Hate-filled vitriol on parade right now...

Since the hospitalization of Rush Limbaugh, within the last few minutes:

@Tyler_Durden209: @chillydog61 Hey douche-bag how does Rush Douchebag's dick taste like? All that #tcot semen in ur mouth turns u on. #p2 #topprog #tlot #420

@malthusiandrill: @Leo_Pusateri not as sorry as that dead racist,who basked in the suffering of the dead and paralyzed! how's oxycontin treatin ya now rush?

@johndracula: #RUSHLIMBAUGH YOURE GOING TO DIE SOON, YOUR HATEFUL SMALL DICK LIFE WILL END AND YOU WILL BE ENGULFED IN THE ETERNAL VOID #tcot

@eddiescorz22: Having a heart attack does not change the fact Limbaugh is a racist, homophobic bigot. #tcot #tlot #teaparty #p2 #hcr

@nostromosil: All these do goody mommas boys saying how awful it is about the Rush hate, STFU grow a pair, go play in your sandbox, RUSH #FAIL #p2 #tcot

Yeah. Class.

Wednesday Hero Blogburst 12-30-09

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Olga Elliott


Chief Warrant Officer 2 Olga Elliott, a Multi-National Corps-Iraq human resources technician, poses with MNC-I Command Sgt. Maj. Frank Grippe after finishing the Bobby Crim 10-Miler Aug. 22, at Camp Victory in Baghdad. Elliott, a San Diego native, finished the race in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 57 seconds, earning her top female honors.

Photo Courtesy United States Army

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Congressman Rogers (R-MI) Nails it on Obamacare

A guy's gottta ask: Why?

A new hat has been thrown into the ring to challenge Michele Bachmann for her 6th CD seat:

Sartell resident Troy Freihammer has filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress. Freihammer, who works in the Stearns County environmental services department, is running as an independent. To qualify for the ballot, he must get 1,000 signatures from 6th District voters duriing the filing period between July 6 and 20. If he gets on the ballot, he would be joined by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a second term Republican from Stillwater, and either state Sen. Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud or Maureen Reed of Grant, who are battling for the DFL spot. Bob Anderson, who ran on the Independence Party ticket and got 10 percent in 2008, is considering a second run.

Freihammer includes the following on his platform:

Our nation is at a precipice, being led there by two political parties whose differences have become superficial. The outcome is larger federal government, financial crisis, war, and loss of our liberties. Their only considerations for the Constitution are the claims of how the other party is not adhering to it.

He calls for the end of the Federal Reserve, the end of the federal income tax, the end of foreign aid, free-trade agreements and for an elimination of many federal regulations.

I guess the next question one must ask Freihammer: Why?

Congresswoman Bachmann is quite possibly the most conservative member in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has often criticized her party for overspending and other issues. Ms. Bachmann is a staunch supporter of the Audit-the-Fed movement.

I could see if the MN 6th CD was inhabited by the likes of a big spending RINO, but Bachmann is anything but.

Since Freihammer's candidacy can only draw votes (however few those may be) from Bachmann, one is then left with one of two possibilities:

1. Freihammer is an egomaniac

or

2. Freihammer is a plant.

Exclusive: Rumors of lack of RNC support for Scott Brown may have been greatly exaggerated..

Jules Crittendon (quoting an article from the Boston Herald, and echoed by Ed Morrissey), has reported that Massachusetts GOP Senatorial Candidate Scott Brown has received little support, and may have actually been written off by the RNC.

Having just gotten off a blogger conference call with Mr. Brown, I can categorically state that Brown denies any lack of support for his campaign by the RNC. In fact, in the call Brown stated that his campaign has received "..everything from the RNC that we have asked for."

It would appear that the story from the Boston Herald was designed not to report on the status of, but rather to outright sabotage the momentum of Brown's Senate campaign.

Regardless, Brown did state that he looks forward to donations from every corner of the country, since his election would assist not only the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but the entire nation.

Indeed, Brown's election would break the stranglehold majority that the DNC has on the U.S. Senate, and it would be nearly axiomatic that Obamacare, at least in its current form, would not see the light of day in a final Senate vote.

In fact, it is very likely that the election of Scott Brown to fill the seat of Ted Kennedy may be our last hope in evading what could be a very dark chapter in America's history.

If you are so inclined, please donate to Brown's campaign here.

Who Are You, And What Have You Done to the Chicago Tribune?

