The Founders Meme

Cruising the interwebs recently, I've found some really great memes by some guy named "Anonymous!" I hope he keeps up the good work!

Sarah Palin: Platitudinal Incoherence

Sarah Palin rambled in to Iowa this last weekend for the Iowa Freedom Summit. It's where early conservative hopefuls for President try to look good (not appear as total idiots) to gain support for the Iowa Caucus. Sarah gave a speech. This would be really funny if nearly half of America hadn't voted for her to be a heartbeat away. I'm still accepting apologies. Anyone?

John McCain, you have a lot to answer for. This never-ending disaster is of your creation. It negates all the good things you've done now and then that I actually supported (anti-torture, Bush plan on immigration - when you were on that, maybe some others if you give me a week).

I listened to the whole speech. If you can't take that, just listen to two minutes of this video. Any two minutes:

Please, President Obama, No More Crusades!

Anonymous D expressed some hard truths the other day:

Getting tired of the "Obama threw away victory in Iraq" thing. There was never "victory" in Iraq. The conservatives, neo-cons and Fox News enthusiasts who blew up the world never admit to the mess they made--That it can never be put back together again--That the idea that democracy would flourish in this region was simply not true. It's a nice rhetorical device to blow something up and then blame the guy after you for not being able to fix it.

Let's face it,  Iraq will require a 50 to 75 year commitment. It will eat up men, women, and treasure. That should have been stated up front instead of 10,000 men or whatever the Neo-Cons thought. We will be there long after we're dead, and probably our children.

Boehner Presents Foolproof Plan to Get Wicked Obama

Speaker Boehner explains his brilliant plan to a confused Dorothy (representing America, of course)

Yes! The Brilliant Munchkins of the 113th Congress finally have the opportunity to do in the evil President Obama once and for all! Speaker Boehner just announced his plan to sue the President over his delay in implementing the Obamacare mandate!

The Great War Redux?

You do all know how WWI started, right? We're coming up on the Centennial. Let's not commemorate by starting up again.

Competing nations were building navies and armies for advantage in world commerce, particularly in controlling colonies around the world. A game of treaties went on. Then, some Serbian Nationals (ethnic Slavs, remember) shot the Archduke of Austria which ruled the Balkans in those days.

Talk about dominoes - The Austro-Hungarian Empire cracked down on its little Serbia, Russia defended its cousin Serbs against Austrian aggression, the Kaiser was allied with Austria-Hungary, France was allied with Russia to help protect it from Germany, England was the protector of little Belgium and allied with France against the Prussian ruling Germany. And we had the war that didn't quite end all wars.

Let's Not Charge Lightly into a Crimean War

As proud as Palin is on her Putin prediction, let's not follow the rest of the FOX mentality by rattling our sabers for silly self-gratification. The worst of it are the US Conservatives joining Putin in his criticisms of our President. Let's call them "Jane-Fonda-Patriots."

Executive Orders - Since George Washington, 1789

First Executive Order Proclaiming Thanksgiving, October 3, 1789, George Washington (Library of Congress)

Once again, I'm very disappointed and concerned that friends of mine apparently believe (and posted on FB) the insane rantings of Glenn Beck, who, along with Bachmann, Palin, and others, are accusing the President of assuming "dictatorial powers" as the President has clearly and forthrightly stated that where Congress won't work with him, he will issue EO's (that's how we abbreviate them since I went to law school 30 years ago) under any legal authority he has.

Priestcraftin' Palin & the Jew Who Saved Christmas

Holidays for Sale

'Tis the season to be grumpy about imaginary wars! So we're going to contrast two stories here which we hope will be picked up for a "Holiday" special on the Hallmark Channel. Both of these stories are true. Names have been changed to protect the innocent which only pertains to one of the stories.

The first is a sad, sad, story about all the evil liberals who believe that people should be free to celebrate whatever religious holiday they chose and that government should have nothing to do with it. Wait. That's not such a sad story! So why are so many people hurling the cheery words "Merry Christmas" with such anger? I for one don't like to be hit over the head with a manger as we Fall into cold and dark Winter every year. As a practicing Christian myself, I much prefer to celebrate by spending too much, eating too much, giving never enough, and doing it all with my friends and family!

Tea Party Losing Their "Cause"

Tea Party Protest over the Shutdown - Attended by Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, and Utah's one-and-only Mike Lee

David Frum & David Brooks: Honorary Passionate Moderates

The election is over for me as I have already voted. And it's too late to persuade anyone else except that I urge you to go vote for whomever. There are still bigger principles at stake than this current presidential contest.

My freshman college son sent me a link to a video from his American Heritage class. He asked me for advice on an essay he was required to write about the video. I was pleasantly surprised to see the video myself as it is a wonderful presentation of many of the themes I have tried to express in this blog. The video was by David Frum, a conservative columnist branded as a heretic by the far-right for criticizing Sarah Palin, among other things. The video follows the jump:

Live-Blogging Republicans (Wed.)

