I've read this post at Knoxblog, via Instapundit about the prospects of one Bob Corker come 2012.
Now I personally believe it's a bit early to start throwing names out there for consideration, but others have already done so with regards to Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and whoever it is that Ann Coulter anoints this week (Ann has talked up both Duncan Hunter and Jeff Pence, in recent years, if memory serves). She's good at identifying back-benchers no one gives a shit about, but who nevertheless have 'solid, Conservative credentials'. They merely lack a realistic prospect of victory (they can't sway enough independents). Corker may be an attractive candidate to some in a primary sense, but he's a real loser in the greater marketplace of a general election. Not that it would be his fault; that's just the sort of electorate we have. Then again, Corker was another one of those 'conservatives' asleep at the switch during the GWB days.
That having been said, I might as well toss another name out there for consideration:
Newt Gingrich.
I personally believe Newt would have wiped the floor with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, had he taken the initiative. He would have soundly thumped John McCain, sparing us the agony of that campaign. And even if some portions of 'The Base' (hey, doesn't Al'Queda translate as 'The Base'?) find him a bitter pill to swallow, given his martial history. Eschewing conventional wisdom, I am confident in saying that while conservative principles DO often resonate with the electorate (especially one dissatisfied with liberal excess), many of the conservative candidate that come from Central Casting do not.
What Conservatism needs at the moment, and what the country desperately requires, is someone who can stand for conservative principles, certainly. But these principles need to be championed by someone who also knows how the apparatus of government actually works, coupled with the ability to see and react to present conditions with the keen eye of a trained historian, and with the ability to properly prioritize and communicate issues. At present, we don't need someone who will promise to put prayer back in school, defend the Second Amendment to his dying breath...yet, or frogmarch the abortionists to the gas chambers. While these things are certainly important issues, they are secondary considerations taking a back seat to economic issues, matters of national defense and reestablishing a government of the People, by the People, and for the People. The primary mission of the next Republican president will be the undoing of the damage eight years of Bush-Cheney/Frist-Boehner inflicted on Republicans, Conservatives and the country, and then ensuring that the four years of disaster that will be inflicted by Barack Obama is effectively addressed and then repaired.
We also need someone who will know what to do, and then how to get it done within the existing framework of the Constitution.
Discuss...
Friday, September 04, 2009
The People Get the Government They Deserve...
The United States is saddled with perhaps the worst political class it has ever seen in it's entire history. I submit as examples:
This elected moron, this elected idiot, and this elected scumbag.
(H/T to Powerline, NRO and Whizbang, respectively).
Doesn't convince you? Add these names to the list:
Ted Kennedy (Thankfully deceased), Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman,
John Kerry, Kent Conrad , Howard Dean, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Chuckie Schumer, Maxine Waters, Harry Reid, Robert Byrd, and of course, Barack Obama.
You've hardly seen such a collection of out-of-touch, obnoxious, snivelling, privileged, narcissistic, imperious ne'er-do-wells and talentless hacks this side of a Hollywood red carpet.
It's becomes painfully obvious with each passing day that the people we have elected to 'serve' this country haven't got a clue. They obviously don't understand economics. They surely do not read history (or, if they do, they read a particular kind of history which is concerned with distorting the truth so as to deny American Exceptionalism in every way). They certainly are unable to tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. What they do seem to know is how to continue to get themselves elected.
Which is no mean feat when you consider that a quarter of the population consists of nose-picking morons, and another quarter simply exists to extract whatever it can from people with more talent and industry, and therefore, more money than themselves. This is a rather easy lot to manipulate for votes. These political repeat-offenders also hide behind "the laws" which they have passed (and exempted themselves from, when they don't simply ignore them) which regulate political speech, the flow of money into politics, and the rules governing the use of the media which they dressed up as Campaign Finance Reform (three lies, same great, crap-like flavor).
So, don't be surprised that when the country is in dire straits that the people who fucked it up, and benefited from it, are exceedingly reluctant to un-fuck it. Don't be surprised that when the country is reeling from economic crisis, simultaneous wars, and crippling debt, that 'leaders' of this kind take their eyes off the ball (a common charge against GWB) and go off on tangents which are directly related to their own prospects for re-election.
