This is an open thread so you can talk about anything. And if you can’t think of anything, well … I’ll give you a topic: Obama was denied the Olympics, then he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Each is hilarious and terrible in different ways. Discuss.
Bring the funny, but keep it clean (cough speciallist cough). If you choose to post an image or photo, please properly attribute the source. I created the thread header.
Here’s the question for the open thread:
If Barack Obama cannot convince the IOC to give Chicago the Olympics, how is he ever going to be able to convince Iran to give up its nukes?
In honor of Fire Joe Morgan getting the band back together for a day, we bring you a gallimaufry Open Thread.
Moe Lane was interviewed at Blogometer. Teaser: “Why, Moe? Why?”
Google is not letting go of the Google Voice-to-iPhone Net Neutrality issue, having re-released an unredacted version of its letter to the FCC. It’s going to be delicious when T-Mobile USA bans Skype on its phones, and asks Google to uphold that ban.
It’s Follow Friday on Twitter! Many RedStater editors are on there, including @presjpolk (me), @moelane, @jeffemanuel, @ewerickson, @leonwolf, @baseballcrank, @brainfaughnan, @sorendayton, @haystack, @robertbluey, @kevinholtsberry, @krempasky, @cayankee, @paulfuller, @billstl, @jamesrichardson, @markimpomeni, @cianfrocca, @vladimirrs, @tobytoons, @calebhowe, probably more I’m missing in this quick survey, and of course @redstate itself. Gotta catch ‘em all!
Enjoy a peach of an Open Thread.
If Barack Obama can hire a 9/11 Truther as his green jobs czar, maybe we all should give the birthers a bit more latitude.
Consider this an open thread.
If President Obama drops another point in the Gallup poll tomorrow, then the only Presidents to have fallen faster and worse than he will have been a one-termer and a guy who got impeached. Not only that, but no President ever had a worse Dow Jones Industrial Average drop on Inauguration day than he had, and that was before Death Panels, Health Rationing, flag@whitehouse.gov, rendition, Government Motors, Card Check, Cap and Tax, and the numerous foreign policy gaffes this embattled administration has inflicted upon itself. Add it all up and you get the undeniable fact that Barack Obama is on track to be a Miserable Failure™.
Do you like getting your diaries promoted to the Front Page? If so, consider not writing your post in Microsoft Word. Posts in that have to be cleaned up before being promoted, and given that most of us don’t get paid to do this stuff, diaries that need less time and energy to promote will get the promotion more often.
Open Thread
Thanks to Neil, Steve, and Henry our site is now smoking fast and can handle significantly more traffic.
The other day I got an email from “DaveinBoca” who really went on a rather insulting tangent about site operations. I understand his frustration, but geez — while we hate 500 errors, let’s get serious — our traffic is fantastic these days. Growing pains are a good thing.
DaveinBoca said he’d never, ever, never come back before throwing in a few personal shots at me. Oh well.
For the rest of you, thanks for your continued support. And we really could not have done all this except for Neil and the gang at Eagle. We very much appreciate it.
Consider this an open thread.
UPDATED: I forgot to add Prashant who, I’m told, like Henry is now sleep deprived because of his dedication to helping us.
Here’s your thought for the day:
If the Democrats want us to treat seriously that Republicans wish to starve old people and children, then they must treat seriously that many do have legitimate reasons for believing the Democrats want Grandma to kill herself to help meet the federal bottom line.
Frankly, there is more legitimacy in the idea that Democrats do want old people to move toward assisted suicide because, for example, many of their noted “thinkers” have said so than the idea that Republicans want to starve people.
With all the talk lately that we should be ready to take pictures of Democrat wrongdoings, I’m wondering if I should get a camera myself. My Blackberry can take pictures, but the pictures it takes would be too blurry to be of much use in a political scrap.
So, I put it to the crowd: What are the options? Is it possible to get sharp pictures below the DSLR level? If so, what do I look for, since I do know enough to know that the resolution of the sensor is only one part of the story quality, so just comparing ‘megapixel’ ratings on displays isn’t nearly enough. What do I avoid? What are the tradeoffs? is video capturing worthwhile to have as a priority, or is the quality too bad to bother? Am I better off just buying an HD video camera that can take pictures?
If I were to buy a low-range DSLR, what do I look for? What do I avoid? Again, is video worth considering?
And of course, I may not be the only one of us thinking along these lines.
Open Thread.
