Right Wing Nation

It’s pretty scary, too, and non in an entertaining way: How Obama Got Elected.

Related is the quotation of the day, from Dicklist.

The American media is now a larger threat to the nation’s security than terrorism.

Ace:

Cathy Seipp ridicules Maureen Dowd. That probably doesn’t sound so hard; it’s sort of like playing chess against a chicken. The outcome isn’t really ever in doubt; the only real question is whether or not the chicken actually comprehends to some small degree that it has been soundly trounced.

So too it is with Maureen Dowd.

I’m not sure which is a more appropriate reaction to this article on University Diaries about the University of Iowa faculty members’ questioning the ethics of the trustees:

Some University of Iowa faculty say they’re concerned about potential conflicts of interests resulting from ties between Iowa Board of Regents members and the state’s largest health insurance company.

As I said on University Diaries, perhaps I’ve just been around academics too many years, but academics concerned about ethics? Let’s see a couple of examples of academic ethics, shall we?

First up is this wholly unethical dipshite, whom I first mentioned here:

Recent controversy reported in the Australian Newspaper in this article focussed on a large grant awarded by the Australian Research Grants Council to a proselytising social “scientist”. The recipient, Professor Riaz (Risible) Hassan expressed gratitude that the lavish funds would allow him to interview terrorists in order to prove that his existing beliefs about the causes of terrorism could be verified. Of course, his a priori beliefs about the causes of terrorism seemed to be in accord with those often expressed by terrorists. No surprises there. The simple-minded actions of the ARGC in approving such a grant, and the simple-minded attitudes of the recipient are ample evidence that some social “scientists” are still living in a pre-enlightenment, or even pre-socratic epistemological world. A world of magic and mysticism, where the purpose of “research” is to count the hits and ignore the misses, in order to confirm existing prejudices and superstitions.

So not only does this moron have no problem with taking goverment funds to produce intentionally biased research, but he sees no ethical issue in doing so to propagandize for terrorists. An outcry from the academic community might have at least given the impression that academics did, indeed, have ethics, but there was none. Academic ethics? Please.

Then there was Sami Al-Arian, the terrorist academic, who was fired from the University of South Florida, remember him? Remember how the AAUP and faculty all over the US howled? How the AAUP attempted to force the university to hire him back — to the point of going well beyond ethical behavior? And when he was convicted . . . suddenly, the AAUP had nothing to say. Academic ethics? Please.

Sure, there are a handful of academics with ethics. Here is one. Of course, if you have ethics, that places you firmly against the AAUP, and your local faculty council, for whom “ethics” means nothing more than shoving their political agenda at all costs.

Of course, no group of people is more pious than academics, particularly when it comes to “ethics” and “having concerns.” So while academics will joyfully take money from terrorists to further terrorists’ goals, they suddenly become very “concerned” when doing anything that might aid their own nation:

Anthropologists have a long history of being uncertain about how close they should get to the U.S. government. Many anthropologists helped intelligence agencies in World War I and World War II, but from Vietnam on, most have resisted any such work.

Ethics? Academics? Please. Academics don’t understand the concept of ethics — and if they did, there would be no speech codes, diversity policies, or other such totalitarian nonsense on campuses. Then there’s the shameful behavior of the Duke administration and faculty in response to the Nifong case — see Durham in Wonderland, a blog created solely to report on the case, for a detailed discussion of academic ethics. And who could forget Larry Summers, and the disgraceful “ethics” the academics at Harvard displayed, but Elephants in Academia does an excellent job of discussing that. I could go on giving examples, but I wouldn’t know where to stop, there are so many — so I’ll stop here.

Then, University Diaries makes a very odd statement:

There’s an instructive difference here between trustees, who tend to be corporate anti-intellectual types, and professors, typically individualists who like to think. Of course, trustees almost always win against professors (there are striking exceptions to this at places like American University and, years ago, Adelphi University), but it’s nice on occasion to see faculty get their way, as they have at Iowa.

First, there is nothing “individualist” about academics. In fact, academics are more subject to party-line groupthink than any other group I can think of — unless, of course, “individualist” here means the term in its hippie-esque definition, which can be boiled down to anybody who refuses to look or act like an adult. You know, forty year-olds with dreadlocks, or eighteen nose piercings, that kind of “individualist,” the worthless concept of “individualist.”

In what world do trustees have any power at all? At nearly every university I’m familiar with, trustees are nothing more than rubber stamps for the faculty council and administration. Would that trustees actually did what they are hired to do, and kept an eye on faculty, oh what a wonderful world that would be! Imagine it: People with common sense (that’s what anti-intellectual means) saying, “No,” when people without common sense (that’s what intellectual means) come up with another, harebrained, idiotic idea for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars!

