No Sheeples Here: Have Fedora, Will Travel

Here in the Vast Right Wing Blogosphere, we assist our fellow travellers in their individual quests and their pursuits for justice and the American Way. In honor of that tradition, I am encouraging everyone to hit the tip jar at Da Tech Guy's blog, so that he can attend CPAC 2010. He provided extraordinary reportage of the "Massachusetts Miracle", which has led to the "Rhode Island Miracle"- ie- Patrick Kennedy not seeking reelection and the first time that Congress (both chambers) will be free of the Kennedy stench. He also had the honor of hosting His Awesomeness during the final days of the "Massachsuetts Miracle" and that alone requires monetary funding of his CPAC quest!!!!I am linking to The Goddess of the Photoshop, Carol at No Sheeples Here, so that you can read even more about this fabulous Catholic conservative blogger from Massachusetts. Hit the tip jar hard for him!!!!!

Here is the link:
http://datechguy.wordpress.com/the-ill-do-it-myself-tucker-fund/

No Sheeples Here: Have Fedora, Will Travel

Valley of the Shadow: The Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse: 2010 Version

Valley of the Shadow: The Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse: 2010 Version

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse: 2010 Version

Since it's snowing out east and raining out west and no major policy is getting done today, let's look again at the Blogosphere.

In 2003, this Blogger defined who were the Four Horsemen of the Right Blogosphere who caused the most damage to the Left.

At the time, these Four did much damage:

Plague: Steven Den Beste
Famine: Charles Johnson
War: Andrew Sullivan
Death: Glenn Reynolds

This is 2010 and except for Glenn Reynolds, the other horsemen fled. Steven Den Beste writes a manga blog, Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan (confirmed by Sullivan's own mentor at The New Republic, I was right when I wrote this) went Anti-Semitic and then went Left.

So, who deserves it today?
Here are my choices:

Death: Glenn Reynolds
Famine: Jim HoftWar: Pamela Geller
Plague: Robert Stacy Mc Cain (and co-blogger Smitty)

Why?

Jim Hoft is quoted by talk Radio and his words affect the political atmosphere around the country; Thus he is famine.

Pamela Geller stands up to 3 Liberals on TV and still wins. She is also focused on the Islamofacist threat, and the Honor Killings NOW doesn't care about. And she also fights, she is War.

Robert Stacy Mc Cain and Smitty are Plague because RS is a "connecter" with the Right Blogosphere and Smitty also spreads the word. If some news hits the Right Blogosphere,they are there.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen of Conservative and Republican Politics and Blogging, meet your Four Horseman who fight the Obama administration!

My question: Who are your personal Four Horseman in day to day life?

His Awesomeness and his Eminence Gris are included as the Plague Horseman!!!! What a fitting tribute to suhc great talent!!!!

The Other McCain: Great Moments in Lefty Consistency

The Other McCain: Great Moments in Lefty Consistency

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Great Moments in Lefty Consistency

by Smitty

The first comment on the earlier "Profile in Cowardice" post bears promotion to a full post, in light of the diabolical nature of things.

[A Nebraskan Commenter] said...
'cuse me
I'm a Nebraskan and you need to know two things:
1. We know he's a Democrat. We voted for him and have been voting for him for years.

Indeed. Incumbency in the last century makes a Vasa of our ship of state. Emphasis mine here:

2. We don't appreciate outsiders tell us how to think or how our senators ought to vote.
Finally, why do republicans continue to flirt with him when you know he's a democrat?

This is where I achieve orbit. The system is broken. The practical point is that we've a small number of people wielding vast power over others. Tyranny. For now, the tyranny is disguised as 2k+ page bills that are rushed through, literally in the dead of night. As government grows, the rule of law will gradually be discarded, as was seen so blatantly last week with Sanders' amendment.

