November Is Coming

Found over at The Correspondence Committee today.

From Breitbart TV

The Democrat's Clown Congress

Stephen Colbert is a fucking clown.

Bringing in a clown to testify on the highly charged issue of illegal immigration is the Democrat's way of expressing contempt for those Americans that want our immigration laws enforced.

See: Colbert tells Congress farm work 'really hard'

WASHINGTON – Taking his blowhard comedy act to Congress, Stephen Colbert told lawmakers that a day picking beans alongside illegal immigrants convinced him that farm work is "really, really hard."

"It turns out — and I did not know this — most soil is at ground level," Colbert testified Friday. Also, "It was hotter than I like to be."

Nancy Pelosi thought that bringing in a clown to testify before congress was not only appropriate, "It was great."

See: Colbert Offers Comedy Shtick in Farm Workers Testimony, Fails to Amuse Lawmakers

"Of course I think it's appropriate," she said. "He's an American. He can bring attention to an important issue. I think it's great."

Fuck you Nancy.

Fuck you Democrats.

Is Feingold Going To Lose It?

See: Rasmussen: Feingold now trailing by 7 in Wisconsin

After winning his primary to gain the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Russ Feingold, businessman and newcomer Ron Johnson also got a bump in the polls. The latest Rasmussen survey puts him ahead of the incumbent by seven, 51/44. But as with all surveys conducted in the immediate aftermath of a primary, some caution should be taken:

Go to HotAir to read the rest. Check out the link to the Rasmussen survey.

Have You Forgotten?

Polls Forecast A Grim November For Democrats

See: Generic Congressional Ballot - Rasmussen Reports (Monday, September 06, 2010)

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely Voters would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. The survey data was collected on the seven days ending Sunday, September 5, 2010.

This matches the largest advantage ever measured for the Republicans. Three weeks ago, the GOP also held a 12-point lead.

Still, while the margin has varied somewhat from week-to-week, Republicans have been consistently ahead in the Generic Ballot for over a year. During 2010, the GOP edge has never fallen below five points. When Barack Obama first took office as president of the United States, the Democrats enjoyed a seven-point lead on the Generic Ballot.

Those are some pretty grim numbers for the Democrats. This November is looking like it will be a bloodbath at the ballot box.

Two years ago, the Democrats had won everything. Now, as the chill of the approaching autumn can be felt in the evening air, the Democrats find themselves about to lose the House, with the Senate now in play.

Even Senator Patty Murray (D), in the solidly blue state of Washington, is falling behind her challenger, Dino Rossi (R). (Rossi 48%, Murray 46%)

The Democrats now find themselves having to fight hard for Seats like Murray's that they used to take for granted.

Obama And The Politics Of Failure

An interesting question from the other side of the pond.

See: The great Obama-Axelrod-etc. mystery

Here's one of the big questions, really, one to chew on over the weekend, one that's asked a lot around this town. How could a bunch of people who ran such a brilliant campaign be doing such a lousy job at the politics of governing?

The answer is actually very simple.

Obama and his team have successfully rammed through a number of measures through the congress that would, and will, fundamentally change the nature of our government and our relationship with it.

Obama's plummeting popularity is a consequence of his political success.

Confusing President Obama's popularity with his political success is a mistake. He has been very successful. Obama is very unpopular now because of his political successes.

Compassionate Cannibalism and the End of Western Civilization

From the Seriously Not Funny files

See: Cannibal Restaurant Has Berliners Disgusted

"Donors wanted! Become a member today!" reads an announcement on the website. On the menu page, the restaurant, called Flimé, is careful only to indicate "meat" without giving away what kind -- surely an effort to keep the ruse going. Those who want to become members must submit a form complete with responses about health and exercise habits.

"After the medical check, you can decide which body part you want to donate!" the website says. The form tells prospective members that "Flimé only covers the costs for hospitalization.... The designated use of the donated body part is free to Flimé." The German version of the website is also advertising for a job opening for an "open-minded surgeon."

