A Conclusion

I was driving home from working late at the office when I heard that yet another Obama nominee has...tax trouble! I placed this on the great mental bulletin board of ongoing outrages perpetrated against the American people by this administration, and it occurred to me that back a little while ago, we were boldly informed by the Vice President and Smartest Person in the Room (just ask him) that paying taxes is patriotic.

Now the Democrats were the same people who were getting their upturned noses out of joint by the insinuation that their overt and latent "Hate America First" activities somehow allowed those of us who don't prescribe to that toxic viewpoint to question their patriotism. Well, finally, I think that even by their quixotic standards, they are damned by the mouth of one of their spokespersons, and the fact that so very many of them do not feel that is necessary to pay their taxes, but that is only one of many reasons.

I question their patriotism when they run on a platform that has the government redistribution wealth, assaulting the concept of private property that is fundamental to the success of the American Experience.

I question their patriotism when they advocate for the concept of mandatory voluntary service, making the government the chief endorser of involuntary servitude.

I question their patriotism when they determine that people who are hostile to every idea we hold dear, and are prone to violence, mayhem and murder as expression of their beliefs should not be held on foreign shores, but here on our soil instead.

I question their patriotism when they push through a grossly obscene 'stimulus package' that has very little immediate spending, that funds political activist groups sympathetic to those who do not respect the law of the land, and that many of them never even bothered to read.

I question their patriotism when they appoint a tax cheat as the head of the cabinet agency that oversee the tax system and enforcement.

I question their patriotism when they propose a federal budget that will destroy the economy and enslave many future generations to the serve of government debt that may never be repaid.

I question their patriotism when they move beyond the role of regulator in our economy, a role plagued by uneven application and selective prosecution on its best days, to being an active participant by deciding who wins and loses by 'bailing out' some companies in financial difficulty, and letting others fail.

I question their patriotism when they bypass the Board of Directors of corporations accepting bailout money and demanding the resignations of CEO of said companies.

I question their patriotism when they seek the 'regulatory' power to seize any business that they deem to be a threat to the economy.

I question their patriotism when they introduce legislation that, if passed, would limit my choices for health care, food, or the programs I want to listen to or watch.

I question their patriotism when they actively undermine the dollar by monetizing our debt.

I question their patriotism when they propose ex post facto laws and bills of attainder to seize bonuses that were lawfully contracted for and allowed in their own legislation with regard to a corporation that accepted bailout money, and using the faux and misplaced outrage to suggest that they have a right to regulate the compensation for executives in all businesses.

I question their patriotism when they state their goal to increase taxation on American corporations with the idiotic but popular justification that the corporations do not "pay their fair share".

I question their patriotism when they foment class envy, and encourage the belief that those who did not work to earn are somehow entitled to the fruits of the labor of those that did.

I question their patriotism when they continually vilify those industries and individuals who produce innovation and bring cutting edge technology, services, and treatments on line, and are willing to risk their futures to do so.

I question their patriotism when they rule with an underlying philosophy that the government, an entity that does not produce anything, and does very little in an efficient manner, has a duty to provide health care, rescue the fiscally irresponsible, and impose mediocrity upon us all.

I question their patriotism when they appoint as 'czars' that are not part of the chains of command of cabinet agencies in roles where they will probably have oversight over the areas governed by those agencies, largely because they would not make it through the appointment process.

I question their patriotism when they stubbornly adhere to environmental policies that ARE NOT supported by the science, even though they will be ruinous to US business.

I question their patriotism when they appoint transnationalist attorneys to high ranking positions where they will be able to actively advocate for their foreign law-over-the Constitution preferences.

I question their patriotism when the overall effect of their stated goals and proposed legislation is to consolidate power, including powers reserved to the states and individuals in the hands of the federal government.

I question their patriotism when they establish automotive company advisory boards populated by people who do not own American cars, have no experience in the auto business, or any business, for that matter.

I question their patriotism when they so hamstring an industry with regulations that it simply cannot succeed, and then have the nerve to vilify the executives of those industries when they finally do fail.

But hey, what do we expect from people who aren't patriotic enough to pay their taxes?

Feel free to add your own. I know there are more reasons to question their patriotism.

More from Byron Sunderland

“Meanwhile, from the hearts of multitudes the dignity of honest labor and the dictates of a sober and modest economy have died out, on the one hand increasing pauperism and crime and lending to misfortune the aggrivation of human improvidence, and on the other hand, fostering habits of false show, and thus increasing the temptation to deception, fraud, peculation, and all the dishonesties of the most high-pampered extravagance and excess. Moreover, the wanton neglect or abuse of our providential blessings, and the unconscious apostasy from every sentiment of purity and virtue, have served greatly to defile and degrade the mind of a large portion of the community and ill the centers of population with a low and vulgar herd, who throng at the open temples of obscenity and infamy. Thus the materials are prepared for human guilt and wretchedness, whose catalog of crimes and woes exhausts the power of language to express them. Beyond all this, political controversy and partisan strife for the reins and spoils of power, conducted without principal, and reeking with abuse, have taken so fierce a form as often to have driven the best men from the arena and left the worst upon the field. The selfish and prolifigate stand forward to control the nominations and elections to office, and afterwords gamble with its duties and obligations without shame and without remorse.”

I love this book, but I fear the wisdom it imparts.

More Protest From the Victim Class

NY's blind governor: 'SNL' insensitive to disabled

With a headline like that, you know what is coming...yet another cry from a "victim".

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. (AP) -- The legally blind governor of New York says a second parody of him on the television show "Saturday Night Live" promotes insensitivity against the disabled.

You'll note that there is no discussion of the fact that it was a parody of a public figure, more specifically, someone who put himself in the spotlight when he sought office. In fact, I'll wager that he exploited his condition to get elected in the first place.

Democratic Gov. David Paterson said Thursday that the show's continued parodies hurt disabled people not in a position to fight back.

Nonsense! The parody pricked his over-developed ego...the same ego that likely inspired him to run for office in the first place. After all, if one is a democrat and blind, where else can they seek lucrative employment? The executive branch of a state government is a perfect place for such a person to work!

A segment on Paterson aired last week featured "SNL" cast member Fred Armisen — with one eye closed most of the time, the other focused on his own nose — unable to see fellow cast member Seth Meyers or a prop. Armisen portrayed the governor as a clueless blind man with a past of youthful drug use and womanizing.

