For the Love of God, STAND UP!

President Obama is on the Asian leg of his “We’re Not Worthy” tour and I’ve got to say that for an arrogant SOB he sure does a lot of bowing. I copped the video below from Donald Douglas at American Power (who also has an impressive roundup of blogs posting on our President’s most current silliness).

During my adulthood there have been three presidents with a (D) after their name. Carter had a killer rabbit, Clinton had an intern under his desk (and a cigar). Obama has been in the Oval Office less than a year and folks, things ain’t looking good.

Gee, Do You Think That Power Point Presentation Might Have Been A Clue?

Paco kindly sent me a link to his post Hasan's Famous Slide Show. Paco's post has a must see link to Maj. Hasan's infamous Power Point presentation on Muslims in the military. I watched the presentation and I've come to the conclusion that Hasan never made attempt to hide where he stood regarding Islam or his duty as a Muslim. Everything was right out there in the open but the people who could have stopped the Ft. Hood massacre refused to see.

How many people throughout the last few years could have prevented the shootings at Ft. Hood had they not put political correctness above the lives of our soldiers? In light of the various statements being made by General Casey and others, why would we believe that Ft. Hood won't happen again? And again?

The men and women who risk their lives for this country have the right to know that their government has their back. Currently, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Universal Auto Insurance

For the umteenth time I just heard someone say, "The government makes you buy auto insurance, why not health insurance?" You would think that common sense would answer that question but apparently not. Let me give it a whirl.


First, the government does not require that every man, woman and child have car insurance. Driving is a privilege (unless you are an illegal alien in Florida and then it is a right. By the way, that was "snark") and those who wish to have the privilege of driving are required to purchase insurance to protect those other people who are exercising the privilege to drive. My great aunt never drove and she never had car insurance. No law requires that my grandchildren to have car insurance and nobody is threatening to send them to jail because they don't have it. But that is not the biggest flaw in the car insurance/health insurance false analogy.


Can you imagine what it would cost if auto insurers were forced to cover all drivers regardless of their driving records? How about if auto insurers couldn't cancel a policy for any reason? Now, before someone blasts me for "comparing" a previous diagnosis of cancer to a previous record of speeding tickets that is not my point. On the other hand, if the analogy is good for the goose it is good for the gander-deal with it. Insurance is based on risk. The higher the risk, the more difficult it is to obtain a policy and the more it costs if you do obtain a policy.


There are plenty of problems with our health care system but politicizing the system will only make those problems worse. The Dems have laid waste to their claim of the moral high ground by refusing to pass tort reform. Yeah, they're compassionate just so long as their compassion doesn't negatively impact a major contributor like, oh, I don't know, trial lawyers. And remember those "golden" employer provided insurance policies? Well, Congress is upping the level on them because otherwise the taxes would fall on, drumroll...union members. Compassion my ass.


This is a power grab that has nothing to do with compassion. If it were, they would target the reform at the problems, donors be damned. And while I am on a rant, Obama ain't going to pay for this from "his stash." The government is broke. The government doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. That "stash" belongs to those of us who get our happy asses out of bed everyday and go to work whether we want to or not. I am tired of people who talk about about "fairness" who don't give a rat's ass about being "fair" to the taxpayers who are going to be forced to pay for all this.


Well, I started at one place and ended up somewhere else. Not unlike ObamaCare.

Why I Hesitate To Tell People That I Am A Feminist

As a woman I can vouch that there plenty of women who would sooner have their pictures taken while wearing horizontal stripes than be defined as a feminist. Stacy McCain explains why:

Every so often, some feminist writer will come out with an essay bemoaning the fact that, despite all that The Sisterhood claims to have done for womankind, most women don't identify themselves as feminists.

Why is this? I would suggest it's because any woman who has set foot on a college campus during the past 20 years automatically identifies "feminist" as a term synonymous with "maladjusted, overprivileged, angry, ugly Women's Studies major."