We are all living in the Wiemar Republic now.

Laura Dekker's Equatorial Circumnavigation

She is in Portugal now. The start date will be announced shortly.

See: Dutch teen arrives in Portugal ahead of solo sailing bid

Dekker wants to break the record for the youngest world solo sail set in May by Australian teenager Jessica Watson. Watson completed a non-stop, unassisted round-the-world trip a few days before her 17th birthday.

Dekker turns 17 on September 20, 2012, allowing her a little over two years to complete the trip, during which she intends to stop at several ports along the way.

Dekker has said her route from Portugal will take her across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She plans to stop at the Galapagos islands before heading to Australia, Thailand and through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden back to Europe.

This is not the same race as Jessica Watson's. It is similar, but it is not the same.

Jessica Watson sailed The Three Capes route. Laura Dekker is sailing the equatorial route. Another difference is that Jessica Watson sailed non-stop and Laura Dekker will make port in several places.

I am less comfortable with Laura Dekker's adventure then I was with Jessica Watson's.

Laura Dekker is very young. Many people will object on that alone. While I find her age to be a little worrisome, I am more concerned about the route that she will travel. Jessica Watson traveled south and sailed around the three Capes, Cape Agulhas, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn).

Where Watson had to brave stormy seas, Dekker will have to brave filthy pirates. I would prefer storms over pirates. Where as the sea and the storms are indifferent and lack malice, pirates are the scum of the planet. Pirates are malice.

Training can solve most problems associated with age, storms and seas. Pirates are different. With Pirates, age becomes a problem.

Laura Dekker will be at sea for over a year. She will travel around the equator and pass through some of the most pirate infested waters of the world. She will avoid the physical dangers of the three capes. Hopefully she will be able to avoid the Pirates as well.

May she find easy sailing fair winds on her way.

Anchor Babies And The Move To Change The 14th Amendment

Often in politics, the wrong solution to a issue is sought to solve a problem that the law already provides a workable remedy.

In an attempt to discourage illegal immigrants from exploiting their children as a means to remain in the US, Republican politicians are suggesting that it is time to revise the 14th Amendment of the constitution to disallow birth-right citizenship.

Birth-right citizenship is being exploited. The numbers are truly staggering.

See: Across Texas, 60,000 babies of noncitizens get U.S. birthright

In Texas, between 60,000 to 65,000 babies achieve U.S. citizenship annually by being born in the state's hospitals, according to a tally released by the state's Health and Human Services Commission. Last year, such births represented almost 16 percent of the total births statewide.

Between 2001 and 2009, births to illegal immigrant women totaled 542,152 in Texas alone.

Thats just Texas.

It would be interesting to know what the national numbers are.

The 14th Amendment is not the problem. The lack of will at the federal level to enforce our immigration laws is the problem.

If Illegal aliens have a baby in the US, fine. The children may have US citizenship. The parents still do not. The parents still should be made to leave the US. The children may return to the US at a later time or even be allowed to remain with legal US residents. The Illegal parents still MUST leave.

If the law was enforced, there would be no anchor-baby problem. The law is not enforced, so anchor-babies are exploited.

Sheriff Babeu Explains Arizona's Problem With The President

See: Arizona Sheriff: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’

“What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU,” Babeu said.

What is the Obama Administration's goal? Why do they refuse to meaningful defend the border and why do the want to prevent the States from doing the job the Federal Government refuses to do?

Could it be that the Obama Administration does not think that the border should be effectively closed to illegal immigrants?

The Rising Risk Of War With Mexico

See: Mexican Drug Cartel Allegedly Puts a Price on Arizona Sheriff's Head

On the day parts of Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, went into effect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news for another reason: there's a price on his head - allegedly offered by a Mexican drug cartel.

This is not the first instance of a Mexican Drug Cartel threatening to kill US Law Enforcement Officers.

