Gitmo To Chicago

For your consideration:

Alexander Statement on Proposal to Relocate Gitmo Detainees to American Soil

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement on the administration’s proposal to move detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States:

“Congress made it very clear to the administration that bringing dangerous terrorists onto American soil is not only the wrong thing to do, but goes against the wishes of the American people. I have yet to hear one good reason why moving these terrorists from off our shores right into the heart of our country makes us safer.”

Safer isn’t the point. Political appeasement is the point.

UPDATED:

Mike Pence’s thoughts:

“By moving known terrorists to American soil, the Obama Administration is putting international public relations ahead of public safety. How does closing Guantanamo Bay make us safer? How does moving over seventy known terrorists, to a facility in my beloved heartland of this country, make our families more safe? And how does it even make sense? Mr. President: rescind this order; reconsider your decision, put the safety and security of the American people ahead of international public opinion.” –Mike Pence

Posted in Barack Obama, Military, Terrorism | 1 Comment »

Maybe I’ve Had It Wrong All Along: I Shoulda Been A Guy Blogger

Is a woman an “Uncle Tom” if she writes under a male pseudonym? What if she gets paid more and seemingly more respect by doing so?

Also, would a woman write differently if she “wrote like a man”. If I didn’t have the cultural pressures, would I write differently? More forceful, more tough, maybe?

Here’s what prompted this post:

A blogger for Copyblogger, who wrote under the name “James Chartrand,” outed herself as a female, explaining that she chose a male name to earn more money and get more respect in her career.

Years ago The Blogger Formerly Known As James Chartrand (who declined to identify her real name) hit a plateau in her career. She couldn’t command a higher rate. She lost gigs she should have gotten. Things were looking grim. So she distanced herself from her existing company by choosing a pen name: “I picked a name that sounded to me like it might convey a good business image. Like it might command respect.”

She chose a male pen name. Ha, more like penis name!

Choosing a male pen name seemed to fix everything for James Chartrand. She put food on the table for her kids and get a mortgage for her house near her mom.

This blogger, a woman, came to this conclusion:

Honestly, there is something rather Uncle Tom-y about Chartrand hiding behind the opposite gender. By assuming the identity of a male writer, she skirted the discrimination against women entirely while doing nothing to change womens’ lot. She just left the glass ceiling standing there, rather than shattering it.

Sure, “passing” was Chartrand’s choice, and as Charlotte York would say, she chose her choice. But it showed no solidarity for other women at all. There’s plenty of female writers out there who confront the marginalization of women head on, pointing out how with factual data how they’ve been shortchanged, asking for raises, taking their brilliant work elsewhere if their bosses refuse to budge. But “James Chartrand” took the easy way out.

Eh. I don’t know. If I wanted to make a lot of money, I’d “sell out” and be a mommy blogger and talk about my kid’s poop or the fact that I forgot part of my kid’s homework or that my jeans are tight or whatever else was personally ailing me at the moment. As far as I can tell, being snarky, female and into fashion, celebrities or some other (what I consider) trivialities can net a gal big bucks.

Or, I could sell out and go anonymous male and people would give me more respect and more money.

Maybe.

Posted in Blogging, Nerd Stuff, Sexism | 4 Comments »

Tolerance: Liberals Spew Hate At Lieberman

Commenters at The Hill aren’t happy with Joe Lieberman:

Lefties are so tolerant.

When the winds change and conservatives howl at the middle-of-the-roaders, remind liberals of their own words. I mean, people who vote against this bill are killing people.

Posted in Democrats, Liberals | 3 Comments »

Podcast 69: Sex, Guns, & Health Care

Those topics, not necessarily in that order, unlike real life.

Download MP3

To subscribe on iTunes, just click here!

When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.

Posted in Podcast | 2 Comments »

You Know, Had Democrats Used The Republican Health Care Reforms, Almost Everyone Would Be Happy–UPDATED

At the moment, it looks like no health care bill will pass. It’s a debacle from top to bottom and no one wants to be hung with this noose.

President Obama is the biggest loser. Which is why he is doing this.

Had the Democrats pushed a real reform plan such as the Republicans had been pushing–a few laws that would ease access, level the playing field and create more competition–everyone but the hard left would be happy.

Instead, the Democrats went for the whole enchilada–a path to single payer plans, a path to socialized medicine, a path no one but socialists want. There are still not enough socialists in America to pass that sort of legislation so the Dems thought they could bluff and abuse the language (calling it reform, for one) to get to their goal.

