All politics is national

Even local politics, Mr. O'Neill. Yeah, I know that's a bold assertion, but check it out. Barney Frank is fighting for his own seat as WSJ reports, and he so he can't help anyone else out. Excerpt:

But the national mood is hostile, and conservative groups would consider his defeat a trophy for their wall. Mr. Frank is now spending more time on his re-election instead of pumping money into the campaigns of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers, the traditional role of a party grandee. As a result, Mr. Frank's focus on his own district will have reverberations in races across the country.

So far this election, Mr. Frank has dipped into his personal re-election account to donate just $35,000 to 12 Democratic candidates, according to campaign-finance figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a fraction of his largesse two years ago, when he gave $248,000 to 86 candidates. This year, he has given $250,000 to the campaign arm of House Democrats, compared with $650,000 in 2008.

So that $248,000 went to whichever Democrat candidates in house races all across the fruited plain needed the money. I don't know where the great part of the $650K went, maybe to the Obama campaign. So I repeat: all politics is national. I don't doubt that Dennis Kucinich gives quite a bit of his campaign contributions away―he barely needs it to win a district which is 80% Democrat.

Someone emailed this to me

Pretty funny picture. The subject title is NEW FALL HAT: Acorn cap with the nut still attached.

Scott Walker for WI Governor

Here's another great ad: Scott Walker for Governor of Wisconsin.

Everybody Hates Obamacare

Obamacare pulls a hat trick.

President Obama predicted in the spring that the new law would become popular as people learned more about it. But the poll shows Republicans strongly oppose it, independents are wary of it and a surprising number of Democrats also want it overturned.

This is encouraging...

Republicans say they will “repeal and replace” Obama’s health law, although they privately acknowledge that eradicating it will not be possible until they control the White House.

...but it's going to be an uphill climb. Keep writing letters, calling phones and banging on doors.

"Our end is not an earthly city"

I thought this was a good short piece by Father Schall, clarifying the proper perspective of politics and human work within what St. Augustine referred to as the ordo amoris. Here are the concluding paragraphs:

This intercession seems ambiguous. We can say, with Aristotle, that man is by nature a political animal. This would mean that the city and its proper building is a task we ought to achieve, but it is not the highest thing. That city ought to be built in such a way that, within its confines, we can practice human virtue in such a way that we control our vices. Scripture seems to present politics as a zone that, at its best, leaves us alone to achieve our final end, which is not political.

Whenever building the earthly city becomes our chief purpose, we are close to the neo-absolutism that elevates the earthly city to be itself the city of God. This temptation to reverse the priority of the city of God so that it becomes identical with the city of man is very contemporary. This reversal comes about most often when we want to find no intelligence in nature but our own. This leaves us free to construct our own "city" that has no reference to any transcendent end of each created person, no matter what regime or era in which he exists.

The final intercession reads: "Grant joy and peace to us and to all we meet this day." We can ask this in any earthly city, even the worst, because our end is not an earthly city.

Mondale tells Obama to get off the "Idiot Boards"

Constructive criticism from grouchy old guys is not always worth noting, but sometimes it is.



Loved how he laughed like a Scooby Doo villain when Clinton is mentioned. Might as well have said "Yeah, the old 'feel your pain' trick!" At any rate, I'm glad Uncle Walt points this out about the teleprompter so people can't just claim we're picking on the man when we make fun of it.

I forget if the Muppet in the brown suit is Statler or Waldorf, but doesn't Mondale look like him? I know, no mustache; I think it's the eyes.

Favorite Political Ads

Dale Peterson who ran for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner has cut the best ads I've seen this season. They've been out awhile, but I just saw it in a link from Time about the best viral ads.



This guy is a natural. Love how the gun comes out just as he is saying the word "Republicans". Do you think it's loaded?

Well, Dale only garnered 28% of the vote in a 3-way race, but being the gentleman that he is, he endorsed the best man in an ad where we discover the answer to the question.



More guns in political ads, please.

Beginning to See the Light

Here's the cherry on top, man. My week is already made. The famous VU drummer, Maureen "Moe" Tucker, at a Tea Party rally. Red State has the scoop with this video:

Moe comes on around 2:38 in the video. Reason reported on this also. Moe has always been her own person. John Cale talked about how back in the band days she would bring a dress when they toured to wear to Mass on Sunday. He said she drank with the band but didn't do all the drugs they were into.

A Dose of Lunarity

I was thinking, "What do I want to look at on the old internets before I retire this fine Sunday evening?" Then I applied the ol' V8 slap. "Of course, some Danse Macabre from one of my favorite bloggers, Oengus Moonbones!" Excerpt:

"Well, how's it going today, Charon?" Cerberus asked. "Meh," said Charon after taking a drag on his smoke, "I had a busy day. What a crowd." Cerberus, knowing Charon well and looking past his phony reticence, sensed that he wanted to tell a story. Charon can be very talkative when he feels like it. "Well, what happened? Tell me," said Cerberus as he sat on his haunches, listening as he wagged his tail. Tossing the butt away into the slimy Acheron river, Charon leaned on his oar and began talking: "Rock stars! What can you do about them?...."

That's a teaser, read the rest. The man cracks me up.

C'est l'éruption de la fin!!

It's the final struggle, baby.

Please don't tell me you don't find this tremedously funny. This reminds me of reading all those old Zombietime photo diaries of nutzoid Frisco rallies, etc. It's a bit more sanitized, but no more sane, and just as socialist.

At first I thought AFP should have used the Internationale as the soundtrack since it's more over the top. But this works fine; you can almost smell the Vodka on the singers' breath.

A more modest modesty

Robert Spencer reports on Islamic schools requiring girls from age 11 to 18 to wear the niqab, the Islamic veil which covers the face. Immediately someone in the combox defending the practice states that this is better than having them dress like "half naked western girls". This is the kind of false dichotomy/straw man argument that you get from a mind unused to logic, akin to watching me try to do more than two chin-ups. The girls at the school where we send our kids, as well as those attending most other Catholic schools in the area, wear modest uniforms which neither flaunt their flesh nor cover their face.

If anyone seriously believes the only choices available are either radical Islam or decadence they should open their eyes. This idea is demonstrably false, but it makes great propaganda to use on the ignorant or those whose brains need a tune-up.