Stacy is being kind. I would say the term feminist is synonymous with "dour, sour, humorless, bitch." No offense.


In 1976, when I started college, we were told that we could be and do anything that we put our minds to. Nothing was "off the table", the world was our oyster. Well, that was then.


Want to get a degree AND be a wife and mother? No way, chickie. If you have those kinds of aspirations, you are taking a college slot from a woman who would take their degree and do something "meaningful" with it. Blah, blah, blah.

A narrow, small-minded cabal of women have hijacked feminism and redefined it in their anti-vibrant image. We have gone from "be all you can be" to "you can be all we tell you is acceptable." Thanks but no thanks. I'm just fine.

The Carrie Prejean Sex Tape: A Teachable Moment

I have avoided the Carrie Prejean sex tape dust up for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it just makes me uncomfortable. No, not because I did something of a similar nature in my misbegotten youth. It wouldn’t have occurred to me in my teens because, well, I am old enough that being a “good girl” was still highly valued and getting a “reputation” would ruin a girl back then. Things like this creep me out because I have a young granddaughter who is being raised in a society that puts pressures on young girls that I couldn’t have even imagined growing up.

Donald Douglas asks if Carrie Prejean can still speak for Conservatives to which I would give a qualified “yes”.

According to a nationwide survey, 20 percent of teens admit to “sexting”-send nude pictures and videos of themselves via cell phone. From that, one can assume that either one out of five teens is being raised in a “bad family” or that despite their parents best efforts, one in five teens succumbed to peer pressure. I’ll go with the latter.

It wouldn’t surprise me if at least one out of five adults in my age group occasionally have an “I can’t believe I did that” moment when reflecting back on their teen years. But as society has changed (devolved?) the definition of what constitutes a youthful indiscretion has also changed and unlike “back in the day” the advent of cell phones, with their capacity for video and picture taking, now captures the indiscretion for posterity.

Back in March, Stacy McCain wrote Mamas Don’t Let Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Downloads. Well now that Carrie Prejean has become a download, who better to talk to drive home to our young people the message that “it can happen to you”? The message to young people should be, if you think it is embarrassing for your ex-boyfriend to show his friends the nude pics of you now, how embarrassing would it be if ten years from now he sends them to your boss?

Teenagers are notoriously shortsighted. Prejean is in a position to talk to youth about how one impulsive act can come back to bite you years later. Prejean can still speak for Conservatives but she should speak more honestly going forward. Good roll models aren’t people who are flawless but people who have overcome flaws and use their experience to help others avoid mistakes. Our children, and particularly our daughters, are sexualized at a very young age. Prejean can give them a point of view that they will not get from their peers.

MSNBC Pulls Out Its Silly Stick (Again)

Via Memeorandum:

I say let the sniping begin but let’s face it, the sniping never stopped. Sarah Palin has started her media blitz ahead of the release of her book “Going Rouge” and the MSM is responding with its typical snark. MSBNC, drawing on the juvenile humor of David Letterman, came out with “Top 10 Reasons America is Obsessed with Sarah Palin.” Found on the list is the cutesy “She sticks to her guns.” Get it, her guns. Yes, well. Of course, the list wouldn’t be complete without mention of her family (#1) and her looks (#s 9, 5 and 4). All the usual tripe.

Personally, I say snipe away. If anyone has shown that they can handle it, it is Sarah Palin. But I can’t help noticing that most of the jabs have nothing to do with Palin’s policy positions. Liberals don’t want to talk about policy because to talk about it is to legitimize those policies. Instead, they subject Palin to silliness in order to have her policies be perceived as silly without having to deal with those policies directly. This only happens to conservatives.

So, as much as the silliness annoys me, I remind myself that the MSM is incapable of dealing with issues in a serious manner. Well, that, and in the case of MSNBC, nobody watches them anyway.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Greetings From Orlando!

Well I made it! We're about thirty minutes away from the arrival of the Tea Party Express but the crowd is already fired up.

No sign of Stacy yet but in this crowd I'm not sure I'll be able to hunt him down.

