It is a rare and unpleasant day when I feel it is necessary to call for the destruction of a Republican politician’s career for the sake of the decency of The Conservative Movement. It is even more unpleasant when that individual represents a district in my own home state (when he isn’t representing only himself). Such is the sordid case of Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL) who’s ethical standards sadly took a dirt nap long before he chose to hang up his career.

It seems Representative Bachus has discovered the power of information. In particular, he has been accused of leveraging his position in Congress to learn things that other participants in the stock market would have no way to possibly learn. This is called Insider Trading, it is highly illegal and carries significant penalty. The Washington Post (which never seems to fail to rapidly identify the partisan affiliation of a !REPUBLICAN! under an ethics investigation) is dutifully on the case.

Read More →

What Is It with Massachusettes Governors and Armored Vehicles?

There are actually some reasons to vote for Mitt Romney in this year’s GOP Primaries. I don’t personally find them compelling, and have endorsed one of Gov. Romney’s opponents. I admire the man’s ability to manage large projects and he does know how an executive office works. Voting for Mitt Romney may not be my personal predilection, but it isn’t quite as pointless as wearing a rally cap or tossing maidens down a well for good luck.

People have also offered sales pitches on Romney’s behalf that are about as believable as SpongeBob Squarepants discovering the Higgs Boson. One of the sadder aspects of Mitt Romney’s mild ride this year has been watching people I have deemed intellectually powerful perform about as well at ratiocination as my little boy’s favorite cartoon character would at advancing particle physics. When Jonah Goldberg of National Review Magazine wrote The Case For Romney about a week ago, I remembered what outstanding work he had done in the past, and therefore delayed this post until it could age a bit and marinate. I felt I owed him a better expression of my angst than “WTF?”

Read More →

It is “unacceptable that HHS fails to maintain accurate financial records and fails to adhere to federal law designed to protect taxpayer dollars from mismanagement and waste,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., wrote in a Monday letter to the department’s secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.

(HT:Federal Times)

The USG may not appear to have a very tight wrap on how and where it’s dollars (expropriated or borrowed) get dispersed. This is particularly true when the US Senate has gone over 1,000 days without the benefit of an actual budget resolution instead of a legislative gimmick that relieves them of that responsibility.

However, in the street-level reality inhabited by people who actually handle government funds, tight and exacting regulations do exist. One very important one is The Anti-Deficiancy Act which is described below.

Read More →

The people writing these essays described in the YouTube above are the future of our nation. Someone who believes that “As human beings, we are not really responsible for our own acts,…” may be the person performing open heart surgery on someone you care about in a not-so-pleasant future. Regrettably, the quote continued. “and so we need government to control those who don’t care about others.” (HT: Karl Denninger)

Read More →

WARNING: The YouTube Video below is not safe either for work or Mitt Romney.

There’s a part of me that hopes that the Rap-Artist known as Chapter engaged in evil satire when she wrote and performed the song portrayed in the video above. I also hope that GOP Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney was engaging in satire when he made the following comment.

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans,” Romney said. “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”

Read More →

Pro-Life's Last Stand In 2012

If you watch politics long enough, you’ll see a moment where the tragedy of a losing campaign gets so bad that you actually stop and laugh. It was the “Taliban Dan” ad back in 2010 that convinced me that Alan Grayson was off to his next stop on his professional career. Examples of this have abounded in the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary. Who can forget the Michelle Bachman “Retardasil Interview?” By throwing in with Dr. Wakefield and the vaccination nut-jobs, she ended her campaign before the first Caucus convened. With Governor Perry, it was the “Vulture Capitalism” comment that finally branded him as ready for the Presidency as Ronald Reagan – in 1968.

So suffice it to say, there seems to be a conspiracy afoot to force me into supporting Mitt Romney athwart my instinct, values and will. The latest member of The Borg, attempting to assimilate me into the unpalatable, was none other than Newton Leroy Gingrich. Once you’ve ordered up a few thousand robocalls that accuse your opponent of denying holocaust survivors a proper kosher menu, Stephen Colbert throws up his hands. You are now impossible to effectively parody. Like Herman Cain just now realizing that The People’s Liberation Army liked developing nuclear weapons, “Nuke” Gingrich has successfully self-immolated. He’s cute, funny, but should now do Conservatism one final favor and please just go away.