See: Drug cartel issues threat to off-duty Nogales police officers

A Mexican drug cartel has threatened Nogales police officers, saying they will be targeted for retribution if they conduct off-duty drug busts.

Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham told the Nogales International on Friday that the threats stemmed from an incident approximately two weeks ago, when off-duty officers surprised marijuana smugglers while riding horseback in an unincorporated border area east of town.

The officers seized part of the drug load, and the smugglers were able to flee back into Mexico with the other part.

“As a result of that,” Kirkham said, “our officers have received threats from the cartel that they are to look the other way if they are off-duty, or they will be targeted by a sniper or by other means.”

In our nation's history, we have dealt with a similar problem with Mexico.

It resulted in what the history books call "The Punitive Expedition" or "The Poncho Villa Expedition."

In late 1915 - early 1916, Poncho Villa began a campaign of killing Americans living and working in Northern Mexico. It escalated from there to a cross border war into New Mexico.

Poncho Villa's raid into Columbus New Mexico, killing 18 and wounding 8, sparked a military response from the US.

A General Pershing type incursion into Mexico to hunt down Mexican Narco-Terrorist may have to be repeated if the Democrat led US Government is unable or unwilling to secure our borders with Mexico. This would not be a good war, though it may become a necessary one.

The Democrats in Washington D.C. need to recognize the risks they are running by refusing to look at the cross border threats from Mexican gangsters as serious threats to our national security.

So far to date, the most aggressive and forward posture that the Obama Administration has initiated to contain the violence that is spilling across the border from Mexico, is to put up signs in the desert on the American side of the border, warning Americans to stay out of threatened US land. Tactically, Obama has implemented a policy of retreat.

See: Parts of Arizona Considered Under Control of Mexican Cartels and Smugglers: Feds Respond With Lawsuit Against Arizona

The signs were posted over a month after a Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy was shot by suspected drug traffickers while patrolling the area around the junction of Interstate 8 and Arizona Highway 84. Last week, two bodies belived to those of drug mules were found shot to death in the same area where the deputy was ambushed. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in an interview Tuscon's KGUN TV that the cartels are in increasing control of parts of Arizona, including Pinal County.

As unpleasant as it may be for Obama and the Democrats that control Washington D.C. to consider, they have to secure the US border with Mexico. If they fail to do so, they will be responsible for having failed to prevent a war that we will end up having to fight on our southern border.

[Fenway's Not Another New England Sports Blog! has more on the topic of the Mexican Narco-insurgency and the illegal immigration issue. Its worth taking a look at.]

Illegal Immigrant Supporters Versus American Baseball Fans

You may have heard about the two Illegal Immigrant supporters that ran around Citi Field durring the New York Mets - Arizona Diamond Backs game.

Did you hear about the crowd's response?

See: Men Run Onto Citi Field With Mexican Flags

As the trespassers were taken from the field people in the stands started chanting "USA, USA."

Running around the ballpark with the Mexican Flag pretty much tells America where these Illegal Immigrant supporters heads are at.

Borders Versus The Quest For World Peace

See: Memo outlines backdoor 'amnesty' plan

With Congress gridlocked on an immigration bill, the Obama administration is considering using a back door to stop deporting many illegal immigrants - what a draft government memo said could be "a non-legislative version of amnesty."

The memo, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and written by four agency staffers, lists tools it says the administration has to "reduce the threat of removal" for many illegal immigrants who have run afoul of immigration authorities.

On the surface, it is about the politics of illegal immigration.

But there is something happening here that is working below the surface. It is a "Big Picture" thing. It is something that is working on an emotional level in the Modern American Left.

It explains much of the way the modern American Left feels about the problem that we have with illegal immigration.

*Primarily, the Modern American left. along with their European counterparts, have a problem with National borders. They see Nationalism as the cause of much of the warfare and strife of the last one hundred years. They believe that a world without borders would necessarily be a more peaceful one. Without countries, they reason, there could be no war, there could only be peace and love.

