Democrats and Sex

Power Line: What goes around. . .

I suspect that very few liberals and Democrats actually have any fixed opinions on sexual morality. On one hand they want to go out of their way to criminalize at least heterosexual interactions in the work area, on the other hand, when one of their own (Clinton for example) is accused, they see that as "unimportant".

Here is my "guess" at what they may generally believe:

• Whatever a Democrat does sexually is just fine. If they "get caught", the media and other Democrats ought to ignore it as much as possible for as long as possible.
  
• Anything even related to sex for a Republican (as in Limbaugh/Viagra) ought to be "outed" in whatever form possible as early as possible with an indication of "hypocrisy". Since Republicans claim to have moral standards on issues like trust, truth, honesty, etc, ANY evidence that they are "less than perfect" is completely fair game. (BTW, they need not even be "elected" ... Bill Bennett was a juicy target on his gambling even though he was no longer holding any public office).
  
• Sexual harassment is a weapon to be used on Republicans (Clarence Thomas, Bob Packwood, etc), but "forgiven" in Democrats (Bill Clinton).
  
• Same sex activity is another anti-Republican weapon -- Foley / Craig lately, course it is fine for Democrats, Frank / Gary Studds. One of the KEYS to being a liberal is that INconsistency is a VIRTUE!

Iraq Budget Surplus?

Why do we have such a hard time hearing good news from Baghdad? - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

I'm starting to think that Slate has folks that realize that even if one has a liberal bent, being reality based can be a good thing. The link to the NYT story is amazing, one would think that it was BAD news that Iraq has a budget surplus, they are selling oil, and their gravediggers are unemployed! Well, I suppose if less than a year ago you were reporting with confidence that the surge was a failure, Iraq was in civil war, and the situation was militarily hopeless, and it REALLY was more important for you to be "right" than for millions of people to be saved from murder and the US to be spared a terrorist base worse than Afghanistan ever was, then I guess it would be "bad news".

I especially liked this paragraph:

It is in no spirit of revenge that I remind you that, as little as a
year ago, the whole of smart liberal opinion believed that the
dissolution of Baathism and militarism had been a mistake, that Iraq
itself was a bottomless pit of wasted dollars and pointless casualties,
and that the only option was to withdraw as fast as possible and let
the inevitable civil war burn itself out. To the left of that liberal
consensus, people of the caliber and quality of Michael Moore were describing
the nihilist "insurgents" as the moral equivalent of the Minutemen, and
to the right of the same consensus, people like Pat Buchanan were
hinting that we had been cheated into the whole enterprise by a certain
minority whose collective name began with the letter J.

Don't expect most liberals to do any navel gazing about how they might have been wrong and what it might say about them to feel bad as lives are saved and US safety is obviously improved. There is NOTHING more important to a liberal than believing that they are intellectually superior, so it just isn't going to happen.

Last Word On Edwards

Power Line: My last word on the Edwards affair

I like the way the Power Line guys closed this one out, and I hope the rest of the conservative bloggers and media do the same. Edwards has come out and admitted his affair and admitted the damage that he did. He DID NOT break any laws, he has been brought low by human frailty, he admitted it, NOW it is time to move on.

Contrast that with Clinton, he LIED UNDER OATH in a sexual harrassment case!!! He NEVER admitted he lied under oath, because that was clearly perjury and one would assume that he would HAVE to be removed from office. The fact that he was not removed from office shows that the US is biased for the left and against the right ... or more precisely that the people on the right enforce their values even when the enforcement has to happen on one of their own, where the left does not.

Contrast that with Teddy Kennedy who has NEVER come clean on what really happened at Chappaquiddick. Again, the people of Massachusets have failed to remove a stain from the US Senate for reasons that are very hard to fathom and make one strongly question the ability of our system to operate with justice.

There is no need at all to behave like liberals and kick a man when he is down and I applaud Power Line!

Heil Obama?

Power Line: The Big O

Some of you still think that facism can't happen in the US??

More BO Street Cred

Power Line: Astounding Things, Indeed!

BO here declares how good a friend he is of the great Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. Good buddy Kwame is in jail today after violating his extremely generous bond restrictions and assaulting a sheriff's deputy. Naturally, the mayor of a major US city being in jail isn't getting a lot of coverage in the MSM - oh, not that one really needs to mention it, given his name and DETROIT, but he is a DEMOCRAT. I know the MSM isn't biased, so I'm certain that if a Republican mayor was in jail, they would treat it EXACTLY the same!

Uh Who Did He Theaten?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - New Details: Man held for alleged Obama assassination threat « - Blogs from CNN.com


So the reason that they arrested him is because he said ""if he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself." ... but wouldn't BO have to be elected first for that to be a real threat?

On the other hand:

A classmate said that, one day after class, she also heard Geisel say
"that he hated George W. Bush and that he wanted to put a bullet in the
president's head."

Now, I know the MSM hates Bush a lot and feels that BO is as good as elected, but why is it that the headline says "Obama assassination threat" when the guy directly threatened the current president? Is that what one would call "factual reporting"?