That is the way it’s supposed to work. Oversight is the job of university trustees. Oversight does not mean give a green light to the faculty for any mouthbreathingly stupid idea they have. Oversight means, “Show me the budget and I’ll tell you what you can and cannot spend.” Oversight means, “Sorry, but you are subject to the Constitution of the United States, so your stupid leftist policy dies here.”

Oversight. It’s why God gave universities trustees.

Jeffrey has the optimal solution for California’s problems: Place the state in receivership.

Thank God it’s over. Jonah Goldberg has an eloquent piece on the election. I strongly encourage you to read it. John McCain was a gentleman to the end.

If you ever paid attention to my blogroll, I’ve changed it. Here’s why.

Every time the GOP loses an election, the seriously wacko nutjobs come crawling out from under their rocks. Black UN helicopters coming to take us away, Vince Foster was murdered, the coming pan-American state, yada yada yada, it always happens. Some — like Michelle Malkin — went off the deep end months ago, but I never got around to editing the blogroll. In the hope that these people will eventually return to sanity, I didn’t delete the links, but rather created a greylist, and put them on it. As bloggers lose their minds, and trust me, they will, I’ll put them on the greylist.

I also have used the greylist for those blogs I got sick of reading, like the Corner. Who needs the MSM when you have so-called “true conservatives” either whining and bitching about McCain during the election, or moaning about doom and gloom? Hell, forget the NYT. All you had to do was read the Corner for your daily dose of “Why I should stay at home instead of voting for the Republican ticket.”

K-Lo is the one who pushed me over the edge, first with the disingenuous “I can’t criticize my own candidate?” canned response anytime somebody got on her case for doing everything she could to bring down McCain, but ultimately, because she refuses to actually edit NRO, and let every piece of nasty trash from that bitch Kathleen Parker go through.

Sorry, we don’t need garbage like that, and we don’t need irresponsible children editing publications. K-Lo has the mind of a twelve year-old, as do half of the writers over there.

I did start a couple of aftermath pieces. I will finish and post them. But I think for a few days, I’ll focus on things that are really important, like hockey.

Got this in my inbox. Enjoy!

Dear Fellow Small Business Owners,

As a Business owner who employs 30 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama will probably be our next President, and that my Taxes and Carbon Fees (or however his government chooses to rape me), will go up in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Customer will have to see an increase in my costs to them of about 20%. So connect economic ankle to shin, shin to knee, knee to thigh, and I will have to lay off roughly 8 of my employees in my forced tithe to “The One.” This really, really bothers me. I believe we are family here and I wasn’t sure how to choose who will get to stay and who will have to go.

So, I strolled thru the parking lot this morning and found 8 Obama bumper stickers on my employees cars. These folks will be the first to be laid off.

Fair?

Sincerely,
[name witheld]

I can’t think of another fair way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let me know.
I am sending this letter to all Business owners that I know.

Sincerely

Ace:

Democratic lawyers, and the Democratic prosecutors in Ohio, advise us that Ohio law is “confusing” on the point that one can only vote in a state if one actually lives in that state.

Well, confusion certainly explains this.

Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) fired one of his long-time campaign advisers Tuesday, after learning that she’s embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio. Amy Little, 49, has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio.

Ace sez:

I blame The System.

What other conclusion can one draw when Obama’s lawyers and Democratic advisers cannot understand a law that says only residents are permitted to vote?

They’re stupid? They’re unethical? They feel entitled? They have no respect for the law? All of the above?

A HuffPo moonbat murders her lover, then commits suicide — and it’s all Bush’s fault!

but after the election, not before. The tax raise was on those making $250,000 a year and up. Then, it went to $200,000. Now, it’s $150,000.

So how far down will they dare adjust it before the election?

Rob Bluey, courtesy of David Thompson.

In a local restaurant my server had on an Obama 08 tie; again I laughed as he had given away his political preference - just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need – the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

Let’s hope the waiter was intelligent enough to grasp the concept.

Oh, when the moonbats go off their meds! And a pop quiz.

Which candidate running for president today…

…has threatened the FCC licenses of television stations choosing to run ads produced by independent groups supporting his opponent?

…had taxpayer funded “Truth Quads” comprised of prosecutors and law enforcement officers threatening his ideological opponents in an effort to stifle their right to free speech?

…has, throughout his career, been more openly hostile to the concept of private ownership of firearms than any other presidential candidate in our country’s history?

…sent out e-mail “action alerts” to his followers urging them to go after radio stations that planned on allowing his critics to voice their opinions on the air?

