Posted by aog16:24 on 01 September 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

When someone asks, “how do you expect the Tea Party to have a political impact?”, this is the answer. An out of nowhere opponent latches on to that energy and money and a scion of a powerful political family is deposed. It takes very few of those before most other candidates start shifting their positions.

Posted by aog10:50 on 01 September 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius lets slip a code word — reeducation. We all know what that means when coming from a MAList, especially when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is calling out the staff for a political rally and anti-Mormon rhetoric is leading to violence. How can you not be worried?

P.S. Related, a couple of “Tea Party violence watch” items —

• Russ Carnahan office firebombing apparently by his own staffer with a history of confrontation.
• Tea Party related death threats

Posted by aog20:38 on 30 August 2010 Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Lady of Mazes on an H128

Posted by aog12:04 on 22 August 2010 Comments (9) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made clear she wants investigate opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque after saying it, then having an aide walk it back. Well, the House Un-American Activites Committee was a creation of the Democratic Party, it shouldn’t be surprising their leaders always return to their roots.

Posted by aog08:32 on 22 August 2010 Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Remember kids, government appartchiks never have any incentives to cut fiscal corners or act for their own advantage over that of the taxpayers — it’s always the fault of the Evil Business Community. The only solution seems to be to legislate the latter out of existence. We can be thankful that President Obama’s War on Prosperity is making that a reality.

Posted by aog08:26 on 22 August 2010 Comments (6) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Now even Representative Barney Frank has figured out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the root of the problem and has called for them to be abolished. Or, “Stop my minions before they kill again!” he cried. These people don’t have different ideas about how economies really work, they know the free marketeers are right, which leaves a rather unpleasant explanation for their actions when times are not desperate. When there is no other choice, then looting scum like Frank will give in to reality. But until then it’s party time on the taxpayer’s dime.

P.S. On the other hand, there’s work on bailing out free spending union management with taxpayer dollars — because unions oppose management so union management, by definition, can never do anything that would harm the workers. After all, what incentives would they have to cut fiscal corners, not being CEOs?

Posted by aog08:21 on 22 August 2010 Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

I would like to hear [President] Obama say that Dr. Laura has every right in America to say what she said.

— Danube of Thought

Why not? After all, Obama could just recycle his remarks on the Ground Zero Mosque. A principle is a principle, right?

To me, the biggest display of intolerance has been on the part of the “anti-anti” side who hesitated not a moment in labeling opposition to the mosque as “hatred”, “bigotry”, “intolerance”, and “racism” (against Muslims who, last I checked, were not a race). Like the global warmenists, I will believe those people are concerned with tolerance, acceptance, and cross cultural healing when they demonstrate some themselves.

Posted by aog10:46 on 20 August 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

After the 2004 election, some lefties branded the U.S. “Jesusland.” Now they’re scrambling to deny rumors that Obama doesn’t love Jesus. Odd, yes?

— Daily Caller

The MAL doesn’t have principles beyond “we should be running your life”. Anything else is just a rhetorical trick.

Posted by aog10:38 on 20 August 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

From Volokh comes another reminder of how foreign the socialist mind is to me. From Johann Hari writing about how Jack London was a racist:

This man was the most-read revolutionary Socialist in American history, agitating for violent overthrow of the government and the assassination of political leaders.… And yet there is an infected scar running across his politics that is hard to ignore.

Sure, he wanted people murdered over political disagreements and he advocated the violent overthrow of the government - but he had a dark side, too.

— bgates

Remember kids, the lesson here is fear right wing violence! Socialist violence is never a problem.

Posted by aog10:32 on 20 August 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

A proposed law set to go before California’s Legislature this month would make one of Hollywood’s cherished utterances — “You’re not on the list” — carry grave new consequences. It’s a measure aimed at making the act of party crashing a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.

— Hot Air

Cross the national border illegally? Get sanctuary. Crash a Hollywood party without an invite and do some hard time.

Posted by aog07:42 on 12 August 2010 Comments (6) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Via Hot Air we have Rasmussen reporting that a majority of likely voters consider the current Democratic Party agenda “extreme”. I suppose we’ll see at the ballot box in November.

P.S. Could it be things like this that are contributing to this view? Or maybe this kind of play on racial fears and group identity. Apparently the meme that it’s the Tea Party that should be watched is foundering on the rocks of reality.

The American public has a more positive view of the Tea Party movement than both leaders of the majority party in Congress, according to a poll released Wednesday. [source]

Now that’s a fringe.

