So I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh this morning (yes, for schaudenfreude) and he is completely mystified that Obama could have won both the electoral college AND the popular vote, after that disastrous first term. And I realized that it's exactly the way I felt in 2004. Mitt Romney is their John Kerry - an unappealing rich weirdo who you nominate when you think you can run ANYBODY and the results are still in the bag because the other candidate is so awful.
Turns out, not so much.
As Hamlet said, "there are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy". Such things include independent voters, people who were neither thrilled nor disgusted by either candidate. Strange as it seems, THESE PEOPLE EXIST. I know, weird right? Anyway, there were enough of them to overcome the hoards of people who had made up their minds LAST year about which guy to vote for.
It's important to note that the victory is pretty narrow here. We shouldn't consider it a mandate. What a sensible person will see from this is everybody should compromise and listen to each other's ideas.
I'm sorry this post wasn't more snarky... check out twitter and facebook feeds for that. I'm exhausted from snarky.
There is footage of Obama being born in Kenya!
Wow, that kid was huge! Oh wait, the guys addresses that.
Babies are born heavy all the time; I see no issue with that. And I assure you, most of the general public has no idea how big infants are in Kenya.
What?That's just the way it is, okay? Stop arguing and FACE THE TRUTH SHEEPLE.
You might think the US is a fat society, but in Kenya they are born big and then they become light. Which is evidenced by the fact that today, Obama is really light and fit. That’s just the way it is.
MORGAN HILL, Calif. — Some residents are calling a symbolic political display erected by a Morgan Hill homeowner that features two watermelons and a noose racist and even vaguely threatening towards President Obama.Listen Señor Gomez, you're either with us or against us. Why don't you drop the chalupa and go back to Spainland with your 30 relatives?
The apparent reference to President Obama made some people passing by, including Republicans, uneasy.
"We shouldn't be threatening with a noose and a watermelon," said San Martin resident Ben Gomez. "I believe that's a little over the top. I like the chair and the teleprompter. I mean, they're just copying Clint Eastwood, so I can't blame them on that one. But the noose goes a little over the edge."
Look, Breitbart proves that Obama is even dumber than the stupidest man who was ever president, George W. Bush!
If Obama’s SAT scores were near the average of the transfer students entering Columbia in the fall of 1981, he would have scored significantly lower than George W. Bush, whose combined math and verbal scores were 1206 out of a possible 1600 points (as revealed by the New Yorker in 1999).WOW! Obama must really be a moron is he's dumber than George W. Bush! And Bush would be the first to point out that that whole transfer class were all dumber than him, because THAT'S HOW AVERAGING WORKS.
You know me, I am a concern troll. Can't help it, I love to give the GOP advice. But this time I don't need to, except RUN WITH THIS ONE, BOYS!
You know, I totally wouldn't have voted for Obama in 2008 if I had known that he attended services presided over by Jeremiah A. Wright. This fact was brutally suppressed by John McCain, who's far-left hatred of the whites is also well-documented.
This document will defeat... wait a minute, I just noticed something on Page 6.
"It's hard to blame voters for being swept off their feet by Barack Obama in 2008: he was a handsome, charismatic figure with sweeping oratory...As a final stroke of inevitability, the bottom fell out of the financial world a month before the election..." (Italics mine)I'm sorry, abort! Abort! The Super Pac is claiming that Obama didn't cause the recession! They're in the tank for him too! My God, his sinister terrorist infiltrators are in everything!
This is a talking point I don't think I addressed yet, about the President's years at Harvard. A conservative Facebook friend (who actually is an acquaintance of mine, an entrepreneur whom I admire) brought up the frequently worked over theory that Obama was a mediocre student at Harvard, who only got in because of affirmative action and was made editor of the Harvard Law Review for the same reason.
I suggested that this seemed awfully implausible to me. It's one thing to admit a mediocre student to Harvard, but another to threaten your brand by elevating the kid to the head of the most prestigious law publication in the country. After a bit my conservative friend admitted I may be right, and he offered up the following clip as evidence.
Probably the best thing about this clip, which is from a Frontline documentary which aired before the election, is that it belies the idea that somehow, there is no record of Obama's college years. People went on record here gladly to talk about him; the Harvard Law Review is available for free perusal in libraries everywhere. The people in this clip are from the left, and the right, and in between.
I suppose you could also consult the President's 2 autobiographies for further information.
