During today’s Fox News Sunday panel discussion, Kirsten Powers, who’s a liberal but not particularly obnoxious about it, made a dumb comment. The issue was the credibility of the Obama campaign’s current attack on Mitt Romney and his association with Bain Capital. Powers opined that the Obama campaign has a point, because Romney’s priority at Bain was not job creation but wealth creation.

Oh, Kirsten, Kirsten, Kirsten!

Fortunately, the estimable Britt Hume was on hand. He pointed out that wealth creation is, in fact, the sine qua non of a healthy economy: without it, no job creation can occur. And he wondered aloud—pertinent question!—whether Barack Obama even understands this fundamental economic truth.

Excellent return of service, Brett…

Posted by tmg110 at 11:54 AM EDT

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The five Sullivan brothers lost their lives when the ship on which they were serving together, the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52), was torpedoed off Guadalcanal by a Japanese submarine on 13 November 1942. The torpedo hit detonated the Juneau’s main magazine and she sank in less than ten minutes. Of her crew of 698 officers and sailors, only ten survived. Lest we forget.

Posted by tmg110 at 10:40 AM EDT

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One compelling piece of evidence in support of the intellectual bankruptcy of contemporary liberalism is the Wisconsin recall election. Big labor its liberal allies sought to reverse the verdict of 2010 by driving a reforming Republican governor out of office. Public-sector unions were infuriated by Governor Scott Walker’s assault on their unjust (and unaffordable) privileges. Unable to stymie his reforms in the legislature or the courts, they resorted to a recall election. And it was blithely assumed by the mainstream media that Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (also targeted in the recall) would indeed get the boot.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Voters in the Badger State have shown very little interest in the issue that supposedly justifies the recall effort: Walker’s restrictions on union collective bargaining power. They’re so little interested, in fact, that Walker’s Democratic opponent in the recall, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (who also ran against him in 2010) never mentions the collective bargaining issue. And there’s a good reason for this: Walker’s reforms have worked. When he took office, the Badger State was facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit. Walker eliminated that deficit and now the Wisconsin Department of Revenue estimates that by mid-2013 the state will be running a $154 million surplus.

As Stephen Hayes points out in the Weekly Standard, the Wisconsin recall election is a farce. The issues that supposedly inspired it—collective bargaining, “workers’ rights”, etc.—have disappeared into the ozone. This begs a question: Just why are the state’s taxpayers being forced to cough up $18 million to finance the recall? That’s not hard to figure out. Public-sector union goons know that if Walker’s reforms are not reversed, their power will be permanently diminished. And that frightens the liberal establishment as well, which is so dependent on Big Labor for money and manpower.

With less than two weeks to go (the recall election takes place in June 5) it seems likely that the incumbent will prevail. Recent polls show Walker leading Barrett by a 5- to 7-point margin. Democrats are already in spin mode, talking down the significance of a Walker victory. And as Hayes notes, the mainstream media, which excitedly covered the original protests against Walker’s reforms and the early stages of the recall drive, have pretty much lost interest in the election.

Big Labor and the liberal establishment set out to negate the outcome of Wisconsin’s 2010 gubernatorial election. They deserve to fail and if they do, it will be one of the most richly deserved defeats in American political history.

Posted by tmg110 at 12:36 PM EDT

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Speaking of Nation of Change, here’s an op-ed piece by former Clintonista Robert Reich on the subject of higher education costs. I actually find myself in agreement with some of what he has to say.

But the appended readers’ comments are something else again. The next time someone insists to you that the Occupy movement is composed of ordinary, mainstream Americans, think of this:

Dr. Reich! We are all F*cked by Bush, his Dick & Co. who turned the direction of the US economic ship 180 degrees so to hijack public money into private coffers of the .0005% with many laws (too numerous to list but cut in the estate tax and financing wars with borrowed money are the major ones). In addition, he tried to turn the cultural/thought process of the US 180 degrees by trying to give scientific status to bigotry, magical wishful desires of the dumbest sector of the society in the form of Creationism. DICK and Bush are directly responsible for the dumbing down of the society and prominence of Fox & Co. It is a pleasure to see not all intelligent people shy away from being on THEIR FACE and tell it like it is. High FIVE to you! Let's hope more thoughtful, known leaders light up the pages of the newspapers around the country with light of reason and logic so we do not let any creepy, crawly creatures in the dark places to come bite us again. Light up fire to chase the rats away, back in their subterranean abodes. Time for the US RENAISSANCE!