And this hurt disabled persons not in a position to fight back. Seems the governor has done a wonderful job using his position to fight back. And he does so using the Democratic playbook, too: Don't address the substance, swing at the emotional component. If he were my governor, I'd send him a box of hankies to cry into. He knows politics is a full-contact sport, but he has no compunction about exploiting his condition to get the result he wants. And people say I'm cynical.

NBC spokeswoman Sharon Pannozzo says neither the network nor the show would comment on Paterson's remarks.

Of course not. The Democratic Party's media arm has been properly chastised for turning its satire in the direction of one of their own. I'm sure they will perform the appropriate mea culpa and have a Sarah Palin skit or three this weekend.

What's wrong with this headline?

GOP circulates plan to cut the cost of mortgages (AP)

AP - Senate Republicans circulated a sweeping plan to drive down the cost of mortgages by expanding the federal government's role in the industry, officials said Monday night as debate opened on an economic stimulus bill at the top of President Barack Obama's agenda.

Everyone post your answers in the comments. I'll grade them Friday.

Adrift on a Sea of Stupid

Have you ever been in the grip of the belief that it just didn't matter? Rightly or wrongly, this is how I have felt in the last few weeks. And every day, I get a little bit more to make me think that way. The video of the Obama voters who couldn't identify the speaker of astonishingly stupid Obamaisms. Glenn Beck's random calls to people, asking them pointed questions about government, politics,and the economy. We are adrift on a sea of stupid. More and more, I am convinced that we have brought about C.M. Kornbluth's Marching Morons, and the shrinking numbers of intelligent people will soon be tasked (unofficially, of course) with the burden of making the world work so the rest of the world doesn't just start dying off wholesale from their stupidity and making the rest of us choke on the odor of their own decay.

Right now it is very cold comfort to know exactly where the blame for this all lies. The left, in its insatiable quest for power in exchange for the individual's self-sufficiency appears poised to get exactly what they have plotted and schemed and worked for over the course of decades. Of course, being fixated on the goal for so long, it is clear that they have given very little thought to what it actually means. I'd pity them for their tunnel vision and the coming brainduster to be administered by our old friend, The Law Of Unintended Consequences™, but since they have destroyed a once great nation by cutting all ties with its moral roots and catering to the fickle and shortsighted nature of human emotion, I believe I'll just stoke a low fire of contempt for them instead. They will soon be able to declare that the reward of individuality that has been the great genius of this country have given way to the primacy of the lowest common denominator. Rather than aspiring to greatness, we can be enslaved to the service of the least of us. And when the left's intelligentsia comes to the inevitable conclusion that there is nothing to be gained from blaming the ultimate result of their policies on conservatism, they will finally be fully aware of what responsibilities come with the leadership of a nanny state that is hostile to innovation, freedom, and excellence.

I think about this a lot these days as I watch the Hopey-Changey One fill his cabinet with Clinton retreads. No change, no hope. Only the inevitable march toward mediocrity and national malaise that it will bring. But I guess after surveying the collective awareness of the country, maybe we did get the government we deserve. Maybe others will be considering more in the coming days.

Moving Forward

I have to say that I am a bit surprised.

Many of my internet friends have expressed that they are going to proceed to vilify and condemn the new President just because of the crap that left has spewed 24/7 for the last eight years. This exhibition of Obama Derangement Syndrome is disturbing, not because I think he is going to be a great President. If you have been reading my page for very long, you know that isn't true. No, I find it disturbing because people that I respect, people I like, people I consider very rational and logical have apparently lost their minds and have expressed a willingness to attack purely for the sake of attack. I have seen a threat of the banhammer leveled at a commenter who I think fails to get it consistently, but is worthwhile because he will actually debate and defend what he says, simply because he expressed an opinion, that while apparently idiotic, was not worthy of such an attack, especially in a forum where the one true sin is making threats against another. I watched as person after person pledged to exhibit symptoms of ODS starting now simply because all we have heard is BDS for the last 8 years. And this was coming from people who generally had feelings for Bush the vacillated between outrage at his positions on spending and border security/illegal immigration and indifference on nearly everything else. Now, I like a good dogpile as much as the next right-wing deathbeast, but I am disturbed by this willingness to spend so much time in wasted effort. 8 years of these loons spouting endless stupidity and venom about Bush did nothing to change our minds; there is no reason to think doing the same about Obama for the next four will achieve a different result. That is not to say that I will not generously apply ridicule and criticism in liberal doses when Barry the Blessed™ screws it up. That is my right as an American, and he seems to have gotten there already with his plans for mandatory "volunteer" service and taking a swipe at Nancy Reagan at a press conference. Congratulations there, speedy, way to demonstrate that brilliant intellect that we keep hearing so much about.

Having said that, I think we are further ahead doing the following:

1. Get behind young conservative politicians. Do what it takes to get them elected, support them if they have already been elected. We have to stop putting up candidates who are getting the nomination as a lifetime achievement award. (I wish I remembered where I heard that. I would love to give the attribution.)

2. Continue to support conservative principals.

3. Criticize the foibles of the left's leadership, but stay on message, and keep it so simple that even an Obama supporter like Peggy Joseph can understand it.

4. Educate, educate, educate.

5. Make the mainstream media irrelevant. They are on the ropes already, but we can put them under by continuing to report the news that they won't.


I started some of this already. Today, I dropped a three-page handwritten letter in the mail to Governor Palin. I thanked her for her decision to run, I thanked her for shattering the Left's carefully cultivated perception that we need to have a ruling class, and I thanked her and her family for dealing with some truly uncalled for and inexcusable attacks leveled at her and her family. Then I asked her to run again, because I truly believe that she is an excellent leader and is well qualified to run the country.

What's it gonna be guys and gals? Our own change we can believe in, or the same song only us singing it?

I Love This Guy.

The Long View

I realize that it is probably early for this, but the featured quote below struck me more than I was ready to admit. Dirty Harry has a post on the Breitbart article on Bush's legacy. DH's wife added this insight:

In defending Bush, Breitbart hits the main points, but there’s something my wife frequently reminds me of: Between world events, the monstrous behavior of the opposition and an unrelenting biased media, no president since Lincoln has ever been so personally vilified. Eight years of sustained poison and venom hurled at a man never allowed to do anything right even when he does something right.

I had never thought of it that way before, but I can see the wisdom in the comparison.

Something That Has Been On My Mind A Lot Lately

Isaiah 5:20, KJV

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Read and discuss amongst yourselves, you bitter clingers!

Yea. I've Arrived.

