The Victorious Opposition

I just had to share this bit of DC ridiculousness with you guys.  Anyone who knows ol’ “Baghdad” Jim McDermott knows that he is a bit out there, shall we say.  Outsiders look at this guy and wonder how someone like him keeps getting elected.  It’s the same sort of thing when you wonder about Nancy Pelosi.  But like Madame Speaker, when you consider the area the Congressman represents, it comes as no surprise.

That’s why I found this email exchange so interesting.  For a Congressman who isn’t exactly known for his good judgment, his choice in Assistant/Office Manager is somewhat lacking.  Via Politico:

If you want to score a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), know this: His scheduler/office manager, Elizabeth Becton, is to be addressed by her full name — not Liz or any other variant.

An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way.
...
The back-and-forth went on for 19 e-mails, with the assistant apologizing six times if she had “offended” Becton, while Becton lectured about name-calling.

What I find particularly distressing is the position of the poor assistant, who out of respect for her employer and the Congressman apologized profusely and remained polite throughout.  Kudos to her for keeping her cool and getting her job done.  But notice how McDermott’s assistant lords her position as the Congressman’s gatekeeper over her, like where she projects her own vision of self importance by complaining of those who like to brag about their connections to DC.  She should be fired.

It should go without saying that McDermott’s assistant is not representative of Congressional staff, who are by and large highly professional, motivated and capable.  But whether she is representative of the Congressman who hired her is another question.

One of the core tenets of the “activist judges” and “states’ rights” arguments thrown around by conservatives has to do with discontent about incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states via the 14th Amendment. This is the basis on which almost all civil rights, privacy and criminal procedure cases have been decided where a state law and/or court decision was overturned in the Federal court system. We hear this refrain repeatedly - states’ rights, will of the people, activist decision, etc, etc. Almost every last bit of it can be directly attributed to incorporation. And conservatives point to incorporation as one of the greatest evils, while liberals point to it as the greatest good.

The one striking Amendment that has not been incorporated via the 14th is the 2nd Amendment.

And now you see a stunning display of Constitutional hypocrisy coming into play, equally by both sides.

The conservative side is bringing up Sonia Sotomayor’s involvement in Maloney v. Cuomo (PDF file), a per-curiam decision holding that Heller doesn’t apply to the states, because the 2nd Amendment is not incorporated via the 14th Amendment. Rich noted this yesterday in his broader discussion about 2nd Amendment issues. SCOTUSblog also has an article up about this:

The Maloney decision (Second Circuit docket 07-581) involves the next major issue on the Constitution’s Second Amendment, which guarantees a “right to keep and bear arms.”  The issue is whether that Amendment applies to state and local government, thus restricting their power to control individuals’ private possession of pistols and other guns.  The Supreme Court ruled last year, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that the Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, for self-defense, in the home.

The Court, however, did not settle whether the Amendment operates against any level of government other than the federal government and a federal entity, the District of Columbia.  The Second Circuit, in the Maloney case, ruled that prior Supreme Court precedent saying that the Amendment only applied at the federal level is still binding law.  Sotomayor was a member of a three-judge panel that issued the unsigned ruling.

In reaction to her nomination, supporters of broad rights under the Second Amendment exploded.  For example, Curt Levey, executive director of the conservative advocacy group, Committee for Justice, wrote: “Now every red and purple state Democratic senator who considers voting for Sotomayor will be forced to explain to his constituents why he’s supporting a nominee who thinks those constituents don’t have Second Amendment rights.  Because they can send red state Democrats running for cover, gun owners are the one interest group that could completely change the political equation on judicial nominations if they’re drawn into the debate. Obama’s selection of Sotomayor makes that virtually certain.”

This has gone so far that the NRA is suing in Federal court to have the 2nd Amendment incorporated:

Ah, political correctness invades World of Warcraft. I got a 3-day temporary ban from the WoW forums for daring to insult The Great One (apparently I offended someone enough for them to report me). In response to someone bitching about someone else asking for something for nothing, I posted a pithy little response:

ME WANT ME GET

This, in a nutshell, is why Obama is now the President of the US and why we already have a $1.84 trillion deficit for 2009. Grats, InterWeb generation. You wanted it, you got it.

