Maybe this poll’s an outlier but, boy, does it have bad news for our Imperial Helmsman…excuse me, for President Obama:

Obama Gets 30% of Americans Certain to Support Re-Election in Economy Poll

Progressives who repeat (and repeat, and repeat) the mantra that Barry, being Barry, is unbeatable should heed the rising chorus of economic discontent. But wait, what am I saying? No, they should continue to delude themselves, so that their anguish on the day after Election Day 2012 will be all the more unbearable. I know it makes me a bad person, but I do relish that prospect!

Posted by tmg110 at 8:46 AM EDT

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We were able to Skype with PFC Gregg over the weekend and aside from some sunburn, our soldier's doing fine. Lexi says that things are still quiet in the 511th MP Company's area of operations. Otherwise it's business as usual: patrols, escort missions, guard duty. Everyone in the 511th is OK and one—a SSG Jones if I recall correctly—even had a chance to gibe his dad a Fox News shout-out on Father's Day.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:34 AM EDT

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I often catch flak for saying that progressives are stupid. Now as I’ve explained before, when I say this I don’t necessarily mean to imply that they’re stupid in a general sense. I mean that when it comes to political, economic or ethical issues, progressives have stupidity imposed on them by their ideology. Believing in things that simply aren’t so—that George W. Bush is a fascist, that government can solve “social problems,” that poverty causes crime, etc.—requires a suppression of one’s native intelligence. And that inevitably leads one to say and do very stupid things—even if one has an above-average IQ.

Here’s a good example of what I mean. In a desperate attempt to buttress the crumbling case for big government, Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times points to the US armed forces. They have socialized medicine! They have free day care! And if the armed forces can do it, why can’t the whole country do it?

Oh, for crying out loud, Nick, give your brain a chance!

It’s true that the US military is a paternalistic organization with some elements of socialism in its makeup. But Kristof’s point rests on the specious implication that the military is an autonomous society. On the contrary, in economic terms the military is a parasitic organism. It doesn’t generate the resources needed to maintain its various social services—it draws them from the productive economy of the nation in the form of taxes.

Furthermore, while our political culture is democratic our military culture is undemocratic. While our national economy is based on market principles, the military runs a command economy. The peculiar features of military culture, both those that Kristof mentions and those that he skates over, are tolerated in the interest of readiness and morale. And the system only works because all members of the armed forces are legally obligated to obey orders.

I seriously doubt that Kristof grasps all the implications of the point he’s trying to make, so let me help him out. Discerning historians have noted that socialism, properly understood, is really the application of military methods to economic management. “War Socialism” in Germany during the First World War and Bolshevism in Russia are but two examples of this phenomenon—gruesome ones, at that. So what Kristof is really advocating is the militarization of the nation’s healthcare system. And that’s incredibly stupid—even for a progressive.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:06 AM EDT

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…and I’ll ban all local, state and federal employees from joining unions or bargaining collectively for wages and benefits. It’s time these people were reminded that they’re public servants.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:38 AM EDT

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I’ve never thought that Jon Stewart was very funny, and now I know why he puts me off.

Stewart was interviewed on Fox News Sunday by Chris Wallace (who made a lackluster job of it), and there on full display was the smug, ignorant self-regard of the contemporary progressive—differenced in Stewart’s case with a discernable tinge of insecurity. He struck me as a man not quite comfortable in his own skin.

When he wasn’t slandering Fox News, Stewart was patting himself on the back for having a far tougher job than a mere journalist. It turns out that raising a laugh by taking a cheap shot at a politician is far harder than getting to the bottom of a legitimate news story. Who knew? And best of all, if you’re Jon Stewart you get to have it both ways. For when he’s called out for some particularly egregious slur, Jon can just shrug and say, well, hell, after all, he’s not really a journalist!

But perhaps the most revealing thing about the Stewart interview was its plain demonstration that he’s a very angry man indeed. You could see it on his face, in his body language. And I got the impression that the source of his anger lies elsewhere than in ideology or politics. Slipshod toilet training? An emotionally distant father? Maybe it’s just his sense that nobody with an IQ higher than his height in inches really takes Jon Stewart seriously.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:21 AM EDT

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I had to chuckle the other day when Captain Luddite…excuse me, President Obama…launched a surprise attack on ATM machines. Bedeviled by persistently high unemployment numbers that make him and his administration seem incompetent, Barry stood in desperate need of some new scapegoat. So naturally this fact-based respecter of Science launched an attack on automation—which has deprived so many Americans of the opportunity to harden their hands, break their backs and ruin their eyesight in pursuit of their daily bread.

Somehow I doubt that Bob Cratchit would have balked at the PC or even the typewriter. He would surely have recognized their great superiority to the pen and inkpot. And I suspect that his employer would have appreciated the great gains in productivity that such devices would bring to Scrooge & Marley. But our progressive, enlightened chief executive knows better. Why, back in the day, every serf had a guaranteed job!

