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Kevin O'Brien scores in "The sequester soap opera script"

Kevin O'Brien narrates it perfectly in the Plain Dealer today. Congrats on hitting the RCP Front Page, Kevin! This Clevelander wouldn't be reading it otherwise. Excerpt:

President: "If you make me do what I said I would do, which I now say is The Worst Thing Ever, I'm going to blame you."

House Republicans: "For what?"

President: "When airliners start falling out of the sky, you're going to be held responsible. When something happens in Whateveristan and the American people find out the Navy didn't build the ship we needed to send there, it's going to be all your fault. When all the teachers lose their jobs and undocumented immigrants come streaming across the border and firehouses and police stations go dark, it's all on you."

House Republicans: "Right, right. You forgot, 'When thousands of lawbreaking illegals are released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cells.' "

President:"We already did that, just to show that we're serious about making sure these cuts hurt."

House Republicans: "Hold on. Did you really just say that? Rather than adjust what gets cut, you would knowingly and intentionally inflict pain on Americans?"

President: "No. Of course I didn't just say that. Did I, guys?"

Associated Press: "If you did, I must have missed it."

Tons of links. The guy is a great blogger as well as a creative writer.

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My "Don't Confirm Hagel" Email to Senators

If you go here, you can automatically send an email note to your Senators telling them to just say NO to confirming Hagel as Sec Def. I sent mine to Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. Standard text is provided by the website, but I modified the text in mine slightly, adding an extra paragraph, which I highlighted in bold below.

I am asking you---not only as your constituent but a concerned citizen---to vote "No" on the confirmation of Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. Chuck Hagel's confirmation would send a dangerous signal to Iran and other radical Islamic elements which would make our country and our allies less secure. Senator Hagel has made it clear that he would not use strength to prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear weapons. He has also sought to distance the United States from Israel, and refused to stop efforts to end terrorist attacks on Israel.

As my representative in the United States Senate you swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic." I firmly believe there are more qualified persons to serve as our next Secretary of Defense.

For all these reasons I have been opposed to Hagel being confirmed as Secretary of Defense for some time now. But listening to audio of the confirmation hearings today, I have another concern. Mr. Hagel's halting, hesitating responses when he was asked several difficult questions--which he assuredly knew he would receive--made me wonder if he is mentally competent to serve in this high pressure position. Upon observing this I remember thinking that I wouldn't be surprised if he had unknowingly suffered a stroke, or has some other malady of the brain which makes him slow on the uptake. Please consider this before you confirm a man with an impaired mind.

I deliberately avoided the use of the word retarded which, though the most accurate word I can think of to describe his feeble-minded responses and speech impediment, I deemed to possibly be construed as a bit disrespectful by the staffers who are forced to read these correspondences.

Nothing New

I was driving through Cleveland last night around 10pm and listening to Mark Levin's (prerecorded) show. Levin was praising Bret Baier's grilling of the President. Tom Bevan calls the move a mistake and a sign of desperation. I hope he's right. Excerpt:

Whatever the case, I think it was a mistake by the President to go on Fox last night and I do not think he helped himself or his cause with the interview. Obama came across as both dismissive and non-responsive to Brett Baier's insistent questioning about the process. He implicitly approved using parliamentary gymnastics to pass the Senate bill, and he didn't provide very specific or convincing answers about which "special deals" will be included in the final legislation. In the end, he repeated familiar bromides about the benefits and centrist nature of his plan, all of which the public has heard ad nauseum for months and few of which they appear to believe. President Obama offered nothing new, either in substance or tone, that would grab someone whose mind is still open on the issue of health care (and there aren't many left after a full year of debating the issue) and convince them to support his legislation.

In other words, you can't polish a turd.

Sorry, I can't watch the video. I tried. I heard all the pertinent excerpts on Hewitt's show last night. The President is pathetic. He can't answer a yes or no question. All he can do is flap his gums and repeat meaningless mantras. He's the poster child for why affirmative action is a horrible idea.

"You look like a banker who drives a car."

I was talking to a reader the other day and this video came up in conversation. She hadn't seen it, so I'm posting it. I think Jonah G. remarked on it in his Liberal Fascism blog.



Hey--was that a sieg heil at the beginning? Nahhh...

Yeah, give a man a schnoz.

This video gives me hope; I can imagine someday junior high and high school kids watching old Obama propaganda and just laughing their asses off. "Who was that guy? How did he get elected? Were people really that stupid?"

Blind Witnesses

If you've ever taken courses in self-defense and the proper use of firearms, you should have encountered the concept of "creating witnesses". This means that before you fill some scumbag up with 40 caliber felon repellent, you say things loudly and clearly like "Drop your weapon; I don't want to shoot you!" and "Don't make me shoot you!" and "Don't come any closer!" This is a really good idea since there are always three fights involved in any altercation in which you use deadly force: you against you, you against the assailant and then the longest and hardest one, you against the legal system. And if you happen to stop or drop the bastard, he will be the "victim" in the wrongful death civil trial, not you. So shouting these things out will be heard by bystanders and can be used, hopefully, in the courtroom in front of the Oprah-indoctrinated jury to help counter the witness of the mommy sobbing, "He never wanted to hurt anyone!"

But forget self-defense for a moment. Suppose instead you want to shoot a bunch of people and want a chance to get away with it via an insanity plea in case you survive. What should you shout out to create witnesses for that scenario? Well, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" seems to be a good way to make people think maybe you've "cracked under stress". You also might want to give people business cards with the title "Soldier of Allah" and frequent Radical Islamist web sites. And actually having ties to an Imam with extremist views would be kind of a cherry on top for the ol' insanity plea.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Won't people maybe think that you are actually an Islamist terrorist who had planned the incident with cold, calculated premeditation if you did and said all these things? Surprisingly not; it's more likely you will be diagnosed with Pre-traumatic Stress Disorder. Go figure.