The Constitution Club

While I was gone, one of the funniest movies of the year came out, and I think it is definitely one of the funniest political movies in quite a long time.

First, let’s be clear. The only real reason you need to see this movie is Malcolm Tucker. Fair warning, the following clip is not meant for delicate ears:

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I think it’s a bit like the Dr. Strangelove of our time, because much like that movie, its characters are caricatures of caricatures, real enough to only capture the essence of particular individuals. And yet it completely embodies a certain… zany quality that Washington so often seemed to have in the time between September 11th and the start of the Iraq war. Read the rest of this entry »

In yet another bout of quaking liberal fear aimed at scary, scary dissent, Thomas Friedman rediscovers the virtues of moderate rhetoric. The developing meme that right wingers are whipping each other into a frenzy that will ultimately lead to violence (of some sort) is belied only by the utter lack of said violence. For now.

Ah, but there are signs! There are always “signs”…

Friedman points to a a few: pre Yitzhak Rabin assasination 1990’s Israel (because we all know how much the US is like Israel, don’t we?) and a single creepy facebook poll.

Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.

What kind of madness is it that someone would create a poll on Facebook asking respondents, “Should Obama be killed?” The choices were: “No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service is now investigating. I hope they put the jerk in jail and throw away the key because this is exactly what was being done to Rabin.

Better minds than the Beast’s have already commented on the irony that those who now bemoan the lack of comity in public discourse seemed to have had no problem with it a few years ago. Civility is a situational virtue – it’s all funny until your ox gets gored.The same ethos that released a movie about Bush getting assassinated now freaks out over a lone nutty facebook poll.

But let’s follow his reasoning to its conclusion – is Obama in danger and from whom?

The political thriller fan in the Beast has seen this narrative dozens of times. The left has gone all in on Obama. He’s the first black president. He’s the first liberal president in a generation. Can he be allowed to fail? A Carteresque collapse would be a nightmare for them.

So assume it’s a year from now and Obama’s in full rout. The left has been screaming “Danger! Danger!” all along. And suddenly some right wing wacko patsy puts a round in his shoulder John Hinckley style. When Reagan took his bullet it did wonders for his polls. He (pardon the pun) shot right up. Now the right is in full defense mode while the left shrieks “See we told you so!”. And if something more severe happened, you now have JFK and MLK rolled into one – a hyper martyr.

If the Beast were Obama he might start looking over his shoulder, but It would be the left one, not the right.

Quote of the week #20 – ding dong the stick is dead « Watts Up With That?.

I hardly know where to begin in terms of commentary on this difference.

- Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit in Yamal: A “Divergence” Problem

The graph above shows what happens to the “Hockey Stick” after additional tree ring data, recently released (after a long and protracted fight over data access) is added to the analysis of Hadley’s archived tree ring data in Yamal, Russia.

All of the sudden, it isn’t the “hottest period in 2000 years” anymore.

Really.  You mean that  cherry picking of data may have been occurring?  I am *shocked*.  Combined with a convenient loss of data, one might think that the whole global warming theory may be on shaky ground.

Idiots say idiotic things. Especially the ones who do it for a living.

*Or Misled*

Remember when Democrats were the party of truth-telling?  When they stood as the watchdog ready to correct the Republican spin masters and blow the whistle on evil Dick Cheney types everywhere?  Well, now it appears the days of truth telling have been temporarily suspended.  Michael F. Cannon and Ramesh Ponnuru have detailed no fewer than 20 *misleading* statements in the President’s speech to Congress.  Here are three such *lies*:

#4  “One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy. . . . They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it.” He didn’t die because of it. The originator of this false claim, a writer for Slate named Timothy Noah, has admitted he got it wrong.

#12. Requiring insurers to cover preventive care “saves money.” Nope. According to a review in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not.”

#15. “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” Unless Obama refers to some draft legislation inside his head, this claim is false. The House bill allows the “government option” to pay for abortions directly from the U.S. Treasury. Both the House and Baucus bills would subsidize private insurance that cover abortions. (See Douglas Johnson’s comment on this article.)

I know now it was, it was not the right thing to do,” he said at the time. “But I was, there was no premeditation, you know, it was something that just happened.