Posted by aog19:37 on 05 August 2010 Comments (65) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Obama Administration is planning to siphon money from Justice Department prosecutions to politically favored non-governmental groups. But clearly we should never worry about any polticization of such tax farming, where NGO actors apply their creativity in generating cases for which they get money. Such apparatchiks simply don’t have incentive to cut such ethical corners.

Posted by aog19:25 on 05 August 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Now, at last, I can hear the dog whistles.

Posted by aog12:26 on 29 July 2010 Comments (40) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

One of the major reasons that the MAL resorts to claims of “racism” and “McCarthyism” is because they have other arguments that will stand up when explicitly stated. This is of a piece with the standard vagueness and insinuating style of MAList rhetoric, derived from the basic problem that MALists have to live a lie. It’s why Tea Party activists strongly recommended bringing cameras, while MALists attack people with cameras.

There’s also the fact that such attacks have become simply reflex, the same way the beliefs and ideology of the previous generations of MALists have degenerated in to slogan clusters. It’s just what they do, it’s always worked before.

But I think this article touches on something that might be just as important, which is the most MALists have a very difficult time understanding other frames of reference. To them, everyone is either part of the cultured elite (like them) or irrational barbarians. Since the publicly proclaimed goals and beliefs of the Tea Party don’t fit in to the MAList reference frame, they must be irrational, an artifact of uneducated bitter clinging. Definitely worth reading.

Posted by aog09:23 on 29 July 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Democratic Party Representatives who are not from the coast are feel “let down” because the POR government isn’t pushing the massive energy tax legislation the House passed a while back.

Of course, the first pass analysis is why were these people so stupid as to trust POR? They made a choice to support POR against the interests of their constituents and are unhappy that the constituents aren’t overly happy about it?

But it seems to me there’s yet another major error going on here, which is that passing the legislation would make a bad situation better. I mean, just like passing the health care nationalization boosted Democratic Party election prospsects? Legislation so toxic that the Obama Administration no longer wants his name associated with it? The legislation that those same Representatives (who also voted for that) don’t dare mention on the campaign trail? They want another legislative accomplishment they dare not mention? How would that help when the primary election sound bite is Republicans are Evil!?

Posted by aog09:13 on 29 July 2010 Comments (13) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Yet another little gem in the steaming piles of legislation this Democratic Party Congress and White House are spewing out — the SEC will now be effectively immune to Freedom of Information Act requests. That means that future bailouts can be done completely in secret, with no way for anyone but the inside players to know what happened. If the SEC messes up and costs the taxpayers billions, the latter need to just cough it up and not ask any questions. It’s apparently the Democratic Party’s answer to the SEC’s failure with Bernie Madoff — just stop the people from knowing the regulatory agency screwed up. After all, how often could that happen, since appartchiks have no incentive to cut corners like those despicable private sector people?

Posted by aog11:00 on 28 July 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

The Democratic Party Congressional caucus terminated the Washington D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program despite its success and popularity. Of course, actually helping poor minorities to succeed isn’t a goal of the Democratic Party, only talking about it. But remember, kids, if you ever bring this up, it’s because you hate children and minorities. There’s no other reason to oppose the actions of the Democratic Party, especially if they give their legislation a nice sounding name.

Posted by aog06:57 on 28 July 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Looks like the DISCLOSE legislation didn’t pass the Senate with Senator Scott Brown voting against (so that’s one for him, to balance his vote for the recent “financial bailouts for ever” legislation). The DISCLOSE Act is another bit of legislation that, like the McCain-Feinbold campaign finance “reform”, is basically a message to the American Street to “shut up!”. Party of the People, dude.

Posted by aog13:52 on 26 July 2010 Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Democrats have been running Congress for nearly four years, and President Obama has been at the White House for 18 months, so it’s not too soon to ask: How’s that working out? One devastating scorecard came out Friday from the White House, in the form of its own semi-annual budget review.

The message: Tax revenues are smaller, spending is greater, and the deficits are thus larger than the White House has been saying.

Wall Street Journal

“Unexpectedly”, I’m sure. And I am sure the lack of growth from the currently planned tax increases next year will also be “unexpected”.

Posted by aog20:46 on 23 July 2010 Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), upon unveiling the bill, said “the deterrent effect should not be underestimated.” For those who view nonpoliticians as meddlesome “outside entities” and criticism of incumbents as a crime to be deterred, the chilling effect of campaign finance laws is a feature, not a bug.

— Jacob Sullum

Once you start letting the government regulate what you can say about it, there’s no end to how silent the people in the government will want you to be.

