Malcolm Doesn't Deserve The Abuse

Remember Frankie Muniz? Agent Cody Banks? Malcolm in the Middle? He's not starring in things so much nowadays but he IS on twitter, which is how this came to my attention.

Really? Susan Rice? National Security Adviser? Really? Another#ObamaFail. Wake up people.

Now my feeling is that Susan Rice is a perfectly fine choice for NSA, and her bad reputation is the result of the usual demonization campaign that accompanies any Obama appointment. So I disagree with Muniz's sentiment. But dear God, look at some of those twitter responses! I can't repost them here (literally, it's too hard to do it on the iPad) so click on the link yourself. I'm ashamed of the left this time.

The one positive thing i can see coming out of this is, it may have a chilling effect on actors talking about politics.  Let's face it, we can all agree on this being a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't help the actors careers. 

And for the record, Malcom In the Middle was not a mediocre sitcom. It was way above average.

Quote of the Day: Yeah! Wait NO! Edition

Ginny Lewis, a Democrat and 72-year-old retired district attorney from Princeton, Ky., says she'll vote for Romney because "I'm tired of the Republicans blaming all the debt on Democrats, so let them take over and see what they do."

CBS News

He Doesn't HATE The Troops, He Just Doesn't Care About Them

It's been AGES since Mitt committed a horrible gaffe, hasn't it? Looks like fall is going to be fun after all!

 

 Still Republicans will point out that it's just unfair to criticize a party for leaving something out of the conventions, so the matter should just be settled ok?

Adults In the Room?

Okay, time for serious.

Yesterday I took issue with a guy on Facebook who was posting unflattering charicatures of democratic figures. This is an example:

Unlike the other democrat animals, Nancy Pelosi never had a childhood. She was simply spawned as an adult female dog, or Bitch.

"Klassy!" I responded. He asked if I was offended, and I said no more than you would be by people referring to George W. Bush as "Chimpy." And it degenerated from there. I know, you think it can't get lower than this but it can. Oh, it can.

He cited the terrible things Democrats have done as motivations for his sides terrible things, and I cited earlier terrible things to excuse those. In this way we both blamed others for our own immaturity.

In fact, I'll cop to one of my transgressions now: earlier this year I made fun of Chris Christie's weight, right here, on this blog. Rather than double down now, I will admit I was wrong, apologize to Governor Christie and all his fans, and promise to not do it again. All this without anyone demanding an apology, because that means something.

Now look, the rest of you. If you say something as stupid as I just admitted to because the other guys did it first, or they made you do it, know that it's a zero sum game. What you're admitting is that what they did wasn't so bad, because you forgive yourself for it. So if you're saying you're offended by their behavior, you're lying. And we can all agree that there's too much lying in politics. Don't stir more in.

Leave Them Kids Alone

All right, I hate to have to go over this again, but making an issue of what terrible things the candidates did when they were young is just stupid. In this case, it's the left reporting an incident from Mitt Romney's past, and it's no more relevant than that thing going around last month about Obama's dog-based snack when he was 9.

We don't actually have any prep-school candidates (or 9-year-olds) running for president right now, so their judgement is not an issue. Knock if off.

Too Bad About Keith Olbermann

There are people reading this blog who are dying to see what I think about Keith Olbermann getting fired from CurrentTV. Actually that sentence is mighty presumptuous, both in the sense of assuming that people care about my opinion regarding Keith, AND assuming that there are people reading this blog. But what the hell, I'm just killing time until I can leave work for the weekend.

Keith Olbermann? I haven't actually watched more than 12 seconds of that guy since before I was divorced. And after, I never bothered to put money into cable. HOWEVER, I lost interest in him long before he was out of my price range. Look, the first time he had one of those "special comments" it was refreshing. I thought, here's a guy who is even angrier at George Bush's overreach than I am! But then he did another one, and another one, and it became pretty clear to me that he was just acting up to get ratings. Don't kid yourself, nobody is that angry that regularly. And I don't need that in my pundits, even the pundits on my side.

There's no point in screaming at me, hoping you'll drown out the opinions of your rivals. I will automatically listen to the guy who isn't screaming.

The good news is when Rush is dumped next month to make room for Mike Huckabee's show, we can all say that it's not like they never fire liberals. Win!

State Of The Union

Didn't watch, past the first half hour. I wasn't going to watch that, but I had time to kill.

SOTU adresses are pure unvarnished campaign speeches, nothing else. There is no point in watching them. Where they are useful is seeing how the talking point polled, because if all those little calls to action turn out to be popular, but go unheeded by the lawmakers, then the lawmakers are screwed. So rather than watch the speech, watch the polling.

An Image That I Wish Wasn't So Resonant



If Romney wins the nomination, it'll be Obama under that Romney mask.

The Obameter

My liberal media choice is an hour a day of the Stephanie Miller radio show while I'm getting ready for work. It's funny and stupid like most morning radio, but it also has a comforting lefty bias that you don't get from most media. NORMALLY comforting.

Because this week, the show has been Stephanie arguing with her entourage about whether Obama is too far to the center to even be considered a liberal. Stephanie says he's doing the best he can with the climate we have nowadays, her people say he was never a lefty. Me, I always thought he was a centrist and he's giving us exactly what he promised. The proof that he's a centrist is that he's being reviled from both sides now.  The people who find him the least objectionable? Moderates.

Still, the rising force of dissatisfaction from the left is scaring me. I don't want the left to stop voting because it means President Bachmann. I'm going to stop saying Palin because, well, we all have.