Video Messiah

Ann On John Edwards Media Disappearance

The MSM always is long on excuses for why they have to cover any little rumor or innuendo about a Republican, there usual claim is "hypocrisy". They are very right on that, many liberals never claimed to have any morals on anything, so no matter WHAT they do (except maybe pray or accidently tell the truth at times) you can't really say they are hypocrites!

BUT, it sure looks like Edwards went out on a limb on faithfulness to his wife here ... it seems that if it is "hypocrisy" that they REALLY have to cover, rather than just the actual "he had an R next to his name", they would HAVE to cover Edwards. This is John coming back to a question from Katie Couric on if voters ought to care if a presidential candidate is faithful to his spouse:

"Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans -- including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it's fundamental to how you judge people and human character -- whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that you love your spouse, and you'll stay with them. ... I think the most important qualities in a president in today's world are trustworthiness -- sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And -- and certainly that goes to a part of that."

So there you have it. Since Edwards is a liberal, he subscribes to the "perfectibility of man", and there we see the flower of that philosophy. When man decides "what is moral", then each man is usurps the role of God and we have millions of little gods in a headlong rush to see who can be the 'biggest", while in truth, they are really fighting to dig to the deepest depths possible-they just don't realize it.

The Goracle Goes to Sea

Pajamas Media » Gore Hits the Waves with a Massive New Houseboat

If it was possible for leftys to be hypocrites, the Goracle would be hard to beat. We have covered his mammoth polluting home and his constant use of private jets, but isn't a 100' houseboat with a jet ski on the back just REALLY thumbing his nose at the complete rubes that believe his global warming bull?

Unless the guy is just plain stark raving howl at the moon looney, if he ACTUALLY beleived in all this planetary crisis crap, it seems IMPOSSIBLE that he would enjoy riding around is this monster!! I mean **I WOULD**, but I'm not writing books and making movies claiming that our planet is on it's last legs and we all ought to be living in the dark without heat or air conditioning (well, I guess just air ... it will be too hot to need heat if we believe Al)

Come on, isn't the jig up for this guy SOMETIME??? Isn't it obvious that he is just riding the "green gravy train" for all it is worth??? What is the difference between this and Tammy and Jim Baker of PTL fame rolling in the donations and then putting up the $10K dog house? Not a lot that I can see.

Time Fails to Cover BO

Power Line: Time Tries to Salvage Obama's Gaffe

I expected the PL guys would be back to refute Time's lame attempt to "pump up" their pressure and mathematics "differently abled" candidate. They didn't disappoint.

The core reason that Time's defense fails HUGELY is that neither they or BO consider the 1 TRILLION known US reserves in oil shale. It takes $80 oil to make that worthwhile, but in case Time and BO failed to notice, $120 is greater than $80.

I'm SURE that his royal highness BO, he with the total lack of ego will be MORE than willing to simply say "I was wrong", unlike that evil Bush. I'm just waiting for that, and it isn't like he hasn't had opportunity!

Here are a few that he could get started on. It will probably takes us 6 months into a BO administration to get the "Scent of BO Calendar" going, but it could be a good one!

• I was wrong about the 10K dead in a small town in Kansas! (real number 12)
• I was wrong about 57 states with 2 to go ( real number of states 50 ... God only knows how many BO had really been to)
• I was wrong about Iran being "just a tiny country". (70 million people, 500K army, active nuke program, sits on major oil reserves ... and a whole lot more)
• I was wrong about the Surge (said it would make Iraq situation worse, it did the opposite big time)
• I was wrong about tire pressure saving more fuel than we could develop domestically. ( 90 million in unlikely theory from tire pressure per year, total known domestic oil reserves counting oil shale (viable at $80 oil) 1 Trillion plus barrels ... takes 11 thousand years of tire pressure to equal our known domestic reserves)
  

... to be continued and continued ...

Fill Your Tires With BO (Again)

Power Line: Obama Doubles Down

Most Americans will be spared the whole discussion since the MSM knows it is a loser for BO and they are watching out for him. They will publish enough of something to make it SEEM like he "MIGHT be right" ... and certainly Republicans are generally wrong, and it is unfair and probably racist to not agree with BO.

If any leading Republican had uttered anything like this it would be treated like what it is:

• a foolish political gaffe ... all that is required for that is for the crowd not to like it, and the video shows that much.
• representative of a real lack of knowledge about energy, transportation, drilling and a lot of other stuff. BO is really like what the MSM liked to claim Reagan was. When BO leaves the script, he stinks.
• violation of one of the "prime directives" ... if you find you are in a hole, stop digging.
• an object of derision in both the MSM and sometimes even more devastating the nighttime humor shows.
  

Were Bush to have said the same thing, we would be treated to endless columns and "news" articles on how "dangerous" it is to have someone that foolish in a leadership position and how the fact that he is there is a sign of "big money, conservative media manipulation of the foolish public and American's unwillingness to look at "facts"".

The MSM will cover for BO and he will eventually get it right. He isn't nearly as smart as he sometimes comes off, but given the fact that he gets as many trys as he needs to get it right, he eventually will.