So, you have conscious people arguing against this decadence. The 10th Amendment, now merely an icon to chastity that is venerated as foreplay for new adventures in sodomy, ought to make this entire argument about health care moot. The Federal government has no business whatsoever, per the Constitution, dealing with individual citizens. Sure, interstate commerce regulation for medications. Fine, running an FDA: there are economies of scale to achieve, without violating privacy. And we're all going to get violated, one way or another.

Ah, but your Senator Nelson is telling us what we'll pay. Your Senator's vote is going to have direct impact on me, over here in VA. You sound downright conservative there, getting all puffy about your state's rights and stuff. But did you follow the Big Government link above, and see what your Senator is perpetrating on the rest of the country? Do you really think that, for all Nelson's whoredom, this special treatment isn't going to get thrown under the bus Real Soon Now?

Oh, and here is your sorry punchline:

He's betrayed no one. He acts for us - not you.

He, and both of my local pieces of work, Warner and Webb, have betrayed the whole lousy country. They act for themselves. If you think he's acting for you, or for Nebraska in any long-term useful way, then all I can say is that your glasses are a fetching shade of rose. "not" and "you" are the only accurate words in your entire reply, sir.

I don't think any of the whining from the left about the contents of the bill is meaningful. The precedent is set, once this is signed. Our brave new Orwellian version of Logan's Run beckons. Cue Young4Eyes to come in and call me paranoid. Of course it will be implemented over time: I'm giving you the decades-out view. But Chekov's Law is correct. The century-long project to demolish our country history nears completion. And we still have these silly squawks from Nebraska that we shouldn't tell their Senators how think, when those Senators are cheerfully dictating to us. You stay beautiful, lefties.

And, as I hate leaving a post on a down note, here is a parting shot:

Rule 5 Sunday, Round 5

IN Honor of our Fearless Leader's American Spectator article and the 70th Anniversary of Gone Wtih the Wind, I present Clark Gable

The Other McCain: Ben Nelson: Profile in Cowardice

The Other McCain: Ben Nelson: Profile in Cowardice
As Smitty mentioned, the Nebraska Democrat caved overnight:

Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.
"We're there," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to announce the deal. . . .

Michelle Malkin reports the morning press conference:

Nelson announces support at press conference. Says he is satisfied by abortion language. He reads a perfunctory statement praising Reid and White House, then says with the most passion in his voice: "I reserve the right to vote against the next cloture vote if there are material changes" made in conference.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl points out the most important consideration: "What's in it for Ben?" His vote was bought, which may be the first time the phrase "thirty pieces of silver" has appeared in federal legislation.

UPDATE II: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Nelson caved on abortion and sold out for an extra year of federal Medicaid subsidies.

From his press conference speech:

Nelson compared the bill to the creation of Social Security and Medicare.
"I truly believe this legislation will stand the test of time," he said. "The lives of millions of Americans will be improved."

Those "millions"? Bureaucrats. Tell your kids to forget about a business career. Bureaucracy is the future!

UPDATE III: Philip Klein of the American Spectator walks it forward:

Next month, the House and Senate will reconcile their bills, which will then have to pass both chambers again before President Obama can sign it, which he hopes to do before his State of the Union address. At this point, the smart money would have to be on Democrats getting it done, but there are still obstacles to reaching a final agreement.

"Obstacles," indeed. Ben Nelson could realize how badly he has dishonored himself and commit seppuku. Unlikely, of course, but theoretically possible.

UPDATE IV: Readers who think I'm actually advocating that Nelson engage in ritual disembowelment are mistaken. Seppuku is an expression of the shogun's honorable acknowledgement of his own dishonor. Nelson obviously has no sense of honor. He's a Democrat.

Speaking of Democrats and dishonor, what about the progressive netroots? Total punks, says Moe Lane:

I've been involved with the political blogosphere since 2002 or so, and the next time I see the left side of its leadership stand up to entrenched Democratic party interests over something important will be the first. . . . [I]f they swallowed heavily and accepted being betrayed on FISA/rendition/same-sex marriage, they’ll accept whatever monstrosity that the current ruling party comes up with with regard to health care rationing.

