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NYT Poll Shows Doubts About Obama

2009-06-18T15:24:00.001-06:00

A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings.

A distinct gulf exists between Mr. Obama’s overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed, with fewer than half of Americans saying they approve of how he has handled health care and the effort to save General Motors and Chrysler. A majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than results.

The Forgotten Presidents

2009-06-07T12:05:00.006-06:00

From Free Republic

Were there presidents before George Washington? Techincally, maybe not, but the United States of America has had a fully functioning government since at least 1774 and operated as a nation, as we all know, since July 4, 1776.

So who were the duly elected men in charge of the Continental Congress, and later, the Confederation Congress before George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789?

Read More: The Presidents Before George Washington

Obama's Speech To Muslims

2009-06-06T08:10:00.003-06:00

From American Thinker

President Obama promised that he wanted his Cairo speech to be the start of an "honest" dialogue with the Muslim world. When it comes to how he handled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he fell short.

He began his remarks on this issue by recalling a long history of anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews, culminating in the Holocaust. He denounced Holocaust deniers and those who would threaten Israel "with destruction" -- but without mentioning Iran or Ahmadinejad.

Seeking to sound even-handed, he then immediately drew an equivalence between historical Jewish suffering and the lot of Palestinians. "On the other hand," he remarked, "it is also undeniable that Palestinians have suffered in their pursuit of a homeland -- for more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation." He pointed to Palestinians still waiting in refugee camps and Palestinians who have to "endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation." Their situation, he said, is "intolerable" and America will support their legitimate aspirations for "dignity, opportunity and "a state of their own."

And that's where Obama failed to speak "honestly" about Palestinian pain and its causes.

There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Muslim world recognizes Israel's right to exist. You cannot negotiate with those that seek your annihilation.

Read More: Obama's Speech To The Muslim World
Related: Barack Obama's 10 Mistakes in Cairo

Pravda: The Death of American Capitalism

2009-06-03T11:13:00.002-06:00

American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper
By Stanislav Mishin For Pravda.Ru

Here's part of a recent article from Russia's on-line newspaper Pravda. The word is out, American capitalism is dead.

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

[...]

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American tax dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin warned Obama not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

The last sentence is, for me, the saddest.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is - the world will only snicker.

World Record Radio Interviews

2009-06-01T11:10:00.012-06:00

TJ Walker and Jess Todtfeld are on their way to setting a new Guinness World Record for doing the most radio interviews in 24 hours. The old record is 72 and they're shooting for 120. They started a 6 a.m. eastern time today and they won't quit until 6 a.m tomorrow. They're promoting their new book "TJ Walker's Secret to Foolproof Presentations" by doing a presentation marathon - genius.

You can watch live at the FOXNews.com Strategy Room and, for 24 hours only, download a free PDF of the new book at TJWalker.com.

I've been watching all morning and it's been fun and quite an education, not only in public speaking, but also in talk radio and grace under pressure. TJ and Jess are both pretty entertaining fellows with very different styles. Jess was a stand up comedian and TJ is an ex-radio talk show host. This could get very interesting... I'd say around 3 a.m. or so. They're getting better and funnier as the day wears on. You really should check them out.

Good Luck Guys. I'm rootin' for ya.

Update: Record Broken at about 4.02 p.m. eastern time with well over 13 hours to spare! How long will they keep going? Will Jess change into his shorts? Will TJ take off his tie? Stay tuned to find out.

The Case Against Sotomayor

2009-06-01T07:53:00.002-06:00

On May 4th Jeffrey Rosen wrote an article for the left leaning publication The New Republic entitled "The Case Against Sotomayor." The article didn't get much attention until President Obama nominated Sotomayor for the Supreme Court and conservatives started using the article to, well, make the case against Sotomayor. Mr. Rosen came under so much fire from his friends on the left that he's vowed to never blog again.

Read More: The Case Against Sotomayor
Read More: Blog Entry Sparks Furor Over Sotomayor
Read More: Jeffrey Rosen Vows To Never Blog Again

Prince Charming

2009-05-31T15:19:00.003-06:00

I don't look up or down when it comes to people. I've never been impressed by celebrity, and that includes Britain's Royal Family, but I've got to say that I am very impressed with Prince Harry.

That's because he doesn't act like a celebrity. Check out the links below and I think you'll agree that Prince Harry is quite a guy.

Read More: Prince Harry’s Visit To New York City
Read More: Prince Harry: Send Me To War Or I Quit

Home Bible Study Banned

2009-05-28T14:45:00.004-06:00

From FOXNews.com

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a bible study - unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.