As a child growing up in the Chicago area, the Chicago Tribune arrived on our doorstep every day. My grandmother, who lived with us, was an avid reader of the Tribune. In fact, I can attribute the Tribune to fostering my ability to read at a very early age, because they used to have features that promoted phonics education lessons that parents could use with their children. During my growing up years, the Chicago Tribune, then dubbing themselves, "The World's Greatest Newspaper," (A moniker from which the call letters for WGN Radio and then WGN-TV were derived) was pretty much considered the more conservative paper of record in the Chicago area (about as conservative a paper can be, at any rate).

As the 80s and 90s went on, however, the Trib eventually followed the primrose path of the New York Times, LA Times and other organs, and eventually turned into nothing more than just another statist liberal mouthpiece.

That's why I was so taken aback when I read this editorial today:

Not good enough. Time to silence the Illinois Lullaby and get on with dramatic changes to how Illinois government treats the people of this state. . . . From now on, let's judge our elected officials by their effectiveness or impotence at delivering reform. Enough with "effort." Illinois needs results.

Illinois needs results. We intend to live by that credo in an effort to rehab Illinois during 2010. In the months since those words appeared, Illinoisans have watched their politicians resist aggressive reforms, both to how Illinois is governed and to how state and county governments spend money: Many politicians have jealously protected their power while overcommitting taxpayers to more missions than we can afford.

As a result, this state is impoverished in spirit. And it is too impoverished financially to pay its bills for services already delivered to the disabled, the sick, the most vulnerable among us. Yes, recklessly growing state government at double the rate of inflation for two decades has brought devastating consequences to Illinois.

This confluence of man-made miseries menaces Illinois.

So, whom will we elect to right Illinois?

-- -- --

This editorial launches our pre-primary push to answer that question. Subsequent editorials will explore how a reconstituted Illinois can confront three mighty challenges:

--The wreckage from current spending and borrowing -- and the taxing to pay for it all.

--The need for ethical reforms to better curb corruption and to reduce the concentration of power in the hands of those Illinois oligarchs.

--The disturbingly low level of job creation here as state government policies nudge employers to locate and expand elsewhere.

Be assured, how candidates for the Feb. 2 primary propose to address these challenges figure heavily in the Tribune endorsements that will appear as early voting begins in January. We're looking especially hard at how incumbents have demonstrated their effectiveness or impotence at delivering reform.

Calendar 2010 really does need to be different. Forgive and forget? Not this time.

Next Sunday: Illinois' hazardous fiscal triathlon -- spending, borrowing, taxing.

Read, as they say, the whole thing.

Imagine that... From the same state and municipality that gave us Barack Obama.

Has Chicago's prodigal son finally seen the error of his erstwhile ways, finally returning to its honorable history as a credible source of news and commentary?

If so, There may be hope for our ailing nation, yet.

(h/t Gary Gross)

Credit Where It's Due...

Former U.S. Senator and democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton has admitted some difficulties in dealing with an alcohol problem and with depression.

If it was any other politician, I would score this as a politically-motivated spin at damage control to quell and/or even capitalize on rumormongering.

But it's not any other politician. It's Mark Dayton.

Let me explain. Back when the Red Bulls were in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, awaiting their nearly two-year deployment in Iraq in 2006, they had a going away party that was attended by many dignitaries. Among the attendees was Mark Dayton. Not only did then-Senator Dayton attend the affair, but he was working, serving steaks to our soldiers who would soon be placed away from their families in harm's way, in what was then extremely hostile territory.

If it was any other politician, especially any other democrat politician during a time when out-and-out sedition was quite fashionable among the ranks in the democrat party, I would have again chalked it up to a photo op; cheap electioneering on the part of another politician trying to gain favor among the "support our troops" crowd.

But it wasn't any other politician. It was Mark Dayton.

You see, at the time of the troop sendoff, Mark Dayton had already announced that he would not seek re-election.. He wasn't running for anything. He was just being there, working the steak line, serving, chatting with, and honoring our troops.

Despite the fact that Mark Dayton and I didn't agree on a thing that came out of his office in terms of fiscal or domestic policy, I have always respected him, because he is a genuinely nice guy. What you see is what you get. Even when Dayton drew fire for closing his Senate office for fear of security issues, there wasn't any political calculation in that decision. He was trying to protect his staff.

Mark Dayton was the only democrat politician of any stature at the time that never spoke ill of the mission of our soldiers during the height of the Iraq war. In fact, Dayton's words and actions served only to genuinely honor our troops.

That was enough to earn and keep this blogger's respect.

We all have our personal demons that we need to wrestle with. I wish Mr. Dayton well, and pray for his continued recovery.

Godspeed, my friend!

