Video: The Beauty of Mathematics

Enjoy:

 

Bye-Bye Bathtub Boy

Tonight was the last night for MCNBC’s bete noir, (that’s French for “embarrassing a$$hole”) Keith  Olbermann, who made the surprise  announcement at the end of his show just moments ago.

Twitter has been afire with the news.

See Mediaite: BREAKING: Keith Olbermann Announces Tonight’s Countdown As His Last Show

Keith Olbermann has just ended his Friday night episode of Countdown–and apparently ended his run as host of the show on MSNBC. The host thanked his Countdown staff and team at MSNBC, read a poem and bid viewers farewell, tossing his papers toward the camera for the “final time,” and saying “Good night, and good luck.”

Developing…

Mediaite now has the video up.

Ace o Spades once asked Keith on Twitter: @KeithOlbermann, when you have your inevitable psychotic break and get fired again, do you think MSNBC will finally hire a black guy?

Alas, no….

Starting Monday, Lawrence O’Donnell takes the 8 p.m. hour, Ed Schultz moves to 10 p.m., and Rachel Maddow stays at 9.

Not exactly an improvement….

Starting on Monday, Cenk Uygur host of YouTube’s  “The Young Turks,” will be filling in as host of the 6 p.m ET hour.

Helpful tweeters start a new topic: #NewOlbermannJobs

DrewM has more at AoSHQ: Olbermann Resigning? Update:Sounds Like He Was Fired

UPDATE:

No news yet about the firing at Olbermann Watch, but the last two posts do offer clues as to what may have been the last straws to break the camel’s back:

Olbermann Smear Victim Makes World’s Most Futile Request

Keith Olbermann smeared John S Wilson on the air after Wilson wrote a post about succession plans for incapacitated Congressmen. Then Mr Wilson made what we rightly describe as the most futile request in the world, and Oralmann’s response was just what you’d expect:

Time for Another Lesson in Civility from Keith Olbermann

Keith ‘You’re a Fascist!’ Olbermann spent last night bellowing that Joe Liebermann is a ‘delusional liar’. It’s part of the ‘new tone’, don’t you know. What can we expect on tonight’s Hour of Spin?

MORE:

Hot Air: Breaking: Olbermann announces the end of “Countdown”; Update: Settled contract with MSNBC “late this week”

Why? No idea. There was no inkling of it on Google News earlier today. It sounds from the clip like he was let go, but he signed a four-year contract extension in 2008 so I’m not sure how the mechanics of firing him would work. Could be that he resigned, but there’s been no indication of which I’m aware that he was considering that.

Unhappiness with Olby among MSNBC employees has been rumored for ages, and some speculated last year that Comcast might want to “rein in” MSNBC, but as I say, this is all just theorizing at the moment

Legal Insurrection: “Have You No Job, Sir?” – Olbermann Out At MSNBC

Professor Jacobson see’s the new line-up as a move even further to the left, and offers some classic Olby clips.

Olby Watch now has a post up and links to Business Insider: So Why Did MSNBC Just Dump Keith Olbermann? Hint: COMCAST

Update: Bill Carter just told Anderson Cooper that part of whatever deal they struck will likely keep Olbermann off TV “maybe not for two years” but for an extended period of time.

So again, why now?

It likely has everything to do with this:

Comcast officially takes over on Monday.

The Cable Gamer is thinking along the same lines:

But The Cable Gamer can’t help but think that two big events in the news: The FCC’s approval of Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, and Jeff Immelt’s ascension as the Obama administration’s favorite corporate stooge, have something to do with this.    That is, either Comcast wanted Olby gone, or else Immelt figured that he was so golden with the Obamans that he could do something that he always wanted to do–fire Olby as a way of clearing the decks for the new bosses–who, of course, might have put Immelt up to it, as part of the deal, so that the old regime would take the hit, not the new regime.

UPDATE:

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Heh….hee hee hee…..HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!:

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Via @allahpundit on Twitter:

KosKid:Mr. Olbermann, Consider a Senate Run

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UPDATE:

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Great analysis from Instapundit: “He was a useful idiot for a while. Now he’s no longer useful. Expect to see more of this kind of thing”.

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UPDATE:

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Bryan Preston at The PJ Tatler seems serious in his speculation that Olby may be interested in “a prominent job opening in DC these days.”

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Dude!

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UPDATE:

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Olbermann Watch: Our Work is Done but Olbermann is the Winner

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Linked by Michelle Malkin, Adeliemanchot, The Other McCain, The Augustine 25 Daily, The Daily Gator, and Da Techguy’s Blog , thanks!

Friday Free-For-All

TGIF!

We thought this week could not possibly be any crazier than last week, but we were wrong, huh, Mr Doren?

Fresh off the presses at PJ Media, Zombie takes a step back and looks at the big picture: Human Rights Imperialism: Leftist Satire or Moral Collapse?

The Guardian recently published a wicked satire of moral relativism, a Swiftian send-up entitled “End human rights imperialism now” with the classic sub-heading “Groups such as Human Rights Watch have lost their way by imposing western, ‘universal’ standards on developing countries.” Brilliant! Hahahahaha! I didn’t know the Guardian had branched out into humor.

But about five minutes after my laughter subsided, a horrible suspicion dawned on me: Could it be that the author was serious?