I went to court yesterday on a simple matter, and of course, was waiting for the Judge's Clerk to open the court room. During this time, I had three people come up to me and ask me if I was an attorney. As I waited at Judicial Administration, I had another person ask me. On my way to the Court Clerk's Office, another asked me. After six years of practicing, I guess I finally look like an attorney, whatever that means. What did these people want from me? Free legal advice, of course. I guess I better get used to it. Barry the Blessed™ wants me to give it away anyway.

What I Needed To See In The Debate

I waited for McCain to look in the camera and say “America, the choice is simple, you can vote for me and decide for yourself how to spend your money, or you can vote for my opponent and hope that he lets you keep the change.”

The best moment for my money? When McCain called Obama "Senator Government". Kinda sad when the best line was unintentional and so far, unrecognized by the media.

Honestly, McCain had a great point with across the board spending freezes and cutting spending. Obama just about yelped. He wants to get rid of the programs that don't work and get more money to the ones that do. It really has never occured to either of these guys that we have too many "programs" now. It really is about finding reasons to spend our money. I honestly cannot understand how this is good policy or is in any way intelligent.

***Update: I just heard Hannity recognize the "Senator Government" line.

I love email.

This was in my work email this morning:

Our Social Security
> >
> > Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
> >
> > Security (FICA) Program. He promised:
> >
> > 1.) That participation in the Program would be
> > completely voluntary.
> >
> > 2.) That the participants would only have to pay
> > 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
> > incomes into the Program,
> >
> > 3.) That the money the participants elected to put
> > into the Program would be deductible from
> > their income for tax purposes each year,
> >
> > 4.) That the money the participants put into the
> > Independent 'Trust Fund' rather than into the
> >
> > General Operating Fund, and therefore, would
> > only be used to fund the Social Security
> > Retirement Program, and no other
> > government program, and,
> >
> > 5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
> > would never be taxed as income.
> >
> > Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and
> > are
> > now receiving a Social Security check every month --
> > and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
> > the money we paid to the federal government to
> > 'put
> > away', you may be interested in the following:
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Q: Which political party took Social Security from
> > the
> > Independent 'Trust Fund' and put it in to the
> >
> > General Fund so that Congress could spend it?
> >
> > A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratically-
> > controlled House and Senate.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Q: Which political party eliminated the income tax
> > deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
> >
> > A: The Democratic Party.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Q: Which political party started taxing Social
> > Security annuities?
> >
> > A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
> > 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of
> > the
> > Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Q: Which political party decided to start giving
> > annuity payments to immigrants?
> >
> > AND MY FAVORITE:
> >
> > A: That's right!
> >
> > Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
> > Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65,
> > they began to receive Social Security payments! The
> > Democratic Party gave these payments to them
> > even though they never paid a dime into it!
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Then, after violating the original contract (FICA),
> >
> > the Democrats turn around and tell you that the
> >
> > Republicans want to take your Social Security away!
> >
> > And the worst part about it is, uninformed citizens
> > believe it!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of
> > awareness will be planted and maybe changes will
> > evolve. Maybe not, some Democrats are awfully
> > sure of what isn't so.
> >
> > But it's worth a try. How many people can
> > YOU send this to?
> >
> > Actions speak louder than bumper stickers.
> >
> > AND CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT
> >
> > FOR ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 'A government big enough to give you everything
> > you want,
> >
> > is strong enough to take everything you have.'
> > -Thomas Jefferson

Another Moment of Truth Gone Ignored

This campaign event moment brought to you by Barack Hussein Obama.

*During handshaking*

Obama to Plumber: "I can count on your vote, right?"

Plumber to Obama: “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more. Isn’t it?”

Obama: “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Taking money to give to another rather than letting them earn it, maybe by working for the other person? Since when did that become America?

I see very dark times ahead.

Intellectual Dishonesty and the Left

I was watching TV last night and saw an ad for "W". The announcer said "Based on the Incredible True Story."

This drew a silent Hurmpf from me. From the fiction in the clips playing out before my eyes, I could tell that once again, I was expected to be a good little liberal sheeple and believe that the "world as the libs wish it was" was the world that actually is. For nearly eight years, I have watched a breakdown in civility that I never thought I would witness in my lifetime. It has become acceptable and commonplace to refer to our president as both a criminal and buffoon, seemingly in the same sentence. The left, guided by the generation that protested Vietnam, desperately desires to cast the current conflict in the same light, and still to this day wants to paint every administration official as a "War Criminal" and "War Monger" of some type or shadow, despite the news from Iraq, and the fact that we have not been attacked since 9/11. They just can't seem to make up their collective mind about the current administration, and apparently, that's ok, so long as they keep shouting. The uglier and baser the shout, the happier they are.

Truth that doesn't fit this world view is about as welcome as a Blood and Garlic cocktail among vampires, which makes for an interesting daily dichotomy among any cognizant of it. Despite the fact that there is no shortage of facts that refute and dispel the Left's "truth", a visitor to this country might never know it. The mainstream press, inspite of falling ratings and readers, continues to studiously ignore facts that do not mirror the approved version of reality. Acolytes of the left no longer have to respond with any meaningful answer when questioned, ad hominems and screeching name-calling is considered to be perfectly acceptable.

How did we get here? I'm certain that there are several factors but the one that stands out is that the radical left of the Sixties, the same generation that could never figure out that there is much more to this country than how it did or did not affect them never became unradicalized, it just went underground. Academia provided fertile ground to these burrowing insects, determined to subvert the country at its core. People like that "Respected Educator", and unrepentant terrorist, William Ayers, realized that they could poison entire generations with their warped world view, and merrily set about on their task to make Socialism mainstream in this country. We are now reaping the benefits of their hard work and determination, and there now exists a schism the likes of which has not occupied the political life in this country for a very long time. Unreason is on the rise. It has become trendy to reject and ignore fact because it doesn't subscribe to the "truth", and those charged with informing the public have determined to indoctrinate it instead.

I am not yet willing to give up on this country, but I do believe that we are in for some interesting times. We are now at a point where the Left's Paranoia ("Diebold! Diebold!") and the ACORN's blatant and widespread voter registration fraud virtually guarantees that no matter who wins, there will be allegations of fraud, and demands for recount, which sadly, will cast doubt on the outcome, no matter who is left standing when the dust settles. The only good news is that once the old media completes its death spiral, that will leave the New Media, the ones who actually report the facts that no other outlet will acknowledge as the source of the news.

Flashpoint

I'm surveying the political landscape and I don't like what I see.