Roman Polanski – Explaining how raping a 13 year old girl after plying her with alcohol and drugs was not intentional. Sure Roman. What is more outrageous is this B.S. here regarding Polanski’s detention in Switzerland…

“Seeing him alone, imprisoned while he was heading to an event that was due to offer him praise and recognition is awful. He was trapped,” French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said at a news conference Sunday. “In the same way there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America, that has just shown its face.”

Mitterrand said French President Nicholas Sarkozy is paying close attention to the case and that the French consulate may try to visit with Polanski today if allowed.

“I’m offering my support to Polanski as a French citizen and as the minister for culture. Justice has been denied to him many times in his life, and beauty is something that he has brought though his films,” he said, calling Polanski a “wonderful man” and “one of the greatest directors of all time.If the world of culture does not offer its support to Polanski, then that would mean there is no more culture in this country.”

Read the rest of this entry »

This was published Wednesday on NRO. It seems that the temperature data upon which global warming is based – the data that shows a steep rise of 0.6 degrees +/- 0.2 degrees over the past 100 years or so – has disappeared. Author Patrick J Michaels picks up the story:

Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared.

Or so it seems. Apparently, they were either lost or purged from some discarded computer. Only a very few people know what really happened, and they aren’t talking much. And what little they are saying makes no sense.

Read the rest of this entry »

E and Beast I get both of your posts and the reasons for them. I was just wondering if either of you had heard of the “page-break” concept?

G20 Summit baby! The voices of the peace loving Lib protestors are heard!

And you got to pity this poor CNN reporter who got nailed by tear gas. Heh.

If only those murderous violence-prone teabaggers would follow the libs’ peaceful example:

Those terrifying right wing thugs should learn how to protest peacefully.

The Nutroots have been all a-twitter over the death of a Census worker, supposedly found hanged in a tree with the word “fed” set on him. They see it as the beginning of right wing violence and are using the event to indict the right. The Beast doesn’t see how the murder of some guy in Rural Kentucky has anything to do with the tea party movement, although he understands that the left has desperately labored to equate disagreement and protest over Democrat tax and spend policies with hate and incipient violence. And he knows they have been waiting with baited breath for an example to trumpet. Despite all the heavy breathing it’s interesting that so far nothing even close to the apocalypse they predicted has happened. So now they have to manufacture something. Most likely this ain’t it, but seeing as how we know nothing right now about what really happened The Beast won’t repeat the mistakes of those on the left who see this as an indictment of a political movement (of all things).

  Read the rest of this entry »

I know you have all your money hoarded in gold Jeff, but I have a great tip for you. The company is Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The stock has gone up 375% YTD. It is a can’t miss for you. Check out the symbol.

Love this pic! Look at the body language. Dem candidate Deeds recoils from The One.

From Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal:

Not so long ago, Democrats were thrilled by the long length of Barack Obama’s coattails. Creigh Deeds would be a lot more thrilled today if he could just step off.

Mr. Deeds is the Democratic state senator running for governor of Virginia, and while he’s at it, running away from his commander in chief. It ought to worry Democrats that their top recruit for the year already views their Washington agenda as a liability. It ought to worry Mr. Deeds that there seems no escape.

Read the rest of this entry »

Biden on 2010: If GOP Succeeds, It’s ‘The End of the Road for What Barack and I Are Trying to Do’

Oh the hubris!

Vice President Joe Biden said today that if Democrats were to lose 35 House seats they currently hold in traditionally Republican districts, it would mean doomsday for President Obama’s agenda.

Biden said Republicans are pinning their political strategy on flipping these seats.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always admired Benjamin Netanyahu over the years.
I heard his speech to the U.N. live today, and my jaw dropped. This is what a past American president and a past British Prime Minister (or two, at least) sounded like.

Napolitano is damn right about that.

A little environmental cost-benefit analysis?

Conservationists should “pull the plug” on giant pandas and let them die out, according to BBC presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.

“Here’s a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac,” Packham told Radio Times magazine.  Packham believes that money spent on conserving the panda would be better invested in other animals as the species is not strong enough to survive alone.

Ah, Onion…

Not even Lincoln himself could be this awesome holding a wussy fluff dog

Don’t worry, white people.
I will care for you as I care for my Fluffy.

Yes, the fox is in the henhouse.

