The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Apparently Santorum Hasn’t Read Codevilla

Posted on | July 28, 2010 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, mulling a presidential run, says Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a potential 2012 primary foe, is indulging in “class-warfare” rhetoric.
. . .
“I’m not a class-warfare guy,” Santorum tells National Review Online in reaction to Pawlenty’s remarks. “That’s the Democrats’ gig. They like to divide and play the class card. We don’t have classes in America — I don’t even like the term ‘middle class.’ People are lower income or middle income, and the dynamism of this country is that you can rise, and sometimes fall, but you are not stuck in classes. We should not get into that kind of rhetoric, or showing some sort of prejudice.”

The good Senator’s attention is drawn to Angelo Codevilla’s essay, which lays out at length how Santorum either (a) has his head buried in the sand, or (b) is so fully ensconced in that ruling class as to be unaware of the implications.

Graphically, the point is laid out at The Jacksonian Party, where it boils down to a word: incumbency.

Thus, when considering arguments about what to do to un-bake the situation in the country, I’m always keen to see how the ideas attack the structural problems of our ruling class and centralization.

In other words, YouCut and the Roadmap Plan, while great starts, need to get more Federalist in their outlook: the GOP can win, but real victory means defeating its own structural systems as well as those of the Democrats. Do you think the GOP has enough essential American power to grasp that, past the posturing?

Category: Republicans

Get Bent, Ezra Klein

Posted on | July 28, 2010 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

Ezra speaks in the comPost, emphsis mine:

The constitutional option gets its name from Article I, Section V of the Constitution, which states that “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.” In order to fulfill this constitutional order, the Senate must be able to, well, determine its rules. A filibuster, technically, is a way to stop the Senate from determining something by refusing to allow it to move to a vote. Because stopping the Senate from considering its own rules would be unconstitutional, the chair can rule against the filibuster, and the Senate could then move to change its rules on a majority vote.

One caveat: Many people, including Udall himself, believe this has to happen at the beginning of a new Congress. If it doesn’t happen at the beginning of a new Congress, then Congress is considered to have acquiesced to the previous Congress’s rules, and a filibuster against further rule changes wouldn’t interrupt the constitutional right to determine the rules.

When, exactly, ever, is the Senate stopped from considering its own rules?

This is one of the fascinating things about Left-think: when there is some wisely considered high standard to be met, you get this effect of working the referees.

Ezra, even if you congratulate yourself about having swell intentions, your ideas are those of boob. Your brand of thinking is firmly in line with the bi-partisan Federal over-reach that has resulted in 14 trillion in debt.

That filibuster feature is the only thing restraining this atrocious Congress. Polls expressing the will of the people and demonstrations have not. The filibuster is only a bug in the eyes of the truly clueless dungbeatles, among whom you may be crawling, Klein.

I wish there was some laboratory setting in which you could feel the unrestrained, hellish results of your anti-Constitutional ideas, Ezra, without doing further damage to the country. Yours is the road, not to some Socialist golden age, but rather a full-on despotism.

You can continue to label failure success, or say there is some reason the Senate cannot consider its rules. But don’t expect support from anyone having a grasp of the need for limited government.

Category: Progressivism

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Republican Candidate Patrick Murray, VA-8 Stump Speech

Posted on | July 27, 2010 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

This morning the Ken Cuccinelli introduction went up. Colonel Murray picks up and offers a solid speech, served up here in seven parts, plus a bit of dessert that is a fine sweetener for all, whether you have the privilege of supporting Lt. Col. Alan West, or the duty to run against the Wicked Witch of the West.

If you live in VA-8, or know someone who does, please circulate this post to as many as you know. We have an obligation to the rest of the country to support a great candidate in the struggle to retire “Gentleman” Jim Moran. Read more

Category: Patrick Murray

Massachusetts, Purveyor Of Fine Bollocks

Posted on | July 27, 2010 | 27 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Drudge)

Boston.com reports that the Massachusetts legislature is going in through the out door again, passing a law to ignore the will of their people, and instead just give their electoral votes to the popular vote winner nation wide.

