"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
That’s what I kept shouting at my computer screen while watching this video of the 1999 WTO riots, the notorious “Battle in Seattle”:
Seattle is No. 7 on the “10 Worst Riots in American History” list — which includes video of Chicago cops cracking the skulls of hippie peaceniks at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
by Smitty
There is always Joe Satriani:
SPECIAL ELECTION MAY 18
GIVE! VOLUNTEER! VOTE!
TIM BURNS FOR U.S. CONGRESS
by Smitty (h/t Instapundit, who likes him some cat bloggin’)
Sissypuss the Bailout Kitty, willing to work that purr as required, landed a job on Wall Street, as a result of all the financial reform afoot.
But trying to herd those stocks is just like herding kittens. Despite the best efforts, the only direction they seem to prefer is down:
by Smitty
The biggest problem with waxing poetic about our beloved founders and the great love of country that conservatives think is lost on “the liberals” is that they’re nostalgic for a myth.
No, Alan, you’re the myth-head: there was indeed a time before the Progressives, when the country was not on a debt-slavery course.
Things like math, history, and economic may hurt your feelings, but they matter. Utopia is unavailable at any price, no matter how many unrepresented generations are taxed before their grandparents are conceived.
The common-sense demand for a Federal government and sober management is common sense, not a ‘Constitutional fetish’. Your quasi-religious belief in Progress, coupled with a systematic refusal to admit the utter failure of the Left’s ideas, renders your pronouncements laughable, where not sad.
No, the necessary course correction for the country is the Constitutional one. The bulk of the major problems besetting the country can be traced to the departure from the principles in the document. The Federal government wants to do State and local things, except where votes may not be delivered, e.g. Tennessee.
It’s going to be a long, painful, expensive ride recovering from your nonsense, Alan.
Thanks for less than nothing.
WASHINGTON, DC–Rush Limbaugh will marry long-time girlfriend Kathryn Rogers on June 5th, according to a knowledgeable source. The wedding is reportedly planned for Palm Beach, Fla., where both Mr. Limbaugh and Ms. Rogers live.
This exclusive news was received unexpectedly tonight while I was interviewing Liz Carter, a Republican Congressional candidate in Georgia’s 4th District. I asked Carter campaign operative Cheryl Prater to tweet this exclusive:
This post dictated via co-blogger Smitty, while I drive along Constitution Avenue between the Washington Monument and the White House. Smitty has searched and found the following background on the Limbaugh-Rogers relationship:
The Huffington Post had the following tidbits:
The Palm Beach Post reports that 57-year-old Rush Limbaugh has a new — and much younger — girlfriend. Limbaugh has reportedly been seeing Kathryn Rogers, 31, for the past six months. Rogers (seen with Limbaugh at a Miami fundraiser last weekend) lives in West Palm Beach and works as a party planner for the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee.
Last May, Limbaugh announced that President Clinton was “intently chatting up” Limbaugh’s female companion at a New York restaurant, but he did not reveal her name.
Limbaugh divorced his third wife Marta in 2004 after 10 years of marriage. . .
Expect further news as we await official confirmation.
Smitty: A restraining order may be necessary for both Mrs. Other McCain and Stacy if the Shoe Leather Fund receives enough love to support the two of them flitting South to enjoy another honeymoon and crash Limbaugh’s wedding. Just sayin’.
Update: via Drudge BHO will apparently not attend the possible bachelor golf round:
When President Obama was asked if he would play a round of golf with his talk-radio nemesis Rush Limbaugh, the response, relayed by a top Democrat, was: “Limbaugh can play with himself.”
by Smitty
Renner’s Here! has your PA-12 update:
Congressman Pence, chair of the House Republican Conference, who’s been mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate was at the Richland Township Fire Department near Johnstown yesterday, campaigning for Tim Burns in the May 18 special election.
Stacy, in a phone conversation, mentioned this bit down the post:
Burns for Congress campaign manager Tad Rupp told me that the campaign made close to 50,000 phone calls last weekend alone.
RSM was rather impressed with that figure, indicating that it shows tremendous enthusiasm, especially in contrast to Democratic Party turnout in primaries that have already occurred.
We can’t get cocky, though, and we can’t forget to hold the GOP feet in the fire after the election, or there won’t be enough hot water to support the Tea Party.
by Smitty
Jazz Shaw points out that you need a fairly stupid mark for Valerie Jarrett to be successful in her sales pitch. Valerie, if we think you’re selling used cars, as when the name Roberts comes up, you need to go away. You attempts to whitewash Kagan’s record WRT the military is quite offensive.
But if it’s OK not to think that John Roberts deserved support for the SCOTUS, then we should feel perfectly content, by Valerie’s measure, to think Kagan unworthy of an appointment, as well. Thanks, Valerie. Tool.
As Ramesh Ponnuru notes:
Elena Kagan helped to keep military recruiters from having equal access to the Harvard campus–based on what she called “the military’s policy” on don’t ask, don’t tell. When Congress voted to deny Defense Department funds to universities that discriminate against the military, she joined an effort to fight the law (called the Solomon amendment) in court. In effect, she was arguing that the school had a constitutional right to get government funding while discriminating against military recruiters. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the universities.
So on this issue it is hard to argue that Kagan was within the judicial mainstream. Her position is, additionally, hard to defend.
And then there is the smoking artillery that one expects may be found in the Clinton memos.
If we can’t have NoOneBarack Nominates on the court, it would be better to draft Hillary. One or two decades of Lefty nitwittery would be preferable to three+. Also, the possibility of a decent Secretary of State exists–could Colin Powell pinch hit until 2012?
The preceding rant is here.
Update: Sweet. A Second Amendment history only the ACLU could love.
Update II: Heh. Krauthammer:
On Arlen Specter having voted against Kagan for solicitor general, now shifting his position:
You almost feel sorry for Arlen Specter. I mean: Almost. This is a guy of so many twists and turns and retreats and swerves and reverses. It reminds me of a line in a Graham Greene novel where he speaks of his protagonist who says: “I prefer to tell the truth. It’s easier to memorize.”
Specter‘s got a lot of memorizing to do . . .
by Smitty (via Forward Focus Media)
Disclaimer: I have no really strong opinion on language. For some, English is a Very Big Deal. Given that what we speak is a collision of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon, plus anything else that sounded good and didn’t move fast enough, I have trouble sorting the language issue very high on the list. In a few hundred years, when English has absorbed significant Spanish, I daresay there shan’t be much fuss.
But it’s a big deal now:
And I appear to be amongst the narrow 4%:
Americans continue to overwhelmingly believe that English should be the official language of the United States and reject by sizable margins the idea that such a move is racist or a violation of free speech.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 87% of Adults favor making English the nation’s official language. This is the highest level of support yet but in line with what voters have been saying for several years. Just nine percent (9%) disagree.
Fine, make it the official language. However, it’s more significant to me that the Federal government remain Federal than calling it a Federal government vice der Bund.
Hopefully Tim James is as successful in Alabama as Bob McDonnell has been here in Virgnia.