And so forth. Note that Bruce fled Nuttichusetts for New Hampshire. He knows all about moonbats.

A mystery is solved.

(I’ve wondered, too, why it is that the dead ALL - every one of them - votes a straight Dem ticket. Maybe they’re the only ones with no more estate tax worries?

Seems they have Democrats in Oz.

Federal Government experts want people to use the word “dryness” to describe Australia’s worst drought in a century.

The word “drought” makes farmers feel bad, says the government’s hand-picked Drought Policy Review Expert Social Panel.

If the Obamination wins, look for lots of this stupid crap here.

Saint:

You know you are really in trouble when even the Russians notice the Sovietization of your press.

That ties with Don Surber:

Democrat Joe Biden visits Charleston and draws a “crowd of several hundred” to hear how he once saw a moose at the National zoo.

H/T Ace for this.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer”, because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.

You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I’m cut. I am a fourth generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kansas during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian). My hard-living - and when I knew her, scary - grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I’ve spent thirty years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national by-line before he earned his drivers license.

So, when I say I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a “journalist”, you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul.

Biden attempted to insult Johnny Mac — by calling him John McClane (the idiot reporter misspelled the character’s name). Well actually, that’s ascribing too much intelligence to Biden. What he did was mistakenly call John McCain “John McClane,” and then when he realized what he’d said, tried to turn it into an insult.

I’m with Ed on this one. Bruce Willis isn’t going to be offended. John McCain isn’t going to be offended. And those of us who are voting for McCain certainly aren’t going to be offended. The only people who would find the comparison offensive are the “Peace Now!” types who wear Depends and wave giant puppet heads or go to Take Back the Night rallies and think they’ve accomplished something.

And who cares?

Seriously. Liberals have gone off the deep end. Check this out.

Do you feel anxious when you see a television set left on standby? Does the sight of a plastic bottle haphazardly tossed into a paper-only recycling bin make you feel nauseous? Are you consumed with rage when someone has left an empty room and not switched off the light?

Have you recently found yourself overcome with a desire to spit on your car-driving friends and family? When a loved one tells you that he is flying off for some winter sun, do you feel like bludgeoning him over the head with a blunt instrument until he appears no longer to be breathing?

If so, don’t worry! You are probably suffering from “carborexia”, Or “energy anorexia”. Psychiatrists in America have identified a new mental illness that threatens the very fabric of society: an obsession with saving the planet. Some people are so addicted to cutting their carbon emissions that they seem to have gone quite mad.

Take, for example, Sharon Astyk, who makes her four children sleep in a huddle so she doesn’t have to turn on the heating (if she was that concerned about the planet, perhaps she could have stopped reproducing after baby number two).

Or Jay Matsueda, who waters his lawn with his own urine so that he doesn’t have to flush the loo; he says that it was his ex-girlfriend’s choice of gas-guzzling car, rather than his habit of weeing on the grass, that led to the break-down of their relationship.

“If you’re criticising friends because they’re not living up to your standards of green, that’s a problem,” said Elizabeth Carll, a psychologist who specialises in obsessive compulsive disorder.

It’s popped up in Oz, too.

PSYCHIATRISTS have detected the first case of “climate change delusion” - and they haven’t even yet got to Kevin Rudd and his global warming guru.

Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children’s Hospital say this delusion was a “previously unreported phenomenon”.

“A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events.”

(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)

“The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies.”

Look for a whole nation of hysterical, delusional nutjobs as the public schools and Democrats continue to scare the bejesus out of kids.

I expected them to come out with this earlier. However, now that I think about it, closer to the election is probably better.

But they’re French, so what do you expect?

Typically, women are the victims of honour violence, which has been linked to certain interpretations of religious and cultural norms.

Methodism, perchance?

Via Tim Blair, who reads the frogs so you don’t have to.

This explains a lot.

I’ve read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is this possible?

I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards I’m required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser’s address must match that of the cardholders. If these don’t match, then the payment isn’t approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn’t ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and… “Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift.”

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it’s donors. Also, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn’t allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn’t allow the transaction.

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

Hope and change!

Murtha shouldn’t have opened his big mouth and called his constituents racists. Lt. Col. Russell is only four points behind Murtha — within the MOE. That’s a statistical tie. And there’s more.

About 54 percent of voters among those polled say it’s time for someone else to represent them in Congress.

For historical perspective, Diana Irey lost to Murtha by over 20 points.

A Democrat replies to the Obama campaign’s request for help.

Joe the Plumber:

Sweat Equity:

Still 1-1.