This isn’t over quite yet. But health care reform could have been a triumph of bipartisanship, President Obama’s ability to “bring people together”, and, dare I say it, good legislation that Americans like. You know, health care reform could have been helpful. Instead, the desires of the far left were indulged, again, and to the Democrats’ demise.

I’m thinking that the Democrats could redeem themselves even still, if they jumped on some of the reforms Republicans proposed. Maybe. But they’d rather rot and not get reelected than do something like that, I think.

UPDATED:

Well, Ace seems to think something will pass and says this:

If they do cut a deal — which I　expect they will — there still will be a lot of additional spending and a lot of new debt and a lot of harm to the economy. I guess we’re just hoping now that the damage is kept to as low a level as possible. But that level will not be all that low, either.

Ace also notes the left’s hypocrisy on “purity tests”. He also sees a scripted dance going on for political reasons.

Yeah, well, I keep thinking the Dems are smarter than they turn out to be. Maybe they are actually orchestrating a finely tuned win for the President. We’ll see.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Political Animals | No Comments »

Greedy Bankers: No Kidding….President Obama Should Keep That In Mind

So let me get this straight.

Stupid regulations by Democrats cause the banking crisis. Banks tank on bad debt that was required by stupid regulations by Democrats. Banks “saved” by being owned by the government with tax payer dollars. Banks pay back money, because, surprise!, government is a harsh task-master. Government blames the bankers for….fulfilling their obligation. Then, President Obama tells bankers to make more loans….probably to the very people who couldn’t afford loans to begin with.

How about the government minds their own damn business? How about banks giving money to good risks? How about people and businesses taking on responsible, minimal debt?

I know. That’s crazy talk.

Forget greedy bankers. That’s self-evident. Let’s focus on President Obama and his evil minions in Congress. They caused the problem. Anyone with a brain knows to avoid bankers if at all possible. The President should keep greedy bankers in mind as he continues to look East to have his bills paid. Does he think that China will be friendly when the bills come due?

Be careful of those fat cats, Prez! They’re baddies.

Posted in Barack Obama | 2 Comments »

Sarah Palin Has Rehabbed Her Image: Now What?

If you haven’t seen Sarah Palin’s Conan appearance, watch it here, now:

After watching, you’ll see why Legal Insurrection’s William Jacobson says this:

Palin thus took on the pervasive liberal and Democratic caricature of Palin, and did so in a humorous and sympathetic way. Palin was allowed to fight mockery with mockery. Touché.

Palin’s appearance on the Conan show may mark a turning point. The mainstream media, very begrudgingly and in small steps, is shifting its approach to Palin as polls show Palin’s popularity rising. Palin’s appearance on Oprah brought the show ratings it had not seen in years.

Obama used his appearance on Oprah, and other entertainment media love, to establish his popularity. Which is why it damages Obama’s image so badly when SNL mocks Obama. At this point, Obama needs the media more than the media needs Obama.

Palin, by contrast, established her popularity independent of, and despite, the entertainment media. When it comes to Palin, the entertainment media is following not leading. We have reached the point where the mainstream entertainment media needs Palin more than Palin needs the media.

I agree. Sarah Palin’s success with humor, for me, was/is pivotal. She must transcend the media by engaging them humorously. And she did that in spades.

This segment and the book tour and the Facebook page and the Op-Eds have succeeded to do one thing: Bring Sarah Palin back to neutral ground. That’s it.

At this point, Sarah Palin is neither a positive or negative in the minds of those who care the least and matter the most: the middle-of-the-road American centrist independent who swings elections and decides policy fates.

Neutral is a good place to be. President Obama would like to be neutral with these people. Unfortunately for him, he’s not neutral. In fact, independents are running away from President Obama.

So, Sarah is doing well. Pushing her into the solidly positive direction will take deft political action from here on out. Her success will depend on her endorsements within the Republican party and her policy positions generally.

As for endorsements, her word can be a deal-maker and/or breaker in squeaker races. In tough Republican fights, Sarah Palin risks getting caught in the cross-fire of two heavy weights (as is happening in Texas).