Is it really necessary to 'reform' (nationalize) health care right now? Couldn't 'Cap and Trade' (the Put America out of Business, Permanently Act) wait until we actually know what a Cap is and have something to Trade? Is it really necessary when our men and women are in the field, in a shooting fight with the enemies not just of the United States, but of civilization itself, to go around arguing the merits of releasing terrorists, telegraphing our strategy, and apologizing to the guilty?
No, none of it is necessary. These are all battles that could wait for another day, for a time after the immediate needs and worries of the American people have been addressed. The last administration was accused of being clueless and rudderless, and you could make the case that in some areas this was, sadly, all too true. However, this administration makes the last one look positively grand by comparison. Say what you will about GWB and Dick Cheney, they could at least get things done so long as it didn't involve a Cat 5 hurricane and a Third-World Nation disguised as an American city.
There are few parallels in history with which to contrast the absolute insanity and stupidity which characterizes our current political class and situation. The one that leaps immediately to mind is the collection of confused nonentities which ruled Great Britain and France in the 1930's, prior to the outbreak of War in Europe. A disorganized, grabasstic bunch who operated in confusion and diffusion, unable to make informed moral choices based on principle and logic. This muddle led to Hitler beginning a war that would kill perhaps 50 million, left France utterly defeated, Britain bankrupt, Germany covered in rubble, and the Soviet Union ascendant.
I don't mean to imply that we're headed for a Third World War; it's not as dire as all that. I only point out that the War was in part the result of stupid policies promulgated by stupid men and that the end result was foreseeable. That the men who advanced those stupid policies in 1936-39 were willfully blind to those policies logical outcomes says as much about their obstinacy and idiocy -- and their ideology -- as it does about their prescience and leadership.
We're saddled with just such a bunch. It would be funny if the consequences of such appalling leadership were not so difficult to avoid.
This elected moron, this elected idiot, and this elected scumbag.
(H/T to Powerline, NRO and Whizbang, respectively).
Doesn't convince you? Add these names to the list:
Ted Kennedy (Thankfully deceased), Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman,
John Kerry, Kent Conrad , Howard Dean, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Chuckie Schumer, Maxine Waters, Harry Reid, Robert Byrd, and of course, Barack Obama.
You've hardly seen such a collection of out-of-touch, obnoxious, snivelling, privileged, narcissistic, imperious ne'er-do-wells and talentless hacks this side of a Hollywood red carpet.
It's becomes painfully obvious with each passing day that the people we have elected to 'serve' this country haven't got a clue. They obviously don't understand economics. They surely do not read history (or, if they do, they read a particular kind of history which is concerned with distorting the truth so as to deny American Exceptionalism in every way). They certainly are unable to tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. What they do seem to know is how to continue to get themselves elected.
Which is no mean feat when you consider that a quarter of the population consists of nose-picking morons, and another quarter simply exists to extract whatever it can from people with more talent and industry, and therefore, more money than themselves. This is a rather easy lot to manipulate for votes. These political repeat-offenders also hide behind "the laws" which they have passed (and exempted themselves from, when they don't simply ignore them) which regulate political speech, the flow of money into politics, and the rules governing the use of the media which they dressed up as Campaign Finance Reform (three lies, same great, crap-like flavor).
So, don't be surprised that when the country is in dire straits that the people who fucked it up, and benefited from it, are exceedingly reluctant to un-fuck it. Don't be surprised that when the country is reeling from economic crisis, simultaneous wars, and crippling debt, that 'leaders' of this kind take their eyes off the ball (a common charge against GWB) and go off on tangents which are directly related to their own prospects for re-election.
Is it really necessary to 'reform' (nationalize) health care right now? Couldn't 'Cap and Trade' (the Put America out of Business, Permanently Act) wait until we actually know what a Cap is and have something to Trade? Is it really necessary when our men and women are in the field, in a shooting fight with the enemies not just of the United States, but of civilization itself, to go around arguing the merits of releasing terrorists, telegraphing our strategy, and apologizing to the guilty?
No, none of it is necessary. These are all battles that could wait for another day, for a time after the immediate needs and worries of the American people have been addressed. The last administration was accused of being clueless and rudderless, and you could make the case that in some areas this was, sadly, all too true. However, this administration makes the last one look positively grand by comparison. Say what you will about GWB and Dick Cheney, they could at least get things done so long as it didn't involve a Cat 5 hurricane and a Third-World Nation disguised as an American city.