"We told them this is not really a religious assembly - this is just a bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.

A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited "unlawful use of land," ordering them to either "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit," the couple's attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.

But the major use permit could cost the Jones' thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.

For David and Mary Jones, it's about more than a question of money.

Questions? I have a couple; what about every American's constitutional right to peaceful assembly and the free exercise of religion?

Read More: Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home

Waterboarding Nancy Pelosi

2009-05-24T11:08:00.008-06:00

At the risk of revealing myself for the truly sad and lonely person that I am I've got to say that I think Steven Crowder does one damned hot Nancy Pelosi impersonation. Steven, if you're reading this, dinner on me, Friday night, wear the makeup... and dress.

Steven Crowder's YouTube Channel and Website.

Related: Pelosi Lied
Related: America Tortures
Related: Pelosi Briefed About Waterboarding in 2002
Related: Cheney on Waterboarding

Nancy Pelosi Lied

2009-05-16T13:16:00.003-06:00

Nancy Pelosi is either a liar, or really, really stupid... or both. Oh, and you heard it here, and here, first.

Read More: Pelosi Lied
Related: Pelosi Briefed About Waterboarding
Related: Cheney on Waterboarding
Related: Panetta's Pelosi Smackdown

Socialism's "Shared Sacrifice"

2009-05-12T12:21:00.003-06:00

Found at The Belmont Club

President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment - 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department - is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.

What Progressives Want

2009-05-11T06:00:00.002-06:00

From American Thinker

Progressives divide the world into victims and exploiters, and see themselves as saviors of the underdogs who are incapable of fending for themselves. And that requires greater government power in their hands, to vanquish the exploiters. This perspective explains much of what President Obama is doing with the vast powers at his disposal.

This administration has big business in its sights. While there are a couple of corporations like G.E. who are court favorites because they do the Progressives' bidding...the current government's attitude toward commerce is that they exploit the masses as labor or consumer, are run by fat-cats who don't pay their "fair share", and should be regulated by the government which is working in "the best interests of the People".

Only one thing matters to the Progressives-in the Oval Office and in Congress-and that is growing the central government and its power.

Pelosi Briefed About Waterboarding in 2002

2009-05-08T08:17:00.003-06:00

From FOXNews.com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed in September 2002 on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence's office and obtained by FOX News.

Shocking! I guess Speaker Pelosi's claim last month that she knew nothing about waterboarding was disingenuous, not forthcoming, a lie.

Read More: Pelosi Briefed in 2002 About Enhanced Interrogation
Related: Cheney on Waterboarding

Truman and the Atomic Bomb

2009-05-03T12:46:00.005-06:00

Jon Stewart, of the Comedy Central TV program The Daily Show, recently asserted that President Harry Truman was a war criminal for dropping two atomic bombs on Japan.

I don't give a damned about Stewart's cute and fuzzy little leftist propaganda puppet show or what Jon-Boy thinks, says, or does. What I do care about is properly researched history delivered within the true context of the times in which the events occurred.

Bill Whittle has delivered a video rebuttal and, what I think, the best assessment of exactly what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.

Watch Here: The Truth About The Atomic Bombs
Bill Whittle's Site: Eject Eject Eject
Related: Like Falstaff in Reverse

Obama's War On Capital

2009-05-02T11:33:00.004-06:00

From National Review Online

Obama’s first 100 days have occasioned a number of dispiriting moments, but yesterday’s attack on Chrysler’s bond holders represented a new low. In a speech announcing the company’s bankruptcy filing, President Obama blasted “a group of investment firms and hedge funds [that] decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” That is nothing short of a lie. The consortium wasn’t holding out for a bailout. It was holding out for a bankruptcy.

The administration tried desperately to keep Chrysler out of bankruptcy court; in the process, it demonstrated exactly why that institution is so valuable. Obama’s auto task force attempted to browbeat Chrysler’s creditors into taking a terrible deal in order to spare the United Auto Workers union as much pain as possible. The large banks, which owe their continued existence to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), caved and agreed to take a massive haircut on their secured Chrysler debt. But a group of smaller firms, calling themselves “The Committee of Chrysler Non-TARP lenders,” refused to play ball.

In a statement released yesterday, the firms pointed out that they would be shirking their fiduciary duty to their investors if they did not hold out for the best possible deal. For them, the best deal is bankruptcy. In bankruptcy court, secured debtholders (bond holders) take priority over other creditors. The administration’s plan called for secured lenders to get in line behind the UAW.