Read More →

“Conscience is the most sacred of all property.”

James Madison

Yet another aspect of the American Affordable Care Act has caused the Obama Administration to come-a-cropper with the United States Constitution. The act has already inspired a dense thicket of law suits over its individual mandate provision that forces people to buy insurance or pay a penalty tax for not so doing. Recently, Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sibelius, has added more fuel to the legal bonfire that has erupted over ObamaCare.

The law entails that all health plans provide “preventive services” free of charge. This previously included the sorts of things you would want to have to prevent disease. This would include child vaccinations, physical check-ups and other practical medical services that wise people would want from time to time. Now Kathleen Sibelius has decided to add contraception to include RU-486. Secretary Sibelius issued the following news release.

Read More →

We as citizens have a duty to enforce standards on all levels of our political system. A fundamental truism of life states that we get what we tolerate. This is especially true of our local and muncipal governments who often operate in the shadows due to voter apathy. A recent, small-town courtroom drama gives us insight on why our nation’s underperforming school systems are a terrible plague on America.

Prosecutor: Where did you go to high school?
Cabrera: In 1986.
Where at?
In, um…in 1983.
Excuse me—I asked you when—where did you go to high school?
[Pause] Yes.
What school?
After, uh, high school, um, I went to college.
And where did you go—
[Judge Nelson interrupts]
Nelson: Just a moment. Mrs. Cabrera, you can step down. You can go back there.

-Alejandrina Cabrera (HT: Takimag.com)

Read More →

New Warning Signs Were Installed In DC The First Time Joe Biden Was Elected

There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults… Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice..

(HT: Yahoo.com)

I used to pity Vice President Joe Biden. I wondered how a man with decades in the Senate and a degree from THE Gawd-Almiddy Hahvad University could sometimes appear to be so insensitive. Now I understand. Fightin’ Scranton Joe must be a stealth Conservative.

Read More →

The Obama Economy: Built. To. Last.

“The 65% of our population who are imbeciles really love it, so it must be best!”

– Brett Stevens (in full-metal sarcasm mode) (HT:Amerika.org)

I’ll let Sir Charles Darwin explain why the entire premise of Barack Obama’s recent smug-fest campaign ad known as a State of The Union Address was an utter joke. Barack Obama thinks a welfare state with more tentacles than a sea monster from a Homeric Epic can give us an economy that is built to last. Darwin would explain reality as follows.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

(HT:Thinkexist.com)

Read More →

Eat The Rich Like Prometheus' Liver!!!! (sarc/

Mitt Romney offered a partial snapshot of his vast personal fortune late Monday, disclosing income of $21.7 million in 2010 and $20.9 million last year — virtually all of it profits, dividends or interest from investments.

(HT: Washington Post)

It’s not just official – it’s officially official. Mitt Romney isn’t just bad. Mitt Romney is E-VIL! You see, according to Pravda on The Potomac, Mitt Romney doesn’t get income the same way normal Americans do. His is entirely derived from dividends and such while poor, humble schlubs such as little, old moi rely on those bi-weekly paychecks.

Read More →

What The GOP Voters Would Like To Do With Their Party Elite Some Days.

“The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue and the public will turn en masse against Barack Obama….Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea party hobbits could return to Middle-earth…This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP nominees. The reality is the debt limit will be raised one way or another.”

Sen. John McCain (HT:CNN)

It doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to understand what happened Saturday in South Carolina. The GOP Establishment received a medicinal kiwi enema. Newt Gingrich served as a weapon of meme destruction. He just blew up the “Mitt Romney is Inevitable” meme that was fed to the voters of South Carolina like a direct order instead of a talking point. Of course, the GOP Establishment wouldn’t be the GOP Establishment if they weren’t too arrogant to understand what just took place.