There are few parallels in history with which to contrast the absolute insanity and stupidity which characterizes our current political class and situation. The one that leaps immediately to mind is the collection of confused nonentities which ruled Great Britain and France in the 1930's, prior to the outbreak of War in Europe. A disorganized, grabasstic bunch who operated in confusion and diffusion, unable to make informed moral choices based on principle and logic. This muddle led to Hitler beginning a war that would kill perhaps 50 million, left France utterly defeated, Britain bankrupt, Germany covered in rubble, and the Soviet Union ascendant.
I don't mean to imply that we're headed for a Third World War; it's not as dire as all that. I only point out that the War was in part the result of stupid policies promulgated by stupid men and that the end result was foreseeable. That the men who advanced those stupid policies in 1936-39 were willfully blind to those policies logical outcomes says as much about their obstinacy and idiocy -- and their ideology -- as it does about their prescience and leadership.
We're saddled with just such a bunch. It would be funny if the consequences of such appalling leadership were not so difficult to avoid.
Some People are Just THAT Stupid...
Via the Closet Conservative. Israeli 'artists' defile the Virgin Mary.
Frankly, as a (nominal) Christian, I'm not particularly offended on the grounds that anyone who could produce such 'art' is probably too stupid to breathe without government assistance, and further, on the premise that what passes for 'art' nowadays has nothing to do with expression and everything to do with marketing and shameless self-promotion. Since the 'artistes' themselves seem very stupid and shallow people who (to judge by the article) are only very dimly aware of what they do, they can be forgiven the sin of being pinheads.
What *does* offend me, however, is the all-too-obvious implication that Christians are on the same moral level as Muslims.
I'm not implying that Christianity has pristine hands with regards to it's violence and intolerance. However, in today's upside-down world where the ability to shock and offend is somehow equated with 'courage' you couldn't ask for a much safer target; I can promise you there won't be any Christian clerics issuing fatwas and death threats, or inspiring morons with TNT boxer shorts and a death wish to show up on your doorstep.
It's not art, it's not intelligent, and unfortunately, both artists will be internationally acclaimed for it. But then again, the people who will give them such high praise hardly matter, being nonentities possessed of less substance than a hole in the air, i.e. Leftists.
Frankly, as a (nominal) Christian, I'm not particularly offended on the grounds that anyone who could produce such 'art' is probably too stupid to breathe without government assistance, and further, on the premise that what passes for 'art' nowadays has nothing to do with expression and everything to do with marketing and shameless self-promotion. Since the 'artistes' themselves seem very stupid and shallow people who (to judge by the article) are only very dimly aware of what they do, they can be forgiven the sin of being pinheads.
What *does* offend me, however, is the all-too-obvious implication that Christians are on the same moral level as Muslims.
I'm not implying that Christianity has pristine hands with regards to it's violence and intolerance. However, in today's upside-down world where the ability to shock and offend is somehow equated with 'courage' you couldn't ask for a much safer target; I can promise you there won't be any Christian clerics issuing fatwas and death threats, or inspiring morons with TNT boxer shorts and a death wish to show up on your doorstep.
It's not art, it's not intelligent, and unfortunately, both artists will be internationally acclaimed for it. But then again, the people who will give them such high praise hardly matter, being nonentities possessed of less substance than a hole in the air, i.e. Leftists.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Waaahnity...
I'm coining a new term today: Waaahnity.
Waaahnity is the quality of being vain and petulant in the pursuit of a personal goal, often appearing ridiculous in the process, while still insisting that others should take you seriously.
Someone suffering from Waaahnity simply demands whatever it is they want, regardless of whether or not it makes sense, and throws a public tantrum until they either get it, or they find something else to cry about (suffers tend to have short attention spans and are easily distracted by shiny stuff). The point of the whole exercise is at this very moment, whatever if is the Waaahnity-sufferer wants must be granted, immediately, or there shall never be any peace. The Waaahnity victim will proceed to annoy you forever; belittling you and you beliefs, obstructing your own desires, annoying you in every possible way they can think of, corrupting our institutions along the way. If they can't be happy, why should anyone else be?
