The Crowbar

Gurgling up from the Cesspool of the Grubby Left erupts a stinky bubble of false indignation. Witness Robert Schlesinger, regular believer reader of the fringe left site ThinkProgress, masquerade as the Righteous Defender of Retards Everywhere.

So, what’s the real story? You see, Schlesinger, a fanboy of Rahm’s, is angry, very angry, that Sarah Palin called for his hero’s resignation as Obama’s Chief of Staff. What’s scorned fanboy to do? Hold on to the wrath and unleash it a just the right moment, of course!

Enter Rush Limbaugh, determined to stir the puddin’:

LIMBAUGH: Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are looney tunes. And I’m not going to apologize for it, I’m just quoting Emanuel. It’s in the news. I think their big news is he’s out there calling Obama’s number one supporters f’ing retards. So now there’s going to be a meeting. There’s going to be a retard summit at the White House. Much like the beer summit between Obama and Gates and that cop in Cambridge.

Yeah, OK, Rush is being an insensitive ass, as usual. He wrong to compare liberal activists to retards – it’s an indignity to retards. Seriously. “Retards” are usually loving, innocent people. Members of the hard left are usually bitter, nasty, hateful, crude, creepy, and generally extremely unpleasant to be around.

Sarah’s response to Rahm’s comments was vehement and personal, but why – what’s behind it all? 

How can anyone forget how Palin was treated by the “professional” press after she was announced as John McCain’s running mate? It was a mob mentality, Palin was outright abused by the press. Did Obama’s campaign do anything to dissuade the press from the hideous smears and maltreatment? Emanuel was Obama’s chief strategist and, considering his bully temperament, I suspect he actively encouraged the press to be horrible to Palin. We know that Emanuel, Time’s 2009 Person of the Year, has had an all-too-cozy relationship with the press. Remember Begala, Carville, and Stephanopoulos’ daily chats with Emanuel back in January 2009? Is there any question that he still “chats” with them on a regular basis?

We all know what’s going on. Emanuel is an ugly, blind partisan filled with Chicago-style ball-busting vulgarity. Is this really who the Democratic Party wants to be one office away from the President? Given Emanuel’s severe lack of grace on every front and on nearly every issue, selecting Emanuel for Chief of Staff not only shows poor judgment on Obama’s part; it shows political naiveté. Even lefty pundits have major reservations about Obama selecting him. It’s past time for Emanuel to go.

I totally agree that Palin should call out Limbaugh on his insensitivity – Limbaugh should apologize to the special needs community. But, Limbaugh isn’t a hyper-partisan public official with a history of inappropriate-for-a-public-officials vulgarity. Should he be fired? No. The now-defunct Air America radio hosts said much worse than Limbaugh, which probably lost them listeners and ultimately their jobs. The audience will ultimately judge whether Limbaugh is still worth listening to.

As for Schlesinger, the newly self-appointed Righteous Defender of Retards Everywhere, he’s a hypocrite. I see no blog entry of his condemning Emanuel’s private-made-public comments. Fanboy Schlesinger is just as bitterly partisan as his hero, Rahm Emanuel. He’s interested in helping his side maintain power, not doing what’s right for special needs people.

Ever eager to discuss anything other than the actual substance of their Health Care Travesty, Democrats and Liberal-Progressives have found a new red herring in Joe Wilson. The GOP congressman from South Carolina was the last and loudest voice of many members of congress who verbally objected the obvious lie that the Health Care Travesty would NOT cover illegal immigrants (it does).

He said “You Lie!“

The Leftists (especially on Twitter) went berserk, upset the Office of the President had be besmirched by some disrespectful hooligan! Of course you only respect the POTUS when a Democrat is in office – you’re only approved to call the Prez a liar if he’s a Republican.

Wilson apologized, but it will be to no avail.

I don’t think Wilson’s skewering will last long, but, at least for a little while, the left will point their hypocritical fingers and say SEE How DisReSSpectful the GOP is! Don’t listen to them!

How predictable is the left’s bullying mentality?

In his staggering misinterpretation of Van Jones’ resignation fiasco, unhinged progressive David Sirota screeches on and on about RACISM and RIGHT WING HATRED and LYNCH MOBS, “crazies, tea baggers, Republican congresspeople and other assorted conservative freakshows.”

Does this guy leave any doubt in your mind that he deserves his position on the fringe of humanity?

Sirota is loathed to admit that Jones (and himself) are too fringe for the centrists to stomach. The centrists are Obama’s true concern if he wants to further his socialist agenda. Sorry, Sirota, Commie Truthers just have no place in the White House.