For resisting this expropriation and following the law, the non-TARP lenders were publicly denounced as vicious Benedict Arnolds by a sitting American president. “I stand with Chrysler’s employees and their families and communities,” Obama said - not “those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices.” He stands, he said, “with the millions of Americans who own and want to buy Chrysler cars.” If millions of Americans wanted to buy Chrysler cars, the company wouldn’t need the president of the United States to be its pitchman.

Read More: Obama Declares War on Capital
Related: White House Thuggery

McCarthy's Letter to Holder

2009-05-01T15:01:00.010-06:00

From National Review Institute

Dear Attorney General Holder:

This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading.

The invitation email (of April 14) indicates that the meeting is part of an ongoing effort to identify lawful policies on the detention and disposition of alien enemy combatants - or what the Department now calls “individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations.” I admire the lawyers of the Counterterrorism Division, and I do not question their good faith. Nevertheless, it is quite clear - most recently, from your provocative remarks on Wednesday in Germany - that the Obama administration has already settled on a policy of releasing trained jihadists (including releasing some of them into the United States). Whatever the good intentions of the organizers, the meeting will obviously be used by the administration to claim that its policy was arrived at in consultation with current and former government officials experienced in terrorism cases and national security issues. I deeply disagree with this policy, which I believe is a violation of federal law and a betrayal of the president’s first obligation to protect the American people. Under the circumstances, I think the better course is to register my dissent, rather than be used as a prop.

Moreover, in light of public statements by both you and the President, it is dismayingly clear that, under your leadership, the Justice Department takes the position that a lawyer who in good faith offers legal advice to government policy makers - like the government lawyers who offered good faith advice on interrogation policy - may be subject to investigation and prosecution for the content of that advice, in addition to empty but professionally damaging accusations of ethical misconduct. Given that stance, any prudent lawyer would have to hesitate before offering advice to the government.

Beyond that, as elucidated in my writing (including my proposal for a new national security court, which I understand the Task Force has perused), I believe alien enemy combatants should be detained at Guantanamo Bay (or a facility like it) until the conclusion of hostilities. This national defense measure is deeply rooted in the venerable laws of war and was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the 2004 Hamdi case. Yet, as recently as Wednesday, you asserted that, in your considered judgment, such notions violate America’s “commitment to the rule of law.” Indeed, you elaborated, “Nothing symbolizes our [adminstration’s] new course more than our decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay…. President Obama believes, and I strongly agree, that Guantanamo has come to represent a time and an approach that we want to put behind us: a disregard for our centuries-long respect for the rule of law.”

Given your policy of conducting ruinous criminal and ethics investigations of lawyers over the advice they offer the government, and your specific position that the wartime detention I would endorse is tantamount to a violation of law, it makes little sense for me to attend the Task Force meeting. After all, my choice would be to remain silent or risk jeopardizing myself.

For what it may be worth, I will say this much. For eight years, we have had a robust debate in the United States about how to handle alien terrorists captured during a defensive war authorized by Congress after nearly 3000 of our fellow Americans were annihilated. Essentially, there have been two camps. One calls for prosecution in the civilian criminal justice system, the strategy used throughout the 1990s. The other calls for a military justice approach of combatant detention and war-crimes prosecutions by military commission. Because each theory has its downsides, many commentators, myself included, have proposed a third way: a hybrid system, designed for the realities of modern international terrorism - a new system that would address the needs to protect our classified defense secrets and to assure Americans, as well as our allies, that we are detaining the right people.

There are differences in these various proposals. But their proponents, and adherents to both the military and civilian justice approaches, have all agreed on at least one thing: Foreign terrorists trained to execute mass-murder attacks cannot simply be released while the war ensues and Americans are still being targeted. We have already released too many jihadists who, as night follows day, have resumed plotting to kill Americans. Indeed, according to recent reports, a released Guantanamo detainee is now leading Taliban combat operations in Afghanistan, where President Obama has just sent additional American forces.

The Obama campaign smeared Guantanamo Bay as a human rights blight. Consistent with that hyperbolic rhetoric, the President began his administration by promising to close the detention camp within a year. The President did this even though he and you (a) agree Gitmo is a top-flight prison facility, (b) acknowledge that our nation is still at war, and (c) concede that many Gitmo detainees are extremely dangerous terrorists who cannot be tried under civilian court rules. Patently, the commitment to close Guantanamo Bay within a year was made without a plan for what to do with these detainees who cannot be tried. Consequently, the Detention Policy Task Force is not an effort to arrive at the best policy. It is an effort to justify a bad policy that has already been adopted: to wit, the Obama administration policy to release trained terrorists outright if that’s what it takes to close Gitmo by January.