Now, this was completely offtopic and designed to piss off these libtards, so I don’t really have any cause to complain about getting banned. But here’s the funny bit:

Ban Type: Temporary
Expires: 05/16/2009 02:19:59 AM EDT
Ban Reason: Posting hateful language concerning race, ethnicities, or sexual orientation

Suspended from the forums for inappropriate posting concerning one or more of the following: politics, religion, sexual orientation, race or ethnicities.

Emphasis added. Hmm. It appears I’m a bigot for having issues with the President’s economic policies. Or maybe I’m a bigot for picking on the InterWeb generation. Sigh.

And, oh, BTW - the WoW Forum Code of Conduct doesn’t actually have a word to say about politics being off limits. See for yourself. They should have just banned me for being a douche, not for being a bigot and posting a topic that’s not even against the CoC.

Anyhow, I thought you’d get a kick out of this.

With partially nude photos of her popping up on Web sites questioning her Christian credentials, Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has fired back, claiming the racy pictures are just modeling shots and vowing to continue her battle against same-sex marriage.

“I am a Christian, and I am a model,” Prejean said in a statement released overnight to the media. “Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be.”

...

The images may also hurt her status as a spokeswoman for conservative causes. “She can continue to advocate for causes, but I don’t think these causes are going to advocate for her,” Ken Baker of E! News told NBC.

Baker, of course, just gave away the true reasoning behind these attacks: destroy her and shut her up for daring to speak heresy.  This is the exact same kind of relentless hatred that Sarah Palin has been dealing with for months.  Eventually, I’m sure that Andrew Sullivan will be running around demanding that she produce airtight evidence that Prejean wasn’t born a man.  Liberals’ obsession with crushing attractive conservative women is starting to become disturbing.  I’d like to know if NOW or one of those other nitwit bimborganizations is going to defend her, for that matter.

For the record, I agree with Prejean that there should be nothing morally contradictory with her previous modeling work.  If it was okay between her and God for her to appear in beauty pageants, which are all about objectifying women as sexual objects and all that, there’s no reason why those pictures should be wrong either. 

The true hypocrisy is among her left-wing haters, who would have no problem with anyone else doing this who didn’t publicly state a position with which they disagree.  The fact is that they see a woman they need to crush and they’re going to keep pushing it.  Usually, I don’t care about these pageants, but what I am seeing here is another coordinated media attempt to silence an ordinary person who happens to be conservative.  That is what I’m mad about.  Expect more of her personal information to come out very soon.  I hope she holds fast.

MSNBC

UPDATE: This from last week:

“In the entire history of the Miss USA, no reigning title holder has so readily committed her face and voice to a more divisive or polarizing issue,” organizers said in a statement.

That’s pretty dirty when you recall that it was one of pageant’s fucking judges who injected that polarizing issue into the event in the first place.  Prejean gets set up for that and then attacked by those who let it happen in the first place.  When did Miss Thoughtcrime become a title, anyway?

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that he opposed, for now, creating an independent commission to probe harsh Bush-era interrogation techniques widely branded as torture.

But Reid, who has denounced as torture the use of the near-drowning tactic called waterboarding, said he might be open to the idea once the Senate Intelligence Committee wraps up its enquiry into the matter later this year.

“I think it would be very unwise, from my perspective, to start having commissions, boards, tribunals, until we find out what the facts are. And I don’t know a better way of getting the facts than through the Intelligence Committee. I think that’s a pretty good way to do it,” said the Nevada Senator.

This is as I said before.  The political class is going to protect itself because the Democrats are well aware that trying to burn down Bush’s house over a policy issue that they sided with during the time it was happening is going to torch their own house in the process.

Well, there may be one Democrat who doesn’t get it:

“We were not, I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,” said Pelosi, one of the eight senior lawmakers who attended the classified briefings.

Pelosi said the briefers told lawmakers in the highly secret sessions that they had legal advice that the methods “could be used, but not that they would.”

The Washington Post reported in December 2007 that Pelosi was among a handful of lawmakers to whom the tactics were disclosed, and House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner said that she had been “fully briefed.”

Granny Nancy Catastrophe can virtually always be counted on to harm whatever the hell she’s advocating for.  Former CIA Director and Congressman Porter Goss was so amazed by Pelosi’s brazen stupidity, that he took some time to call her out in the Washington Post:

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

—The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

—We understood what the CIA was doing.

