Comic Juxtaposition

Two of today's comics fit together quite nicely for some politically tinged comedy:

Obama Calls For Israel to Return to 1967 Borders

Why stop at 1967AD?  I say let Israel go back to their 968BC borders:

Whatchu Talkin' About?

Critics rip Gov. Deval Patrick’s PAC mentality

Deval Patrick’s new jet-hopping role in President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign sets him up for renewed attacks on a wayfaring governor too busy racking up frequent flier miles on overseas junkets, his own book tour and now stumping for the White House to keep his pledge to fix the state economy.

"Whatchu talkin' about?!"

Contradictions

"Romney" and "Tea Party" in the same sentence is an oxymoron, unless there's a "not" in there somewhere.

Food "Safety" Bill Passed by Lame Duck Perfidy

Arrgghhh."In Sunday-evening surprise, Senate passes food safety legislation":

The Senate unexpectedly approved food safety legislation by voice vote Sunday evening, rescuing a bill that floated in limbo for weeks because of a clerical error.

Attempts like this are to be expected by lame duck legislators, a concept that in this day and age can and needs to be done away with. The House and Senate should be permanently closed before election day and the new House and Senate then seated within a week or two of the election.

Herein lies the perfidy:

Democrats first attempted to attach the food safety bill to the two-and-a-half-month spending measure but Republicans balked because they wanted to keep that measure clean, according to Senate aides.

Republicans, however, later agreed to pass it by voice vote

Why bother separating the two bills if you're going to approve both of them? I've yet to find an explanation for this separation. It make no sense to me, unless they are anticipating a second vote whereby they can vote against one or the other bill, yet my understanding is that the food bill goes to the President if (when) the House passes it.

By this the current Senate Republicans have promulgated further intrusion of government regulation into private affairs thus showing themselves to be no different than Democrats in this regard. A pox on their house.

Food "Safety" Bill Likely DOA

From Hot Air and Roll Call:

By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides
...
Now what? The House will either block the bill entirely or pass its own version of it. The latter option will mean that Reid will have to hold a vote to reopen debate on the bill, and will need unanimous consent to limit that debate...Reid can forget about unanimous consent.

A bad bill likely dead? Good!
As a result of Democrat infighting? Better!
May lock up a lame duck Democrat Congress for the rest of the session? Best!

Too Funny to Pass Up

'Cause you know I'm just a thoroughly un-PC  kinda guy (from Curmudgeonly & Skeptical):

Preach It Brother!

Another home run, a three-run dinger no less, from Orson Scott Card; Obama Spits on the Constitution. Here's the Cliff Notes version:

What do you do if you're President and you want to nominate an extreme leftist to be in charge of American banking and consumer lending?

...

Here's what you do, if you're Barack Obama. You appoint her to a much lower-level position, an advisory one that doesn't require Senate confirmation. But then you instruct the Secretary of the Treasury not to interfere with any of her decisions and make sure they're carried out.

...

If the Republican Party had any spunk, they would respond to this outrage by introducing a resolution of impeachment in the House of Representatives.

...

This is what dictatorship looks like, boys and girls. And Obama has been doing it all along. What do you think his "czars" are?

...
Read and heed.

Shoe Speaks Truth

Shoe is not normally a very edgy political cartoon. The one this morning is:

Saddle Up Cowboys

    

My Conservative Identity:

You are an Anti-government Gunslinger, also known as a libertarian conservative or Tea Partier. You believe in smaller government, states’ rights, gun rights, and that, as Reagan once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’"

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

NAACP Relevance

From Day by Day:

"Stupid Party" At It Again

RNC fires ‘bondage-gate’ staffer as critics circle Michael Steele

IMNSHO the Republican Party has been handed the November elections on a silver platter by Obama and Pelosi forcing their so-called "health care reform" down the electorate's throat.  It's theirs to lose.  Sadly, stuff like this is exactly what could lose it for us.  The national level party needs to clean up their act, buy a clue, plug into the conservative grassroots and get moving for this election season.

Step one should be to replace Mr. Steele, who seems to keep trying to out-Obama Obama when comes to cluefulness and integrity.  We need a party chair with a wide appeal including the party base, who understands what is happening outside the Beltway, and can connect to and motivate the people on the ground.

Sarah Palin has some of these qualities, but she's not connected well enough to the national party to effectively direct the party apparatus.  I think she's better as an outside agent for change who could then work with a inside reformer and strategist.

I'm not sure who a good replacement would be, but someone like a Thaddeus McCotter would fir the bill.  I would not want to lose his voice in the House, but he has a vision, knows what needs to be done, and is energetic and engaging.

The Tea Party movement is good for energizing the conservative grassroots, but I don't see them becoming a real political party.  The Tea Party energy needs to find a coherent outlet into the political arena.  If the Republican Party does not get it's act together and provide such an outlet then conservatives will continue to be fractured between the themselves, Libertarians, Constitutionalists and others.  The result will be more of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid.  Shape up, or ship out.

