Shoot Not The Messenger: Rather, Laugh

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by Smitty

Krauthammer from Fox All Stars:

On President Obama’s proposed job-creation initiatives:
An index of how spent he is intellectually on the issue of jobs is the campaign speech he gave today – the fourth in ten days in which he pivoted and he announced five initiatives. Listen to them:
– Payroll tax extension — we already had that.
– Unemployment insurance extension — already had that.
– Trade deals — he’s had it for two and a half years and done nothing.
– Spending, more infrastructure, a perennial, you know — more dams, more bridges and roads.
– And the last one, I love that — here’s the real new one that will get us out of our doldrums: patent process reform!

He’s out of bullets. He’s out of arrows. He’s looking for stones on the seashore. … There’s nothing left in the cupboard. He did a huge Keynesian gamble, and it failed.

The ultimate Alinsky trick will be if BHO becomes a blame sponge for the failure of the Acme Wheel-less Bicycle to sell any product. No salesman could move such an absurd product. No amount of Keynesian stimulus could roll it out the door. No triumph of the will could propel its forked-up front end forward. Resist the temptation to personalize.
Instead, laugh at the absurdity of it all. The world has been sold a bill of goods by sweet fools since Rosseau, since Marx. It’s been seductive, and it hasn’t worked. The State is not God. Get over it.
Even now the Progressives and the Ruling Class still aren’t willing to face the music that the era of failing upward to the federal government, and then, ultimately, to a world-wide government, has failed the other direction. Down. Because of debt.
We have another eighteen months of steady pressure to apply, while witnessing the most farcical demise in the history of political theater. I still think that, if not losing in 2012 is the most important psychological self-preservation point for BHO, that some means will be found to muster one of those big shepherd’s hooks to help get the bobble head offstage.
So, offer laughter. The Socialist politics of failure have failed. Offer pity. They are what a fool and a Michael McDonald fan believes. Offer silence. We have to recover liberty.

‘Neo-Confederate Sex Panic’ Becomes the Biggest Political Punchline of the Year?

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DES MOINES, Iowa
Little did I suspect this morning when I boarded my flight at Reagan National that, by the time I reached Iowa, the nation would be deep in the grip of a hitherto unknown political fever: Neo-Confederate Sex Panic!

“It was like the secessionists .. . Even as [Obama] was
being inaugurated, the voices of secession were uniting in
the South and planning to bring this guy down, right?”

Da Tech Guy suggests Chris Matthews actually believes this stuff. So whatever you do, don’t disillusion him. And don’t tell Amanda Marcotte we’re laughing at her craziness.

Meanwhile, Herman Cain arrives here Thursday morning and will speak at the Greater Des Moines Partnership at noon and the Professional Educators of Iowa at 5 p.m. In between those events, he’ll visit the “Sweet Corn Serenade” festival in Oskaloosa. So I’m working hard, honest.

National Desk, Mickey’s Irish Pub, 3rd & Court, Des Moines, Iowa.





The karaoke contest starts at 9 p.m. If any readers are in the Des Moines area, come on down and I assure you, you’ll get your money’s worth.

UPDATE: T-Paw pulling his ads in Iowa? The first hint of politics I heard in Iowa today was a radio ad by Pawlenty.

So far as I know, Cain has run no ads at all in Iowa. I don’t know if radio or TV ads have any impact on the Ames Straw Poll, and don’t know if the Ames Straw Poll (Aug. 13) makes any difference to the outcome of the Iowa caucuses (Feb. 6).


Another Song for @AmandaMarcotte

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OK, it’s not quite up there with “Under My Thumb” as a sexist anthem, but the Beatles’ “You Can’t Do That” is still great rock-and-roll, so you know Amanda Marcotte hates it.

I’ve got somethin’ to say that might cause you pain.
If I catch you talkin’ to that boy again
I’m gonna let you down
And leave you flat,
Because I told you before,
Oh, You can’t do that.

This Song Is for @AmandaMarcotte

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Because I am now currently on a plane flying to Iowa, I had to schedule some posts ahead of time. Yesterday I heard this classic Rolling Stones hit on the radio. For some reason, it made me think of Amanda Marcotte.

It’s down to me,
The way she talks when she’s spoken to.
Down to me, the change has come,
She’s under my thumb.