Other places, Sarah Palin could burnish her image as an outsider and endorse the conservative, underdog candidate. Here, she risks the candidate losing and by default, losing her own mojo as a driver of opinion. On the upside, she could be perceived as a different sort of politician by supporting, across the board, any politician who is an outside-the-beltway, kick-the-bums-out candidate. Of course, this won’t endear Palin to the beltway establishment. And, if she does end up in national office, she’ll want to work with these people. Maybe.

Washington, D.C. is a cess-pool populated by venomous snakes. Even within the Republican party, insiders want Palin to shut up. When she called out some of the consultants on the McCain campaign, she made enemies. She is feared and loathed within her own party. And yet, Palin already wields enough power that these people must give good face. For now.

The difficult road is ahead for Sarah Palin. It will take all the political skill she can muster to navigate these waters. She has enemies within and without. Better to not think about it and move forward, and continue to make brave decisions.

Someone asked me,”What does she have to lose?” Well, for someone who really cares about the direction the country is going, she loses her ability to help the country to reverse course. I actually think she does care about the country and fumbling the good will she has built and the support of those behind her, would be a loss for all involved.

Posted in Sarah Palin | 4 Comments »

I Think This Is What Going To Hell In A Handbasket Looks Like–UPDATED

Dr. Clouthier,

I’ve got my own conservative-leaning site but I keep yours close at hand everyday. Thank you, first off, for being so vigilant.

That being said, I’m sorry to have to ask so bluntly, but is this Kevin Jennings thing real? I think I’m in shock. I keep telling myself that it’s real, after all, I am seeing collation of the facts in more than one place. But convincing myself something like this is actually happening, even in today’s amoral society, is just seemingly beyond the scope of what my mind will allow for.

I am having a hell of a time believing this. Because, if it’s true, I’m uncertain as to whether to devolve into such anger that I’m sputtering sentence fragments or just quit my job and find a way to chase this Administration right out of the White House somehow.

Signed,
This Can’t Be Happening

[The writer included name and email address.]

Yes, the Kevin Jennings story is true and legit. But if you’ll look around, that’s not the least of the damage being wrought by leftists at the moment.

This is the economic environment the Democrats are creating. As an aside, you simply must read Maxed Out Mama, she has spot on economic analysis, always. Here’s what she says today:

We are heading straight toward a brick wall; the entire government sector is supported by the private sector. All the promises and the fine rhetoric ignore the fact that the country simply cannot support its current government structure.

Shrinkwrapped, who she quotes, quotes T.S. Elliot:

NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The Hollow Men – TS Eliot

And then he says this:

Bureaucracy is the real recession-proof industry. The numbers are mind-boggling. In 18 months, the number of federal employees making over $100K have increased 46%. The number making over $150K has more than doubled.

It’s not as if they’ve been asked to do more with less, either. In the first six months of the year, the federal government was adding 10,000 jobs per month, and over the recession had grown the ranks of bureaucrats by 9.8%. The private sector, during that same period, shed 7.3 million jobs to contract 6.3%.

So your tax dollars go to expand an already bloated government. No wonder Michigan’s Jennifer Granholm was asked to be the economic adviser. Her failed Michigan policies are being put forth federally. It’s a disaster. And no, it’s not an exaggeration.

The Federal spending is unsustainable and yet, the Senate Democrats wait, with bated breath, for the CBO estimates of the costs of the new health care compromise.

Are. They. Insane?

Yes. Putting together a huge new entitlement in the midst of a horrendous downturn is insane. All the numbers indicate that things will be getting worse, not better for a while, and yet Larry Summers gets on weekend talk shows and announces that we’re out of recession. On what planet?

It is indeed time to kill the bill.

All of these Democrat ideas will continue America’s downward spiral. So yes, they’re being led by guys like Jennings who think your children need to know the ins and outs of, ahem, blow job etiquette.

Yes, this is the administration giving license to Iran and North Korea–both governments emboldened by American weakness. Iran is working on the “nuclear trigger“. Swell.

There is not one way the Democrats are helping America or Americans, right now. The Obama presidency is a mess. The Congressional Democrats want to hand him a win with health care, but that would be a loss for America.

Hell meet handbasket. I think we’re there.

UPDATED:

The Anchoress says asks, “Who do you trust?”

Posted in America | 3 Comments »

Kevin Jennings Grooms Your Kids For Predators

Pedophiles call it being “friendly”. Psychologists call it “grooming”. Kevin Jennings call it “educating.”