Obviously, I am powerless to stop the administration from releasing top al Qaeda operatives who planned mass-murder attacks against American cities - like Binyam Mohammed (the accomplice of “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla) whom the administration recently transferred to Britain, where he is now at liberty and living on public assistance. I am similarly powerless to stop the administration from admitting into the United States such alien jihadists as the 17 remaining Uighur detainees. According to National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, the Uighurs will apparently live freely, on American taxpayer assistance, despite the facts that they are affiliated with a terrorist organization and have received terrorist paramilitary training. Under federal immigration law (the 2005 REAL ID Act), those facts render them excludable from the United States. The Uighurs’ impending release is thus a remarkable development given the Obama administration’s propensity to deride its predecessor’s purported insensitivity to the rule of law.

I am, in addition, powerless to stop the President, as he takes these reckless steps, from touting his Detention Policy Task Force as a demonstration of his national security seriousness. But I can decline to participate in the charade.

Finally, let me repeat that I respect and admire the dedication of Justice Department lawyers, whom I have tirelessly defended since I retired in 2003 as a chief assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. It was a unique honor to serve for nearly twenty years as a federal prosecutor, under administrations of both parties. It was as proud a day as I have ever had when the trial team I led was awarded the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award in 1996, after we secured the convictions of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and his underlings for waging a terrorist war against the United States. I particularly appreciated receiving the award from Attorney General Reno - as I recounted in Willful Blindness, my book about the case, without her steadfastness against opposition from short-sighted government officials who wanted to release him, the “blind sheikh” would never have been indicted, much less convicted and so deservedly sentenced to life-imprisonment. In any event, I’ve always believed defending our nation is a duty of citizenship, not ideology. Thus, my conservative political views aside, I’ve made myself available to liberal and conservative groups, to Democrats and Republicans, who’ve thought tapping my experience would be beneficial. It pains me to decline your invitation, but the attendant circumstances leave no other option.

Very truly yours,
Andrew C. McCarthy

Right-Wing College Group Riles Campuses

2009-04-29T16:45:00.004-06:00

From FOXNews.com

A student group that bills itself as "America's right wing youth movement" focused on countering radical multiculturism, socialism and mass immigration is causing a stir on a growing number of college campuses across the country.

The conservative political group Youth for Western Civilization is currently organized on at least seven university campuses. According to its Web site, the group hopes to inspire Western youth on the "basis of pride in their American and Western heritage," counter and ultimately defeat "leftism on campus" and create a social movement in which a right-wing subculture is an alternative to what it calls a "poisonous and bigoted" campus climate.

"A great part of college is definitely meeting people of different backgrounds, but a multicultural ideology teaches that we should appreciate things just because they're different from our culture with no regards to the quality of the culture and that all cultures are inherently equal," said Trevor Williams, president of YWC's Vanderbilt chapter. "I absolutely disagree."

Of course they're being accussed of hate speech and racism by their fellow students.

"Western is a veiled term that means white," University of North Carolina graduate student Tyler Oakley wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. "I believe that our democracy is strong enough to allow extreme forms of speech, but YWC's message is essentially a negative one, an assault on not being white or non-Western, and is therefore hateful, if not blatant hate speech."

Finally, real campus radicals. Added to the conservative links page.

Read More: Right-Wing College Group Riles Campuses Nationwide
Their Website: Youth for Western Civilization

Andrew Lloyd Webber on Wealth Creation

2009-04-27T13:34:00.003-06:00

America, take note...

I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs. The Government must modify its proposals.

[...]

The next few years are going to be horrendous in the UK. The last thing we need is a Somali pirate-style raid on the few wealth creators who still dare to navigate Britain's gale-force waters.

Well said Mr. Webber, as usual, and, you have far too much class to use the the word bastards. I don't - you bastards.

Read More: The Last Thing This Country Needs

David Broder's Dark History

2009-04-26T12:19:00.002-06:00

From Redstate

Obama, to his credit, has ended one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States.

I like history - and turtles.