Sirota does leave us with some good news, though:

“Jones was one of the only movement progressives in a policymaking position in the Obama White House.”

One down, a few more to go. Here’s to heaving the rest of the Jones/Sirota-like extremists out the door.

We all know by now the ever-classy Peggy Noonan is no fan of Sarah Palin, whom she considers to be a “dope.” And, because Palin persists, Noonan senses to the need to take another shot at her in the latest piece about Palin’s resignation,  A Farewell to Harms.

It’s obvious that Palin was woefully unprepared to be the vice-presidential candidate when John McCain tapped her last year. However, the real debate is about whether Palin has the capacity to learn and the capacity to handle a position like the presidency.

I’ll tell you, I’m not convinced Palin can handle the presidency. But, unlike Ms. Uppity Noonan, I’m also not convinced that she can’t handle it. It is difficult, at this stage, to separate out the neophyte mistakes from chronic character failures. It’s only been 8 months since the tectonic pressures of the media limelight and leftwing/elitist disgust hit her & her family in a volcanic explosion.

It’s very clear that Noonan, being a member of the amberized upper upper class, does not truly understand Palin is all about. Working AND Middle class people identify with her – for you mystified Harvard/Yale/Dartmouth/Brown/Columbia/Fairleigh Dickinson graduates, that means they see themselves in her. They see her and they see how THEY would react being in her situation. They might have an awful, embarrassing interview with Katie Couric. They might falter when pressed on their understanding of foreign policy. They might feel the need to resign as Governor if it their mere presence was causing massive logistic problems for their state.

On display is Noonan’s usually well-hidden disdain for anyone who she considers to be intellectually inferior to her, which, I suspect, includes nearly all working and middle class Americans. Being an admitted “bubblehead,” a.k.a. ‘elitist media snob,’ it’s not that surprising that Noonan fails to see the undercurrent in Palin’s persistent popularity among the Republican base AND among the the working and middle classes.

Noonan has missed that the lower and middle classes sense a poison: a growing and dangerous arrogance amongst the ruling intellectuals and power elites. Sarah Palin in all her undereducated, “not thoughtful” glory represents what elitists like Noonan fear: popular uprising against their corrupt, manipulative, power-mad ways.

Says Noonan:

Here’s why all this matters. The world is a dangerous place. It has never been more so, or more complicated, more straining of the reasoning powers of those with actual genius and true judgment. This is a time for conservative leaders who know how to think.

Here are a few examples of what we may face in the next 10 years: a profound and prolonged American crash, with the admission of bankruptcy and the spread of deep social unrest; one or more American cities getting hit with weapons of mass destruction from an unknown source; faint glimmers of actual secessionist movements as Americans for various reasons and in various areas decide the burdens and assumptions of the federal government are no longer attractive or legitimate.

Amazingly, Noonan is arguing that ONLY geniuses need apply for high political office, because it’s just too “complicated” for us regular folk. What nonsense. She also fails to mention that the “burdens and assumptions of the federal government” were placed upon us by those genius elitist thinkers who can’t manage recognize their own folly, their own human frailties and weaknesses, their blind lust for power, and the precariousness of their endless manipulations.

It’s not Sarah Palin’s seeming lack of thought or “heft” the power/media elites are concerned with, it’s the fact that she persists because she’s been imbued with the anti-elitist, anti-corruption sentiments of the working and middle classes. They “made” her but they can’t unmake her because she’s bigger than them now.

The elites H-A-T-E Sarah Palin becasue she represents their greatest fear: being exposed as merely human, as unqualified as the rest of us to hold their lofty positions of power.

ThingProgress people like Ian Millhiser love to fan the flames when it comes to race conversation in US politics. Further, Millhiser and the TP Team would love to have false villain to distract from Sotomayor’s hard-left resume. Has Jeff Sessions made mistakes in his political career? Yes, but the TP Team would have you believe ridiculous things like Sessions is on some “lifelong crusade against civil rights.” That’s just preposterous.

Why does Millhiser think Sessions is so villainous?

Sessions has focused his attacks on Sotomayor’s past service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), a leading civil rights organization that Sessions calls “extreme” because it “brought several race discrimination lawsuits for minorities” while Sotomayor sat on its board.