John Lennon's Imagine is not just a silly pop song. It is their prayer, their hymnal, their anthem. It is a dream that the Modern American Left hopes is our future and the whole worlds future.

(Yoram Hazony's Israel Through European Eyes explains why Israel is hated by much of the European, and by extension, the American Left. The core of his argument is compelling and it has important implications for all of the Western Nations that fought in WWII.)

Arizona's S.B. 1070 Versus The De Facto Amnesty

Heather McDonald at the National Review's blog The Corner writes about what Bolton's ruling against Arizona's Immigration Law means.

See: What Judge Bolton’s Injunction Doesn’t Say

In enjoining Arizona’s landmark immigration law, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton maintains the Obama administration’s carefully cultivated fiction: that what concerns the White House regarding S.B. 1070 is its effect on legal, rather than illegal, aliens. Almost nowhere in the government’s briefs or the judge’s ruling is the arrest and detention of illegal aliens addressed. This fiction is transparent, however. The real threat posed by S.B. 1070 was that it would disrupt the de facto amnesty that the executive branch has accorded to the vast majority of illegal aliens. It would start to implement congressional mandates and the public will that the immigration laws be enforced. For that reason, it had to be stopped.

[Emphasis is mine.]

The ruling will be appealed. Jan Brewer knew that no matter which way Clinton appointed U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled, the law would be appealed up through the courts, eventually reaching the Supreme Court Of The United States.

Arizona will fight.

It will be a long fight.

[update]

Arizona's S.B. 1070.

Judge Bolon's Ruling.

Democrats, Art And Laying Off Firefighters

The link here is to an article that talks about how the Democrats that run the City Of Ann Arbor Michigan prioritize their spending.

See: The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget

What I want to draw your attention to in this article is not so much the mundane everyday example of the insanity of a city run lock-stock-and-barrel by Democrats, but the way the left-media reports the news when Democrats do psychotically stupid things.

Here is the key:

Ann Arbor City Council member Stephen Kunselman, a Democrat, opposed the art deal.

Kunselman's party affiliation is a fair thing to report. But what is the missing context? (Read the whole article.)

What does that one line, the only line in the article that mentions the political party of any of the politicians involved, imply?

Doesn't it suggest that those that supported laying off firefighters and spending almost a million bucks on a fancy sprinkler spigot were not Democrats?

As it turns out, the City Council is 100% Democrat.

Singling out Kunselman as a Democrat, without also explaining that the whole city council is made up of nothing but Democrats, leaves out important and informative detail.

It is a deception.

So when you are reading or watching the news, always, always, caveat lector. Especially if the reporter claims to be non-partisan.

Oliver Stone - Shaping The Things To Come

Oliver Stone is an influential shaper of public thought.

His movies, which include Natural Born Killers, Platoon, Wall Street, JFK, Nixon, and W will be viewed by hundreds of millions of people, not just in the US, but all over the world. The people who see his movies, see the world through his world-view.

What is his world-view? What does the man think?

See: Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources

LONDON – The Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows that the United States should follow the example of South American socialists in nationalizing its energy industry, filmmaker Oliver Stone said Tuesday.

The Academy Award-winning director of "Born on the Fourth of July" and "JFK" said that America's country's natural wealth was too important to be left in private hands, telling journalists in central London that oil and other natural resources "belong to the people."

"This BP oil spill is typical" of what happens when private industry is allowed to draw revenue on what should be a public good, Stone said.

"We shouldn't make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries."

Stone, 63, is in the British capital to promote his documentary, "South of the Border," which tells the story of firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his left-wing Latin American allies.

This man makes movies. His movies shape people's understanding of reality. What kind of world will his viewers make for our future?

Hosni Mubarak And The End Of Peace In The Middle-East

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is not a nice man. Egypt owes him much. The world owes him much. And all the same, he is not a nice man.