I would say that the Waaahnity principle is perhaps the cornerstone of all leftist political theory. According to George Orwell, all leftists suffer from a virulent strain of narcissism which is the launching point for all the gobbledygook we refer to as "ideology". They consider themselves to be the most (choose one or more):
Clever
Wise
Beautiful
Concerned
Informed
Well-read
Talented
Artistic
Special
Intelligent
Charismatic
people on the planet (usually without any evidence of such), who then wind up bitterly disappointed that no one else has noticed their superior qualities. As a result, they set out to gain some measure of revenge against the society which first failed to notice their superiority, and then appeared to have absolutely no use for them.
So they become communists. Or gay. Usually both. That's Waaahnity in action.
So, President Obama describing his political opponents as unabashed racists, God-and-gun-clinging losers and selfish ,un-American reactionaries who are standing in the way of true progress and social justice, while being unable to point to any proof of his accusations, or give clarity to any of his policy positions, suffers from Waaahnity
The deciding factor is that The Won cannot do what he wants to do because average American citizens have decided they've had just enough profligate spending an government control of anything, thank you. And when they stand up to assert their rights, they're assailed with epithets like "fake", "Nazi", "astroturf", "thug" by the Waaahnity Brigade of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
There is but one cure for Waaahnity, and that is good men and woman deciding that they've had enough. Waaahnity very quickly dissipates in the face of simple principled resolve.
Waaahnity is the quality of being vain and petulant in the pursuit of a personal goal, often appearing ridiculous in the process, while still insisting that others should take you seriously.
Someone suffering from Waaahnity simply demands whatever it is they want, regardless of whether or not it makes sense, and throws a public tantrum until they either get it, or they find something else to cry about (suffers tend to have short attention spans and are easily distracted by shiny stuff). The point of the whole exercise is at this very moment, whatever if is the Waaahnity-sufferer wants must be granted, immediately, or there shall never be any peace. The Waaahnity victim will proceed to annoy you forever; belittling you and you beliefs, obstructing your own desires, annoying you in every possible way they can think of, corrupting our institutions along the way. If they can't be happy, why should anyone else be?
I would say that the Waaahnity principle is perhaps the cornerstone of all leftist political theory. According to George Orwell, all leftists suffer from a virulent strain of narcissism which is the launching point for all the gobbledygook we refer to as "ideology". They consider themselves to be the most (choose one or more):
Clever
Wise
Beautiful
Concerned
Informed
Well-read
Talented
Artistic
Special
Intelligent
Charismatic
people on the planet (usually without any evidence of such), who then wind up bitterly disappointed that no one else has noticed their superior qualities. As a result, they set out to gain some measure of revenge against the society which first failed to notice their superiority, and then appeared to have absolutely no use for them.
So they become communists. Or gay. Usually both. That's Waaahnity in action.
So, President Obama describing his political opponents as unabashed racists, God-and-gun-clinging losers and selfish ,un-American reactionaries who are standing in the way of true progress and social justice, while being unable to point to any proof of his accusations, or give clarity to any of his policy positions, suffers from Waaahnity
The deciding factor is that The Won cannot do what he wants to do because average American citizens have decided they've had just enough profligate spending an government control of anything, thank you. And when they stand up to assert their rights, they're assailed with epithets like "fake", "Nazi", "astroturf", "thug" by the Waaahnity Brigade of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
There is but one cure for Waaahnity, and that is good men and woman deciding that they've had enough. Waaahnity very quickly dissipates in the face of simple principled resolve.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Ted Kennedy Dead: Hell Prepares for New Management.
I'm not actually happy that Senator Kennedy is dead. It does not give me any glee to know that someone has died, even if I did hate his fucking guts. I celebrated the announcement of the Senator's death for about thirty-five seconds until I realized that Barack Obama will now wave Teddy's bloody shirt much in the way that Jesse Jacka$$ waved MLK's; in a shameless attempt to guilt America into accepting his SS-approved "healthcare" "plan".
I'll admit, I'm not a fan of the Kennedys. Never have been, never will be. It's my considered opinion that JFK was a sham who didn't give a shit about Civil Rights, except that it was an issue that could be mined for votes. I count his accomplishments as bagging Jackie O, getting Daddy to buy him an election, shtupping Marilyn, and getting his head blown off. Between those highlights, the record is grim; Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, getting bullied by Kruschev in Paris, just to reel off the prime cuts.
As for Bobby, he was John Edwards before there was John Edwards. His greatest accomplishment; getting his brother's sloppy seconds and riding his brother's coattails. He was a nasty little snot who hid it well.