The safety school czar is all about taking your child’s innocence with the sanction of the public schools and all the force of the authority of a “trusted adult”–a teacher doing the dirty deed. This story is so disgusting, I’ve been stymied. How to write about this wretch-inducing story? There is no way to oversell the harm. Here’s some of what I wrote for Pajamas:

So the freaks who want to have easy access to children try to institutionally desensitize them to abuse. That’s what child predators do. They “groom” children so that when they cross the boundary into sexual abuse, it isn’t really abuse; it’s another “choice.” And if the child feels badly, well, it’s because the child has been enculturated by a puritanical society. The solution is to sexualize children from the moment they can walk and talk. Probably earlier.

A pox on these freaks houses. Their efforts rob children of childhood and destroy the innocence in sexual discovery. It is an abomination. There is not a teenager alive who hasn’t figured out what parts go where. Why is sexual education even necessary? But it’s not about sexual education. It’s about justifying their own base behavior and the warped childhood experiences that brought them to their current state. To remove their own shame, they wish to shame everyone. They wish to rip natural coming-of-age experiences to threads and make it a profane thing.

You can go to the story and get background and go to the links therein for more information and then come back. I’m going to elaborate a little more on the disease that leftists like to spread and call it health.

There is no defense for encouraging a 15 year old kid who is gay bar-hopping. That kid is prey. The 40 and 50 year old men trolling those places look for an easy, young mark. And Kevin Jennings didn’t discourage the child from such unsafe behavior nor did he encourage the boy into therapy to get help for his lack of self-worth. Kevin Jennings didn’t tell him that mixing alcohol with alcohol is a nice prescription for lowering inhibitions and ending up in situations where one catches a disease, or worse.

And then there are the children who read these materials–kids who have never even contemplated the sort of fetishistic acts described. And then there’s the children who are told stories of incest and abuse and it’s painted in a positive light.

What is Jennings thinking? What are his minions thinking?

If they have children, they know what a struggle it is to give a child childhood. With the internet and all the rest of what passes for entertainment, including commercials, it’s nearly impossible to have a childlike view of anything.

And there’s this: I would bet these same people would condemn the Catholic Church for hiding sexual abuse. The educational materials trumpeted by Jennings are institutional mandated abuse. Can anyone imagine the church printing and sanctioning this sort of material? And yet, in the secular humanist’s church, the school, is the holy institution and they have pushed forth and promoted behavior that would offend many married adults.

There is no excuse. Parents and all citizens need to fight back against these people and their destructive ideas.

Posted in Corrupted Culture, Political Animals | 4 Comments »

Sarah Palin Hits ‘Em Where It Hurts–Updated: Jon Stewart Feels Frum’s Pain

Could there be anything worse for President Barack Obama than his nemesis agreeing with him? I don’t think so. From CNN:

Sarah Palin had some rare praise Thursday for President Obama after the president delivered his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. But the former Republican vice presidential nominee added that she would like to see the president act more like his predecessor, George W. Bush.

“I liked what he said,” Palin told USAToday in an interview after the speech.

Palin said the president’s remarks had a familiar ring. “I thumbed through my book quickly this morning to say ‘Wow! That really sounded familiar.’ because I talked in book too about the fallen nature of man and why war is necessary at times.”

But Palin suggested Obama could learn a few things from former President Bush.

“We have to stop those terrorists over there,” she told the paper. “We’ve learned our lesson from 9/11. George Bush did a great job of reminding Americans every single day that he was in office what that lesson is. And, by the way, I’d like to see President Obama follow more closely in the footsteps of George Bush and [Bush's] passion keeping the homeland safe, his passion for respecting – honoring our troops.”

Well, then. If Sarah approves….David Frum must disapprove:

When Barack Obama got word of the prize in October, he said he would accept “as an affirmation of American leadership.” But in Oslo he did not speak as leader of all America, but as leader of a party – and as a party leader who cannot refrain from snide insituations against the motives – not only of his opposite-party predecessors – but of all who worked with them, including the leaders of many allied governments.

So, on the substance, President Obama was refreshingly “realistic”. On style, he was still a “graceless”, long-winded bore.

Well, you can’t have it all.

P.S. Can anyone disagree with the statement? Sarah Palin is the opposing voice to President Barack Obama. Or this? She is gutsy.

UPDATED:

Via Newsbusters

Posted in Political Animals, Sarah Palin | 1 Comment »