What it actually means is anyone’s guess—probably something along the lines of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” And is it my imagination or does this post trail a whiff of something that could be oregano…?

Admittedly, not all the reader posts under Reich’s column are quite this incoherent. One or two even make sense. But on the whole they suggest that the self-identified ninety-nine percent are, if not actually delusional, somewhat connected to reality.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:29 AM EDT

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You just can’t please some people. When reporters pester Mitt Romney about peripheral issues like same-sex marriage, he generally turns such questions aside. We have bigger problems, Mitt says in effect, such as the economy, the national debt, etc., and we should be talking about them.

Well, according to leftie Nation of Change pundit David Sirota, that’s “enraging.” Check this out:

One of the most overused metaphors in a writer's arsenal is the one about "walking and chewing gum at the same time." As a hiker and Big League Chew enthusiast, I particularly hate this cliché. Nonetheless, I feel it is fitting right now because it so perfectly summarizes the argument being made by Republicans. They now insist that America cannot simultaneously walk the walk on equal rights and also chew economic gum.

Well, Dave, for starters, I don’t really think that among good writers, the “walking and chewing gum at the same time” cliché is much used—much less overused. Nor do I believe that Mitt Romney or Republicans generally have argued to that effect. Presidents have many demands on their time, you know. Just now most Americans want the president, whoever he is, to concentrate on jobs, the economy—stuff like that. Spending valuable time on same-sex marriage—an issue both trivial and divisive—would certainly not please the ninety-nine percent.

In any case, Dave, the reason that Mitt Romney and most (not all) Republicans don’t wish to spend time pushing same-sex marriage is that they oppose it, not because they think that America can’t tango and open a bottle of Champagne at the same time. Or whatever.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:54 AM EDT

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You may remember Jennifer Granholm, the comely but not too impressive former Governor of Michigan. Jen was once considered to be a rising star of the Democratic Party, but her two terms at the helm of the Wolverine State were a disappointment to say the least. Now she’s a commentator on Al Gore’s Current TV and an occasional contributor to the Huffington Post. Oh, and Granholm was born in Canada, a point of some relevance in connection with one of her recent HuffPo blog posts.

Headlined “Voter Suppression Is Treasonous,” Jen’s rant accused the GOP and conservatives of trying to disenfranchise voters by mandating such fascist measures as presentation of a valid ID at polling places. Oh, the humanity! She writes:

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said that every battle is won before it is fought. The Republican Party wants to prevent the battle from happening at all. It's very shrewd and it's totally un-American.

 

In November, five million eligible voters will find it harder to exercise their rights in America—150 voter suppression laws have been introduced in 30 state legislatures across the country.

 

The most common tactics: requiring photo ID, restricting registration drives, limiting early voting and imposing onerous residency requirements. Who do these laws most directly affect? The poor, the elderly, minorities and the young. And how do those groups typically vote? Democratic.

Never mind that her accusations are totally over the top—despite Sun Tzu's endorsement. That’s not the best part of the story. Over at National Review Online, Greg Pollowitz read Jen’s post and, recalling that she hails from Canada, checked to see how they do it up there. Here’s what he found on the official Elections Canada website:

I'm homeless. How do I vote?

 

Eligible electors who are homeless or have no fixed address are welcome to register and vote.

 

Everyone who votes must prove their identity and address. This page lists all the types of proof of identity and address accepted at the polls.

 

Here are some of the ways you can prove your identity and address at the polls:

 

 •To prove your identity (name), you can show a piece of ID with your name on it, like a fishing license, library card, social insurance card (SIN card), birth certificate or Veterans Affairs Canada Health Identification Card.

 

•To prove your address, you can show an official letter called an "Attestation of Residence." If you have gone to a shelter for food or lodging, you can ask the shelter administrator for this letter.

 

•If you don't have documents to prove your identity and address, you can take an oath and get someone you know to vouch for you. That person has to be an eligible elector in the same polling division as you, and he or she must show authorized documents that prove his or her identity and address.

 

For more information, please contact Elections Canada at 1-800-463-6868.

Who knew that we were living right next door to a vicious, vote- suppressing fascist regime?