Liberal Road to Hell On Parade...

Detroit is a veritable museum of societal decay imposed by liberalism:



Make no mistake: This is Obama's & the rest of the democrats' vision for our nation.

This about sums it up...

Today Barack Hussein Obama and his willing dupes in Congress, with the help of thirty pieces of silver given to Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska), thumbed their collective noses at over 60 percent of the electorate who wanted no part of the "health care reform" shit sandwich.

Nothing left to say, except that today will mark the day that Harry Reid, Ben Nelson, and the rest of the democrats fell on the political sword, and sold out the security and liberty of their fellow countryman to lay their political and our fortunes at the altar of the grand and glorious mystic ruler, pubah, and bottle-washer, Barack Hussein Obama (D, Mm Mm Mm).

Well.. isn't that special.

On Life Imitating Art...

Click on the above photo, taken in May, 2008, in Bozeman, MT, to view it in full size. Pay special attention to Obama's book of choice in the inset. The name of the book is "The Post-American World," by Fareed Zakaria, who also happens to be the editor for Newsweek International (of the fatal Koran Flushing Non-Incident Incident fame).

And what, pray tell, is the subject matter of the "Post American World?" In part,

Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil,...

Is Obama's choice of reading material in the picture any coincidence, given that Barack Obama is the only president in my lifetime who has never spoken of America's greatness, nor advanced the ideal of American exceptionalism? Is the choice any coincidence, given that Barack Hussein Obama chose for two decades to attend a church whose pastor regularly engaged in anti-American rants?

Is his reading material of choice truly a mere happenstance, given that in his lifetime Obama chose to associate himself with terrorists who loved their country so much they decided it was best to literally blow up its institutions with impunity?

Most important of all, is our President's choice of reading material in the photo really any coincidence, in light of Barack Obama's perpetual apology tours, a domestic spending agenda and a "climate change" agenda that will surely bankrupt us for generations to come, not to mention the recently proposed windfall transfer of wealth to third world tinhorn dictatorships? For that matter, Obama's feckless, half-hearted attempts to de-nuclearize Tehran speaks volumes, especially given his declaration in his much vaunted Cairo speech that "...No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons."

In summary, one could certainly argue that the President's agenda, nay, his very upbringing, breadth of experience and associations have rendered him a tailor-made instrument that would bring Zakaria's vision of a "Post American World" into reality. As a matter of fact, given his choice of reading material, it's not that much of a stretch to infer that it is Obama's very intention that Zakaria's vision of a neutered, feckless America, no longer a leader on the world stage, is nothing less than a foregone conclusion.

Death by firing squad, or death by 1000 paper cuts, it's still death..

Representative Thad McCotter (R-MI) wrote,

“In this giving season, let’s see what the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats have voted to stuff in Americans’ stockings this year:

1. Americans got higher unemployment, taxes and deficits;
2. Seniors got half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts;
3. Terrorists got new rights, trials and cells on American soil; and
4. Government bureaucrats got raises.

“As these Lefty heavy hitters race around their bases,” said McCotter, “Americans can but conclude: ‘Democrats: too costly, too crazy, too quickly.’”

While I agree with nearly everything McCotter wrote, I think the phrase, "too quickly" is understated and perhaps misplaced.

Not to take anything away from McCotter's resolve, but even if this agenda was moving along at a snail's pace, it would still be moving too quickly in my book.

Their agenda is so poison-filled, to say that it is moving too quickly implies that it would be somehow more palatable and/or maybe even okay if it were moving more slowly. A parasite, even if it feeds slowly, will eventually greatly weaken and/or outright kill its host. Better to get rid of the parasite entirely so that it feeds not at all.

Any part of their agenda that is moving quicker than "dead" is still "too quickly," IMO.

This jockeying by well-intentioned republicans and blue-dogs to re-make or put lipstick on the putrid pig of legislation currently moving through congress will kill us just as surely in the long run as the original bill would promise to do in the short run.

The Gipper, with a Dire Warning...

This appears to be even more true today than it was in 1961...

Erick at Red State's Call to Action...

Senate Republicans, take heed:

FIGHT

Days That Will Live in Infamy

The following post has been re-released from December 7, 2007...

I thought it still fitting, today:

It was the attack that sounded the clarion call; that the United States could no longer stand idly by while evil elements made their insidious trek across the globe.

It was the decisive moment that provided Americans with the righteous indignation that would be required to sustain them in fueling their eventual victory over the then-axis of evil; Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. No longer would that generation stand on the sidelines, waiting for someone else to take up that mantle; nor would they pass the burden for future generations to bear.