I’ve said before that for all his smarts, Barack Obama is an economic ignoramus. This just proves my point.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:30 AM EDT

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…the Democrats surely don’t need enemies like me. The friend I’m talking about is John Judis of The New Republic, who has his knickers in a twist because the Dems “abandoned” poor Anthony Weiner.

The New York Congressman resigned yesterday, it having become clear that his sordid little Twitter-based sex scandal was a burden to the party. At a time when the Democrats are desperately anxious about their 2012 prospects, Weiner was a distraction that Dems didn’t need. Ah, but according to Judis, they were “weenies for throwing Weiner under the bus:

Look, if a politician admits to, or is convicted of, a serious crime, or if his or her actions run completely contrary to the beliefs that they profess to have guided their voting, then there is good reason to demand their resignation. But a sex scandal that involved no illegal activity—that is not a firing offense. A politician may resign out of embarrassment, as Representative Anthony Weiner did, but that doesn’t justify other politicians from his own party, including the president himself, calling for his resignation.

To say that Judis is disconnected from political reality would be a considerable understatement. The idea that Weiner is entitled to the loyal support of his party because, after all, he did nothing “illegal,” is just laughable. The truth is that he embarrassed the hell out his party—not least because the wife he betrayed is a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And let’s not forget that Weiner was a high-profile congressional Democrat—not to put too fine a point on it, he was one of the party’s most rabid attack dogs—a circumstance that guaranteed continued saturation coverage of his sexual misadventures. Finally, it’s very clear that Weiner didn’t resign out of “embarrassment.” Earlier he proclaimed his iron intention to stay on in Congress. It was only after party leaders made clear their desire for his departure that he agreed to resign.

Come on, John, buy a clue. I know you liked the guy, but he’s become a political liability. And if you need proof of that, let me tell you that I’m sorry to see Weiner go. Oh, how I was hoping that he’d stay on…and on…and on…

Posted by tmg110 at 8:07 AM EDT

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We spoke with PFC Gregg over the weekend and she said that things remain quiet in the 511th MP Company's corner of the Sandbox. Lexi's been limping around—she sprained her foot while dismounting from a vehicle. It's nothing serious, according to the medics.

Lexi tells us that she's in good spirits and that everyone in the 511th is doing well as they enter the final months of their deployment.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:51 AM EDT

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Coming soon to a Republican National Committee attack ad near you: this comment from the inimitable Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, to the effect that, yes, Barack Obama and the Democrats are responsible for the state of the national economy.

Debbie, Debbie, Debbie—you’re off message! Why, just the other day Barry was explaining that all our economic woes are due to the proliferation of ATM machines…

Posted by tmg110 at 8:47 AM EDT

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OK, so maybe Sarah Palin’s not your cup of tea. I’m not entirely sold on her myself—but hey, she has all the right enemies!

Perhaps the greatest service that Palin rendered to the conservative cause was to expose progressives as the hate-spewing, none-too-bright mouth breathers that most of them are. If this seems excessively harsh, I ask you to recall the utter hysteria with which Palin’s ascent to the national stage was greeted by the denizens of the Daily Kos, MoveOn.org, etc. “Over the top” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Poor Andrew Sullivan went absolutely crackers, obsessing for months on end about the possibility that Palin’s infant son, Trig, was actually borne and delivered by her daughter Bristol. Sullivan’s creepy obsession set the standard for leftie Palin haters. There’s no insult so vile that a progressive would hesitate to hurl it at Sarah Palin.

This reeking stream of invective shows the true face of progressivism. We should not be surprised, therefore, when the liberal wing of the Democratic Party produces a John Edwards, an Elliot Spitzer or an Anthony Weiner. Who better to represent a congregation of rats than a bigger rat? And how better to keep the rats informed than what Palin herself has dubbed the “lamestream media”?

Though for the most part they eschewed the bare-faced insults, liberal journalists did their best to smear Palin. Every dumb thing she said (and we all say dumb things) was reported under screaming headlines and obsessed over in a way that was not pretty to watch. Sure, you could argue that Palin is fair game, as the saying goes—but then so is Joe Biden. A compilation our vice president’s dumb remarks would run to pages, yet reporters have always treated him gently. He’s one of them, you see—a member of the Washington establishment. Sarah Palin isn’t.

So it was fun to watch mainstream media reporters and editors make absolute asses of themselves over Palin’s just-released gubernatorial emails. Now they had her where they wanted her! The New York Times even went so far as to enlist its readers (there are still a few) in the search for that smoking gun that would destroy the hated Palin once and for all.

And they came up with…nothing. The disappointment was palpable. Here, for example, is CNN, clearly chagrined that the Palin email hunt yielded no scandal.

I can’t help cracking a malicious smile when I think of this. What a bunch of idiots!

Posted by tmg110 at 8:20 AM EDT

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