No Beatdown Like A Brit Beatdown

TigerHawk stands back in shock and awe as the Brits hold up their end of terminating the special relationship.

Comments

[We will fight them.]

Yo, Peter.
====

[Captain Hate]

Barack Obama and Joe Biden have strutted across the country with a vain swagger that would make a peacock blush, from the vice president’s classless, foul-mouthed victory boast at the White House, to the president’s contemptuous mocking of his political opponents at a rally in Iowa.

How did the Brits get all the good journalists?

[Appalled]

I'm not shocked. I'm not awed. The columnist in the leading Tory newspaper in England thinks Obama is ushering in US decline, and makes all sorts of comparisons to Imperial Rome. *Yawn*

I'm sure you can find somethng quite similar in the Guardian about Bush. (And Bush Sr. And Reagan.) And, if you research the Fleet Street archives, you'll likely find similar wailing in the Telegraph about Carter.

When they stiop talking about the imminence of US decline, that's when I'll now we really are in decline.

[Jane]

If you don't know that now Appalled - you simply haven't been paying attention.

[maryrose]

The Brits seem to be the only ones calling out Obama for what he really is a liberal far left socialist. Real truth about him will not be found in our liberal print or televised media.

[Dave (in MA)]

I guess the question would be, is there another Reagan coming in '12?

[MikeS]

I love a Brit beatdown of Obama. Brits don't get accused of racism for doing it.

[Appalled]

Jane:

My high school days and Jimmy Peanut's presidential term pretty much coincided. Believe me, I have heard the decline stuff before. Frankly, that's about all you heard from 1978-1982. We were all going to be speaking Japanese, or Russian, or be frighteningly radioactive. Blah, blah, blah.

This country makes mistakes (and, over the past 10 years, has made a whole bunch of them -- the 00s are much like the 70s in that way). It also tends to correct a lot of them.

[bgates]

I have heard the decline stuff before. Frankly, that's about all you heard from 1978-1982. We were all going to be speaking Japanese

Yeah, I remember how people used to be all worried that the rice burners would somehow take over the car market, and GM would lose billions of dollars, and Detroit would become some kind of ghost town.

[Sue]

Oh come on Appalled, you have to admit this is good:

And what have they actually achieved? The passage of a massively controversial, divisive and hugely expensive health care reform bill via a Democrat-dominated Congress in the face of overwhelming public opposition, and without a shred of bi-partisan support.

[Appalled]

bgates:

Hey, my rice burners were made here in the USA. (Maybe, since they were made in plants in the south, they are bbq burners?)

Sue:

I agree with the sentiment. But you have to be Henry Waxman to disagree with it.

[Jane]

the 00s are much like the 70s in that way). It also tends to correct a lot of them

I hope you are right Appalled. In 1973 I was sure Nixon was going to declare martial law, and I constantly remind myself of that little fact. But for the most part I have a pretty good gut when it comes to politics, and my gut is very nervous.

[trentk269]

Growing up in a Jimmuh Carter world does not qualify one as an expert on anything. If you haven't noticed the rather striking parallels between Barry and Jimmuh,Appalled, then your lack of perspicacity is appalling.

[Ignatz]

--This country makes mistakes (and, over the past 10 years, has made a whole bunch of them -- the 00s are much like the 70s in that way). It also tends to correct a lot of them.--

Yes, but the 00s are over, and we're not correcting the mistakes, we're compounding them several times over and coming up with a considerable number of new insane ones on top of that.

[Sue]

I agree with the sentiment.

I appreciate that you agree with the sentiment. However, I was referring to the "beatdown" in it.

[Danube of Thought]

I have heard the decline stuff before. Frankly, that's about all you heard from 1978-1982. We were all going to be speaking Japanese

Never heard the one about speaking Japanese.

Your rice-burners made here in the USA are made to be marketed by Japanese companies--the Chinese might just as sensibly take comfort from the fact that their Nikes are made there: Phil Knight still gets the money.

The fact that you have heard the argument before does not meet the merits of the argument made today. The loss of influence and the ability to project power in our own interests are manifest in every day's newspaper. It didn't begin with Obama, but it is hard to identify a single act he has taken that alleviates the problem, and much of what he has done makes it much worse.

[Danube of Thought]

When Carter took office, Iran posed no threat of any kind to the world or the region. Neither did North Korea. Neither did Syria or Venezuela.

It didn't all happen on his watch, but it's as convenient a place as any to start the movie.

[matt]

i blogged this yesterday. LUN. Our foreign policy is a shambles.

Anduril, the cumulative effect is the problem. You can recover from a single gunshot would. You usually can't recover from multiple gunshot wounds.

They had a tribute to Jaime Escalante, the "Stand & Deliver" East LA HS calculus teacher the movie was made about 20 years ago.