This was their moment. Their cup of suffering did not pass, but neither did their sacrifices fail to bear the fruits of liberty for future generations; not only of the United States of America, but of the entire global community.

_________________________________________

Fast forward to another day that will continue to live in infamy:
This, my dear readers, is our generation's clarion call. The time when history asks us to step up to the plate to fight a global evil.

Will we follow the brave example of what up til now had been our greatest generation? Will we now take up the mantle to fight the forces that threaten liberty, and portend doom upon our way of life, if not our very existence?

Or, will we instead squander the fruits of the sacrifices that followed that fateful day in December of 1941; opting rather to play on political expediency; hoping against hope that the unthinkable will not occur. Or if it does, that it will do so long after our generation passes; leaving our progeny to live their lives in slavish dhimmitude, if at all.

My dear readers, History today calls upon us to answer the call of defending liberty.

The question that is yet to be answered is thus: Will we utilize the clarion call put forth by the events on September 11th, 2001 as a source of righteous indignation to persevere in the cause of freedom? Or will our generation be the one that allowed government by the people, of the people, and for the people to perish from the earth?

I shudder to think about the looming answer to that question.

And, for that matter, today is no exception.

Livin' High on the CO2 Hog in Copenhagen

Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy:



Like I keep on saying-- the whole global warming scam has everything to do with making a few people rich at the expense of the economic suffering of billions.

They are the worst kind of hypocrites. They should all be jailed for FRAUD.

A Little Late to the Party, but...

You gotta read this...from my friends at the MoxArgon Group--

Feinstein & Durbin to Bloggers: No Shield For YOU!

A bill pending in the U.S. Senate to provide shield protection to journalists who choose to protect their sources leaves out one very important part of journalism. I don't usually go to Daily Kos for my information, but a tweet pointed me here:

But those two troublemaking Dems, now identified as Sens. Feinstein (CA) and Durbin (IL), are back again, introducing an amendment to be debated tomorrow that would essentially strike the language above:

AMENDMENT NO.__ Calendar No.__

Purpose: To appropriately limit the protection from compelled disclosure.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—111th Cong., 1st Sess.

S. 448

To maintain the free flow of information to the public by providing conditions for the federally compelled disclo-sure of information by certain persons connected with the news media.

Referred to the Committee on ___ and ordered to be printed Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed

AMENDMENTS intended to be proposed by Mrs. F EINSTEIN (for herself and Mr. D URBIN )

Viz:

In section 10(2)(A), strike clause (iii) and insert the following:

(iii) obtains the information sought while working as a salaried employee of, or independent contractor for, an entity—

(I) that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, 1or other means; and

(II) that—

(aa) publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical;

(bb) operates a radio or television broadcast station, network, cable system, or satellite carrier, or a channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier;

(cc) operates a programming service; or

(dd) operates a news agency or wire service;

In section 10(2)(B), strike ‘‘and’’ at the end.

In section 10(2)(C), strike the period at the end and insert ‘‘; and’’.

In section 10(2), add at the end the following:

(D) does not include an individual who gathers or disseminates the protected information sought to be compelled anonymously or under a pseudonym.

Basically, Feinstein and Durbin want to restrict shield law protections for those who are either salaried employees or contractors of big media. If not, it's basically fuck you.

Mind you, this is KOS, going after two huge liberals in the Senate.

The First Amendment, of course, reads as follows (emphases added):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So.. just who is the press?

When James Madison penned the First Amendment, did he intend to extend and relegate freedom of the press to only the few newspapers that were around at the time? Or did also he mean to include the independent pamphleteers, which were by far more ubiquitous than the established newspapers of the day? Since freedom of the press and freedom of speech are inextricably intertwined, it would be my contention that the original intent of the First Amendment as penned by Madison and approved by the Constitutional Congress meant the inclusion of both under its protections. Bloggers, by extension, are certainly the modern-day counterparts of the pamphleteers who thrived at the time of the Revolution.

There is no doubt in my mind that this amounts to a protectionist measure by the established dead-tree and dinosaur media, along with their willing accomplices in Congress, against its competition in the new media.

As Markos stated,

This isn't a partisan issue, it's one between those who are so stuck in the past, that they can't fathom a more diverse and expansive media environment -- one that is no longer dominated by the NY Times and the TV networks.