Swallowing heavily, indeed.

UPDATE V: "Which is better, a whore or a slut?"

"If Nelson was really such a staunch pro-life advocate, why is he a member of the Democrat Party?"

The Other McCain: The best thing about my daughter being engaged to an Argentine?

 Yesterday, Our Fearless Leader announced the engagement of his lovely daughter Kennedy.  Her photos reveals her to be an absolutely beautiful young woman and a credit to her family.  God Bless the happy couple and their respective families


The Other McCain: The best thing about my daughter being engaged to an Argentine?

Friday, December 18, 2009

The best thing about my daughter
being engaged to an Argentine?

It's true. The other night, after an all-too-lengthy courtship -- she broke up with him for a few months earlier this year because he was, as the old song says, "courtin' too slow" -- he finally proposed.

My 20-year-old daughter Kennedy now has a big diamond ring on her finger, courtesy of the boy I call the Romeo of the Pampas, the Legendary Latin Lothario, Martin Nestares. (His name is pronounced "mar-TEEN," although I refuse to do that Spanish thing where his last name is rendered "Nestarrrrrrres.")

Honestly, he's a good kid, even if he is planning to go to law school. He's a Christian boy. Both his grandfathers are ministers. And he is muy respectful. In fact, it was our old-fashioned values -- almost as much as our daughter's lovely red hair and vivacious personality -- that made Kennedy so attractive to this chivalrous tango-dancing caballero.

Martin was captain of the soccer team at the Christian academy he and Kennedy attended, a school that she found online after becoming frustrated with her parents' inability to adequately assist her with her 9th-grade homeschool math curriculum. Next time somebody tells you that homeschoolers suffer from a lack of "socialization," remember that my daughter landed the most popular boy in school. (She also graduated with honors at age 16.)

So, other than the happy prospect of my daughter's nuptial bliss, what's the best part of this deal?

• Future holiday dinner arguments provoked by my needling references to Britain's easy conquest of the Falkland Islands, complete with loud choruses of "Rule Brittania."
• Son-in-law becomes fabulously wealthy corporate lawyer, so he can afford to fly me down to Argentina every winter and I'll lounge on the beach at Mar del Plata sipping umbrella drinks, watching bikini-clad Latinas stroll past.
• The likelihood that, about 2029, the University of Alabama will offer a full-ride football scholarship to my soccer-style placekicker grandson, Beauregard Lee Nestares.
• The irony of grandson Beau Lee checking the "Latino" box and qualifying for affirmative action.

No, as delightful as these scenarios are, none of them is the best thing about my daughter becoming engaged to the ardent Argentine.

The best thing? Another excuse for me to rattle the tip jar.

Roll Tide! And Rule Britannia!

UPDATE: One of the great tip-jar hitters of all time, Nathan Cossey congratulates me and asks:

My only wonder is if he has another daughter that's close in age to her.

Regret to inform you, Nathan, that her younger sister is only 7, which means that you would have to wait more than a decade. Unless we move to Alabama, in which case . . .

That is a joke! A joke! Just because marriage at 14 is legal in Alabama does not mean I'm endorsing it. Fireworks are also legal in Alabama, and I enthusiastically endorse fireworks, but that's different.

UPDATE II: Da Tech Guy also extends his congratulations. Perhaps you recall the opening scene of The Godfather, where ancient Sicilian custom requires that Don Corleone cannot deny any request on his daughter's wedding day?

We also have a custom in my family: Everyone must hit the tip jar when I announce my daughter's engagement. It's not an ancient custom but . . .

UPDATE III: Little Miss Attila gets misty-eyed with nostalgia for her youthful days roaming the pampas, IYKWIMAITYD. And Paleo Pat adds his congratulations . . . to the groom. IYKWIMAITYD.

Thanks to all.