In an interview before he died, he pointed out that the math being taught in the LA High Schools in the 1970's was equivalent to 5th grade math in the better Bolivian schools at time.

Our culture has been infected with incompetence, mediocrity, and socialist normative planning instead of the old virtues of hard work and uncompromising excellence. When you lose this, you begin to lose it all.

[Old Lurker]

I'm not going to accept that the 00's were a lot like the 70's. It's tough to beat double digit inflation, Prime Rates > 20%, Mortgage Rates > 10%, gas lines and rationing, price controls, being played the fool by Iran (oh, wait), losing a war because of politics...I could go on.

Now if you want to speculate on the coming decade, you might have more of a point.

[Homer Simpson]

"America rules! Our Beatles are way better than your precious Rolling Stones! "

"That's it! I'm acting the way America acts best: unilaterally!"

"We're big shot tourists from everyone's favourite country, the USA. We saved your ass in Vietnam and shared our prostitutes with Hugh Grant, so give me some free maps and none of that dry British wit."

[Angela Light]

Why are the Brits attacking our Kenyan Marxist president?

[RattlerGator]

I'm with you, Old Lurker. The incredibly casual assertion, so glibly offered and apparently accepted, linking the past decade with the 1970s is astonishing. It's that kind of muddled thinking by independents and Republicans who should have known better that allowed them to vote for Zee Roh and paved his way to the White House.

[Thomas Collins]

TM, in an article on page 6 of today's WSJ, which article is primarily devoted to the GOP US Senate primary in Kentucky, mention was made of the winner of the GOP US Senate primary in California going up against Boxer. No mention was made that your friend Kaus is challenging the Babsta in the Dem primary. Then again, perhaps the Kaus campaign is intended to fly below the traditional media radar screen.

[narciso the harpoon]

The 'tens' are more likely to be like the 70s, the OOs like the 60s, I know it's counterintuitive

[Rick Ballard]

"so glibly offered and apparently accepted"

Just because OL provided the only response to the inartfully inane Appalled (thread thief extraordinaire) does not mean that Appalled's unsubtantive and wholly inaccurate assertion was accepted. Appalled seeks to drag threads into defense of Bush with the apparent intent to discourage examination of the mal and misfeasance practiced by the Kendonesian commie and his (D)irty Socialist cohort. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he fails but he always tries. OL provided a succinct and sufficient rebuttal - there was no need to elaborate.

[Ignatz]

--I'm not going to accept that the 00's were a lot like the 70's.--

OL,
They weren't overall, but each decade ended in an economic debacle.
The difference is Reagan and Volcker combined to bring the 70's idiocies to an end and made all the right policy moves.
This time Barry, and let's face it, George "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market" Bush combined to make all the wrong moves and under Barry they are only getting worse.

[Old Lurker]

Thanks, Rick. Agree, Iggy. The disaster of the 70's were mostly self inflicted but was corrected by the course change that was Reagan.

The situation under Bush was harder to see clearly at the time, though it was starkly clear by the end that spending was out of control, that entitlements were out of control, and that risk shifting cancer was exploding on Wall Street along with unprecedented failures of corporate leadership.

As you note, while Reagan reversed course and with good effect, Obama has removed the governor from the throttle and doubled down on the wrong direction.

[Appalled]

Good Lord, post a dissenting viewpoint, go elsewhere for a day, and see what happens to to the thread!

I think the country made mistakes in the 00s -- a lot of them -- and I think it made mistakes in the 70s -- a lot of them. I never said they were the same mistakes. But I think the hangover from them have created the same attitude of unrelenting pessimism. Which I find tiresome, quite juvenile, and not terribly helpful in creating the movement that is necessary to do something about those mistakes. Optimism gets things done. Pessimism does nothing (except maybe help liquor store sales.)

As, for Rick's post -- there is little to say, though a Bronx Cheer might be appropriate. Since when is talking about the article in question thread hijacking? As for my sentiments on Bush -- I've never hidden them. Rick, indeed, reminds me why I keep my handle -- there is always plenty to be appalled about.

[Pofarmer]

Well, appalled, sure, there were mistakes in the 00's. What other posters pointed out is that the mistakes of the 70's were corrected, rather painfully. Do you see the mistakes of the 00's being corrected now? That's where the pessimism comes in. Not from the fact that things "were" bad, but from the viewpoint that there is nothing being done to make things less bad.