I grew up in the 'burbs of Flint, Michigan...birthplace of the UAW. Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse could run for office there and as long as they had that magic (D) after their names on the ballot, they would be elected. I was a product of my environment, and was a self-professed Democrat even when working on my B.A. in Political Science at the University of Michigan Flint, although the further I got, the more doubts began to arise. Just the same, I was a leftist elitist swine. I, like many good enlightened leftists believed that the average person wasn't smart enough to make important political decisions, and that it was going to be up to people like me to make sure that people were taken care of, and that we relieved them of the burdens of any potential failure. Along with that arrogant nanny-statist belief, I also believed that the U.S. was doing nearly everything wrong in its relations with other countries. William Appleman Williams' "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy" was extraordinarily persuasive. I stopped short of concluding that our actions were willfully malevolent and believed that we were simply misguided. (Sorry. I wasn't a bomb-thrower.) I also snidely dismissed the Conservative beliefs that things could be simply defined as right and wrong, and black and white, clinging to the leftist belief that the world was immersed in shades of grey, and that things were not that simple.

However, I got older. I continued my schooling after a few years. I started to look a bit more critically at what government was doing. I was also learning the law. At this point, politically, I was starting to drift a bit more to the right, and started to find myself more and more annoyed at the abdication of personal responsibility and the apparent belief that government had to save us from ourselves. I also started to meet more people, many of them from other countries or first generation American. This was the beginning of my understanding that many of the people in the world who don't like us feel that way for reasons that exist independent of our interactions with other nations and that these dealings merely provide a pretext for this hatred. I also started to realize that personal responsibility, and yes *gasp* religion was at the very heart of the American Ideal. The more I looked at the things that government was doing, the more I was left with the feeling that something was wrong. Careful study showed me what was wrong. I was starting to realize that government was doing things it had no business doing, and it was horribly inefficient, also. I'm not sure exactly when I realized that I was a conservative, but by the time I was earning my Masters in Tax Law, I knew that I was now a conservative.

Now I see many things that I could not see before. Leftists love the "shades of grey" and "nothing is simple" world views for several reasons. First, because complexity makes it easier to obtain and retain power. It virtually cries out for a ruling class to run things and take the burden from the common folk who are too busy (and too simple minded) to understand how to effectively deal with the day-to-day functions of government. This is the reason for the hysterical and vitriolic attacks against Sarah Palin. Her success as an executive undermines the carefully groomed perception that the average person simply is not equipped to govern.

Secondly, these beliefs foster and nurture an atmosphere of ambiguity that allows their way of thinking to slowly but inexorably gain a foothold and continue to advance until society has accepted so much of the necessary leftist dogma that it accepts poisonous concepts as truth. Concepts such as "political correctness", "diversity", and new definitions for old concepts that are so far astray from original connotations that any person with an understanding of history and etymology would think that they have stepped into the Twilight Zone. These words and concepts also serve the dual purpose of indoctrination into the "new" way of thinking, and equipping the new masters with tools to condemn and ostracize those who do not go along with the program and recognize it for what it is. Hence the cries of "racism" when someone dares question the substance or reason of policies promulgated by the left. It also explains the allegations of intolerance when someone questions the wholesale acceptance and societal sanction of any aspect of the homosexual agenda.

Creating this brave new world would have been far more difficult without an aggressive and intellectually dishonest campaign to marginalize the dominant religion. As I have discussed before, our law, and the reasoning underlying it is tremendously influenced by Judeo-Christian belief and philosophy. Much in this belief and philosophy is hostile to the agenda and beliefs of the left. Thus, we had to be subject to lawsuits based on a frightfully misguided belief that the Union must be governed by a policy of "separation of church and state" that did not just ban God from places he had not dwelled in our society and government, but also deliberately and specifically drove him from places where he had historically occupied.

Why have I engaged in this exercise of personal confession and political analysis? So you understand that I understand the breadth and depth of the more advanced thinking on the left, and to lay a foundation for my authority to say that our current political predicament is at a flashpoint. On the one side, I see kerosene. On the other, I see gasoline. The various issues in play right now are a lit match.

On the left, we have a candidate who has tried very hard not to have his past on display for people to view. However, even those who try not to have a record will occasionally leave enough of one to alarm reasonable people who are paying attention. While we really don't know where he was born, he has responded to a lawsuit to discover it not with production of a birth certificate, which would render the lawsuit moot, and dispel the rumor that he is not a natural born U.S. Citizen, but by filing motions to dismiss instead. As an Illinois State Senator, he when on record not only to be against any restriction on abortions, but clearly stated that he was not in favor of babies who survived their mother's attempts to murder them receiving life-saving medical care once they were born. The pastor of his church, the man who performed the marriage ceremony, and presided for 20 years while he sat in the pews nodding, was discovered to be a raving, anti-semitic, Whitey-hating black liberation theology preacher. He has been a close associate of a convicted felon who was involved in many shady real estate and money deals. He has known and associated with two unrepentant terrorists for the past 20 years...people who said as briefly as 10 years ago that they did not regret their bombings and lament that they had not done more. In two years in the U.S. Senate, he collected more money from Fannie and Freddie than any other Congresscritter other than Chris Dodd. He has a long association with ACORN, which is now being investigated in 11 states for large scale voter fraud. The group has also received $800,000 from this candidate to get out the vote in the upcoming elections. Whenever he comes under scrutiny or criticism, he points to the other party and cries "Racism". He actively implies "Racism" by the other side when nothing justifies such an assertion. He has gone on record in saying he will cut the military and talk to threats like Amahdinnerjacket without preconditions. He claims "dirty campaigning" when his opponent brings up facts that he'd rather you not hear. He has said things on the trail that legitimately raise concerns on how he would act to curtail the Second Amendment, and makes no bones about the fact that he would appoint judges who believe that the Constitution is a living breathing document that must be interpreted in the context of the times we live.

On the other side, we have a man who was shot down in Vietnam and beaten so badly that he remains crippled to this day. A person who has demonstrated an annoying propensity to cooperate with the other side of the Aisle when conducting what he believed to be the people's business. His past is an open book when compared to that of his opponent, and although he is not nearly conservative enough for my liking, I also have no reason to question his patriotism. While I think he does not understand that border security is essential to national security, I also know that he will not capitulate to our enemies, or deliberately take steps to weaken us, because he understands that the world is a dangerous place, and if we put the rock down before we extend a hand, we will get the bums rush. He has caused the left to collapse in seizures of Tourettes and foaming at the mouth over his choice in a running mate, because she so effectively destroys a perception they have labored long and hard to impose upon the American people, and yet he helped enable an ill-conceived bail-out plan that helps extend the reach of government further into capitalism to "Fix" a problem created by the intrusion of government into capitalism.