A quick re-read confirmed my fears. This was no joke. This was the modern left finally taking its last inevitable step into the abyss of moral oblivion.

Keep reading.

What’s this all about?

House Judiciary Voter Suppression Files Photographed by Tatler Source outside Rayburn Office B351 this morning

This box was found this morning sitting on a palette outside a room in the Rayburn House Office Building, the staff office for the Democratic staff office of the House Judiciary Committee . As you can see, the box is labeled “Voter Suppression Files.”  Now what exactly is in those boxes? The Tatler asks why in the world would Democrats want to suppress votes in any elections?

Check out the Augustine 25 Daily for all the latest links from around the blogosphere.

At The Washington Examiner, Bruce McQuain asks: Are we headed to an unrecoverable fighter jet gap?

“There has not been a single soldier or Marine who lost his life in combat due to a threat from the air in over 56 years.”

Let that statement sink in for a minute. The reason we’ve not lost a single soldier or Marine to enemy air is we’ve maintained such a dominant edge in both technology, ability and numbers that no enemy has been able to challenge our dominance of the air over any battlefield on which we’ve fought since Korea.

The military defines air superiority as “that degree of dominance in the air battle of one force over another which permits the conduct of operations by the former and its related land, sea, and air forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by the opposing force.”

But that dominance and superiority in the air are in serious jeopardy.  In our drive to cut budgets, we are about to cut capability instead of costs.  And that could result in a serious threat to the war fighting ability of our military and  eventually threaten our national security.  There is a developing fighter gap and if it continues as it is presently proceeding, it may be unrecoverable.

There’s goes Iowahawk making me lol, again: Dear Nazi The correspondence of Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN), America’s most dynamic metaphorist

Mr. Hector Gutierrez
Gutierrez Bros. Landscaping
Arlington, VA

Dear Mr. Gutierrez:

Nothing could have prepared me for the shock that awaited as I exited the front door of my home early Wednesday morning, where I discovered that your lawn crew had cut a swath of environmental destruction across my yard so horrifying that it only can be compared to the Rape of Nanking. I can scarcely bring myself to describe the killing fields that are my North azalea beds and the brutal degradation and torture suffered by the bluegrass around the locust tree by the rear patio.

No longer will I sit idly while you and your doorknob hangers continue to repeat the Big Lie of “satisfaction guaranteed.” I am writing to inform you that I have contacted the US Department of Interior to conduct a full independent investigation into Gutierrez Brothers’ actions in this matter. Please be advised that you may be subpoenaed for records pertaining to mower height, pruning shear maintenance, and leaf blower emissions.

I would also advise your crewmen to heed the lessons of the Judgement At Nurenburg: although they may be spared the justice due their superiors, “I was only following orders” is not an excuse.

Sincerely,

Representative Steven Cohen
Washington, DC

And so on…Seems Rep Cohen is a busy correspondent

Awwww…From the Daily Caller: Women in Boehner’s home state love it when he cries

Fox News: Where Was the Media When Bush Was Being Called Hitler?

Thank you CK for making this point:

This is Daily Caller video is awesome: Herman Cain, CEO of Godfather’s Pizza circa 1994, challenging Bill Clinton on Hillarycare:

“On behalf of all those business owners that are in a situation similar to mine, My question is quite simply, if I’m forced to do this…what will I tell those people whose jobs I’ll have to eliminate.”

Watch Slick Willy’s face drop after he thinks he’s masterfully handled the question and Cain (who has clearly done his homework) begs to differ, crunching the numbers for him.

Linked by DoublePlusUndead, thanks!

Gosnell’s House of Horrors

Some news stories are almost  too sick and disturbing to countenance. You just want to look away and pretend it’s not happening.

The Philadelphia abortion butcher horror is just that sort of story for me.  And while the left calls for more “civility” in public discourse, our civil betters are flushing this story down the memory hole as quickly as possible because it doesn’t further their narrative. It furthers ours: Legal or illegal,  abortion is a ghastly business that corrupts everything it touches.

In Doc Gosnell’s case, liberal fealty to the pro-abortion narrative was so heart-achingly appalling and indecent, I’m near speechless.

The Anchoress isn’t speechless, although she’s just as horrified: Gosnell; Baby Feet Kick the Nation – UPDATES

I have been afraid to write about this woman-killing, baby-slaughtering, fertility-stealing, heartless and exploitative freak since the story broke. It’s been that horrifying.

***

Of course this neglect toward patient’s safety and the law is by design. A shoddy operation like Gosnell’s could not have continued to perpetrate medical atrocities on women, unless somewhere along the line situations were going unreported and investigations were left unassigned as true-believers within the system looked determinedly away. See pages 9-15 of the report. In fact, just keep reading.

For them, I suppose, these dead or maimed women might be considered “collateral damage” in the efforts to preserve a “choice” they consider sacrosanct. If a few women perish along with the million babies per year, well, it’s such a small number, right?

And if some women are left scarred, maimed or infertile, well…probably they’re the sort of women who shouldn’t have babies, anyway, right?

***

Yesterday on Twitter, a journalist wrote: “This abortion doctor story is gruesome. Anti-choicers will seize on it, but it’s about criminal behavior, not abortion.”