[Ignatz]

--But I think the hangover from them have created the same attitude of unrelenting pessimism. Which I find tiresome, quite juvenile, and not terribly helpful in creating the movement that is necessary to do something about those mistakes.--

Appalled,
I think you are misreading things somewhat. Many people are quite optimistic we can root these clowns out come November. The Tea Parties are a perfect example of that optimism.
But pessimism does seem warranted on what is currently occurring and the effects of it, especially the unprecedented magnitude of the idiotic policies being pursued.
And pessimism is definitely warranted on the cynical intentions of the Democratic party. It was easier to be optimistic when some significant portion of both of the major parties was still coherent and sensible. The proportion of the Dem party than can presently be described that way is vanishingly small. Faced with an impending entitlement detonation they corruptly shove down the country's throat a new entitlment they know to be a budget buster and insult our intelligence by calling it the opposite.
That type of, what can only be described as fiscal insanity, is quite conducive to pessimism, especially since the bind we are currently intentionally being shoved into will prove much more resistant to the relatively simple fixes Reagan and Volcker had at their command.

[Appalled]

Pofarmer:

There's a simple solution to that problem -- vote the bums out. November is not tat far away, and keep the Congresscritters scared of losing their seats in the meantime.

The late 70s were full of whining about hard it was to govern the country, and how we all were just going to have to suffer under our government's need to tax, spend., and ration energy.

Why do Conservatives want to emulate the glory days of 1979?

[narciso the harpoon]

yes and who is sounding that way, despite the majorities they hold in both houses, who chooses to hold the will of the people in abeyance, by ramming through a bill that does not work.

[JM Hanes]

Appalled:

I don't think you jacked the thread, although I see almost no resonance between the Carter & Bush years. Bush certainly got scathing reviews in the European press, but the subject of American decline has largely been an American preoccupation. During the Bush years, Europe was worried about a more aggressive, hegemonic U.S. in the absence of a balancing anti-American, Soviet power -- heavily promoted by the perennially anti-American French, and, as you point out, the equally anti-American Guardian, of course. The "decline" we heard most about in Europe, however, was centered on American popularity under the cowboy leadership of Bush, upon which Europe hoped to catapult itself into equal status in the coming "multi-polar" world.

During the Carter years, there was tremendous domestic concern over what seemed to be our shrinking international presence both politically and economically. By the time Carter left office, he had neutered the CIA -- something from which we have yet to recover. During the Iran crisis, it was shocking to realize that our military capacity was so degraded that we no longer had the capacity to project regular combat forces to the Persian gulf, even if we needed to. I remember the Japanese scare quite clearly, as they were buying up real estate (and dominating art auctions). We're increasingly worried about the Chinese now, which may seem similar, but is, in reality, a horse of a very different color. The Carter misery index here at home was certainly depressing, but the resentments under Bush were of an entirely different character.

The idea of American decline developing now has become all encompassing in a way which is unique in my experience.

[Clarice]

JMH:The idea of American decline developing now has become all encompassing in a way which is unique in my experience.

Probably because no other American President has so openly embraced and worked to that end.

[Ignatz]

Here's a story on some conservative optimism for you Appalled.
And no, it's not an April Fools thing.

[Danube of Thought]

Which I find tiresome, quite juvenile, and not terribly helpful in creating the movement that is necessary to do something about those mistakes.

The question whether the pessimism about the nation's direction is warranted seems not to be addressed in Appalled's expression of disdain. If something one believes is tiresome and unhelpful to Appalled (let alone junvenile), then one's belief must change.

[Captain Hate]

In 1973 I was sure Nixon was going to declare martial law, and I constantly remind myself of that little fact.

This was believed by so many people, including Mrs Hate, at that time that I thought a large segment of the population had lost their minds (the popularity of pet rocks, books about the feelings of plants and evidence of spacemen having been on the planet previously added to that belief). Nixon was a horrible President for a lot of reasons (wage and price controls, forming the EPA plus a few things that don't currently come to mind that have nothing to do with Watergate, which made those idiots Woodward and Bernstein unjustly famous and permanently ruined journalism) but somebody who didn't challenge the massive irregularities in the 1960 election certainly wouldn't invoke martial law.

[JM Hanes]

Clarice:

One thing Obama has managed to do is throw fundamental ideological conflicts into high, stark, relief and rung a lot of alarms bells that would not otherwise have sounded. When ordinary folks start talking about the people and the States pushing back against the Feds, there's been a seismic shift. This is not your daddy's silent majority. If we're lucky, the younger generation may have learned the necessary lessons about politicians breaking promises earlier than most, as well.

[Danube of Thought]

Rasmussen:

Thirty-five percent (35%) of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, up nine points from last week and the highest level of optimism measured since early September 2009, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Consistent with a similar bounce in President Obama's job approval ratings in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, the jump in confidence in the nation's direction is due primarily to an increase in enthusiasm among Democrats since Congress' passage of the national health care plan. The attitudes of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party are little changed.

The other 65%, primarily non-Democrats, are being tiresome, juvenile and not at all helpful.

