Year in Review: TMW pt 1

Tune in Tomorrow... today! Pt. 1 of his 2008 recap is... well, painful, as I'm sure pt. 2 will be.

But those who do not remember the past are condemned to wonder where all their nice stuff went, and when those smiling people from the Government took it from them.

Happy Christmas!

We Should be Cautious of Caroline Kennedy

It would seem that a cult of personality has erupted around JFK's daughter. With respect to those who can't think of a reason why NOT to appoint her, I have to say that we really can't be certain that we should. Can be please not further a political dynasty just to please the starry-eyed and overly-credulous? And can we please recognize that she's best suited to be where she is, doing what she does?

My full piece is here, at Op-Ed News

California's Prop 8: Ken Star says "Nullify," Jerry Brown says "No."

Attorney General Jerry Brown
Take Prosecutor Ken Starr down
I swear I'll never make fun of you again

Yes, you read that right. Ken Starr's come back into service, again: the backers of Proposition 8 want the state to nullify the marriages that happened before Prop 8 passed, and they've got Mr. Starr on their side

"Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine University's law school and the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton. ... The measure's backers announced Friday that Starr, a former federal judge and U.S. solicitor general, had signed on as their lead counsel and would argue the cases.

State A.G. Jerry Brown (yes, read that again) is saying that no, it doesn't nullify them, and is going to fight it.

Of course, this means war. Where are the "zen fascists" when you need them to kick some ass?

The politics of the Minnesota Lizard People

Whoever thought the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Lizard People would play a part in the Franken/Coleman race recount?



I remember years ago, they used to say who the top ten silly write-ins were, and they'd be things like Cookie Monster. But those weren't tight races where every ballot didn't count, and they could toss out the funny ones without much to-do.

Watching these folks debate whether "Lizard People" is a real person or not is a hoot.

h/t Crooks and Liars

Don't go away mad...

Giving the shoe to the dog

I couldn't think of a better kiss-off for our loser in chief, myself. Here's the thanks of the nation you liberated under false pretenses, only to hand it over to Blackwater, lying contractors, incompetent nation builders, and friends of the friends of the liars who sold you the "truth" you marched to war on - the sole of the shoe.



In a perfect world, he'd be given a broom and dustpan and made to clean streets in Baghdad until he grew too old to withstand the heat.

George W Bush's Onion Op-Ed

It's just gonna be so hard packing up my things and heading off into the sunset come January. I wish I could go on forever giving massive and disastrous tax cuts to the wealthy, taking the country from a surplus to a deficit—nearly $500 billion this year, likely to pass $1 trillion next year, fingers crossed—and just generally doing irreparable damage to the very underpinnings of our economy, but, well, I'm afraid the Constitution says I can't. And not even I can overrule the Constitution. Though Lord knows I tried! ...

My fellow Americans, I only hope that every time you have your civil liberties encroached upon by the Patriot Act, you'll think of me.

The Onion has the scoop. As always... so funny that it's probably true, so scary we can only hope it's made up.

One down, two more to go?

The case contesting Obama's right to serve as President has been declined by the Supreme Court. Hopefully, that will be the end of that one.

However, there are two more cases before it for them to decide on as well, including the one where they not only claim he was born in Kenya, but that he gave up his citizenship while living in Indonesia.

One can only hope that they, too, are dumped without comment.

The long, strange saga of the Obama Citizenship "Deception"

There's a good article in Slate by an associate editor of Reason about the whole imbroglio.

How did the citizenship rumor get started? Ironically, it began when the Obama campaign tried to debunk some other conspiracies. After Obama locked up the nomination in early June, low-level talk radio and blog chatter peddled rumors that Obama's real middle name was Muhammad, that his father was not really Barack Obama, and that he was not really born in Hawaii. The campaign released a facsimile of Obama's certificate of live birth. Requested from the state in 2007, the certificate reported that Obama was, indeed, born in Honolulu at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961.

The certificate was a bullet that didn't put down the horse.

Somehow, it does not surprise me that Joseph "Black Mustache" Farah of World Net Daily (otherwise known as Whirled Nut Daily) is pushing this muddle. A self-aggrandizing sensationalist with delusions of relevancy, he'll jump on any train if he thinks it'll get him more readers.