Its funny how framing works. A massacre perpetrated by a deranged man is not about the deranged man; it’s about “rhetoric.” But a massacre perpetrated by an abortion provider whose violations against laws of the nation and of humanity were overlooked for years is “not about abortion.” It’s about criminal behavior, and that’s all. But some of our most prominent politicians have voted against the very bill — the “born alive” bill — that defines such behavior as criminal. Meaning, I guess, that if only enough politicians had voted with Sen. Barack Obama, Gosnell’s behavior would not be “criminal” at all, and therefore we wouldn’t even be talking about it?

Nobody wanted to believe this about Obama in 2008:

More Anchoress: Abortion, Language and Looking Away:

Many of the women who came to Gosnell were poor, and far along in their pregnancies They paid exorbitant sums to Gosnell (after being referred to him by who? Other doctors?) in order to be stripped from the waist down and given not-so-much as a gown — only blood-stained blankets that were washed once a week. They were anesthetized by unlicensed persons while flea-infested cats roamed freely. That’s just the tip of this iceberg, but I can’t go on because its too upsetting. The babies who “precipitated” and “fell out” of women while no medical personnel were available; babies being pulled out of the pipes or “seeming to swim” in the toilet. Babies breathing and crying before their spinal cords were “snipped” and their bodies were thrown into empty milk-cartins, cat food containers, shoe boxes. Women who were maimed or left infertile, or diseased or killed. The unwashed instruments, the bloody tables and stirrups, the feet severed from babies and kept as trophies.

Crying yet? How many more clinics like Gosnell’s are there out there?

The press is not going giving a full sense of the scope of this horrorshow, because they will want this story minimized and shoved down the memory hole as fast as possible. There are a few weak lines of spin being bandied about, but do not be fooled; this is about abortion in America, and about a mindset that will excuse a great deal for its sake. Steel yourself to it and try to read the report. Become educated about Gosnell; it is very likely there are more like him — exploiting the poor, cutting every corner and confident that local authorities and regulators will not care.

We were told that Roe v. Wade  made abortion “safe, legal, and rare”. Well, it certainly made it legal.

Michelle Malkin posts the grand jury report, and focuses on the media angle to the story: The Philadelphia Horror: How mass murder gets a pass

Deadly indifference to protecting life isn’t tangential to the abortion industry’s existence – it’s at the core of it. The Philadelphia Horror is no anomaly. It’s the logical, blood-curdling consequence of an evil, eugenics-rootedenterprise wrapped in feminist clothing.

Almost as if on cue, R.S. McCain posts: Professor on Aborted Babies: ‘I Look at Them Unflinchingly and See Meat’:

“I’ve scooped brains out of buckets, I’ve counted dendrites in slices cut from the brains of dead babies. You want to make me back down by trying to inspire revulsion with dead baby pictures? I look at them unflinchingly and see meat. And meat does not frighten me.”
– Paul Z. Myers, University of Minnesota biology professor

While Prof Babymeat has no problem with the  murder charges against Gosnell pertaining to the women, he takes exception to the charges for the baby murders:

He has also been charged with the murders of seven babies, and there I have to disagree. There has to be a difference in degree, or the mothers of those infants would also have to be charged as collaborators (they were all willing volunteers for this medical procedure, and they knew the result would be termination of their pregnancy). They haven’t, and they shouldn’t. Much noise is being made about the “horrific” killings, but late term abortions, even the ones done in clean, properly maintained facilities with well-trained personnel, are always necessarily bloody and unpleasant affairs, like most surgeries.

See, only the women’s deaths and mutilations were “horrific”.  All those babies who bawled as their spinal chords were snipped, or were delivered straight into the toilet….no big deal.

Vox Popoli sez:

This is the naked face of atheism, ladies and gentlemen. Look on it well and remember it, because it usually doesn’t dare to show its disgusting and anti-human nature so openly.

I was thinking the same thing, but didn’t want to bring atheism into it. Not all atheists are like that. It’s the naked face of militant atheism.

Ed Morrissey notes at Hot Air:

There are really two stories here.  The first is Gosnell and his clinic, and all of the damage and death he caused over a decades-long run.  The second is the utter lack of concern over it by government authorities that supposedly exist to protect public health and women.  The grand jury report could not possibly be more damning of the failure of public oversight in the Gosnell case.  The media is covering the first and doing their best to ignore the second, and especially the reasons for the failure, which the grand jury showed more courage in defining than news organization have done in reporting.

Ace  plumbs the depths of depravity at a radical feminist hive known as Feministing : Feminists: What Gosnell Did Says Absolutely Nothing About Abortion Because It Wasn’t Abortion

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and iOWNTHEWORLD, and Pundette, and Doug Ross, thanks!!

Video: Glenn Beck’s So-Called “Call To Violence”

This is the Glenn  Beck clip lefties have been hyperventilating about all over the blogosphere: Glenn Becks “call to violence”:

Here is a partial transcript of the show from June 10, 2010:

The media and the politician have all of this wrong. In every single walk of life — you want to know why TV doesn’t reflect you? You want to know why Washington doesn’t reflect you? Because they don’t understand, from the radical revolutionaries to the Islamic extremists — and yes, DOJ, they do exist — to the Tea Party movements.

Just because you in Washington and you who are so out of touch with life in the media, just because you don’t believe in anything doesn’t mean nobody else does. We do. You know why you’re confused by this show? It’s because I believe in something. You don’t.

