Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Monday, February 28, 2011

Ted Nugent: The Motor City Madman

Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak.
Ted Nugent

Born the Motor City Madman, Nugent has subsequently assumed the mantle of The Motor City Hit Man as well. This is vintage Terrible Ted:  schooling a PBS nerd on the finer points of the Second Amendment, recidivism and self-reliance.

If you’re convinced that Chris Christie isn’t going to run, and are still trolling around for your 2012 Republican candidate for President, here’s your man:

 

When Mr. Nugent is not advocating violence against evil criminals, here’s what he does for a living:

 

 

Here’s the Nuge’s data file. While his musical performances might lead you to think otherwise, his performance with Evan Smith in which he demonstrates critical thinking skills and logic is testament to a life-long avoidance of drugs and alcohol. I could do without the weird facial hair too, but he is a heavy metal artist.

Terrible Ted is 62 and has been touring every year since 1967. The 2008 video from the July 4 concert at the DTE Energy Music Theater (Pine Knob) was his 6,000th  concert. Get back to me, Nick Jonas, when you can match that.

PS: My lawyer would like me to mention that I’m not advocating unnecessary violence.

H/T RBJ

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Propaganda with Mayo on the Side

Allow me to disabuse you of any misconception you may have that the Left’s spokesmen are misguided, but principled, ideologues:

 

Yes, that’s right. James Carville. Shilling for Miracle Whip. And doesn’t it just figure that he’s back hawking something oily and slimy?

Apparently his wife favors Hellmann’s, aka Best Foods west of the Rockies. That’s the “right” choice. Which way do you go?

hellmans mayonnaise-vs-miracle-whip

The Real Deal made with eggs, oil, lemon juice and vinegar or emulsified processed salad food product loaded with sugar and high fructose syrup? (Don’t worry, both will be banned from school lunch rooms soon, with delis shortly behind.)

But still. As sleazy as James Carville and Paul Begala - Clinton’s two headed team of shameless shills - were,  they look like pikers compared to the Won’s staff of community organizers, panderers and adjunct media whores.

Here’s my candidate for today’s most disgusting example of U.S. tax payer paid propagandist. Meet Sam Kass, Via Lynn Sweet :

kass_&_kummer1 Kass with Corby Kummer, “erudite food editor” at The Atlantic.

"Kass has been quietly promoted within the ranks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and is no longer known as Mrs. Obama's Food Initiative Coordinator. About a month ago, according to a White House source, Kass' title was changed from "Food Initiative Coordinator" to Senior Policy Adviser For Healthy Food Initiatives. There has been little fanfare, and no formal announcement from the East Wing or the White House about Kass' promotion.

...The new title more accurately reflects Kass' broad range of duties, as internal and external expert on all things health, kids, and food."

We’ll discuss his qualifications for this position later. In his current role, his key responsibility seems to be spreading  Michelle’s gospel of healthy eating. This has been documented on the Obama Foodorama Blogsite, which appears to be another propaganda arm of the White House. It bills itself as:

“The blog of record about Obama food initiatives, with reporting from the White House by Eddie Gehman Kohan.” 

Although it originally claimed:

ObamaFoodorama.com, the independent blog of record about White House food initiatives.”

According to “ObFo,” as the blog refers to itself, here’s what we’re getting from Sammy for our tax dollars:

In 2010, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass traveled around America, bringing the message of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign to thousands of people. He visited schools. He visited conventions. He spoke with trade groups. He cooked for America's governors. On Feb. 18, for his first roadtrip of 2011, Kass visited New York City to give the keynote address at the Regional Conference of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Kass had a double mission: He was simultaneously celebrating the Year One achievements of Let's Move!, and wooing the food experts to join Mrs. Obama's campaign…

…The theatre was filled with people who spend their lives creating things to delight the senses, but Kass reminded them that they have a higher calling. Culinary professionals, Kass said, need to embrace their responsibility for health initiatives through food, and become advocates and activists in their communities.
"The First Lady has asked us to step back--all of us--to think about this," Kass said.

Yes - STEP AWAY FROM THE MAYONNAISE! If you have the stomach for it, there is much, much more propaganda contained in Ms. Gehman Kohan’s post on Kass. And still more elsewhere on her blog, which has become “one of the leading blogs on food justice and advocacy.” Who even knew there was a competition?