Advancing in age, and reported to be suffering from terminal cancer, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will soon be unbound from this mortal coil. His long, difficult, and sometimes extremely unpleasant leadership of the people of Egypt will soon come to a close.

From those days long ago, immediately following the assassination of Anwar Sadatt, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has kept Egypt a relatively sane Muslim nation.

Egypt's peace with Israel, while strained and at times uncomfortable, has held.

How long will this peace last after Mubarak passes?

Would you give it days, weeks, months or optimistically, years?

When Mubarak leaves this world, the peace that we have enjoyed in the middle east, what little peace there was, may come to seem a golden age long past.

Pray for Egypt.

Pray for Israel.

Pray for all of us.

Politics Is Downstream Of Culture

Bill Whittle's Declaration Entertainment Project



Website Link

Yoram Hazony makes a similar argument. Hazony argues that books and schools are the big drivers in the culture. I think that both Whittle and Hazony are correct. Books and Movies are entertainment venues. Schools shape the people who will wright the books and make the movies that America and the world will read and see.

See: Israel Through European Eyes

What can be done? A good start would be to read Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions—or to read it again if you read it in college. If you’re used to academic books, it’s an easy read. And if not, it’s a bit of an effort, but worth it. No book will give you a clearer insight into what’s happening to Israel today in the international arena, on the campuses, and even, to some extent, in Israel’s universities.

After that, we have to begin talking about what it takes to establish a new paradigm, or to rebuild an old one that has collapsed. There’s much to be said about this, and it’s not for now. But I’ll leave you with just this thought as a start on it: Paradigm shifts aren’t like an election campaign or a struggle over some aspect of policy, much less a short-term media battle like the one over the Turkish flotilla, which can be resolved one way or another in matter of weeks or months, if not days. Paradigm shifts are unusual in the lives of individuals. And when they happen, they often take years to work themselves out. For this reason, clashes between political paradigms tend to play themselves out over a generation or more. By the same token, the relevant media in which these clashes are played out aren’t the newspapers or television or the internet. By the time we’re reading the newspapers or watching CNN, we’ve already got our paradigm in place—just like the reporters we’re watching, who just keep reporting from within their own set paradigm, over and over again. When it comes to shifts of political paradigm, these take place principally through books, which expose people to an idea at length and in depth; and in schools, where such books are studied and discussed, especially universities. If we are interested in the reconstruction of the paradigm that has served as the foundation for Israel’s existence, that’s where the work is going to have to be done.

See: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S. Kuhn

HT CC

Three Must Read Essays

Start with Lee Smith's Hollow Men.

Next read Yoram Hazony's Israel Through European Eyes.

Follow that up with Daniel Gordis' The Tower of Babel and the Birth of Nationhood.

The three tie together.

There is a big picture truth in these three.

Israel is the fulcrum of the world. In these three essays, there is a glimpse of the lever that moves nations and shapes our future.

ht: Kosh's Shadow and Spin Strangeness & Charm - twitter link.

I-dosing - The Latest Battle Front Of The War On Drugs

Occasionally there is something in the news that just seems so over the top that it might possibly be a prank.

This one is from Wired.

See: Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High

I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as “Gates of Hades,” which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).

Those who want to get addicted to the “drugs” can purchase tracks that will purportedly bring about the same effects of marijuana, cocaine, opium and peyote. While street drugs rarely come with instruction manuals, potential digital drug users are advised to buy a 40-page guide so that they learn how to properly get high on MP3s.

Oklahoma’s Mustang Public School district isn’t taking the threat lightly, and sent out a letter to parents warning them of the new craze. The educators have gone so far as to ban iPods at school, in hopes of preventing honor students from becoming cyber-drug fiends, News 9 reports.

This strikes me as being just plain silly, both the fad and reaction to it.

I half wonder if it is just a bunch of kids trying to freak-out their parents.

It also reminds me of Larry Niven's Wire-heads.

Except . . .

. . . I now have this terrible urge to play some Philip Glass music . . .