Tea parties believe in small government. We believe in returning to the principles of our Founding Fathers. We respect them. We revere them. Shoot me in the head before I stop talking about the Founders. Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government.

I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don’t. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and brought in wearing sheep’s clothing — change the pose. You will get the ends.

You’ve been using them? They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You’re going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.

They are dangerous because they believe. Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they’re revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about.

Here is my advice when you’re dealing with people who believe in something that strongly — you take them seriously. You listen to their words and you believe that they will follow up with what they say.

You can read the entire transcript at Fox News, linked above.

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Here’s what the “most highly rated” (and strongly suspected astroturf) first comment at YouTube says:

Why is Glenn Beck so obsessed with calling anyone who disagrees with him a “Nazi” or “Communist”? Why has he dressed up like a Nazi or a Soviet Union party member, on so many occasions?

Why isn’t the management at “Fox News” acknowledging this video and Beck’s call for violence?

This is not subtle. It’s pretty clear. This man is sick. I wouldn’t want my kids to see this hateful garbage.

Way to take the exact opposite meaning from what was intended in the clip.

What should be absolutely clear to anyone with two working brain cells, is that Beck is warning Democrats about the violent nature of the revolutionaries within their own party. It’ looks to me that when he says, “shoot me in the head” and “you’re going to have to shoot them in the head”, he’s speaking metaphorically, but when he gets to the revolutionaries, (to make his point), he’s speaking in a more literal sense. These people are serious, and they’re dangerous, he’s warning them.

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Lefties like Charles Johnson, (whom Patterico screencaps from Twitter), want you to believe that Beck is inciting his followers to violence.  Regular viewers of course know that Beck habitually does the opposite.

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These are the very same people who asked us to listen to Reverend Wright’s disturbing rants “in context”, (hoping we wouldn’t, because “in context” never helped).

The left is knowingly misrepresenting what Beck was saying. When called out on their dishonesty, they move the goalposts and say Beck is just crazy for using such violent language.

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Those folks need to be reminded that people who are on the air for 20 hours a week will occasionally say things they might have said better.

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If they were serious about violent and vitriolic rhetoric they would be just as concerned by commentators like Chris Matthews, for instance:

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How about the spittle-flecked vile hate fantasies of left-wing talker, Mike Malloy:

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I would think the left would police their own side if they were really concerned about “hate speech”. But as you and I know, they’re not. This is just a tactic in their quest to delegitimize effective conservative talkers.

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Don’t buy the bull.

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See also:

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The Other McCain: Patterico: ‘Charles Johnson Doesn’t Care About Context or Truth Any More’

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The Blaze: Did Glenn Beck Really Tell His Audience to ‘Shoot’ People ‘In the Head’?

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Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Little Miss Attila, thanks!

Video: Bill Whittle’s Half-Time Report Card For Obama – Bzzzzt-F!

I hope you’re sitting down….Bill Whittle engages in some shockingly “uncivil” and “eliminationist”  rhetoric, here – sure to make liberal heads explode:

Bzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt!

He left Obama’s shameful treatment of  Honduras out of  his “cheap and tawdry list of shortcomings”. But I’ll forgive him. That was a pretty decent rant.

Thanks to Retired Geezer.

For another mid-term report card, see K.E. Campbell at The American Thinker: Report Card on Obama’s First Two Years

Two years ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States.  Are you better off today than you were two years ago?

Numbers don’t lie, and here are the data on the impact he has had on the lives of Americans.

Linked by Da TechGuy and Hyscience, thanks!

Chris Matthews’ Definition of Extremism: Opposing The President

Greatest screenshot, ever.

Chris Matthews found Michele Bachmann’s speech on the House floor, yesterday, to be “extremist”, and tells a grim, head-shaking,  Debbie Wasserman Schultz that her speech shouldn’t be allowed. That’s right, the  “extreme”, Michele Bachmann, Captain Civility charges, is “pretty close to a nut case”,  and should be muzzled. How dare she speak honestly about how Republicans plan to repeal ObamaCare.

You can watch the video at Newsbusters:

This is more in the question area of tone and what happened with your friend, Congresswoman Giffords, and she’s still recovering and we’re praying for her to make it, and she’s been showing good signs. Let me ask you this. This kind of talk from Michele Bachmann. I don’t know why she’s allowed to be an extremist, and everybody is coaxing on the Right, Republicans saying the President should move to the center and be reasonable and moderate, where she’s allowed to be out there as a screamer, and in many cases pretty close to a nut case. This kind of talk. She’s standing on the floor of the House, her job is to enact legislation, and yet there she is standing there saying her goal in life is to eliminate a presidency. That’s how she talks? Is that what you do on the floor of the Congress now? You talk about eliminating somebody else’s political career? I thought there was some deference about these things.

Here , via the Blaze, is what “nutcase, screamer”, Bachmann said that gave Matthews the vapors:

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Did you catch the “eliminationist rhetoric”, there? The scary “dog whistle”?…

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No, I didn’t either. I heard a determined woman talking about how the GOP plans to eventually get Obamacare repealed.

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Who the hell is Matthews trying to kid?

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Where was he during the Bush years when the President was routinely insulted by Democrats, in the most disrespectful terms imaginable. Does he really think our memories are that short?