From: shawns1982@gmail.com
Subject: Not Happy…
Date: August 12, 2009 6:11:15 AM EDT
To: contact@redstate.comTo Whom it May Concern at RedState.com,
I was recently referred to your website by a friend. They felt I may be interested in it due to the fact I am always looking for the truth. Unfortunately after coming to your website I realized that Red State must be a code for supporting the Communist Party. This website deals too much with socialist heath care and there is so much information about the Democratic Party. If you ask me RedState.com just wants me to constantly be reminded of the Communist they claim not to support. The name says it and a Red State is a Communist State.
For Free America,
Shawn Silveira
Jack Conway (D-KY) is Kentucky’s Attorney General and like Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors, his hair goes from blond to brunette depending on the election cycle.
He’s so tough he called himself a “tough son of a bitch” at a campaign rally. His opponent in the Democratic Primary demanded he apologize for using profanity when kids were present, but Conway is so tough he refused to apologize before caving the very next day and profusely apologizing for everything other than his ever changing hair color.
When a guy tells you he is a tough SOB, he probably is not. But he might, like Jack Conway, be “Jack Tough”. And for “Jack Tough” men like Jack Conway, we dedicate this to you (it uses “SOB” so maybe NSFW):
Consider this an open thread.
Here’s a hilarious segment from today’s Fred Thompson Show:
Jeri: Posters of Obama depicted as the Joker have been popping up all over L.A. Is Obama actually like the Joker?
Fred: No. The Joker had crazy people and bombers as henchmen. Obama has them … more as mentors.
Bwa ha ha ha ha! (h/t IMAO)
In the post below, Fox Sports echoes what so many of us have been saying since President Obama heaved a 5.6 oz sphere 56 feet on July 14 — and sets itself up even further as the anti-ESPN with its refusal to kiss the ring of the First Fan on a daily basis.
The idea that Obama is both athletic and some sports “superfan” — and that this combination is new and groundbreaking in a President — is a head-scratcher. Sure, he roots for the White Sox and Bears, and he filled out an NCAA tournament bracket. So he clears the “Manny Ortiz”/”Lambert Field”/”Please don’t muss my coiffure, football!” bar set by John Kerry in 2004. The fact is, every Joe Six-Pack in America clears that bar, and by more than a mile.
President Bush was a baseball team owner, a mountain biker, and a runner (a real one). Obama, on the other hand, has been spotted on a bicycle once or twice (wearing a polo and jeans) and on a basketball court a few times (the UNC defense was kind enough to allow him to make a layup once, perhaps out of respect for the office and pity for a man with his sweatpants pulled up to his nipples). Besides that, his closest tie to sports comes from his wife’s relatives (his brother-in-law is an NCAA basketball coach) and from television (he’s filmed two promos for Monday Night Football).
That does not an athlete or a transformational sports fan make — no matter how hard the President and his Sports Fan Czars at ESPN want it to.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
I have a long list of blogs that I read and, frankly, I haven’t read any of them in a very long time. I’ve gone from reading about 100 a day to about 5 a day. I spend most of my time these days reading news sites and doing the behind the scenes stuff that keep us going.
It’s time to get back in the habit.
This morning I have deleted the entire list of blogs that I keep in my blog folder. Consider this an open thread restricted to one topic — list those websites, blogs or otherwise, that you think I should be reading.
I will rebuild my blog folder based on the list.
Teh Twitter.
Once felt dumb to email about phone calls. Then came blogging email. Then tweeting blogs. And now, I’ve CALLED about tweets. Circle of dumb.
9:59 PM May 2nd from TweetDeck
… and now I’m blogging about calling about tweeting about blogging about emailing about calling … sigh.
Twitter had a lot to do with the successful pushback on the Playboy article and the Letterman “jokes”. It has helped drive a number of big stories the last two weeks. Like it or not folks, it’s here to stay. Well, for a while at least. It’s also a great way to keep up with what Redstate is doing and to annoy the snot out of @markosm. If you’re in the Redstate Army, it’s also a great way to track alerts. Resistance, in other words, is futile. You will be assimilated.
This is an OPEN THREAD. Feel free to use it to pimp your Twitter feed. See below the fold for my own recommendations.
ABC News is reporting Judge Sotomayor has fractured an ankle en route from the airport to the Senate for meetings. Our prayers go out to her for a speedy recovery and minimal inconvenience.
No word on if she tripped over her “Latina woman” comment.
Consider this an open thread.
Thanks much to La Shawn Barber for posting this.
Seriously, what can you add to this? Perfect.
OPEN THREAD