The Other McCain: Code Red healthcare protest summary

The Other McCain: Code Red healthcare protest summary

Code Red healthcare protest summary

by Smitty

Today's Code Red protest was a small vacation-time investment that was well worth it. Nothing like gathering next to the Capitol with a couple thousand actual Americans and yelling "Kill the Bill" a few times over, of a lovely Fall/Winter afternoon, to re-invigorate the body.

When you consider the mindless, zombie-like advance of Progressivism, you have to realize that all of the time for being a typical American goof-off has been expended. The Tommy Boy narrative has run its course over the last century. The subtle, gradual collapse of the Constitutional separation of powers, fed by a deferential SCOTUS and an Imperial Fed means that the US has neither engaged in formally declared war, nor walked back dime #1 of the national debt since the Truman Administration. Get the falafel out of here, say I.

Thus, it is both tactically crucial to keep up the pressure on Congress, but also to drive towards a restoration of meaningful value in our three-tier, three-branch system of government.

Laura Ingraham and then Representative Bachmann, and Senator Coburn, were spot on today:
Rush Limbaugh expands on the disgruntlement with Senator Lieberman. Summary: the Medicare approach is a bait-and-switch. (h/t Rhetorican)

Now, I also think that this Medicare expansion was a ruse from the start. In negotiations, if you've ever been in any involving, say, your compensation or representing a company or something, you always, in preparing for negotiations, you put in what are called throwaways, things that you demand be included in the deal that you secretly will throw away or give away in order to get a final deal, and both sides do this. Except our side. We don't do anything but accept the premise and needle with it around the margins. And I think that this Medicare expansion was a throwaway from the get-go. I don't think they were ever serious about this, and I'll tell you why. Simple logic. There's no way in a bill that cuts Medicare $500 billion you can expand it to cover people down to 55 years of age. The two just don't go together. So what they do, they raise the Medicare expansion as an issue at the last minute when Dingy Harry is having problems, and then they kill it a few days later on the desires of Lieberman.

This gives them cover to get Lieberman on their side, and then others say it's now okay to vote for this, since they got rid of the Medicare expansion. As I say I think it was a ruse from day one, it was a strategy. You put out a false option, you have a Senator object to it, a Senator who is thought to be a moderate -- Lieberman -- with an independent party label instead of Democrat, and he says, "I can't vote for this. Why, there's no way I'm going to vote for that. I'm not going to vote for this with the public option in it, either." So you give in, you give in to Lieberman, you give in to the so-called moderates, you claim there's no Medicare expansion and no public option and you get your 60 votes, and you look like you're compromising, when you're not compromising at all because you never intended the Medicare expansion to be real in the first place. It was just designed to get Lieberman in there and it looks like it works.

Pictures follow, but the last one is the favorite:


This administration has given us so much to puke about. One cannot blame protestors for straying off topic:




The best was afterwards, though. On the steps in front of the Russel building, where many a Senator lurks, stood Death with the Obama/Pelosi/Reid try-dumb-virate. Nancy has a clutch of little embryos in her hand. Death was going on about how easy the was to subvert US leadership. The effect was shocking and revolting, but in a Halloween sort of way. It was provocative without straying too far into theological territory. A woman went up to Death, as he delivered his carnival dialog, and told him she found it offensive. He responded rather graciously that shocking imagery had a long tradition, going back to the Suffragette movement. The bad thing about this is the precedent. As with the Federal government itself, each little brick takes the political dialog further along. Even though I thought these four showed a modicum of restraint, less is more.
May the Almighty bless these United States. May the current passion find tangible expression, leading to the reforms we know we need, yet dread.

Update: Linked at American Power
also,
Tabitha Hale at Right Wing News attended.

Update II: Insta-lanch!

Update III: a few more pics at Left Coast Rebel.