The speakers have started so I'll be back later.

Here's a few pictures I've taken. More to come.




The one lone counter-protester. Too bad he didn't have any friends to bring along but I admire his determination.





Lone protester is now walking through the crowd looking for offensive posters to take pictures of.


He looks disappointed.











Looks like a wolf in a sheep's clothing.



Reminds me of a song from my mis-spent youth-"Smiling Faces".

This group of young people from The Young Conservatives of Central Florida.

It makes me happy to see young people getting involved. These are the people who will be most affected by the choices that our politicians are making.

More soon.

Yours truly with Lloyd Marcus. The crowd went absolutely nuts when he sang the Tea Party Anthem. Marcus is a great entertainer and a really nice guy.









And speaking of great guys...

I found Stacy!

Um, is it just me or do Stacy and I have UFOs flying over our heads?


That is Andrea Shea King with us. Very nice lady. Check her out at Radio Patriot.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures:

All and all it was a good day. Stacy told me that seven thousand people RSVP'd for the event and he estimated that there were over four thousand there. I am exhausted but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I will sleep well tonight knowing that there are so many people who care about what is going on in this country and are dedicated to putting us back on the right track.

The Big Day is Here!

I'm getting ready to take off for Orlando to meet the Tea Party Express. Stacy McCain has rolled in to Orlando so I am hoping to get the opportunity to meet him and thank him for the advice he gave me when I was trying to get this blog going.

On the GREAT NEWS front, my blog buddy Gator Doug just became Uncle Gator! Congratulations on the GatorNiece!

Well, I've got a three hour drive ahead of me-two to drive there and an hour to get lost (I always get lost) so I'd better get in gear.

I'll post as soon as I get back.

Lefty Wit

mor·al e·quiv·a·lence:

Moral equivalence is a term used in political debate, usually to criticize any denial that a moral hierarchy can be assessed of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides. It could be considered a form of the rhetorical fallacy of equivocation.

id·i·o·cy:

an offensive term meaning extreme lack of intelligence or foresight.

Digby, in a fit of idiocy, takes moral equivalence to all new heights by comparing the treatment of erectile dysfunction to abortion:

I have a moral objection to paying for any kind of erectile dysfunction medicine in the new health reform bill and I think men who want to use it should just pay for it out of pocket. After all, I won't ever need such a pill. And anyway, it's no biggie. Just because most of them can get it under their insurance today doesn't mean they shouldn't have it stripped from their coverage in the future because of my moral objections. (I don't think there's even been a Supreme Court ruling making wood a constitutional right. I might be wrong about that.)

Many of the men who are prescribed this medication are on Medicare, so I think it should be stripped out of that coverage as well. And unlike the payments for abortion, which actually lower overall medical costs (pregnancy obviously costs much, much more) banning tax dollars from covering any kind of Viagra would result in a substantial savings....

sat·ire:

use of wit to criticize behavior: the use of wit, especially irony, sarcasm, and ridicule, to criticize faults.

Digby's post is long on sarcasm and ridicule and totally lacking in wit and irony. On the other hand, if Digby's intent was to post juvenile tripe I'd say he nailed it.

Via Memeorandum

Charlie Has Way Too Much Time On His Hands

The unemployment rate for Florida is currently 11.2 percent. Florida has the third highest foreclosure rate in the nation. Floridians are hurting. Under the circumstances, you'd think that Gov. Charlie Crist would have his hands full but based on a post by Pat at And so it goes in Shreveport it appears that he has way too much time on his hands:

If that weren't enough, Crist is now acting as his own press secretary:

In terms of press coverage lately, Crist has been having a bad stretch -- largely of his own doing. (The stimulus support he insists he never gave, Obama man-hug tape notwithstanding; his insistence he didn't know Obama's recent Florida itinerary; the uproar over an anti-Rubio Web site that had the participation of an RPOF paid consultant; and public floggings by former press buddies Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews, etc.)