Millhiser wishes accusations of extremism were “absurd,” but the truth is that PRLDEF has taken some pretty extremist views, one example:

In 1989, PRLDEF signed on to a Supreme Court amicus brief in Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health that argued that an Ohio law that generally required (subject to a judicial-bypass exception) that one of the parents of a minor be notified before the minor underwent abortion was unconstitutional. In its own statement of its interest in the case, PRLDEF again declared that it “opposes any efforts to overturn or in any way restrict the rights recognized in Roe v. Wade.” The two dozen or so other signatories on the brief included an abortion clinic, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, various other feminist groups, and the World Workers Party. The Supreme Court rejected PRLDEF’s position by a 6 to 3 vote, with the majority including Justice O’Connor and even Justice Stevens (who joined nearly all of the majority opinion and who concurred in the judgment).

The Supreme Court is the end of the line. Sotomayor’s connections with an extremist group are fair game. Millhiser and the TP Team would (and should) be all over a conservative nominee’s connection to an extremist group. Millhiser’s credibility is damaged by his pathetic assertions.

To most of the left, the only people who should have their civil rights protected is anyone who doesn’t have white skin. To lefties like Millhiser and the TP Team, white people don’t REALLY have civil rights, those rights were forfeited as reparations for America’s past racist sins. And, if someone who has white skin, like Sessions, investigates allegations of fraudulent voter registration (that happen to take place in a black community), then that person is automatically “crusading against civil rights.” What base thinking.

Instead, think how different the world would be if everyone were actually treated equally under the law, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. Sotomayor disgracefully opposes that world where blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, etc. are respected as equals in society. Her judicial viewpoint would help ensure future generations are afflicted with victimhood psychology. Her nomination should be thusly opposed.

In her “Sunday Roundup,” Arianna Huffington demonstrates just how shallow her understanding of politics is:

The GOP’s Runnin’ Off the Rails tour continued this week with Sarah Palin announcing she will resign, Mark Sanford admitting he “crossed lines” with multiple women (while providing an instant new slang term for sex: “crossing the ultimate line”), James Inhofe welcoming Al Franken to the Senate by saying, “We are going to get the clown from Minnesota,” and John Boehner spending an hour on the House floor reading aloud portions of the landmark climate-change bill he labeled “a piece of shit.” Also this week, U.S. troops in Iraq were finally cause for celebration, fireworks, and dancing in the streets of Baghdad. It turns out it was not our arrival in Iraq that was greeted with flowers and sweets but our departure. It’s an agonizing lesson learned six years, $1 trillion, and 4,321 U.S. deaths too late.

All of the items cited are supposed to prove the GOP is “running off the rails.” It’s just so tiring to see either side of the political spectrum stoop to the extra-stupid strain of populism which declares the other side defunct because of the behavior of a tiny minority of it’s members.

Arianna Huffington is not a serious political commentator, she is a hack.

The Huffington Post as a whole emulates Arianna’s superficial treatment of politics, which is partly why it’s so popular. It’s mostly leftist authors are generally well known and their agenda-driven populist rants go relatively unchallenged.

If you have to explain a joke, it isn’t a good joke.

If you have to explain a blog post…

“The president is also speaking in code. The Pope [John Paul II] spoke in a code which was implicit and understood support for the forces of freedom. The code the administration is using is implicit support for this repressive, tyrannical regime,” - Charles Krauthammer.

Unbelievable. Stuck in the ancient past.

Would you mind explaining please, Sullivan? How is supporting the forces of freedom being “stuck in the ancient past?”

Obviously Sullivan is greatly displeased with Krauthammer’s criticism of the stance Obama is taking on Iran. But, why? Hmmm.

So, Obama is desperately worried about displeasing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei whom he referes to as “the Supreme Leader.”

From Ralph Peters:

Silence is complicity. Our president’s refusal to take a forthright moral stand on the side of the Iranian freedom marchers is read in Tehran as a blank check for the current regime.

The fundamentalist junta has begun arresting opposition figures, with regime mouthpieces raising the prospect of the death penalty. Inevitably, there are claims that dissidents have been “hoarding weapons and explosives.”

Foreign media reps are under house arrest. Cellphone frequencies are jammed. Students are killed and the killings disavowed.

And our president is “troubled,” but doesn’t believe we should “meddle” in Iran’s internal affairs. (Meddling in Israel’s domestic affairs is just fine, though.)

We just turned our backs on freedom.

Again.

Yeah. Don’t you just love the postmodernist diplomatic flair Obama brings to the world stage? While he’s fretting over how to make good with whoever wins, the mullahs are busy trying to kill freedom that may eventually come to fruition.

It’s painfully obvious who we should be supporting in Iran. But Obama wants to play his naive diplomacy games, disgracefully worrying about not offending the Mullahs instead supporting a few million disenfranchised Iranians whose last glimmer of freedom is being stamped out before their eyes.

Does Andrew Sullivan really support a free Iran? Is he, like Obama, trying to have it both ways?

