Recently in Comment of the Day Category

So I SEE, suddenly it is no longer patriotic to dissent? Yep that's only when a republican is in office.
I'm amazed that the saner leftists are not concerned with how fast and how little debate there is on these trillion dollar bills. Anyone remember the 14 month RUSH TO WAR?
What about the HOWLING over a 400 billion dollar deficit? Suddenly a 2000 billion dollar deficit is okey dokey?
Oh wait...remember when unemployment was at 4.5% but there were grave worries for the next four years? Now unemployment DOUBLE at 9.5% this is encouraging for the economy?
To be liberal is to be either a hypocrite or mentally ill.

- Jukinj3

OMG, Great van Susteran says that [Ahmadinejad], whatever, prez of I ran, stole BO's campaign slogan "yes we can".

Of course, the phrase in Farsi sounds like 20 Great Danes gathered around a humidifier, trying to cough up a peanut butter sandwich.


 - Circa (Insert Day Here) on Ace

I don't understand all the details about the Civil War, but I think reasonable people can agree that we had no business going over there, and should have kept our troops at home.

 - Posted by: Typical Undergraduate

Some people say that the Republic died when "bread and games" became normal for the Roman mob.

However, only a small minority of Roman citizens lived in the city of Rome and could have access to such things (for most citizens Rome was not a Welfare State - and did not become so even under the Empire).

In politics the Roman mob were a terrible problem (selling their votes to those who offered them most benefits - Sulla was right that this perversion would undermine the Republic) buy they were not most Romans - the Republic still lived.

It really died when the private ownership and training with arms was banned - by the first Emperor.

Paul Marks @ Samisdata

The funny thing is, all these assholes are talking about "We won" and yadda yadda, and if it wasn't for the adults paying the bills, not one of them could make it a week. I never met a liberal who could find his ass with a geiger counter if shit was radioactive. - Og on Tam's Site

 "You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken off the jury. And the judge said to me, 'Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?' And I said, 'That's what journalists do.' And everybody in the courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I've ever had."

 - Diane Sawyer on Thursday's edition of Good Morning America

Obama's Statement on North Korea Rocket Launching

Compared to this idiot, I'm starting to miss the days of clear eyed realism and muscular military posture of Jimmy Carter. - DrewM on Ace

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES

It's high time to stop the media fawning over our emperor like arrogant President.
The media has covered for this false prophet long enough.
The truth is as follows:

1. Obama rammed through a trillion dollar 'stimulus' bill with little or no debate.
2. Obama's 'stimulus' bill is loaded with earmarks and pork and crushing regulation.
3. Obama isn't the slightest bit serious about deficit reduction.
4. Obama has appointed a guy to head the treasury who didn't pay his taxes.
5. Obama has attempted to appoint three other cabinet members who didn't pay taxes.
6. Obama's attorney general pardoned terrorists and a millionaire fugitive.
7. Obama hasn't a clue how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
8. Obama's 'tax cuts' for people who don't pay taxes are welfare checks.
9. Obama is a divider and pits class against class and race against race.
10. Obama did nothing in his years in the Senate to reform Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
11. Obama inspires people not to help themselves but rather to depend on him.
12. Obama has spread panic and fear by preaching doom and gloom.
13. Obama opposed the surge in Iraq.
14. Obama, when he worked for ACORN, pushed banks into making bad loans.
15. Obama has promised to bankrupt the coal industry.
16. Obama hasn't shown serious interest in drilling for new oil.
17. Obama appeals to people's basest emotions to punish the rich.
18. Obama's inauguration was the most expensive in history.
19. Obama can't cite specifically the supposed Bush 'deregulation' he blames.
20. Obama isn't serious about bipartisanship and rams his plans through Congress.
21. Obama has proposed raising taxes in a recession to crush achievers and job creators.
22. Obama is working to nationalize the banks.
23. Obama is working to nationalize health insurance companies.
24. Obama is driven by anger and rage at businesses.
25. Obama used cocaine in the past.
26. Obama worked hard to get Blagoyevich elected twice.
27. Obama is on the verge of releasing terrorists staying at Gitmo.
28. Obama has called the Saudi King 'courageous'.
29. Obama is pushing for the end to secret ballots in union elections.
30. Obama is allowing Dick Durbin to impose censorship through 'diversity' regs.
31. Obama, despite pledging not to do so, has numerous lobbyists in his staff.
32. Obama has strong associations with Rashid Khalidi, the former PLO spokesman.
33. Obama's proposed budget is the largest in US history.
34. Obama proposes raising capital gains taxes which will crush business.
35. Obama's cap and trade plan amounts to further crushing taxation on job creators.
36. Obama has endeavored to politicize the census.
37. Obama policies will cheat minorities because they will damage the economy.
38. Obama resisted John McCain's attempt to reform Fannie and Freddie in 2005.
39. Obama did nothing in the Senate to prevent the current crisis.
40. Obama has created a cult of personality about himself.
41. Obama opposes missile defense despite Iran and North Korea having missiles.
42. Obama rarely uses specifics but showers us frequently with rhetoric.
43. Obama has rammed through burdensome regulatory changes to HIPAA.
44. Obama has rammed through poorly drafted changes to COBRA.
45. Obama isn't serious about promoting nuclear power.
46. Obama isn't serious about reducing dependence on foreign oil.
47. Obama attempted to humiliate the private citizen Joe the Plumber.
48. Obama rewards failure in his policies and bailout proposals.
49. Obama favors raising gas prices and gas taxes.
50. Obama seeks to become the most powerful US President in history.