You may wonder what credentials Mr. Kass possesses that qualify him to serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives and Message Boy for the Food Nanny in Chief’s Let's Move! campaign. Here they are: he was the Obama’s personal chef in Chicago. And he was named one of People’s Magazine 100 Most Beautiful People in 2009. Pretty much the same qualifications Michelle has, except for the “personal chef” experience.  Or the “Beautiful People”part.

james_carvilleThe liberal rule of relativity works to James benefit. Even he doesn’t look or sound so bad any more.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Real Motown Review by MOTUS: Imposters to Follow UPDATED with “Rosalie” embed

Brought to you by a MOTUS-Dewey from Detroit collaboration.

 

temptations The Temptations

First up, MOTUS:

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that my Motown Review program lineup was vetoed in favor of one put together - with your money - by local PBS station WETA and certain Big White political operatives. Little Mo and I worked hard with Dewey from Dee-troit to select a set of artists and tunes that represent the best of the Motown tradition. When I saw the PBS lineup, I immediately suspected kickbacks and payola, like in the old days. Butt since that sort of thing is clearly forbidden by the Big White Ethics Rules and Regulations, I guess it’s just a coincidence that most of these performers coming tonight have new albums out, produced by studios that were so generous in their support of HOPE and CHANGE.

I think my program was probably a little too “Motown” and not enough “Downtown,”  if you know what I mean. So in place of my all-Motown review we’re going to be entertained by the likes of Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Seal, Jamie Foxx, Natasha Bedingfield, John Legend, Nick Jonas, Gloriana and Jordin Sparks performing a tribute to Motown. In lieu of real Motown artists. That should be fun too.

In fact, Smokey Robinson is the only authentic Motown performer coming - and I think he’s been assigned to sing backup for the cast from Glee. Better to be relevant than authentic.

smokie2

Since some of the original Motown icons have checked out permanently, I guess it’s OK to invite people who didn’t actually record for Motown to perform some of the old tunes. Butt most of these artists weren’t even born when Motown was founded. In fact, most of them weren’t even born before its demise. And Seal and Natasha? They’re Brits, for crying out loud! What could they possibly know about Motown? I’ve been told that Brits are soul-less.

And while this is a bit off topic, here’s a valuable tip, should you ever have to meet Sheryl Crow face to face: have a stash of Germinator-Wipes handy. Since she’s the leader of the “one sheet per visit” earth savers, I’m just thinking you’ll be glad to have them on hand. In case you’re forced to shake hands.

sheryl-crow-03-af Sheryl, trying to sabotage our troops

Anyhoo, since you won’t get to see the Motown Review that  Dewey and I collaborated on either at the Big White tonight or on PBS later, I’m posting our song selections so you can at least listen to what real Motown sounded like, back in the day.  Butt before we get to that, Dewey has prepared a little primer on the history of music in Motown that he requested I post here for your information (think of it as PBS without the BS).

After reading it I think you’ll see how totally wrong tonight’s  Big White review is going to be. Nobody seems to know anything about Motown around here, which, while surprising, might explain that whole GM and Chrysler take-over mess. 

And now from Dewey: 

Dewey From Detroit’s Music from Motown Report

I get more than a little melancholy when I remember growing up with the Motown sound. It was a time when Detroit was the Motor City: one of the greatest, most prosperous cities in the world:  It’s cars and music shaped the dreams of generations. 50 years later we’ve got Eminem and the Chevy Volt.

Hittsville U.S.A was the place where the “Motown Sound”  was born, along with dozens of iconic Motown stars. A former photography studio, Hittsville was purchased by Barry Gordy in 1959 and it became the finishing school for Motown artists. They wrote, rehearsed and recorded their music right there, in Midtown Detroit, within the long shadow of GM world headquarters. Image, stage presence, dress, manners and choreography were carefully and meticulously controlled by Gordy himself. He was looking to develop a unique crossover genre of black artists with such broad based appeal that it would move seamlessly from the R&B market to the white pop market. Realizing the importance of image, packaging and marketing, he nailed it. Had his interests run towards politics, we might have had our first African American president decades ago.