The legislation being prepared by Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, would also differ from the Obama plan by diminishing the role of the Federal Reserve as a systemwide overseer.

Mr. Dodd’s plan is intended to be the starting point for the Senate as it redraws the financial landscape in response to the market crisis.

For consumers, banks and the markets, Mr. Dodd’s bill is expected to take on the same central role in the debate as Senator Max Baucus’s recent bill is to remaking the health care system.

“We clearly need to put in place an architecture that restores confidence and makes people feel that when they engage in financial activities, from making a bank deposit to buying insurance or investing in stock, that they can have confidence in the system,” Mr. Dodd said in an interview on Friday. “On the other side of this, I don’t want to strangle business.”

Read the rest of this entry »

A good video making the rounds. Remember to Look at the Big Picture.

Media Double Standard: Only The Right’s Signs Are Worth Covering

At a time when such enormous shifts in American public policy stand precariously on the threshold of enactment, this is no time for the American Right  to go batty. When Barack Obama raised scorn and overplayed his hubris by seeking to address all US schoolchildren via live video feed, the Right managed to fumble the opportunity by throwing a well-publicized and indecent temper tantrum.

After a week of this unfortunate blunder, Rep. Joe Wilson poured gasoline on the fire that was consuming the Republicans’ opportunity to advance against Obama, by shrieking wildly, like an hysterical damsel of a 1950’s drive-in. Wilson immediately apologized for his outburst, but the rank and file were not so circumspect. Cheering Wilson’s childishness, right-wing bloggers announced that there were now no rules limiting the propriety of an attack on the President. This is, of course, a political faux pas, though admittedly, the right-wing true believers openly disdain any consideration of political practicality.

For his part, Wilson appeared indifferent to his own alleged penitence, instead relishing the infamy the congressman who was a relative unknown just a week ago had attained. Speaking on Sunday, he attacked Obama for appearing on multiple Sunday news shows, but passing on Fox News: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been told that the flag was at half staff not for 9-11 but because of the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

The unusual attention to crowd numbers instead of the message of the 9-12 protests (nationwide) is interesting. Let’s be honest for a second. Any D.C. protest managing over 50,000 is considered a success, 250,000 is a smashing success and anything over that is phenomenal. The numbers game on this one is amazing in its diversity. We get everything for tens of thousands from the D.C. fire dept to 1.2 million from the D.C. police and parks employees. The organizers claim about 800,000 in attendance while Glenn Beck and some others claim about 1.7 million. London Daily has downgraded their estimate of up to 2 million down to 1 million. 

Various crowd counters stationed at different places had counts that totaled 450,000. The trains were packed and buses and cars had to be left miles from the center due to traffic as large columns of protestors  miles long tramped in for the rally/protest. And everyone I have interacted with that lives in the D.C. area has said it was the largest political protest they had ever seen. Any way you look at it was impressive in strength and scope. I was amazed at how many people I have some sort of connection with attended including our very own Mo K and a couple different guys I went to high school with as well as some facebook friends etc.

Was it 2 million? Probably not. Was it 65,000? Probably not. My best guesstimate is more around the half million mark. The Left wants us to believe it was just the turn out for the average weekend football game and it was clearly not as anyone who has ever attended a NFL game can attest. A few starry eyed ones on the Right probably got carried away as well. I’ve been in a milling political crowd of over 100,000 at any given time with an overall attendance of up to 250,00 overall and by viewing the pics and videos this was clearly quite a bit larger than that but probably not anywhere near the two million mark either.

Does it really matter? Not really. Is it interesting that the Left could only cry “racists” and then try to belittle the crowd estimates? Absolutely. Their wonder boy is in trouble, the grassroots is pissed, and a lot of people who don’t normally engage in political activism are getting involved. Does this spell trouble for Obama’s agenda and especially for the 2010 elections? You bet your pasty-white “racist” hide it does.

Safe to say, by liberal math standards, the  turnout rivaled the ‘Million Man March’ and the ‘Million Mom March’ for sure.”

Should I trust health insurance companies? Wes doesn’t it would appear based on his comments on this thread. I am not sure if Wes has read the posts I have been making regarding health care. In any event let me disabuse him of something: I really could careless where people put their “trust”. He does not “trust” insurance companies – so? (ADD: I do not mean “so” as in snubbing Wes. I mean it as in – “So, should we?”)