Obamopoly

Received from a friend:

The object of the game is to destroy American capitalism....
by having the government take over everything!

Health Care Reform - The Real Bill

The Real Arithmetic of Health Care Reform

The answer, unfortunately, is that the budget office is required to take written legislation at face value and not second-guess the plausibility of what it is handed. So fantasy in, fantasy out.

The bottom line is that the CBO "estimate" that the deficit will be reduced by $138 billion is wrong.  In reality this "reform" adds $562 billion to the deficit in the first 10 years.  Read the article for the full explanation, then weep, then get mad.

TTBO

Health Care "Reform" Accountability

People should be informed about who really voted how in yesterday's abomination.  By my review of the tallies for the seven votes taken yesterday on health care reform yesterday (available here) only 10 Democrats consistently voted against this government health care system take-over and eventually bankrupting.  There were: Altmire, Barrow, Boren, Bright, Childers, Holden, McIntyre, Melancon, Ross, and Shuler. There were others that voted for some parts, or abstained for parts, or voted against the Republican attempt to table the bill, but these 10 were the only Democrats with any convictions and intelligence in this matter. If any other Democrat congresscritter claims to have been against this health care take-over they are lying.  Be forewarned.

Even worse were the two Republicans, Marchant and Rogers (AL),  who waffled on this issue.  They abstained on the very first vote to change the rules so this could even take place. Only when they saw that it was going to pass without them did they start voting against it. These two traitors need to be voted out with the rest of the weasels as soon as possible.

The Neophyte

I just watched the first 2 minutes of President Obama's recent Fox News interview; frankly that's all I could stand of it.  Interesting though was his statement from 1:23 to 1:45.  In that stretch he invalidated his own party's attempt at obfuscation via the "Slaughter rule" by saying a vote for or against the bill, regardless of the procedural means by which it happens, is a vote for or against his health care reform. 

This was a rookie move in at least two ways,  First, he is so fixated on getting this particular bill passed that he has become completely oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of Americans do not want this health care reform bill.  He is driving his presidency onto the rocks for this and hopefully he'll be a one-term President as a result.

Secondly, he is taking Democrat control of the House, and probably the Senate too, down with him.  By declaring this vote a vote for or against his health care plan he has taken away a "get out of jail free" card from the Democrat reps who are up for re-election who support his bill.  Those that vote for it, regardless of the procedural maneuvers by which it comes to a vote, can no longer insulate themselves from the voters' anger by claiming they didn't really vote for the bill.  All their opponents have to do is trot out that clip and hoist them on the petards of their own President.

The dude is a clueless neophyte. 

Obamafeld

Another funny video:

"Most Ethical Administration"?

White House Accused of Federal Crime in Specter, Bennet Races

For the second time in five months, the Obama White House is being accused -- by Democrats -- of offering high ranking government jobs in return for political favors. What no one is reporting is that this is a violation of federal law that can lead to prison time, a fine or both, according to Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code.
The jobs in question? Secretary of the Navy and a position within the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The favor requested in return? Withdrawal from Senate challenges to two sitting United States Senators, both Democrats supported by President Obama. The Senators are Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet in Colorado.

Here's my shocked face:

Speaking the Truth to Power

 From "New England Republican":

The Sharon Statement

I had not heard of The Sharon Statement before I saw a post about it on The World Magazine Blog.  It's almost 50 years old, but there is much to commend it to the conservative movement of today.  Here it is in it's entirety.  If you claim to be a conservative, young or old, please read, and heed:

IN THIS TIME of moral and political crises, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths.

WE, as young conservatives believe:

THAT foremost among the transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force;

THAT liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom;

THAT the purpose of government is to protect those freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice;

THAT when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power, which tends to diminish order and liberty;

THAT the Constitution of the United States is the best arrangement yet devised for empowering government to fulfill its proper role, while restraining it from the concentration and abuse of power;

THAT the genius of the Constitution - the division of powers - is summed up in the clause that reserves primacy to the several states, or to the people in those spheres not specifically delegated to the Federal government;

THAT the market economy, allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand, is the single economic system compatible with the requirements of personal freedom and constitutional government, and that it is at the same time the most productive supplier of human needs;

THAT when government interferes with the work of the market economy, it tends to reduce the moral and physical strength of the nation, that when it takes from one to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both;

THAT we will be free only so long as the national sovereignty of the United States is secure; that history shows periods of freedom are rare, and can exist only when free citizens concertedly defend their rights against all enemies…

THAT the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties;

THAT the United States should stress victory over, rather than coexistence with this menace; and

THAT American foreign policy must be judged by this criterion: does it serve the just interests of the United States?