Don't get me started on the Father, who was a bootlegger with mafia connections, who wanted to appease the Nazis and get the British to surrender to Hitler, and then used the odiously-obtained family fortune to corrupt the American political system for the benefit of his family.
As for the rest of the clan, it seems to me that the only real talent any of them has ever displayed is the ability to kill themselves in the most spectacular and simultaneously ridiculous ways. How many people can say they had a relative who died while playing football on skis? How many of you have a brother-in-law who flew himself, your sister and an innocent bystander right into the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of night while displaying that famous Kennedy "risk-taking" persona? That Kennedy trait is simply spun by the media as the alpha-male buried inside every Kennedy man that occasionally gets the best of them. The truth is more like they manage to kill themselves in such sporting fashion because intelligence is apparently not a trait Kennedys were bred for. Those incidents, where a Kennedy man is dead through his own painfully-stupid action and lack of foresight, is eerily reminiscent of my days in the South; you knew someone was about to get hurt as soon as your heard someone shout "Hey ,Y'all! Check this out..."
There really is no difference between Hyannisport and HeeHaw, is there?
I shan't forget the Kennedy criminals (either blood relatives or related by marriage), accused rapists, convicted murderers, baby-sitter-molesters and so forth. And the Useless Mouth Branch of the family which trades on the family name shamelessly for no one's benefit but their own. That means you Kathleen Kennedy-Townshend, Patrick, and Joseph P. You're all about as useful as a condom in a convent.
Now the so-called "Lion of the Senate", the former alcoholic, accused-murderer, alleged accessory-after-the-fact-to-a-rape, the profligate taxpayer dollar waster, the faux-liberal, the false Catholic, the alleged wife-abusing fat sack of Senatorial windbag shit is gone.
I shan't muster a single tear, and I didn't watch a single minute of that over-the-top funeral coverage. A pompous asshole died; not anyone important.
I'll admit, I'm not a fan of the Kennedys. Never have been, never will be. It's my considered opinion that JFK was a sham who didn't give a shit about Civil Rights, except that it was an issue that could be mined for votes. I count his accomplishments as bagging Jackie O, getting Daddy to buy him an election, shtupping Marilyn, and getting his head blown off. Between those highlights, the record is grim; Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, getting bullied by Kruschev in Paris, just to reel off the prime cuts.
As for Bobby, he was John Edwards before there was John Edwards. His greatest accomplishment; getting his brother's sloppy seconds and riding his brother's coattails. He was a nasty little snot who hid it well.
Don't get me started on the Father, who was a bootlegger with mafia connections, who wanted to appease the Nazis and get the British to surrender to Hitler, and then used the odiously-obtained family fortune to corrupt the American political system for the benefit of his family.
As for the rest of the clan, it seems to me that the only real talent any of them has ever displayed is the ability to kill themselves in the most spectacular and simultaneously ridiculous ways. How many people can say they had a relative who died while playing football on skis? How many of you have a brother-in-law who flew himself, your sister and an innocent bystander right into the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of night while displaying that famous Kennedy "risk-taking" persona? That Kennedy trait is simply spun by the media as the alpha-male buried inside every Kennedy man that occasionally gets the best of them. The truth is more like they manage to kill themselves in such sporting fashion because intelligence is apparently not a trait Kennedys were bred for. Those incidents, where a Kennedy man is dead through his own painfully-stupid action and lack of foresight, is eerily reminiscent of my days in the South; you knew someone was about to get hurt as soon as your heard someone shout "Hey ,Y'all! Check this out..."
There really is no difference between Hyannisport and HeeHaw, is there?
I shan't forget the Kennedy criminals (either blood relatives or related by marriage), accused rapists, convicted murderers, baby-sitter-molesters and so forth. And the Useless Mouth Branch of the family which trades on the family name shamelessly for no one's benefit but their own. That means you Kathleen Kennedy-Townshend, Patrick, and Joseph P. You're all about as useful as a condom in a convent.
Now the so-called "Lion of the Senate", the former alcoholic, accused-murderer, alleged accessory-after-the-fact-to-a-rape, the profligate taxpayer dollar waster, the faux-liberal, the false Catholic, the alleged wife-abusing fat sack of Senatorial windbag shit is gone.
I shan't muster a single tear, and I didn't watch a single minute of that over-the-top funeral coverage. A pompous asshole died; not anyone important.
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