Crist also lately has been acting as his own press secretary -- calling the Times' Adam Smith to set up an interview on Political Connections, and arranging the Times' recent interview in Gainesville with himself and first lady Carole Crist. The governor also recently instructed reporters to call his cell phone directly -- rather than using a "go-between" in the press office.(The emphasis is mine)

I freely admit that I don't know the inner working of being a governor, and maybe all governors pass out their personal cell phone numbers out to reporters, but I doubt it. Given the dire straights that this state is in, maybe Charlie should less time campaigning and more time governing.

Veterans Day

How often does the average person think about their heart beating? Probably not often. Our hearts beat whether we think about it or not and typically we take for granted that it will continue to do so. For those of us in the United States, freedom isn't something we spend a lot of time thinking about it. We've always had it and we take for granted that we always will.

So, once a year we recognize our veterans and say "thank you" for our freedom. Tomorrow, the sentiment of today will be tucked away until next year. And so it goes.

Unlike so many in the world, we are blessed to be able to take our freedom for granted. We are able to go about our business unconcerned because of the men and women who serve or have served in our military and sacrifice their personal freedom every single day.

We owe it to our servicemen to do our part for freedom. Each of us has a duty to educate ourselves on the issues that threaten our way of life, to be engaged in our communities and to hold our elected representative accountable for their actions. We can honor our veterans every day by being active participants in the protection of our freedom.

Thank you to all of our troops and to their families. Happy Veterans Day.

Now Here's Some Change I Can Believe In!

DeMint Introduces “Term Limits for All” Constitutional Amendment Amendment would limit every House member to 3 terms, every Senator to 2 terms:

November 10, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) introduced an amendment to the United States Constitution that would apply term limits to all members of Congress, limiting U.S. Representatives to three terms and U.S. Senators to two terms in office. The amendment is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). As an amendment to the Constitution, it would require a two-thirds majority vote approval in the House and Senate and must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

"Americans know real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians," said Senator DeMint. "As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buyoff special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fundraising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork – in short, amassing their own power. I have come to realize that if we want to change the policies coming out of Congress, we must change the process itself. Over the last 20 years, Washington politicians have been reelected about 90% of the time because the system is heavily tilted in favor of incumbents. If we really want to put an end to business as usual, we’ve got to have new leaders coming to Washington instead of rearranging the deck chairs as the ship goes down.”

Senator Coburn added, “The best way to ensure we are truly a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, is to replace the career politicians in Washington with citizen legislators who care more about the next generation than their next election. The power of incumbency has created an almost insurmountable advantage for Washington politicians. Incumbency allows politicians to raise millions of dollars in campaign funds in exchange for earmarks. Incumbency gives Congress the power to raise money for itself – Congress just approved itself an increase of nearly $250 million from the U.S. Treasury that members will spend to promote themselves. Finally, with redistricting incumbents can choose their voters rather than voters choosing their representatives. Term limits is the best way to break this cycle.”

Our politicians are no longer responsive to the people they pledge to serve. They answer only to the special interests who fund their campaigns and send them back term after term.

“Some say only long-serving, seasoned elites have the skills to lead the people, but that’s exactly what we have today and how do you think it’s working out for us?” said Senator DeMint. “It wasn’t the ‘people’ who gave us a $12 trillion debt, an IRS tax code seven times longer than the Bible, over 1,700 departments of the federal government, trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, $100 trillion long-term shortfall in Social Security and Medicare, the Wall Street and auto bailouts, and the pending health care takeover.

“This nation can no longer afford these entrenched men and women who enjoy lives of luxury wholly insulated from the consequences of their major policy failures. ..."

We were never meant to have a ruling class but by allowing politicians to become entrenched that is what we have. Term limits will put the emphasis back on the states, back on the citizens, and will put an end to the "ruler for life" mentality that our politicians have developed.