People constantly say “I don’t trust the government with my health care because they want to take away freedom and control my life”. Or they state the opposite “I don’t trust insurance companies because they just want to make money so they don’t pay claims”. 

For what it is worth I believe most people are trustworthy and have the best of intentions, and that includes our president. So what? The problem is that we do not act rationally. The reason why it makes more sense for private industry to provide goods and services is because the profit motive provides a fiscal discipline. Not because they are any more or less trustworthy than the government. 

Markets do not always behave rationally. Enlightened self interest is often not really enlightened or rational. We are flawed as individuals. Our companies and corporations where we act collectively are flawed also. Economic and financial models break down. 

Yes it is true that insurance companies at times do not behave in the public interest. The thing is the government doesn’t either despite its intentions, and not because Nancy Pelosi is stupid, or because Obama is an evil Nazi. Just because markets and business do not always behave rationally does not mean that the regulations designed to correct them are always rational as written or implemented. They have unintended consequences also. The government is also inefficient in how it delivers health care. Medicaid is a bigger disaster than Medicare.  

Read the rest of this entry »

Elect the softest and most apologetic of all Democrats, of course!

In an unprecedented move that tells our most vulnerable allies in Eastern Europe to effectively ‘kiss off,’ President Obama scrapped the European missile shield.  This shield would have symbolically, if not effectively, told Poland and others that we will never abandon you again.  If this isn’t the most disgraceful captitulation to the re-emerging power in the east, I don’t know what is.

But naturally, Obama was able to spin the details by saying we will actually be safer because of him.  Just as he does with distubing news about the economy or unemployment or taxes or health care, Obama has managed to spin the negative to suit his party’s true political goals. 

Obama promised a redesigned defensive system, saying it would be cheaper, quicker and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles. The Bush-era plan had complicated ties with Russia, which objected to where the shield installations would be built.

Anticipating criticism from the right that he was weakening America’s security, Obama said repeatedly that this decision would provide more — not less — protection.

The inability to stand up to Russia is nothing short of cowardice.  Remember when Democrats used to throw around catchy buzz words like “unilateralism” and “alienating our allies?”  Well how’s this for alienation?

Obama said the plan was scrapped in part because, after a review, the United States has concluded that Iran is less focused on developing the kind of long-range missiles for which the system was originally developed, making the building of an expensive new shield unnecessary. New technology also has arisen that military advisers decided could be deployed sooner and more effectively, he said.

Oh I see, I’m sure the Czech Republic and Poland were real concerned about long range missiles from IRAN!  These two nations have put their asses on the line by forming alliances with us and hosting our defense systems.  And now the President of the United States pulls the rug out from under them while a growing menace lurks to the east.  Unreal.

‘Thanks, you little f*****’: Family horrified after restaurant bill makes clear what waiters thought of Molly, two

Almost no one seems to be surprised by the recent revelations regarding ACORN, yet nobody wants to openly address its ramifications, either.

1. The videos may be the most damning direct evidence ever shown concerning the federal government’s ability to administer a massive and dispersed federal program. The dominant Democratic dogma of the day is a blind belief that if the same government that was charged with rebuilding Iraq, overseeing the financial system, and just keeping the occassional eye on ACORN should completely take over all medicinal ministrations in our country, milk and honey will surely flow. 

2. I have heard recently some writers on this blog suggest that there is one party for corruption (R.–”boo, hiss”), and another for justice (D.–many huzzahs!). That one group of ideologues is possessed with a selfish desire to enrich their friends, while the opposite group wants “transparency” and “fairness.” The videos of ACORN show nothing less than this: Crooked, ghetto welfare artists, gulping copiously at the government trough, administering a nation-wide, government-run conspiracy of corruption and graft. The program has been enacted, defended, and administered by Democrats who most certainly have known that this was the normal course of ACORN’s “buisiness,” but ignored this criminality because it helped their side politically. And all this activity is perfectly in line with the activities of Democratic federal, state, and local governments going back almost a century.