It's high time therefore for the media to start seeing this guy for who he is and to stop covering for him. He is a false hope. He is not entitled to a pass merely because he is black. It is not rhetoric but substance that matters. Martin Luther King would not have wanted the first black President to be coddled merely because he is black. If we are to get to a color blind society, both blacks and whites must be judged equally on substance.
Enough fawning and slobbering over him. The truth is our emperor has no clothes.

Thanx to another guy a work who shall remain nameless

NBC-viewers get more balanced and accurate news from Jay Leno than from NBC News/MSNBC. Sad, but true.

- AGR responding to this thread on ACE.

So consider this, my fellows in arms: On Tuesday, the Left - armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip, and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of a historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television, and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months ... who ran against the oldest nominee in the country's history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded, and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent - that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity ...

Yielded a result of 53 percent.

- Capt Morgan

I think the Democrats privately don't really believe that there have yet been vast structural changes, so they will ensure they occur: get rid of talk radio via the fairness doctrine; trials and hearings for former Bush officials; open borders and amnesty or 'earned citizenship,' and no more secret ballots for union members. All of that could help to ensure lasting Democratic majorities-and I think we will see it all come to pass.

-VDH

So Obama won. It's not the end of the world. Everybody chill out.

1) It's hardly a popular vote blowout. McCain kept it close in a tough anti-republican climate, and there's a still a significant proportion of the population that's with us, nearly 50%, in fact.

2) If Barack does win, he do so only by pretending to be a centrist and a tax-cutter. And that lie is going to be exposed riki-tik. By 2010, the entire country will know just how liberal Obama is, and the pendulum will swing. It'll be up to us to see that it swings far enough.

3) It's important to remember that we're conservatives, not liberals, or "progressives" or whatever they're calling themselves this week.

Politics isn't our life, and if we lose an election cycle, we're still going to be happier as a group then they will ever be, even after they've won this one.

Like they always do, hardcore liberal voters have placed all their hopes and dreams into one, terribly flawed, terribly human basket. And without doubt they will be terribly disappointed, especially when they learn they've still got to pay their own mortgage and buy their own gas.

Their Messiah, ain't one, which will become painfully apparent to them soon enough.

Meanwhile, here on the right, we have low expectations of human nature and even lower expectations of government. It's hard to disappoint us.

And unlike the liberals, all of our hopes and dreams are in exactly the same place they were yesterday, in our family, our friends, our local community, in our work, in our religious faith, and in our country. Those are the great constants, always there for us even when we suffer the greatest of setbacks.

Yep, tough times are ahead, and we're going to have to fight like somsabitches to keep Obama and the Congress from screwing things up too much in the next two years. But, we've been there before, and we've prevailed before.


4) Don't give the fucktards on the left the satisfaction of seeing you all act like a bunch of hysterical schoolgirls. They're the ones who can't take defeat. We can take our lumps, get up, and keep fighting. We should be Happy Warriors. whose proper response to this is mockery, good humor, and hard work. We lost and elction, but we're still right, and they're still wrong.