Read More →

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

– Rudyard Kipling The Jeffersonian.com

There are certain things you should never be willing to do just to get ahead. In the end, the short-term gains never justify the cost of having sold out your ethics and principles. Yes, this diary is about another reason not to support Mitt Romney in the GOP Primaries this year. No, it has nothing to do with his business career or his tenure at Bain Capital. I think it addresses an issue that ultimately matters a whole lot more.

As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney kept a close relationship with Planned Parenthood. In the course of keeping this relationship, he signed away any possible Pro-Life convictions he would later attempt to lay claim to. Like Faust signing his soul over to Mephistopheles, Romney signed a document pledging strong support for almost all agenda points that Planned Parenthood wanted him to pursue as Governor of Massachusetts. Buzzfeed.com has a copy of the questionnaire Governor Romney prepared for Planned Parenthood.

Read More →

You know who was money at the last GOP debate; the Great Green Newt. You know why? ‘Cuz he just jumped all over Juan Williams like a cheap, polyester Disco outfit. If you haven’t watched the YouTube of this, feast your very eyes!

Read More →

Wall Street Vampire? Or Just Another False Caricature?

Mitt Romney has been depicted as a blood-sucking, Wall Street Vampire. If only that were the simple truth. Having an iniquitous personality would be better than the public persona he exudes right now. It would add a certain cache to his otherwise soporific blandwagon of a campaign.

Newt Gingrich represents the anti-Romney persecution with a 28 minute political ad entitled “When Mitt Romney Came to Town.” The ad could be a Michael Moore “documentary” about E-VIL, Greeeee-dy, Rethuglicans snorting fine, Columbian Cocaine off the succulent rear-end of a hooker through rolled up $100 bills. Cicero was more fair and balanced in his indictments during The Cataline Conspiracy.

Read More →

Did Bain Capital Ever Do This To Factory Workers?

I can think of one excellent side-effect of the argument over Mitt Romney‘s work at Bain Capital. It reminds me of the fun and foolish days when I could still set foot on a rugby pitch and expect to walk off in one piece. A broken, old prop’s reminiscence begins below.

It was a wet, cold, drizzly Saturday. However, the day was awesome. It was Rugby Day, I was young and better yet, I was stupid enough to suit up and hit the pitch. I was playing tight-head prop and over in the bad guys’ scrum was a loose forward who would make himself a total blight on my joy of competition.

Read More →

Over at National Review, Jay Nordlinger is fuming and indignant. By William F. Buckley standards, his article Conservatives vs. Capitalism nearly requires a set of html rant tags. And on Jay’s behalf, I don’t necessarily believe anger is automatically bad.

Nordlinger considers himself to be a Conservative. He believes strongly in free enterprise. He sees his favored candidate, Mitt Romney, being lambasted for aggressively participating in a harsh form of free enterprise. This lambasting is by other Republicans, who ostensibly all claim to represent Conservatism. It pees in his Cheerios; as he expounds below.

Read More →

The "Chicken Hawk" Argument Is Elitist Pig Behavior

I’ll bet you’ve never personally performed open heart surgery. You haven’t? Really? In that case, I don’t want your stinkin’ opinion on how the government should best distort the health insurance markets with artificial incentives. You probably also haven’t dropped acid in the last ten years. Given that painful deficiency on your CV, I don’t want to hear any of your sanctimonious blithering about The War on Drugs.

Read More →

The 2012 GOP Nominee (If Obama Gets Away With It)

He’s out there. Public Enemy #1. Emmanuel Goldstein to Barack Obama’s INGSOC. And what’s worse is that he’s running for President!

Read More →

Like taking his two-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real.

- The always-classy Alan Colmes explains why he thinks Rick Santorum is weird.

We are usually taught to accept the apologies of others when they transgress. This facilitates a necessary peaceful coexistence amongst people who would never be able to abide one another. Society functions because others forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And yet, there are occasions when accepting an apology is worse for the overall commonweal and general peace than turning one down. We should deliberately and thoughtfully expel some transgressors from the circle of socially acceptable people.

Read More →