Different Goals

One of the mistakes Americans continually make when it comes to foreign policy is the assumption that everyone in the world has the same aspirations and goals as we do. Republicans make this mistake just as readily as Democrats. We seem to never grasp that our nation is unique. Our goals are not necessarily those of our allies, let alone our enemies.

This essay by Bruce Thornton gets to the heart of the problem very well.

h/t, Maggie's Farm

Washington DC Area Tops In Income

When the leeches grow to be bigger than the host organism.

Uh Oh, One Of Them Finally Gets It

Stanley Fish:

"The Greek mythological figure Antaeus won victory after victory because his opponents repeatedly threw him to the ground, not realizing that it was the earth (in the figure of his mother, Gaia) that nourished him and gave him renewed strength. The Tea Party’s strength comes from the down-to-earth rhetoric it responds to and proclaims, and whenever high-brow critics heap the dirt of scorn and derision upon the party, its powers increase."

Read it all here.

Don't Throw Darts

"It has been our purpose all along to have a sort of a periodical potpourri to cover all of this flotsam and jetsam that flies through the media that can get nailed down on a regular, periodic track. So in a sense, that can be interpreted as open sesame, but don't throw darts."
-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington (1922-1987)

We lived in Chicagoland during the Harold Washington era 1983-87. As a spectator sport (from a safe distance) there is nothing more entertaining than Chicago politics. Harold held off a primary challenge from former Mayor Jane Byrne but died in office just into his second term. There are buildings named after Washington in Chicago. That can be interpreted as "open sesame, but don't throw darts."

Steve's Got Your 1st Amendment Right Here

While the dinosaur media was propelling Rev. Terry Jones into worldwide infamy everyone, no matter what their position was on what he proposed to do, said that he certainly had the "right" under the 1st amendment to burn a Koran.

Well, Supreme Court of the United States Justice Breyer says, not so fast. Breyer thinks that in the Internet age an act like that is the equivalent of yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater.

Breyer was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994. Elections have consequences.

Belly Floppers

The first week of the NFL season ended last night and something very interesting has happened.
Four of the teams that figured prominently in pre-season Super Bowl prognostications have lost.

Looky here:
San Diego dropped by KC 21-14
Dallas flopped at Washington 13-7
Indianapolis got clobbered by Houston 34-24
The J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets l-o-s-t to Baltimore 10-9

Throw in a dark horse like SF getting their clock cleaned by the PeteHawks 31-6 and it was a bad opening week for a bunch of supposedly strong teams.

Of course two of the squads above can take some consolation in the strength of their opponents. The Texans might be very good this year, so Indy might be better than they looked Sunday. Baltimore is almost certainly a force in their conference so the Jets might not be too bad. But the Chargers can't point to a Kansas City squad and claim they're a contender. And the Cowboys failed to beat the team that will almost certainly be the doormat of their division. Key injuries on the O-line? So what. You still have to win.

"It's a long season" is a cliche because it's true. It also is something that an under performing team can't use later than, say, week 1.
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Around here though we're concentrating on the Gamecocks being ranked 13th in the nation with the freshman sensation of the SEC, Marcus Lattimore toting the 'skin. And we're pleased that Clemson has started out 2-0. It's good to have football back.

Why?

Every day, all across America, people of faith do great things in their communities. They do these works because they love their God, family, community, church, and nation. Seldom, if ever, do these activities get attention from the local media, let alone from the national press.



Lately an unknown preacher in Gainesville, Florida, with a congregation numbering fewer than 50 souls, has captured the attention of the world press. Not just attention-- he's become the headline story.



Why?



The answer has nothing to do with the preacher and everything to do with the aims and goals of the legacy media. If you've followed their lead you've fallen for their game.

Still Rockin'

Two years ago Elizabeth Dole found herself in a tough battle as she tried to hold onto her seat in the US Senate. A cipher named Kay Hagen was polling well and Liddy was in trouble of being swept under in the Obama tide. Chuckie Schumer and the DSCC threw some money into the race for an attack ad against Dole-- what was known as the rockin' geezers at Wally's fillin' station ad. Take a look here.

Well, these are different days. The same two boys are in a new ad for Republican Senator Richard Burr, and it's a winner.