—We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

—We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

—On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed “memorandums for the record” suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately—to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president’s national security adviser—and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.

During the time that GTMO’s Camp X-Ray opened, the Democrats were even running the Senate and they couldn’t be troubled to say anything until they thought that they could score points against Bush with it when the War on Terror was no longer seen to be as pressing an issue.  I’m not sure if Pelosi is trying to appease her nutbag base by pushing for more investigations, but it’s more likely that she really is too stupid to understand that the truth isn’t going to let her come out unscathed.

Yahoo News

Man, this is awful. Who do they think they’re going to convince of anything with this? The faithful on both sides know this, and you know exactly who is going “boo” and who is going “yay”. And the rest going “and your point was?”

I have had some very difficult discussions lately with my liberal friends about “green”. the part that frustrates me more than anything, is the mere mention of green brings a look about similar to a dog that’s just been piled into the bed of a truck. You simply can’t divorce them from the excitement. I’m a big poopyhead in the consumer product world, because I am a part of the team that makes this happen. Since telling you what I know would get me in trouble, let me tell you a story. Gather round, peeps, Manwhore’s got a real hypothetical to explain.

Let’s say there is a big and mean monster out there that sells you all of your stuff by strong arming you. Instead of backing off from the agenda, they put a new face on it, and then try to be more nice. They suddenly tell you that they are going “green” and then demand everyone else makes all packaging bio-degradable paper, regardless of the cost to them. they then announce they are “Going Green” and are not that company that ruins the world. They are the company that brought you “Green” first. Let’s call this company “Smallfart”.

They have done nothing to further the green cause, but in true fashion, will have a complete snake oil initiative behind them to say they have changed their evil ways. The store is the same, the products haven’t changed (essentially) but now everything is “green” and monster free.

This is the retarded world of “going green” Watch “Smallfart” do everything I said they would.

I really thought this was a joke when I first read about it. It sounded like a late April Fools joke:

The fight against the Canadian seal slaughter has gone digital!

That’s right, gamers, get ready: This Saturday, World of Warcraft (WoW) players will have the opportunity to combat a team of four Horde seal killers. We need your help to stop them from bashing in the heads of any more seals!

Thrall refused to ban the slaughter of seals, despite multiple requests from the Alliance to do so, because Orgrimmar stands to make a large profit from the fur.

Activists from across the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are banding together to put a stop to the atrocious seal slaughter. Anyone who slaughters baby seals for their fur must surely be in service to the evil Lich King.

Unfortunately I don’t have a character on the realm where they’re doing this protest, and I couldn’t get a new one high enough level to survive there in this amount of time. I could transfer one of my high-level characters to that realm, but it would cost me $25 to do it, and I’d have to wait a month and pay another $25 to bring it back. I just don’t care that much, but I’d love to go hoist them up by their own PETArds.

Talk about pwn3d. Bill wiped the floor with this guy. I’ve tuned in here and there to this “Joe” guy, and I think he’s in a little over his head to be a pundit. I don’t think Bill Maher should be patting himself on the back either, as this was about as classy as stealing candy from someone who’s handicapped. I mean, it’s not like Bill Maher to not want to challenge himself by having a respectable conservative pundit on the show, he’s more than content picking on someone half his size.

Call this a Sunday shame sandwich.

I can’t believe I missed this:

Mueller told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he hopes that the reauthorization of two provisions would be far less controversial than in previous years. One of those provisions, which helps authorities secure access to business records, “has been exceptionally helpful in our national security investigations,” he said.

In response to a question from Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Mueller said that his agents had used the provision about 220 times between 2004 and 2007. Data for last year were not yet available, he said.

The measure allows investigators probing terrorism to seek a suspect’s records from third parties such as financial services and travel and telephone companies without notifying the suspect. The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the provision, saying it violates the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.

Senator Obama was ripped by Kos for his vote on FISA and I believe that the Administration and Congress will renew this part of the PATRIOT Act as well.  Naturally, the Kos Kreeps are already turning on the heat, although they’re blaming Mueller instead of Obama; apparently not aware that the FBI answers to the White House, not the Crawford Ranch.