More and more, the average person, and by average, I mean those who haven't bought into the "New" society that the left continues to try to mainstream on the rest of us have been watching the government ignore us about drilling for oil when the price of crude started spiking, and refused to listen to us when we told them not to do the bailout. Now the economy appears to be in a freefall, and the mainstream press still ignores the stories on the leftist candidate and tries to pin everything on the other party.

The left, convinced of its superiority and the need to save us from ourselves by making government mother and father, has given up on dialogue and stridently marches forth, insisting that they have the answers and they must be empowered. The average person is feeling less and less like the government is serving us, and the candidate we are left with still holds opinions that we do not, and is arrogant enough to act on them. The fraud continues to climb, and we are continually confronted with Obamatrons who continue to allege whatever is convenient for their candidate, and completely ignore any attempts at reason, and worship (WORSHIP!!!) their candidate, who, at least with a teleprompter, dazzles with glittering generalities and nebulous promises of hope and change. And the press seems oblivious to the realities of what is occurring. A climate of general panic and fear is gripping the country. I am now convinced that if Obama loses, there will be riots and unrest. I am equally convinced that there will be unrest if Obama wins, because his associates seem to have created the perception that there is widespread fraud and corruption, and the government no longer serves our interests anyway.

I fear that we have the ingredients for a civil war, with the stakes no less than the determination of America's future as a nation united and guided by the principals that have made us an example to the rest of the world, or an America that is a hovel, buried under the weight and tyranny of mediocrity.

I Couldn't Write It Better Myself

I got in the car and heard the news on the Mighty Hugh Hewitt. It would be an understatement to say the Dems had a bad day. Having been outmanuvered with the appointment of Sarah Palin, they have determined to offend and alienate every other group that they have not already honked off. And on the heels of Olberdouche's interview with The Anointed One Himself™.

This morning, Joe Biden told us that any one who does not support stem cell research cannot care about special needs children. As a parent of a young man with Aspberger's Syndrome and one who is speech delayed due to hearing impairment, I have every right to tell Joe Biden the following:

Hey Joe, take a long walk on a short pier. You have no f'ing clue what you are saying, and you are pissing me off. You didn't impress me before, but now you are making me mad. I think it is time for you to go back to your long, fruitless career in the Senate.

Not to be outdone in sheer stupidity by his running mate, the Little Messiah said the following at a rally this afternoon, where, in between the stops, starts, and stutters, he babbled about change when talked about anyone who isn't him isn't really change, and that we can put lipstick on a pig, but he isn't really a pig. Within this same rhetorical tour de force, he also made reference to people talking about the "same old thing" as change, but it was really an old fish wrapped up in fish wrap. This was coming off a weekend of crying racism when not one word was uttered regarding his skin color, and making a 3 am call to Hillary to beg her to campaign for him. And then last night, he told the nuanced K.O. that the American people were smart and they know what is going on. It makes it difficult to try to spin these remarks as any thing other than a slam against Sarah Palin, saying that she is ugly, and, oh yeah, she's a girl,and of course, the slam against the age of a man who is his better in every sense of the word. It almost makes me wonder if they are trying to lose the election. Maybe they are. He's not been afrad of the race card so far. Losing will empower him to cry racism for the next four years. Legitimacy in making the charge hasn't stopped him so far. Don't underestimate his willingness to whine against what he is clearly incapable of fighting. Substance be damned. It is good to be a conservative right now.

I think we learned Sarah's shade of lipstick today: Nobama.

Sunday Afternoon Bitter-Clinger's Post

Last night, I was at Dirty Harry's Place, and on the thread, we were discussing the Left's irrational attacks on Sarah Palin and why they might be occurring. A topic I have been considering for a while now, and I tossed the following out:

Well, my take was that they started to compare Jughead to the Barracuda from the gate because her entry made it about culture and when you’re all about feelings, you have to address culture. They looked at her and saw sacrifice, devotion to family, the idea that duty can be larger than the individual, and the concept of submission to an authority other than yourself. In otherwords, she represents a life knowing the difference between right and wrong as defined by someone other than man. They had to attack her, because that philosophy leaves no room for the prevarication and the hedonistic pursuits that occupy the “Grey Areas” where the ‘nuanced’ among us live their lives. The only things Obama ever fought for…the redistribution of wealth to those who didn’t earn it and the right to kill babies who had the temerity to survive their mother’s attempts to kill them simply cannot survive in such a world. He had to try to marginalize her or neutralize her. Had. To.

Of course, I had to keep churning this concept over and over in my mind, and while sitting in church this morning, more of it came to me. You can thank my pastor for some of the incorporated scripture.

Soon after the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate, the attacks started. Not the attacks on her record. That would be fair game, and ignore the fact that she is who she is, and that the life she has lead is going to make some people very uncomfortable and insecure about the lives they have chosen to lead. The nature and vigor of the attacks have made this clear. First, the attack on her 17 year old daughter, Bristol, and the claim that Governor Palin's son Trig was actually Bristol's son, and the Governor was covering this fact up. These fevered attacks were "supported" by all many of coincidence and innuendo. By the time the Palins announced that Bristol was actually pregnant now, and was going to marry the father of her child, the left and the press (but I repeat myself) fell all over themselves with concern for the welfare of her children, insinuating that by being a working politician, she was neglecting her son Trig, because "his Downs' Syndrome required extra care and effort" on her part, and that since her 17 year old daughter got pregnant, she had obviously failed as a parent. As a parent myself, I take issue with this. You raise your children, you try to teach your values and ideals, but eventually, your children make their own choices. Some choices will be worse than others. Sometimes picking what's behind door number three means getting some further options limited, but as any student of character tells you, its what you do when things go wrong that end up saying more about you than any smearing expose'. The left isn't upset that Bristol Palin got pregnant. They are upset that she decided to not to kill her baby.

They also implied that Bristol's pregnancy some how makes the Governor a hypocrite because she is a Christian, and doesn't support sex education that borders on pornography for school kids. In so doing, they exposed their own bias, in make such sexist, and paternalistic statements and implications. If it had been Hillary with a 17 year old daughter, and her daughter got an abortion with Mom's consent and approval, both would have been lauded for their finely nuanced enlightenment and her incredible parenting skills. But now the nation can see what many of us have suspected for a long time, that is that tolerance, gender equality, and high-mindedness are ideals the Left will fight for, but only for one of their own.