Of course, the Obama Administration is making a strong effort in that regard as well — it seems that the Department of Homeland Security did investigations of people filing Freedom of Information Act requests and delayed responses to political opponents, including Congress.

Posted by aog15:35 on 23 July 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

An inspector general working for the federal government claims, in a report, on the federal government’s management of GM and its dealership

• [D]ealerships were retained because they were … minority- or woman-owned dealerships
• Thousands of jobs were lost, unnecessarily, due specifically to Obama’s “mandate for shared sacrifice
• A disproportionate number of Obama-forced closings were of rural dealerships, in areas unfriendly to Obama, even though such closures could “jeopardize the return to profitability” for GM and Chrysler.

This isn’t surprising. What’s surprising is how many people defend this kind of thing in general, or act surprised at the outcome.

Posted by aog10:46 on 23 July 2010 Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

This has sitting around for a while but has become topical again, so here it is, poorly written and badly formatted.

Even for Old Media and the MAL I have found the breadth of the ad hominem attacks on the Tea Party astounding, something others have noticed.

Links

• Bring cameras
• Smear
• Framing and agitation
• Tea Party members politically savvy
• Various smears
• Dog whistle - refuge of people with no actual evidence.
• What passes for normal on the left and the violence inherent in their system plus infiltrators-‘crashers’/
• It’s projection
• Comment on the smearing
• Bill Clinton weighs in, and Instapundit comments
• An actual Tea Party event report
• Not racism when done the other way
• Some other comments
• Another comparison
• When a conservative does it, that’s inciting violence. But it’s just vigorous debate on the other side.
• Newsweeks chimes in

Just a few of the attacks —

• From a Democratic Party Congressman

Eventually even Cleaver had to disown the story by pretending he never started it. That will suffice, after all if you’re of the right ideological persuasion all you need to to is deny the past and it’s OK.

The fact that various polls show the Tea Party as politically diverse and multi-racial, mostly mainstream, and closer to the American Street than the President, the argument founders for people who pay attention.

The “kooks” attack isn’t holding up any better.

This points to the reason many suspect that the MAL will inject agent provocateurs in to Tea Party events. If someone acts up, Old Media will immediately jump on the story¹ and even if shown later to be completely baseless will, like the Cleaver incident, simply pretend it didn’t happen. It’s not a grand, coordinated conspiracy in the normal sense. It is simply that any fringe (or not so fringe) element of the MAL knows how it will play out and so can organize such a thing independently.

Why bother? Partly because the MAL has no actual arguments left, partly out of habit, and partly because if you repeat a lie often and pervasively enough, some of it sticks, even if there’s almost no evidence for it. The standard for those opposed to the MAL is absolute purity — any inappropriate behavior by anyone calling himself a member taints the entire group. Not that any standard of that sort applies to enemies of the MAL’s enemies. I agree that such things shouldn’t be universally tainting, but that’s not a universally held view.

¹ Just like this Palin story. Reality not required.

Posted by aog09:19 on 23 July 2010 Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

Well, the rocket club’s annual launch was a while back and I just noticed I didn’t post any pictures. It was a horrible time for me, I totaled 2 rockets, one I had just spent a month getting read for the event, and Boy One trashed his rocket on the first flight. But we’re rebuilding.

My faithful wooden rocket, the Jules Verne ‘29 on a G54-S.

My doomed rocket, the Xenographic, an homage to Jack Kirby style alien technology, flying on an H128-S.

Posted by aog19:09 on 22 July 2010 Comments (4) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

America is struggling with a sputtering economy and high unemployment — but times are booming for Washington’s governing class.

— Politico

Yep, it’s why there’s just no sense of urgency at fixing our economic problems, especially if it means any smaller slice of the pie for the public sector.

Posted by aog18:50 on 22 July 2010 Comments (25) Trackbacks (0) Ping URL

I was reading this article about Shirley Sherrod and thinking — gosh, did she learn nothing from the whole experience? For someone who was briefly a nationalized despised figure based on charges of racism, she’s quite free with her own accusations. That they’re not fact based (e.g., blaming Fox News) seems irrelevant. After all, Media Matters has its own history with bogus charges of racism so I suppose that’s just they way they roll. They must have learned it from Journolist.

P.S. As others have noted the interaction with Breitbart was quite odd. He went instantly (somehow, somewhen) from faking ACORN related videos to an impeachable authority. Others have noted that Breitbart’s point (the actual text, not the video) was about the audience, not Sherrod, and he noted that the video was incomplete from the start.