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Hey Matthews: Let us know  when Michele Bachmann  calls Obama a “total failure”, or a “loser”, or a murderer,

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Until then, do me a favor and pound sand.

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Video: Nazi Comparing Dem Keeping It Civil On CNN

Rep. Cohen, (D-TN), probably thought he was in safe territory, here, but Anderson Cooper did a really good job holding his feet to the fire. Is  Cooper auditioning for a job with Fox New?

video via Breitbart TV

Cohen, of course, personifies what conservatives understand these calls for “civil speech” to be: Civility for thee but not for me.

He also personifies what conservatives say about Dem projection.

Not to mention what we say about leftism being a mental disorder.

The man is nuckin’ futz.

See also:

Michelle Malkin: Civility Watch: Nazis and crosshairs and killers, oh my; Update: Democrat Rep. Cohen doubles down on Nazi/KKK smears

PolitiFact, of course, is a PolitiFarce — liberal activists masquerading as neutral journalists. As Karl at Hot Air put it so well in response to the group’s declaration that the federal takeover of health care was a “lie:”

“PolitiFact exists largely as an attempt to del[e]gitimize certain political opinions.”

Compare to the Obama Campaign’s farcical, “Fight the Smears” website.

Doug Ross took the time to deal with the projection issue.

Gee, schmuck, you mean lies like these?

• If you like your current health care plan, you can keep it.

• Your premiums will go down an average of $2,500 a year.

• Health care reform will help businesses.

• Health care reform won’t add ‘a single dime’ to the deficit—and will actually cut it!

• Ninety-five percent of Americans will not see any form of tax increase because of Obamacare.

• There will be no government rationing of medical care!

• Obamacare will not allow for funding of abortions with taxpayer money.

• Health care negotiations will occur in public and will even be seen on CSpan.

Now, was someone talking about a comparison to Goebbels?

Thomas Lifson, The American Thinker: Was Obama just kidding about ‘civility’?

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) is refusing to apologize for his words on the House floor likening GOP opponents of ObamaCare to Geobbels, andinvoking the Holocaust. So far, neither Robert Gibbs nor President Obama has commented on this obvious slap in the face to the President’s call for civility. This would seem to be an obvious opportunity for the President to triangulate and win over independents – a Sistah Souljah moment.  But is he willing to antagonize an ObamaCare supporter? Meanwhile, even liberal Jewish groups that support Obama are condemning Cohen’s words.

UPDATE:

Atrocious!…

Hot Air: Steve Cohen: I’m really sorry — that people are using my GOP/Nazi comparison as a “distraction”

Allah says:

Usually these faux apologies run along the lines of “sorry if you were offended,” but this guy’s actually a step past that. Essentially, he’s saying “sorry for letting your offense sidetrack my party’s agenda.”

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and The Silent Majority, thanks

Wednesday’s Hero: Maj. Dick Winters

Maj. Dick Winters
92 years old from Hershey, Pennsylvania
Company E, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
January 21, 1918 – January 2, 2011

This Week’s Post Was Suggested & Written By Beth Shaw of Blue Star Chronicles:

Maj. Richard “Dick” Winters passed away a couple of weeks ago and Beth has written a wonderful piece honoring his service and his life.

Some of the awards Maj. Winters was honored with for his service: Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation with one Oak Leaf Cluster, American Defense Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 service stars and arrow device, World War II Victory Medal, Army of Occupation Medal, Croix de guerre with palm, French Liberation Medal, Oorlogskruis with palm, Belgian WWII Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge with 2 combat stars and the Medal of the City of Eindhoven

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.

Nice: NAACP Covered Up Statue of George Washington on MLK Day

Photo via Atlas Shrugs

Fox News reports:

The NAACP’s South Carolina office chose to cover a statue of George Washington during its annual rally honoring Martin Luther King Jr., drawing complaints from conservatives that the group was offending the legacy of the nation’s Founding Father.

The state chapter of the civil rights group claims it meant no disrespect and only covered up the statue to provide a more suitable backdrop for speakers at Monday’s event. Pictures taken at the event show the statue was completely covered on three sides by a wooden, box-like structure.

But those pictures prompted an outcry on conservative blogs. Tea Party activist Lloyd Marcus was among those who quickly wrote a retort to the NAACP’s decision.

“I thought, you know, this is just totally absurd, totally ridiculous,” Marcus told FoxNews.com. “I don’t know if George Washington had slaves or whatever but … George Washington was our first president.”

They “covered up the statue to provide a more suitable backdrop for speakers at Monday’s event”.

…Sounds suspiciously like Obama’s excuse for covering up the cross at Georgetown University. Remember that?:

“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage.”

“The White House,” she added, “wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches.”

Uh huh. I didn’t believe that explanation and I don’t believe this one.

The newspaper reported that most rallies in the capital use the statue of America’s first president as part of the natural backdrop — though the NAACP has tried to cover it up in the past. Marcus said he didn’t buy the state chapter’s explanation.

UPDATE:

Lloyd Marcus weighed in more at The American Thinker: NAACP Boxes George Washington:

This misdirected ridiculous behavior by the NAACP epitomizes why I, a black American, will never join or give one nickel to this exploitative divisive organization. With black high school dropout rates at epidemic levels, 80% of black kids growing up in fatherless homes and 50% of black pregnancies ending in abortion, why on earth would the NAACP invest time and energy into running around covering up statues of long dead white guys; rather than addressing “real” issues plaguing black America today?