[narciso the harpoon]

The problem is this really the media default
setting, everything is horrible, sadly we
have a leader at the top of the rung who gives
that same impression, this came true even in his inaugural address

[JM Hanes]

A favorite quotation from Brian Eno seems salient here:

The central problem of politics: Do you paint simplistic pictures that make people act (and leave them with too simplistic a view of the world) or do you paint baffingly shaded and contingent scenes that leave people paralyzed by indecision?

As a "populist," I might have left out his parenthetical, because I think a lot of the choices we must make in this life are really not all that complicated. People are galvanized to action by clarity; pundits sit in their comfy chairs, wrapped in nuance.

[Captain Hate]

narciso, that's why the MSM loves Odummy: He's as dumb as they are.

[matt]

Brian Eno? gotta love JOM!

[Danube of Thought]

Concerning the 1970's vs. the present, consider this:

Federal debt as a percentage of GDP then was around 38%. In 2010 it is about 97%.

Bear in mind that the debt is now at a level where no one has offered a single serious proposition for how it is to be paid. To me, that is grounds for great pessimism, and it would be much greater if I were twenty or so years younger.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm with you, JMH. As Ronaldus Maximus used to say, the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Or as Henry Kissinger once said, we can talk all year without reaching a conclusion, but today we have to reach a decision.

[MikeS]

My guess is that Obama will go down in history as the person who actually caused the defeat of big government liberalism. There has not been a better example of incompetence, duplicity, and cynicism in modern history than the Obama Administration.

[Ignatz]

--My guess is that Obama will go down in history as the person who actually caused the defeat of big government liberalism.--

Either that, or as the person who set us irrevocably on the road to serfdom.

[Thomas Collins]

The best 20th century political philosopher counselled neither optimism nor pessimism, but fighting spirit:

"D-Day: War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one. Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Otter: Germans? Boon: Forget it, he's rolling. Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the going gets tough . . . the tough get going. Who's with me? Let's Go! Come on! AAAAEEEEEGGGHHHH!! [Bluto runs out of the room alone; then returns] What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer..."

Bluto has the formula for defeating progism.

[MikeS]

...the person who set us irrevocably on the road to serfdom.

During my more optimistic moods, I hope for a November victory great enough to scare surviving Dems into submitting to the will of the people.

Any victory will require a coalition of Republicans and Independents. I don't mean just moral support either. We need Independents to go to the polls and vote.

[Extraneus]

Didn't he become a senator at the end, TC?

[Thomas Collins]

Yes he did, Extraneus. If Bluto had been a Senator during the health care legislative process, he would have found a way to tie up the Senate, Dem recon tricks or no Dem recon tricks. And if Bluto were secretary of energy, we'd be nukin' and drillin' like crazy for our power.

[Pagar]

"During my more optimistic moods, I hope for a November victory great enough to scare surviving Dems into submitting to the will of the people."

The Democrats aren't worried about November elections. They are writing the Rules
The first thing they always want to do is make it harder or impossible to trace voter fraud. " * 2) The current open government practice of allowing any citizen to challenge individual ballots would end as monitoring of elections of statewide or national significance would be restricted to people who live within that polling district.

* 3) Permanent absentee ballot status would be established in which ballots would be sent to people who historically do not vote in low-turnout elections."

Check out the rule changes on challenging ballots in Washington State after the 2004 election.

[MikeS]

The Democrats aren't worried about November elections. They are writing the Rules

They do know all the tricks.

[Appalled]

DoT:

If we continue down the course we are down (I complained about the deficit under Bush), a decline in living standards in inevitable. I think the voters will cause a course correction in 2010, as they did in 1994, and I think the message will be awfully loud.

What irritates me about declinist arguments is that they are so often premised on the idea that the American people are stupid, easily manipulated, undeserving, etc, and that a change from the course to inevitable ruination is impossible. The american people are a surprising lot -- far more creative, dynamic and accepting than the silly political elites give them any credit for -- and utterly undeceived by the budgetary tomfoolery the Dems have practiced in the past yaear and a half.

But the problem I find with rampant pessimism in politics is that it is a call for inaction, and an incentive for political groups to specialize in making sure that their supporters "get theirs", and to heck with the rest. That's a recipe for more of the crony capitalism, and envy poliitics that, alas, seems to be the hallmark of this particular administration.

[narciso the harpoon]

Well Appalled this is the LSM/ SRM's stock and trade, there is no credible opposition,
long live Big Brother, we have to accept this
carp sandwich. That little glimpse from Wisconsin is disconcerting to say the least

[Danube of Thought]

(I complained about the deficit under Bush)... I think the voters will cause a course correction in 2010, as they did in 1994, and I think the message will be awfully loud.

I complained about them too, but they were almost trivial compared to where we already are under his immediate successor.

A loud message was, indeed, sent in 1994--and look where we are sixteen years later.