SILENCE is complicity. Our president’s refusal to take a forthright moral stand on the side of the Iranian freedom marchers is read in Tehran as a blank check for the current regime.

The fundamentalist junta has begun arresting opposition figures, with regime mouthpieces raising the prospect of the death penalty. Inevitably, there are claims that dissidents have been “hoarding weapons and explosives.”

Foreign media reps are under house arrest. Cellphone frequencies are jammed. Students are killed and the killings disavowed.

And our president is “troubled,” but doesn’t believe we should “meddle” in Iran’s internal affairs. (Meddling in Israel’s domestic affairs is just fine, though.)

We just turned our backs on freedom.

Again.

Say what you will about Cheney, but the top left bloggers really REALLY hate him with a passion. They’ve recently devoted lots of webspace to their rage: HuffPo’s Borowitz spews out lame satire at Cheney, saying the Former VP is To Travel Around Country In Sound Truck. Groan. DailyKos’ David Swanson verbosely explains the Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison. Like all morally confused liberals, Swanson is SO for “enforcing laws.” Of course, laws only apply to liberal causes, they can be skirted with “empathy” when laws cause “social injustice.” Aside from that, it’s doubtful that any laws were actually broken, and there will never be prosecutions b/c top Democrats would be dragged down, too.  The fringe leftists at Democratic Underground indulge in ancient Cheney-based fantasy claiming Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up; says Cheney:

“I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time.”

Because he used the word “cover,” he has now admitted a “cover-up”? Oy. The ever-excitable Andrew Sullivan has another go at Cheney, implying that Cheney betrayed his oath of office by supporting harsh interrogation of deranged psychopaths bent on killing Americans. Says Sully, “Is Cheney’s ultimate defense is that he didn’t understand the oath he took?” Go ahead and believe that Sullivan, you’re already a lost cause. ThinkProgress works it over hard, trying to make Cheney look bad because he’d choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell. Who in their right mind would choose Powell the Backstabber? Greg Sargent at Plumb Line gets himself all excited when he finds out White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney. The report supposedly says it’s “difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks.” Just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it’s impossible, duh. Another secret the White House will give to the terrorists for free. How quaint. Josh Marshall at TPM is so hot and bothered he decided to share a Dick Cheney Deep Thought, “Megalomania is a hard drug to kick.” Save it for twitter, Marshall.  Heather at Crooks and Liars thinks she really has something in taking advantage of Cheney and Limbaugh’s negative poll numbers. Take a look-see at Mary Matalin: Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh Exemplify Conservatism. Heather seems to think that Republican policies have been rejected by a large portion of the electorate. Yep. That would be the self-identified “Democrats.” Brilliant like a stone light bulb. Hilzoy at Political Animal gets dramatically offended by Cheney and decries, “How Dare He?”

Dick Cheney forfeited the right to lecture anyone on their willingness to sacrifice American lives the day he decided to deceive us into an unnecessary war.

Please stop with your Superior Moral SuperForce, Hilzoy, you’re making the chickens nervous.

HuffPo gets wacky with it (as of 9:32 AM 5/8/2009): Here we have the implication that Amazon does not worship (as everyone should for their own good) the Left’s One True Living God With Glistening Pecs: Emperor Obama. How could Amazon NOT consider the EXTREME IMPORTANCE of ensuring the Great One’s name is pronounced correctly? Only those who harbor RAAACIST HATRED would overlook such a detail.  It’s clear that Amazon is on the Angry Left’s hit list, especially after the GLBT book delisting debacle. HuffPo links to a NYT article and even the article acknowledges another instance of the Kindle mispronouncing:

Kindle owners in Boston, however, may want to avoid the sports pages for now. The Kindle pronounces “Celtics” with an initial hard “c.”

This must mean that Amazon harbors deep antipathy toward the Boston Celtics too! Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos debunks the idea that there’s anything amiss:

When asked about the error in pronouncing the president’s name, Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com, said, with his trademark laugh, “that’s unfortunate.” The next day, an Amazon spokesman, Andrew Herdener, wrote in an e-mail message that Nuance Communications, the Massachusetts-based company that licenses its text-to-speech engine to Amazon for the Kindle, had added the correct pronunciation of the president’s name.

Once again, the Angry Left harms their credibility.