Anyway, it's time to cowboy up, and get ready for the next go round.

-DelD on Ace

Trainers Comment:  Buy Guns

Beware liberal jackboots...don't EVEN try coming for our guns during the next super-liberal government. That just might be the final straw. (see Charlton Heston quote)

This is serious stuff folks. We are about to lose it all and become a country our founders could have NEVER imagined!

- Goodeye_Closed on a HotAir thread.

CNN was just covering Gov. Palin's remarks about Obama palling around with Ayers and the graphic on the screen and the anchor described the event at the Ayers/Dorhn home that started Obama's political career as "attended a political event at Ayers' home in 1995". Then the anchor brought in Bill Schneider who said there was nothing new here (I'd like to ask Schneider if he's read anything that Stanley Kurtz has written on the subject) and then tut tutted about a charge of "consorting with terrorists".

If they were any deeper in the tank, they'd get sucked into the undergravel filter.

Ronnie Schreiber on Instapundit

I guess it's all over.

1776-2008.

It was a nice run.

-OldLyme - commenting on a thread discussing venal politicians.

The stupid is strong in this one. - RacerX on LGF

Under the coming Palin-Rove police state, you will witness the plans now underway to bring Iraqi troops to patrol the streets of our nation.

The only Northern liberal Democratic presidential candidates since 1964 have been Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry.

Comparing how they did in Gallup polling in July versus the eventual electoral result:

- Mondale and McGovern suffered swings toward the Republicans of 2% and 4% respectively, which in their cases didn't matter much because they started and stayed a devastating 20% or so behind

- In the closer elections Humphrey (1968) suffered a July-November swing to the Republicans of 6%, Dukakis (1988) 16%, Kerry (2004) 9.5%.

In each case in the fall the Northern liberal's support fell off sharply, when the public found out more about them and the policies they supported.

As a Northern liberal (and he's a very orthodox, rather left of center one at that) this 40-year history suggests that Obama would need to have a solid 10% lead in the polls now just to have an even chance in November, quite apart from any racial considerations (which if they materialize on polling day may well cut both ways). - Nomenklatura on Belmont Club

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP has a latter in today's FT condemning, "the infuriatingly stupid claim by French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner that" he did not understand the workings of EU institutions. She put it on a par with the "boast during the referendum campaign by Ireland's EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevey and premier Brian Cowen that they had not read the Lisbon treaty".

She says these are attempts "to pose as populist 'one of the boys' or an admission that they are not fit to occupy [their] positions". She goes onto give a breakdown of the EU's workings in around ten lines, suggesting she may be right in her assertion that people in power across Europe, "ought to do better than my five-minute effort", when trying to understand the institutions they supposedly govern.

Here is what she said:

The European Union consists of 27 states which share some powers in a bid to deliver a secure, just, prosperous and sustainable future for their 500m citizens, and stability and progress in the world. The European Commission, consisting of former national politicians, draws up proposals for laws and helps implement and enforce them. Those laws are decided by MEPs, who are directly elected to the European parliament every five years, jointly with ministers of national governments comprising the Council. The latter also makes foreign and other policy decisions. National MPs scrutinise or call to account the activities of their governments in the Council. The European Court of Justice rules on the interpretation and claims of breach of EU law

The following is from commenter Dewi_Sant

Here are my ten lines...

Blackmail
Coercion
Fraud
Duress
Intimidation
Squeeze
Pressure
Extort
Bribe
Payoff

"Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."

- JMagi quoting British Lord Justice Sedley, Speaking on the Redmond-Bate case of 1999

What Happened, Britain?

A science fiction writer on crack couldn't have come up with a 7th Century turd hiding out in the wilds of Pakistan threatening Europe and the Pope over a new Crusade because of some innocuous cartoons published in a small town newspaper. What a silly world we live in.

Comment by Peter in a discussion of Bin Liner's new anti-Mo cartoon tape on Belmont Club

If Spitzer quits or is thrown out, can the proper balance of the nature be restored and New Jersey once again claim the title of America's Worst Governor?

- gridlock2 on hotair

I believe that American foreign policy is resigned to, and planning for, an Islamic dominated Europe. Note, the US support for an independent Kosovo and Bush lobbying for Turkey's admission into the EU. In doing so,they are hedging a bet on what could be considered a sure thing. Also gives Old Europe a well deserved case of the jitters.