Naked BO

American Thinker: Emperor Obama's New Clothes

I'm not going to give any teasers. READ THE WHOLE THING!!!

The fog of BO and that threat of being called a racist hasn't felled everyone yet!!!

Lefty Embarrassed at MSM Bias

The case for covering the Edwards scandal. - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine

Slate is pretty far to the left, but even they are starting to get embarrassed by the covering for John Edwards long term affair with recent documented dalliances while his wife battles cancer. Some conservative scandal mongers have covered it a bit, but like most things of this type where the person in question has a "D" behind their name, the objective of the MSM is to keep it as quiet as possible, and they have done a pretty good job of that here.

Do I personally see it as news? A little, for much the same reasons as Kaus lists below--if Edwards ever had any qualifications to suggest he might be presidential material, it MUST have had something to do with his "character/ability to sway audiences with rhetoric". Since he CERTAINLY had no other skills or experience to suggest that "president" was a reasonable aspiration for him (much like Obama), the importance of his character would seem to rise.

Kaus talks about Bill Bennett as an example whose gambling addiction the media LOVED "outing". I'd say the list is long--very hard to beat their coverage of authorities finding a vial of Viagra in Rush Limbaugh's personal belongings as he re-entered the country. I think one COULD question if the issue of Rush using Viagra is worthy of national news attention--but then we know that people with views like Rush OUGHT to be punished! That is what "free speech" is about if you are from the left.

They also at least adequately covered the Gingrich affairs, including the cheating on his first wife that had cancer as if that kind of behavior was objectionable and very worthy of coverage-again, if you are the kind of person that would put an R next to your name. Edwards is a D, but maybe some of the lefties are starting to see that it is POSSIBLE for ones biases to go too far? Nah, wishful thinking.

Isn't It Nice To Own the Media?

The Tire-Gauge Solution: No Joke - TIME

I suppose the MSM will be coming out with some headlines that say "The Surge Worked, BO and all the Democrats were wrong"? How about "The Economy isn't in a recession, that takes 2 quarters of negative growth"? Nope, don't think so.

The surge and the economy are both factual looks at current conditions / past predictions. The predictions of how much one MIGHT save IF all the tires were properly inflated ... PLUS all the discussions about "2030" give a lot of leeway. I think one only has to look at the video and look at the crowd to know the truth-nobody that lives in the real world believes that there is ANY chance that folks are going to run out and all get anal about tire inflation. I'd think the "logical thing" for Dems to do is pass a law REQUIRING everyone to have auto-inflate on tires. Now THAT would make perfect Democrat sense ... spend 100's of billions across the country to save 100's of millions or low billions. But maybe given that by "some calculation", they could be "right"?

Of course, the MSM LOVES to talk about "What if we HADN'T gone into Iraq" ... or "What if we had put a bunch of controls on fuel use long ago and far awy". Their level of curiosity is MUCH lower about how about if we had been drilling 40 years ago, doing nuke plants, developing oil shale, etc. There seems to be sort of a "localized curiosity".

Dark Knight

The Dark Knight, reviewed. - By Dana Stevens - Slate Magazine

I found this little gem in this review of this summer's blockbuster:

The long, intricately braided story that follows will include vast wiretapping networks, suicide-bomb threats, and moral clashes over torture and prisoners' rights. In short, Chris Nolan does more nuanced thinking about the war on terror than we've seen from the Bush administration in seven years. And despite a falsely heroic closing speech from Gary Oldman's character, police Lt. Jim Gordon, the movie seems to arrive at much the same conclusion about Batman as Americans have about Bush: Thanks to this guy, we're well and thoroughly screwed.

Is the Bush administration supposed to "expose their identity" as the Joker wants Batman to do? Isn't the message of the film that there are really really evil people out there in the world, and in order to deal with them SOMEONE has to walk extremely close to the edge of evil but not fall over it? In the movie, DA Dent clearly fell over--bigtime, and I thought a bit much and a bit easily, but Batman is "still out there, still protecting"-at an extremely high cost to himself. Lost love, lost family, extreme life danger, lost friends, maybe even a lost Lucius Fox.

How HAS the Bush administration kept the US safe from attacks since 9-11? Part of it is certainly going on offense, but is that all of it? Unlike the Clinton administration that liked to crow about any little thing they did to maybe thwart terror, the Bush administration has been remarkably quiet. In intelligence, quiet is good, in politics, it is suicide, but Bush seems to have been very willing to pay that price.

While the Clinton motives were always crystal clear -- money, sex, power, adulation, the Bush motives are a lot less clear. One doesn't see a bunch of harried worries about "his legacy". The MSM is of course sure that they KNOW that legacy will be "worst president ever", but folks tend to forget that what follows is also important. Clinton presided over times that APPEARED to be quiet, but in retrospect were a period when the greatest post communist threat was building. Bush started dealing with that threat, and for some reason, if keeping the country safe is something people like, with very good results.

How well will BO do on that front? I think that result will have some bearing on how Bush is actually judged by history.

Oh, the Dark Knight is worth seeing. Very dark, but well acted, good effects.