For me, the true Motown ended in 1972 when Barry Gordy moved his historic label from it’s West Grand Boulevard home in Detroit to the land of fruits, nuts, and honeys: Los Angeles.

Hitsville_USAThe Motown Museum: Hitsville U.S.A., Motor City, Detroit

Anything Motown recorded after that is more accurately described as LA-town. Don’t get me wrong, they put out a lot of great music after the move, including Stevie Wonder’s album Innervisions and Lady M’s favorite pole-dancing soundtrack, the Commodores’ She’s A Brick House. It’s just that it was no longer the definitive Motown sound. Probably the world had moved on, and Gordy – as good at spotting trends as creating them - simply chose to move with it.

That probably explains too, why – when Barry Gordy moved out of Detroit -  he left behind the heart of the “Motown Sound,” the little known Funk Brothers. The “Motown Sound” was a musical style featuring a distinctive melody and chord structure, and a "call and response" singing style originating in gospel music. That “Sound” was created by Motown’s founders and producers/songwriters, Gordy and Smokey Robinson, along with its in-house band, The Funk Brothers, who performed the instrumentation on nearly every Motown hit between 1959 to 1971.

funkbrothersThe Funk Brothers Backing Motown Star Stevie Wonder

The Funk brothers belatedly received recognition in the excellent 2002 documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown.  The documentary claims that the Funk Brothers have "played on more number-one hits than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined." Not too shabby for a band no one has heard of outside Detroit.

I’ll wrap up my review of Motown, Hitsville U.S.A and Detroit musical history, and turn this back to MOTUS and Little Mo for the unveiling of the songs in MOTUS’ Motown Review in just a minute. But no discussion of Motown musical history would be complete without acknowledging the contribution of arguably the most important radio station of its time: AM 800, “The Big 8”, CKLW.  

Ironically, the station most nostalgically associated with Detroit’s golden age of radio was actually Canadian. CKLW was a 50,000 watt radio powerhouse sitting on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, due south of downtown Motown.

1558101-Detroit_river_062004-Windsor Motown, viewed from Riverside Drive in Windsor, previous location of CKLW

Growing up in Detroit or anywhere within the “Big 8’s” signal range was a musical experience permanently embedded. CKLW’s night pattern signal was so strong that it could be heard in 23 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. At it’s peak  popularity  in the early 70’s, CKLW was the number 1 station in the Detroit market - the 3rd largest radio market in the US at the time - and the 4th most listened to station in North America.

And no one played a bigger role in CKLW’s success than the little known Rosalie Trombley.

Rosalie Trombley Rosalie at work

Rosalie started with The Big 8 as a switchboard operator/receptionist, but she had such an uncanny ability to spot talent and predict future hits from the demos submitted to the station that she landed the Music Director job in 1968, a position she held until the station switched to a talk format in 1984.

Countless recording stars owe their success in no small measure to Rosalie’s instincts and her placement of their recordings in the CKLW power rotation. Detroit native Bob Seeger was so grateful to her for putting him on the map that he immortalized her in his 1972 hit “Rosalie”  (don’t skip this!)

 

in which he sings, "She's got the tower, She's got the power / Rosalie, Rosalie Trombley." Rosalie never permitted the song to be played on CKLW – giving credence to the rumor that Rosalie was the last program director with integrity and couldn’t be bought.

The Big 8’s demise began with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission’s (CRTC) creation of rules to protect “Canadian Culture”  through Canadian Content regulations. The CRTC told CKLW’s American owner RKO that it must sell all but a 20% of the station to a Canadian entity. RKO choose to sell 100% of it’s stake. Soon after, the CRTC imposed rules requiring that a minimum of 30% of its daytime (6 AM to midnight) programming must be Canadian content. But, that’s another story, and a sad one at that. Suffice it to say that the great CKLW took a nosedive and never came back up for air. Another victim of government meddling.

CKLW’s contributions in terms of formatting and artist discoveries are too numerous to discuss here, although perhaps it would make for an interesting future post. In the meantime, if you’re lucky enough to remember the “Big 8,”  or just want to learn more about CKLW,  there is a terrific DVD available, Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of The Big 8 . 

Well, my time is up - back to you MOTUS. 