OMG, the left has dramaticly convulsed with faux indignance about the not-torture memos foolishly released by Obama. The topic has now reached feverish proportions. I’ve noted, in their discourse, leftists are purposely confusing actual torture with hard core interrogation in order to keep themselves outraged enough to distract from the the painful truth they don’t want to face. The left needs something to be Extremely Upset about to keep themselves going, and the not-torture memos fit the bill quite nicely.  Brutal, Unpleasant Reality The anti-interrogationists label those who oppose their view as “pro-torture,” but, here’s the thing of it: Did you know that America trains some of it’s citizens to kill people with guns? It’s called an Army. Do you know what happens to the bodies fo the people on the receiving end of American Army guns? The bodies of people shot by guns die, are torn to shreds, mutilated beyond recognition or sometimes their brains explode, being hit with such extreme force that they spatter all about in a stomach-churning goopy mess. If a targeted person happens to survive being shot by a gun, the bullets that penetrate their body cause excruciating pain, internal bleeding and/or infection that often kills them anyway. If they survive that, the target can face major surgery, possibly amputation of a limb, and months or years of physical recovery. On top of this they will likely face years of psychological recovery – if they ever fully recover. Quite an unpleasant affair, no? Americans have been killing non-American people with guns for some time – no memos justifying that, though. Perhaps we should ban killing by Army guns too, considering how morally repugnanat it is. Oddly enough, people have been involved in killing Americans, too. For example, this event happened about 7 1/2 years ago: That video always puts things in perspective. Facts of the Matter Speaking of perspective, strange how the left didn’t stage a freak out when Obama recently fired missiles killing 15 people, including three children. So the left is OK with America killing children when necessary, but they have an epileptic seizure when a deranged psychopath bent on killing Americans capitulates after being strapped to the floor and having water poured on him six times a day for a month. And, some more moderate voices have joined the anti-interrogation madness. Fox News’ Shepherd Smith exclaimed recently, ”we are America, we do not f**king torture.” But Shep has no such problem with an American Predator drone strike killing children who happen to be in the vicinity of their terrorist relatives. Can you say ‘cognative dissonance?’ We encounter more dissonance in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. telephone poll released in November 2007. 58% of respondents said the government should be not be allowed to use waterboarding to try to get information from suspected terrorists. Altering the question to include the caveat ‘if the safety of you and your loved ones was credibly threatened’ would have significantly altered the percentage, probably placing pro-waterboarding respondents solidly in the majority. Asking that question (including the caveat) of the populace of New York in the months immediately after 9/11/2001 would likely show a dramatic majority in favor of waterboarding. It is easy to hold to lofty, unrealistic ideas over the telephone from the safety of home after six years of no subsequent terrorist attacks. Things change when people feel their safety is truly threatened. Part of the reason there have been no subsequent attacks is because hard core interrogation has proved effective. The CIA confirmed that Khalid Sheik Mohammad supplied the intelligence that aborted 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles:

In the memo itself, the Justice Department’s Bradbury told the CIA’s Rossi: “Your office has informed us that the CIA believes that ‘the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qa’ida has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.”

That’s called “actionable intelligence,” but the left is convinced we have placed ourselves in Grave Moral Danger by obtaining it through harsh coercion.  Blood-Colored Glasses The humiliating truth is the left doesn’t have the stomach to face harsh, ugly reality. Protecting America is a dirty business and most leading liberals don’t like dirty – it offends their delicate sensibilities. They’d rather put the terrorists in therapy or send them home with reparations.  The debate the left is trying to usurp is about where we draw the line, about what is and isn’t too much. Waterboarding and the other coercive techniques used by the CIA walk up to that line, but not past it. It is good for America to question itself, to ensure we are doing the right thing, but the left keeps trying to rescue us from the thoughts they’re afraid we’ll have. They tell us there is no way they can be wrong, no way any opinion other than theirs can possibly be considered – and you’re vilified if you do. But, the leader of the left has already showed signs of retreat from his previous life as an anti-”torture” leftist. Obama knows that he’s in dangerous territory by “banning” these techniques. His adminstration’s waffling shows he wants it both ways; to obtain vital intel without using harsh coercion – but I can’t help but get the feeling he wants the “torture” option in his back pocket. Obama is responsible for protecting the U.S. from another terrorist attack; he knows he has undermined himself and, believe you me, he’s worried about the ramifications. He needs hard core interrogation to stop those insane maniacs from killing more innocent Americans, but he promised to shut down Gitmo and gave the terrorists an interrogation resistance manual to boot.  Left wing opinion leaders have made a major misstep in selling the waterboarding-as-torture narrative, though given their warped ideology it was probably inevitable. The attitude which produced that narrative, ignoring all unpleasantries and hiding inside a hero costume made of faux morality and self-righteousness, is what undermines American security and will be ultimately responsible for the needless, preventable deaths of more Americans at the hands of terrorists.