You should send that YouTube link to her on Twitter (@AmandaMarcotte) and ask her why she hates rock-and-roll.

En Route to Des Moines

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REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT, Washington, D.C.
We had passed through the security checkpoint and were waiting for our belongings to come through the X-ray scanner. And waiting.

And waiting.

Our carry-ons and other personal items weren’t coming through. There was a flurry of activity involving the TSA agent in charge of security at Terminal A, who summoned a supervisor. To one of the ladies waiting with me, I remarked: “Another reason to hate terrorists.”

That’s what I always say in such moments, because I hate the extra hassles of security screenings, and I remember who’s to blame. And now I was enduring just another routine hassle of traveling in the post-9/11 era — or so I thought, until another of the ladies waiting said, “See the guy in the red tie? He’s one of the biggest imams in the area.”

Really? “Yeah,” she said. “He’s on the news all the time.”

And so our bags were stalled in the X-ray queue while the TSA assembled a team to escort the imam through extra security procedures. Finally, the X-ray conveyer started rolling again. I grabbed my laptop, shoved it in my backpack, and put my coat, shoes and hat on again. Just as I was about to get moving, the security agents escorted the imam past me. I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back sheepishly and said in clear but accented English: “Special treatment.”

Not the sort of special treatment one envies. He was obviously deemed a security risk and, you might say, “profiled.” Unfortunate perhaps, but certainly not my fault.

So I went to the cocktail lounge and had a reuben sandwich, chips and a Bloody Mary. Just hope that imam isn’t going to Iowa.


The National Desk, at the bar of the airport lounge, 11:30 a.m.





Forget Analyzing The Left: Focus On Exceptionalism

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by Smitty

Da Tech Guy posts on the Lefty attempt to project its internal panic onto conservatives. Ace of Spades dons the hip waders to trudge through the intellectual dishonesty of the Left.

Leftists do not have any great regard for the process of voting, or for securing the consent of the governed. What they care about almost entirely is outcome — if democracy can produce the outcomes they wish, then bully for democracy; if it results in outcomes they oppose, then perhaps we need to look at another system.

Perhaps one in which some kind of educated, civilized Vanguard (to give it a name) makes all important decisions on behalf of “The People.”

This is not new. This is the standard leftist model, dating back all the way to 1793 and the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.

It’s similar to (and not coincidentally so) the divergence between leftists and classic liberals on economic opportunities versus economic outcomes. Classic liberals desire a system in which economic opportunities are maximized, a system in which the most people possible will be prosperous; leftists fixate not on the process of wealth creation but only the machinery of wealth confiscation and redistribution — determined to intervene (and take away people’s liberty) in order to arrange outcomes the way they wish.

I think there are two flavors of Leftists:

There may be some hope for the former to wake up and smell the nonsense. For the latter category, Al Gore himself being a likely example, only the Almighty Himself knows. The brain damage from the kool-aid may be too severe.
That’s all fine. Knowing thy opposition is essential.
The good news for the conservative is that our case is the same one that the Founders did plead. Our drum is liberty. Pound that Mike Foxtrot. The litmus test in every discussion is whether a course of action enhances individual liberty, the lifeblood of American Exceptionalism. Even though, as Ace notes, the Left can make pro-Democracy noises, especially when pointing a finger at conservatives, they are really not intellectually capable of consistent arguments in favor of liberty.
They will never argue for less government. Bureaucracy is a womb into which all Leftiess would rather crawl, to swim in a sea of regulatory fluid. In the case of the debt ceiling legislation, as far as I can tell, the savings are mostly future, and the reforms are as substantial as a campaign promise. Feign compromise. Moan loudly about the evils of the GOP. Then subvert the intent of the legislation, so that the reality continues the relentless destruction of American liberty that is the Progressive project.
These Lefties are nothing if not patient. Forget them. They know their ideas are a dead letter. We must argue liberty, in a positive way, and focus on driving the 2012 election further toward a righteous course. And 2014. And 2016. And so on.

* This is my entry for the Most Offensive Statement Ever By A Public Official. I find it both theologically and politically offensive, and coming as it does from Al Gore in the midst of a Global Whatever bile stream, I just don’t think a worse statement has ever been made.