Regardless of what you think about George Washington, he was our first president. Exploiting the occasion of MLK day to diss America’s first president is part of the NAACP’s continuing effort to find irrelevant crap to protest about, impugn the greatness of our country and live in the past, as if American race relations have not progressed since the 50s.

The NAACP’s mantra is blacks are eternal victims of an eternally racist America; white America should feel eternally guilty, and loyal blacks should feel eternally entitled.

In other NAACP news:

In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage drew criticism from the group after urging its members to “kiss my butt” over the fallout from his decision to skip the group’s MLK Day festivities. In the end, the GOP governor on Monday attended a breakfast in King’s honor, though it was not sponsored by the NAACP.

MORE MLK news:

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ABC News: FBI: Pipe Bomb Found On MLK Parade Route

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A suspicious backpack left along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Wash., held a radio-controlled pipe bomb that could have sprayed shrapnel at marchers in the parade.

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William Teach notices a familiar theme on lefty blogs: Bomb Found On MLK Parade Route Obviously Placed By Right Winger

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Perhaps it was a skinhead, perhaps it was a left-winger engaging in one of their favorite past times; perpetrating a crime designed to bring attention to a societal “problem”.

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No reason to be jumping to conclusions, though.

Video: Paul Ryan Destroys ObamaCare’s Fiscal House Of Cards

There’s nobody better to explain the damaging effects of ObamaCare on the economy than Rep Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“This bill blows a hole through the deficit”, he says:

Ryan has shown no interest in running for President, but he should be on the eventual Republican nominee’s short list for VP, IMHO.

RELATED:

Jennifer Rubin: ObamaCare repeal vote

In a statement Tuesday night, President Obama said:

So I’m willing and eager to work with both Democrats and Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act. But we can’t go backward. Americans deserve the freedom and security of knowing that insurance companies can’t deny, cap or drop their coverage when they need it the most, while taking meaningful steps to curb runaway healthcare costs.”

Now, why would he be offering to “fix” his “historic legislation”? A GOP House leadership adviser says: “I think it is a bow to the reality of the unpopularity of the law, without actually proposing any real or substantive fixes.” Other senior House Republican advisers were even more emphatic, saying the bill is fundamentally flawed and isn’t fixable.

Two recent polls show a majority of the public favoring repeal.

J-Ru posits that in a democracy, “the governing class can’t survive by pushing policies that the majority dislikes”, hence the wipe-out in the midterm elections.

Will Democrats who defy popular opinion (especially in red states) face a similar comeuppance in 2012? Stay tuned, but, this time around, the White House and congressional Democrats are plainly nervous.

MORE:

Gateway Pundit: 200 Top Economists Urge Congress to Repeal Job Killing Destroying Obamacare Bill

UPDATE:

Via NRO’s Daniel Foster on Twitter:

REPEALED

Final vote on repeal (at official close of vote) 245-178, with 10 not voting. Four Democrats voted for repeal. No Republicans voted against.

UPDATE: The Democrats voting for repeal were: Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.), Rep. Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.).

Now Congressmen are tweeting the news:

RepTomPrice Tom Price

http://bit.ly/eBdbpJ RT @RepublicanStudy: As the country demanded, the House has voted to repeal ObamaCare. #repeal#hcrcostsjobs

-

SpeakerBoehner Speaker John Boehner

House passes ObamaCare repeal by 245-189 vote; tmrw effort begins to develop better solutions to lower costs, protect jobs

SEE ALSO:

Matt Kibbe, Red State: Repeal is Real

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

Leftism Really Is A Mental Disorder

A couple of things have been running through my mind for the past week, and until now, I have resisted the temptation to write about them.

The first idea is one that I haven’t seen explored much in the right-wing blogosphere because perhaps to  fair-minded conservatives, it seems like more of the gauche finger pointing we’ve been seeing on display since virtually the moment the Tucson shooting hit the news. The idea that yes, a small number of individuals can be influenced by political rhetoric, or violent images, etc., and the vast majority of those people would be leftists.

Conservatives have used the phrase, “liberalism is a mental disorder” for years, half-jokingly, but I really think it’s  time that we explored why the  far left is populated by so many  people who are so disordered in their thinking, (Fuller, and Loughner being the latest examples).

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing that doesn’t work, over and over again. Socialism fails everywhere it’s tried , yet the left keeps on trying….

Studies repeatedly show that conservatives are happier than liberals, especially married and religious conservatives.

George F. Will wrote that one reason for this was because conservatives don’t put their faith in government:

… they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity — it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.

The right to pursue happiness is the essential right that government exists to protect. Liberals, taking their bearings, whether they know it or not, from President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 State of the Union address, think the attainment of happiness itself, understood in terms of security and material well-being, is an entitlement that government has created and can deliver.

He concluded:

Liberalism is a complicated and exacting, not to say grim and scolding, creed. And not one conducive to happiness.

Two liberal “researchers” from NY University,” John Jost and Jaime Napier, conducted a study to find out why conservatives were happier, and they’re findings were published in May, 2008. Warner Todd Huston fisked the study at Newsbusters:

Even though Jeanna Bryner of livescience.com puts a happy face on the story with her headline, the text following clearly casts conservatives in the worst possible light. Her very first line provides the context of the “research” upon which she reports.