But Senate minority leader Richard Tisei said the state was meddling with a system that was “tried and true” since the founding of the country.
. . .
Tisei also criticized the proponents for not following the normal procedures to seek a constitutional amendment.

“The thing about this that bothers me the most is it’s so sneaky. This is the way that liberals do things a lot of times, very sneaky,” he said. “This is sort of an end run around the Constitution.”

Abso-effing-lutely. This is what Article Five is about. Understood, there seems to be a psychological joy, which some find, in taking words to mean whatever they wish. Hence the Commerce Clause becoming the Constitution over the last century. Hence the “judicial deference” doctrine, where Congress can emote whatever it wishes, and We The People get to watch the 14-ish trillion dollar debt pile up due to Federal over-reach.

Does this state even merit the privilege of having the USS Constitution moored in Charlestown?

One hopes the American people grasp that this is one more step down the path of collapse into tyranny. Possibly not a big one, but a step nonetheless, and unlikely to gain much traction in Virginia.

Update: The Corner points out that

As in other states where this measure has been passed, it will not take effect unless and until enough states adopt the measure to give it teeth. From Article III of the bill:

“This article shall govern the appointment of presidential electors in each member state [i.e., states having passed similar acts] in any year in which this agreement is, on July 20, in effect in states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes.”

Category: Massachusetts

Eight Savory Syllables

Posted on | July 27, 2010 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

The stylish WyBlog:

I don’t usually talk politics with strangers. But for Google? Why not “tweak” them a little!

So I look into her camera all serious and say, “I know what will make me happy. The first time I hear 3 simple words, probably the greatest three words ever to be uttered by man.”

Now everybody is looking at me. “What 3 words?” someone asks. Very slowly I say,

It’s too good to thug. You’ll have to read the whole enchilada.

Category: Blogging, humor

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: VA AG Ken Cuccinelli In Alexandria

Posted on | July 27, 2010 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Monday, 26 July 2010, I had the privilege of attending a fund raiser for Patrick Murray, in the crucial effort to retire Gentleman Jim Moran.

While the traffic situation on parking lot I-95 kept him from delivering the detailed update on the ObamaCare case he’s championing down at the Rocket Docket, the good AG does offer some feedback to our ‘honorable’ Representative, down in Clip 5. If your time is limited, or your AG seems an abject doof, take in Clip 5. Clip 6 concludes on the theme of the Creepshow Congress. Read more

Category: Health Care, Jim Moran, Patrick Murray

Why Does RINO Mike Castle Want to ‘Kill Jobs and Drive Up Prices on Everything’?

Posted on | July 26, 2010 | 52 Comments

Delaware Rep. Mike Castle was one of the infamous gang whom Michelle Malkin dubbed the “Waxman-Markey 8” — liberal Republican members of the House who voted for Nancy Pelosi’s job-killing energy tax bill last year.

Now, running for the Senate, Castle is essentially asking for the opportunity to vote for cap-and-trade again — potentially becoming the key Senate RINO necessary to avoid a filibuster and pass the bill in the post-Nov. 2 lame duck session that Charles Krauthammer has been worried about. So, to stop that job-killer, we need a RINO killer:

“Passing Cap and Trade would throw sand into the gears of the American economy,” said Christine O’Donnell. “It would cripple our already struggling markets, taxing goods and services at every point of production and consumption. This bill would kill jobs and drive up prices on everything from peanuts to gasoline.”Rising in the polls, Christine O’Donnell has taken the offensive against her opponent Mike Castle’s voting record. Castle was rated one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress by the American Conservative Union.
“I will continue to hold Mike Castle to account for his liberal voting record,” said O’Donnell. “He has already voted for Cap and Tax, and he will do it again.”

Read the whole thing.  Let’s face it: The only difference between Mike Castle and Dede Scozzafava is lipstick and a pair of pantyhose.

BTW, my post yesterday about Team O’Donnell adding staffers from last year’s Doug Hoffman NY-23 campaign seems to have both Castle’s RINO supporters and Delaware Democrats sweating bullets. Tweet from Steve Foley:

@ericjodom Intense meeting @repmikecastle office allegedly on how to deal with the conservative goon squad http://twitpic.com/28wlv5 #DESEN

And one of the smarter commenters at the Delaware Liberal blog said:

I wonder if any of these guys has juice with Palin? If they pull in that endorsement, all bets are off. . . .
Moderate Republicans who laugh these guys off will be sorry.