There is no conspiracy. If World Net Daily readers can't find any info about Obama's earlier years, they might consider checking out sources that aren't World Net Daily.
Anyway, I'm pleased that Xxxx Xxxxxxx came around (name redacted because I fear for his safety, even in Southern California) has come around on this point. It's certainly not a compelling argument to vote for Obama, but all I'm asking for is some non-crazy debate on the issue.
You know the great thing about being a concern troll is that I can say give perfectly good advice and know that it won't have any impact. For example, I am just about to advise the right wing that attacking Obama's children isn't going to make them more popular. Will the right wing listen to people like me? No, they'll listen to people like her.
Of course she also says "take the shots at the public figure, don't start attacking their children" in the same clip. So she's probably NOT endorsing smearing pre-teens. Check back tomorrow though, and I'll find someone who will.
Fan: “ People I would vote for in 2012 for President: Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, a bag of beans, a sack of flour, an inanimate object, anyone or thing but what we have now.” DM: “I would vote for Blago right now.”
- Dennis Miller, Facebook
You may recall that a "super-committee" of congress was charged with finding a way to balance the budget, probably as a way to not tie up ALL of Congress so they could go on with the important business of not accomplishing other things. Well, the SC has announced that they are done with their job of not accomplishing their task.
Who is to blame?
The surest sign of who the American people will blame is this: look at the front page of the Fox News website right now. Click to read full size.
What is most noticeable is the complete absence of stories about the super-committee. Maybe they covered it yesterday, but the rest of the lamestream media seems to think that it's somehow more important than our friends in the rust belt, or Jimmy Fallon's mean joke on Michele Bachmann. Which she no doubt wouldn't have gotten anyway.
And meanwhile, also from FoxNews this afternoon:
In response to the hue and cry about releasing the evidence of Osama Bin Laden's death - well let's face it, why would you expect people to buy the photos at face value? People who don't believe we killed Bin Laden now aren't going to be convinced by pictures. Shopped! I can tell because of the pixels.
If the photos come out in any official capacity, there is a segment of the population that simply won't believe them. On the other hand, if they come out via Wikileaks and Obama decries the appearance of them on the public scene, that should put the matter to rest. Word to the wise!
This morning Hawaii broke with its policy on the request of the President, and released a long-form version of the birth certificate that a handful of nutters have been insisting is the only proof that he is an American citizen. Clearly this could have been arranged at any time, so you have to wonder why now? Or rather, why not earlier?
If he'd wanted to put this issue to rest he'd have made a couple of calls during the campaign and sent his lawyer up to City Hall all the way back in 2008. He didn't then because birtherism makes Republicans look bad. People who accepted the normal Hawaiian birth certificate would look at the Republican party and see Orly Taitz; the Republican Party is a nutty blonde lawyer/dentist who screams her way through interviews.
No rational person believes this certificate was a real issue; Republicans keep saying it is a real issue, therefore Republicans aren't rational. Plus, it calls into question their global warming skepticism. And don't forget the subtle undertone of racism - aren't all black folk from Kenya? Well, this one must be, at least!
So the next question is what has Obama to gain by releasing now, instead of say, a couple of weeks before he's re-elected?
You might think it's to get Donald Trump out of the way, but I can't believe he was that great a threat. In fact if anything, Donald Trump was a Godsend to the DNC for the same reasons. Republicans are blowhard reality TV phonies with hair problems! He never would have declared candidacy anyway, because of the financial disclosure requirements. So Trump himself wasn't the motivation. He's a sideshow.
I'm guessing two possibilities - either Republicans go on with the birth issue thing anyway (check out the scare quotes in this headline!) which makes them look even worse to the normals (win for Obama!) or they drop it and are forced to debate him on policy (probable win for Obama, because he has adopted so many Republican positions that they have few left that they can fight him on). Beyond that there is always possibility #3, that someone starts the rumor that Obama IS Osama Bin Laden, shaved and coached in a Chicago accent. But really, that's just a variation of the birther argument.
Noticing Sarah Palin's tweet from a couple hours ago:
SarahPalinUSA What's the plan,man? Still no Obama/Dem's formal proposal telling Americans how they'll increase taxes in 4 mos, nor what they'll do w our $
As the good folk at Crooks and Liars point out, the plan is in the president's budget, Feb 2010.