Later in the week, we saw the religion attacks, the attempts by way of edited remarks to paint the Governor as a religious fanatic who views the war in Iraq as a holy crusade. This was indeed the weakest part of the attack. Some had also taken note of some remarks made by her pastor, which he may believe, but do leave some room for some criticism of making partisanship a religious issue when it is more properly one of conscience. And in the light of examination of Reverend Wright, and all of the bile that flowed from his mouth and down the altar while Barack Obama and his family sat for years, listening, and returning week in and week out. The content of some of Governor Palin's pastor's statements, if correctly cited, does cross my personal line of things that should not be said, because preaching who to vote for exceeds the legitimate charge of exhorting what to consider when voting. Ironically, it is another 'nuance' lost on the those so in favor of invoking them.

But the biggest question is "why?" Why did the left and the press immediately attack a Vice Presidential candidate by going after her children, her parenting, and her religion, instead of comparing her record, qualification, and abilities to those of her counterpart, the Smartest Man in the Senate-Just Ask Him, Joe Biden? The answer is simple. By having the beliefs she does, and by living the life she has, she revived the "culture wars" that were so prevalent in the 80's and 90's in this country, but then eased into a semi-tense detente without a principal standard bearer on the right. Put simply, Christianity is a belief that there is a right and a wrong. The left knows this, the knowledge infuses their every act. Their snide condescension demonstrates this knowledge, but also that they misunderstand the message of Christianity. They look at it and see the concepts of right and wrong. They see the judgement of God when he is disobeyed, and extrapolate these to mean that when Christians fall short, they are to be mocked for failing. And because it is easy to fail, God must be wrong for expecting the conduct he does. This misses the point that Christians are not perfect, nor do they believe that they are. They understand that sin is part of life, but they also understand that the price for the sin has already been paid, so to paraphrase the bumper sticker, Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. But Christians also understand that forgiveness isn't a license to sin. Knowledge and acceptance of the sacrifice means that you are expected to aspire and live for a higher ideal. You will never get it all right, and there may be a period of discipline, but if there is discipline, it is to help you get it right and, like reproof from any parent, it is done in love. My proof? Hebrews 12:5 and 6: And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart because he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

These attacks against the Governor and Christianity are being leveled because those attacking see Christianity as a judgmental religion, and they fear that judgement. Christians know how to deal with the world around them: Love the sinner, hate the sin. While Christianity itself has sectarian differences demonstrating very different ideas of what that means, much of Christendom knows that means that we do not have to quietly accept sin, and grant our sanction to its lifestyle. Contrarily, it is this fear of judgement on the left which has lead to the denial that there is such a God. Their misunderstanding underlies a belief that the only consequence of being human and committing sin is judgement, but if they reject that God, and his rules, then they are free of the inevitability of a terrible consequence. And in a stunning display of confidence in the lack of such a God and his rules, they continue to try to make their lifestyles and beliefs mainstream. They confuse a legal and mainstream legitimacy with a moral one, and that is why they fight so hard for the approval of the rest of us, even if they have to force it from us. These are the people who looked at Sarah Palin and said to themselves "We cannot let her succeed. A person with her beliefs and her life in a position of power will lay bare our reason for being. She embodies sacrifice. Children require so many things of a parent. Our time, our attention, our concern. She loves her children and her family, and would clearly fight for them. She has been married for over two decades. Anyone who has been married for very long understands that staying married requires work and dedication. All of these things demonstrate service to others, and ideals beyond the narrow frame of "ME" that is force fed to us in the media today. It is the antithesis of so much of what the left has come to embody and defend. They could not ignore her. Unfortunately, the attacks available to them end up bloodying themselves in the process. I look at it with a curious fascination. It is like watching a ferral animal try to eat itself, and it may be exactly what was necessary to shift the cultural wars back toward preserving a culture that has something to offer.

[As a matter of full disclosure, my pastor did not preach on any topic even remotely political this morning, lest anyone get the wrong idea.]

How To Destroy Decades of Brainwashing

I was right. The Left is scared to death. Every imaginable attack, and a few that might otherwise be inconceivable are being waged against Governor Palin. Honestly, it seems like an awful lot of fuss for someone who was dismissed as a "bad choice", and "a small town mayor". I guess the Left's strategists never heard "When your enemy makes a mistake, get out of his way." Either that, or they don't believe their own propaganda. I don't know whether to be impressed at the effort or disgusted by the methods that the Left is leveling at her right now. Awww, Hell. I'll take both for $2000, Alex.

Let's start with the sisters of Heart, who decided that having their song identified with the most electrifying woman politician in this country since Jeanette Rankin was something to be offended by.

Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.

Of course, they ostensibly have a right say to how their product is used, but I wonder if they think it will rehabilitate their careers, or if they are more of the "Feminists, but only for women of the right political persuasion" type. [H/T to Dirty Harry's Place]

Dr. Rusty at the Jawa Report introduces us to the basest form of "political speech" it has ever been my misfortune to witness. The person or persons behind it better pray that they never run into myself, or any other parent in a dark alley.

The Greg Knapp Experience compiles the top five sexist attacks on Governor Palin.

A CNN bubblehead tries to make her name by declaring she is with Stupid. You would think a working woman might, just might, give some thought to what she is trying to take away from herself. After all, she is one of the journalistic intelligentsia. [H/T again to Dirty Harry]

And apparently NARAL and Planned Parenthood are so scared of a potential VICE PRESIDENT that they have decided to fund a 30 Million Dollar Campaign against her. 30 Million Dollars! Against someone who isn't on the top of the ticket! That is FEAR. FEAR of a woman with a career and children? FEAR of a culture of life? FEAR of losing their profitable eugenics program? This one will be a "Get you popcorn!" fight. [H/T Stephanie,commenter at Dirty Harry's Place] After the attack ads start, I think the perfect response is a short rebuttal that goes like this: The scene opens with the Sarah somewhere on the campaign trail, and maybe kissing one of her kids before sending them off to play/do homework/something similar, then she looks at the camera, smiles, and says "Unless you have been in a coma, and have no idea who I am, I am Governor Sarah Palin. I am the Governor of Alaska, and recently, John McCain nominated me as his running mate in the race for the White House.*at this point, we see an aide enter the frame and say something about a change in plan and John needs her to make an appearance in Columbus, with her nodding in agreement, and then making eye contact with the camera again.* After I was chosen, the Democrats and their lapdogs in the press tried every means they could to convince the American people that I have no important or relevant experience and I was a bad choice. Yet Planned Parenthood and NARAL recently decided to start a smear campaign funded with 30 Million dollars of their own money. *At this point we hear a crying Trig, and she reaches out to hold him. Upon placing him on her shoulder, and gently rubbing his back, he immediately stops crying, and she looks back at the camera* 30 Million Dollars? Can you believe it? I guess killing babies is good business." *fade to black.