The Other McCain: 'Frankly, my dear . . '

The Other McCain: 'Frankly, my dear . . '

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

'Frankly, my dear . . '

Rhett Butler still doesn't give a damn, which is why women can't resist him, as I explain in my latest column for The American Spectator:

While those around him scrupulously obey the superficial social conventions of the age, Rhett scoffs at his own disrepute and brashly invites scandal, as when he shocks Atlanta society by bidding $150 for the honor of dancing with the recently widowed Scarlett. And while Ashley is torn by doubt, Rhett is the embodiment of decisive certainty.
He has a way with the ladies, but Rhett is indisputably a man's man. When his blunt skepticism toward the South's prospects in the impending war enrages the touchy pride of his hosts in the drawing room at Twelve Oaks, Rhett is insulted by young Charles Hamilton, but declines the challenge. "I apologize again for all my shortcomings," Rhett says as he excuses himself. The hot-tempered Hamilton imputes this to cowardice -- "He refused to fight!" -- only to be informed by Ashley that Butler is a notoriously deadly duelist, "one of the best shots in the country."
In an agrarian antebellum society obsessed with the noble ideals of ancient chivalry, Rhett's attitudes are shockingly modern. He is a calculating capitalist, shamelessly professing his pursuit of self-interest. When Scarlett reproaches him for doubting the Confederate cause, Butler memorably retorts, "I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know." . . .

Read the whole scandalous thing, which doesn't shy away from the accusations of raaaaacism that plague Gone With The Wind today -- the 70th anniversary of the film's premiere in my native Atlanta.

Turner Classic Movies will show GWTW tonight at 8 p.m. ET. (You can read Washington Times film critic Gary Arnold's discussion of the TCM broadcast and the new 70th Anniversary Collector's DVD version.) Most media will either ignore this anniversary or else view it through a politically correct prism. ABC News airhead Ashley Hall managed to get Australian film-studies professor Deb Verhoeven to share this slice of feminist idiocy:

"Some people see the film and see an independent woman's struggle and her ultimate resilience and another person sitting next to them will see a terrible story about sexual subjugation."

Although you need subjugating badly, Professor Verhoeven. That's what's wrong with you. You should be subjugated, and often, and by someone who knows how.

Rhett Butler's offenses to feminism are extreme -- and extremely ironic, considering that he was created by a quite modern career woman, Margaret Mitchell, who remains the best-selling female writer of all time. It's easy to imagine Rhett laughing at feminist accusations of misogyny, just as he would laugh at the accusation of racism.

Fear and Self-Loathing
Coincidentally enough, I had a long phone conversation yesterday with Juliette "Baldilocks" Ochieng, the Luo-American blogger who asked her white readers why they were so afraid of being labelled "racist," and was surprised by the response:

I knew that there was fear out there, but I didn't comprehend the breadth of it.

As I told Juliette, there are both practical and emotional motives for this widespread fear. Practically, in the age of affirmative action and equal-opportunity employment law, the mere suspicion of "racism" can be a career-killer for anyone with ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder. Look at how Larry Summers' academic career was destroyed after he offended the feminists at Harvard, and then try to imagine what would have happened if he had similarly offended the racial grievance-mongers.

Vicious race hustlers who plague America's universities are a major reason an absurd flinch-reaction to the "racist" label is so commonplace among our educated elite. Just ask Sergio Gor what it was like when left-wingers at George Washington University perpetrated an anti-Muslim hate hoax against the campus chapter of Young America's Foundation. Or ask YAF's Jason Mattera about the reaction to his "whites-only scholarship" protest at Roger Williams University.

The cringing fearfulness Shelby Steele describes in his book White Guilt has to be "carefully taught" -- to borrow with obvious irony the famous lyrics from South Pacific -- and our educational system now teaches white guilt as fanatically as Nazi schools taught Aryan superiority in the 1930s.

Acknowledgement of racial guilt is now de rigueur among white bien-pensants who, if we may continue this impromptu French lesson, are required to prove themselves amis des noirs if they wish to preserve their amour propre.

Terrorized by the very real risk of denunciation and ostracism if they dispute the regnant racial orthodoxy, whites internalize this politically correct fear. As is often the case when fear is hidden in the heart, however, they seek to resolve the inevitable cognitive dissonance by projecting their inner angst onto scapegoats.