- Dave, Cork, Ireland on No Pasaran

The gun haters have it backwards. Guns will go away when the need for them goes away. Trying to make the guns go away first just makes things worse. - DrMichaelSBrown in comments on a thread on that awful Huffington Post.

So perhaps we can sleep well tonight because, according the hard core demented Dems, a handful of old white men are really in charge of the world. - anonymous on a Tam thread discussing Bush, Putin, Musharraf, and Chavez.

Now the G3 is a decent rifle.  It is a cheap, stamped sheet metal, battle rifle.  It has terrible ergonomics, with a hard to use safety, (and this is coming from a guy with gorilla hands), and difficult to use charging handle.  It is reliable, because of the roller locking bolt that destroys your brass, and recoils worse than other competing .308 rifles.  The FAL smokes the G3, and the only reason the G3 exists is because the Germans were too proud to pay royalties to those uppity Belgians.

 - Monster Hunter Nation on a thread of how HK thinks we suck.

By the way, our cheap, mass-produced, stamped sheet metal guns like the G3 and MP5 are the bestest things ever, and totally worth asinine scalpers prices, but note that cheap, mass-produced, stamped sheet metal guns from other countries are commie garbage. Not that it matters, because you're civilians, so we won't sell them to you anyway. Because you suck, and we hate you, but we know you'll be back. We can beat you down like a trailer park wife, but you'll come back, you always do. - HK Marketing Department

All of this found by following links on Uncle.

The men and women of the Left mostly did not start off as their descendants are today. They looked at the horrors of WWI trench warfare, WWII bombings and the Holocaust, SS, Japanese Militarism atrocities, and MAD and thought of ways to stop things from happening. Ways that were "morally pure" and would "work" because their old ways had not worked obviously. What they came up with was destruction of the nation-state and replacement with ... the EU or UN.

Neither organization will EVER launch a war of aggression. But it won't stop say bin Laden from taking over Pakistan, using it's nuclear arsenal to conduct terror-nuke bombings of American cities killing tens of millions and guaranteeing a war of survival between Muslims and Americans.

- fwallace on the Belmont Club discussing a thread on patiotism.

Langtry on Rachel Lucas....It's a discussion of the 'gangsta' style of dress where boys wear their baggy pants so low as to need holdin' up with one hand...underwear rampant.

Mary Mitchell, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, was very recently writing about this very 'phenomenon'. She said if many of these young men had any idea of the real-life origin of this so-called style, they'd switch to J. Crew immediately.

You see, prison is where the trend started. Granted, that's not unusual for "urban" styles. However, wearing pants down very low (or well below the crack of one's a**) was used by effete gay men as a way of signaling to more masculine men their willingness to serve as substitutes for women (can I tell you how hard it was to describe that in a non-offensive way?!). How then did it come to connote virility in the outside world?

That picture wasn't taken in a gay bar. It was taken during the Walmington-on-Sea Real Ale Festival. 

The Buggered Ferret Brewery stand was behind that crowd of blokes and they'd just announced they were handing out free pints of "Foul Ole Ron".

The Remittance Man commenting on Theo Spark on THIS PICTURE   (Sorry...the picture link is fixed.)

OK Gimme a second...Naked Chick - Free Pint. 
Uh, Free Pint - Naked Chick.
Wait, Wait, I've got it....Uh no.
Naked Chick - Free Pint.........

I despair for the demographics of Jolly ol' Englund.

Worst Congress in history. Send'em ALL home. Start over with 100% new people...citizen legislators instead of career politicians. Period. - Frank on Politico.com Shenanigans

Frank is commenting on this brouhaha.

The purpose of parliamentary procedure is to ensure that the rules are followed by both sides.  In this case, the Dems were losing a vote, stopped the voting, and erased the whole matter like it hadn't happened.  History is reversible.  Several of the commenter's mentioned times when the Republicans tried something of the same ploy.

In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions, Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and a distinct low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber because members of one party have rarely, if ever, walked off the floor without casting a vote.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders - but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call - a strange development in itself.