Clearly, the O’Donnell campaign’s momentum is getting the attention of important people, including the overpaid sellout RINO operatives working for Castle. Maybe the pressure will cause those GOP Establishment swine to go negative early. It’s probably only a matter of time before the call in Will Folks to “reluctantly admit” to an affair with O’Donnell. Maybe they’re saving the real slime (“She’s a secret Muslim!”) until after O’Donnell pulls ahead in the polls, like they did to Nikki Haley.

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Delaware

VIDEO: Shirley Sherrod’s Husband Says, ‘We Must Stop the White Man and His Uncle Toms From Stealing Our Elections’

Posted on | July 26, 2010 | 81 Comments

Dan Riehl has the big scoop today at Riehl World View:

And just so you know where the Sherrods are coming from: When their daughter was born in 1967, while America was at war with communist North Vietnam, Charles and Shirley named their baby girl Russia — “with love,” no doubt. Read the rest at Riehl World View.

UPDATE: Yesterday, I called Dan out of the blue — more or less randomly, because I hadn’t talked to him in a while and his name came up in a conversation at the Right Online conference– and he told me about this scoop, which caused me to Tweet:

In phone call today, @danriehl told me, “I swear, I’ll hunt you down and kill your family.” Kinda out of context. #tcot

The “out of context,” you see, was kind of an inside joke, allusion to the charge of “raaaaacism” against Andrew Breitbart after he published a video of Shirley Sherrod. Breitbart says he only later learned had been edited to omit Sherrod’s “moral of the story” explanation that changed the meaning of comments that, in the edited version, were explosively inflammatory — but not as inflammatory as Sherrod’s subsequent accusation on CNN that Breitbart wants to reinstitute chattel slavery.

Dan worked very hard to find this new video and then to document the facts about Charles and Shirley Sherrod’s political history. So when he told me yesterday what he was preparing to release this morning, he made me promise not to breathe a word prematurely to anyone about the content, on penalty of death.

Was this threat merely a figure of speech? Probably. He laughed after he said it. But it’s Dan Riehl, and I certainly wouldn’t want to risk discovering whether he meant “hunt you down and kill your family” as a metaphor.

Dan’s from Jersey, y’know.

UPDATE II: OK, so the Sherrods named their daughter “Russia,” what about their son, Kenyatta? No doubt, he was named for Kenyan dictator Jomo Kenyatta. Because I’m in Vegas today, I don’t have access to my home-office reference library, but from Wikipedia we learn:

In 1932 to 1933, he briefly studied economics in Moscow at the Comintern School, KUTVU (University of the Toilers of the East) before his sponsor, the Trinidadian communist George Padmore, fell out with his Soviet hosts, forcing Kenyatta to move back to London. . . .
He made the Kikuyu-led KANU practically the only political party of Kenya. He consolidated his power greatly, and placed several of his Kikuyu tribesmen in most of the powerful state and security offices and posts. State security forces harassed dissidents and were suspected of complicity in several murders of prominent personalities deemed as threats to his regime . . .
In the 1969 elections, Kenyatta banned the only other party, KPU . . .
He remained president until his death . . . in 1978.

So, like Mussolini, Kenyatta was a communist-turned-nationalist. He made Kenya a one-party state and thus became one of those typical Third World despots who suppress all opposition and surround themselves with corrupt cronies.

This was the man for whom the Sherrods named their son. And because we wouldn’t want to be accused of taking that out of context, we’ll point out that Kenyatta Sherrod seems to have turned out to be an upstanding citizen, a health care executive for Pfizer-Thermacare in Albany, Ga.

Another triumph of capitalism. Is America a great country or what?

Dan’s now got his own Memeorandum thread, and gets the “Hmmm” heard ’round the world from Instapundit.

Category: Andrew Breitbart, Dan Riehl, Georgia, Racism
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