Consider this a Fall preview of an exciting epic miniseries to come.

Washington Post

The liberal path as always been paved with good intentions (that, and the path to Hell), making us all more honest, more caring (funny, but productive and industrious is not an attribute worthy of mentioning) is always the stated goal, that random act of kindness and senseless beauty thing, but who would of thought that dispensing badges of honor, making that which decency and decorum demands for everybody, for expected behavior would become fashionable? In NPR land, gold stars are awarded for anything.

Let’s all of us citizens take a vow to not steal for one whole day. We already have a Smoke-Free Day, a Secretary’s Day, a Mother’s Day, a Grandmother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. Let’s have one more holiday: a Don’t Steal Anything Day. The benefits will be immediate: There will be bumper stickers that read, “I didn’t Steal Anything Today.” The Hallmark cards will have their usual holiday bumper crop and, best of all, the huge flow of unfilched cash will send the economy soaring.

Well, at least they are thinking about our economy, we subtract one smack for good intentions.

Much like the “Earth Hour” post, every drop accumulated can eventually add up. OK, so one day out of the year I will do the right thing. I wonder if this will take much effort from the left leaning crowd, since this message is primarily targeted at them, can we assume then that their side is responsible for most of the transgressions in this area? No, I wouldn’t go there. Could it be that libs in general find proper conduct so rare that calling attention to any display of decency and honor would shame the rest of them into doing good, I think we are getting closer. Could it be that living a moral life where propriety and honor is the catalyst for all actions is so rare that any effort in this area, from anyone, deserves platitudes with marching band in tandem? Closer still. Or, does the NPR crowd have such a low opinion of humanity in general, that they believe the hoi polloi need to be tricked, manipulated, or coerced into actions normal people would consider rudimentary? I think we have a winner.

Working this vein to its natural progression, I say we have a “Only think good thoughts” day, a “Don’t beat your kids” day, a “Don’t speak ill of people” day, a “Don’t kick the dog” day, and a “Pay your taxes” day, this last one is aimed at the Obama administration, who needs some special coxing.

And, as a special benefit, the government could shut down for the day, what would be the point of working on a “no theft” day?,  they certainly could use more time off.

In keeping with Obama’s vision of a civilian national security force:

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

They could institute the practice of merit badges, like the boy scouts, with a “I did not steal for one whole day” badge prominently displayed next to the “I worked for one whole day” and “I paid my rent for one whole day” badges.

Those people need some cool badges.

This is one of the clearest views into the thought process of a socialist that I’ve seen in a while:

Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed Tuesday.

Cardin introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements, but could report on all issues including political campaigns.

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage could be tax deductible.

Here’s the killer statement:

“We are losing our newspaper industry,” said Cardin. “The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.”

Umm, excuse me? If the business model is broken, you do one of two things:

• You change your business model
• You go the way of the dodo

What you do not do is get on the government dole to keep your failing business from failing.

You could argue that going non-profit is a new business model, and I might even be receptive to that concept - were it not for the existence of this newfangled invention of that great Democratic leader Al Gore, the Interwebz. PBS was important back in the day when TV was a scarce medium with significant barriers to entry. It’s not clear that PBS would be a business model we’d want to create today, given cable, DBS, the Internet, etc.

The Wall Street Journal gets people to pay for access. It’s the exception, not the rule. But it shows you can take a classic business model online if your content is sufficiently valuable. And if your content isn’t sufficiently valuable? Find a new model, find more valuable content, or go away.

Sure, many old-timers feel the loss of the daily paper. Get over it.

It’s 4:30pm on a Tuesday. In your drunken fog, you find yourself shackled by police, a turkey baster filled with semen is in your hand. You have now entered the “VO-Zone”:

Pittsfield, Massachusetts (The Weekly Vice)—Stephanie K. Lighten, a 26-year-old Pittsfield woman was arrested Tuesday after she allegedly attempted to use a syringe to inseminate her wife with brother’s sperm.

According to Pittsburg police, officer’s were called to the women’s apartment at about 4:30 p.m. on a complaint of a domestic assault. When they arrived, alleged victim Jennifer Lighten told investigators that she had been attacked by her wife, Stephanie.