This isn't even as much fun as the debates. I don't know how long I can tough it out.

I will make the commitment that in watching the Democratic Convention next week (there is no "Democrat" convention by the way), I will try really hard to call out their errors. I admit my preferences, but I will take off my blinders. And for heaven's sake, I hope they don't pound the dog on the car theme like the Republicans are pounding how they "built it." (At least the dog story is true unlike the manipulation of the President's words even if inartfully expressed.)

Well, I'd better get to blogging. John McCain is up. He just called Governor Romney his friend.

Liars, Dang Liars, and Sarah Palin

BOTH campaigns are lyin', lyin', lyin'. The whole country is disappointed to one degree or another with President Obama. But why should we Mormons have to be so disappointed in Mitt Romney?

I read another interesting article at The Atlantic online on the theme that people have grown tired of fact-checking journalism. People just seem to root for their side no matter how many fouls are committed by their team much like sports fans stay true to their school or their chosen professional sports teams. It seems like those choices of sports allegiance even with somewhat arbitrary origins as to where you happen to live or end up going to school are pretty ingrained into a person's being - just like political preferences.

Romney Runs with Ryan

At least he's helping me out with my alliteration.

I've been traveling all day and visiting with my son and daughter-in-law in preparation for the imminent arrival of my first granddaughter - much more important than any politics. It put me in a unique position to be shielded from the news reports and analyses today even though I caught the first announcement of the selection of Ryan before I boarded the plane. And I had a whole day to think about it on my own.

Winners Win and Losers Lose

Stating the obvious, no matter how furiously the right-wingers spin their failure to destroy Obamacare in the Supreme Court, this is politically good for the President and the Dems and bad for the tea party and the Republicans. Had Obamacare gone down, at least this supporter of the President would have been severely demoralized. And I was not looking forward to an election based on a war against the Supreme Court. I guess the Right is free to go ahead if they want.

This election is still mostly about the economy and jobs. The recovery is slowly chugging along. Republican Governors hoping to be reelected are touting the recovery in their own states (two-edged sword, guys.) We just had another big jump on Wall Street because Germany got European finances sort of straightened out, again.

Todd Palin Is a Newtist

Yes. As if the newt wasn't entertaining enough as he beaks Reagan's Eleventh Commandment by self-destructing all over the inevitable Republican nominee, he announced today that he has the endorsement of none other than the former First Dude of Alaska, Mr. Sarah Palin. No word yet on who Mama Grizzly may be supporting. While tempted by the newt's credit line at Tiffany's, I think she's holding out for the candidate with the PAC best connected to Nordstrom's.

The President and the Beast

No, I'm not blogging again about Gingrich. More of that will come to the extent that the amphibian is somehow able to stay ahead of Romney and Huntsman can't have his turn to peak. What I want to address is how the President is changing the game in dealing with the "beast."

A year ago I was pleased to see the President cutting deals with Congress just to get anything he could because any compromise helped defeat the tea party philosophy of no compromise. One of the best ones he got was the reduction in the payroll withholding tax. It was a small but effective stimulus to get more money circulating in our economy, necessary in order to have a market in the first place whether free, regulated or somewhere in between. Republicans love cutting taxes. This cut helped out all taxpayers, especially the middle class. It was a tax cut. How could the Republicans refuse? It was ideal.

Will Republicans Play the Cain Card?

This is fraught with danger. And I recognize the difficult history of race relations in my own religious tradition. We are doing so much better now and there were always heroes like Mitt's Dad, Michigan Governor George Romney, who really was a champion of Civil Rights and may actually have marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. more than just figuratively.

Dontcha Hate It When I'm Right?

Palin says she's not running for President. And as a final blow from the liberal, lame-streamers, Steve Jobs, the Thomas Edison of the iPod, dies and steals her headlines.

"Buh-bye!"

Christie and Palin sound like Sherman saying, "Flirting Is Hell."

Sherman is Hell. Just ask Georgia and South Carolina

Sorry for swearing. And here I am getting ready for conference. Sigh. Actually, the quote I am looking for was that if you don't want to run for President, then you need to be upfront and direct like William Tecumseh Sherman and say, "I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected."

McGinnis Will Have to Take Care of Palin without Me

I canceled my order of McGinnis's book since it hadn't shipped yet. It's not just because I was feeling guilty to be accountable to a public on this blog, few though you may be. I would have done it anyway had no one known just because it was making me uncomfortable and I have better options for my limited book buying budget.  But I thought I'd better report it here as I already announced the now canceled purchase.

The more I see of reviews and advance peeks, the more it appears that the book will be petty and non-substantive. Not that it wouldn't be a perfect match for Sarah, but I was hoping for something with a little more journalistic or literary merit. And I really would like to see a serious explanation of the Palin phenomenon because my only sense of it is that it was all petty and non-substantive. At least the ugly result will be just too much controversy swirling around to allow her ever to be a serious candidate. The sheer weight of all the tawdriness destroys any gravitas she could ever attempt.