Read More: David Broder has a problem with history

Liz Cheney on Waterboarding

2009-04-25T19:20:00.004-06:00

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Liz Cheney (Dick Cheney's eldest daughter), educates (journalist?) Norah O’Donnell.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama's decision to release the interrogation memos has created a firestorm that could end any chance of bi-partisanship and seriously hamper advancing his political agenda - and make no mistake - it was the Presidents decision. He could have let the ACLU's law suit for the release of these top secret documents go to court.

Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used Obama's openness to prosecute the Bush administration to say, "It gives further impetus among members to have some kind of truth commission as to what happened. I do not think immunity should be granted to everyone in a blanket way,"

Pelosi denied knowing U.S. officials used water boarding, but here's a 2007 Washington Post story which describes a 2002 briefing in which Pelosi, among others, were told about enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail.

This reminds me of the guy that decided to burn a few leaves in his backyard… in Myrtle Beach.

Update: Obama and Reid back-off
Related: 58% Say Release of CIA Memos Endangers National Security

Freddie Mac CFO Suicide

2009-04-22T13:20:00.002-06:00

From FOXNews.com

David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.

SPJ Opposes Fairness Doctrine

2009-04-21T19:46:00.002-06:00

From NewsBusters.org

The Society of Professional Journalists, celebrating 100 years of journalism and free speech advocacy, opposes reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine, which would allow the government to control broadcast editorial content.

Although no bill has been formally introduced in Congress to mandate the doctrine or otherwise change Federal Communications Commission rules, its reinstatement after a 22-year hiatus has been discussed frequently in recent months. Some members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have indicated support for the Fairness Doctrine.

Why's the Left so Angry?

2009-04-21T08:17:00.003-06:00

By Byron York From The WashingtonExaminer.com

These should be happy times for liberals and the Democratic party as a whole. They control the White House and both houses of Congress, while opposition Republicans are leaderless and lost. So why do some Democrats, particularly those farther to the left, appear so angry?

If you doubt it, just watch a few minutes of MSNBC, where the recent nationwide series of "tea parties" to protest federal spending and taxes set off an angry, almost manic response. The most telling came on Keith Olbermann's program, during which the actress Janeane Garofalo, who plays an FBI computer geek on “24,” denounced the tea parties as "racism straight up."

"Let's be very honest about what this is about," Garofalo said. "It's not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes…This is about hating a black man in the White House."

[...]

I asked William Anderson, a friend who is a political conservative, a medical doctor, and a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard. "They are angry, but I think they are also scared, and I think it's because they have a sense that their triumph is a precarious one," Anderson told me. Democrats won in 2008 in some part because of the cycles of American politics; Republicans were exhausted and it was the other party's turn. Now, having won, they are unsure of how long victory will last.

"They see that they have a very small window of opportunity to do all the things they want," Anderson continued. "They see the window of opportunity as small because they know in their deepest hearts that the vast majority of the American people wouldn't go for all of the things they want to do." So they are frantic to do as much as possible before the opposition coalesces. And the tea parties might be the beginning of that coalescence.

Then there is the question of self-image. Watching Garofalo and Olbermann discuss the tea parties, it was impossible to avoid the sense that they saw themselves as two good people talking about many bad people. "One of the things about narcissism is that it looks like people who are just proud of themselves and smug, but in fact narcissism is a very brittle and unstable state," Anderson told me. "People who are deeply invested in narcissism spend an awful lot of energy trying to maintain the illusion they have of themselves as being powerful and good, and they are exquisitely sensitive to anything that might prick that balloon."

Again, the tea parties could represent a threat. What if the protesters weren't racists, weren't violent, weren't mentally defective? What if their point was legitimate, or even partly legitimate? Those are questions better batted down than answered.

My apologies to Byron York for quoting far more of his article than I should have. My excuses are simply that I really liked the article, and I wanted to capture all of Dr. Anderson’s comments.

Read More: In A Time Of Victory, Why Is The Left So Angry?

Israel's Assault on Iran

2009-04-17T22:39:00.004-06:00

From FOXNews.com

Israel Is preparing an assault on Iran's nuclear sites.

The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government, the Times of London reported.

Can you blame them? What would you do if someone swore to exterminate you? Welcome to the real world Barry.

Read More: Israel Preparing Assault on Iran's Nuclear Sites

Tea Parties Racist and Stupid

2009-04-17T14:49:00.003-06:00

Pink Elephant Pundit has a video round-up of liberal media reaction to the April 15th Tax Protest Tea Parties. If you're too busy to watch I've summed them up in the title to the this post.

Read More: Stay Classy Liberal America
Media Bistro's TVNewser: CNN Reporter Takes a Break
Related: Memo to Susan Roesgen