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

In other words, conservatives are happy because they ignore the “economic inequalities” of their fellow citizens and don’t worry themselves over other’s troubles. They just don’t care about other people. This is exactly what this “research” claims.

The researchers explain right wing  rationalization, this way:

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one’s social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

Note the word, “supposedly”. Like “in the real world” this doesn’t  happen. People really can’t prosper through hard work? Really?

Napier and Jost, themselves are ………nuts.

Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., a forensic psychiatrist, has written about  the madness of liberalism in his book The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.

What the liberal mind is passionate about is a world filled with pity, sorrow, neediness, misfortune, poverty, suspicion, mistrust, anger, exploitation, discrimination, victimization, alienation and injustice. Those who occupy this world are “workers,” “minorities,” “the little guy,” “women,” and the “unemployed.” They are poor, weak, sick, wronged, cheated, oppressed, disenfranchised, exploited and victimized. They bear no responsibility for their problems. None of their agonies are attributable to faults or failings of their own: not to poor choices, bad habits, faulty judgment, wishful thinking, lack of ambition, low frustration tolerance, mental illness or defects in character. None of the victims’ plight is caused by failure to plan for the future or learn from experience. Instead, the “root causes” of all this pain lie in faulty social conditions: poverty, disease, war, ignorance, unemployment, racial prejudice, ethnic and gender discrimination, modern technology, capitalism, globalization and imperialism. In the radical liberal mind, this suffering is inflicted on the innocent by various predators and persecutors: “Big Business,” “Big Corporations,” “greedy capitalists,” U.S. Imperialists,” “the oppressors,” “the rich,” “the wealthy,” “the powerful” and “the selfish.”

The liberal cure for this endless malaise is a very large authoritarian government that regulates and manages society through a cradle to grave agenda of redistributive caretaking. It is a government everywhere doing everything for everyone. The liberal motto is “In Government We Trust.” To rescue the people from their troubled lives, the agenda recommends denial of personal responsibility, encourages self-pity and other-pity, fosters government dependency, promotes sexual indulgence, rationalizes violence, excuses financial obligation, justifies theft, ignores rudeness, prescribes complaining and blaming, denigrates marriage and the family, legalizes all abortion, defies religious and social tradition, declares inequality unjust, and rebels against the duties of citizenship. Through multiple entitlements to unearned goods, services and social status, the liberal politician promises to ensure everyone’s material welfare, provide for everyone’s healthcare, protect everyone’s self-esteem, correct everyone’s social and political disadvantage, educate every citizen, and eliminate all class distinctions. With liberal intellectuals sharing the glory, the liberal politician is the hero in this melodrama. He takes credit for providing his constituents with whatever they want or need even though he has not produced by his own effort any of the goods, services or status transferred to them but has instead taken them from others by force.

Lefties have a sense of entitlement that knows no bounds.

Thus, it is the political left that has the real legacy of hate and violence in this country, and around the world. Despite the media narrative, most of the political homegrown terrorism the past couple of years has come from the left.

Conservatives can’t even begin to compete in their world of hatred and venom, where there is injustice around every corner, and nothing that happens to them  is their fault.

The second thing that’s been running through my mind is, “WHY ARE WE LOSING TO THESE PEOPLE?!”

For the past forty years it’s been one step to the right – three steps to the left, repeat every election cycle. We have been losing ground to this crowd for far too long. Why? You have to look to the ‘reach across the aisle’ brigades for the answer – The Frums, Parkers,  Browns, McCains,  Scarboroughs et al. Why in heaven’s name would an otherwise sane Joe Scarborough take the deeply disingenuous lefty boob-bait about “right wing rhetoric” from the likes of Kos, Media Matters, and Chris Matthews. Why?! Is there something in the water over at MSNBC?

And no matter how specious and absurd their narrative, no matter how proven wrong,  they eventually move public opinion in their direction.

This is what happens to political players when they always have to play defense:

Tea Party Unfavorability Reaches New High

Post-Arizona Obama Job Approval Stable, Palin’s Unfavorable Rating Rises

We lose ground. And the crazies win, again.

RELATED:

Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator: John F. Kennedy and Madness of the American Left:

Krugman and his fellow liberals exhibit not compassion but an insatiable lust “red in tooth and claw” for raw political power and the money that comes from that control — control over people’s lives that is won by pitting race against race, rich against poor, producer against consumer and so on and so on. It is a bitterly zero-sum, cold-hearted and cynical view of the world, built on a platform of arrogance, elitist condescension, racial manipulation and topped off by the threat of violence if the rest of us refuse to cooperate.

To oppose any of this effectively, or, to oppose the Left’s agenda in the field of national security and foreign policy, is to directly risk summoning that violence — which is why at this minute former Governor Sarah Palin is being swamped with death threats. It is why European capitals from London to Athens are engulfed in violence or murderous riots.

One reason the crazies have an edge: They have learned how to manipulate a complicit MSM.

Legal Insurrection: We Just Witnessed The Media’s Test Run To Re-Elect Barack Obama

In the vile attempt to tie Palin to the Tucson shooting we have witnessed the test run for how the left-wing blogosphere will target Republican candidates and propel false narratives into the mainstream media, and how the mainstream media will take those narratives and run with them.