Could Not Have Possibly Said It Better Myself

Bride of Rove:

What? Too harsh? At what point did the people in this country extract the section of their brain that allowed them to face the reality in front of them and call it like it is. Hasan is a bad, bad man. Worse. He’s an Al Quaeda wannabe who could not even get the secret handshake because he was too fucking stupid to consider the very real possiblility that Al Quaeda thought that an officer in the US Military contacting them for suggestions on Jihad COULD be a goddammed set up for a sting operation.

To which I can only add two things: AMEN! and read the whole thing.

h/t And so it goes in Shreveport

Animals Gone Wild

From Legal Insurrection:

Which reminds me of this story I read last week at BayNews9.com:

SC man gets 3 years in prison for sex with horse:

Rodell Vereen was also ordered never to go near the stable where the horse's owner caught him and held him for authorities at shotgun point over the summer. He apologized to the woman and to himself after admitting to buggery at the Horry County courthouse.

"I'm sorry about what I've done. I didn't mean to do it. It's my fault. I'm sorry for what I've done to myself," Vereen said during Wednesday's court hearing

Well, at least he didn't blame it on the horse, which means he may be a dirty bugger, but he's more decent than the Polanski supporters.

He Was For It Before He Was Against It

No, not Sen. John Kerry-wannabe senator Charlie Crist.

Charlie then:

I’m Charlie Crist and I’ve got three words for our president: Enough is enough. We can’t spend our way into prosperity or tax our way into growth. Let’s take some Florida common sense and bring it to Washington: Let’s cut federal spending and let you decide who to spend your own money. Less government, less spending, more freedom. Let’s get back to basics.

Charlie now:

It’s getting harder every day, and we know that it’s important that we pass a stimulus package. It’s important…

It is important that we do so to help education, to help our infrastructure… and to help health care for those who need it the most, the most vulnerable among us.

And let me finish by saying, Mr. President, we need to do it in a bipartisan way. This issue of helping our country is about helping our country. This is not about partisan politics. This is about rising above that, helping America, and reigniting our economy.

Flip flops on the beach = good
Flip flops on the campaign trail = very, very, bad

h/t babalu

Time For Another "Beer Summit"

I don't have all the facts but I certainly think she behaved stupidly when she put her face in front of his fist:

A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations, cops said yesterday.

Real classy, Professor.

General Casey Must Go

From The Daley Gator:

I DARE him to say THOSE WORDS to the surviving soldiers and family members of the men and women who died at the hands of Major Nidal (Islamo-terrorist) Hasan!

Gator was referring to General Casey, who said:

“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said.

Worse? Than the murder of thirteen service men and women and the wounding of twenty-nine others? How can the loss of diversity be worse than the loss of life? General Casey is unfit for command.

The Club for Growth Endorses Marco Rubio

Clifton at Another Black Conservative says let the RINO hunting begin! and with The Club for Growth's endorsement Marco Rubio is ready to to do just that.

From the endorsement:

"Marco Rubio is the real deal, one of the brightest young stars in American politics today, and a proven champion of economic liberty," said Club President Chris Chocola. "He is a dynamic spokesman for the principles of limited government and economic freedom, and he will make a fantastic Senator."

Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000-2008, and was elected to the Republican leadership as Majority Whip, Majority Leader, and finally, Speaker of the House. Rubio is an advocate of lower federal spending, tax relief and tax reform, union members' right to a secret ballot, and market-driven energy and environmental solutions.

Rubio's Republican primary opponent is Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who supported President Obama's $787 billion stimulus, proposed a state "cap-and-trade" energy program, and this summer broke his pledge not to sign any state tax increases.

It is believed that Crist will try to counter by claiming that while Rubio was Speaker that he tried to increase Florida's sales tax. Of course, Crist will conveniently forget to tell the rest of the story-Rubio had proposed the increased sales tax in exchange for the elimination of the property tax on primary residences. It is worth noting that we Floridians received our property tax bills last week and we are not happy. Our property values plummeted but our tax bills went up. We would not be in this position had Rubio's proposal gone through and given Crist's record, I am not sure that he should dwell on the subject of increased taxes.