Oy.

It's that darn Nazi analogy again!

A Massachusetts state representative has apologized for comparing lobbyists with Holocaust victims when he was commenting on a proposal to require lobbyists to wear badges.

“The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”

Representative John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, said he had made an “inappropriate analogy” on Wednesday when he criticized the badge proposal.

“No comparison can be made between the Nazi regime and a rules proposal made by members in good faith. I apologize to the sponsors as well as the people of Massachusetts for my words,” he said.

“The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”

So A: defending lobbyists. B: Comparing the treatment of lobbyists to the treatment of holocaust victims. Let us hope that this guy doesn't make it onto the national stage again, unless it's by saying something else at the state level that's entertainingly awful. And then, let's hope he goes into the private sector and has no more access to politics.

Only Deranged People Would Find Fault With This

And me, I can't wait to hear 'em.

Again With The Timing

So over the weekend, American forces located and killed Osama Bin Ladin in Pakistan. I mention this to readers of WorldNet Daily, who seem to have other fish to fry.

Whatevs! If Bush didn't spend that much time on him, neither will they!

But anyway, I want to give cynical props to the President for the timing of his announcement.  When did he officially tell the world that Obama Osama* was outta here? Sunday night, 10:45pm EST. Which happened to be exactly the final 15 minutes of what? Celebrity Apprentice. Which is fair, because the whole Trump candidacy is about goosing up ratings for that misbegotten show.

And this came at a cost too, because announcing the death takes all the oxygen out of the news cycle that would have gone to his performance at the White House Correspondant's dinner, where he did a pretty good job of eviscerating Trump. I guess Obama was simply in a position to choose .

*Thanks to WAMK for pointing out my error. While I'm at it, a mea culpa for my tweet about FoxNews misspelling Osama Bin Ladin's name - the picture is from a local Fox affiliate, not FoxNews national. I just found out this morning, and WAMK hasn't found out yet because nothing he reads has even mentioned the error. I learned the about the mistake from Stephanie Miller. 

**Update - I'm gratified to learn that WAMK is reading this stuff and not just sending his brother over for recon and specious claims about the founding fathers' abortion policy.

Those Democrats Finally Shut Up

I'm Not Pleased About Libya

Humanitarian crisis notwithstanding, invading a country with weapons to prevent the death of civilians is absurd. It's roughly as absurd as the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize to spearhead invasions in two countries in as many years.

And I might as well admit it - if there's a credible alternative to Obama in 2012 I'll vote for him/her. Even if they call themselves Republican. The trick is that the candidate has to be less Republican than Obama.

No, this isn't a novel position.

Speaking of Fish Heads

I admit that I didn't watch the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. I don't like SOTUs. I haven't since Bill Clinton's 2nd one. I said to myself, "this isn't useful information, it's comforting nonsense. It's advertising." And I haven't sat though one since. I'd almost say I don't blame the Supreme Court justices for skipping out on 'em, but it's kind of their job to be there. Not literally, or course.

Anyway, you'll see what I mean about the thing being nonsense. At least it was brief!

I'm glad it isn't all about Tilapia. I know that's more people's choice nowadays but it just isn't as flavorful.

What? WHAT?

Pima County GOP Website:

Out of respect for the victims of Saturday's tragic events we ask that everyone take a few days away from politics. Your Pima County Republican Party Headquarters will also remain closed until Wednesday morning.

Please take this time to reflect on the events, to pray for the victims and their families, and to honor the memory of those who have fallen.

Respectfully,

Brian Miller, Chairman

Pima County Republican Party

But here is a screen grab from the same guys, last summer.



I guess it's all about messaging.

Congresswoman Shot In Arizona

WASHINGTON — Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, was gravely wounded during a shooting rampage Saturday that left at least five others dead during a public meeting in Tucson.


Giffords was shot in the head by an assailant who opened fire with a handgun on a crowd gathered at a local Safeway supermarket for the lawmaker’s “Congress on Your Corner” town hall meeting.


As many as 18 people were shot in the shooting spree, according to local law-enforcement officials. John Roll, a U.S. federal judge, and a nine-year-old child were among the dead.


I want to make a point about this - people who shoot public figures, it doesn't matter what their ideology is. It doesn't matter who they listen to, what they read. They are crazy. If they didn't have access to any pundits at all, they would be just as likely to kill someone. Therefore it follows that rhetoric, no matter how dark or violent the words are, should not be blamed when something like this happens. I sincerely believe this.

But.

It really doesn't look good when there is violent rhetoric followed by violent action. People are pattern-seeking. They want there to be a connection. There are many people who are attempting to blame this shooting on Sarah Palin, which is nonsense. But she brought it on herself. When she published this ad and refused to apologize for it, she was begging to be linked to any violence that crazies might perpetrate over it. And there are a LOT of crosshairs on that map.

About The Last Guy

OMG I'm quoting Kos!

Questions:

1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?
2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?
3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?
4. Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

 Answers:

1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.
2. In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.
3. On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.
4. The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

Question 4 is why you don't USUALLY see me quoting Kos, but the first 2 - these are solid fact-based arguments. You might say that these are things the president has no real control over, but if you do you probably shouldn't make that the keystone of your campaign.

A Reminder For Next Week's Elections

Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush


Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush
Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush



Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush


Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush
Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush


Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush

DNC Velly, Velly Solly

We aporogize for the offensive lacial stereotype use of gong in ad. Editol lesponsible wir commit seppaku immidiatry.