3. Ten months after Barack Obama was elected President, there is still a racial double standard in polite American society, but not the one most written about. Since the days of the ‘08 election, every educated American has known or suspected that ACORN, Jeremiah Wright, and other hyper-political, inner-city, overwhelmingly black outfits calling themselves some form of “community organizers” was likely a colossal urban slush fund, greased by federal tax dollars. Jon Stewart can wax indignant all he wants (I thought it was a nice touch that he even claimed to be angry with his own show for ”missing” the story), but in truth, any number of journalists–both real and pseudo–knew just enought to pretend to look away.  This is of the same family with other obvious liberal corruption. Next time one of the ConClub lefties answers with snorts of righteousness an attack on one of the wretchedly, nefarious unions like SEIU or the Teamsters, understand that the unions, the inner-city conveyor belt of federal funds, the trial lawyers, and the educational bureaucracy have stolen their minds and are fast absconding with their credibility.

A good overview on the 912 protest in D.C. and the mood behind it all.

This is funny!

Today, The Montana Standard launches a new weekly columnist for its editorial page Byron York will serve as a conservative voice every Tuesday, just as Leonard Pitts gives the more liberal view on Mondays.

York, a staunch conservative, presents his arguments in a thoughtful, measured fashion, rather than resorting to cheap personal attacks on President Obama and others in the Democratic Party that seem to be the hallmark of the GOP these days, said Standard Editor Gerry O’Brien.

Nothing like calling attention to the “cheap personal attacks” with a cheap personal attack.  More interesting is that he would choose to alienate the very people he hopes to draw to Yorks column!  What a maroon!

Hey Steve, what’s with your state?

Update: And you can now get a shirt with the slogan as well. It was probably inevitable. You can order it here.  You’ve got to love free enterprise and a clever slogan now and then. Unfortunately, it is basically true. Jimmy Carter in all his infinite wisdom is now stating that last weekends conservative bash in D.C. was “primarily motivated by racism.” The psychosis and paranoia of the Left only grows with each passing day…

Posted here simply because I’m sure many of you thought that most liberals would never even hear about it.

We’ve all seen it; big scary wounded animal surrounded by troupe of primates hooting and barking and thumping their chests. Animal snarls and circles while primates work themselves up to a frenzy – all the time keeping their distance. Suddenly one primate darts past the scary animal and thumps it. One of two things happens next:

1. Scary wounded animal leaps into group and starts tearing them up. They flee shrieking.

2. Animal roars viciously but can’t respond. Emboldened, more primates dart in. Eventually, scary animal is overwhelmed.

This classic documentary scene was replayed last Wednesday night.

Obama’s wounded – he didn’t invoke the executive nuclear option and call that joint session of congress because things are going well for him politically. He did it to pump up waning support. And all the opposition from the GOP and grassroots have been just so much chest thumping and hooting, up til now. Nobody’s actually gone eye-to-eye with the man, personally. Nobody has dared to dart into him at a moment of (what used to be) his greatest power – when he’s speechifying.

Joe Wilson thumped him. He counted coup. And now we wait for the denoument. Which is why the Dems screamed so loudly in the aftermath. They understand that if they allow Wilson to survive they will only invite more thumps in the future.

And we know where that road ends, don’t we? Ask Bush 43, or Jimmy Carter.

Jonah Goldberg of NRO foresaw this last July in his column “The God Who Bleeds”. To mix metaphors:

In one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek, Captain Kirk is mistaken for a god by inhabitants of a planet of Native Americans (it’s a long story). The illusion works for Kirk until a jealous shaman cuts Kirk’s hand, revealing that the divine being is just a man after all. “Behold! A god who bleeds!” the shaman mocks, exposing Kirk as a fraud to the rest of the tribe.

It may sound like a stretch — and, let’s be fair, it is — but I keep thinking of that episode when I look Barack Obama’s poll numbers these days.

Well, now he’s the god who bleeds, and once you’re the god who bleeds, it’s hard to get the divinity back in the tube, as it were.

So now the animal’s bleeding. Six months ago this would never have happened. Six months ago the GOP were cowed, intimated. But not today. Today they are emboldened and the big scary beast will never be able to snarl again without wondering if the next thump is about to land.

Because Joe Wilson landed his punch and survived it.