Pat, writing at And So it Goes in Shreveport, points out that Rubio has also picked up the Family Research Council Action PAC endorsement and won another straw poll. This one was in Okaloosa, where he beat Crist 86 to 4.

There is little doubt that Rubio is the Conservative in this race. Between now and the August primary, Crist will try to convince the voters that he, too, is a Conservative. In order to do this, he will have to run against his own record-no easy task.

The Left and Logic (or lack thereof) Updated

I've often thought that there must be something, some chemical agent, in that Kool Aid the Left finds so enticing that goes straight to the drinker's logic gene and turns it to mush. Thanks to Rayne at Firedoglake, I may have proof:

Do you like that headline? Because that’s what I’m feeling right now after the betrayal of my support for Democrats, now that the Stupak Amendment passed 240 to 194 and with 64 Democrats voting Yea.

It’s a fundamental part of our belief system in the Democratic Party, that women have a right to privacy in their reproductive health care decisions. We’ve fought long and hard to protect this right.

And now we’ve seen decades of work to protect this fundamental human right dashed by our own Democratic representatives

Be still my heart, did the Stupak Amendment outlaw abortion? The above certainly indicates that women will now, under the cover of darkness, be forced to go to back alley abortionists to terminate their pregnancies. According to Rayne, the passage of the Stupak Amendment rocks the very foundation of our democracy.

No, despite Rayne's illogical frothing, abortion is still legal. Women are still free to kill their unborn children but the Stupak Amendment says that I don't have to pay for it.

Step away from the Kool Aid, Rayne. It's turning your logic to mush.

h/t Memeorandum

After posting this I returned to Memeorandum where I saw that Legal Insurrection had posted on this same subject. Prof. Jacobson's opinion of the effects of the Stupak Amendment are closer to Rayne's than they are to mine. He writes:

64 Democrats voted in favor of the Stupak Amendment, which greatly expands the ban on federal funding of abortion, and reaches deep to make it difficult for women to obtain private health insurance covering abortion. 219 Democrats voted in favor of a final bill incorporating the amendment.

This is a stunning development, one which anti-abortion activists could not have imagined just weeks ago. The Speaker of the House and Democratic majority, notwithstanding their lip service to women's reproductive rights, were willing to throw those rights aside to hand the Obama administration a temporary legislative victory.

As someone who is anti-abortion (I prefer "pro-life"), I don't view the passage of the Stupak Amendment as a victory. While I greatly appreciate that 64 Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against the use of federal funds for abortion, I don't hold any hope that this amendment will have any long term meaning.

Whether I like it or not, abortion is legal and will remain so. Federal funds or not, abortionists will continue to abort. The House gave the pro-life movement a victory only because they knew that the victory would be temporary and meaningless.

Just Curious

I've mentioned before that I have worked in banking, on the branch level, since shortly after graduating from college. My degree is in economics and my entire adult life I have dealt with economics on the most micro of micro levels. With that in mind, I have a question. If YOU were told that YOUR financial institution was operating with an eighty-five percent LOSS ratio, would you trust that institution with your money? No, of course you wouldn't. Common sense tells us that no institution can operate with that level of loss. Profitability is important to you and I because it is a good measure of whether or not an institution will be there for us if we need it. So, would you expect that YOUR medical coverage would remain unchanged as President Obama promised, if the company providing YOUR coverage is forced to operate at an eighty-five percent loss ratio?

H.R. 3962, PelosiCare, that was passed by the House last night, mandates that insurance companies operate at an eighty-five percent loss ratio. Doug Ross breaks it down: PelosiCare's price controls will bankrupt health insurers in one year. That's it, folks. Just as your financial institution can not survive while posting an eighty-five percent loss ratio, neither can your health insurance company. You know that and so does Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. This provision was inserted in to H.R. 3962 specifically to bankrupt our insurance companies and to force Americans in to the public option.

Read Doug Ross's piece. It shows "you can keep your health plan" as the lie it is.