Oh, and Jen? The United States Constitution defines treason pretty specifically: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” (Article III, Section 3). Nothing in there about requiring prospective voters to show an ID card…

Posted by tmg110 at 1:01 PM EDT

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More good news for Team Obama: "I would vote for President Obama": Castro's niece

Next week: "I would tongue-polish Barry's wingtips": Pol Pot's love child

Posted by tmg110 at 12:27 PM EDT

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To judge from this lame and pathetic squeal by Jonathan Capehart, in the WaPo, Barack Obama must really be in trouble with the American electorate:

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times tells the story today of my all-time favorite presidential photo. The first time I saw it was while walking through the West Wing to a meeting three years ago. A little black boy touching the head of President Obama. The image was so powerful I stopped in my tracks and inquired about the story behind the photo. As Calmes reports, Jacob Philadelphia had a question for the president of the United States.

 

>snip<

 

Thanks to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, we African Americans are sensitive about our heads and our hair. A pat on the head, especially from someone white, would be patronizing at best. “Don’t let anybody touch your head,” my mother told me when we moved first moved from Newark to a predominantly white town in New Jersey. I would learn at school that some would rub the head of someone black for good luck. And there were all sorts of put-downs for black hair—from Brillo to something not appropriate to mention in a family forum such as this. Thus, having your head touched is a rather intimate gesture that only family could get away with.

 

For Jacob, asking Obama about his hair was clearly about establishing a connection, about confirming that the powerful person who looks like him is really like him in so many ways. As Obama adviser David Axelrod told Calmes, “Really, what he was saying is, ‘Gee, you’re just like me.’ And it doesn’t take a big leap to think that child could be thinking, ‘Maybe I could be here someday.’”

Oh. My. God.

You know what this reminds me of? The day in 1960 when John F. Kennedy’ was elected President of the United States. He was the first Irish Catholic president—“one of us,” as the Irish Catholics of his native state said at the time. We felt this and believed it. But of course JFK, the Harvard-educated scion of a wealthy family, had very little in common with the working-class Irish Catholics of Taunton, Massachusetts, my home town.

I certainly don’t begrudge Jacob Philadelphia the pride and excitement that he experienced when meeting America’s first black president. But for Jonathan Capehart to write “that the powerful person who looks like him is really like him in so many ways” is just pathetic. There’s no conceivable photo-op that could make a privileged elitist, practicing narcissist and cold fish like Barack Obama “one of us”—and a whole bunch of us have glommed on to that fact. Come November, I think that the Prez is likely to have a bad hair day…

Posted by tmg110 at 10:18 AM EDT

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On the op-ed page of the Washington Post, the estimable George Will opines on the travails of Princess Pocahontas…excuse me…Elizabeth Warren:

[A]lthough no evidence has been found that Warren is part Indian, for years two universities listed her as such. She has identified herself as a minority, as when, signing her name “Elizabeth Warren—Cherokee,” she submitted a crab recipe (Oklahoma crabs?) to a supposedly Indian cookbook. This is a political problem.

Yes, this is a political problem indeed. It’s not just that Warren’s dubious claim of Native American ancestry—and the use to which she put that claim in the furtherance of her career—makes her appear dishonest and dumb. “Diversity” is a central tenant of contemporary progressivism. To have it exposed as a cynical racket in which a blonde, blue-eyed female can pass herself off as a “minority” is a knife in progressivism’s heart.

But of course, progressives will never abandon “diversity.” Mere evidence of corruption and fraud—not even Elizabeth Warren’s increasingly likely loss to GOP incumbent Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race—can dent the ideological armor of the doubleplusgoodthinkers of the Left.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:50 AM EDT

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Well, the headline over this article in Nation of Change is certainly provocative: The Pacific Ocean Is Dying.

It all has to do with last March’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power disaster in Japan. According to this “Special Report On the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe”:

Most of the world community is still unaware of the extremely profound and far-reaching effects that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has had. If the nations of the world really understood the implications of the actual “fallout”—past, current and future—the current nuclear energy paradigm would be systematically shut down. For those of us who are in the know, it is incumbent upon each of us to disseminate the relevant information/data necessary to forever close down the nuclear power industry around the globe.

Okay, fine, but exactly what are “the extremely profound and far-reaching effects” of the disaster? I read the entire article—twice—yet failed to find a single piece of solid evidence to back that terrifying headline. Really, this “Special Report On the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe” is nothing more than a standard-issue leftie denunciation of the nuclear power industry—long on hysteria, short on facts. That’s fine, I suppose, for preaching to the converted—which is mostly what Nation of Change does. Ho-hum.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:03 AM EDT

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