I think the fulcrum on which everything in the future will pivot is the current health care legislation. Already at least two GOP senators are downplaying the notion of repeal, and discussing how to "improve" the thing. They represent a slice of what passes for the opposition, and already they appear to concede the basic premise: that it is OK for the central government to insinuate itsself into every single decision made among doctors, patients and insurers. (They just feel that they can tweak those arrangements a bit and make everything right.)

If the Republican Party can't even consider repealing a gigantic piece of legislation grossly expanding the reach of federal authority, one which was enacted against the forcefully expressed views of a substantial majority of the electorate, by a wholly corrupt process and without a single Republican vote, then what legislation can ever be repealed? And what the hell good are the Republicans?

[Porchlight]

I appreciate your optimism, Appalled. The problem is that this is a very very familiar trajectory, one that few nations or cultures recover from. Americans and the American form of government are exceptional, yes, but how exceptional? That is the question in front of us.

[MikeS]

If the Republican Party can't even consider repealing a gigantic piece of legislation...

We do need to get rid of the liberal RINOs.

My view is that the November results will dictate how fast we get rid of ObamaCare. Though I think the whole thing is garbage, I would gladly choose a step by step incremental repeal (starting with mandates) over nothing. Nothing is what we will get if we lose the support of Independents.

[Old Lurker]

"...Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, was questioned by a woman whether the new government was a Republic or a Monarchy, he replied: 'A republic, if you can keep it.'"

Just sayin.

[MikeS]

Of course I don't know how to keep or how to lose the support of Independents. Seems that at present we share a common adversary...

[Clarice]

pagar, at AT you will see a similar rule change plan being designed for Wisconsin once one of America's most honest places where the fraud in the last two presidential elections was evident.

OTOH if the opposition is truly boiling and is now a majority, they might put a halt to this..

The thing about life is battles are never truly one once and forever. One has to keep the pickets sharpened and at the ready in each generation.

Someone said of Jewish holidays they are almost all--they tried to kill us, we fought and won, let's eat. It's a joke with some truth to it. Human nature is unchanging..get rid of corruption and there will be some new corruption in a short time that needs to be ruted out. Get rid of one murderous thug, and you can be sure a new one is being born somewhere.

Fight.
Win.
Have a victory feast to celebrate with family and friends/ and be sure to remind the kids, it'll be their turn next.

[Rick Ballard]

MikeS,

Introduce them to Paul Ryan.

"Never before has such a huge entitlement program passed with just one-party rule,” said Ryan 40, who is serving his sixth term in Congress. "This is the largest expansion of government in 40 years and it was done with just one-party rule running it through. The American people don’t like that and it’s very clear that they have great concerns about it.”

Repealing the legislation is possible, but won’t happen quickly, he said.

"It is doable, it’s tough, it’s a steep hill to climb,” Ryan said. "It will take us two elections to repeal it but that’s what we should be focusing on doing. We spent the last year and a half fighting the government takeover of our health care sector. Just because it passed doesn’t mean all of a sudden we give up.

"It’s going to take a new Congress and a new president to repeal and replace it,” said Ryan, whose in-laws are from Madill; he comes to Oklahoma about four times a year. "We also need to articulate what we would replace it with.”

Chance for repeal?
Ryan, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, and two other Republican lawmakers earlier this year introduced comprehensive health reform legislation called "The Patients’ Choice Act.” They said it would put patients and physicians back in control of health care decisions.

"That to me is what we have to focus on — repeal and replace with real reform,” Ryan said. "We’ve got to go straight to the people about this. This new law doesn’t kick in in earnest until 2014 so I think there’s going to be an opportunity before the new law fully turns on to repeal and replace it.”

I'm unclear as to why people crying "where's the leadership" continue to walk by him with barely a nod. I'm satisfied with Boehner, Cantor and Ryan for the moment - Senators' burble is rarely as direct.

[MikeS]

I absolutely love Paul Ryan. I think he has arrived a just the right time.

On the other hand, I thought the "Roadmap" had a little too much government involvement in healthcare for my taste.

[Clarice]

Hey, the msm is already telling us it'll be a choice between Huckabee and Romney..That'll work, won't it? Romney has many things to comment him but Romneycare kills him. Huckabee has a lot of charm but no real conservative appeal and the independents will flee.

[Ignatz]

--Hey, the msm is already telling us it'll be a choice between Huckabee and Romney..--

I'm not even slightly concerned about a good candidate emerging. For every Reagan or Nixon who is an obvious and experienced presidential campaigner prior to his eventual win, there are three or four GWBs and Clintons and JFKs who pop up and prove themselves in the midst of their first primaries.
If the current geek can do it anyone can.

[Old Lurker]

"Huckabee has a lot of charm but no real conservative appeal and the independents will flee."

...Hell, a lot of Republicans will flee too. Of course the MSM would like to repeat their victory of picking the candidate last time.

[Old Lurker]

What do you have against Geeks, Iggy?

Say you're sorry.