"Boy we sure got it wrong last time!"

"Some hope and change!"

And, thankfully, they are on their front porch and not down at a place that exists only in a Washington DC/ New Yorker's stereotype of the South.

Now that Andy Griffith has seen his favorability numbers in NC drop by 25 points thanks to his touting the Bev Perdue for Governor campaign and then Obamacare, these two old boys are now the go-to source for elderly wisdom in the Old North State.

I appreciate it!

Bury The Dead. Shoot the Wounded.

How bad is it for the D team in November?


According to Michael Barone, very bad indeed.


Looks like A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall...

Meet Thug Trumka

At the Big Bad Union rally the President attended Monday he shared the stage with a rotund blowhard with a rat on his head.

Whoa! Who is this fresh new thug on the scene? Well, as it turns out, he's A Real Thug. Read up on him here.

Excerpt:

The mainstream press gave these remarks, along with those of the president, prime coverage. What they downplayed was that Trumka, now 61, during his years as United Mine Workers president and then as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, became a rising star in the organized labor firmament by enabling union violence and corruption. In other words, his tacit and at times open encouragement of intimidation and deception as union empowerment tactics may have helped him win his current job.

Consider a multi-state coal miners strike organized by the UMW back in 1993. As union president, Trumka ordered more than 17,000 workers to walk off their jobs. He was determined, among other things, to ensure that nobody would find work in a mine without paying dues or agency fees to the union. He explicitly told strikers to "kick the shit out of" employees and mine operators resisting union demands. UMW enforcers obliged him. They vandalized homes, fires shots at a mine office, and cut power to another mine, temporarily trapping 93 miners underground. Worse yet, a union goon on July 22, 1993 murdered heavy equipment operator Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, shooting him in the back of the head in his pickup truck as he drove past strikers at a Logan County, West Virginia work site; a bunch of goons then proceeded to pelt York's would-be rescuers with rocks. Rather than apologize, Trumka offered the following rationalization: "I'm saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger." In other words, Eddie York had it coming. His widow, Wanda York, saw things differently. She sued the union for $27 million, naming Trumka and other union officials as co-defendants. After a long battle, UMW lawyers quickly decided to settle out of court in June 1997 once federal prosecutors announced they would release evidence from the trial of Jerry Dale Lowe, convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges related to York's murder by a federal jury three years earlier.

President Pee Wee sure can pick 'em.

Awwww...Poor Baby

Overheard at yesterday's Labor Day Big Union pity party:

"... they talk about me like a dog... that's not in my prepared remarks ... but it's true."
-Pres. Obama

Most Americans love their dogs, by the way. So he might want to update that hackneyed phrase. Of course we understand that he's the first American President to be criticized, the poor dear. It's even worse, however, because nobody ever made a nasty remark about his predecessor in his eight years.



Pictured: Chimpy W. Bushitler

There's a lot of discussion about the president's $50 Billion borrow/ tax/ spend proposal. Supposedly another $200 Billion proposal is coming today or tomorrow. It isn't worth the energy to talk about. Spending bills have to begin in the House and San Fran Nan Pelosi can't possibly get enough Democrats to walk the plank for more Obama spending schemes just before the election.

Will they act as a lame duck session in November/ December to pass such junk? Possibly, but doubtful.

Great News!

As she heads off to UC Berkeley, Christina Romer tells us that the Trillion Dollar spending spree called "stimulus" kept us out of a second Great Depression.

Thank goodness! That was a really close call. I mean, things might have gotten really bad for the economy if you, Larry Summers, and the other big brains in the White House hadn't convinced President Pee Wee to push that brave bill.

A grateful nation salutes you, Ms. Romer.

L-R) President Obama, Ms. Romer, the torch they're using to set fire to our tax money, and the horse he road in on.

Facts. Stubborn Things.

Reports this morning inform us that the POTUS read from his Prompter in the newly redecorated oval office last night. Apparently he made it sound as if the miserable economy he presides over was somehow caused by Operation Iraqi Freedom. That's pretty rich stuff.

By the way, the Porkulus Bill he signed into law in the first months of his term cost more than all of the years of OIF.