I was listening to the mighty Hugh Hewitt on the way home this evening. He was reporting that Bill Maher was going to make a joke tonight on his HBO cable show in which he referred to the Governor as the Stewardess. Simply.Epitiomizing.Class. Time was, I enjoyed the original 'Politically Incorrect" when it was on Comedy Central, but it really had more to do with the strange mixed up panels that he used to get, than it did his sparkling wit. Sweet justice would be his inability to pay an escort to spend time with him, let alone actually score a date any time in the next decade.

The Oprah meltdown has been entertaining also. Again, her show, so she can pick the content, but it doesn't ring true when a 'model' career woman refuses to interview someone of the governor's calibre. I'm not sure if she just didn't like the idea of interviewing a guest stronger and more engaging than herself, or she just doesn't want her chosen candidate shown to be lacking when compared to the VP candidate of the other party. Either way, the backlash on her site from the former faithful has been a thing of beauty. She's thrown herself under the bus for Obama.

And speaking of Obama, what was The Anointed One Himself(TM) up to today? Trying to paint himself as a sympathetic figure, of course. The Racism Card. It is never too stale or too inappropriate to play. Especially when it is all you have:

"And I know that the temptation is to say, 'You know what? …The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington.,' You know, 'he’s got funny name,' You know, 'we’re not sure about him,'" Obama continued. "And that’s what the Republicans, when they say, 'This isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities,' what they’re really saying is, 'We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.'

Vicitmhood. Its the Chicago Way. Maybe if he is really lucky, his wife can spare him an aspirin.

Some Thoughts...

The three of you who read this probably have realized that I have been in a pontificating mood lately. Today is no different.

I just got done listening to McCain's speech. But I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Instead, I am considering the flavors and overtones of the campaign thus far.
The Dems whittled down to a field to two, courting history by putting either an African-American or a woman in the White House. Of course, seeing as they generally appeal to a victim mentality, this was setting the Democratic House against itself; in choosing one, they are going to be officially racist, or officially sexist. Eventually, they chose a sneering African-American elitist with no discernible experience who is a millionaire and who keeps telling us we can't have our lifestyle, that we are essentially bad, that we have failed our historical promise, and that we have to look to the rest of the world for leadership instead of providing it for the world.

Eventually, they chose to be officially sexist. This was considered by the party to be favorable to choosing a candidate who comes across as a haranguing harridan who is willing to wreck the economy to bring mediocre healthcare to all. History indeed. And how did they come to select the male candidate? A liberal dose of "Hope and Change".

This cuts to the very silliness that underlies the true core base beliefs of the Democratic Party. These are people who have become convinced that government should be doing so many things that it should not. They have trouble even seeing that they have become dependent on the government and are incapable of understanding why that is a bad thing. They are blissfully ignorant slaves.

In the grips of this mindset, it is easy to be convinced that government does not do enough. Enter "The One". I'll spare you the hype. If you have been paying attention at all, you are fully aware of the audacity of arrogance that the Senator who votes "present" has been foisting on the American Public for months now. All he has had to do was step out and tell you that government needs to give you more, and to do more for you. The slaves see this as "Hope", completely missing the point that if you look to government, or a politician for "Hope" with a capital H, you are not living up to your heritage as an American. That isn't to say that hope shouldn't be a component of politics. Sarah Palin gives me hope with a small H that we will get someone in government who truly is "one of us", that is to say a person who goes to work, knows what it means to pay bills, and deal with real family issues. But the Hope in my life, the capital H hope is not rooted in politicians or government. That's what faith is for. And "Change"? How does one get change from a man with a non-existent resume who's greatest accomplishment is two memoirs before age 45, and being taken seriously because he reads a speech well and he is black?

Yes. I said it. I am more qualified to be the President, that is to say, not very, but no one would give me a second look because I'm just a young conservative white guy. But, when you think that government doesn't do enough, and you have someone telling you that you deserve more from your government, that he will make sure that it does what it does for you better, and he will make it do even more, then you start to think that he offers change.

Other people, the ones that know that the pursuit of happiness is different than government almost meeting your needs, look at this and see a guy who says we need to raise taxes and redistribute wealth. Old ideas. Failed Ideas. Pushed by a guy who's known past shows him to be a tireless self-promoter. No change there.

So how does such a man attempt to get the support of those outside the ranks of the party faithful? By making them the problem. Make racism the issue. Usurp their voice to make fun of the sound of your name. Make it sound like America fears you "because you don't look like other Presidents". Push your wife out to make it sound like you alone can cleanse America of its sins, and that America has nothing to be proud of until they elect you. And when that doesn't work, and frustration sets in, you talk to a friendly audience about how they are bitterly clinging to their Bibles and guns because they don't want to buy what you are selling. And the capper? End the convention with an address from "The One", trumpeting how "historic" it is to have the acceptance speech from the first African-American Presidential Candidate on the anniversary of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech, never once stopping to consider that on the anniversary of a speech focusing on a dream of a nation where a man is judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. It was hopelessly ironic, and insulting to the legacy of Dr. King to have advanced a candidate who so routinely talks America down, who associates with terrorists, who accepts favors from convicted felons, and who has little to commend his candidacy other than the color of his skin. The end goal became about the identity, and not about the merit, which pretty much sums up the aims of the modern left.

Contrast that with this week. The introduction of the woman many conservatives and true middle Americans can absolutely see as the first female President. A woman who simply by the virtue of living her beliefs has brought the cultural divide in this nation front and center. The Left and their friends in the press knew this. Just as we could just know she is one of us, they knew it too. They knew immediately that she is the Anti-Left. Pride. Pride in Family. God. Country. Guns. Real life pursuits and real life problems. Conservatism, both social and fiscal. And they savaged her for it. The party of inclusion and the philosophy of tolerance dropped the mask and showed a sexist and vicious streak a mile wide in an attempt to silence a message that they cannot counter, in no small part because they do not understand it. It backfired. Marvelously. She stood up at the appointed time and reminded us that we ARE Americans, and we do not have to be ashamed of that. She reminded us that we don't lose until we stop trying. And she told the press that she isn't going anywhere, sparking a wildfire of "We are Sarah" that no amount of nay saying by the left will be able to extinguish. And tonight, McCain appealed to those less conservative than I, by telling them that he knows there is a divide, and that his lifetime of service to this country, and proven record of reaching out, even when right-wing death beasts such as myself believed it was wrong, shows why he, and not "The One", is best able to really bring some change to Washington and start to get us talking as Americans rather than shouting at each other.