“The purpose of [the General Education Board] was to us the power of money, not to raise the level of education in America, as was widely believed at the time, but to influence the direction of that education… The object was to use the classroom to teach attitudes that encourage people to be passive and submissive to their rulers. The goal was – and is – to create citizens who were educated enough for productive work under supervision but not enough to question authority or seek to rise above their class. True education was to be restricted to the sons and daughters of the elite. For the rest, it would be better to produce skilled workers with no particular aspirations other than to enjoy life.”

 –G. Edward Griffin, on Rockefeller’s General Education Board, founded in 1903.

 I think I like the films that are a little less popular.  I wasn’t crazy about Ghost or Red Dawn and I thought To Wong Foo was sub-par.  But The Outsiders and Road House were very entertaining.  And who in my generation doesn’t watch Dirty Dancing when it makes its occasional appearance on TNT? 

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze.

Google Fast Flip.

The dead cat bounced three points, according to Mickey Kaus:

WaPo reports that in the days after Obama’s speech, the Dem health care plan was opposed by a 48 to 46 margin–versus a 50-45 margin in mid-August. … From five points down to two points down. That’s all he got for playing the joint-session-prime-time-address card? Does that seem like enough to you? … P.S.: “[S]eniors remain solidly opposed to health-care reform, and the number who think government involvement would do more harm than good continues to rise … “

And Stephanopolous agrees that Obama’s speech was no game changer:

Our new ABC News/Washington Post poll out this morning shows that the President’s joint session speech may have stopped his summer slide, but it doesn’t appear to have been the “game-changer” Democrats were hoping for.

No doubt Obama’s passionate presentation energized his partisans and began to unify Congressional Democrats, but this poll is the best evidence yet of where the public stands – and it demonstrates how difficult it will be for Obama to shape the debate and overcome skepticism about his plan.

Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech.

The approval ratings slide stopped while Obama was on vacation, edging up from a low of 51.2% in the RCP average, to a high of 53%. But today it’s slipped back down to 52.0%. It’s actually dropped since the speech. The days when they could make it all go away with one big speech have come to an abrupt close. What are they going to do for the next three years?

And the news is actually worse. The WaPo poll showing no meaningful statistical movement for ObamaCare was a very sympathetic one, according to Jennifer Rubin at Commentary magazine:

And the kicker: not only doesn’t the poll assess voters’ sentiments (let alone likely voters), the sample has a split of 32 percent Democrats and 21 percent Republicans. (This poll’s partisan advantage for Democrats is higher than the one on Election Day and comes at a time when most polls show Republican identification increasing.

Gallup, for example, shows the Democratic advantage narrowing to just 5 points.) So actual voter sentiment may be far worse for Obama than this poll reflects.

Obama has single-handedly revived the GOP. He is the gift that keeps on giving! I’m so embarrassed, I didn’t get him anything…

Riffing on Dave’s Post:

Estimates of the crowd in DC have ranged from a low of “thousands” by the lapdog MSM to more than two million by the UK daily Mail (seems high). Whatever the actual number turns out to be (we’ll probably never know), no doubt the turnout was higher than expected.

So here is the National Park Service schematic for estimating crowd size, released after Obama’s most expensive Inauguration in history (a hint of things to come, in retrospect):

And this is the link to the interactive version.

And here’s a pic of the crowd to compare it to:

UPDATE#2: The original pic the Beast found via Power Line (they’re usually pretty good) for this turned out not to be of the rally (thanks to Guru Steve), so here is a time lapse video that shows the crowd size.

here’s a statistical analysis done by Henry Vanderbilt:

Analysis 1: This gives a range of 240,000 to 320,000 marchers down Pennsylvania Ave, and is based on the time-lapse march route video plus measurements of the route taken from Google Maps. The time-lapse sequence was taken from a webcam over Freedom Plaza at 14th St and E NW, looking ESE down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. The time-lapse video is 41 seconds long (0-40), is labelled as covering 8 AM to 1130 AM on 9/12/09, and thus scales at just over five minutes real-time per second of video. The video shows the march starting out of Freedom Plaza at 17 seconds (~9:30 AM) with the tail end leaving the plaza at 36 seconds.

UPDATE: and let’s talk cleanliness and respect for the environment. This is a shot of the aftermath of the 9/12 rally…

And this is after Obama’s inauguration…

Draw your own conclusions.