What is surprising, however, is to see David Horowitz continue to throw out invective against the people behind this "deception," and tell them to shut up. Why, just the other day, he called Alan Keyes an "unhinged demagogue" - a genuine case of the black calling the kettle pot!

Horowitz continues to get the right conclusion for the wrong reasons, though. If it turns out Obama isn't eligible, then it doesn't matter what the voters thought. They were duped, and he should not be allowed to serve - end of story. But the chances of his being declared ineligible are slim to none, and I don't expect the Supreme Court will seriously consider the case before them.

The scary thing is that, even if the courts fail to challenge Obama's Presidency, at least one of the legal warriors is going to post a legal challenge to everything he does, on the grounds that he's not the legitimate President. Is this karmic payback for those who claimed Bush stole the election, or just sheer lunacy?

David Horowitz calls out conservative anti-Obama garbage - sort of

David Horowitz is starting to frighten me. Has he been replaced by aliens? This latest missive from his blog actually sounds... almost sensible!!

Conservatives need to get a grip. My email box is full of right wing trash talk (sorry, I'm peeved this morning) about Obama's fake birth certificate, his alleged covert Islamism and Hillary's scandals. Worse, we were running a frontpage story on this last wild goose until I canned it.

You can read more here. But, as with all things Horowitzian, you have to read the fine print...

I don't agree with his reasoning on the certificate scandal: if it turned out Obama wasn't a natural born citizen, then yes, he'd have been disqualified from running, and even if elected, should not be allowed to serve. I don't care if that disenfranchises however many million Americans - it's the law, and it makes sense.

But given that Obama was born to an American woman, even if he had been born overseas he'd have still been an NBC, however much paperwork later. So yes, this a dead, dead, dead issue, and people need to stop harping on it. He's on the right side of this one, even if his reasoning's off.

As for the ongoing 'Hussein' tripe... yes, he's right there, too. I wish he'd been a little more right on that issue back during the election, and the lead up to it, when it came to what got printed on Frontpage and what didn't. C'est la Dr. Ho.

But this is the kicker: And the Hillary thing. Get real. Please. Obama was elected in large part by a leftist crusade for hope and CHANGE. Now, as president-elect he has just formed the most conservative foreign policy team since John F. Kennedy, one well to the right of Bill Clinton. Where is your gratitude for that? What is more relevant in his Hillary Clinton pick -- her prickly past or the fact that except for Joe Lieberman, she is the Democrat most identified with support for the Iraq War?

Now, the most conservative foreign policy team EVAR since JFK? Maybe he meant to put 'Democrat' in there, somewhere. Or maybe he missed the last 8 years of relative time. Or the 12 years before Clinton? Nixon, anyone? Once again, reality takes a weird u-turn before hitting David's brain.

But this is the crux of the matter as David sees it. For all the worries about what he might do, and whom he might appoint, the far left - which davey just loves, loves, LOVES to excoriate as a way of flagellating himself for his radical past - has been massively disappointed. This makes Dr. Ho happy as a clam. And when Dr. Ho is happy, all his fellow conservatives ought to be happy to... just like, when he's NOT happy, they ought to be frowning as well. Or there's something wroGn with them... isn't there?

He continues: So this is President Obama's way of saying, ok now that I'm in office I'm going to put my anti-war commitments aside and put the defense of the country first. Which, again, is sensible... though not what those of us who want us out of Iraq as soon as feasibly possible might want to see.

But David Horowitz, still championing that colossal blunder in the increasingly-farcical War on Terror, does not want us out of there until the "job" is done. And he thinks Hillary is going to support seeing it through.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you overlook a "prickly past" in Horowitz Land.

Clinton as SS: Well, someone's happy!

You couldn't get any more ironic if you tried, though I see his point. Rush Limbaugh thinks that Obama's selection of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State was a 'Brilliant Stroke'

"You know the old phrase, 'You keep your friends close and your enemies closer?' How can she run for president in 2012? She'd have to run against the incumbent and be critical of him _ the one who made her secretary of state."

Of course, that's depending on Obama being weakened enough in 2012 that a Democrat might make a serious Primary run against him. And you know that's what Limbaugh wants to see, right?

I'm wondering when he's going to start the "America Under Siege" shtick again...

h/t Huffpo