Thanks Dewey, butt since you used so much of my allotted line space, I’ll just introduce my Motown Review playlist without further ado. Click on any song to listen and think fondly of a time when America was still strong and Detroit still had soul.

The review wraps up with Aretha who, while never recorded on the Motown label, is definitively Motown. 

The MOTUS “No Imposters” MOTOWN REVIEW Player:

(note: not one “bitch” “ho” ”F-word” or “N-word”in the mix)  

Reach Out. I’ll Be There: Four Tops

 

It’s The Same Old Song: Four Tops

 

If I Were Your Woman: Gladys Knight & The Pips

 

Never Can Say Goodbye: Jackson 5

 

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted: Jimmy Ruffin

 

What Does It take: Jr. Walker & The All Stars

 

Heatwave: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

 

Dancing In the Streets: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

 

Please, Mr. Postman: The Marvelettes

 

Don’t Mess With Bill: The Marvelettes

 

How Sweet It is to Be In Love With You: Marvin Gaye

 

You’re All I Need To Get By: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

 

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

 

I Heard It Through The Grapevine: Marvin Gaye

 

My Guy: Mary Wells

 

Ooo Baby Baby: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

 

The Tracks of My Tears: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

 

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Stevie Wonder

 

For Once In My Life: Stevie Wonder

 

It’s A Shame: The Spinners

 

Stop! In The Name Of Love: The Supremes

 

My Girl: The Temptations

 

Just My Imagination: The Temptations

 

The Way You Do The Things You Do: The Temptations

 

Until You Come Back to Me: Aretha Franklin

 

 cross-posted on MichellesMirror

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Obama (former part-time constitutional law prof and community organizer) rules on constitutionality of Defense of Marriage Act.

SadHill News reports on the latest abuse of presidential powers: Obama administration drops defense of anti-gay marriage-law:

(Reuters) President Barack Obama has determined that a federal law that barred gay marriages was unconstitutional and told government lawyers to stop defending it in court, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday, a move that will likely anger some conservative voters.

A U.S. judge had ruled that a key provision of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) banning gay marriages was unconstitutional, but the administration had appealed, stating that it was obligated to defend federal laws when challenged.

Apparently our Community Organizer in Chief and part time Constitutional Law professor has deemed it necessary to usurp the powers of the Supreme Court, thereby saving us thousands of dollars. All part of his deficit reduction plan. (See Buh-Bye sidebar, to see how we’re doing so far.)

Also, be sure to check out SadHill if  you’re a Monty Python fan.

WTF Episode 3: Down With the Struggle

Today Cody and Skye consider the finer points of Winning the Future in Wisconsin. We join them in their condo in Seattle as they discuss how they, too, can be Wisconsin Cheeseheads, and get a real Doctor’s note (as of yesterday, anyway). WTF.

 

 

Today’s video has been brought to you by The Wisconsin Teachers Union: Teaching Marxist Theory to your little Cheeseheads since 1959.

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Fin de siècle Finally Arrives

Unexpected busy this week. But here’s one of the month’s best reads so far: Bubbles bursting.

bubblpop.jpg

"Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, / And now a bubble burst, and now a world."

Richard Fernandez  provides insights on uprisings all over the globe and concludes that they are all driven by a common thread:

What is in the way are the institutions and attitudes we’ve accumulated over the second half of the Twentieth Century.  What is in the way are all the things we wanted and now find we can’t afford unless we change our institutions or modify our wants.  We have accumulated, along with our entitlements, a vast pasture full of sacred cows which we have declared immortal. The 21st century was peculiar in that many regarded it as the permanent extension of the 20th, that End of History. All future time was dedicated by definition to the perfection of the 20th and the grazing of the sacred cows.  The world had enumerated its rights in the hundred years just past and was going to devote the eternity following to enjoying them. But there was one problem.

Beyond the notions of “collective bargaining” rights, or “the right to food”, “right to migrate”, “right to carbon credits”, “right of return”, or the “right to welfare” or whatever rights people thought they had, was the crass question of whether the society on whose transfer payments were going to underwrite it  could afford it.  The unrest that is sweeping the world is underlain by a struggle between the core idea of market economics that you can’t get something for nothing and the fundamental promise of every statist politician that of course you can.

