Never at a loss for stupidity....

PETA wants animatronic groundhog:

"Punxsutawney Phil might be the most pampered groundhog in the world, but that's not good enough for the folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

They sent a letter to Phil's handlers, urging them to use a robotic rodent rather than the real Phil on Tuesday."

Goes perfectly with my post on Matthews...

Left Goes Bonkers Over McDonnell’s Crowd:

Again, our so-called "progressives" get really snarky when someone other then them seem to be playing the race card. Only real liberals are permitted to be inclusive......

Thanks, Jim....

I Was Completely Wrong About Barack Obama

Just how laughable is this:

MSNBC’s Matthews: ‘I Forgot He Was Black’



If you want a sign of how bad things are on the left, listen to this idiot. You see, when you are "progressive", the fact that Obama is black is something that should always be on your mind because, well, you know, he's black; and we are supposed to be amazed that he got the job in the first place. Could this be any more patronizing or insulting? I mean, I actually HATE (caps intended) Obama; and I can promise you that I am measuring him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his (non-existent) character.

God forbid a Republican (or worse, a Fox News commentator) would have uttered these words. But, not to worry, Matthews is a member of the "good" press, and this won't keep him off the White House invite list for briefings.

Pay attention, Mr. President...

Syzygy:

"Government in general can never be trusted: that is one of the reasons why the US constitution is such a subversive document. It says that people can criticize the government, that the government can't disarm them, that the government has only those rights explicitly given to them and all other rights belong to the people, not the government.

... the US Constitution is the most subversive document ever published. With it, citizens can deny tyrants and the corrupt from taking over the system, and the system of checks and balances has, as we've recently seen, even worked when only one part of the system refuses to countenance the sins of the other two."

Taranto is right on the mark...

...Shockingly, half of all Americans have IQs below the median. But intelligence is not the same thing as wisdom or sense. Very intelligent people have been known to advance very compelling arguments on behalf of very bad ideas.

What's more, there is a particular type of stupidity to which intelligent people are uniquely prone: intellectual snobbery, or the tendency to cultivate an attitude of contempt toward those who are not as bright. This may appeal to New York Times readers or voters in, say, Hyde Park--that is, to people who think they're better than everyone else too. But it may prove Barack Obama's undoing as a national politician.

Basta!

From Disgusting to Odd:

"A question about Barack Obama is starting to take shape in the American mind: where does this stop? The “this” is the collective hodgepodge of delinquent policy, administrative incompetence, a bottomless capacity for self-delusion, hubris, and the vetoing of American opinion. The “this” is comprised of attempts to harness populist disaffection in order to create a diversion, the presidential campaign that never ends, the 24/7 up-and-down-the-dial interview blitz, the hyper-partisan “post-partisanship,” and, foremost, the compulsion to lay all blame at the feet of the previous president.

Back in October, Charles Krauthammer called Obama’s incessant denunciation of George W. Bush “disgusting.” Three months later, and still going strong, the habit is bordering on eccentric. Not merely in its preponderance, but in kind. Consider that Obama explained away Republican Scott Brown’s Massachusetts victory as resulting from Americans’ anger over the “past eight years.” A Republican won because of the voters’ rage toward Bush?

Also bordering on the eccentric is the president’s endless infatuation with his own story. On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Obama noted how the Soviet Union’s collapse paved the way for his path to the White House. He thought the Olympics would be in the bag if he flew to Copenhagen and recited a tale from the Book of Barack. When he went to Massachusetts to stump for Martha Coakley, he told the audience, “So it’s good to be back in Boston. . . I came back here a few years ago and gave a little speech that turned out pretty well.” This was a reference to the electrifying DNC Convention speech that made him a star. “Something about Boston folks have just always been good to me,” he said, as if the people of Massachusetts were obligated to uphold this benevolent tradition. This time he was heckled and the state took a fatal chunk out of his agenda."

I'm sure this comes as a surprise to many - but certainly not me:

A World of Difference:

"This is as much an indictment of Obama as of the sycophantic press that raised nary a critical word during the campaign and instead spent its investigative energies and venom on Sarah Palin (who turned out to be more in sync with the electorate on health-care reform, climate change, and anti-terrorism policy than the suave sophisticate whom the press raved about)."

Quite a mouthful....

Conrad Black:

"The burning question after the Massachusetts Senate election is whether the administration will respond by making a course correction to survive politically, by jettisoning its policy core and cleaning up its methods, or by “doubling down,” as President Obama has implied, and escalating the ideological and guerrilla war for direction of public policy. This was a referendum on the Obama administration, including health care, but not just health care. Even less was it just the rejection of an astonishingly unappealing candidate, predestined to glory as a trivia question. John F. Kennedy took that seat with lashings of his father’s money in an anti-Brahmin revolt against Henry Cabot Lodge in 1952, and was reelected by 864,000 votes in 1958. In the intervening years of Teddy Kennedy, the Democrats could have won with a candidate not confined to two legs and one head. This was less a wake-up call than a Te Deum for a dying and sweaty dream."

Great fucking idea!

Are Donation Limits Next?:

"There should only be a two rules for campaign finance.

1. Candidates must account for every dollar raised.
2. All donations above $100.00 are to be posted in a searchable database online within 24 hrs of the check being cashed.

Other than that nothing. At least then we could see who the candidates are beholden to."

What's Worse, "Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment," or Burning it? - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Reason Magazine:

"...When a law requires any group of two or more people who raise $5,000 for the purposes of making a political statement to adhere to a blizzard of federal regulations subject to fines, that law by definition chokes off the 'voices of everyday Americans' that President Barack Obama, in his ridiculous reaction to the decision yesterday, expressed outrage on behalf of. Free-speech campaign-finance enthusiasts are willing to censor or chill those small voices for the greater purpose of attempting (and largely failing) to blunt the political activity of hated Corporations (or 'Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests,' in the words of a president who has been bailing out Wall Street banks and crafting legislative deals with health insurance companies and other powerful interests for a year now). What campaign-finance supporters are not willing to do, at least most of the time, is admit that they're making any tradeoff on political expression at all."