Whited Sepulchres
In recent years I've noticed that those who most relentlessly charge others with racism are white people who, by pointing the accusing finger, seek to make a public display of their own colorblind virtue:

Not only am I not a racist, but I am such an enlightened and courageous crusader against racism as to be able to detect the hidden hate of my fellow whites and to expose and fearlessly denounce it. Admire me!

To these self-righteous hypocrites, we may be tempted to reply with the two most famous words of Rahm Emanuel (hint: the second word is "you"), but instead we should remind them what Jesus said of their predecessors:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

"Whited sepulchres," indeed. They tithe the mint and cumin of racial self-righteousness, and when they make a proselyte, he is "twofold more the child of hell." (Sharmuta and Killgore Trout come to mind here.) They react with predictable fury toward anyone who calls them out for their pharisaical fraudulence, as the ugly reality of their dishonest hypocrisy contradicts the virtuous reputation they covet.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

Read the whole thing, as the bloggers say. And then please read the rest of my American Spectator column about Rhett Butler, who knew how to make the most of a bad reputation.

Speaking of making the most of such things, I once more wish to thank readers who have already hit the tip jar to help send me to Pasadena for Alabama's Jan. 7 national championship game. (Howdy, Texas A&M fans. Go Aggies!) Remember, we need to average $70 a day for the next three weeks to do this, so that perhaps I can pay chivalrous respect to Baldilocks (and also Little Miss Attila) in person.

The Other McCain: Best. Fisting. Blog. Evah!

The Other McCain: Best. Fisting. Blog. Evah!

The Other McCain: The people must be the SCOTUS at the ballot box

The Other McCain: The people must be the SCOTUS at the ballot box

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The people must be the SCOTUS at the ballot box

by Smitty

Great Blogs
The legal blogs like Power Line, The Volokh Conspiracy and Legal Insurrection are among the better reads in the shiny-tubes. When not a cure for insomnia, they often capture subtleties, are well written, and better organized than, say, effingconservatives.

VC had a pointer to a discussion at Heritage.org about the Constitutionality (rather, screaming lack thereof) of the 4-ream reaming of the American people currently contemplated by the Worst Congress Ever. Eugene Volokh points out a crucial judicial failure in the SCOTUS that has been an enabler of the current debacle over the last century:

The premise of much of the Court's expansive view of Congressional powers is deference to Congress. "In considering whether a particular expenditure is intended to serve general public purposes, courts should defer substantially to the judgment of Congress." "[W]e must defer to a congressional finding that a regulated activity affects interstate commerce "if there is any rational basis for such a finding," and we must ensure only that the means selected by Congress are '"reasonably adapted to the end permitted by the Constitution."'"

A Funny
I am reminded of an old Broadside cartoon that I don't have electronically. Jeff Bacon is a Scott Adams gone Navy, and the example in mind had three panels featuring a Submariner, a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO), and an aviator.
Bubble head: If it's not in the book, we can't do it.
SWO: If the book doesn't preclude it, we can do it.
Maverick: It is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

The Progressives have consistently pursued the cavalier 'Maverick' approach for the last century. The SCOTUS and the voters have supported it. Members of the House take an oath (item #3) when they show up to steallegislate. Apparently, that oath is as meaningful to them as Tiger Woods' wedding vows. The Congresscritters have been allowed, cheered, and consistently re-elected for putting the interests of their donors and constitutents ahead of doing The Right Thing. And the SCOTUS has said, in summary, over time: "Two tears in a bucket".

Funky Basketball
Your reward, Americans, for your century of slumber is the kind of European political class people fled ~400 years ago when the colonies were founded, and rebelled against ~230 years ago, in the form of the British crown.

The economic sodomy of chronic deficit spending has been treated casually by the National Funk Congress.