[Danube of Thought]

Ryan is the brightest flash of sunshine to come along on our side in a very long time. And everyone knows in an instant that he knows exactly what he's talking about, in very sharp contrast to Obama.

I share your view, Clarice--the "long, twilight struggle" comes to mind. If statism is ever going to be rolled back, it has to start with repeal, not modification, of this legislation. It has to. All else is marginal crap.

[Clarice]

Of course, I missed this typo

**Romney has many things to commenD him****

[Appalled]

DoT:

A loud message was sent in 1994, and, funny, the only balanced budgets in my memory came to fruition shortly thereafter, as well as the last major rollback of government programs (Welfare Reform).

As for "look where we are 16 years later", the eternal seesaw of the two party form of Democracy is always going to cause these situations.

[Ignatz]

--What do you have against Geeks, Iggy?--

OL, I have nothing against geeks in general, but I am wary of geeks who coming bearing grifts.

--Say you're sorry.--

I am sorry. I'm sorry our president is such a geek.

I'm especially sorry that that limp wristed, pencil neck geek might besmirch by association the rest of us on the sinister side of the metacarpal divide.

[JM Hanes]

Obama is not a geek! He's an intellectual poseur.

[jimmyk]

I absolutely love Paul Ryan. I think he has arrived a just the right time.

Of course the MSM knock on him will be that he's too young (40 now) and unqualified (despite having been in Congress for more than a decade).

I must say that his hairdo appears to me to be an exact replica of Reagan's (see LUN, scroll down a ways). If his mind and political instincts are also, he'll be a godsend.

[jimmyk]

oops, in my previous comment (which hasn't appeared yet) on Ryan was about him as a potential presidential candidate, not as a Republican leader.

[Danube of Thought]

the eternal seesaw of the two party form of Democracy is always going to cause these situations.

That's pretty much my point: the debt situation we're in now has never been brought about before. Some seesaw.

I don't recall the message of 1994 having anything to do with deficits in any event--it was principally revulsion at what Hillarycare had proposed to do, and concern about the people who were proposing to do it.

[JM Hanes]

MikeS:

"Of course I don't know how to keep or how to lose the support of Independents."

I'd say alienating Independents is easy. All you have to do is say things like. "We do need to get rid of the liberal RINOs."

It's worth remembering that the Tea Parties are hardly the exclusive domain of either Republicans or Conservative Republicans. Over at The Corner, Kristen Soltis, discussing a recent Winston Group poll, points out:

[T]ea-party members tend to be conservative; a majority are Republican; they are concerned about the federal deficit and spending. 

But some four out of ten tea-party members aren’t Republican, and a third aren’t conservative, painting a picture of a movement that is hardly monolithic.

As you suggest, we share a common enemy at present -- one which will take a genuine coalition of interests to defeat.

[rse]

I like Paul Ryan and Liz Cheney.

What a team of ideas and the ability to explain them that would be.

Have y'all seen the video of BO today once again mocking the people and pundits who oppose Obamacare?

[JM Hanes]

jimmyk:

Aside from the fact that we don't know if Ryan has any executive skills or foreign policy cred, and have almost no way to find out, I think we've never needed him in the House more. That's where the purse strings are! He's in a far better position to zero in on the numbers and do the detailing on key legislation there than he would be in the White House, where he would have thousands of other things to tend to.

[Captain Hate]

Have y'all seen the video of BO today once again mocking the people and pundits who oppose Obamacare?

When I saw this comment I went right to Hot Air and found it but, like a number of commenters there, couldn't bring myself to watch it. It looks like the standard setting at some college full of star-struck kids and their wacademic handlers. Much as I complain, justifiably, about Allahsquish he's fairly effectively snarky about the irony of him obsessing on the immediate response to this while claiming it hasn't led to immediate disaster for the economy.

I think this is where stage 2 of the meltdown really begins in earnest: The ultimate narcissist has rammed through a "historic" bill, the sheer bloated size of which nobody since FDR has been able to accomplish. Leaving aside that he didn't write a damn word of it and demonstrably understood nothing in it, it was also done through parliamentary chicanery against popular sentiment. Now he's trying to bask in his historical moment and the only people that are energized are the opponents. He will run out of hand-selected audiences shortly and the adulation will be non-existent. It certainly won't be up to the level he thinks he deserves and the thin-skinned bastard won't be able to resist the inevitable tantrum. The spectacle of that and congressional donks running from him will hopefully lead to the November drubbing the commiecrats richly deserve.

[daddy]

Just in, and it seems like we're on this thread, so here's 2 quick hits from the ADN.

This big headline tells us ">http://www.adn.com/2010/04/01/1208265/shells-chukchi-drilling-plan-gets.html"> Shell's Chukchi Sea drilling plan gets clean-air OK from EPA.