Whatever the final tally, acrimony quickly exploded between lawmakers on either side of the aisle as Democratic leaders tried to plot a solution, while parliamentarians on either side argued over protocol.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) eventually offered a motion to reconsider, according to floor staff on either side, ostensibly giving members a chance to recast their votes. But the maneuver sparked a chorus of angry protests from the Republicans, yelling “shame” on Democrats, while they returned fire with angry volleys of their own.

When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

"Obviously, the Democrats don't want to stand up against illegal immigration - so much so that they're willing to cheat in order to win a vote,' Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in an e-mail. "They're desperate - and it shows."

The official House website did not show a record of the vote as of 1 a.m. Friday.

The Wingers walk out and the Moonbats erase the vote...neither party is worth what we pay them, or the power and perks they demand.   No wonder the approval rating for Congress is 3% on immigration issues.  Yes, you read that right...3% of Americans approve of how Congress handles the illegals.

The President doesn't do much better at 9%, but Congress holds that solid 3% on their handling of Iraq, while the President has 8 times the support at 24%.  The question buzzing around the Intr@W3b is  - Can Congress hit Zero.  I wouldn't put it past them.

I've heard this Congress called the 'Jimmy Carter of Congresses'.  Wow, now that hurts.

Captain's Quarters has what happened in the last few minutes of the vote.

Update from American Thinker

This morning, Majority Leader Hoyer appeared on the House floor and attempted to calm the waters with an empty apology. Hoyer promised to refer the matter to the House ethics committee for a complete review. An unconvinced Minority Leader John A. Boehner, (R-OH) compared such a solution to sending it into "a black hole."

With the House still in a limbo recess, the two are said to be in conference, supposedly in search of an agreement on how to proceed.

How indeed -- Republicans insist that the Dems violated voting rules and demand that the original vote stand while Dems appear quite happy with the results they chicaned and wish to move on.

Meanwhile, as all major news services continue to cover the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse exclusively, C-SPAN just aired a group of Republican representatives commenting on last night's debacle.

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana was first to speak and demanded that their winning vote, which denies taxpayer dollars to provide welfare benefits and free medical insurance to illegal immigrants, must stand. Subsequent speakers spoke of a Democratic party more interested in feeding, educating and sheltering illegals than American citizens.

Brian Bilbray (R-CA) asked rhetorically how we can maintain a representative form of government when voting rules are so easily broken.

Next stop: Single Digit Congressional approval ratings?

It is in the nature of the house for things like this to happen whomever is in charge.  I have read that whatever party is in power will gavel down the vote closed when they are winning, or leave the vote open past normal limits in the hopes of strong-arming some more votes.  Never in the history of the House has one party gaveled down the vote when they had obviously lost (with no votes left for arm-twisting), and then erased the vote like it never happened.  A mistake perhaps.I stand on my opinion...send them all home.

Quotes attributed to Hillary.  Compiled by MightySamurai in a comment on the Rachel Lucas Blog.

"Fairness doesn't just happen. It requires the right government policies."

"F**k off! It's enough that I have to see you shit-kickers every day, I'm not going to talk to you too!! Just do your G*damn job and keep your mouth shut."
(From the book "American Evita" by Christopher Anderson, p. 90 - Hillary to her State Trooper bodyguards after one of them greeted her with "Good morning.")

"You f**king idiot."
(From the book "Crossfire" p. 84 - Hillary to a State Trooper who was driving her to an event.)

"If you want to remain on this detail, get your f**king ass over here and grab those bags!"
(From the book "The First Partner" p. 259 - Hillary to a Secret Service Agent who was reluctant to carry her luggage because he wanted to keep his hands free in case of an incident.)

"We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people"
(From the book "I've Always Been A Yankee Fan" by Thomas D. Kuiper, p 20 - Hillary to Rep. Dennis Hastert in 1993 discussing her expensive, disastrous taxpayer-funded health care plan)

"I am a fan of the social policies that you find in Europe"
(Hillary in 1996 From the book "I've Always Been A Yankee Fan" by Thomas D. Kuiper, p. 76 - Hillary in 1996)

And the grand-daddy of them all:

"Many of you are well enough off that [President Bush's] tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to have to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
(Hillary grandstanding at a fund raising speech in San Francisco; SFGate.com 6/28/2004.)

Quack Quack, If it walks like a Marxist, talks like a Marxist, and votes like a Marxist, it's Hillary.