… All the problems now besetting the EU, the Middle East, the US and Asia will find their basic settlement when those who can’t hang on to their rent-seeking arrangements finally let go. Their titles may vary: military men in Egypt, Ayatollahs in Iran, the dictator and his cronies in Libya, Eurocrats in Brussels, public sector unions in the United States.  What they share in common is an attachment to a way of life that has now become unaffordable. They can try to hang on, but the handwriting is on the wall. It will all come tumbling down, and soon.

Like an extended adolescence, the fin de siècle has been a decade in the making. And now, the pain of birthing a new one.

 

h/t larwyn and vanderleun

Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Wisconsin Uprising of 2011: What Would Reagan Do?

alg_stern trumkabmp

Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO) and Andy Stern (SEIU): Fascists Calling the Kettle Black

 

Doug Ross’ article, A Brief, Illustrated History of the Public Sector Unions That Are Bleeding America Dry With the Full Support of the Democrat Party, gives a thorough run-through of how public sector unions are contributing to the ruin of our country in the same way they’ve destroyed Europe. If you read it and that’s not your take away, you’re either hopelessly dim, or, you’re a public sector employee.

Ronald Reagan has been trashed for years as a union buster for firing the air traffic controllers who went on strike illegally. Not only were the PATCO members in defiance of  a federal law banning strikes, but each of the 13,000 air traffic controllers who walked off the job in 1981 had taken an oath not to strike when they were hired. PATCO may have figured that Reagan would bend to their demands, not only to avoid shutting the aviation system down, but because they had endorsed and contributed to his campaign in the 1980 election.  How could they have known that Reagan  was one of few politicians who held duty, honor and country above political advantage?

3384-20A

In his meetings with advisers, Reagan quoted Coolidge, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." With the backing of transportation secretary Drew Lewis, Reagan gave the controllers 48 hours to return to work. 48 hours later most of them were fired.

If you’re unfamiliar with this incident, which had a huge impact on labor-management relations for years to come, here’s a decent summary. The short version is, new air traffic controllers were hired and trained, PATCO was decertified, and Reagan did it all without benefit of any polling. Amazingly, the majority of the country stood with their President’s decision, recognizing that principles mattered and yielding to intimidation and threats served no good end.

So what might Ronald Reagan say about the Wisconsin Uprising of ‘11? Something like this, perhaps?

Here we are still struggling to get out of a deep recession and coping with high unemployment, record deficits, rapidly rising food prices, and a host of other economic problems; and Wisconsin union bosses want union members out in the streets demanding that taxpayers foot the bill for unsustainable benefits packages. I am a friend to hard working union members and to teachers… I greatly admire good teachers and will always speak up in defense of the teaching profession. But Wisconsin teacher unions do themselves no favor by closing down classrooms and abandoning children’s needs in protest against the sort of belt-tightening that people everywhere are going through. Union brothers and sisters: this is the wrong fight at the wrong time. Solidarity doesn’t mean making Wisconsin taxpayers pay for benefits that are not sustainable and affordable at a time when many of these taxpayers struggle to hold on to their own jobs and homes. Real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice and carry our share of the burden. It does no one any favors to dismiss the sacrifices others have already had to make—in wage cuts, unpaid vacations, and even job losses—to weather our economic storm.

Hard working, patriotic, and selfless union brothers and sisters: please don’t be taken in by the union bosses. At the end of the day, they’re not fighting for your pension or health care plan or even for the sustainability of Wisconsin’s education budget. They’re fighting to protect their own powerful privileges and their own political clout. The agenda for too many union bosses is a big government agenda that only serves the union bosses themselves – not union members, not union families, and certainly not the larger community. Everybody else is just there to foot the bill; and if that bill eventually takes the form of thousands of teachers and other public sector workers losing their jobs because the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll, that’s a risk the union bosses are willing to take as long as their positions are secure. Union brothers and sisters: you are better than this and you deserve better. Don’t be led astray.

Yes, he might say something like that. Except those are Sarah Palin’s words – you know, the other idiot too dumb to be president? The elite Left would consider neither Reagan nor Palin adequately intellectual for entry to their exclusive salon. So how is it that these “idiots” are able to speak so candidly, state the facts so frankly and communicate their concepts so clearly to people in fly-over?