How about that. On a dime suddenly the EPA can determine Exploratory drilling can go ahead in the Chukchi. What a timely coincidence. Almost like the determination that water spigots could be opened in select Congressional Districts in California and somehow not destroy the smelt. Permission to drill. Yea Obama!

But in a less prominent ADN story, not so well headlined, we get this: ">http://www.adn.com/2010/03/31/1207546/31alaska-offshore-lawsuits.html"> Lawsuits still could stall exploration, drilling
CHALLENGES: Obama's nod doesn't block litigation.

"Shell's plan to drill for oil and gas in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas this summer remains in legal limbo despite the Obama administration's endorsement of the drilling.

Three lawsuits are pending, and Shell could encounter additional legal challenges if it receives key permits from federal regulators it still needs this spring.

Here's a round-up of the litigation:

• Several North Slope villages and environmental groups filed a lawsuit to overturn the 2007-2012 oil and gas leasing plan approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Bush administration. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the plan's environmental analysis was flawed and must be redone. The Obama administration is collecting public comment on the revised plan, unveiled Wednesday, for 30 days before finalizing it and sending it to the court for approval or rejection.

• Many of the same villages and groups are contesting the 2008 federal lease sale that awarded leases in the Chukchi. That case is still pending in federal district court in Anchorage.

• Similar groups are also challenging Shell's exploration plans for the Beaufort and Chukchi this summer. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule before the summer."

Sorry to paste all that, but its worth knowing that beneath the hoopla this is not a done deal. If permission is denied in any of these Law suits (particularly the 9th Circuit Court one), then they will have just acted according to their Standard Operating Procedure.

But if they actually all rapidly render the favorable verdicts which Obama would apparently wish them to at the current time, in order to secure for himself favorable press and momentum, then the skeptics among us will suspect the Courts deciding these matters are simply as politically biased as some of us have frequently suspected in the past. We shall see.

[Pagar]

" I think we've never needed him in the House more."

JMH, I couldn't agree more. We not only need him, we need a whole lot more who can understand that budget control starts in the house. Right now we have a whole lot of Reps who don't have a clue about the bills they are voting for. That includes the ones that think Guam may capsize.

[MikeS]

But some four out of ten tea-party members aren’t Republican, and a third aren’t conservative

Wow! I was completely ignorant of that fact. That would seem to bode well for November.

I had no idea that Independents were so touchy about criticism of liberal Republicans.

[Captain Hate]

LUN for Spring seems to be the season for donks acting like complete imbeciles.

[JM Hanes]

MikeS:

Frankly, I'm touchy myself about conservatives as the self-appointed arbiters of who qualifies as a real Republicans and who doesn't. Conservatives need moderate/lib Republicans just as much as the reverse to win elections, and although conservatives are loath to admit it, both Republicans and Democrats need to swing the Independents. You're hardly going to win over any Independents when you start out insulting virtually everyone who isn't sitting on the conservative end of the seesaw with you.

[Old Lurker]

Cap'n I did see him give that speech today. Mrs. L and I cannot recall any president, ever, behaving in such a disgusting manner.

Iggy, JMH and I seem to agree that "Geek" is a term of endearment, applied to the very bright, often highly competent, but perhaps socially inept.

You must admit Obama is anything but very bright and highly competent.

[Ignatz]

--Iggy, JMH and I seem to agree that "Geek" is a term of endearment, applied to the very bright, often highly competent, but perhaps socially inept.--

OL,
I subscribe to the original circus geek definition as immortalized by the late, great Freddie Blassie (if you'll pardon the andurilization):

Back when I was a kid, life was going swell.
Till something happened, blew every thing to hell.
That night my daddy stumbled in, all pale and weak,
Said, "A woman up the block just gave birth to a geek."

Mom said, "Sell it to the circus, what the heck."
Dad said, "Nope, this one's a pencil neck.
And if there's one thing lower than a side show freak,
It's a grit eatin', scum suckin', pencil neck geek."

You see if you take a pencil that won't hold lead,
Looks like a pipe cleaner attached to a head,
Add a buggy whip body with a brain that leaks,
You got yourself a grit eatin', pencil neck geek.

(chorus)
Pencil neck geek, grit eatin' freak,
scum suckin', pea head with a lousy physique.
He's a one man, no gut, losing streak.
Nothin' but a pencil neck geek.

Soon the geeks were poppin' up all over town.
You couldn't hardly sneeze without knockin' one down.
After a nice juicy steak, if you need a toothpick,
Just reach for a geek, they'll do the trick.