I wasn't as fired up as last night. I don't love McCain. But I do not doubt him when he says country first; I would not believe it from Obama's lips. And I think he will be strong in dealing with those who would hurt us. Obama has already told me that he will make us weak, and negotiate from weakness. Not something you want to tell a man with a family. And McCain understands that more government will not solve the problems that our nation faces, and will be facing. Obama has already told us government is the solution to every problem. So yes, I will vote for McCain/Palin in November. It is the obvious choice in this year of stark contrasts.

Listen to the Squeals!

Sympathy note to the main stream media:

It sure sucks when someone shows the world how hypocritical you have become and how repellent you find it to actually do your job, doesn't it? You should put some ice on that, and have a nice long think about it.

Eagerly awaiting your demise,

BiW, IAP.


news
–noun (usually used with a singular verb)
1. a report of a recent event; intelligence; information: His family has had no news of his whereabouts for months.
2. the presentation of a report on recent or new events in a newspaper or other periodical or on radio or television.
3. such reports taken collectively; information reported: There's good news tonight.
4. a person, thing, or event considered as a choice subject for journalistic treatment; newsworthy material. Compare copy (def. 5).

I seem to remember a time when journalists reported the news. I'm not a fool. As an attorney, I have examined the human condition in detail. You simply cannot hope to be persuasive if you do not understand that enlightened self-interest is the most powerful force in the universe, even eclipsing other favorite contenders like gravity, and stupidity. This being the case, I think a certain amount of bias is probably unavoidable. The problem is that print journalism and television have embraced that bias with ever fiber of their being, and real reporting has suffered for it.

I'm not really sure when the worm turned, but unless you've pulled a Rip Van Winkle lately, you surely must have noticed that reporters and the major news outlets have been cherry-picking stories, and if the story they have tried to ignore gets out despite their studious inattention to detail, then they grudgingly cough up a piece that is likely to make a reader/viewer dizzy from the spin they put on it, or to lean so far to one side that ingestion as part of a balanced diet is impossible. The examples abound. Iraq. Remember when all they could tell us was bad news? They were in orgasmic excitement at the prospect of influencing policy by showing us how we were losing and were bad people to boot. No stories about the good things like a freed people, free elections, the US building schools, restoration of order, making the average Achmed safer and more secure in his neighborhood and in his home, and when the attacks and deaths started to trail off, so did the reporting. Collectively, they simply could not bring themselves to report what is instead of what they want to be. A person waking up from a 12 year coma and watching the news today might not even realize there is a war in Iraq. This is not the only example. The main stream press purposely avoided even investigating the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story. Would. Not. Touch. It. But, let a deranged leftist slander artist publish a "diary" of how a female Vice Presidential Candidate's 6 month old son is really her oldest teen aged daughter's child, on the weakest of conjecture alone, and everyone climbs on the bandwagon of innuendo and false reporting, suddenly making the reproductive organs of a teenage girl who is not running for office the subject of fevered hand wringing and conjecture in newsrooms across the country. When discussing the experience and qualifications of this VP with the Presidential candidate of the opposing party, the discussion focuses on mayoral tenure with nary a nod to the more recent multi-year gubernatorial experience. And when that VP tells the Fourth Estate in her acceptance speech that she does not and will not serve at their pleasure, the spastic fits, frothing at the mouth, and childish cries of "Meanie!", "Elitist!", and my personal favorite, "Condescension!" echo from the lips of the carefully coiffed and made-up anchors of the various programs.

How did this happen?

I hope that some day, this will actually be carefully examined by someone capable of drawing objective conclusions, but for the purpose of this post, I will share my theory. As the holder of a political science degree from the University of Michigan, I can safely say that the Democrats have, since the 1930's, tried to make themselves out as the party of intellectuals. They recruited from the halls of academia, and they have always tried to establish their bona fides as the ones with better grades, or the ones who are smarter than the other candidate. Remember the discussion of W's grades? And the more important, but largely unspoken undertone is that they are smarter than the people they purport to represent. Don't take my word for it. Ask Joe Biden. He'll tell you all about it. Oh, wait. He already did.

How does this link into the main stream media's bias? They got access. They were made to feel as if they were part of the club. The Democrats could look out the windows of their offices at the hoi poli that they successfully hoodwinked into dependency on them, and demonstrate how smart they were for the press with their measured responses, and their eleventy seven flavors of nuance, which when distilled through a critical filter of logic generally came down to being no answer at all, which as every observer of politics knows, is the safest answer any politician can give, because when the political winds shift, they cannot be held to having actually taken a position. And in the meantime, the press ate it up. The Dems cast their spell by talking down America, by exaggerating problems, by pretending that the rest of the world gets a say in what we do, and by feeding the vanity that is the Doctrine of Diversity. And because it was all so interesting, and would make such and interesting story, the main stream press got lazy. It shelved critical thinking, and asking difficult or uncomfortable questions of their peers, because it was seduced into the club. And membership has its privileges. Making sure your friends stay in power gives you a degree of power. Constant coverage of these intensely interesting subjects and people makes you smarter by association. Pretty soon, explaining the events morphs into trying to make the stories rather than report them, with little or no accountability, because after all, the public needs us to tell them what is and isn't news, and they are woefully under equipped to discern what the truth of anything is without our gentle and nuanced guidance. These are the same people, who when faced with real competition on the radio and on the internet, claim that things are no longer fair, and despite more choice than ever before in the sources of news and commentary, there is an urgent and pressing need for the return to the Fairness Doctrine.

Last night, a hockey mom from Alaska, who just happens to have been a "small-town" mayor, and oh yeah, governor, with "a speech written by someone else" exposed their foolish public fornication with the least qualified Presidential Candidate in my memory, and with a poised and classy delivery, shamed them for their biased treatment of her and her family. And this morning, they finally found their long-absent fact checkers, who with queasy stomachs and spinning eyes, set their sharpened pencils to work on her speech, wishing that it were her, still avoiding any meaningful inquiry into BHO, his criminal friends, his stubborn insistence on peddling the Politics of Lowered Expectations(TM) for the common man, and why America should slink away into the twilight in favor of other nations not guided by our freedom our promise. They simply refuse to acknowledge that we are on to them, and their days are numbered.