In a boneheaded editorial this past Thursday, the Athens Banner-Herald shows why newsprint in this country has no credibility.  Attempting to draw parallels between Senator Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Joe Wilson from South Carolina, the Banner-Herald did it’s best to paint Chambliss as a typical southern racist:

In a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Chambliss was talking about Republican expectations for the president’s address when he said, “I think what you’re looking at is folks on my side anxious to see what the president has to say (Wednesday) night. I think he’s going to have to express some humility based on what we’ve seen around the country during August, and that’s not his inclination.”

Take a closer look at those two sentences. Sen. Chambliss states clearly that “to express some humility … is not (Obama’s) inclination.” It’s not an unfair parsing of the senator’s remarks to see them as coming uncomfortably close to suggesting the president is “uppity.”

The word “uppity” is defined as “assuming airs beyond one’s station,” and – intended or not – that’s a clear subtext of Chambliss’ suggestion that the president is insufficiently humble.

Additionally, using the word “uppity” in connection with a black person is seen widely as something of a racial slur.

It’s like a six-degrees of separation with words.  “It’s not his inclination” quickly turns to “arrogant” which means “uppity” which means Chambliss must be racist.  Last year this same nonsense was on display as candidate Obama was preening for votes (ooops, “preening” could mean “dressing up” and since African Americans have style, that could be racist. . . sorry).  Back then David Shipler of the L.A. Times was in on the act:

This could not happen as dramatically were it not for embedded racial attitudes. “Elitist” is another word for “arrogant,” which is another word for “uppity,” that old calumny applied to blacks who stood up for themselves.

Furthermore, casting Obama as “out of touch” plays harmoniously with the traditional notion of blacks as “others” at the edge of the mainstream, separate from the whole. Despite his ability to articulate the frustration and yearning of broad segments of Americans, his “otherness” has been highlighted effectively by right-wingers who harp on his Kenyan father and spread false rumors that he’s a clandestine Muslim.

So clearly, this tune will be played time and again by those who are determined to defend the President and smear his opponents (ooops, defend might mean “take care of” which might imply that a black president needs to be “taken care of”. . . sorry).  Forget that conservatives need to only draw on Obama’s relative lack of experience in any number of places (ooops, “lack of experience” might be a euphemism for “work” which might imply that Obama is not willing to work, clearly a racial statement . . . sorry about that).  But I would think that someone as articulate as Obama can handle meaningless statements ( “articulate!?” oh no! What have I done?).

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.

-Samuel Adams

NRO at the 912 March

Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration

Conservative Woodstock Rocks the Capital

Probably the best sign was one that said:

  “It doesn’t matter what my sign says,you would just call it “racist”.

The problem with the arguments of Dave, Sting the Away, and the Mo K’s, is that they are so glaringly unconservative. Years ago, I got into a spat with well known conservative Denver talk-show host Mike Rosen over a similar issue. Rosen had insisted on his show and in a column that the problem with the criminal justice system (this was around the time of O.J.) was that there was all this focus on the fairness of the process instead of getting the outcome right. He railed against judicial protections for criminal defendants that zealously protected the process against them, when the rules should really just focus on convicting bad guys and letting good guys go free.

I wrote a letter to the Denver Post in which I attacked his argument as undermining the very conservative principles he insisted he was defending. He was so angry, he read my letter on air and attacked me by name. I immediately called in and joined the battle. Read the rest of this entry »

 “President Clinton’s health-care legislation didn’t fail in 1994 because people didn’t want better health care. The White House plan failed because it was too bureaucratic, too complicated, and too expensive. Last night, President Obama’s response to sixteen years (and one angry August recess) worth of bi-partisan doubt was to double down and bet even more political capital on the same approach. It’s as if he expected Americans to tune in, and suddenly realize their mistake. . . . The speech was brilliant–unless you’ve actually read the legislation behind it, which contradicts many of the President’s restated ‘commitments.’ . . . President Obama’s address to Congress made it clear that he’s barely listened to the national debate on health care that he himself set in motion. Yesterday’s teachable moment: the more America learns about government-run health care, the more Barack Obama wants to talk, and the less he wants to hear.”  –  DAVID GRATZER –  The Unhealthy Politics of Deja Vu.

9/11 – NEVER FORGET – NEVER GIVE IN • Looking at the Left.

What a powerful photo essay.