Paco has a great roundup of links. And the arthritis is acting up — think it could be the cold?

to blog and watch hockey, that is. As far as that goes, it’s not possible to do anything and watch hockey. So before the commercial is over and the game comes back on, Sean Berry takes down the whiners at the Corner.

Speaking of takedowns, Brink Lindsey guts Weisberg like a fish (although everything Weisberg has ever written has been stupid, so it’s hard to figure out why one would bother), and Protein Wisdom cremates what’s left.

Commercial over. Back at the next break.

You have to admit, it probably is a good idea to come clean before the debate.

Time’s Mark Halperin: “Is it fair to say that [Barack Obama] continued to associate with [Bill Ayers] professionally — and personally on a casual basis — even after he learned?”

Obama Senior Adviser Robert Gibbs: “He continued to serve on a charitable board and an educational grant board with money supplied by Walter Annenberg, a Republican who was an ambassador under Richard Nixon. Yes.”

Halperin: “But with the knowledge of Ayers’ past?”

Gibbs: “Yes.”

Video here.

Speaking of (and this will be my last today, because I have to start on dinner), through all this, Obama has bragged quite a bit about the work he did with Ayers (without mentioning the Ayers part), with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and “educational” foundation Ayers set up. Obama was on the board, and claims he got what was it, fifty million dollars? to throw at the foundation (money for education, doncha know). Sounds right, but I’m in a hurry.

Anyway, what was the result? Lower test scores and a higher drop-out rate.

Now, I suppose you may not agree, but I think it reasonable that if we must throw millions or billions or trillions of dollars at some program (we’ll leave the appropriateness of that for later, Mr. Quick), we should get some ROI on it. Forget Ayers. It doesn’t say much about Obama that he brags about how much money he got for Chicago education, when education got markedly worse afterwards, now, does it.

Dr. Joy encapsulates the campaign:

This week we had Joe the Plumber in front of his modest home with an old rusty basketball hoop for his kids, burdened with tax debts but uplifted by his aspirations, and we had Sarah Palin stopping the campaign bus to get diapers at WalMart for her baby.

By way of contrast, we had Michelle Obama, a highly privileged Limo Liberal with millions in the bank and a $350,000/yr “administrative” job for some hospital or something, ordering lobster, Iranian caviar, and champagne for a snack from room service - and whining all the while about how mean and tough life is in America if you have two kids, as her husband preaches about taking from Joe to give to…whom?

An email message to Mark Hemingway.

I could care less about Joe’s background, whether he’s legit, or whether he is a McCain operative. What I do care about is that I could be attacked like a public figure simply for asking a question, like Joe. I am chilled. No longer undecided either.

No comment, except to correct a few misconceptions. Joe works for a licensed plumber, and therefore, doesn’t need to be licensed (if he buys out the business, he will). Joe did not approach Obama. Joe was in his front yard playing football with his son, when Obama approached him. Unless Karl Rove had implanted mind control devices in Obama’s head, Joe couldn’t have been a “plant.”

As for the lien, guess who else has one. Oops.

From PA Water Cooler (I assume it’s somewhere here in the state).

to hate Apple, that is: Environmentalists Cheer on Apple for Getting Greener.

Joe the Plumber.

Gun sales are still increasing. Gee, I wonder why?

Nobody shouted “Kill him!” at the Palin rally. Secret Service confirms.

The best part? Only one person at the rally heard it — the reporter.

Sure.

to Murtha’s “my constituents are raaaaaaaaaaaacists! statement.

Donate to Bill Russell’s campaign.

I just passed this on to the Russell Brigade — talk about making your opponent’s ads for them.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha says his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama’s victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points.

The 17-term Democratic congressman tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site that, as he put it: “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”

Calling your electorate racists is probably not the best way to win re-election.

The same stupid left-wing columnist that threatened riots if Obama lost is now calling for a . . .

wait for it . . .

Constitution-free Chicago.

How much would you like to bet this idiot goes to candlelight vigils for criminals shot by the police, and thinks it’s sad that all of those poor boys are in prison?

This commenter has more or less the same idea I do.

Let’s surround Chicago with razor wire fences, and Checkpoints. Have the guards outside facing the city. This will keep the rest of the state safe from 90% of the states murders and criminals.

At least the high crime areas. We can take the fences and checkpoints down when the shooting stops, and all of the scumbags have killed each other.

to ACORN voter fraud (including convictions), courtesy of Maggie’s Farm.

Nobody yelled “Kill him!” about Obama at that McCain rally.

Update: Mary Katherine Ham has more.

Obama’s 95% Tax Cut Illusion