When an actual journalist asked that useless sack of a Speaker of the House if the healthcare debacle is Constitutional, Madame Speaker asked "Are you serious?". Yes, we are in fact electing and paying people to piss down our backs and tell us it's raining. Apologies to the Libertarians who've been screaming about this for years. Send "Liberal Fascism" back in time for an earlier start of the awakening.

The big concern I have is that once the adrenaline of the Tea Parties blows over, the Globetrotters and Generals will go back to business as usual. Irrespective of who wins election, the vast federal bureaucracy knows it will outlive the winner. Congress has legislated the slow Socialist march of Progressivism, and the SCOTUS has fiddled something delicate and mournful, and the Constitution has smoldered since 1913. We can either:

• Drink the Progressive kool-aid and secure our own supply thereof, or
• Stand by for extreme pain as all the Socialist band-aids are ripped off our collective backsides.

Why You Don't Want Me in Charge
Since the SCOTUS wasn't packing the gear to preserve a Federalist arrangement, the Tea Parties must refine a set of principles, and then support, contribute, pay attention, demonstrate, and drive the elected officials to adhere to them. Among these should be:

• Debt sucks. The Federal budget and hiring are frozen, the budget is run at an interest rate plus X percent surplus until further notice or the national debt is eliminated, barring declared war.
• The following spectacularly bad Federal ideas are kicked down to the state level in Y years. They can be staggered to give States time to figure out what they're doing with the data.
  
  • Community Reinvestment Act
  • Medicare
  • Social Security Act
• The following non-hunting Federal dogs are to be put down:
  
  • Amendments 16 & 17
  • Federal Reserve Act
• The War Powers Resolution is overhauled. No more invasions w/out declaration of war. A high bar filters out the casual high-jumpers.

Let's not kid ourselves. Even a third of the reforms just outlined is going to cause economic pain. Americans traditionally of find someone to blow sunshine up the public hoo-hah rather than deal with pain. Col. Jessup's "You can't handle the truth" applies.

The quality of long-term American political health is proportional to the capacity of the Tea Partiers to convince the rest that the convulsions which must follow are necessary and worth it. Progressives are going to whine "But States can't afford Social Security," while failing to specifiy the magical means by which the program is Federally solvent.

Face it. The responsible variation of the American future is going to suck. It would have been great if the first black president had a shred of leadership capacity to undertake the necessary reform. However, BHO is very much in keeping with FDR, LBJ, and JEC. The stupidity is at least traditional. And the rubber-stamp role of the SCOTUS is unlikely to change.

Sarah Palin has by no means made the sort of reformist noises I'm advocating here. Nor should she. The Tea Parties haven't matured into a reliable support mechanism for any elected official. Arguably they should not, as they would simply drift in the direction of becoming that which they currently despise.

No, an laundry list of despised legislation does not a viable plan make. For every cut you want to make, there really must be a transition plan. That means time. And that is where the Tea Parties come in, as a watch dog to keep the leadership focused on principles. There is no destination, only a better course to steer. The electorate has punted on checking that course for too many decades, and the SCOTUS has proven unreliable. Such can certainly continue. If it does, then stand by to welcome your shiny new EU overlords, because the Carbonhagen farce is just a little acorn that wants to be your Progressive Yggdrasil. If not now, then soon we will bow before these elite transnational plutocratic overlords. Our challenge, back to the Broadside cartoon, is to locate and support the bubbleheads for office. We must do the job of the SCOTUS at the ballot box, through pain and over time. And we will.

HT- The Other McCain- Fistgate on Fox News (9 December 2009)

Oh, boy! 'Fistgate' on Fox!

Sean Hannity just announced that Michelle Malkin's going to be on after the commercial to talk about every middle-schooler's favorite subject!

Don't try this at home, kids!

UPDATE: The Boss gives big props to Gateway Pundit! Attagirl, Michelle!

UPDATE II: Michelle and Hannity made a point about the kind of sexually explicit stuff that is being pushed on kids in the name of "tolerance" -- you can't quote most of it on TV, or in a mainstream newspaper. And the advocates of "tolerance" know this.