If you are represented by one of the senators on the committee, please give them a call and ask them to oppose this measure. Again, this shouldn't be a partisan issue, so calling your Republican senator (for once) might actually make a difference. Committee members are:

Patrick Leahy (Vermont)
Herb Kohl (Wisconsin)
Dianne Feinstein (California)
Russ Feingold (Wisconsin)
Chuck Schumer (New York -- he's kosher on this)
Dick Durbin (Illinois)
Ben Cardin (Maryland)
Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island)
Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota)
Ted Kaufman (Delaware)
Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania -- also kosher)
Al Franken (Minnesota)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)
Orrin Hatch (Utah)
Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
Jon Kyl (Arizona)
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
John Cornyn (Texas)
Tom Coburn (Oklahoma)

Note -- this isn't about me. I'm a salaried writer. This amendment wouldn't exclude me. This is about most of you, and countless bloggers and writers who do their own brand of journalism because they believe in their cause, not just because it's a gig.

I'm glad that Markos has seen the light; hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to Markos and others on the left to the fact that statist-inspired intrusion is a bane to everyone's freedoms, and touches every aspect of everyone's lives.

Wednesday Hero Blogburst 12-2-09

Spc. Michael P. Garton & Spc. Rolando R. Flores


Spc. Michael P. Garton, a gunner with the Personal Security Detachment, with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, and a Texarkana, Texas, native, relaxes on a Humvee and shares a laugh with Spc. Rolando R. Flores, a gunner with the PSD and a San Antonio native, during a break in preparations for a mission Nov. 23 in the maintenance yard at Contingency Operating Location Adder, Iraq.

Photo Courtesy U.S. Army

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Steve Gottwalt on Minnesota's $5.4 Billion Shortfall

In an email to his constituents, SD 15-A representative Steve Gottwalt had this to say:

We received the latest budget forecast information today and it indicates Minnesota faces a projected $1.2 billion shortfall for the current two-year state budget, and a $5.4 billion deficit for the next biennium.

This is tough news, and underscores the need for even greater state fiscal restraint. Minnesotans want state government to live within its means instead of raising taxes on families and businesses. Small businesses create the vast majority of new jobs, and they have told us loud and clear they cannot afford more government. We must rein-in state government spending and focus on sustainable reforms that boost our economy. That is the "goose" that lays Minnesota's "golden eggs."

In the 2010 Legislative Session, we need to confront reality and adopt meaningful structural reforms to solidify our economic future. State spending must be brought in line with revenue received, as families and businesses must do. Hard-working taxpayers cannot continue to pay for backward thinking where the state spends money before it knows what’s in the checkbook. Minnesotans expect state government to live within its means.

We cannot tax our way out of this deficit! Tax increases will kill the jobs we need to turn around our economy and state revenues. We have a spending problem; not a revenue problem: Government spending in Minnesota has grown by 140 percent since 1992, and we have seen numerous proposals in the last few years for billions of dollars in new tax increases. We must set good priorities, and live within our means
instead of raising taxes on struggling families and businesses.

Liberals propose “tax increases only on the wealthy.” However, most of the so-called “wealthy” are small businesses filing through individual tax returns - the same small businesses we need to help grow more jobs for a sustainable economic recovery. The top 10 percent wage earners in Minnesota already pay 57 percent of all personal income taxes, and 38 percent of all taxes in our state. Even if we raised their
tax rate a full 10 percent, it would generate only $381 million toward our persistent deficit.

We cannot tax our way to prosperity while families and businesses are battling to make ends meet with less in these tough economic times. Increasing the tax burden would drive out the jobs and revenue we need to turnaround Minnesota’s economy.

The Legislature’s top priority in 2010 must be creating sustainable jobs in the private sector by reducing tax and regulatory burdens. I will continue working to kick-start Minnesota's job market by promoting an environment that supports business growth!

Of course, Mr. Gottwalt speaks nothing but sense here. To tax the bejesus out of the job creators will not create any more taxpayers than depriving a garden of its water will grow more produce.

The crappy part about it is that Margaret Kelliher, Tarryl Clark, Larry Haws, Larry Hosch, and the rest of the tax-n-spend DFL'ers will wail, moan and gnash their teeth, saying the "evil rich" aren't paying their fair share;, when it is the "evil rich" (as Gottwalt stated, the Mom & Pop concerns) that create the very jobs that render a vibrant economy that sustains both economic prosperity and, of course, tax revenue for governmental functions.

And look for Tim Pawlenty, in one of his last acts in office, along with the Minnesota House Republicans to once again play the adult.

Look for yet another infantile show down by the DFL this coming budgetary cycle.

Amazing What They'll Admit When They're Among Friends...

Howard Dean, in France

As I've always said, if it walks, talks and quacks like a duck...