Maybe it’s because they hold duty, honor and country above  political advantage? Or possibly because they are driven by principles that they’ve internalized years ago, and don’t have to take the pulse of the public to know what they think? Perhaps both.

PALIN_s640x523

The elite Left, however, will continue to believe that it’s because those of us in fly over just aren’t sophisticated enough to comprehend the wisdom of their superior intellects.

 

 

Coming tomorrow: Why unions and public sector employees create cognitive dissonance.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Jihadists v First Amendment

Jihadists in our midst continue to use our legal system in their  attempt to destroy it. The Jawa report is the latest blog in their crosshairs. To see what you can do to help, click here.

Help squash these little pissants any way you can.

Matthews and O’Donnell: the Remaining Ms.NBC Braintrust

What exactly are they putting in the water at Ms.NBC these days? First we catch Chris Matthews locked in some kind of white-hot love trance with Obama:

 

 

 

Matthews: "Watching President Obama today explaining and defending his budget, both the substance and politics, I was struck by the question -- could any of the possible Republican candidates out there do this? Does any one of them have the precision of mind, the command of recall, the orderly process of thinking, the reasonable moral compass.

(See Please Help Save TOTUS: the Voice of America for examples of all of the above).

While irrational infatuation can be sweet when experienced by teen-somethings, it loses its luster when it infects the mind of a “journalist.” So smitten is Matthews that he honestly believes that his hour of political fantasy each night is “absolutely nonpartisan,” -  which is reason enough to dismiss him out of hand. If you need more though, here’s his description, from 2008, of what constitutes  a “journalist’s role:” (via commenter gary)

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, you know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work , and I think that --

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Is that your job? You just talked about being a journalist!

MATTHEWS: Yeah, it is my job. My job is to help this country.

I think you can finish his thought with “ anyway I deem fit.” Unfortunately, nobody elected Chrissy to help the country, so I wish he’d do it on his own time. If I thought “net neutrality” might address this type of insidious campaigning masked as journalism, I would at least have to reconsider my position on it for a few seconds.

From a man with an undeveloped emotional IQ, we move to a man with a simply under-developed  IQ. With his command of tax code, no - strike that - tax theory,  Lawrence O’Donnell not only makes Ed Schultz look smart, but he may be at the head of the line next time we need a economics advisor.

I’ve read the transcript twice now, and have concluded that O’Donnell’s allegation is as absurd as it sounds at first blush. He is accusing Chaffetz of cheating on his taxes for not reporting the portion of his congressional income that he would have spent on housing in D.C., had he not chosen to be frugal and sleep in his office while Congress is in session, as income. Again. In addition to the first time he declared it as income.

“Congressman, you have seized, you have illegally seized from the federal taxpayer a personal income benefit that saves you the rent money that you would pay in Washington like all of your fellow congressmen who are responsible, who pay rent in Washington. How much money do you save by not paying rent in Washington? Would you say you save $20,000 a year off your $175,000 salary?”

“Do you declare that savings as income as you are legally obliged to do or are you sleeping in your office as a tax criminal?”

Perhaps this is a trial balloon for Obama’s new deficit reduction program: until such time as America is back to full employment, we’ll just have everyone who is working declare their income twice. Think of how much revenue we could raise through income taxes! WTF! And it’s a natural, since Democrats like to count everything on the revenue side twice anyway.

Here’s the whole transcript:  draw your own conclusion.

It’s no wonder these Ms.NBC morons think that Obama possesses “precision of mind, the command of recall, the orderly process of thinking, the reasonable moral compass.”

A one-eyed man in the land of the blind is king.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

WTF Theatre: Win the Future with Jewelry

I’m proud to present the Valentine’s day episode of  Obama’s WTF Theatre, (brought to you by GE: Imagination at Work).

Today’s episode explains how Valentine’s Day is a vital component in our WTF pogrom.

