Politics

The chattering lefties are invoking Ted Kennedy’s legacy as a justification for Obamacare. So, respect for the family is out the window. In listening to clips from the wall-to-wall broadcast hagiography, I wonder, did Ted ever address the Senate with his “inside voice”? All I’ve heard is the fat man bellowing like a walrus. As if vocal volume was a substitute for sound arguments.

Cobb’s right. The powerful iconography of the Obama campaign has been turned.

Two comments from Neoneocon’s graceful post on the death of Ted Kennedy:

Oblio Says:
Did Edward Kennedy mean anything in himself, or was he mainly a vessel for projections, dreams, sorrow, and regrets?

Much like Michael Jackson, this event is meaningful because it confronts people with the fact that they did not “change the world” and their youth and optimism will never be regained.

City Council candidate Mark Fox throws his voice into the lefty echo chamber known as the Minneapolis Issues Forum:

I’ll start where Becker and I agree. There ain’t no free lunch. Lower taxes mean reduced services. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

But this leaves a more fundamental question unexplored. Which services are essential? What can the public do for itself without the nannying hand of government applying gentle and expensive “corrections”?

The Failed Obama Administration™ has raised its own forecast deficit from seven trillion to nine trillion dollars.

Keep in mind, deficit is the annual shortfall. Debt is the total of accumulated deficits. GDP, the total value of everything the US makes in a year, is fourteen trillion. The accumulated total amount owed, as of passage of the spendulous bill, was “only” twelve trillion.

Another righty waits for God to give a political sign:

Talk-show host Sean Hannity, a vocal opponent of Barack Obama's policies, said today he would not rule out a bid for the presidency in 2012.

Egged on by radio colleague Bill Cunningham, Hannity said he would consider entering the front lines of the political fray if God directs him.

"I've never made a decision in my life without – whatever destiny God has you've got to fulfill it," he said. "I'm not sure that's my destiny."

Dr. Sanity considers the term “Death Panel”:

In fact, as a physician, I think that the descriptive "Death Panels" terminology effectively summarizes what is an entirely logical progression of Obama's health policies. This progression is derived directly from Obama's own words and those of his health-reform minions/czars.

Read her whole post to see the logical progression laid out.

[Paraphrasing] a defiant commenter on Vox Day’s post about invidious discrimination:

I’m already 71. I’ll die before they can pull the plug on me!

Nice.

“Death Panel” was rhetorical genius. Theorists and legislators use complex and nuanced language that usually flies over the heads of the public. “No,” they say, “there will not be death panels, just procedural review boards and end-of-life counseling.” In the ivory tower there is a difference. But in practical effect and in common terms, it’s the same thing.

Public opinion is not a courtroom. So we see politicians on all sides debating the translation of nuance into common terms. “You can keep your doctor.” Only if he isn’t driven out of his practice by the nuance and detail of the actual legislation.

Those with a taste for venom should keep an eye on the lefty blogosphere. There will be spittled spewed over this:

Finally, WND asked [Michelle] Bachmann if she could see a day when the candidate who began her political career in jeans and a holey sweatshirt would one day run for the presidency.

"If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," she answered. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.

I’ve seen plenty of righty speculation that part of the reason Sarah Palin drives lefties crazy is her staunch display of the value of human life. She didn’t abort Trig. Instead, she is proud of him and full of love.

She has been ridiculed as an intellectual lightweight. Yet, she is the one who put the label “Death Panel” on Federal health legislation:

This picture, via Maggie’s Farm, is trump on the Failed Obama Administration’s™ prevaricating about the government deciding who is fit to live:

Yes, it is “over the top”. But it makes the point plain, while staying true to the reasoning behind it.

I fully expected some kind of Federal health legislation to pass, supported by rhetoric about honoring Ted Kennedy and his cancer. Now it seems the people might stop such nonsense from becoming law.

Should some Kennedy rhetoric be deployed in some effort to resuscitate the legislation, keep this in mind:

So the elder patriarch of the Kennedy Clan shipped his daughter off to a convent, and when she started sneaking out at night and embarrassing the family, he somehow authorized physicians to saw into her brain until she lost the ability to speak.

I think the most horrible thing I’ve read in the last few months is

A half-assed prediction:

We’ll be seeing a wave of reports about the dangers of petroleum-based fertilizer.

With global warming running afoul of the evidence, and since peak oil paranoia never caught the mainstream, the do-gooders who seek control need a fresh angle.

Even if we switch to a “new economy” of wind and rubber-band power for harvest and transport, the evil oil interests can starve us to death as long as we depend on industrial farming and fertilizer. We must mandate an organic/sustainable agriculture policy IMMEDIATELY.

Truth is revealed by both what is said and what is not said. Neo-neocon offers a non-conspiratorial reason for following Barry’s birth certificate controversy:

This furtiveness on Obama’s part ties into his secrecy about other aspects of his life. I’m referring most particularly to his school records, from Occidental and Columbia and Harvard Law. These, we know he could release. This failure of his leads inexorably to the perception that the man is hiding something, although we don’t know exactly what or exactly why.

Although the term is in common use, my experience as a local crime-fighter has taught me there is no such thing as a criminal justice system. The term “system” implies a coherent integration of activities which does not exist. Lawmakers, police, prosecutors, courts, prisons, and probation departments have overlapping interests, but are independent bodies. This is most commonly witnessed as a revolving jailhouse door, where an offender is arrested, charged, released, and then arrested for the same offense, often within days. If this were a system, it would be a failed system.

Frank Stephenson sees a similar problem with health care:

We’re heading into local election season in Minneapolis. The deadline to file as a candidate for City Council representing the 55418 has just passed. Kevin Reich, the presumptive winner (by virtue of his DFL endorsement) is facing more challengers than I had expected. Here’s the field, with links to the two campaign websites I could find:

A US soldier challenging the legitimacy of orders issued under President Obama has had his deployment to Afghanistan rescinded two days before his case was to be heard in Federal Court:

[Major Stefan] Cook said without a legitimate president as commander-in-chief, members of the U.S. military in overseas actions could be determined to be "war criminals and subject to prosecution." He said the vast array of information about Obama that is not available to the public confirms to him "something is amiss."

The Failed Obama Administration is proposing to limit consumer finance contracts. A new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would amplify existing government assaults on the people’s right to make contracts:

Traditionally, consumer protection in the United States has focused on disclosure. It has always been assumed that with adequate disclosure all consumers -- of whatever level of sophistication -- could make rational decisions about the products and services they are offered. No more. If the administration's plan is adopted, many consumers will be told that they cannot have particular products or services because they are not sophisticated, educated or perhaps intelligent enough to understand what they have been offered.

Don Boudreaux extends the reasoning:

The current President must not listen to himself. Or he’s a paragon of “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrisy. In a speech to the descendants of those his ancestors enslaved, Barry chided African leaders:

“No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20% off the top. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.