One day we cut one up for fish bait.
Learned our lesson just a little bit late.
Soon as the geek hit the drink, the water turned red.
Next day, sure enough, all the fish were dead.

chorus

Most any night you know where I can be found.
Yeah, stomping some geek's head into the ground.
So keep the faith, 'cause in Blassie you can trust,
I won't give up 'til the last geek bites the dust.

chorus

They say these geeks come a dime a dozen.
I'm lookin' for the guy who's supplyin' the dimes.
Its gonna be real hard times for all of these
grit eatin',
scum suckin',
boot lickin',
drop kickin',
gut grindin',
nail bitin',
glue sniffin',
scab pickin',
butt scratchin',
egg hatchin',
sleazy,
smelly,
pepper bellied,
dirty, lousy, rotten, stinkin', freaks.
Nothing but a pencil neck geek.

[JM Hanes]

I watched the first couple of minutes of the Obama video, and then tuned out, not so much because he was his usual, ungracious, dismissive self, but because he's like a hungry guy feeding off the crowd. That pathetic need for the campaign rush just overwhelms any speck of common sense & sensibility he might otherwise have. He's in the moment, and that's all that counts.

[Captain Hate]

Frankly, I'm touchy myself about conservatives as the self-appointed arbiters of who qualifies as a real Republicans and who doesn't.

Who would those conservatives be? David Frum? Michael Steele? Conservatives supported Scott Brown even though he was obviously not in alignment with them on many issues. McCain lost not because of lack of support from conservatives but because he ran a horrible campaign. Worrying about conservatives hurting the Republican party is concern ill-placed compared to what non-conservatives are doing to it from within.

[Sue]

I've written something and erased it 5 times. I'm not sure how to say what I'm trying to say without it being offensive to someone, and I don't want to be offensive. The most important thing in November is Nancy Pelosi is not the speaker of the house. Anything less than taking her out of that position is a failure, even if every republican in Washington is as conservative as conservative can be. I'm not sure they realize we are in a fight for our very survival as a nation they will recognize 10 years from now. Stop the bickering and get busy firing Pelosi. Republicans were taught a lesson in 06 and 08. And we will pay for that lesson for the rest of our lives.

[JM Hanes]

I don't think it helps when moderates diss conservatives either, Captain, although I think Frum adds a heaping measure of disdain for populism, which is all the more unappetizing. Down here in the trenches, however, you hear a whole lot more animus directed at the so called RINO's. I certainly agree about McCain. He was a lousy, sui generis, candidate, who managed to lose the election on his own devices. It wasn't just conservatives who didn't like him, but voted for him anyway.

[Extraneus]

Careful there, folks. My ex-accountant had a famous wrestler for a client, Freddie Blassie. Turns out, Freddie had copyrighted the term "pencil necked geek" and received a royalty any time the phrase was used in the media. Apparently there was quite a bit of money involved, which still goes to his family. Just a word of caution.

[MikeS]

Frankly, I'm touchy myself about...

Yes you are, but since I have insulted you I must apologize.

Sadly, there is almost no situation in which I do not find myself lacking in social skills, even this one. If I were to choose which commenter here I would inadvertently insult, you would be nearly my last choice.

I meant no offense.

[Porchlight]

Agree with all of your 7:36, Cap'n. I've been down on Allah lately too, but he has a good understanding of BOzo. It's when he's discussing other Republicans/conservatives that I get most steamed.

[Jane says obamasucks]

Sue,

I'm trying to figure out what you thought would be offensive in that paragraph.

[Extraneus]

Speaking of which, it's sad to note how many famous wrestlers haven't made it to age 65. Freddie's not on the list, and lived to a ripe old age.

How many WWF/E wrestlers have died?

[Jane says obamasucks]

Mike, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your social skills. We all misinterpret and get misinterpreted - that's the medium and life.

[Porchlight]

I can't see anything offensive about your comment, Sue. Targeting Nancy is a great way to focus energy. No matter what else any of us may differ on, we can all agree on that.

I'm to the right of the so-called RINOs or moderates, but I still see the value of carefully calibrating each race to the constituents of that district (or state, in the Senate). The problem is that the landscape is constantly changing. Early on, no one outside the truly sagacious (like our Jane) saw Scott Brown as capable of winning Teddy's seat. And a year ago, most people would probably not have given Rubio much of a chance of defeating Crist in the primary.

As long as I get the sense that the GOP is fighting - like they did against Obamacare - I can forgive them a lot.

[Sue]

Jane,

I got my anger out in the posts I didn't post. The last thing we need right now is infighting. Eyes on the prize should be our only goal.

[Ignatz]

--I watched the first couple of minutes of the Obama video, and then tuned out, not so much because he was his usual, ungracious, dismissive self, but because he's like a hungry guy feeding off the crowd.--

I can not recall an instance of a president campaigning like this for a piece of legislation after it's a law. Can anyone?
I suspect it marks not only the extraordinary unpopularity of Obamacare but also his bizarre insecurities.

[Sue]

Ex,

There were 5 Von Erich boys. 4 have died. It's been years since I've thought about them, but I think some of them were suicides.