Oh, the natives are very restless....

HillBuzz:

"America needs to see what “Hope” and “Change” really mean…to see how Obama’s minions really behave. To see what they are up to, in ceaseless efforts to shut down all opposition to him and his socialist agenda.

We will fight these people until they actually do kill us.

And if that happens, we hope and pray some of you out there will continue the fight after us, and continue to expose these people. They can’t take all of us down, and in attacking so many of us, they will, we believe, bring THEMSELVES down in the end.

A full report on all we’ve learned later, we promise."

Obama's dream scenario....

Anti-Chávez Channel Is Taken Down:

"''They must comply with the law, and they cannot have a single channel that violates Venezuelan laws as part of their programming,'' Diosdado Cabello, director of Venezuela's state-run telecommunications agency, said Saturday."

Sound familiar?

Nothing HATES success more than failure....

Berkeley High may cut lab classes to fund programs for struggling students:

"Most districts would not argue with such a record, but Berkeley High's science labs are embroiled in a debate over scarce resources with overtones of race, class and politics.

Campus leadership has proposed cutting before- and after-school labs -- decreasing science instruction by 20% to 40% -- and using that money to fund 'equity' programs for struggling students in an effort to close one of the widest racial and ethnic achievement gaps in the state."

You see, all the liberals see the need for teaching evolution, they just refuse to practice it....

Wow - a real mouthful!

The Context Of Middle-Class Frustration:

"The members of the lower class are generally seen as the clients of a collectivist movement, the recipients of the social benefits it promises. Their desperation and anger become fuel for the movement, providing both righteousness and voting power. The collectivist only needs to conceal any hope of finding prosperity beyond the generosity of the State, and keep the lower class convinced that government is the only moral actor in the economy. Review the speeches of Barack Obama, and search for anything that suggests the poor should look anywhere beyond the government and its social programs for salvation.

It’s clear that the middle class is the great enemy of collectivism. Only they have the combination of voting power, money, and economic self-interest to see the growth of government as undesirable, and provide effective resistance. They generally view their interactions with government in a negative light – they’ve all spent time in the Department of Motor Vehicles mausoleum, spent hours wrestling with tax forms, or been slapped with a traffic citation they don’t think they deserved. They understand the inefficiency and emotional instability of government, and instinctively resent its intrusion into their lives. A health-care takeover is the best chance collectivists will ever have of persuading the middle class to vote itself into chains… but for the better part of a century, they’ve been able to hear the hammers of the State ringing on the metal of those chains, in the forges of taxation and regulation."

Heh...

Revenge Isn’t An Economic Policy:

"President Nero needs to stop fiddling while the USA is burning! Cut tax rates,
start drilling for oil and cut Congress' pay!"

Hitting the nail on the head!

Obama: The Anti-John Adams:

"...Ann has smart commenters, and Kent offers this brilliant summary. ”Because, so far as President Present is concerned: this is a nation of men, not laws. He is, at his core, the anti-John Adams.”

That’s it. I find a whole host of reasons to dislike Mr. Obama, but this sums the issue up as nicely and succinctly as I can imagine. If you haven’t watched the HBO series on Adams, you must do so as soon as possible. After completing it, sit back and ponder the proposition that Obama is, at his core, the anti-John Adams."

Funny, I bet Hannity and Limbaugh don't think radio is "a dying industry"...

Air America to Cease Broadcasting Immediately:

"“The fact of the matter was, it was always a very challenging business proposition, and it never had the right management,” said Sam Seder, who hosted programs on Air America until last year.

The headwinds were enormous, he said, adding, “Radio is a dying industry.”"

Amazing isn't it? For "progressives", it's NEVER their fault. The only possible reason for failure is someone or something elses doing, because they think their cause is just; and, logically, the only reason for failure is the forever "other" who deny them their rightful place of success. Hence, the need for government protection....

What a forever crock....

Certainly, Congress cannot.....

Can Immigrants Solve Our Health Care Problems?:

"First, let’s dispel a common myth: By providing outpatient care earlier, we can diagnose and prevent disease before it becomes expensive to treat. Fewer hospitalizations and fewer emergency room visits, some hope, will reduce overall costs. The effect is undeniable, but overstated. On balance, findings from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, one of the largest social experiments ever conducted, suggest that insurance increases costs. The best estimates suggest spending by the uninsured could increase by $85 billion with universal coverage."

Why would anyone be surprised?

Charles W. Calomiris:

"I am puzzled that anyone can claim to be puzzled by the collapse of the popularity of the Obama Presidency (which I have been tracking and talking about here in the Arena for many months). Candidate Obama was elected by misleading people that he would govern as a moderate. That cat is now out of the bag. He is obviously a leftist bent on redistribution, rising control of the economy by government, protectionism, and bailing out auto unions. His political style is also not as advertised: he is just another Chicago-style political bully, who uses backroom deals (healthcare is the most obvious example) to get what he wants.

Finally, the idea that he would help heal race relations has been damaged by various actions and statements (one of my friends who voted for Obama partly in the hope that his presidency would change race relations in America was very bothered by the President's recent statements about how much minorities would benefit from healthcare 'reform' -- isn't he everyone's President, my friend wondered). The problem is not with the execution of the Obama presidency; the problem is that America really didn't want this President and they thought that they had elected a different one. Spin won't solve this problem; elections will."