Allow the Bush Tax Cuts for Households Earning More Than $250,000 to Expire. In the last Administration, those at the very top enjoyed large tax breaks and income gains while almost everyone else struggled and real income for the middle class declined. Our Nation cannot afford to continue these tax cuts, which is why the President supports allowing those tax cuts that affect families earning more than $250,000 a year to expire and committing these resources to reducing the deficit instead. This step will have no effect on the 98 percent of all households who make less than $250,000.It looks like Palie just failed to do research, but in truth Obama read that tweet 2 hours ago and then WENT BACK IN TIME and added the clause, in the exact same way he went back in time to falsify his birth certificate. No wonder the right fears him so!
Since I'm pretty depressed about the way the Senate version of the health care bill is shaping up, I'm going to write about something else. I will say that normally, I consider congress the idiots and senate the smart ones, so this is doubly depressing. Because now, it's clear Obama IS the one - the only man in Washington with brains.
Meanwhile:
Guy robs a bank, then mails the money back. Now that's a little passive-aggressive, dontcha think?
Roy Disney dies. I am almost prepared to forgive him for The Black Hole. Get back to me in a few years.
I have been cast as "Smith" in the West Valley Playhouse's production of Agatha Christie's Murder On The Nile. Any day spent above ground is a good day; but if I'm using my British accent it's even better. We go on at the end of January.
Dog without hind legs walks erect! Can human/animal hybrids be far behind?
Costco removes tomatoes from the shelves for Sara Palin visit. Considering recent spikes in the sales of rock salt and teabags, I think Costco missed a splendid marketing opportunity.
I'm often criticized for worshipping everything Obama does (by people who literally cannot ever find a complimentary thing to say about him, even when he does exactly what they want him to do) so it's a weird pleasure for me to say this. I wish we weren't sending more troops to Afghanistan.
Oh great, this is JUST what the wingnuts need:
BEIJING – The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves. Now President Barack Obama is finally coming, and he's being greeted with "Oba Mao" T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames.Look, the Chinese are really fond of Nixon too. Back off, Hannity.
Sunday's arrival of a U.S. president admired for his charisma is already a source of profit and brief fame for some Chinese.
Strangest is the burning Obama, tucked away in a Beijing warehouse. Artist Liu Bolin hopes Obama can take time from his visit to drop by.
"He's so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work," said Liu, who was inspired by the idea of the first black U.S. president.
There are three people wrapped up in the Henry Louis Gates arrest and arguably they all acted sub-optimally. Gates should have cooperated with police and not raised his voice. The arresting officer should have concluded there was no crime and let Gates off with a reminder that he was there for Gate's protection. President Obama should have sensibly declined to comment on the issue.
So they're all getting together at the White House for a beer.
I see this as a business meeting. They go in, and before the mics and cameras are turned on, everyone agrees that unless they walk away saying nice things about each other, they're all going to look like jerks. Then, beer. Then conciliatory statements. Whatever happens, they better drink domestic.
"I'm looking forward on reading your post on why it's ok for Obama to keep the White House visitor log secret.
Am I a racist for calling him out on that?
It is good to see that the same Lefties that sued Bush are now suing Obama. Guess there are a few more votes he'll lose come 2012.
Hope and change my ass."
My embittered friend WAMK is referring to this story:
MSNBC reports that the Obama administration has denied its request for the names of individuals who have visited the White House since the Inauguration. Additionally, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced today that it is suing the Department of Homeland Security after the non-partisan organization was denied a request for records of visits of “leading coal company executives.” The Obama administration’s explanation:
The administration ought to be able to hold secret meetings in the White House, “such as an elected official interviewing for an administration position or an ambassador coming for a discussion on issues that would affect international negotiations,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.
The Bush administration made the same arguments, which were ruled against twice in federal court.
You probably already know I'm deeply upset at this. I'm annoyed, I think it's wrong, and I hope the administration will change its policy on this very soon. The article I'm linking to points out numerous campaign statements in which Obama promises to stop exactly this kind of behavior. They should NOT continue this policy.
Here's my bright spot - as you can see, I'm getting this very damaging story from MSNBC, via the "right-wing smear site" ThinkProgress. At least I can use this ugly situation as fodder for one of my other points, which is that the vast left-wing media bias conspiracy isn't as bad as the right keeps saying. Between this and Letterman apologizing for his remarks because he had gotten criticism from Mark Shields on the PBS NewsHour - well, WAMK, believe what you want, but these are some of the reasons why I think the MSM bias isn't a problem. In fact I doubt there is a bias.
My blog is worth its salt.
How much is your blog worth?
