calls attention to the fact that BHO is the first POTUS whose VP appears to be packing more heat.
And, if not for ObamaCare, and Government Motors, and offshore drilling, and the failed stimulus, I’d be tempted to say that a POTUS is not really directly controlling the economy. He may not have as much direct control as he’d like, but BHO has perturbed the crap out of the economy in a very big way.
In another first, BHO is the first POTUS to spend over a year as a lame duck.
by Smitty
Somebody tell this twerp on video over at Althouse’s site that Wisonsin’s motto is ‘Forward’. SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS is the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
One is tempted to say that the public sector unions are behaving tyrannically in Wisconsin, but that gives the unions too much credit. They’re behaving in an inept, infantile fashion.
If Scott Walker actually was a tyrant, and we allow that Caesar was also such, I’d reply to this knob:
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris
“If Caesar lived, you’d be chained to an oar”
While I don’t actually want to see anyone enslaved, I do wish these goobers could taste the absence of liberty long enough to mature them a bit.
ROLAND, Iowa
Rick Santorum’s schedule lists the address for his event this afternoon as 3275 400th Street. The Google Map directions to this location directed me to turn left onto 570th Avenue – which is a dirt road that runs between two cornfields. And after going a mile and a half, then I was directed to turn right onto 100th Street which is – you guessed it, didn’t you? – another dirt road between two cornfields. Here is a photo of the intersection:
Now, you may ask yourself: Why do Iowans endow their dirt roads with such seemingly grandiose names? My theory: The alternative would be to name the roads for people. But they’ve got more dirt roads than they’ve got people to name them after. And “Cornfield Road” wouldn’t be particularly distinctive, would it?
UPDATE: Linked by Don Surber and Simply Timothy — thanks — and you can see some photos of Rick Santorum’s barn party event here.