If the average taxpayer or the average parent were to see the worst of this stuff, there would be a riot.. And if they understood the psychological influence of "comprehensive sexuality education" -- or saw what goes on in the classrooms where kids are taught this stuff -- they'd be urging that the instigators of such programs be fired. Ten years ago, I interviewed Wendy Shalit:

Her conflict with a sexually explicit culture actually began years earlier when, as a fourth-grader, her complaints about a sex-education class led her parents to request that she be excused from the classes. She spent those hours in the library.
"I was glad to be in the library, because the other girls got teased, and I would just pretend like I didn't know what they were talking about," she recalls. "And in a lot of cases, I didn't, and I was glad not to, frankly."
Sex education in public schools should be "completely abolished," Miss Shalit says. “At best, it's redundant, because kids do not learn the facts from sex education. They know it already."
But Miss Shalit also says sex education hurts girls -- "and boys, too" -- by eroding natural modesty. "The problem is that we have it so early now, we really don't allow people to develop their personalities before their sexual identity," she says.

Wendy's book is A Return to Modesty.

The Inaugural "Master of the Comma" Award

To commemorate that most faithful sidekick, Fearless Reader, of our fearless leader, His Awesomeness, The Other McCain, I am accepting nominations for the inaugural "Master of the Comma" Award. This award is inspired by the tireless efforts of Fearless Reader to grammatically check the offerings in the VRWC Blogosphere so that we don't make fools of ourselves in the pursuit of Conservative Mastery of the blogosphere, lead of course by His Fearlessness, The Other McCain. Smitty has doen yeoman's work to make The Other McCain blog what it is today, and to keep the trolls at bay with his mastery of the English language and grammatical corrections. For the want of Smitty, a Kingdom would be lost!!!

Nominees MUST possess conservative bona fides, and an accompanying blog. Must be worthy to walk in Fearless Reader's shoes, or at the very least, in his very loooong shadow!!!!!

Thanks to Carol at http://NoSheeplesHere.blogspot.com, for her artistry in making this award a reality.

The Inaugural The Other McCain Award for Real Conservative Manliness

Carol, from that fabulous blog, No Sheeples Here, has finalized the artwork for The Major VRWC Blogosphere Award. His Awesomeness will, now and forever, be the envy of all real men. Smitty asked me to remind you that the photo for The Major VRWC Blogosphere Award was taken of His Awesomeness at one of his many Star Trek convention appearances.

Submissions please!!!! Remember, the nominees MUST be conservative to the very core of their being!!!!!

"The Other McCain" Inaugural Award

In honor of His Awesomeness, the Fearless Leader of the VRWC Blogosphere, I am announcing the inaugural "The Other McCain" Award.

Nominees MUST meet the criteria of being outrageously outspoken, MUST BE conservative/republican males. Female groupies are more than a fashion accessory. NRA membership not a prerequisite but a turn on for the fairer sex. Blogging is NOT necessary, but those who have NOT been banned by LGF face an uphill challenge.

Winners may simply cut and paste this image to proudly display on their home computers or their blogs. (I did not create the image, but found it after an extensive search, spurred on by Adrienne's challenge to our Rule 5 when she posted Ricardo Montalban)

The Other McCain: Notorious Racists at 9/12 DC March

The Other McCain: Notorious Racists at 9/12 DC March

The Other McCain: The 9/12 March: It Wasn't Just Numbers

The Other McCain: The 9/12 March: It Wasn't Just Numbers

Pajamas Media » Under the Gadsden Flag: Conservatives Rock the Capitol

Pajamas Media » Under the Gadsden Flag: Conservatives Rock the Capitol

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Stuff your Congresscritter

Stuff your Congresscritter

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Michael Ramirez on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Michael Ramirez on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

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The Other McCain: Like Belshazzar: The Self-Destruction of Rep. Diane Watson (D-Havana)

The Other McCain: Like Belshazzar: The Self-Destruction of Rep. Diane Watson (D-Havana)