We join Cody and Skye in their Seattle condo:

 

 

 

FireShot- The original GE Theater

 

This episode has been cross-posted at Michelle’s Mirror

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I Knew Jimmy Carter. And You, Sir, are No Jimmy Carter

The proprietress of Patum and Peperium, an advertising agency émigré and Detroit expat has some comments on the Chrysler Super Bowl Ad. I’m paraphrasing, but I believe she said that the ad’s allusion and artifice were quite lovely, but vacuous. And I believe that reminded her of another thing… as her post was titled “Video proof Jimmy Carter's second term will be worse than his first.”

 

I ventured a guess that the ad team was wasting their time doing product commercials when they so clearly could enjoy a much more robust career developing political ads. Mad Men of Madison Avenue may have invented hype and hyperbole, but politicians have taken the art form to new lows.

But back to Mrs P’s post: she reminds us that Jimmy Carter was president when Congress authorized the first Chrysler bailout in 1979, to the tune of $1.5 billion (approximately $4.5 million in 2009 dollars). That note was paid in full and the car manufacturer returned to profitability in 3 years under Lee Iacocca's leadership.

Obama authorized a $15 billion bailout, for which current  Chrysler CEO Marchionne now complains his company is "paying shyster rates."  Classy, especially since he is looking to renegotiate the terms of his deal with the devil federal government. All of which led some to speculate that the Super Bowl ad was aimed at politicians in charge of the purse strings, more so than consumers ("Taxpayers' money saved a car company from bankruptcy and all they got was this lousy Super Bowl commercial.")

I’m sure that Obama is torqued off about Marchionne’s whining, as he thinks he should be thanking him.

As part of the Chrysler deal (as well as the GM deal), long established bankruptcy and contract law principles were thrown out the window when the government seized the assets of bond holders and illegally turned them over to the UAW. (Read Michael Barone’s report, but only if your blood pressure is controlled by medication. I quoted from it back in May of ‘09 too, in the Sopranos of Pennsylvania Avenue.).

Chrysler remains the weak sister among the surviving American auto companies. The 2 minute Super Bowl ad did nothing to dispel the sense of it’s imminent demise.  Mrs. P concludes – in addition to the fact that the ad is ineffective - that even Jimmy Carter did a better job bailing out a car company than the Won. Ouch! We’re in ugly-ville now.

Read the complete post  - if for no other reason than the pleasure of watching Lee Iacocca's truly iconic American car company ads. From back in the days when straight talk was more than a footnote in a failed presidential campaign.

WTF Theatre, Brought to you by GE. The Debut Episode (updated)

The White House Grifters are proud to present the high speed wireless Internet debut of WTF Theatre, Brought to you by GE.  It’s an anthology of stories from and about the people in the West Wing.

Episode 1 finds our stars, Cody and Skye discussing President Obama's plan to "Win The Future" and save our economy with high speed wireless Interweb. We join them in their Seattle condo:

 

FireShot- The original GE Theater

Friday, February 11, 2011

Obama Frees the Slaves

New from the  Flatsimile® Video Studios:

Buh-rock Finds Out From Hillary That He Just Freed the Egyptian Slaves: High Fives!

 

 

He’s been dreaming about this ever since he had this little conversation with Abe after last November’s elections:

scram

Crayon and sharpie rendering by the inimitable Cripes Suzette

Egypt: Improv Night at the White House

 

Ahmedinejad_1824220c The happiest man in the Middle East today

The past two weeks seemed like an extended run of Improv Night at the White House. And like the rest of us, the participants had no idea how it would all end.

Now that Mubarak has finally left, and as we wait to find out what democracy is going to look like in Cairo, let’s do a quick review of the regime’s improv theatre troupe, Cairo edition. The initial assessment: no one is ready for prime time.

Joe Biden:  Mubarak’s not a dictator, and shouldn’t step down.

Hillary Clinton: after a week and half of mealy-mouthing our support, or lack thereof,  for Mubarak she came back on stage to say that he can’t leave too quickly (which I guess could be taken either way: nicely played).

Frank Wisner, Special Envoy to Egypt: oddly claimed last Saturday that  Mubarak-must-stay for an orderly transition, but what does he know?

Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA:  told Congress that Mubarak will likely leave by last evening, adding “I got the same information you did” Huh!!? He’s the head of the CIA for godsake!!! And he’s got the same information we get from Brian Williams and Shep Smith?! With a black-box budget, that’s the best you can do? Dude, I want my money back.