If Palin is taken down politically over the Tucson shooting, there is not a single Republican candidate who can survive the coming onslaught.

Richard Viguerie at The American Thinker, believes that the left is in the process of totally discrediting themselves: Tucson and the Kamikaze Left:

As the response to the Tucson tragedy shows, the left and the ruling class media are escalating this battle to the point that they completely destroy their own credibility in the process — even to their own detriment. They are, like kamikaze pilots, dangerous in their desperation.

As to those calls for civility and for the political discourse to “calm down”?  We Tea Party conservatives were behaving quite well already, thank you very much.  The problem is and has been on the left.  It is apparent to everyone but the political left and ruling-class media that their calls are cover-ups for the extremism of their own side.

Robin of Berkeley explains the left’s insane hatred of Sarah Palin:

With her children and grandchild, her religion and her patriotism, Sarah is the antithesis of everything the progressives stand for.  Palin is not just pro-life, but she emanates life — and good, clean living.

And what does the left do?  They try to drag her through the mud to sully her.  The hardcore among them want to eliminate her, even if this means putting her life at risk.

The progressives “joke” about gang-rape, make pornographic movies about her, and leer at her legs.  (Would any of this be tolerated against Michelle Obama?)

Palin’s church was torched during the primary, a vicious crime that was hushed up by the MSM.  And now, with the smears about Tucson, death threats against Palin have soared.

Yes, leftists attack Palin because they envy her beauty; and true, she’s a political threat.  But the main reason for the hatred is something deeper and darker.

Leftists loathe Palin because she has retained something that was stripped from them years ago: a wholesomeness, a purity of heart.  People on the left despise Palin because she shines a bright light on their shame and unworthiness, which they try desperately to deny.

Hugh Hewitt’s Hard Hitting Interview With Politico Editor John Harris

Hewitt’s proposition: Politico.com In The Left Ditch, Wheels Spinning.

A conservative reader reacts to the Scarborough column just as a conservative reader reacts to this Politico headline from this morning:  “Retreads Still Drive GOP Agenda.” This headline comes in a week in which not one but two former senior Clinto Administration officials return to take the helm of the president’s and vice-president’s staffs.

A little further down the page, another headline slamming the GOP: “GOP Event Dodges Immigration Fight,” and further down a second headline on the same gathering, “Jeb Bush: GOP ‘incredibly stupid’ to ignore Hispanics.”

Other interesting headlines:  “Admin reunites Clinton centrists” (not “retreads) and “Obama speech recalls Reagan.”

So what happened at Politico?  The big problem is that it grew and you cannot clone Mike Allen, whom everyone generally trusts even though some mistake his affability as pro-Obama tilting.  Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith were great second round draft picks though Smith breaks left far more often than he breaks right.

The rest of the team, though, has been built from standard issue, anti-conservative journostriplings who don’t even know their own bias.  The tin ears of the senior staff miss headline lurches like this day’s random grab, and whoever came up with the idea of Joe Scarborough to carry the conservative torch is a plant from the Washington Post.

Scarborough’s recent specious column; Hold bad political actors accountable is what set him off.

Harris did his best to defend The Politico’s editorial decisions, but Hewitt concluded, “I think The Politico has a problem, and I’m not the only one who thinks it.”

A great discussion:

Hugh Hewitt Confronts Politico Editor Over Left-Wing Biased Tucson Coverage from Breitbart on Vimeo.

Video via Breitbart TV.

See also: The Other McCain, who asks who exactly are ‘The Pack of Right-Wing Polemicists Who Make Big Bucks Spewing Rage . . .’?

Video: Hannity Interviews Sarah Palin

We were dining out when this aired, so I missed it.  According to live tweeters, Palin handled herself very well. Quin Hillyer, at The American Spectator says she was terrific, “pitch perfect”:

It was dignified. It was well-modulated. It was strong. And it was thoughtful. She kept her composure even as Hannity put on the screen some of the vilest, most vicious attacks against her — the sorts of things that were so bad that if they were said about me they might shake me to my core. She explained her thought process after hearing about the shooting in Tucson, and explained the timing of her videotaped message, and explained her use of the term “blood libel.” She insisted, rightly, that strong and honest — but respectful — political debate should not be stifled, and noted that it only seems like the right is asked to stifle its views. She was correct on all counts.

Via Hot Air, Quotes of the Day

Linked by Michelle Malkin, Sister Toldjah, and Donald Douglas at RWN, Theo Spark and American Power, thanks!

MLK Day Blog Round-up

Something I think we can all agree on? MLK: ‘A Nation Where They Will Not Be Judged By the Color Of Their Skin But By the Content of Their Character’

video via Breitbart TV

Around the blogosphere:

Michelle Malkin: MLK Day proposal: Give the race card a rest

Howling Wolf: Civil Rights, The Left & The Legacy Of MLK

Potluck Bloggers:  Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Right-Wing News: A Tribute To Martin Luther King Jr. From My Son

Michelle Malkin: MSNBC Brainiacs: Arizona Should Secede Because They Don’t Recognize MLK Day

Zilla of the Resistance: Martin Luther King Jr. Day – some thoughts and links

Dave in Texas at AoSHQ: Are You Able to Accept Blows Without Retaliating?

NRO: An American Hero-Laureate

Points and Figures: Martin Luther King Day