Jennifer told authorities that Stephanie had come home “all liquored up” and tried to use a syringe to artificially inseminate her, according to the arrest report.

She told investigators that Stephanie had a “turkey baster” and her brother’s semen with plans to to impregnate her with it. When Jennifer refused, Stephanie allegedly threw her onto the couch and threatened to impregnate her with it herself.

After breaking free, Jennifer reportedly went to the bathroom and locked the door, however Stephanie “broke the bathroom door down hurting [Jennifer’s] wrists” according to the police report.

Jennifer then reportedly ran out of the apartment and attempted to flee in the couple’s sport utility vehicle. As the vehicle pulled away, Stephanie caught up and attempted to enter the vehicle, nearly causing an accident.

After police caught up to the brawling pair, they took Stephanie Lightner into custody. Police also confiscated the syringe and a container of semen belonging to Nicholas Lighten.

Whew!  That’s one hell of a lot of story to “gobble” up. A sauced up bull dyke, a turkey baster filled with her brother’s semen (don’t even want to know how she approached that one), a battered spouse who barely escapes the throws of a violent rape, and an arrest and confiscation of semen filled turkey baster.

Now, think about how that story would have ended if the violator was a man. Equality, folks.

I’ve commented on this before in various immigration discussions, but I just saw it again in a Constitutional Law paper I was reading, and felt like saying something about it.

I am really sick of the “undocumented immigrant/worker” euphemism. To use a not-currently-politically-correct euphemism to make my point about an annoying euphemism - let’s call a spade a spade. They are here illegally. They didn’t lose their papers somewhere. No one forgot to write their name on a ledger when they came across the border. There is no issue of missing documentation. Except the documentation that they are supposed to have to come here/work here without breaking the law.

I’m not an immigrant-bashing protectionist; I have no issues with legal immigration. And I hate the vigilantism of some of the Minuteman-styled groups. But please. If you want to have a serious discussion about immigration and the legal status of immigrants, you can’t keep talking about “undocumented”. It just defeats your entire argument and makes you look/sound stupid.

Even Wikipedia gets it right - go type “undocumented immigrant” into the Wikipedia search box. It takes you to the page titled “Illegal Immigration”.

On the drive in this morning, I was listening to NPR. I listen to them now mostly because our talk station 97.1FM has cancelled all talk radio contracts and gone to t a top 40 format (thank you, CBS). I know what you’re thinking, listening to NPR makes you half a fag, and I feel the same way, but trust me when I say I am desperate to find something that’s NOT top 40 music. So, I listen to what I call the “liberal screech” on the way into work. The slant of it is so readily apparent, I often wonder if it’s tongue in cheek, and it’s actually pretty humorous to listen to some emasculated man talk about the perils of male lactation, sensitivity to the Carrier Pigeon’s fragile urban ecosystem, and the virtuous Obama administration’s raining of Mana onto the masses.

Today, the moans and bitches centered around a movie, called Crossing Over, and I instantly knew why this reviewer had a bad case of sore ass. Take a look at the plot:

Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures.

Is it any wonder that the crowd who denied Mickey Rourke his Oscar for “The Wrestler” in favor of Sean Penn going full retard in “Milk” would have a problem with a movie focused on the perils of illegal immigration? I mean, this guy really had a problem with the movie, and it was spelled out very clearly in his effeminate screed. He had a major issue with how what he considered a “mundane” issue, could be so sensationalized.

Someone, please give this guy a tissue, because this will be the ONLY movie I see this year, if I only see one. I encourage all of you to do the same, pretty please. Suck it, NPR.

Update:

I found the movie review for you, here.

Remember Crash, the blunt Oscar-winning film about racism? The one with lots of intertwined stories? The makers of Crossing Over sure do - but it’s not a happy memory.

No, Crossing Over will make you weep, and not for the reasons its makers intended. This heavy-handed, fake-serious film offers crass manipulation in the spot where honesty is supposed to be.

Director Wayne Kramer would seem to be convinced that his film has got something to say about the problems of immigration, but in fact Crossing Over just uses that issue as an excuse to put thuggish violence, lecherous nudity and crude profanity on screen.

See what I mean? What total horse shit, and I guarantee you that this guy can be seen cruising around in a pink Prius with a “Coexist” bumper sticker.