James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, describes the Muslim Brotherhood as “largely secular” – largely secular!?! That’s like calling the Democratic Underground “largely conservative.” He couldn’t be more wrong. We need a clapper for this guy.

Robert Gibbs: continued to dance all over the map on the situation, finally landing, prior to his permanent departure from the mic of power, to land on “we’re watching a fluid situation.”

And the Most Intelligent Man in the Whole World, after proclaiming last week that Mubarak must leave immediately walked it back and followed the lead of his Secretary of State by parsing his words into something close to total obfuscation:

The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity.

Even so, he was shocked when reports of Mubarak’s resignation turned out to be greatly exaggerated last night.

The whole situation resembles nothing so much as a Chinese fire drill.

imagesCA6QXWIP Stay up there until I decide where I want you to land

It’s as though this administration has forgotten, or never knew, that diplomacy is most effective when handled quietly, steadily, professionally behind the scenes. But that model of diplomacy doesn’t fit well with Obama’s “look at me” administration. They believe that anything worth doing is worth doing in such a way that it can be duly reported by their slobbering media sycophants.

This attitude was honed by years of community organizing: a “profession”  that requires media coverage in order to generate power. The message does not have to stand on it’s own if you can rabble rouse enough attention to force the “man” to respond to your demands. The basic assumption of community organizers is that conflict and social struggle are necessary in order to address the root causes of social, economic, and political injustice. More to the point, this conflict and struggle must be duly showcased by the compliant and sympathetic media in order to achieve the desired transfer of power to the powerless.

Oddly, now that Mubarak has been forced to give up his presidential powers, he has handed the reigns of power over not to the powerless, but to the Armed Forces Supreme Council.

We could not have been caught more flat-footed than we were on the Egypt situation. Need I point out how dangerous this is? For us, for our allies. Our government doesn’t have any more idea than we do what “democracy” in the Middle East is going to look like.

Sleep well. Maybe there won’t be any more 3:00 AM phone calls. In the mean time, pray for Israel.

Cross posted on Red State

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

WTF: The Inaugeral Episode

Guest Post by MOTUS:

Oh dear! Raj gave Dewey a new toy: something that let’s him make new flatsimile ® movies in his spare time.

Dewey plans to use it to help us Win The Future, ahead of the next election cycle. I’m not completely sold yet - but that’s probably just me. I have a teensy, tiny tendency towards negativity.

Butt I guess it won’t hurt anything. He’s still practicing, so consider this a prototype.

 

WTF: Episode 1, Winning the Future with Energy Efficiency

 

Monday, February 7, 2011

You Deserve a Little Guilty Pleasure

Travel day, so I’m passing on this compendium of Ann Coulter’s best quotes from 2010 from Right Wing News via Vanderleun for your consideration and entertainment. It helps if you’ve been desensitized to Annie’s lack of sensitivity.  It helps even more if you’ve internalized it.

teasers:

In 2005, Vice President Cheney gave 77 percent of his income to charity. He also shot a lawyer in the face, which I think should count for something.

Whenever you see a liberal choking up over our precious constitutional rights, you can be sure we're talking about the rights of Muslims at ground zero, "God Hates F@gs" funeral protesters, strippers, The New York Times publishing classified documents, pornographers, child molesters, murderers, traitors, saboteurs, terrorists, flag-burners (but not Quran-burners!) or women living on National Endowment of the Arts grants by stuffing yams into their orifices on stage.

I think we should look at other countries' laws, then adopt the good ones and pass on the bad ones. For example, let's skip clitorectomies, arranged marriages, dropping walls on homosexuals, honor killings and the rest of the gorgeous tapestry of multiculturalism. Instead, how about we adopt foreign concepts such as disallowing frivolous lawsuits, having loser-pays tort laws, and requiring that both parents be in the U.S. legally and at least one parent be a citizen, for a child born here to get automatic citizenship?

Like Hollywood actresses, lawyers need to believe they're noble and courageous to help them forget that they are corporate drones doing soul-destroying work, which mostly consists of making photocopies.

And there’s 30 more over on Right Wing News! And American Digest is always fun too. Consider them your calorie free, post Super Bowl party guilty pleasures.